Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why do I need to register?
A: Our fancy new computerizer has to remember your unique settings so you can do personalized things like save your favorites, send lists to friends and co-workers, rank your favorite strips, get color Dilbert in your inbox daily, mashup Dilbert with your friends, and more! So see, it IS all about you! It'll only take a minute and won't hurt a bit.

Q: Okay, okay, I got it. I have to register. Now how DO I register?
A: It's easy (even better, it's free - have we mentioned the free part?). Just click on the "register" link at the top of the page.

Q: Hold on a minute, I already paid for my subscription & now Dilbert is free! No fair! I want my money back!
A: No problem. Just keep in mind if you cancel, although you can still get Dilbert for free if you register at Dilbert.com, you won't get any other comics that you have subscribed for in your inbox. If you still want to put the kibosh on your subscription, enter your name and email below and click "Give me back my money!" We will then grant you a partial refund based on the time remaining on your subscription.

Q: What's up with this new website?
A: It was a combination of a strong desire to make you happy and a bunch of free time on our hands. But the good news is that, in spite of ourselves, we did come up with some brilliant doodads, if we do say so ourselves:

• For the monochromatically challenged - color Dilbert strips every day
• All Dilberts all the time since 1987
• Larger strip size - so no squinting!
• Rank the strips and save your faves
• Animated Dilbert
• Share Dilbert with all your friends, cubebuddies and fellow office inmates
• Widgets to post to Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, blogs and more
• Dilbertize yourself by creating your own custom Dilbert strips with new mashups!
• All free. Yep. That's right. FREE!

Q: What's a mashup, you ask?
A: It won't get you in trouble at the office Christmas party, if that's what you're thinking. Quick with the joke? Gifted with the wit? Take a shot and try to come up with a better punch line than Scott Adams. C'mon.... we dare you! With the new Punch Line Mashup, Scott'll write the first two frames and you create the last. You can then fire off your masterpiece to all your friends, fans and cubemates. Then sit back on your throne of brilliance and let the ranking begin!

Q: What is the Most Popular section of the site?
A: This is where you can find the very top ranked strips, animation and mashups. Then you can vote for your favorites, send to friends, or just enjoy the funny.

Q: Where can I find all the previous Dilbert strips?
A: You can get all the Dilberts since time began right here on dilbert.com... eventually. We will have all the Dilbert strips since 1987 available soon and all in color.

Q: Will you have Dilbert strips in black and white anywhere?
A: No - what is this... 2007?

Q: What's up with the Dilbert animation?
A: It's new. It's improved. It moves. And it comes out for each strip every day, except for weekends (even animators need a rest sometime).

Q: Wow, the Dilbert animation has changed my life. Can we get all the previous Dilbert strips as animations?
A: Whoa there, sailor! We think the animations are great too, but let's not get crazy! Animations are made 5 days a week starting from April 2008 to now, so there are more coming each and every day.




Q: What is a widget?
A: Widgets started out in life as minor characters in high school algebra story problems. Remember? The kind that made you bleary-eyed, hair-pulling frustrated and left your test eraser-blurred? Luckily, the widgets have found their true calling and stepped into the center stage - of your computer. Now the widgets moonlight as small web or desktop applications that bring information to you, so you don't have to look for the information yourself! Some widgets are helpful, like clocks, calculators or calendars.

Others let you write desktop notes and see weather forecasts. REALLY TALENTED widgets do even more incredible stuff, like let you feed Dilbert in color straight to your Facebook or MySpace pages, your blog, your personal web page or even your desktop. Widgets are designed (and love) to be shared. You can send your favorite widgets to friends and co-workers. Also, anyone who sees a widget on your personal pages can download it for themselves. So just click the "Grab it" button, decide where you want to put your widget, and then pass it along. So much easier than high school math (and more useful too)!

Q: Okay, now that I know about them, where can I find Dilbert widgets?
A: http://widget.dilbert.com - where else?!?

Q: Hey, wait a second! All of a sudden there are ads on my widget! What gives?
A: Okay, okay, okay, we need to come up with some way to pay for all the great new doodads you are now getting for free (have we mentioned the free part recently?). We love you, but we gotta eat! Anyway, these cool new ads may even help you get a better job one day - and then who are you going to thank? Go ahead, take the job search for a spin and you may find a brand new Pointy Haired Boss of your own.

Q: Love the whole widget thing, but this whole scrolling week by week through time to search older strips is, well, getting old!
A: We knew you were going to say that so we have a brilliant new widget in the works! Can we laugh maniacally now?

Q: Do your terms of use allow me to use a Dilbert Widget on my site without paying a license fee?
A: Absolutely, provided that it's for your personal, non-commercial use. And so long as you don't try to change the widget. That would be bad. And it would upset the widget, and whatever you do... don't upset the widget. (Here's the real legal stuff.)

Q: How do I embed the widget into my webpage?
A: If you know HTML or can add HTML code directly to your webpage through a content management system, then you can use the embed code of the widget size you would like to add to your webpage.

1. Click "Click Here for Today's Strip" on the widget size of your choice, then click on the "Grab It" button in the upper right corner
2. Click on the embed button and the embed code will appear in the next screen
   
3. Click the "Copy" button and the code is then copied onto your clipboard
   
4. Paste your embed code anywhere in the HTML of the page you want to add the widget to.

Q: How do I add a widget to my Wordpress® blog sidebar?

A: To add your Dilbert widget to a Wordpress blog, you have to first copy the embed code that you will need to place in the Wordpress Theme Editor via the admin area of the blog. We suggest using the 160x300 size widget since it fits most themes best.

1. Follow instructions 1-3 above (How do I embed the widget into my webpage?)
2. Login (with admin rights) to your Wordpress account
3. Select the "Presentation" tab
4. Select the "Theme Editor" sub-tab
5. Select the theme file you want to edit from the list
6. Paste the widget code in the desired location within the template sidebar.php file (you may want to back up your template file before making changes)

Here's an example:


Q: How do I email this to a friend?
A:

1. Click "Click Here for Today's Strip" on the widget size of your choice, then click on the "Grab It" button in the upper right corner.
2. Click on the email button and follow the prompts.
   

Q: Why do I have to click on the widget to enable it before use?
A: That, my cubicle-loving friend, is an IE7/Flash issue. IE7 does not - by default - allow an immediate enabling of Flash on a webpage without a bit of JavaScript to coax it into running. While adding that extra code is not hard to do on a page like http://widget.dilbert.com, it's impossible to do on every other blog, start page, etc. since we don't have control over the code on those pages.

Still paying attention? The good news is that in April 2008, as a result of recent technology licenses acquired by Microsoft and mega-advances in widget computerology, the "click to activate" restrictions will no longer be mandatory and Microsoft will remove that behavior from Internet Explorer. See? We saved the best news for last.

Q: Why can't I get my Dilbert widget to work on my Vista sidebar?
A: Sadly, if it isn't working, this probably means you have Vista 64 bit, which does not support Flash. Since the widget is Flash, that means you won't be able to load it into the sidebar. It would be really cool if you could, though. Scientists around the globe are hard at work looking into a fix for the next version of the widget, but for now, you can only experience the widget in, say, an iGoogle, MySpace, Facebook or some other similar page, or on Vista 32 bit.

Q: Do I need to download Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator) to get my Dilbert widget OR What is the difference between a web widget and a desktop widget?
A: If you run a web widget, you do not need to download Yahoo! Widgets. There are two categories of widgets: web widgets and desktop widgets. Web widgets live on a web page and are called "modules", "badges", "gadgets" and a host of other fun names. You might put a web widget on your personalized start page to see Dilbert each time you open your browser or put the Dilbert widget on your blog to entertain your readers. You can even decorate your social networking profile with the daily office antics of Dilbert, Dogbert, Wally and the Pointy-Haired Boss using a web widget. A web widget requires you to be on a certain website to use the widget, while a desktop widget can always be displayed on your computer regardless of what web page you are viewing. Desktop widgets are best for those things that will be commonly used, like a weather widget, a widget that shows local news and your daily Dilbert comic strip widget. A desktop widget, however, needs a desktop application to serve up the widget, and that would be something like Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator).

Q: How do I get Yahoo! Widgets (Konfabulator) so I can add my Dilbert widget to my desktop?
A:

1. Go to http://widgets.yahoo.com/download/
2. Click the "Get Started Now" button at the right of the page
3. Follow the instructions to download and install the application
4. Enjoy Dilbert directly on your desktop each and every time you start your computer

Q: How about us non-Leopard Mac users?
A: We would love for this to work on other ac operating systems, but it won't. Scientists are hard at work on this one too, but frankly, they're flummoxed!

Q: Why does Facebook ask me to invite my friends?
A: Because that's what's it's all about! Facebook is a friendly place. It just wants you to share the joy of Dilbert to all your friends and co-workers. We have no control over their "share" feature but think you should use it. And so does your mother (we've been talking to her…)

Q: When will you guys get us that terrific full-size Dilbert strip widget we have heard about?
A: It's here! Check out http://widget.dilbert.com.

Q: Are you going to design a widget with Springbox or Widgetbox?
A: Nope, but we will be coming up with other new cool things so stay tuned.

Q: What is Opera Widgetize, Springbox and Widgetbox?
A: Springbox, Widgetbox and others like them allow you to create your own widgets and distribute them. We use Clearspring for this. We are not planning to use any of the others at this time, nor do we support them. Look for more information about them on their websites.

Q: I have the widget on my Mac/Vista desktop and I'm not seeing any new strips. Why doesn't it refresh them daily without my having to reboot my computer?
A: We're aware of this problem and are working on a solution right now. You should get a updated version in its place soon - and you won't even have to re-download the widget. It'll all happen automatically! Don't thank us. It's just what we do.

Q: How do I fix the screen 'repaint' issue?
A: We are looking into this now. If you are having this problem, email us with as much detail (incl. screeenshots, browser version, blood type, etc.) as possible.

Q: I found something else weird with the widget. It must be sick, who do I call with all my questions?
A: Email the Dilbert Widget Doctor

Q: I have found a bug on the site.
A: Before you reach for that can of fly zapper, we really do need your help in making this site better. Please send us exact details of technological hiccup including: the color of your shirt, what kind of computer you have, your OS and browser/version. We'll then sound the alarm, shoot up a flair and let loose our crack team of technical engineers, brilliant developers and mad scientists and will continuously threaten them with a hold-music version of Alice's "fist of death" until they find a solution!

Q: I have even more questions about the site and you haven't answered them.
A: Email us.