Design Tip: Grabbing pictures from MS Word

This has been working really well for me. I rarely resort to PDFing and saving as a graphic now when grabbing photos from MS Word:

1. Open Word
2. Right click on the picture – if you see “edit picture” it means they cropped it. Select “edit picture”. Otherwise, continue to step 7.
3. Copy and paste the new picture that pops up into PowerPoint. Right click and select “Save as Picture…”
4. You want to choose the destination directory first. Ideally, you should see a little black arrow next to the Save button. If you don’t, that means it was modified in Word with cropping or grouping, etc., and you’ll get mixed results this way.
5. Click that arrow and choose “Save Original Picture”
6. Voila! That’s it!
7. If you don’t see “edit picture”, select “Format Picture”. Choose the “Size” tab and click “Reset” and “OK”
8. Follow steps 3-6.

You’ll still need to open in Photoshop to convert it to CMYK and anything else, like more cropping.

You've got to move it, move it . . .

It must be Friday! Something else I’m really digging right now that I meant to share was a trick I recently discovered. If you are moving files from your desktop to the network, hold down SHIFT. This will put the file on the server and delete it from you desktop in one fell swoop. Really handy way to avoid desktop clutter if you are doing this over and over again.

Solution for slow computer - 100% CPU - wficat-no-eula.cab

My computer seems to be back to normal now. Just in case, I thought I’d share (you know me ;-)

I ran TrendMicro’s HijackThis and found two running tasks that looked odd:

O11 - Options group: [INTERNATIONAL] International*

O16 - DPF: {238F6F83-B8B4-11CF-8771-00A024541EE3} - http://a516.g.akamai.net/f/516/25175/7d/runaware.download.akamai.com/25175/citri x/wficat-no-eula.cab

When you google “wficat-no-eula.cab” there doesn’t seem to be a name for this problem, but all of the posts describe the same symptoms I was having. Maybe it is something new, or just a poorly written piece of software. If you look closely at the entry above, a “DPF” is something that Internet Explorer downloads to extend its functionality. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes this is very bad. This would explain why Outlook or Internet Explorer seemed to doom my computer. And why temporarily closing Trend Micro seemed to alleviate the problem (because it was fighting it!).

Here are the instructions that got rid of it. A lot of the files it said to delete, I didn’t actually have (probably because of TrendMicro, thank goodness, I’m a believer now). Basically, I only removed the two things listed above by turning off System Restore under My Computer properties, booting in safe mode, running HijackThis, selecting them, clicking ‘fix’, rebooting and turning back on System Restore. Didn’t really need Killbox after all. Sorry, but I don't remember the forum post that I found this at:

Download the Pocket Killbox programme from HERE (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/files/killbox.php). Extract it but don`t run it yet.

You might want to copy and paste these instructions into a notepad file. Then you can have the file open in safe mode, so you can follow the instructions easier.

Turn off system restore.(XP/ME only) See how here.> http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial56.html

Boot into safe mode, under your normal user name(NOT THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT). See how here.> http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial61.html

In Windows Explorer, turn on "Show all files and folders, including hidden and system". See how here.> http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/tutorial62.html

Go to add remove programmes in your control panel and uninstall anything to do with(if there).

ComcastToolbar

Close control panel.

Open your task manager, by holding down the ctrl and alt keys and pressing the delete key.

Click on the processes tab and end process for(if there).

uninstall.exe

Close task manager.

Run HJT with no other programmes open(except notepad). Click the scan button. Have HJT fix the following, by placing a tick in the little box next to(if there).

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {64582371-8B2A-A1C6-CE40-0A8E8EB54F78} - C:\WINDOWS\system32\yzwyatl.dll

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {CFE9E8A8-38C0-4EF8-AEC2-5035EFE81030} - (no file)

O2 - BHO: (no name) - {E3215F20-3212-11D6-9F8B-00D0B743919D} - (no file)

O4 - HKLM\..\Run: C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe C:\WINDOWS\system32\bhcfvfb.dll,gmzxdjg

O11 - Options group: [INTERNATIONAL] International*

O16 - DPF: {238F6F83-B8B4-11CF-8771-00A024541EE3} - http://a516.g.akamai.net/f/516/25175/7d/runaware.download.akamai.com/25175/citri x/wficat-no-eula.cab

Click on the fix checked button.

Close HJT.

Locate and delete the following bold files and/or directories(if there).

C:\Program Files\ComcastToolbar

Run the killbox.exe file. When it loads type the full path to the file you would like to delete in the field and check the delete file on reboot button. press the Delete File button (looks like a red circle with a white X). It will prompt you to reboot, select no until you have finished inputting the files you want to delete, only then allow it to reboot and hopefully your files will now be deleted. If your computer doesn`t automatically restart, restart it manually.

These are the filepaths you need to enter into killbox.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\bhcfvfb.dll

C:\WINDOWS\system32\yzwyatl.dll

Once your system has rebooted, turn system restore back on and rehide your protected OS files.

Please rename HijackThis.exe to HijackThis1991.exe and post a fresh HJT log.

The reason I want you to rename HijackThis.exe, is because some malware can hide from HijackThis.exe.

Final Shirt Design

Well, here is the final version of the tshirt design. I really liked the My Little Pony style illustrations I discovered on DeviantArt while doing research for this project, and I that is probably the largest influence on the final design.

Riding into the Future on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Riding into the Future on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


This is a first draft of a t-shirt design I am doing for a local Brownie troop. Apparently, it grossly violates their branding guidelines. Go figure. I am now think about doing a vector illustration somewhat in the style of the Bella Sara cards, with lots of girly "flair". Should be fun!  

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Fun with Typography

I bet you thought .. was a just a backslash, but I recently discovered that Windows Character Map actually calls it a "Reverse Solidus".

Wikipedia thinks there is a difference between a slash and a solidus, however (see below), and I agree. The slash is really best called a "virgule"

This symbol goes back to the days of ancient Rome. In the early modern period, in the Fraktur script, which was widespread through Europe in the Middle Ages, one slash (/) represented a comma, while two slashes (//) represented a dash. The two
slashes eventually evolved into a sign similar to the equals sign (=), then being further simplified to a single dash (–).

The solidus and virgule are distinct typographic symbols with decidedly different uses. The solidus is significantly more horizontal than the virgule. The character found on standard keyboards is the virgule and while most people lump the two characters together (and when there is no alternative it is acceptable to use the virgule in place of the solidus), they are different. The solidus is used in the display of ratios and fractions as in constructing a fraction using superscript and subscript as in “¹²³⁄₄₅₆”; the virgule is used for essentially any other textual purpose.

So if you are doing fractions, U+2044 is a fraction slash ⁄ and U+2215 is a division slash (slightly longer) ∕. These work much better for building custom fractions in Quark (using superscript / subscript) than using the basic forward slash / (aka “virgule”)

These characters work much better for building custom fractions in software programs such as Quark (using the superscript / subscript combination) rather than just using the basic forward slash / (aka "virgule"). If you have ever tried making fractions with the standard slash as I have, then you must know how frustrating this can be. Now, you can use the right character, the solidus!

Bet you never knew typography could be so fun!

Happy virgules!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Here is my shirt design for the International Talk Like a Pirate Day contest on Zazzle. I was really happy how it turned out.


make custom gifts at Zazzle