DATE: 10-Apr-2008
Filed Under:Mozilla Firefox, How-to
Firefox Tip Number 4
Change the look of Firefox
There are hundreds of themes available for Firefox that let you change the way it looks. You can give Firefox the artsy look or make it look more like a Macintosh. There are currently 278 theme add-ons available. To add a theme simply open Firefox, click on Tools and Add-ons. Choose the Themes tabs and click on the Get Themes link down in the bottom right of the dialog box.
Browse by category or through all 278 themes. Find a theme you like and click the Add to Firefox button and the Install Now button in the Software Installation dialog box. Restart Firefox for your new look.
DATE: 1-Apr-2008
Filed under: Windows, How To
The Art of Screen Captures
Screen captures or screen shots, can be useful when trying to debug system or program errors. Screen shots can also be useful when creating an instructional presentation or materials.
There are two types of screen captures: a full screen and a window screen shot.
The full screen shot will capture everything on the screen including the desktop, if there are no maximized windows, dialog boxes, and opened program windows. A full screen shot is performed by clicking on the CTRL and Print Screen key combination.
A window screen shot captures an open window, an error message, or dialog box. A window screen shot is performed by clicking on the Alt and Print Screen key combination.
After either one of these actions is performed, open Microsoft Paint or another graphic editing program. Click on the Edit menu and choose Paste.
If pasting a full screen shot, you may be informed that Paint’s canvas is not large enough for the screen shot, click yes to expand Paint’s canvas.
If pasting a screen shot of some window, error message, or other dialog box, resize the canvas so that screen shot takes precedence. The canvas can be resized by grabbing one of the handles (blue squares) located in middle on the bottom or right side of the canvas.
To retain system colors, save your screen shots in either the JPG or PNG formats.
If a section of a screen shot is desired, perform the same actions as described above and paste the screenshot into an image-editing program. Using the selection tool in Paint, select the area that you want to display.
- Go to the edit menu and click on copy.
- Click on the file menu and choose new.
- You will be prompted to save the current screenshot.
- Click no and choose paste from the edit menu.
- Resize your canvas as needed so the selection takes precedence.
DATE: 26-Mar-2008
Filed under: Firefox, Hacking, Sites, How-to
Hacking Firefox to give it the Internet Explorer Look
Although John Haller never met a person who actually wanted to make Firefox look like Internet Explorer he inserts that “There are some people that prefer the look of Internet Explorer to the way Firefox looks”. John has put together some resources and instructions on how you can change the appearance of Firefox and make it look like Internet Explorer.
Some may ask why did John really put this thing together? In John’s own words:
- Because he could.
- As a challenge to see how fully Firefox could be altered to look like IE without actually hacking any code
- To show how easy it is to make Firefox look the way you want it to
- To hopefully get a few people to realize that "I like the way it looks and feels" is not good reason to keep using IE
The last reason really spoke to me…
The project makes use of Firefox add-ons, IE icon pack and breaks the process down into five phases: theme, icons, toolbar layout, window title, and some miscellaneous details. The hack looks like it might be an interesting and fun project.
Now to find the time…
DATE: 8-Mar-2008
Filed under: Portable Applications, How-to
Use HFS to Serve-up Files from your USB Drive in Three Easy Steps
HFS is powerful and portable file server that allows you to send and receive files from your USB drive. HFS requires NO configuration making it extremely easy to use. HFS will allow you to send and receive files over the network or Internet.
Here’s how:
- Download and drag HFS to your portable applications folder. If you are using the PortableApp’s menu system you will have to create a folder for HFS in order for your menu to recognize the HFS executable.
- Execute HFS and simply drag the files you want to share into the left hand frame
- Share the file address with those you want to share the file
DATE: 6-Mar-2008
Filed under: Portable Applications, How-to, Open Source
Ditto Clipboard Copies
Ditto is a clipboard extension that allows you to save multiple clipboard copies. There are portable and desktop versions. To use Ditto portable unpack and drag the Ditto folder to your portable application program folder.
On your portable application menu click on Options and Refresh App Icons. (I am using the portableapps.com menu system) A shortcut for Ditto should appear in your portable application menu. Click on the Ditto shortcut and Ditto will appear in your tray.
Ditto collects your copies from any program and in addition, Ditto will also copy screenshots. Ditto will save your copies and will remember them the next time you start Ditto.
To access the Ditto clipboard viewer click on the Ditto icon in your tray. Choose the clip you want from the list and click on the Paste button. To access clip properties, to delete, edit a clip, or to choose from other options right click on a clip while in the clipboard viewer
DATE: 27-Feb-2008
Filed under: Portable Applications, How-to
Quick Gimp Script-Fu Installs
Gimp Script Fu’s are like Windows macros. Script Fu’s automate a series of changes to an image and some very dynamic effects can be achieved. Once you download the scripts the question arises, where do they go? The Script-Fu folder is buried deeply in your portable Gimp’s directory structure. Here is short cut that will help you and make sure your new Script Fu’s get to where they need to go.
I:\PortableApps\GIMPPortable\App\gimp\share\gimp\2.0\scripts
Copy and paste the path, listed above, into your Windows Explorer address bar. You will need to change the root directory to the drive letter your USB device is using. Press the enter key and you will be transported to the opened script folder. Simply cut and paste the Script-Fu’s from your download folder to the script folder. Open Gimp and click on Script-Fu menu; your newly installed script(s) should be listed.
Additional Resources
Using Script-Fu Scripts
Good introduction to Script-Fu’s.
Gimp Plug-in Registry
A Large collection of Gimp Script-Fu’s and other plug-ins. Script-Fu’s use the (.scm) extension.
Changing drive letters
DATE: 19-Feb-2008
Filed under: USB Devices, Windows, How-to
Quick Sync Your Files without
Installing Syncing Software
You can quickly sync files from your desktop to a folder of your choice on your USB drive. Here’s how.
- Create a folder on your USB drive.
- Right click on the folder and choose Send to Desktop (create shortcut).
- Drag the files to the desktop shortcut and they will be added to the folder on your USB device.
DATE: 17-Feb-2008
Filed under: Open Office, How-to, Portable Applications
Create a Miles per Gallon Calculator
Using Open Office Calc
This how-to article will introduce you to spreadsheet software and get you started using Open Office’s Calc spreadsheet program. We will be creating a simple Miles per Gallon calculator that will accept beginning and ending mileage, and the number of gallons at your last fill-up. A formula will be created to calculate MPG.
When you access Calc, Calc opens a new workbook. Think of a workbook like a binder. By default a workbook consists of three worksheets. Think of a worksheet like a sheet of loose leaf paper you add to the binder. Worksheets are made-up of columns and rows. Cells are the intersection between columns and rows. The lines that distinguish these cells are called grid lines.
Although spreadsheet software is often used for simple databases where data may consist primarily of alphabetical data, spreadsheet software is typically used for numeric data. With that in mind, here are three basic types of data that may be entered into a cell, labels, values, and formulas.
Labels can consist of either alpha or numeric characters and are used to describe data and values. Values consist of numeric data only. Values can be used to list the amounts of parts in inventory, projected earnings, or yearly budgets. Formulas may consist of values, mathematical operators, and cell references. As you will see, cell reference allows us to reuse formulas and make worksheets more efficient.
Creating a worksheet can be broken down into three phases.
- Inputting labels and values
- Creating formulas and perform calculations
- Format the worksheet
Although my work flow doesn't’t have to be adhered to it does make creating your worksheet more efficient. Let us get started.
Figure 1
Add the title, labels, and dummy values as indicated (figure 1). Notice how labels are automatically left aligned and your values are right aligned. We will realign the data in phase three. Notice how text is automatically wrapped in the cells.
Figure 2
Move to cell D4 and enter the formula to calculate MPG as indicated (figure 2). Using the mathematical order of operations we will be creating a compound formula. We first must find the difference between our ending mileage and the beginning mileage. After we have the difference we will divide the difference by the number of gallons at out last fill-up:
MPG = (Ending Mileage- Beginning Mileage) / Number of Gallons at last Fill-up
Now to Format our Worksheet
Figure 3
We will start at the top of our worksheet and work our way down. Click in cell A1 and drag through D1. Click on Merge Cells; it is the option to the right of the Justify button. Notice how the individual cells have been merged into one cell and that the contents of the cell are now centered across the work area of our spreadsheet. While we are here, let us increase the font size to 14 and use the bold button to bold our title.
Drop down to row three and select row three’s labels and use the bold button to bold these labels. While we are here, click on the down arrow to the right of the border option button (third option from the right), and choose the bottom border option.
Drop down to row four and select the beginning and ending mileage values. Right click and choose format cells and the numbers tab. Under options change the decimal places to zero (if it isn't’t already set at zero), trailing zeros to zero, and check the option for the thousands separator.
Move to the Number of Gallons at last Fill-up value. Change the number of decimal places to three decimal places. You can use the increase decimal places button on the format bar or use the Format cell dialog box. Lastly, move to the MPG value and reduce the decimal places to zero (zero decimal places). See figure three.
Additional Resources
Open Office Portable
Open Office Desktop Version
Completed MPG Calculator Spreadsheet (zip)
Right click and choose Save Link as.
DATE: 25-Jan-2008
Filed under: Freeware, Microsoft, How-to
Two Tips to help make finding Data
on your CD/DVD’s Easier
Tip One
Use the DOS DIR command and the output operator to create directory listings for each CD or DVD. If your media burning software does not allow you to save the output file directly to CD/DVD you may have to redirect the text file to another location and burn the file separately. The DIR command will list each directory and file on your disk with the file or folder name, when the file or folder was created, and there size.
Tip Two
If you have a growing collection of DVD and CD ROM data disks that you use a regularly you can use ISO Recorder to create ISO images of these disks. Copy the ISO images to a new folder; I named mine ISO. Using Microsoft’s Virtual CDROM, a CD emulator, you can mount these images as if they were CD or DVD media. With a large enough hard drive you can store hundreds of CD and dozens of DVD images on your hard drive.
DATE: 15-Jan-2008
Filed under: Portable Applications, Freeware, How-to
Use Spread32 to Create a Time Tracker
Spread32 is the portable spreadsheet program similar to Microsoft Excel and is included in the latest distribution of the Floppy Office suite. Floppy Office is a collection of 16 mini portable applications that have about a 2MB download size.
When complete the timer will keep track of entry and exit times, daily and weekly time totals for your clientele. To make our job easier we will create our formulas using military time and will convert military time back into regular time later on. For reference a military time table is added to assist you in entering daily entry and exit times.
Follow the following steps and figures
- Enter the labels and a few dummy names and times as indicate
(figure 1)
- Enter the military time table
- Enter formula for daily totals (time in – time out-figure 1) as indicated
- Use the format menu and cell option to change the daily totals to the time format
- Copy the daily time formula to the other clients
- Copy formula to the remaining days of the week
- Enter formula for total weekly hours (figure 2)
- Copy formula to other client week totals
Additional Resources
Completed Time Tracker Spreadsheet
(Spread32 format-Right Click and choose Save Target As)
DATE: 27-Dec-2007
Filed under:: Open source, How to's
Using Floppy Office’s i.Ftp
Floppy Office is a suite of portable applications that will take up a little better than 2MB on your USB drive. i.Ftp is
one the many programs that come with Floppy Office and is the only program that must be installable on your computer. The
program installs quickly and worked without my having to reconfigure my Windows firewall.
Once i.Ftp is installed execute the program and click on connect. Type the FTP address for your server, usually it is
something like: ftp://datathatmatters.netfirms.com/. You can drop the ftp://, i.Ftp will enter these characters for you.
Enter your user name and password in the appropriate fields and click on the connect button.
To create easy to use accounts add your FTP address, user name, password in the appropriate fields, and click the add
button. Type a name for the account and you are set.
i.Ftp uses a three pane interface. The left side presents what is on your hard drive and the left side what is on the
server. Select the files for uploading and click the transfer button. The top message pane will show the progress of the
uploaded files.
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