PDF files from Microsoft Word

A useful technote I found summarizing many common issues in generating PDFs from Word.

 

Microsoft Office 2007 Add-in: Save as PDF or XPS

This happened last year, but I just learned that Microsoft offers a free download that will enable “Office 2007 users to save documents in both Adobe Systems' PDF format and Microsoft's own rival format, XPS.”

Seems interesting, but I’m a little hesitant to install it in case it might affect my Acrobat settings. Has anyone tried it? Here is the link:

Microsoft Office 2007 Add-in: Save as PDF or XPS

 

FLV Cue Points Trigger Another FLV

OK, it can be done and, naturally, Lee Brimelow has already done it. His example is hilarious, too.

http://theflashblog.com/?p=78

 

Aptana

A neat text editor mentioned at the Adobe AIR conference.

 

Aptana IDE with Plug-in for Adobe AIR—Aptana IDE is a free, open source Ajax-focused development environment with support for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript development. The Aptana IDE provides a plug-in to fully support building applications for Adobe AIR.

Adobe and...FedEx/Kinkos?

Watch out for the Kinkos button! J

From the WSJ:

Adobe Systems Inc., the maker of Acrobat and Flash software, faces a wave of criticism from printing companies protesting a deal that gives FedEx Kinko's stores a prominent link on Adobe software.

The brouhaha could hurt Adobe's standing with important customers and partners and also throw a wrench into FedEx Corp.'s plans to revitalize Kinko's, the copy-and-print chain it bought in 2004.

At issue is a new button on some Adobe software, released in June, that lets people electronically transfer documents directly to a FedEx Kinko's store to be printed. The button appears on new versions of Adobe's popular Acrobat and Reader software, which display documents in Adobe's PDF format. There are no buttons for competing printers on the products.

The button on the software "is kind of hard to miss when you launch it -- it's right there," says Kim Turk, a manager with Imagers, a family-run printing business in Atlanta. Ms. Turk, who wrote a letter to Adobe last month protesting the move, said her company and others could lose business because of the direct FedEx Kinko's link.

 

 

Simple ASP for Querying an Access Database

An oldie, but a goodie.  (I know, I know: .NET. I need to go to .NET)

 

'declare variables

Dim sConnString, connection, sSQL, rs

'define the connection string, specify database

'driver and the location of database

sConnString="PROVIDER=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" & _

"Data Source=" & Server.MapPath("MyDB.mdb")

'create an ADO connection object

Set connection = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")

'Open the connection to the database

connection.Open(sConnString)

sSQL = "SELECT * FROM MyTable"

'Implicitly create a recordset object with the

'results of this query

set rs = connection.Execute(sSQL)

Do WHile Not rs.EOF

                response.write rs("DB_Field_Name")

                rs.MoveNext   'Move to the next record

Loop

' Done. Close the connection object

connection.Close

Set connection = Nothing

SharePoint Customization: Lookup Columns and Calculated Values

Some neat information at this blog (quoting another blog, which I couldn’t gain access to).

 

Great tip from Dustin Miller

I mention in just about every Bootcamp that the biggest problem with calculated fields is that you can't use them in lookups. Well, the solution, as I mention in class, is to perform your calculations on the client-side. What I don't mention in class (it's a “SuperGeek Moment”, so it's meant to get the gears turning) is the actual code. Thus I have decided that I'm going to try and write a weekly “SuperGeek Tip”. This week's tip: Calculating “Full Name” using client-side script, so SharePoint is blissfully unaware that Full Name is anything but a plain text field.

At the bottom of the NewForm.aspx and EditForm.aspx for any default Contacts list, just above the closing element, add this code (inside a script block of course)

var lastName = document.getElementById("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#Title")
var firstName = document.getElementById("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#FirstName");
var fullName = document.getElementById("urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#FullName");
lastName.onchange = fixFullName;
firstName.onchange = fixFullName;

function fixFullName() {
fullName.value = firstName.value + " " + lastName.value;
}

You can do this in FrontPage 2003, or you could modify the list definition files yourself (the so-called “Ghosted” template -- be aware, Microsoft doesn't support you touching those files if you've already deployed sites based on that site definition).

Once you've done this, adding contacts / editing contacts will both cause Full Name to calculate whenever the values of First Name or Last Name change.

SharePoint: Creating a view on a list to display items created "yesterday"

Here’s a handy tip I stumbled upon from this blog.

 

We can easily filter a list to show everything created today by using the [Today] variable, but I was just asked by a colleague if it is possible to filter on [Yesterday]. For example I have an Issues List and if today’s date is 25th April, I want to show issues that were created on 24th April.

 

As you may or may not be aware it is not possible to simply substitute [Today] for [Yesterday] or [Today]-1 so this is how I went about solving the little problem.

 

Firstly create your list and add a calculated field with the value of "=[Created]+1". This will automatically create you a field with tomorrows date in it, Sounds a bit wierd at the moment but hang in there!

 

Next we need to create a view on the list we need to filter, I simply created a new view called "Yesterdays Issues" and filtered it on the "Tomorrows Date" field where all entries equal [Today].

 

Now if you create a new item in your list and switch to the "Created Yesterday" view you should see there are no entries.

 

However if you wait until tomorrow, or wind your system clock on a day and click refresh you should see all the entries created 'Yesterday'

We Feel Fine

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.

Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.

Batch Files

Fun stuff at the command prompt. J

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/batchstart.html

 

Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads

“In a development that could threaten the explosive growth of online advertising, hackers have started to exploit security holes in the online-advertising chain to slip viruses into ads.”

Hackers Can Now Deliver Viruses via Web Ads

 

The Great Flickr Tools Collection

A great list of tools/mashups available for use with Flickr.

Where can I get more PowerPoint fonts?

A Microsoft Office article.

 

Microsoft Surface

Popular Mechanics wrote this article, but the video says it all. I want one! (Anyone have an extra 5 or 6K?)

 

“The software giant has built a new touchscreen computer—a coffee table that will change the world. Go inside its top-secret development with PopularMechanics.com, then forget the keyboard and mouse: The next generation of computer interfaces will be hands-on.”

Microsoft's Eolas ActiveX Patch For IE Sometimes Breaks JavaScript Workaround

Seems like Murphy’s Law that if I save this, it won’t happen to me. J

Creating a hyperlink via the onclick method

<tr onclick="javascript:location='IMSPreparationChecklist.asp'" style="cursor:hand;">

 

_root is gone in AS3

ES was pointing out that _root is gone in AS3. But there is a surrogate.

_level0.varName or _root.varName
Object.movieName = this;

Then use Ojbect.movieName instead of _root

Looping in ActionScript

for(i=0; i<100; i++){

_root.TextFieldScroller._alpha= 99-i; // fade text scroller

trace(i);

if (i == 65)

{

// I use this crazy bit of code because dynamic text fields

// can only be masked if fonts are embedded. I didn't like how it

// looked...

_root.nowisthetime2._visible = false;

}

}

How to make a dynamic hangman game in Flash 8 with XML and ActionScript

Edutainment!

 

 

SharePoint 2007: Portal Listings

I was reading the following entry Scott Jamison's Information Worker Blog: Where did portal listings go in MOSS 2007?

I've had several customers upgrade from SPS 2003 to MOSS 2007. A popular question is "Where did the Listings functionality go?"

In short, Portal Listings are gone in MOSS. Since listings were just an SPS-centric way of creating a link to something, it didn't make sense to have a non-standard way of doing this.  In an upgrade, they are converted into a List and Content Type called "Listing". The Portal Listings Web Part is replaced with a Content Query Web Part, which is much more flexible.  So no functionality is lost; it's actually more functionality than SPS.

Likewise, Areas are also gone...everything is simply a site.  They have been replaced by various publishing templates.

These two items (listings and areas) were SPS-centric and didn't make sense to carry forward.

*

Microsoft explains the conversion from SharePoint 2003 this way:

 

“By default, Listings are upgraded to the Content By Query Web Part. This Web Part uses a query to display items in a Links list. The query is configured through Web Part properties. For more authoring and presentation control, consider manually moving Listings links to the Summary Links Web Part after upgrade.”

*

Here’s a tutorial for the Summary Link Web Part: Use and configure a Summary Link Web Part or a Summary Link field control. I made a quick attempt at creating one, but received a strange error on spdev01 when I attempted to add links.

 

 

Introducing Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) beta

Just a handy introduction written by Mike Chambers at the Adobe Developer Center.

 

Copy a text from Flash to to the sytem clipboard

A neat series of examples on ActionScript.org

<html>

<head>

<title>Flash To Clipboard</title>

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

<script language="Javascript">

<!--

// Flash to Clipboard

// By drZoode (zoode@usa.net)

// IE 4 and above specific execCommand methods

// are used to get access to the clipboard

// the innerText property of a hidden textarea (id="hiddenBox")

// is used to manipulate the text range

function flashToClipBoard(flashInput) {

// the argument of this function is passed from Flash

myForm.hiddenBox.innerText = flashInput;

copiedText = myForm.hiddenBox.createTextRange();

copiedText.execCommand("Copy");

pastedText = myForm.pasteHere.createTextRange();

pastedText.execCommand("Paste");

}

function clipBoardToFlash() {

pastedText = myForm.pasteHere.createTextRange();

pastedText.execCommand("Paste");

var goToFlash = myForm.pasteHere.innerText;

// we use a Flash Method to *simulate* the pasting effect

// as this is a IE only exercise we do not care for Netscape friendly syntax

window.movie.SetVariable("_root.text", goToFlash);

}

//-->

</script>

</head>

<body bgcolor="#999999" text="#000000">

<form id="myForm">

<table width="600" border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">

<tr>

<td>

<textarea rows="10" cols="50" id="hiddenBox" style="display:none" name="textarea">

</textarea>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<p>The text in the clipboard will appear here.

<br>You can open a text editor program (e.g. Notepad) and paste the text there.</p>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<textarea rows="6" cols="40" id="pasteHere" name="textarea2">

</textarea>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

<br>

<br>

</form>

[Flash embed]

<p> NOTE: If the text you have copied in Flash has carriage returns you cannot copy it back to the clipboard.

<p><b>Here is some text that you can copy to the clipboard</b>

<br>(Choose Edit>Copy or right-click and copy).

<br>

<br>'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

<br>Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:

<br>All mimsy were the borogoves,

<br>And the mome raths outgrabe.

<br><br>

<button onClick = "clipBoardToFlash()">Paste to Flash </button>

</p>

</body>

</html>

Center a DIV containing Flash if the browser is resized

I forgot where I found this (please contact me if you’d like credit). It’s a neat JavaScript function to automatically re-center a centered Flash div on resize. (Say that three times fast!)

 

<head>

<SCRIPT language="JavaScript">

<!--

function InitFlashDiv()

{

var winW = 630, winH = 460;

                        if (parseInt(navigator.appVersion)>3) {

                         if (navigator.appName=="Netscape") {

                          winW = window.innerWidth;

                          winH = window.innerHeight;

                         }

                         if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft")!=-1) {

                          winW = document.body.offsetWidth;

                          winH = document.body.offsetHeight;

                         }

DIVNAME.style.left=parseInt(winW-800)/2+"px"

}

}

//-->

</SCRIPT>

</head>

<BODY onLoad="InitFlashDiv();" onResize="InitFlashDiv();">

<div id="DIVNAME" style="position:absolute;top:151px;left:25;">

Content

</div>

Logo Inspiration

GV pointed out this site to me – they have some inspiring ideas for logos.

http://www.logoworks.com/recent-logos.html

 

 

Multi-Touch On MacBooks In October

Supacool:

 

“The iPhone’s multi-touch technology is theoretically supposed to roll out with all the new laptops, including those coming out in October.”