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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Two ways to secure your portable computer

Shouldn’t you secure your notebook or handheld computer the same way you secure your desktop systems? Well, yes and no. Because of their mobility, portable machines are more vulnerable to security breaches, so extra precautions are advised. All of the usual security best practices apply, but in addition, you need to consider what happens if your portable is lost or stolen.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A good place to go when you have the blues

Set the mood for your website by using colors that influence our emotional and mental states. Many believe that 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.

Monday, February 27, 2012

The rule about hairline rules (QuarkXPress 5/6/7)

While hairline rules may look great onscreen and okay printed on a desktop printer, they probably won’t look so good when printed on an output device that prints over 300 dpi. For this reason, it’s best to avoid using the Hairline option (defined as a zero width line) when drawing rules or frames in QuarkXPress. To access the Hairline option, open the Modify dialog box (Item > Modify), click on the Line tab if you have a line selected, or the Frame tab if you have a frame selected. Then, click on the Line Width pop-up menu. To ensure your rules print on any device, always define their Line Width as no less than 0.25 points.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Free online seminar: Certified Ethical Hacker

Join this live online training co-organized by EC-Council and New Horizons Praha, and led by EC-Council lead trainer Wayne Burke, as he shows how to map the target network and collect all possible information about the intended target by probing online sources in search of imperative information. The target network might be an organization, a bank, or any institution. He will share how a hacker can collect information and effectively creating a “blue print” about his target organization before launching any sort of attack. This is a module extracted from the world renowned EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) program.

Rid your Add/Remove Programs dialog box of pesky, out-dated entries

If you frequently install new software programs, and then remove them when you’ve finished so as not to clutter up your system, you may be surprised to see them still appear in your Add/Remove Programs list. Sometimes a program’s uninstall operation doesn’t completely remove all traces of the program from your system. Luckily, with a simple registry edit, you can remove these programs from the list.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Make sure your 2007 document plays nice with earlier versions (2007)

Because not everyone immediately updates their software when a new version is released, you may expect to run into problems when sharing 2007 documents with those using Word 2003 or earlier. Luckily, Microsoft anticpated this and included functionality to ensure that 2007 documents play well with others: Compatibility Mode and the Compatibility Checker.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Share XML Schema modules with xsd:include

You can share XML Schema modules with other XML Schemas by using the xsd:include element. An example would be sharing a "common elements" Schema (e.g., defines paragraphs, titles, lists, and so forth) that can be reused across multiple Schemas.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Quickly access the properties of selected items (Illustrator CS2/CS3/CS4)

Beginning with Illustrator version CS2, Adobe added a convenient Control panel to Illustrator’s interface. This panel’s look and feel is similar to the Control panel that made its first appearance in Adobe InDesign. Illustrator’s Control panel provides quick access to settings, such as fill colors, stroke colors, stroke width, opacity, and style (just to name a few). The Control panel reflects the options suitable for the item selected, and displays different options depending on the selection.

Before you toggle between numerous panels, check out the Control panel. It often provides the settings you need without the unnecessary time-consuming hunting for a specific panel.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Get the database login information pronto from the application code (ASP.NET)

So, you're asked to fix a database problem for a web application. The trouble is that nobody can tell you a valid database username and password - or even where the database is! You could spend hours searching the application code and tracking down everyone in your company who you think might know.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Use digital signatures to verify your identity

You use a handwritten signature to verify that you're the author or maker of a letter, check, or other paper document. You can use a digital signature to verify that you created or sent an electronic document. Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography, also called asymmetric cryptography because it uses two keys. The pair of keys is generated by a mathematical algorithm; they're mathematically related, but the private key can't be discovered by reverse engineering the public key. You distribute the public key freely to anyone who wants it, and keep the private key secret.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Set a default font for your PowerPoint presentation (2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

If you know you'll be using a certain text style, such as a company font, throughout a PowerPoint presentation, you may think about setting it as the default for the active presention. This will save you from having to apply a new text style every time you enter words on your slide. To change the default for this presentation alone, choose Format | Font and in the Font dialog box, change the Font, Font Style, and Size to whatever suits your presentation needs. (In PowerPoint 2007, go to the Home tab and click on the icon in the lower-right corner of the Font group to open the Font dialog box.) Click OK and save your presentation. Every time you create a new text box (in this presentation alone), these settings will apply as default.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Can't find a font?

What do you do if you have a client that is in love with a font, insists on using it on their website and you don't have the font on your computer? With www.1001freefonts.com, this isn't a problem. It's a great resource for free downloadable fonts. It has tools to convert PC fonts to Macintosh files. It also has links to pixel fonts for Adobe Flash users. Best of all, it has an application where you can create your own font or edit an existing TrueType Font.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The fastest way to delete a layer (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Your time is precious and you’re always looking for ways to increase your productivity in Photoshop. It’s only natural then, that you want to know how to do things as quickly as possible.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Change your mouse cursor scheme for business or pleasure (Windows)

You can change the look of your mouse cursor to jazz up your computer screen or to help you find it if you suffer from desktop clutter or tired eyes.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Linking Microsoft Excel data in your Microsoft Word documents (2000/2003/2007)

Many of us create numerical reports using Excel spreadsheets. Unfortunately, numbers don't always speak for themselves. You can make Excel spreadsheets more comprehensible by accompanying them with a written interpretation in the form of a Word document. However, this solution leaves you with two separate files: a Word document that contains the theory and summary of the spreadsheet values and an Excel spreadsheet that contains the calculations and values themselves. A simpler alternative is to incorporate the key numerical figures - the bottom line, so to speak - from the Excel spreadsheet in your Word document.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Create reusable attribute groups in your XML DTD

In XML DTDs, you can set up reusable attribute groups for common attributes by creating a parameter entity and referencing it in an attribute list. For example, you can set up an ID for a topic, with link options to parent elements and child elements.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Improve the look of black type and objects in print (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Do the black headlines in your InDesign documents tend to look a little blah in print? You can make them and other large black areas really pop in your four-color print DTP jobs by using a rich black, rather than the default [Black] swatch. The difference between blacks.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Make Windows Firewall configuration changes at your command

Windows Firewall offers some challenges to IT professionals because it restricts traffic over often-used ports and conflicts with third-party firewalls. With a command prompt tool, you can view Windows Firewall settings in a single window—plus you can modify them.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Retrieve the current username (Access 2000/2002/2003/2007)

If a Microsoft Access database incorporates user-level security, you can easily retrieve the name of the user that's logged into the current instance of the database.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Create an in-cell dropdown list of acceptable values (Excel 2000/2003/2007)

Just about everyone has created a worksheet that would benefit from using predefined dropdown lists of valid values. For instance, you might want to provide a dropdown list of department codes to ensure that a form is accurately completed. Fortunately, it's easy to create such a dropdown list using the Data Validation feature.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Use the Visual Studio .NET Toolbox to add <div> elements to Web pages (ASP.NET)

If you need to add <div> elements to your ASP.NET Web pages, Visual Studio .NET makes it easy for you to do so on your ASPX design page. Simply open the VS .NET Toolbox and expand the HTML menu. Then, you can either select Grid Layout Panel or Flow Layout Panel from the list and draw it on your Web form. In ASP.NET you can configure pages for Grid Layout (using X and Y coordinates) or Flow Layout (left to right, top to bottom). If you configure your page for Grid Layout, use the Flow Layout Panel to add a section that supports a flow layout. Likewise, if you configure your page for Flow Layout, use the Grid Layout panel to add a section that supports a grid layout.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Get more accurate crops by zooming when you crop (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Everyone knows the crop tool is handy in Photoshop and quick for cropping an image. But once you have the area you want to crop selected, your only options are to transform the bounding box handles on the crop box, commit or cancel the crop. You can’t zoom in or out for a better preview of what you’re cropping. Or can you?