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Friday, August 31, 2012

Save an Office file to a PDF with a simple add-in tool (Office 2007)

We've all seen Adobe PDFs on the web or attached to an email — but until now, creating them from Word documents or PowerPoint presentations involved purchasing extra software or paying for an online conversion. With Office 2007, creating a PDF from a file is as easy as saving it, as long as you have the add-in installed. To get the add-in, visit the Microsoft Download Center at www.microsoft.com/downloads. Then, simply enter "PDF" without the quotes into the Search box and click Go. You can choose from a PDF-only tool or one that saves XPS files as well. These tools support the 2007 Office versions of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Use the [esc] key to make Photoshop behave (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

If you try to use a keyboard shortcut and Photoshop ignores it or delivers an alert message when you know the command should work, you probably have a panel option or a field active. Instead of trying to track down the interference, simply press the [esc] key and try your shortcut again. With any luck, your command will execute as expected.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Import the VisualBasic namespace to access some legacy features (VB .NET)

In a recent tip, we reported that you can no longer access the Left and Right string functions in Visual Basic .NET. As many of our subscribers pointed out, that isn't entirely true. While these functions aren't a part of .NET's String class, you can still access them by importing the Visual Basic namespace.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Watch out for imprecise floating point values in your SQL Server data

Two SQL Server data types that are often used to represent numeric values with a fractional (that is, decimal) component—float and real—can get you into trouble if you aren’t paying attention. In SQL Server, floating point values are approximate—and shouldn’t be used if you need absolute precision. Surprised? Don’t feel bad—many DBA’s are unaware of this, but a simple experiment proves the point.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Tell a story with pictures (Excel 2007)

One of the most dramatic additions to the Excel 2007 Conditional Formatting menu is the addition of icon sets. These icons are illustrative pictures that you can assign to data values for fast data analysis. The icons range from stop lights to flags to check marks and x’s. For example, you can assign green, yellow, and red flags to your sales reps’ monthly sales. Green flags indicate sales in the top third percentile, yellow flags indicate sales in the middle percentile, and the red flags designate sales in the bottom third percentile.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Modifying a Joomla Front Page Blog Layout

In Joomla, a Front Page Blog layout displays Articles that have been set as Front Page in the Article Manager. You can also set the number of articles and their order, the number of columns to display, and the number of links to view other articles.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Add a Separator to a DataGrid control using a DataGridItem object (ASP.NET)

Have you ever wanted to add a visual separator to your DataGrid? You can easily do so by creating a new DataGridItem object with an ItemType of Separator, like we've done here:

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Shortcuts for selecting InDesign's tools (CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Don't keep going back to the Tools panel every time you need to select a different tool. Nearly every tool has a shortcut key assigned to it. For those that don't, you can assign them one using the Keyboard Shortcuts command. Additionally, there are other ways to activate certain tools. For example, you can double-click on a text frame with the Selection tool to select the Type tool. And while the Type tool is active in a text frame, you can press the [command] key ([Ctrl] key in Windows) to temporarily select the Selection tool. Take advantage of these shortcuts to work more efficiently in InDesign!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Publishing Joomla Static Pages

Static pages are not published automatically on the home page. This is because static pages don’t require modifications to be made regularly. There are two ways that you can make static pages visible in your Joomla site. You can either create a menu item or an internal link within a Joomla article.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Four sure-fire ways to increase web traffic

You always want more traffic to your site. If you're running an e-Commerce site, more visits mean more potential customers. If you're promoting your services, more visitors mean more hits/impressions to report. But how do you bring people to your site? You can start by following these simple traffic-building tips:

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Make sure you have the right OS and Oracle patches when using dynamic SGA features (9i+)

Dynamic SGA utilizes an operating system functionality known as Dynamic Intimate Shared Memory (DISM). This is a fairly new creature and may not be fully mature on all platforms. The general idea is that memory segments can be locked and unlocked from within the OS kernel as is required by the application, the Oracle RDBMS in this case. If the OS isn't up to the current patch levels and properly tuned, a wide variety of problems can occur, including performance degradation.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Work better with your gradient meshes (Illustrator CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

We recommend turning on Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides) as you work with a gradient mesh. Smart Guides will help you visualize the relationships between your meshes as you draw them. To renew the mesh for additional color information when using Smart Guides, you must click the Direct Selection tool on a path - not an intersection, which gives you the opportunity to remove the white diamonds or squares, which is necessary to apply color.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Print multiple documents from the same folder quickly (Word 2003/2007)

If you need to print a number of Word documents that reside in the same folder, you can send them all to the printer in record time. In fact, you don't even need to open the documents. Simply press and hold the [Ctrl] key (press and hold [command][control] in v. X) while selecting each file. (If your files are consecutive, you can press and hold [Shift] while selecting the first and last file.) Once you've selected all the files you want to print, right-click one of the files and select Print from the shortcut menu.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Removing automatic hyperlinks in FrontPage

When you type an email or Web address in FrontPage, the program automatically creates a hyperlink to that address. Getting rid of that hyperlink if you don't want it is harder than it should be.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Why progress indicators are so important for creating a usable data-driven application

Often, tasks that involve processing lots of database records may leave users wondering when the task will be finished. You can put users at ease by adding a progress indicator--i.e., a bar showing how much longer the operation will take. Even if the operation involves a single time-intensive update statement, you can use information from v$session_longups to get the information you need.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Keep two views of the same document onscreen (Photoshop CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

When retouching a photograph, it's usually a good idea to keep one view of the image at its actual size while you work on a second view of it at an enlarged size. The changes you make in the zoomed window will appear in the normal-size window. To do so, choose Window > Arrange > New Window [filename].

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Copy an appointment to a different day (Outlook 2003/2007)

Perhaps you need to enter a new appointment with the same details as an existing appointment but on a new day. Don't bother re-entering all the information; just copy the existing appointment. To do so, click on the appointment you want to copy in the Calendar. Next, press [Ctrl]C. Click on the date to which you want to copy the appointment and press [Ctrl]V. The appointment is entered for the new day, but with the same time, subject, and details of the original appointment.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The rules of brush colorization (Illustrator CS2/CS3/CS4/CS5)

Colorizing a brush in Illustrator can be a useful option, but it’s somewhat limited. Here’s a rundown on the three options you can set when you colorize a brush. Keep in mind that only Scatter, Art, and Pattern brushes can be colorized using the Colorization options in the Art Brush Options dialog box.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Boot up more quickly by ditching unnecessary startup programs

To speed up your system, you should remove unnecessary programs from the Startup list. These programs add to boot time because Windows needs to load each one.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Take advantage of the Micorosft newsgroups

When you're stumped for a solution to a problem, be sure to check out the Microsoft support newsgroups at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/community/newsgroups/default.mspx. These newsgroups enable you to browse other users' questions and responses, as well as to post your own questions. In many cases, you'll be able to find someone who knows just what you need to resolve your problem.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Use Microsoft Excel's Special cell formats (Excel 2003/2007)

You can easily change currency values into text formatting in Excel. However, there are other number formats that prove useful for data entry, particularly for those in Accounting and Human Resources departments. If you don't know about these cell formats, you'll want to check them out. To do so, open the Format Cells dialog box by choosing Format | Cells from the menu bar. (In 2007, click on the Home tab on the ribbon, then click Format in the Cells area and choose Format Cells from the resulting dropdown list.) Then, click on the Number tab if necessary and choose Special from the Category list box. The Type list box now contains four special formats: Zip Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, and Social Security Number. These formats include hyphens where they're necessary, and they also allow leading zeros to display. If you have Excel 2002/2003/2007, there's also a Locale (Location) dropdown list. If you select a locale that uses a different formatting, say for phone numbers, the formatting adjusts to match the locale.