Implement the best security measures—with the right guidance

Keeping up with security measures to protect your workstations and servers can be extremely time consuming. Rather than chasing down vulnerabilities as they crop up, it may make more sense for you to step back and take a more global approach. Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 Security Compliance Management Toolkit, which is available at www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8A2643C1-0685-4D89-B655-521EA6C7B4DB&displaylang=en, can help you get started. Here you'll find guides that address specific Windows technologies as well as links to security resources that are more global in nature.

Create a text bubble (Word 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

You can include text boxes shaped like text bubbles in your Word documents. To do so, click the Drawing button on the Standard toolbar to display the Drawing toolbar (if it isn't displayed already) at the bottom of the application window. On the Drawing toolbar, click the AutoShapes button, and then choose Callouts from the resulting pop-up menu. The Callouts submenu contains a collection of callouts, including text bubbles. Choose one you like, and then click in the document area to insert it (or click and drag to size it yourself). When you do, Word places the insertion point inside your text bubble. You can type and format its text just as you would in a regular text box.

Save page loading time by sitting at a shorter table

From a design standpoint, you may often like to include the contents of a page within a single table. However, doing so can slow down the time it takes for your Web page to appear to your viewers. Surely you've noticed pages where nothing happens and then all of the sudden, the entire page appears. That's because the contents within the table won't be displayed until the entire table is downloaded. To rectify the situation, try splitting the page into separate tables. That way, the top tables will appear for the viewer to browse while the other tables render.

Search for a word with Find and Replace in Photoshop (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

You can use the Find And Replace Text feature in Photoshop as a simple word search tool. To do so, choose Edit > Find And Replace Text. Then, simply enter the word you want to find in the Find What text box, leave the Change To text box blank, and then click the Find Next button. Click Done to exit the tool without making any changes.

Prevent server crashes by monitoring performance issues in advance

As an administrator, one of the most valuable skills you can develop is the ability to analyze and optimize each server’s performance. Windows Server 2003 includes an excellent utility for analyzing your server’s performance: System Monitor. You’ll find System Monitor invaluable for determining exactly what’s going on inside a server. You can even schedule it to run at regular intervals to hopefully head off problems before they arise.

Use Outlook as your window to the web (Outlook 2000/2002/2003/2007)

For many of us, Outlook is our desktop home base. We keep our workload straight with Tasks, store our phone numbers in Contacts, schedule and keep appointments in Calendar, and keep the lines of communication open through our Inbox. But, did you know you can also browse the web from the comfort of Outlook?

How to reference your XSD without a namespace

For instances where you don't define a specific namespace for your Schema, you can use the noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute on your top-level element to reference your XSD like so:

Create metatag sets only once, but use them frequently (QuarkXPress 5/6/7)

The meta tags you create in a QuarkXPress web document are stored in sets. Once you create a meta tag set, you can assign it to other pages in the same document or append the set in other web documents. To create a meta tag set for the active page in your open web document, choose Edit > Meta Tags to open the Meta Tags dialog box. To create a new meta tag set, click the New button. In the resulting Edit Meta Tag Set dialog box, enter a name for the set. Then, click the Add button.

Use Bit9 FileAdvisor to determine a mystery file's origin

If you find a file on your computer that you don't recognize, you may worry that it's malware. Before you panic, check out Bit9's free FileAdvisor to learn if the file comes from a legitimate source.

Watch out for the BOM

Consider yourself lucky if you haven't yet had to deal with character byte order and encoding problems in your XML. Encoding can be a major source of headaches considering all the applications use it to create or edit XML. Just because you see <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> in the beginning of an XML file doesn't guarantee the actual byte order encoding of the file.

Two uses for [F4] in PowerPoint (2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

[F4] is a handy shortcut that you can use in a few ways in PowerPoint presentations. Pressing [F4] allows you to repeat the last action you performed. For example, if you just increased the font size of a block of text, you can select another text block, press [F4], and have your changes repeated there. It also works to duplicate objects that were just created and apply font sizes. You can repeat almost any action that requires only one button click by pressing [F4]. If you press [Ctrl][F4], something very different happens: you close out of your presentation.

Get the path of your Web application using PhysicalApplicationPath (ASP.NET)

If you need to access a file or image from your ASP.NET Web application, store it in your project directory and use the PhysicalApplicationPath method of the Request object to retrieve it when your page loads or posts to the server.

Balance ragged headlines automatically (InDesign CS2/CS3/CS4)

You can insert a soft return where you want to force a headline to break, but that isn’t very efficient. Not when you can use the Balance Ragged Lines command in InDesign. It enables you to automatically balance multi-line headings, pull quotes, and other centered paragraphs.

Authenticate digital signatures with PGP

Electronic documents and email messages are a common way to conduct business transactions, but it’s important to be able to verify that the author of a document or message is really the person he or she claims to be.

Get the Weekday name from your Date string (ASP.NET)

Do you have a date string that you want to use to return the Weekday name in ASP.NET? First, convert the string to a date value then apply the dddd string format to the date value, like so:

Quickly run your macros with keyboard shortcuts (Excel 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

If you run a particular macro often, you may want to assign a keyboard shortcut to run it so you don't have to access the Macro dialog box each time you want to execute it. To do so, choose Tools | Macro | Macros from the menu bar. (In Excel 2007, go to the Developer tab and click the Macros button in the Code group. If you don't see the Developer tab, click on the Office button and then click the Excel Options button. Choose Popular on the left side and then make sure the Show Developer Tab In The Ribbon check box is selected.) Then, select the macro to which you want assign the keystroke combination and click the Options button.

Create short text macros with Autocorrect (InDesign CS2/CS3/CS4)

InDesign is much more user-friendly when it comes to typing text—thanks to the Story Editor—but you might wish for a text macro feature whenever you have to type commonly used words or phrases over and over again. You won’t find this sort of feature in InDesign, but there’s a sneaky way you can get the Autocorrect feature to perform similarly to a macro.

Each type name is unique when using collections

If you want to create a library of useful PL/SQL code with varrays, there's one very important thing about them to note: Oracle treats each type you define as unique. This means that if we define a type as MyArrayTypeB that's exactly like MyArrayType except for the name, the following consequences result:

Sort DataSet records using a DataView object (ASP.NET)

In .NET, you can easily sort DataSet records using a DataView. First, create a new DataSet and load it. Then, create a new DataView object using a DataTable in the DataSet. Finally, identify the column or columns you want to sort.

Choosing a Byte Order when saving a tiff in Photoshop (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

When saving a file as a tiff in Photoshop, there are two choices for how you want the byte order saved: PC or Macintosh. Essentially, most modern computers and applications will open a TIFF saved in either format just fine. However, it’s best to stick with the operating system you’ll be using when you work with the file.

Preventing unwanted AutoCorrect changes in Microsoft Word (2000/2002/2003/2007)

The AutoCorrect feature is designed to help automatically correct common spelling errors and capitalization typos. However, you may find that there are certain words, acronyms, or abbreviations that you'd prefer AutoCorrect not change at all. For example, many websites use combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters that the AutoCorrect feature sees as mistakes. Rather than disabling the AutoCorrect feature or using the Undo feature, you can avoid unwanted corrections by creating exceptions.

Deleting ruler guides in a flash (QuarkXPress 6/7)

If you’ve added horizontal or vertical ruler guides on your page and want to quickly get rid of them, here's an easy shortcut: To delete all horizontal ruler guides from your page, press the [option] key ([Alt] key in Windows) while clicking the horizontal ruler at the top. Do the same for vertical guides, but click the vertical ruler while pressing the [option] key ([Alt] in Windows).