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7576

General Review Discussion / Re: Free PDF tools review?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 06, 2005, 04:13 AM »

I know you'll want to wait for the review but I have used Acrobat 5 (full version) and Jaws PDF Creator and Editor. I was lucky enough to get a free copy of Jaws PDF Creator as I had a registered version of their earlier software (which I got free from a magazine disk).

Jaws software is chearp, solid and reliable. The only places it falls down in comparison to Acrobat are speed (the Editor is quite S..L..O..W at loading and saving files - in fact sometimes with large files you may as well go and get a coffee) and updating. The updates for Acrobat are pretty regular and the file format grows and grows with time. So far I haven't felt the need to splurdge out on the upgrade to version 7 but I do now have some files that aren't fully functional in version 5. I haven't seen updates at Jaws which address all the growing options in the PDF format.

If you simply want to create PDF files and edit them, Jaws is well worth a look. If you want to edit files from other sources then you may need to look elsewhere. (Actually just been to their website and note that new versions are due out soon. For the new version of PDF Creator see the press release at http://www.globalgra...0EE38025706E00688280 which is the enterprise version but new consumer versions of Creator and Editor are due soon and will be free upgrades if you purchase current versions now. See http://www.jawspdf.com/products.html for details of upgrading.)

Personally I haven't had very happy experiences with ScanSoft software. I haven't tried their PFD software (and have no wish to) but other software I have used (and purchased ... TextBridge, OmiPage and PaperPort) always promised much but the results are never as good as  expected. Their upgrade prices for new versions are always high (often higher than the cost of the new software if you keep your eyes open for special offers), and free updates (even for bug fixes) are few and far between ... not that there aren't bugs that need fixing.

7577

Living Room / Re: Remove startup folder? Anyone ever accomplish this ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 06, 2005, 03:41 AM »

Don't forget that there are two StartUp folders in Win2k and XP.

Right click on start and "Explorer All Users" and you'll find one Startup folder - common to all users thatlogin to your computer (including you if you are the only one), there is also another option on Start Right Click just saying Explore. This opens you personal user based Program folder and in there you'll find another Startup folder.

If you want it to "disappear" you will need to hide both. Not sure if this'll work though.

There are good reasons for keeping it visible though - esp. if you install and unistall bits and bobs a lot in that you can see what installers have added to these folders. Often these are links that load tray icons, and if you want to get shut of them you just need to remove the item from the startup folder(s).

Most of the startup items that you shouldn't remove are hidden away in the registry.

By far the baset way to deal with these management issues is by using StartUp CPL at http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml which allows you to see pretty much everyth application  that loads things at startup and allows you to remove them (whilst keeping a backup in case things go wrong and you need to put it back)

7578

Best Archive Tool / Re: New Review (09/05/05) - Best Archive Tool

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 07:10 PM »

Thanks Zaine,

My only comment is on StuffIt. You say it has good MS Office support. I haven't used the latest version but in the last three versions they have had MS Office support and it has at best been flaky.

It looks good on the surface but in each of the three previous versions I disabled it after giving it a go as it caused so many headaches in Office - particularly other macros.

The only reason I used it was because I needed SIT file support, but I won't be upgrading from now on (and probably won't bother installing it in the future as the need for SIT support these days is marginal).

WinZip have lost one customer. I have had WinZip installed for the last 5 years but I won't be upgrading again!

WinRAR is definitely the way to go for me - and it isn't just that lifetime free upgrades (er ... didn't WinZip promise that when you registered), but is is a lot slicker and comes as a complete set of tools.

7579

Living Room / Re: Remove startup folder? Anyone ever accomplish this ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 06:39 PM »

Its a system folder that is just recreated if you manage to delete it (as far as I can tell).

Why bother - just open it and delete anything that offends !

7580

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 03:58 PM »

That link doesn't seem to work

Correct link is: http://homepage.mac....iarchitect/shame.htm

7581

Living Room / Re: File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 03:38 PM »

Thanks for that tinyvillager - were your file associations OK for graphics files (they seemed to be the only ones affected for me - all the others were OK).

7582

Living Room / Re: File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 09:44 AM »

Thanks, hopefully Jason will shed some light ... 

7583

Screenshot Captor / Re: WANTED: Resurces for to use with ScreenCaptor

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 08:28 AM »

Sorry for the confusion ...

The link back request means include a link (URL) back to the originating website so that credit is given. Which you did ... http://www.internetc...art.com/contents.htm

The site owner specifically requests that you don't link directly to graphic files on the website (which is what you did in your post above). You are asked to download the images and then upload them to where you want them displayed (in this case as attachments in your message). He has made this a condition of use of the images. (See http://www.internetc...art.com/contents.htm ... Please, don't link to INDIVIDUAL graphics.)

7584

Living Room / Re: File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 07:48 AM »

Thanks both of you.

I had completely forgotten about ShellEx (even though I have it installed).

It turned out to be two context handlers causing problems ...

IrfanView shell extension has long been installed on my system but now it causes the main context menu to lose its Open/Print etc. items from the top. The Open With ... menu is however left untouched.

But CryptoSuite was the big culprit - removing both Open/Print etc. and clearing the Open With Menu ....

Strangely these problems only applied to graphics files.

I presume there must be something more subtle going on with my system.

Could someone please confirm that the context menu work properly with Ghost Security Crypto Suite installed on a JPG file. (I am using windows XP Pro SP2) before I send a potential bug query to Jason 

7585

General Software Discussion / Re: Clean up your right-click menu (NirSoft's ShellExView)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 07:42 AM »

I just rediscovered this from another thread. Used it ages ago and then forgot.

Excellent little tool.

NirSoft has some really nifty utilities. The only problem I have with some of the stuff is that virus and spyware scanners constantly complain - especially about the password utilities. They aren't infected (despite the fact NOD32 keeps quaranting the installers!) it is just that the heuristics of these things don't like programmes that potentially grab passwords !

7586

Living Room / Re: File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 06:28 AM »

The really strange thing is that the context menu works correctly in Servant Salamander but not in Windows Explorer

Here are two images to compare:

The first one is from Windows Explorer - the second from Servant Salamander

Both have the Opne With ... submenu open

7587

Living Room / Re: File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 05:51 AM »

Nah - rebooted umpteen times - also been switch off all night, and was messed up then too ...

7588

Living Room / File associations screwed - anyone help?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 05:32 AM »

All my graphics file associations are screwe up so that Explorer conext menu no longer has any open options ???

"Open With" menu consists of "Open With" and does nothing.

I have checked through folder options to see what is going on and files still have correct command assocations for Open, Print etc., they just don't appear in the context menu.

I tried reinstalling PhotoShop to see if that would reset all the file associations etc. correctly but it hasn't managed to change the context menu.

If I look at a file's properties and change the apllication used to open the file the application list has the "Always open with this application" ticked and greyed out.

Anyone got any idea what the heck is going on and how to fix it ?

7589

Official Announcements / Re: Yearbook Mod for SMF Forum Admins Now Downloadble

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 05, 2005, 04:19 AM »

Hey thats great.

I don't suppose you fancy trying to tackle the lack of email support as a mod?

Ideally I would like it if the user could subscribe to individual boards and receive an email notification of each post to that board. The email would be simple text with a link to the latest message, the board name, titel and message authors user ID.

In a really ideal world it would be good if email support could be extended to receiving and posting messages by email list too - but that would probably be far to hard to construct as it would need to hook in very deeply to the main code and incorporate security measures to stop spamming and email spoofing.

7590

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 08:20 PM »

PhotoShop's interface is coming in for some stick here ...

I must say I use it a lot and really like it.

The screen really isn't overclutter - you can toggle most of the 'screen clutter' on/off simply by pressing tab, and a single mouse click makes the work area full screen.

There is a bit of a learning curve (mainly because it does absolutely everything anybody would ever want to do with digital images) and you need to get to know the keyboard shortcuts. Once you do it is really slick and well thought out. It is also common to just about all the Adobe products so you only need to learn once.

The other thing is PhotoShop really isn't designed for mouse use (why would you want to use a mouse for photo retouching etc) and once you use a tablet with one hand and the keyboard with the other you quickly find you use it most of the time with just the image filling 100% of the screen ...

7591

Screenshot Captor / Re: WANTED: Resurces for to use with ScreenCaptor

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 06:23 PM »

Stefan - can I point out that by linking those images from the other website you are breaking the terms of use.

Can you save them to your disc and then modify your email and add them as attachments.

7592

Living Room / Re: Anyone ever get Lasik eye surgery

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 03:11 PM »

A friend of mine had it done fairly recently (in Toronto) and was very pleased indeed. He said that the process was less offputting than anticipated.

7593

Screenshot Captor / Re: Version 2 beta preview release now available (!)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 01:25 PM »

I didn't mean vertical text - just align the text vertically so that it appears at the top, bottom or middle of the coloured background. That way text can be truly centred in a rectangle.

When you create objects they have handles around them to resize etc. It would be useful to have a dotted outline that appears on screen when an object isn't selected so you can see where unselected items extend to and where they can be selected. This is esp. useful when you have overlapping items where you can't "see" the whole area of the object you are trying to select because it is behind another object. Text boxes with a transparent background are an example - if the text is behing another object you can't see anywhere to select the text box - a dotted outline would allow you to do this.

Obviously you wouldn't want the dotted outlines in the final image - just available during editing.

7594

Screenshot Captor / Re: Version 2 beta preview release now available (!)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 12:30 PM »

This new version seems a bit more stable. I haven't tried saving in TIFF format because of comments you made above but PNG+change file works for me.

Text also works now.

Are you going to add bump up and down (layers) for floating objects? If you add text and then want to place it onto a callout ballon or similar there is no way to do this (that I can see) short of deleting the text and entering it again.

Also can editing be restricted to the image area and/or allow image area to be expanded? At the moment final output files crop to the original captures edges.

How do you save a final image (without the objects file)? The only way I have found is to use MoveTo on a finished imaged ??

A couple of other requests ...

1) Group and ungroup objects

2) Optional object outlines (so for eample the text editing box could be made visible with/without handles depending on whether it is being edited or not).

3) Vertical text alignement (Top, centre, bottom) within text object.

4) Not sure if this is possible - transparency effect on text background (so you can fade the coloured background without affecting the text)

5) Text rotation?

Looking good though - you have been working really hard!

7595

Screenshot Captor / Re: Version 2 beta preview release now available (!)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 05:44 AM »

What is too big?

This is what I did - I placed a call out on the image (one of the clouds) and then put a text box on top. Type some text but it was too small to read. I increased the font size, but it still fit inside the box (and the cloud) but from then on it could only be seen when selected for editing.

7596

Screenshot Captor / Re: Version 2 beta preview release now available (!)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 04, 2005, 04:35 AM »

Looks good, but I can't use text!

I put a text objet in, and while it is being edited it is visible but as soon as I click anywhere else it disappears and becommes invisible.

When I double click where I know it is it reappears ???

Also I tried "Save as copy" in TIF format (using the sample) and then got contant 'access violation' errors when ever I used the thumbnail browser (and the save failed).

Sorry it was too late when I was playing and I didn't note the exact error codes.

7597

Living Room / Re: Mark thread as unread - Side map - checkbox right hand side

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2005, 11:22 AM »

It allows you to enter the filename/path but when you save the settings it reverts to no visible avatar. The radio button for "I will upload" says selected but the field is blank.

In Internet Explorer the Avatar is replaced with a graphic not available placeholder (the square with a red X inside) in Firefox there is no evidence of an avatar at all - not even a placeholder or a blank space where it should be ???

7598

Living Room / Re: Mark thread as unread - Side map - checkbox right hand side

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2005, 10:41 AM »

Yes the options were set but wouldn't work.

For some reason the URL is now working, but I can't get upload to work at all.

7599

General Software Discussion / Re: Worst. Interface. Ever.

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2005, 09:59 AM »

Try Real Alternative - can't get any simpler interface and works great. Minimal impact too.

7600

Living Room / Re: Mark thread as unread - Side map - checkbox right hand side

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2005, 09:58 AM »

Since you have got them to work can you tell me how to setup to allow users to upload avatars or link to URLs.

I have set permissions for all groups and the the options page but it just doesn't  seem to want to do it ???