Stop P2P file sharing applications

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) applications are popular for sharing music and other files across the internet. Most businesses prohibit the use of such programs on the corporate network because of the illegality of exchanging copyrighted material and because of the bandwidth (and employee time) wasted.

Creating a more versatile PivotTable with the List feature (Excel 2003/2007)

Excel's List feature, which allows you to segregate, manipulate, and quickly analyze your data, also helps you create a more efficient PivotTable. In previous versions of Excel, if you create a Pivot Table from a range of data, and later expand the range to include more rows, you also needed to re-create the PivotTable based on the new data range. However, if you make a range of data into a list before you create its PivotTable, the PivotTable refreshes to include new rows that you add to the list.

Keep your text inline with hanging indents (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Hanging indents in Adobe InDesign enable you to indent and align paragraphs that are demarcated with special characters, such as bullets. This is a great way to draw attention to specific portions of a story and it looks really nice too! To create a hanging indent, first replace the current space between the special character and the paragraph that follows with a tab space. The default space is 0.5 inches. This is a bit much, so you may want to specify a new tab space (around 0.25 inches) via the Tab panel (Type menu). Next, via the Paragraph panel or the Control panel in Paragraph Formatting view, enter the tab stop value in the Left Indent text box and enter the exact negative value of the tab stop in the First Line Left Indent text box. Finally, press [enter] to apply the new indent values to the paragraph. To format additional paragraphs similarly, save the formatting as a paragraph style and apply the style to the target paragraphs.

Use the position() function to locate and output content with XSLT

The position() function allows you to specify which one of a given element you want to select for transformation. For example, the table below identifies two drugs which interact with each other. However, you decide you would rather have this information in list format instead of tabular, but there are too many tables in your XML data set to convert them by hand. So you want to write an XSL transformation to reformat this content on output.

Stay up-to-date with DirectX so you avoid system crashes

Microsoft DirectX is a suite of multimedia application programming interfaces (APIs) built into Windows that’s employed by graphic- or video-intensive business applications. Without the right version installed, you might have problems that could crash your apps or even produce Windows stop errors. Fortunately, you can use the DirectX End User Run Time monthly to stay up-to-date with the latest patches so you guarantee smooth video sailing.

Send an email to an entire category of Contacts (Outlook 2000/2002/2003/2007)

If you use categories to help organize your Outlook items, you can easily send email to an entire category of Contacts. To start, click on the Contacts icon in the Navigation Pane (click on the Contacts folder in the Folder List in 2000 and 2002). Next, click on the folder that contains the Contacts to which you want to send email. Then, choose View | Arrange By | Current View | Categories from the Outlook menu bar (View | Current View | By Category in 2000/2002/2007). Finally, click on the category header that contains the entries you want to send email to, and then choose Actions | New Message To Contact from the Outlook menu bar (Actions | Create | New Message To Contact in 2007). A new Message form launches containing all the Contacts within the selected category. Simply enter the pertinent information, and then click Send on the Message form.

Eliminate vanishing pencil lines while drawing (Illustrator CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

If you’ve ever created an illustration with the Pencil tool you’ve most likely noticed every time you draw a path next to an already selected path, the original line disappears as soon as you draw the next line. Why? Because the Pencil tool defaults to path-editing mode. This means that when you draw a line near a selected previous line, Illustrator assumes you want to edit the previous line, so it deletes the line and replaces it with the new line. Annoying, right? Don’t worry—you can change this behavior.

Save JPEGs as PSDs to preserve quality (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

If you start with a JPEG image, perhaps from a digital camera, and alter it, don't save it again as a JPEG; you'll lose image quality every time you re-save an image in JPEG format. Instead, save the altered image as a PSD file in Photoshop and make a JPEG copy if you need to post the image to the web, for example. In the meantime, you'll have a good copy of your altered image in PSD format for use in other applications, such as for printing photos or using them in a printed brochure.

What are mirror sites?

A mirror site is basically an exact copy of an existing site that resides on a different server than the original site. Mirror sites are used for testing, providing faster access to different locations, and spreading long download time around to more than one site. Many popular sites have mirror sites positioned around the world so that viewers visiting their site can have speedier access no matter where they are.

Head off hibernation problems before they arise

If your computer suffers from errors when you bring it out of hibernation, you should take some proactive steps for every hibernation session.

Include alternative text for web documents (Word 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

When you create a web page in Word, don't forget to include alternative text for each image. Alternative text is valuable for numerous users, such as those who turn off images when they surf online so their computers can display web pages faster. For these users, the alternative text appears in place of the image. Other users who are visually impaired may have computer equipment that reads alternative text aloud to them. To create alternative text, right-click ([control]-click on the Mac) on the image and select Format Picture from the resulting shortcut menu. Select the Web tab of the Format Picture dialog box (Alt Text tab in Word 2007), and type your text in the Alternative Text text box, and click OK. Useful alternative text simply offers a brief explanation of the picture. If the image is part of a button that links to another page, explain where clicking the button will take the user.

Open a flat version of a layered file (Photoshop CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

When you want to open a layered file as a flat composite instead, hold down [shift][option] ([Shift][Alt] in Windows) as you open the selected file. Photoshop displays an Adobe Photoshop dialog box that asks, "Read the composite data instead?" Just click OK and your file appears as a flattened version of the layered file.

Take the express lane to a Windows shutdown

If your system has frozen, you might find that you need to shut down Windows as quickly as possible. Although you can accomplish this task simply by pressing the power button on the computer, there’s a way for you to shut down the computer that's less harmful to the operating system.

Make the case of your element and attribute names consistent with XSLT

A common use of the XSLT translate() function is to change the case of text strings within a document; however, you may run into situations where you need to change the actual element and attribute name cases, not simply text strings within them.

Searching for text stored in cell comments (Excel 2000/2001/2002/2003/2007)

Excel's Find feature lets you easily locate cells containing a specific text string, but sometimes the information you're looking for is stored in cell comments, which aren't examined by default. However, you can configure the feature to look within cell comments for your search string. To do so, choose Edit | Find from the menu bar. (In Excel 2007, click the Find & Select button in the Home tab's Editing group and then choose Find from the dropdown list.) Then, if necessary, click the Options button to expand the dialog box. Finally, select Comments from the Look In dropdown list and finish performing your search as you normally would.

For more understandable error reporting, use the JavaScript console in Gecko-based browsers

When you encounter JavaScript errors in Internet Explorer, they'll be in your face (as long as you select the Display A Notification About Every Script Error check box which is located in the Browsing section on the Advanced tab under Tools | Internet Options). That's good for catching them in the first place (in Netscape, you might never notice the errors). However, when it comes to figuring out what the error is, Netscape beats IE in spades. Case in point: IE gives you messages such as "Expected identifier" and "Object expected." So, what's wrong with the code? How do you fix it? Who knows?

Removing imported and local formatting from text in Adobe InDesign (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

To remove formatting applied to imported text in Adobe InDesign, select the text with the Type tool and click on No Paragraph Style in the Paragraph Styles panel. If the text is styled with bold, italics, etc., press the [option] key on the Mac or [Alt] key in Windows as you apply the style to strip the text of this local formatting as well.

What language should you use for complex calculations when the logic interacts haeavily with database data?

When performing intense calculations, an obvious language choice is C or C++. However, PL/SQL is a natural choice for logic that interacts heavily with database data. If all you need to do is add or multiply a few large numbers, there's no reason you can't leverage the appropriate algorithms to perform the arithmetic in PL/SQL and still get good performance.

Place a search on your website for free

Adding a search engine to your website can cost a small fortune if you don’t shop around. Fortunately, we have two solutions for obtaining a free search. Atomz Corporation, www.atomz.com, offers the Atomz Express Search. It’s a free commercial solution that you can implement in just a few minutes. To learn more about the Atomz Express Search check out www.atomz.com/applications/search/trial.htm. Another free search solution is on Bravenet's site at www.bravenet.com/webtools/search2/index.php. You can try either of these resources for free and if later you wish decide that you need a larger search you can upgrade.

Choose the right resolution when creating graphics for slide shows (PowerPoint 2000/2002/v. X/2003/2007)

If you're creating graphics in PowerPoint or taking digital photos for use in presentations, you'll want to decide the appropriate size, or resolution, of the graphic before you get started. The size (in pixels) should be based on the desktop resolution of the computer you'll use to display your presentation.

Convert to milliseconds when adding time in JavaScript

To keep time uniform, JavaScript represents it as the number of milliseconds since midnight January 1st, 1970 GMT. As a result, whenever you want to mathematically manipulate a time, you'll need to convert everything to milliseconds.

Select as much or as little text as you need in a flash (Illustrator CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)

Illustrator handles text just fine, but Adobe InDesign it isn't. If you're having trouble selecting text, here are some tips to help you get it right. To easily select a paragraph of text, place your insertion point at the beginning of the paragraph and press [shift][command][down arrow] ([Shift][Ctrl][Down Arrow] in Windows) to select that paragraph. If you press the [up arrow] instead, you'll select the paragraph above the insertion point. If you want to add more paragraphs, continue to press either the up or down arrow keys to add to your selection. If you find that you'd like to add just one line at a time, just press [shift] plus either the up or down arrow keys. Finally, if you press [shift] and either the left or right arrow keys, you can adjust your selection one character at a time.