Change colors of your images in the blink of eye (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

How many times have you been asked to change the color of an element within an image? The next time this happens, we’ve the the perfect technique for you. Just select the area of the image that you need to change. Then, choose Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. In the resulting dialog box, select the Colorize check box, and then drag the Hue slider back and forth until you get the color you want. It’s that easy!

Partially optional function parameters in ASP (VBScript 5.0+)

VBScript doesn't support the declaration of optional parameters in subroutines or functions. So, if you have a function declared as: Myfunction(p1,p2,p3), to simulate optional parameters, you'd have to call it like so:

MyFunction "","","Hi"

Protect the Administrator Account (Windows XP/Server 2003)

It's a recommended best practice to change the name of the administrator account to make it more difficult for hackers to find, but renaming it doesn't always hide it as well as you might think. That's because there are hacker tools that can find the administrator account based on its Security ID, which always ends in 500.

Create methods that accept an arbitrary number of parameters in ASP (VBScript 4.0)

VBScript doesn't support the ParamArray keyword in the declaration line of a method. So, if you'd like to create a subroutine or function that accepts an arbitrary number of parameters at runtime, have it accept a single parameter that's a variant array and use the Array method to call it.

Increase your canvas size relatively (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

The next time you have to increase the size of your canvas, check out Photoshop’s Relative option. Just choose Image > Canvas Size. Then, in the resulting Canvas Size dialog box, select the Relative check box. Now, just enter the how much space you want added to the Width and Height text boxes. It’s much easier than trying to add 1.57 inches to 22.35 inches (not that you should create documents with such random sizes, but you never know).

Disk Cleanup has unexpected benefits (Microsoft Windows)

Disk Cleanup is something each user should do, and every support tech should insist on. Even giant drives with hundreds of free gigabytes will function more effectively if unnecessary files are removed. Most users know to empty the Recycle Bin, but Windows XP and earlier Windows versions offer a direct way to delete temporary files from a variety of locations.

View your messages the way you want to in Outlook (2000/2002/2003)

In Outlook 2003, Microsoft renamed the Preview Pane to "Reading Pane," and added an option to move it from the bottom of the Outlook window to along the right side. This format allows more information to be seen at a given time. You can move it to the bottom of the screen by choosing View | Reading Pane | Bottom. Or, you can get rid of it entirely by choosing View | Reading Pane | Off. If you choose View | AutoPreview, you can see a portion of the message directly under the message header itself.

Give different users flexibility when choosing elements vs. attributes using the RELAX NG schema

If you want to provide options for using either elements or attributes in a given instance, you can use the choice mechanism in RELAX NG (RNG):

Use the ANY keyword in your DTD to allow any elements and content

In instances where you want any element or character data to be available and order doesn't matter, you can use the ANY keyword in your DTD to make all elements usable, as in:

<!ELEMENT mydoc ANY >

The most common purpose for using ANY is when you're creating a DTD for existing content. This allows you to tag your data while the DTD is being developed. Then, as common patterns appear, you can redefine your DTD more tightly and modify your content as needed to meet the final requirements.

Creating multi-page spreads in Adobe InDesign (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

To create a multi-page spread (a spread with more than two pages), target the spread by clicking on the page numbers in the Pages panel and then choose Keep Spreads Together from the Pages panel’s pop-up menu. Finally, drag a page or spread icon from the top portion of the Pages panel down to the bottom portion and drop it to the immediate right or left side of the spread.

Center your data on the page before you print it (Microsoft Excel 97/2000/2002/v. X/2003)

When you print a worksheet, you may feel that the printout would look better if the data were centered on the page. If so, you don't have to insert a lot of extra rows and columns or change the individual page margins to get the data to print where you want it.

Developing a standard naming convention

As you go about designing a site, a file or graphic's name is often just the first thing that pops into your head. But you'll be better served by establishing and adhering to a standard naming convention. For instance, you could append a bn or ad prefix to a graphic to indication that it's a banner ad. If you use thumbnails of images, you can use a tn prefix to identify the graphic.

A good place to go when you have the blues

Does color influence our emotional and mental states? Many believe so. Yellow is associated with optimism and sunshine, blue with relaxation and peace, red with passion and excitement, and earth tones with practicality and responsibility. PANTONE Colorstrology offers information about the emotional and spiritual powers of color for personal exploration and empowerment. Check it out online at www.colorstrology.com.

Creating a JavaScript countdown

Do you know how many days you have before your taxes are due, how many more shopping days there are before Christmas, or the number of days before your company's trade show? With JavaScript, you can quickly create a countdown timer so that you can tell the viewer exactly how many days until an event.

Display formulas in their cells instead of the results (Microsoft Excel 97/2000/2002/v. X/2003)

You can easily look over the formulas in your worksheet by displaying them in their cells. It sure beats selecting them one by one to look at the formula bar (if you can remember which cells have formulas to begin with!). Fortunately, Excel includes a shortcut key to toggle the view between formula results and the actual formulas.

Use the Measure tool to straighten out your images (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Admit it; you're not always perfect. When scanning images, undoubtedly you've gotten that one scan that was a bit askew when you placed it on the scanner bed. It happens to us all. So, how do you straighten it out?

Resize your paths quickly (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

After creating a path in Photoshop, you can easily resize the path if needed. To do so, select your path with the Path Selection tool, located in the Tools panel. Then, on the tool Options bar, select the Show Bounding Box check box. Doing so places a transform bounding box around your path, which you can then use to adjust its size.

SQL Server 2005 brings WMI data and events to your DTS packages (SQL Server 2005)

Data Transformation Services (DTS) was completely redesigned from the ground up for SQL Server 2005. Along the way, you'll acquire a number of new types of DTS tasks. Two of the most interesting allow you to tap into the power of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). The WMI Data task gives you access to the current values of WMI properties throughout its hundreds of classes.

Convert SGML SDATA entities to XML Unicode entities

Converting your SGML special character DTDs from SDATA entities to XML Unicode entities is really fairly simple. Just remove the SDATA keyword and change the replacement text output to the appropriate Unicode string.

Determine where a word can break (Microsoft Word 2000/2002/v. X/2003)

When composing in Microsoft Word, there are multiple places that words can break. For example, you can break the word Microsoft at any of these hyphens: Mi-cro-soft. If your company’s style guide (or your personal preference) specifies hyphenation rules, you’ll want to choose where a particular word should be hyphenated. You can do this by inserting an optional hyphen.

Apply a master page to several pages at once (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

There's an easy way to apply a master page to several pages at once. First, select Apply Master To Pages from the Pages palette's pop-up menu. In the Apply Master dialog box, select the master that you want to apply from the Apply Master pop-up menu and enter the page numbers to which you want to apply it in the To Pages text box. When entering page numbers, use hyphens to indicate a page range and commas to indicate nonconsecutive pages. Finally, click OK and enjoy your DTP job!