CSS expression crashes IE6
Since IE 6 does not have a “min-width” ccss attribute, I sometimes emulate it, using CSS expressions. For example:
width:expression(document.body.clientWidth
Continue readingCategory: Windows
Psychedelic Video Display: embedded Windows Media Player
A new computer running Windows XP was having a problem displaying some video produced a few years ago with Windows Media 7 format. The video image resembled a 60’s flashback, as shown below:
Issues with Shared Excel and Word files on Novell servers
I’ve been using a shared Novell drive to collaborate with a team. We use Excel and Word files, and I’ve attempted to make them “shareable”. Quite often the file will work for a while, then “lose” its shareable attribute.
To make an excel file shareable on a Novell server, you have to do two things.
Open the file, select “Tools: Shared Workbook”. Check “Allow changes by more than one user at the same time.”
Adding Narration to Powerpoint
Preparation:
- You will need to purchase a microphone or a headset Microphone. I recommend the Plantronics USB headset mics, LISTED HERE. I use the Plantronics DSP 400, but the less expensive ones work well also.
- Find a quiet room, preferably one with no air-conditioning or heating blower hum, and no other ambient noises. If you work in an older building this can be a challenge, enough so you may want to consider doing the recording elsewhere.
- Prepare a script for your narration. Run through it once or twice, to eliminate “umms” and “errr’s” in your rendition.
- Plug in the microphone, and if you are using Windows, you will also need to install the software that comes with it, and restart. On a Mac, simply plug in the mic, then select System Preferences from the Apple menu or the Dock, select
- If you haven’t already, create your Powerpoint slides.
Breaking out of Dreamweaver for PC’s interface
If you’ve found the new DreamweaverMX 2004 for Windows interface as confining as I did, you will know the frustration of trying to get more room for your work out of the screen. I have 2 monitors, so had plenty of horizontal space, but I could not get rid of the Properties panel and other items that were taking up vertical real estate.
It took me several months to figure out that they can be dragged out of the interface. Why the actual PAGE cannot be similarly dragged, I don’t know, except that it is more consistent with the irritating way that Powerpoint’s interface behaves on a PC. An example of 2 panels hogging space is shown below with the Design and Files panels.. I realize the panels could be set to not be on top, but I wanted them OUT of there – over on the left monitor, without having to make the entire interface 2 monitors wide, which causes other problems.
Continue readingWacom tablet stops functioning
On my Windows 2000 workstation, occasionally, the tablet just stops working. It seems that this usually happens when the mouse (which is also still connected) has been moved accidentally. However sometimes it seems to just
Continue readingNorton Ghost will not backup unless a non-USB mouse is attached
I’ve found that Norton Ghost will not go into DOS mode to perform a disk backup unless a non-USB mouse is attached to the machine. Probably you could also get around this by fiddling with
Continue readingCan not mount Novell server in NetWare for MacOS X
I had my Mac logging in to the enterprise Novell system with no problems, using Prosoft Engineering’s NetWare for MacOS X v. 1.2.2.
It would mount the various servers I use daily just fine. Then one Monday morning I came in, and nothing would mount, nor could I see them anymore by browsing the tree.
It turned out they had been moved to another tree over the weekend. However I could not see this tree in the NetWare browser, only the old one. I knew the short server name from the notice the Novell team sent out about the migration.
On the ProsoftEngineering site, it says
” To login manually, select the Login tab. You can then manually enter the Username, Password, Tree and Context information. The Tree name should be the IP address or DNS name of the server you want to connect to. You can enter the Context information, or use the Context button to browse for available User Contexts. Please note that if you enter the tree server manually, you must also make this same server a Static SA server in the Directory Services Preferences Panel. ”
So, you can manually log in to a tree that you cannot see by typing its full name into the Tree field on the login screen of Netware. Before doing this be sure to open the NetWare preferences and click user defaults. Make sure Use These As Defaults is not selected. That way it will let you change the login settings.
Continue readingFlashPaper printer will not install
When trying out Flashpaper 2, after having already installed Macromedia Contribute 2, on a Windows 2000 machine, things got hopelessly confused. The driver for the earlier version was still in place, and the new driver
Continue readingPowerpoint and video
Successfully incorporating video clips into powerpoint isn’t hard, but the process will go more smoothly if you consider how the presentation will be delivered before inserting the video file. This tutorial is mainly oriented toward the PC version of powerpoint, and Windows Media Player, although I may add notes on the Mac version and Quicktime soon.
Let’s go over some possible scenarios:
Scenario 1. You create and present the powerpoint presentation on your own laptop.
If the .ppt file is not going to be moved from its current position on the laptop, you only have to ensure that the video clip actually resides on your laptop, so that it will be available when you are giving the presentation.
So before inserting the video file, make sure that it is indeed on the C drive, or more simply, in whatever folder the powerpoint presentation is in, and not on a networked drive somewhere. This may seem obvious, but I’ve found that many users are not at all clear on what drives they are using.