Use anchored items to add versatility to your designs (QuarkXPress)

An anchored item, or inline graphic, is one that you can paste, or anchor, onto a text box or text path. These items include a line, picture box, text path, text box, table, group, and shapes. Anchored items function like characters in that they move with the text if it reflows. They also remain totally editable.

Validate radio buttons with a quick JavaScript

When you create a form with radio buttons, you may not always want to specify a field that’s selected by default. For instance, if you create an online questionnaire, you probably don’t want the browser to automatically select one of the options. Even so, you’ll, no doubt, want the user to select at least one of the choices before submitting the form. As a result, you’ll need a way to make sure this is the case. The JavaScript function in the XHTML page provided here, offers the perfect solution to do just that:

Prevent mammoth numerical errors by forcing SQL Server to treat values as decimals

What's 2 divided by 3? Anyone for 0 as the answer? Unfortunately, that's what you may get if you're not fully aware of how SQL Server treats numbers in queries.

Split your screen using only the keyboard (Word 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

In Microsoft Word, you can split your Word document window by selecting Window | Split from the menu bar (In Word 2007, go to the View tab and click the Split button in the Window group) or by double-clicking on the rectangle above Word's vertical scrollbar. But there is a way to split the document window without leaving the comfort of your keyboard! Here's how: Press [Alt][Ctrl]S ([command][option]S on the Mac) to create a movable horizontal line. Use the up and down arrow keys to move the line, and press [Enter] when you've got it in the right place (not available on the Mac). The screen splits, and you can continue editing your document. To remove the split, press [Alt][Shift]C ([command][option]S on the Mac).

Create recurring appointments in your Microsoft Outlook calendar (2000/2002/2003/2007)

When you know a certain appointment will regularly happen again, you don't have to manually enter that appointment on each date. Let Outlook do it for you. Open the appointment form and enter all the details such as a subject and the time and date. Then, click the Recurrence button. (In Outlook 2007, go to the Appointment tab and click the Recurrence button in the Options group.) In the resulting dialog box, select one of the options in the Recurrence Pattern panel such as Weekly or Monthly. Depending on the pattern you select, the options for the pattern change. For example, if you select Weekly, you can set how many weeks between recurrences and on which day the appointment should recur. If you know the end date of the appointment schedule, you can set a range of recurrence instead. Select the options you need and click OK. Outlook enters new appointments on the appropriate days in your calendar.

Use the Navigator palette for precise movements (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

When you need to edit fine detail in Adobe Photoshop, it's helpful to magnify the area with the Zoom tool. Doing so, however, makes it difficult to know where you are in the image. You could expend time and energy scrolling around, trying to find a particular image area, but there's a better way. At a time like this, you need the Navigator panel. To show this panel, choose Window > Navigator. A thumbnail of the entire image appears in the palette and a border (red, by default) frames the area in which you're working. To quickly move to another area in your image, simply click and drag the frame to the image area in the Navigator panel.

Browse for audio files on FindSounds.com

Most Web users are experts at searching for information on the Web and some even know how to use specialized sites for searching images, but did you know you could also search for sounds? Using the free search service at www.findsounds.com, you can find sound files for almost anything you can think of, from animal noises to musical instrument samples. You can search by sound type, file format, sound quality, or file size, so you have plenty of ways to customize a search and find the perfect sound. Take note that this isn’t a file-sharing site for finding MP3 files of the latest chart toppers, but it’s a place to find sound effects for your next Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or multimedia project.

Protect your Web servers with URLScan

Looking for a way to protect your Web servers from unauthorized access? Microsoft has a utility called URLScan that can be used to filter out suspicious requests such as those that are very long or use an alternate character set. You can download this utility by going to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/cc242650.aspx. Before you use this utility, though, keep in mind that you’ll need to have installed the latest Service Pack and any subsequent hotfixes on your server. You can make sure that your server has the latest updates by going to the Windows Update site at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

Remove a sender from your Outlook junk e-mail list (2003/2007)

Sometimes senders that we legitimately want to receive e-mail from get banished to our Junk E-mail folder. Here's an easy way to put a sender back on your safe list. Click on the Mail icon in the Navigation Pane, and then click on the Junk E-mail folder in the All Mail Folders List. Next, in the Message list, click on a message from the sender that you want to deem as safe. Then, choose Actions | Junk E-mail | Add Sender To Safe Senders List. Future messages from this sender should now remain out of the Junk
E-mail folder.

Avoid misconceptions about SQL injection attacks

You may know that if user input finds its way directly into SQL statements your site executes against the database, hackers may be able to take advantage of that fact and compromise your website.

Create crop marks quicker with the Crop Area command (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Not every commercially printed project you produce is finished to a standard size of 8½ by 11 inches. Many other items, such as business cards, business envelopes, and monarch note cards, are finished to a variety of different sizes. As such, they require crop marks to indicate exactly where you want the post-press bindery to cut your printed pieces. Although you can draw individual crop marks in your document, you have to be very careful to accurately place them, as well as not accidentally move them as you work. A simple solution to the problem is to let Illustrator do this task for you.

Avoid the hassle of escaping quotes with user-defined quotes

You’re probably quite familiar with the practice of escaping quotes and other special characters in code. But it can sure be a pain if you or your program has to insert lengthy segments of text. Fortunately, Oracle10g eliminated the necessity of escaping quotes in SQL statements by introducing the ability to have user-defined quote characters.

Create hyperlinks that point to areas in a workbook (Excel 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

Excel workbooks can store a huge amount of data, and getting from one place to another in a file can be tedious. You can simplify things by creating hyperlinks that jump exactly to a specific place in the file. To demonstrate, select the cell you want to contain a hyperlink. Then, enter the text that you want the hyperlink to display. Next, choose Insert | Hyperlink from the menu bar. (In Excel 2007, go to the Insert tab and click the Hyperlink button in the Links group.)

Create standalone software packages with the Microsoft Access Runtime

Did you know that you can package your Access application as a standalone software application that clients can use even if they don’t have Access installed? You can do this with the royalty-free Microsoft Access Runtime. The Access Runtime is available as part of Microsoft Office Access 2003, but you can’t use it to distribute applications without the license. The name of the package containing the license has changed over the years.

Produce the sharpest text for the web in Photoshop (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Have you ever noticed that small text looks blurry on the web? Well, if you find you have to use text that’s smaller than 12 points, you may want to increase the tracking between your letters. To do so, enter a value of 20 or higher in the Tracking text box on the Character panel. Basically, this reduces the blurriness by lowering the effects of anti-aliasing. The more you space out your letters, the crisper they’ll look.

Never hit the wrong database again in the Query window

It’s easy to do. You create an object and later wonder why it’s not there. This can happen if you’re in Query Analyzer or the Query window in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and forget to select the correct database in the dropdown box. In some cases, you may have even selected the correct database, but if you’re working with SQL Server Express, it may connect you to the wrong database when you reconnect.

Print certain slides as handouts (PowerPoint 2000/2002/2003/2004/2007)

If your presentation has a few killer slides that you'd like to use for handouts, you can arrange to print only those slides for your audience, instead of the entire presentation. Choose File | Print (In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office button and choose Print | Print) and in the Print dialog box, select the Slides option button in the Print Range panel. To print non-consecutive slides, enter the slide number followed by a comma (no spaces necessary, such as 6,3,7,10). In this way, you can select the order you want to arrange your handouts and present the best of your presentation for audiences to keep. If you want to print a range of consecutive slides, enter the slide numbers with a hyphen between them (such as 3-7 or 4-9).

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Control the style of links with CSS pseudo-classes

For anchors, CSS offers the pseudo-classes :hover, :visited, and :link. These classes let you style the three stages of a link. In this course we use :link to style the link before the user activates it. Use :hover to style the link when the cursor hovers over it, and use :visited to style the link after the user visits it.

Preserve Illustrator paths you paste into InDesign (CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Heightened compatibility is just one of the many advantages of working in an all-Adobe software workflow. Rather than saving your graphics in a compatible file format and then placing them, for example, you can simply copy and paste vector objects from Illustrator to InDesign and continue to edit them. The ability to do so is controlled by preferences settings in both applications.

Avoid over-dependence on SQL*Plus with the Group By and Rollup SQL commands (8i+)

While the SQL*Plus language is an invaluable tool, it’s important not to get so dependent on it that you forget what to do if it isn’t available. For example, following is a nifty script that computes the amount of storage space (in bytes) taken up by your own database objects, such as tables or indexes. The script is composed of two parts. The first three lines are SQL*Plus commands. The next two lines make up the SQL query.

Easily enter numeric characters as text strings (Excel 2003/2007)

You'll occasionally find that seemingly simple entries cause problems because Excel tries to interpret numeric values as a date. For instance, say that you have a column of product codes with values like 9-12, 10-22, and 8-2099, or you have data labels that describe the age ranges 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12. Excel automatically converts the codes to 12-Sep, 22-Oct, and Aug-99. Likewise, Excel converts the range labels to 3-Jan, 6-Apr, 9-Jul, and 12-Oct.

Copy-fit text more easily with help from the Info panel (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

You’re working along, placing stories into an InDesign document, when the expected happens. One of the stories is a bit long and doesn’t fit in its allotted space. Not knowing just how much of the story is overset makes it really hard to fit. If it’s a lot, the story may have to be edited. If it’s a little, you can easily adjust the character attributes to make it fit. What’s the best way to find out just how much text is overset? Simply refer to the Info panel.