Programs not starting like they should?

Some time ago I've had the craziest problem with one of my friend's computer. After she installed one player, everything that she wanted to run (like for example Word, Outlook, games,...) - EVERYTHING started that player with an error message. I went almost crazy looking for solution. That's why I want to point it out here if anyone will ever have the same problem:

What happened is that the .exe extension got associated with that player (like for example some media type like .mp3 associates with windows media player). So basically when we tried to run any .exe - program file it was understanding to run that player and open .exe in it.

Crazy. I couldn't fix the registry, because regedit is also .exe file.

This is what saved me and my friend's computer.

Update: Due to a broken link, I've changed it and added a link to some more xp file association fixes:

Windows XP file association fixes.

Free Tools Galore pt. 7 - Vector drawing

There are quite some good vector graphics editors available on the market. But again keeping the stle of free I have to recommend you Inkscape - an open source scalable vector graphics editor.

It has all the features for drawing with vectors that you need. I had to prepare t-shirts and I used this program. The print shop was surprised with the quality of result and also they were happy because I didn't forget to convert text into curves (which Inkscape automatically offered.)

Semi transparency on a web?

Well FireFox already supports semi-transparent png and the effects with these are super. Also Internet Explorer 7 now has the support for transparency in png. But to wait for everybody to change from IE6? That might take a while.

But if you need semi-transparent effects on your website, here's a very neat optical trick to make it.

Read more here...

Really super. Will use it with my next project.

Posting to Blog directly from new Office

Wow. This is amazing! You can actually post blogs directly from word! This post is actually made with the new Word 2007! Just click the office logo, select new and from templates select New blog entry.






Although I'm having some difficulties posting to the new blogger Beta, but I'm sure it will be fixed when both word and blogger will go out of the beta.

What to do if users don't have flash?

Not everybody has Flash installed. It's quite easy and free to install it, but still there are some cases that simply someone viewing your website might not have Flash player installed. You can put an alternative content for users that don't have flash player installed. So instead of your flash animation you still can display HTML.

This is super, because if you have your whole site built in Flash you can still make HTML substitute for the ones without the player.

Thanks to Deconcept's SWF Object script file...

Simple to integrate and simply works :)

Free Tools Galore pt. 6 - Compressed files manager

Windows already has an integrated .zip compressed file support. But I've experienced problem in bigger zip files. And also sometimes I'm receiving lots of compressed files in other formats, such as .rar.

A solution to this problem is:

7-zip file archiver.

It has its own high compression format and also supports

• packing/unpacking to/from 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
• unpacking from: RAR, CAB, ISO, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM, DEB and NSIS

From what I've seen from news it also supports .ISO. What I especially like is the nice Windows Explorer integration.

Width of Rich text field in the form

I'm probably one of the biggest fans of SharePoint, because it enables me to do virtually anything with a bit of creativity. So you can expect some more of the SharePoint stuff here (by the way: I'm not a programmer, so don't catch me on too technical details.)

One thing that was annoying me and some of our customers is that when entering info into rich text field it was simply too narrow. The width is for resolution 1024x768. That's all fine and dandy, but if you like to type a lot the narrow field when entering information just won't do.

To expand the field you have to open the NewForm.aspx and EditForm.aspx in FrontPage or SharePoint designer and just before the </body> tag add the following code:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
document.getElementById('urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office#FIELDNAME_iframe').style.width=WIDTH
</script>

Ofcourse replace the FIELDNAME with actual name of the field and WIDTH with desired width in pixels.

For the FIELDNAME you have to use the SharePoint name, not the display name (sometimes they aren't the same). You can find the SharePoint name of the field easily if you

1. modify settings and columns of the list


2. click on the name of the field in the "Columns" section


3. check value of parameter Field in the URL (click on image below to see the screenshot)

Save the file and you'll have the result. Click on the thumbnails below to see larger images.

Before:

Code:

After:

There you have it. Not as nice to look at, but nicer to write in :).

Free Tools Galore pt. 5 - Graphics for your web site

My friend, Jose has a good post about where to find free graphics. When in need of graphics for your website, the problem can be the authorship rights. That's why you have to search for royality free pictures.

Or you can check office online.

Check Jose's tip about free clipart.

Through Office online you can find lots of quality photos that you can freely use.

Click to activate and use this control?

If you're keeping your computer secure and up-to-date with updates, you've probably noticed that in Internet Explorer you have to first click on the flash animation or any other object (such as movie, etc) to be able to interactively use it.

Here's a screenshot of what I have in mind.




I understand that Microsoft is trying to protect us from unwanted actions in our computer but if as a web developer this bothers you, I've found a solution.

Here's one from Macromedia:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/activecontent/articles/devletter.html

And personally I like the solution that I've found on Amara Software site:

http://www.amarasoftware.com/flash-problem.htm

And the flash works... Until next update :)

Having problems with your flash animation?

Here's a problem that I've had:

I'm working on a website and I received a flash animation to put it it. The problem was that the site also included DHTML menu with layers. The problem is, that the menu layers don't want to display above flash animation.

A screenshot of the problem:





The solution is very simple: Just add <PARAM NAME="wmode" VALUE="transparent"> to the flash object tag, like shown below:





And voila. Works for me:

Free Tools Galore pt. 4 - for build your website

If this blog is also for webmasters and those wanting to become one, I should start addressing this topic.


In the office I'm using FrontPage 2003 and lately the super new SharePoint Designer. But these are the tools we use in the office and are really proffessional.


If you want to create a website at home or with minimum costs, you can use NVU - free web authoring tool.


It has enough if you want to build the website for free, nice features and support for plugins also.

Below is a screenshot of user interface (click on the thumbnail to see bigger screenshot):

It has nice views (HTML Tags is a nice view)

Tag selector: a feature I can't live without when working with web pages. You can find it at the bottom of user interface:

One nice feature is also that you can see the width and height of the element (table, etc.) in the rulers. Below is the sample of the table. You can see the width in the top ruler (click thumbnail for bigger preview)

It is XHTML compliant as you can see in the source code view. (click for bigger image)

Absolutely nice if you want to create web sites for free. Nice also the site manager and possibility to publish the site via FTP.

What I was missing is

• support for working with layers
• opening non-html files (for example CSS)
  
  

Nostalgic for old games?

Had an old game that you simply loved? Want to play it again? Not all is lost. In the era of superpowerful computers the games are advancing so fast that it's even hard to follow.

If you want to slow your pace and play an old game, the wonder of Internet is super. Just look for abandonware. Tons of all the games you knew or you didn't know.

So if you're looking for something simple to relax, this is an additional option for you. The sure thing is: your configuration will meet the minimum requirements. :)

Joining tehcnoratti

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Free Tools Galore pt. 3 - Graphics program

If you need a program to modify your photographies, images, etc. you have some choices. PhotoShop is really good, but doesn't fit under the free tools category. A free substitute for PhotoShop is the GIMP, but if you're looking for something more light-weight, I recommend Paint .NET. It has enough of the functionalities that you'd require - layers, all sorts of different effects, powerful tools for working with drawings, images.

As a Webmaster I find this tool (because of its lightweight and especially because it's for free), I found it really indispensable.

Here's a screenshot of the user interface

The task panes are semi-transparent when over the image

It has support for layers and some blending modes

And the color select tool has the hex option! Super if you need this for web development.

P.S. - what do you think of the picture I was editing in Paint .NET? ;)

Links to tools available all the time

Just a quick notice. I've published the links of the tools on the right side so you'll be able to find them all the time. As I get new tools and good stuff, I'll update the linkbar on the right.