If you use Photoshop to create any web-based graphics or text, you’ll be happy to know it’s easy to generate the CSS code for individual layers. Just [control]-click (right-click in Windows) on any layer and choose Copy CSS from the pop-up menu. You can also choose Layer > Copy CSS to accomplish the same thing.…
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Photoshop comes with an abundance of brush tips to choose from, but you might want your tip angled differently from the default. That’s easy enough to change. First, make sure the Brush tool is active, and then choose Window > Brushes to display the Brush panel. Click on Brush Tip Shape, and then enter a…
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One of the aspects that makes using the Pen tool so challenging is that you don’t get a visual of what shape your line is taking until after you add the next point to the canvas. But there is a useful feature that will solve that dilemma-the Rubber Band. With the Rubber Band option selected,…
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Drive encryption can help prevent sensitive data in laptops from being stolen. However, if a user forgets his or her password for a computer whose drive is encrypted with a tool such as BitLocker, the prospects for recovering files are much worse than otherwise. Without drive encryption, there are many hacks to recover files without…
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While Windows automatically saves wireless security keys for you, you may sometimes want to check what the security key is. This can be helpful if you need the password in order to connect another device to the same wireless network. Using the command line to do this is particularly helpful, since it works the same…
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Illustrator has a Rounded Rectangle tool, but you don’t have to settle with the default corner radius. In fact, you can specify the exact size of the rounded rectangle before you create it. Instead of clicking and dragging on the artboard to draw the rounded rectangle, click on the artboard to display the Rounded Rectangle…
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When you are placing images into InDesign, you’re probably accustomed to clicking the loaded cursor on the page to place the image at 100 percent, and then scaling it after the fact. But did you know you can actually scale your image proportionately while you place it? While the cursor is loaded, click and drag…
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You can change the look of your mouse cursor to jazz up your computer screen or to help you find it if you suffer from desktop clutter or tired eyes. To change your mouse cursor scheme: Open the Control Panel and double-click on the Mouse icon in Classic View. In Category View, click on…
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You use a handwritten signature to verify that you’re the author or maker of a letter, check, or other paper document. You can use a digital signature to verify that you created or sent an electronic document. Digital signatures are based on public key cryptography, also called asymmetric cryptography because it uses two keys. The…
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When you work with people in another time zone, it’s a good thing to keep track of what time it is there. But, it’s easy to forget how many hours ahead or behind they are. A simple way to keep track of this is by adding a second time zone to your Outlook calendar. To…
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Starting with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Database Availability Groups (DAG) have replaced a number of features that provided redundancy for purposes of high availability and disaster recovery. The earlier high availability approaches included Single Copy Cluster (SCC), Standby Continuous Replication (SCR), Local Continuous Replication (LCR), and Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR). Supporting these were the concepts…
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If you need both a color and a grayscale version of your layout, you don’t necessarily need to create two different versions. Instead, design your layout in color and then export a copy as grayscale as needed. To do this, choose File > Export. In the Export dialog box, navigate to where you want to…
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If you’re acquainting yourself with an existing phone system that uses Cisco CallManager Express, one of the most useful commands is “show telephony-service all.” This command displays the configuration for all phones, voice ports, and dial peers in the system. It can be used to verify that the Cisco IOS Telephony Service router is enabled…
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While web interfaces are typically thought of as point-and-click, power users often prefer being able to access functionality quickly just by pressing keys. You might think that JavaScript would be necessary to provide this ability in a website, but it’s possible to create a shortcut key with a simple attribute, namely, accesskey. For example, the…
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You may notice that your labels and percent values appear somewhat jumbled in the Data Labels preview window. This preview may be a little inaccurate, but if you’re using long titles, you’ll need to do some reconfiguring in order to get each percent value and label to fit properly. One way to do this is…
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