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Saturday, April 30, 2011 – Permalink –

Foxy or Ipsum

=rand(p,s)

In Word 2007-10, =rand() produces a selection from the Help file.

=lorem() displays:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Maecenas porttitor congue massa. Fusce posuere, magna sed pulvinar ultricies, purus lectus malesuada libero, sit amet commodo magna eros quis urna.
Nunc viverra imperdiet enim. Fusce est. Vivamus a tellus.
Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Proin pharetra nonummy pede. Mauris et orci.

If you want some history, try Lipsum.com

Pre 2007:

To insert practice text in the document, type:
=rand()
and hit the ENTER key.

The whole equation would be:
=rand(p,s)
"p"is for p>aragraphs. "s" is for s>entences.

=rand(2,3)
would produce 2 paragraphs containing 3 sentences each.

It is said that:

The Italian edition of Microsoft Word 2000 produces:
"Cantami o Diva del pelide Achille l'ira funesta."

This is the first line of the Italian translation of Homer's Iliad

In Spanish it's:
"El veloz murciélago hindú comía feliz cardillo y kiwi."

"The quick Hindu bat ate happy golden thistle and kiwi."
In French it's:
"Servez à ce monsieur une bière et des kiwis."

"Serve this gentleman a beer and some kiwis."

Other Panagrams

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:09 AM

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Friday, April 29, 2011 – Permalink –

Windows Explorer

Nee File Manager

A new Windows file management scheme appears to have been put on hold.

The next operating system will probably use a variation of the present method.

Here are a few suggestions and tips to use until we have to learn something new:

Vista Explorer

Explorer in Vista

12 Hidden Tricks

Shell team – Explorer

Microsoft:
7 Tips to Manage Your Files Better

FileXT.com:
Manage Files

[Edited entry from 9/20/2004]

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Labels: Vista, Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:08 AM

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Thursday, April 28, 2011 – Permalink –

Zoom Box Fonts

Customize

Change the appearance of text in Access' Zoom box

Access' Zoom box, allows you to display the contents of a text box in a dialog box for easier editing and viewing. Although viewing long expressions is more convenient in the Zoom box, it is still sometimes difficult to follow what is displayed due to the font Access uses by default.

Access 20xx allows you to change the font that the Zoom box uses. To display the Zoom box, select the text box you want to expand and press Shift+F2. Then, just click the Font button, set the options you want, and click OK. The settings you select are used whenever you display the Zoom box during your current instance of Access. However, the next time you start Access the Zoom box font settings will revert to their defaults

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:58 AM

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – Permalink –

Getting Started in Outlook 07-10

Command hunter

Elsewhere we showed the links to an interactive page that shows where to find '03 commands in 2007 Word, Excel, and PowerPoint:
Getting Started with 07.

Here is a similar one for Outlook. It's not as robust and it does not install a new tab, but it's a start.
Getting Started with Outlook 2007

Reference locations in 2007

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:48 AM

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – Permalink –

IE Shortcuts

Finger flicks

A selection of keyboard shortcuts for IE 7.

Here are a few:

F11 Toggle between full-screen and regular views of the browser window in Internet Explorer
ALT + HOME Go to your home page
ALT + RIGHT ARROW Go to the next page
ALT + LEFT ARROW or BACKSPACE Go to the previous page
CTRL+ F Find on this page
CTRL + TAB or CTRL + SHFT + TAB Switch between tabs

More: Browser shortcuts

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Labels: Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:00 AM

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Monday, April 25, 2011 – Permalink –

Clippy's Revenge pre-2007

Roll your own OA

The Office Assistant has taken a lot of hits, but it is missing in 2007, but still around in earlier versions.

If you want to play with it, see John Walkenbach's Create A Fake Clippy

Here is a creature you could use to replace Clippy:
Nerd Bird

There are other articles in the MS library about Agents and Assistants:
Animating Office Applications with Microsoft Agent

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:45 AM

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Sunday, April 24, 2011 – Permalink –

Numbers in Perspective

Visual concepts

"This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on.

This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.

As with any large artwork, their scale carries a vital part of their substance which is lost in these little web images. Hopefully the JPEGs displayed here might be enough to arouse your curiosity to attend an exhibition, or to arrange one if you are in a position to do so.

The series is a work in progress, and new images will be posted as they are completed, so please stay tuned.

Building Blocks, 2007
16 feet tall x 32 feet wide in eighteen square panels, each sized 62x62".

Depicts nine million wooden ABC blocks, equal to the number of American children with no health insurance coverage in 2007.

chris jordan, Seattle

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:16 AM

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Saturday, April 23, 2011 – Permalink –

Runtime and PDF

Add-in's complete

Great news, you can now redistribute and use the PDF and XPS add-in with your Runtime solution.
The Runtime's code has not been changed. Your existing runtime solutions can now officially be distributed with the PDF and XPS add-in by chaining the .msi for PDF and XPS into your install process for your app (after the Runtime).
PDF-XPS Supported

You may copy and distribute the object code form of the add-in listed below together and for use only with the Microsoft Office Access Runtime software, subject to the license terms accompanying the Microsoft Office Access 2007 Runtime software download:
2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS (located at PDF add-in download)

Runtime for Access

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:35 AM

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Friday, April 22, 2011 – Permalink –

Task Panes

VBA at your own risk

From the MVPS.org site:

Word's Task Panes VBA Reference
The Mother of All Task Pane articles
By Steve Hudson

"Task Panes display within a Work Pane's area. A Work Pane is created by the combination of two objects. These objects are shrouded in misery and thwart most attempts to play with them. The whole area is hidden away from the Kill Cursor invoked with CTRL+ALT+-, which changes to a hand when waved over a Work Pane.
Functions are hidden away from the macro recorder. To make it easier, if it is not in this reference, it is hidden. It is like when a spy is caught and the government disavows all knowledge of their actions.
The Task Panes are spies from Microsoft that are known to only a few objects, in these versions of Office anyway.

Warning
The author gleefully notes at this point that the human race has enough intelligence to get itself into cauldrons of boiling water that it cannot climb out of and that means you and me both!
If you like to be ultra-safe, stay away from this reference and wait for MS to hand over full functionality. You will end up crashing Word many times and you can really damage your user interface."

(Ctrl+Alt+-, can be used to remove an item from a menu. Type the shortcut and then click on a menu item)

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:16 AM

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Thursday, April 21, 2011 – Permalink –

W3C Validation

Standards

Web pages are written in a language called Hyper Tjavascript:void(0)ext Markup Language; HTML
The latest version of HTML is 5.

There is a move to upgrade the code to Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language.

XHTML is compatible with XML (EXtensible Markup Language) allowing applications to more easily exchange data.

In preparation for making the change, edit your web pages so that element and attribute names are in lower case. XHTML is case-sensitive.

Use  rather than .

Also end tags are required. Make sure that  is followed by .

  should be written   and <hr> as <hr />.

For more information see:

The W3C validation site

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Labels: Expression Web, HTML, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:10 AM

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011 – Permalink –

Annoying Hypertext Warning

How to disable hyperlink warning messages in 2007 Office programs

When you include links in PowerPoint, or other '07 applications, you may get this admonition:

Opening "path/filename".
Hyperlinks can be harmful to your computer and data. To protect your computer, click only those hyperlinks from trusted sources.
Do you want to continue?

To disable the hyperlink warnings in 2007 Office programs when an http:// address or an ftp:// address is used, you must create a new registry subkey.

To do this, follow these steps:

Click Start, and then click Run.
In the Open dialog box, type regedit, and then click OK.
In Registry Editor, locate one of the following registry subkeys:
```
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common 
```
```
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common
```
Note You only have to modify one of these registry subkeys. You do not have to modify both of them.
Click the registry subkey, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click Key.
Type Security, and then press ENTER to name the key.
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type DisableHyperlinkWarning, and then press ENTER to name the entry.
In the right pane, right-click DisableHyperlinkWarning, and then click Modify.
In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal, and then type 1 under Value data.

Note A value of 0 enables the hyperlink warning message. A value of 1 disables the hyperlink warning message.
Click OK.
Exit Registry Editor.

How to disable hyperlink warning messages
Security warning message

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:42 AM

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011 – Permalink –

Scrub DVD Scratches

Methods tested

Which is better toothpaste of Brasso when it comes to cleaning that DVD?

Or

Paul Michael has done the testing for you and provides videos of the results.

Removing scratches

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:27 AM

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Monday, April 18, 2011 – Permalink –

Top 25 Issues in Word

A collection of hows

Here are a few:

How do I save so earlier versions of Word can open my documents? Talk about a one-two punch?
Answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924074/en-us
How do I recover a lost or over-written file? Who says the "are you sure" dialogs are annoying?
Answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827099/en-us
How do I create a mail merge? The fifth tab on the Ribbon is a brand new take on Mail Merge.
Answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294694/en-us
How do I scan documents into Word 2007?
Answer: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA101786621033.aspx?pid=CH100675901033
How to do stuff with templates?
Answer: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/924460/en-us
How do I create forms or use form fields?
Answer: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100307461033.aspx?pid=CH100991571033

The rest of the Top 25

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:23 AM

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Sunday, April 17, 2011 – Permalink –

Prevent Users From Copying Field Text

Copy or select

As you know, you can set a form field's Locked property to Yes to prevent users from changing the underlying data. However, users are still able to select and copy data from the field, and you may not always want this to be the case. The solution is to also set the field's Enabled property to No.

Ordinarily, setting the Enabled property this way causes the field and its associated label to be difficult to read. However, when you set the Enabled property to No and the Locked property to Yes, the fields and labels look exactly as they do when they're enabled for normal entry. The difference is that users will be unable to select or copy any of the displayed data.

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:54 AM

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Saturday, April 16, 2011 – Permalink –

Outlook Instant Search

Search all your mail

"If you're buried in e-mail (and who isn't?), Instant Search in Outlook 2007 can save the day for you - every day. The new Instant Search helps you quickly find e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, or any Outlook item. You don't even need to know which folder the item is in. Watch the demo to see how to use this fast search feature, and start finding what you want instantly."

Instant Search Demo

More Instant Search

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Labels: Outlook

<Doug Klippert@ 3:23 AM

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Friday, April 15, 2011 – Permalink –

New Line

Shift Enter

When you hit the Enter key, the FrontPage/Expression Web editor inserts an HTML  (paragraph) tag. This appears as a double line space in a Web browser.

To insert a single line space (or line break) via an HTML   tag, just hold down the Shift key and hit Enter.

This happens when you use the

Enter key

Here's what happens with
Shift +Enter

You could also use Insert>Break... Normal Line Break, but that takes too long.

By the way, if you want your code to be XHTML compliant, use lower case for the elements and pair every  with a closing 

Differences with HTML

Single elements can be used with a built in closer such as:
<hr /> or  

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Labels: Expression Web, HTML

<Doug Klippert@ 3:11 AM

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Thursday, April 14, 2011 – Permalink –

Noodling for Flatheads

By Burkhard Bilger

ISBN 0-684-85010-9
Scribner 2000

About the Author

Has written for all the usual suspects: The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and the New York Times.

Book Description

"Bilger kicks off the tour from his hometown in Oklahoma, where he 'noodles'--thrashes a limb around in catfish-thick waters--hoping to land a fabled 80-pound monster with his bare hands. In Louisiana, he challenges the misgivings any nonenthusiast might have about cockfighting.
Even though it's illegal in most of the country, the bloodsport is thriving in the Bayou State, replete with trade magazines, well-produced venues, and American Kennel Club-worthy breeding strategies. The same passion for efficiency goes into the moonshining business, where Bilger is taken under the wing of one of the few shiners willing to lead him through his sourmash operation. A few nights later, however, Bilger is on the other side, on a raid with the local sheriff.
Squirrel-brain consumption is still popular in hamlets throughout Kentucky, even after a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine blamed a neurological disease on the dish. Bilger treats each eccentric character with a distant respect and hints at the melancholy of losing tradition, no matter how bizarre."

Quote

"tick tick tick

I'm nostril-deep in murky water, sunk to the calves in gelatinous muck.

Noodling, I know, is the fishing equivalent of a shot in the dark. For his master's thesis at Mississippi State University, a fisheries biologist named Jay Francis spent three years noodling two rivers.

All told, he caught 35 fish in 1,362 tries: 1 fish for every 39 noodles."

To "noodle" is to dangle your arm in the water until a catfish swallows your hand. The fish record catch includes one at 111 pounds.

"When clamped on your arm, catfish also have an unfortunate tendency to bear down and spin , like a sharpener on a pencil."

... "once that thing gets to flouncin' and that sandpaper gets to rubbin', it can peel your hide plumb off."

Here's the trailer for the movie
Okie Noodling

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Labels: Addendum, Books

<Doug Klippert@ 3:51 AM

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Wednesday, April 13, 2011 – Permalink –

Compare - Combine

Changes in '07

For a number of reasons, including collaboration, documents need to be reconciled. A resultant or master document must be distilled from different versions.

Here are some directions:

Compare - Combine

Comparing and Combining Documents

Back in the old days of 2003, you could save "versions" of documents. That's gone:
Bye-Bye Versions

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Labels: Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:01 AM

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011 – Permalink –

Windows Check Boxes

Select checks

Add check boxes to file views to make it easier to select several files at once, which can be useful if it is difficult for you to hold the CTRL key while clicking to select multiple files.

Step 1: Go to Control Panel>Appearance and Personalization>Click Folder Options.
Step 2: Click View tab and under Advanced Settings, Select Use Check boxes to select items

Change folder views and behavior

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<Doug Klippert@ 3:01 AM

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Monday, April 11, 2011 – Permalink –

World Countdown or Up

Time to die

Here's a clock that shows what is happening second by second.

How many are being born and how many are dying and by what means.

PoodleWaddle.com:

World Clock

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:52 AM

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Sunday, April 10, 2011 – Permalink –

Vve have more Phakes

VVorrisome URLs

If there weren't enough things to look out for, Paul Ferguson warns us of the use of a double "V" in web addresses:

VVINDOWS.COM NS NS1.MYDOMAIN.COM
VVINDOWS.COM NS NS2.MYDOMAIN.COM
VVINDOWS.COM NS NS3.MYDOMAIN.COM
VVINDOWSVISTA.COM NS DNS1.MALKM.COM
VVINDOWSVISTA.COM NS DNS2.MALKM.COM

Are a few of the domains that have been registered.

VVindows

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Labels: Expression Web, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:09 AM

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Saturday, April 09, 2011 – Permalink –

Enlarge and Shrink Picture

Get a close up

"Often when doing a presentation, you may want to enlarge an image using Emphasis: Grow.

You probably want to show a clearer view of a photograph. But enlarging with the Grow effect often ends up getting the image blurry/jagged.

Now it looks ugly, you wouldn't want to show others an enlarged but poor quality picture, do you?

PPTHeaven.mvps.org:
Enlarge Image

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:04 AM

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Friday, April 08, 2011 – Permalink –

Euros to Lira

Pint's a pound

This application allows you to complete many different types of conversions; it includes all the mathematical functions offered in Microsoft Calculator.

It will also do currency conversions.

Microsoft Calculator Plus

Exchange rates are downloaded from the European Central Bank.
You can enter non-European rates by hand.

A more extensive currency conversion tool can be found at:
The Full Universal Currency Converter®

None of them verify that a pint's a pound the world around.
How much does a gallon weigh?

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:20 AM

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Thursday, April 07, 2011 – Permalink –

Total Footer

Sum() it up

If you would like to show a total in the footer or each page of a report, you may have a problem. Access does not allow the SUM() function in the footer.

The way around this is to put a SUM() function in an unbound text box in another part of the report.

Choose Properties and set the visible property of the control to No.

In the footer, create another control using the "calculation" text box as the ControlSource.

The Sum() function, as well as the other aggregate (totals) functions can reference only a field and not a control.

From the Microsoft Knowledge base:

How to Sum a Calculation in a Report

How to Display and Total Subtotals from Subreports

How to Print a Group Footer at a Specific Location

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Labels: Access

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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Wednesday, April 06, 2011 – Permalink –

Task Manager - Big Boy Style

In depth system examination

Here's a free gadget from Microsoft:

"Ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open? Now you can find out. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work. "

"Process Explorer works on Windows XP +, Server 2003, and 64-bit versions of Windows for x64 and IA64 processors"

Process Explorer

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Labels: Windows

<Doug Klippert@ 3:57 AM

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Tuesday, April 05, 2011 – Permalink –

Calculate Running Total

Using the OFFSET function

Adding up a running balance can be frustrating when new data is added or old transactions are removed.

"How to create a data list to manage transactions, add and delete rows from the list, and accurately calculate a running balance using the OFFSET function."

Cash flow using OFFSET.PDF

Office.Microsoft.com:
Calculate a running total

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Labels: Excel

<Doug Klippert@ 3:29 AM

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Monday, April 04, 2011 – Permalink –

Define URL Parts

More than dot com

Google engineer and blogger Matt Cutts has defined the pieces that make up a Uniform Resource Locator.

At least as Google refers to them when they're sitting around in their backrooms

Domain
Dynamic URL

Fragment or a Named anchor

The Googlers I've talked to are split right down the middle on which way to refer it. Disputes on what to call it can be settled with arm wrestling, dance-offs, or drinking contests. Typically the fragment is used to refer to an internal section within a web document. In this case, the named anchor means "skip to 2 minutes and 30 seconds into the video."

Host

Parameters

Path

Port

Protocol

Second-level domain

Static url

Subdomain

Top-level domain

Parts of a URL

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Labels: HTML, Internet

<Doug Klippert@ 3:26 AM

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Sunday, April 03, 2011 – Permalink –

Annotation Preservation

Hold that note

Remember the old days. You did your John Madden thing. You've scribbled notes all over the slide and would like to keep them. That old-fashioned 2002 version of PowerPoint couldn't help, but 2003+ will!

Not only can you save your highlights and underscores, but you can turn them on and off when you re-run the show.

Carefully mark up the slide and then at presentation time make it look like you do this sort of thing all the time on ESPN.

When you close the presentation you are asked if you want to save the changes.
You can't highlight text in PowerPoint like you can in Word, but you can do it with screen annotations

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Labels: PowerPoint

<Doug Klippert@ 3:07 AM

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Saturday, April 02, 2011 – Permalink –

Full Moon Stuff

50 things about the moon

The Belfast Telegraph had an article on moon detritus:

3 -Lunar eclipses - caused by the passage of the earth's shadow across the illuminated hemisphere - only occur during a full moon. However, because of the angle of tilt of both bodies the moon normally passes either north or south of the earth's shadow.

4 -The chances of being bitten by a dog are twice as high during a full moon, according to a study at Bradford Royal Infirmary, which reviewed 1,621 cases of dog bite between 1997 and 1999. However, a study at the University of Sydney in Australia concluded there was no identifiable relationship between the state of the moon and dog bites.

16 -In October 1939 in Springfield, Missouri, the full moon appeared to fall from the sky. The event was reported in the local newspaper but was later revealed to be a plunging weather balloon.

26 -The full moon may appear round, but is actually shaped like an egg with the pointed end facing earth.

33 -The full moon is the brightest object in the night sky. It has an apparent magnitude of -12.6 compared with the Sun's of -26.8.

50 -In a study of 1,000 tonsillectomy operations, 82 per cent of post-operative bleeding crises occurred nearer the full moon than the new moon, according to the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

The sky at night

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Labels: Addendum

<Doug Klippert@ 3:57 AM

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Friday, April 01, 2011 – Permalink –

Resume Writing

Get a Job

There are a number of templates installed in Word that will help in creating a good looking resume.
Get started on your job hunt with Word templates

Here are some suggestions about what a resume should look like:

The Rockport Institute:
How to Write a Masterpiece of a Resume

About.com
Resume and Cover Letter Guide

The Riley Guide:
Prepare Your Resume for Emailing or Posting on the Internet

Want to work for Microsoft?

Microsoft's Zoe Goldring and Gretchen Ledgard:
What is it like to interview at Microsoft?

Chris Sells:
Interviewing at Microsoft

Blog:

Technical Careers@Microsoft

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Labels: Addendum, Word

<Doug Klippert@ 3:19 AM

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