Batch convert Word documents to .pdf files in Word 2007 and later

This is brilliant. "Faster" posted some vbs macro code in 2011 which uses Word 2007 and later to convert all files in a folder to .pdf files (or other formats, even on earlier versions of Word).

A few cautions: the original files are not modified, but the generated .pdf files are put in a sibling folder to the one you select. For instance, if you provide the path c:\docs\wordfiles, the pdfs will be created in c:\docs\wordfilesconverted. Also, make sure there is nothing but Word files in the folder you select, because it will try to convert any files it finds in the given path. Fortunately, it doesn't recurse into subfolders, so you can dump non-word documents into a temporary subfolder before you run the conversion.

For posterity, here is the code:

Option Explicit Sub ChangeDocsToTxtOrRTFOrHTML() 'with export to PDF in Word 2007     Dim fs As Object     Dim oFolder As Object     Dim tFolder As Object     Dim oFile As Object     Dim strDocName As String     Dim intPos As Integer     Dim locFolder As String     Dim fileType As String     On Error Resume Next     locFolder = InputBox("Enter the folder path to DOCs", "File Conversion", "C:\myDocs")     Select Case Application.Version         Case Is < 12             Do                 fileType = UCase(InputBox("Change DOC to TXT, RTF, HTML", "File Conversion", "TXT"))             Loop Until (fileType = "TXT" Or fileType = "RTF" Or fileType = "HTML")         Case Is >= 12             Do                 fileType = UCase(InputBox("Change DOC to TXT, RTF, HTML or PDF(2007+ only)", "File Conversion", "TXT"))             Loop Until (fileType = "TXT" Or fileType = "RTF" Or fileType = "HTML" Or fileType = "PDF")     End Select     Application.ScreenUpdating = False     Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")     Set oFolder = fs.GetFolder(locFolder)     Set tFolder = fs.CreateFolder(locFolder & "Converted")     Set tFolder = fs.GetFolder(locFolder & "Converted")     For Each oFile In oFolder.Files         Dim d As Document         Set d = Application.Documents.Open(oFile.Path)         strDocName = ActiveDocument.Name         intPos = InStrRev(strDocName, ".")         strDocName = Left(strDocName, intPos - 1)         ChangeFileOpenDirectory tFolder         Select Case fileType         Case Is = "TXT"             strDocName = strDocName & ".txt"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatText         Case Is = "RTF"             strDocName = strDocName & ".rtf"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatRTF         Case Is = "HTML"             strDocName = strDocName & ".html"             ActiveDocument.SaveAs FileName:=strDocName, FileFormat:=wdFormatFilteredHTML         Case Is = "PDF"             strDocName = strDocName & ".pdf"             ' *** Word 2007 users - remove the apostrophe at the start of the next line ***             'ActiveDocument.ExportAsFixedFormat OutputFileName:=strDocName, ExportFormat:=wdExportFormatPDF                     End Select         d.Close         ChangeFileOpenDirectory oFolder     Next oFile     Application.ScreenUpdating = True End Sub

Activate the Developer tab in Word, then open up the vbs console (or create a macro) and paste this code in (make sure the lines don't wordwrap like they do on this page), then run it. Assuming you're running Word 2007 or later, be sure to delete the apostrophe where indicated.

For more details, check out the original post.

While we're on the subject, may I further recommend PDFbinder as a free program which allows you to merge many pdf files into a single multi-page file. And also Compress PDF, a free online service which compresses your .pdf file sizes.

~Till next time!

Setting up AutoCAD with common support files while allowing some customization

This is going to be another dense post, intended mostly to remind myself of how everything is set up, but posted also to help people already familiar with the way AutoCAD is deployed and customized. Please make sure you know how to work with cuix files and load them via the customization file portion of the options dialog before proceeding.

Our firm recently rolled out AutoCAD (and BDS) 2014 to our users. For the past few releases (since 2008, I believe) I've been very interested in using common support files stored on the network, but have always had to come back from the edge because of one or two limitations such a setup would impose: the inability for users to have their own .pgp file (command alias list) has always been a big one among these.

This time however, I believe I finally have figured out the "right" way to do this stuff, and I wanted to document it here while it's still fresh.

First of all, the benefits of sharing support files. It has happened in the past that, for instance, I create a new line type for a job, which ends up being very useful and I want to make a part of our library for everyone. Or a new hatch pattern. Or change some buttons on our custom ribbon tab, etc. I used to have to make the change to my own support files, then copy them into the deployment folder (for any future re/installs), then send out an e-mail to everyone with the location of the updated files and ask them to manually copy the new files into two locations on their local machines. Both of these locations were within (different) hidden directories, and so depending on the machine, had to be manually typed in, and one of the locations was a path that's about 18 miles long. That was the only way of ensuring that they had the new files, both now in the future when an inevitable new Windows profiles might be created and set up using AutoCAD's userdatacache.

Obviously this is a painful and annoying process, for everyone.

The promise of shared support files, on the other hand, is that I (as an administrator, not a typical user) can make a change, once, and upon the next launch of AutoCAD, everyone's files are automatically up-to-date since all our installations are literally using the same files. Obviously in the case of laptops (which will be asked to run AutoCAD away from network connectivity) we have to make use of offline files (and for the love of cheese, do this via Windows Policy using Administratively Assigned Offline Files), but we've already been doing that, so that literally took no additional effort in our case.

But AutoCAD's deployment routines aren't so fine-grained that I can specify that acad.cuix, our enterprise cuix, hatch file and linetype files should be shared, but that (for instance) the .pgp file shouldn't be. And even if it were, it's a pain for the users to have to navigate through 18 layers of folders to get at their .pgp file if they want to change or add a command alias.

The first discovery (I would link to a forum post if I remembered what it was, but it was a rather oblique reference to this process anyway) is that AutoCAD has a list of support file paths, and it treats the list as a hierarchy, going down the list until it finds the file it's looking for, at which point it stops looking for it. So even though our shared support file path does include a single acad.pgp file, nobody's machine is actually using it. Why? Because as part of the AutoCAD installation, I told it to create a new folder at c:\acadsupport and stick another acad.pgp file in there. Then I put c:\acadsupport at the top of the list of Support File paths. Any files in acadsupport are now available to AutoCAD (and functionally override whatever identically-named files may be in the shared support file directory on the network).

That seemed like the end of it ... until someone asked how to customize their Quick Access Toolbar. Ouch. You see, I'd created a "default" Quick Access toolbar in our enterprise cuix file and added it to the workspace I'd created in the same enterprise cuix file for everyone to use. (This workspace has our custom ribbon tab, for instance). And the problem is that everything in the enterprise cuix is read-only (presumably so that one person can't change everyone else's workspace in the event that the main customization file isn't shared). So the Quick Access toolbar was forced to be identical and unchangeable for everyone...which is contrary to the way most people are used to using those toolbars (for instance, in Office).

The solution ended up being creating an additional cuix file that contains nothing but a Quick Access Toolbar. I used the transfer tab of the CUI window to copy the Quick Access Toolbar into a new file, and saved the resulting cuix file as quickaccess.cuix. That way it is set up with some default buttons for convenience. Then I included it as part of the AutoCAD deployment to get installed to c:\acadsupport.

Since I'd already included a quick access toolbar in our enterprise customization file, I first had to edit the workspace definition so that it didn't include any quick access toolbar. If you don't find yourself in the same situation as I did, skip this paragraph. (By the way, the easiest way I found to edit the enterprise cuix file is to set it as your main customization file and set acad.cuix as the enterprise customization file temporarily). In the left side of the CUI window, expand your enterprise customization file and under Workspaces, highlight your workspace. Now in the right side of the window, right-click the quick access toolbar and choose "Remove from workspace". Then click the "Customize Workspace" above the right side panel, and uncheck the box next to the quick access toolbar on the left side of your custom CUI file under "Quick Access Toolbars". Now exit customize workspace mode, and right-click the quick access toolbar on the left side of the window and choose to delete it from your cuix file entirely.

Now you're ready to link in a personalizable quick access toolbar. Make sure acad.cuix is set to your main customization file. In the CUI window, at the bottom of the main customization file tree, there's an entry labeled "Partial Customization Files". Right-click this item and load c:\acadsupport\quickaccess.cuix. Since everyone is sharing this acad.cuix, all their installations will now look for this file. (if it doesn't exist, it won't pop up an error or anything, it will just note that it's unresolved).

Now you need to update the workspace stored in your enterprise file to include the quick access toolbar stored within this partial cui file. Set your enterprise cuix file as your main customization file (swapping acad.cuix over to the enterprise customization file node at the same time so it's still available), then get back into the CUI dialog. Find and select the workspace you want this quick access toolbar to show up in, then on the right panel click the "Customize Workspace" button. On the left panel, scroll down to the partial cui file, expand it to the quick access toolbar item, and check the box next to the default quick access toolbar you made. It should show up on the right panel now under Quick Access Toolbar. Exit customize workspace mode. Now put acad.cuix back as the main customization file, and your enterprise cuix file as the enterprise customization file again.

One final step: to make sure the settings get saved, set your current workspace to your enterprise workspace again.

Now each user should be able to freely customize their own quick access toolbar however they want...their personal toolbar is saved in c:\acadsupport\quickaccess.cuix (you should see the timestamp on that file update whenever they add or remove a button). The shared acad.cuix file is set to look for that file, and the toolbar contained therein is used by the workspace saved in the enterprise cuix file. (By the way, you can't load quickaccess.cuix as a partial customization file under your enterprise file, because remember that it and anything it loads is marked read-only).

*whew*

Of course, you could simply store the workspace and any of your enterprise customizations in the shared acad.cuix, but (although I don't know the actual reason it's set up this way) it does seem prudent to keep your customizations in a separate file from all of AutoCAD's defaults - especially since that file is set to read-only by all your users. acad.cuix is easy enough to restore to default, but your own customizations might get goofed up beyond help if your users discovered they had the power to get in and tweak things.



The final result: here's how my CUI window looks. The Quick Access toolbar is stored in a cuix file in each user's local c:\acadsupport directory (and thus customizable and personal), which is loaded by the shared acad.cuix and used in the workspace stored in the shared enterprise customization file.

Using DFS shares from Metro

I like Windows 8. I really do - and I can't wait for good tablet hardware to come out with it's release.

However, the interface-formerly-known-as-Metro, being a v1.0 product, has a few issues which I find to be more than annoying.

One is that it doesn't appear to be possible to use Unicode characters in any Metro apps ... bye-bye Metro Remote Desktop! (I use nice, strong passwords, that's why).

Another is that, incredibly, the Metro file picker doesn't understand DFS shares. That is, it sees the share itself, since I've mapped it using Group Policy, but when you open it to browse, all your shares within are gone - the root appears to be completely empty!

One workaround is to click the "File" label in the top-left of the dialog, and select instead "Network". But then you have to type in the UNC path of the share to browse. That's a lot to ask of a user - and defeats all of the reasons to use DFS!

I've just found another workaround, with the help of an article at The Super Site for Windows and the Windows 8 help file. To start, understand that many of the Metro apps expect to work within the structure of Libraries. Now, if you can add your DFS shares to an existing (or new) library, you're done. This is the best solution so far, because it'll use the mapped address (for instance, Z:\share1) instead of a non-dynamic UNC path (for instance, \\server23\share1$). Using the mapped address means it's dynamic and keeps working if you redirect the shares to a new location.

But you can't add a network location unless it's indexed. Easy enough if the shares are small- make them available offline! But if you can't / don't want to make all your DFS shares available offline, here's the official way to, "Add a network folder that isn't indexed to a library":
(From the Windows 8 help file):

Tap or click to open Computer. Create a folder on your hard drive for your network folders, for example c:\share. Create another folder within that folder, for example c:\share\music. Select the subfolder you just created, tap or click the Home tab, tap or click Easy access, choose Include in library, and then select the library to which you want to add the folder. Delete the folder. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search.). Enter cmd in the search box, and then tap or click Apps. Press and hold or right-click Command Prompt in the search results, and then tap or click Run as administrator. Enter mklink /d, and then enter the path of the folder you just deleted and the path of the network folder. For example, mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music. This creates what is called a symbolic link.

Lest I forget to mention it, Metro apps also don't appear to understand symbolic links themselves (probably the reason it doesn't understand DFS shares), or even normal SHORTCUTS, so you can't just make the dynamic links in a folder on your desktop and get there that way. They have to be included in a library to resolve.


Obviously, this solution is less than ideal for a few reasons:
1) The only way I can think of to avoid having to do this manually per-user, per-machine, is to run a logon script that copies the pre-formed *.library-ms file to Libraries AND creates the symbolic links.
2) It bypasses DFS entirely, so the shares aren't dynamic, if you need to hand off traffic or change hosting servers for a share
3) When you're browsing for a file in a Metro app, it doesn't group by location; you see everything from all the roots of each library location, arranged alphabetically.
4) And just to call out the elephant in the room, yes, it's 2012, and the official way of solving this problem in Windows 8 still starts with, "open command prompt". Unbelievable.


Still, it's a start. Kind of.

Printing to a shared XP printer from Vista or Win7

Ran into a situation this morning that probably isn't that uncommon, but I could only solve it by combining information from several places- none of which had the full easy solution.

The problem is we have an old printer (with only a parallel port) hooked up to an old XP-based computer. It's shared on the network, and the firewall is set to allow file and printer sharing, so I thought all was good. But when I go to a Vista or Win7 machine and try to connect to it, I get an "Access Denied" error. Figuring it was a driver issue, I went to the XP machine and tried to add the appropriate drivers, but you can only provide drivers for older OSes, not newer ones.

The answer, I finally figured out, is pretty simple, and doesn't require you to change what computer the printer is hooked up to, even temporarily.

1) Go to your Vista or Win7 machine 2) In your "Printers" folder, click "Add a printer". 3) The wizard asks what type of printer you want to install. Choose "Add a local printer". (Yes, I know it's technically not a local printer, but if you choose "network printer", it'll try to pull the drivers from the XP machine, as before, giving you an error) 4) The wizard asks what port it should use. Choose "Create a new port", and choose "Local Port" as the "Type of port". 5) When it prompts you for the port name, type in the computer name and printer share name, in UNC format: \\computer\printer (replacing "computer" with the computer's network name, and "printer" with the printer's share name). This is what tricks the computer into believing a network printer is actually a local printer. 6) Proceed through the "Install the printer driver" screen as usual, choosing the Windows-provided driver from the list, from Windows update, or from copy of the driver you've downloaded with the "have disk" button. 7) Name the printer anything you want (or keep the default name) 8) Now the drivers will be examined and installed automatically by Windows. If they're not signed drivers, it will pop up the usual warnings. That would happen even if you were installing a true local printer, so do whatever you'd do at those dialogs if it were a local printer. 9) Share the printer if you want...you could then use the share from this machine to keep from having to do this with all your Vista/Win7 machines, but then you're requiring that TWO machines be available if you wanted to print from a third machine...since it would need to talk to your Vista/Win7 machine, which would in turn need to talk to the XP machine. It's probably more reliable to choose to not share the printer from the remote (Vista/Win7) computer. 10) Print a test page to confirm it worked, close the wizard, and you're done!

Hope that helps someone!

Google Launches Free Phone Service

This is a service I've been excited about since they announced it a little more than a week ago...and one I think many people will actually have a use for. While on one hand, it's just another step toward Google taking over the world, you do have to admit that life in Google world is...pretty good.

Whether it's this service or something similar, I do think they've caught a vision as to what the future of phone usage may be. This service allows you to tie all your phone numbers together under a single new (free) local number...when someone calls your Google number, all your phones ring, and you can pick it up anywhere. Unless you've set up exceptions based on who is calling or what time it is, etc...then anything you specify can happen. Or put your number into "do not disturb" mode and nothing will ring. Have your voicemails texted to you, or delete them online without even listening to them. And the list goes on.

A short synopsis from wininformant.com is below, but check out google.com/voice to learn all about the service. I'll let you know what I think once I get my grubby little hands on it :)

Google Launches Free Phone Service:

- Google Number. You receive a single local phone number from Google and can use it for all of your phone calls and SMS messages. This number can simultaneously ring multiple phones, including landlines, cell phones, and other numbers. Google number includes call screening, 'listen in' (for listening before taking a call), call blocking, SMS, free US phone calling, phone routing, and phone forwarding. - Google Voicemail. Google Voice can optionally make text transcripts of your voice mail and send notifications via SMS or email. You can listen to voicemail online or from your phone, and forward or download voicemail. It also supports personalized greetings. - Voice features. Google Voice also provides conference calling functionality, call recording, on-the-fly phone switching, a mobile inbox that's available from your mobile device, GOOG-411 directory assistance integration, and group management.

Environment Variables I need for CAD

This is just a list of variables I find that I need to use to allow AutoCAD profiles to be copied into "Default User" profile on Vista, supposedly (I haven't figured out how to get it to work)...

%programfiles% = C:\Program Files
%userprofile%  = C:\Users\[username]
%appdata%      = C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming
%localappdata% = C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local
%temp%         = C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp

Ribbon interface in AutoCAD 2009

Found a site with screenshots of the upcoming release of AutoCAD 2009, and it looks like they've taken advantage of Microsoft making the Ribbon interface freely available to anyone! I'm so happy about this- I love the ribbon in Office 2007, though I'm interested to see how well it integrates into AutoCAD's environment.

Unlike Office, though, you have the option of customizing it extensively, as well as turning it off to go back to 'classic' AutoCAD. I hope we don't do that at work just because it's familiar...

Vista SP1 publicly available

It's finally here: Vista SP1 for x86 and x64 versions of Windows Vista, in the primary 5 languages.

Though I've been waiting since they announced RTM, I actually appreciated the way they were distributing it; they found some drivers that weren't compatible with the SP1 install process, so they gave the manufacturers a heads-up and worked with them to release updated and compatible drivers. (Hence the nearly month-and-a-half delay before public availability). Now that all the manufacturers have updated drivers, they've released SP1 and configured Windows Update to check and make sure you don't have any of the problematic drivers. If you don't, no problem, here's SP1. If you do, here's the drivers you need to update, THEN once they're installed, here's SP1. And according to an article by Paul Thurrott, the compatibility of the bad drivers wasn't even all that bad to begin with. They're just keeping the lowest common denominator in mind- those users who wouldn't know that a visit to the Control Panel would have gotten them their soundcard working again. Very smart.

Apparently over the next few months they will upgrade the classification of the updated drivers to important, so someone who doesn't even realize they have the old versions will be automatically upgraded, then SP1 will be offered. I don't know yet if SP1 will be installed automatically or not. My computer at work is set to install any available updates automatically at 3:00AM, and I made sure it's aware of SP1's availability, so I guess if I come in tomorrow and it's SP1, it'll install automatically. My guess, however, is that you'll have to click a button that you accept the installation of SP1.

So the first thing I did when this became available was to burn the install on a CD, wipe out my lab machine and install vanilla Vista on a empty hard disk, then install the service pack as soon as I logged onto the desktop for the first time; the process that's supposed to be the 'worst' upgrade path, since vanilla Vista doesn't have any of the prerequisite installs for SP1. However, I was pleased with how they pulled this off; it told me it might take an hour or more to install (!), and that I couldn't use my computer during that time. It offered me a checkbox to have my computer restart automatically. What that allowed it to do was that, when it did restart for the first time (5 minutes or so after I began installation), it never came all the way back to the welcome screen or desktop. It finished installation in the screen I refer to as the "Pre-welcome screen" WinPE-looking screen. So even if a user has a password to log onto the machine, they don't have to enter it each of the three times it restarts. Very nice. And only about 20-30 minutes for it to install, too. I guess that's the benefit of over-estimating; it's a pleasant surprise when it turns out to be shorter.

Now that this is out, as soon as we get AutoCAD 2008 with multi-seat licensing at work, I can image an installation and reformatting a computer will suddenly become a 20-minutes process! I can't wait. I just wish that, as a 'home' user, I could pay a nominal fee and get a slipstreamed SP1 Vista disk, either as a download, or in the mail. Preinstalled Service Packs just tend to be better than one installed after the fact. Even though WAIK blurs that line quite a bit, I just can't get over wanting a bundled disk straight from Microsoft.

Update: According to my observations on several computers last night, as well as comfirmation from Windoes IT pro, though the updated drivers will eventually install automatically, Service Pack 1 will NOT. It will download automatically, but then prompt the user to install it. Just the way it should be, with an update this significant.

Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services RemoteApp Step-by-Step Guide

RemoteApp appears to be a new mode or feature expanding on the Remote Desktop application (mstsc.exe) in Windows (mostly Vista and Server 2003, though it was back-ported to XPsp2). It allows you to run a PROGRAM on a client computer as a native app, even though it's installed on the server, not the client. It looks to the user like any other program, but it's running from the server. For me, this would reduce latency when I try to run some of my programs at work from home by logging into the server, then logging in from there to my desktop...it's just not a viable option. This would theoretically allow me to run a program on the server that's installed on my desktop, which would be much faster. It would also allow me to run some of the mmc snap-ins from my desktop without having to log into the server.

Microsoft has a RemoteApp Step-by-Step Guide available. I haven't tried it, and I'm a bit confused that it appears to be strictly server (2003 or 2008)-based; I haven't found the steps for running a program installed on my desktop from the server. I also don't know if we have a license that allows us to install the Terminal Server role (which it says is required on the server to serve the program to the client). I'll have to look into all this.

I found this while looking for information about using WinPE as somewhat of a thin client. I found, to my surprise, that if I copy mstsc* from %windir%\system32 and %windir%\system32\{language} into the same structure on my WinPE disk, that I can run remote desktop quite successfully from the WinPE commandline (this is not the case with other apps, such as ones I've written - probably because of their dependancy on Windows libraries, which aren't available in the WinPE environment). My feeling is that it's not legal to do so, however, which is why I was looking for documentation on this process (never found any). RemoteApp would probably do what I needed anyway, and better, since WinPE is reported to reboot every 24 hours.

IE7Pro

Started hearing about IE7Pro a few days ago (though it's apparently been popular with savvy users for a while), and thought I'd check into it today.

Simple sum-up: it ROCKS!

The only add-on I've found I really liked in IE7 until now was an inline search replacement for the Find (on this page) popup dialog. The great part is that IE7Pro includes this as just one of its features! (Though it did mean I had to actually uninstall the old app from my Control Panel.) Note that this is just an add-on to your existing IE7 (or 6), not a brand-new standalone browser application.

Other GREAT features are
-ad-blocking (not just popup blocking)
-scripting support and pre-installed useful scripts (customizing gmail, for instance)
-spellcheck-as-you-type (it's been helping me on this post as I type it, though apparently it thinks spellcheck is two words)
-a download manager that you can turn on and off easily
-auto-scroll at a selected speed
-mouse gestures (I'll have to play with these before I decide if I like them)
-crash recovery
-better tab handling (tons of options that you can enable or disable as you like - I disabled most of them because I'm pretty used to IE7's way of handling tabs, though I kept super drag and drop, which lets me open links in new tabs by dragging them anywhere on the page [instead of all the way up to a blank tab])
-undo closing a tab
-syncing your bookmarks across several computers (requires a free account)
-Ctrl+M minimizes IE to the system tray (by the clock) - this is GREAT for me, since I usually have a Pandora.com window open that I don't want taking up room on my taskbar (this is probably among my favorite features, with Spellcheck and inline search)
-etc.

So far, I highly recommend it. Check out their website for a full list of features.

Vista Hands On #17: Solving a pesky resource problem | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Great information here, especially for Vista which tends to use more resources. This lets you set the shared desktop heap memory higher so that more windows can be open without those weird visual glitches (missing controls or menus, etc).

One onOne with Mike Wong: Liquid Resize Public Beta - Update 1/31/2008

One piece of software (Liquid Resize) using the image resizing method that's come to be called 'seam carving' or 'retargeted images' (that I wrote about here) is getting ready to be released to the public- first as a standalone piece of software, then later as a Photoshop plugin.

I really can't wait to play with this software, and I hope that the method or similar concepts becomes as ubiquitous in photo editing applications as the clone stamp is now - I use Paint.net as a free alternative to Photoshop, but I don't think that Photoshop plugins will work with anything but Photoshop. OK, actually I'm pretty darn sure that's the case. :-)

This is a powerful method that deserves more attention and, in my opinion, greater availability in the future for the average home scrapbooker or web designer to have access to. The blog talking about the beta release is below:
One onOne with Mike Wong: Liquid Resize Public Beta - Update 1/31/2008

As a side note, it's an interesting line here- a tool so powerful that the designers certainly deserve all the credit and monetary profit they can get from their ideas, but that is so useful that everyone really needs access to it. Hopefully the companies that hire(d) all the people that did the early work on this concept will be able to publish commercial software with it, make money on it, reward the people who brought the ideas in, then once it's an accepted and high-demand tool, it will proliferate into free software and they'll be able to move onto other amazing projects like this with the company's support. This tool needs to be out there, just not at the expense of the designer's investment of time and money returning to them empty. Unfortunately, the corporate world of today rarely works like that.

Update: Wikipedia's article on Seam Carving lists some links at the bottom of the page to tools that already offer this ability. I tried most of them (you're welcome) ;-) and found that Seam Carving GUI was by far the best solution. This is very cool technology, and you can bet I'll be using it extensively from here on out.

IPOfficeInfo.com | IP Office Resource

IPOfficeInfo.com IP Office Resource

Links for skins on Phone Manager, as well as how to get Outlook to be able to dial my contacts.

Vista Photo Labels and Search Folders

While going through pictures of Christmas morning, we realized that most of the pictures are of Kate, and thus would usually go in her folder on our computer, but that we'd be left with precious few pictures in our Christmas 2007 folder then. We decided that it was finally time to start using Vista's Labels (just like the labels in this blog) to label pictures, then mostly access them using Saved Searches (I call them search folders).

Usually that method would have you dump ALL your pictures into a single folder on your computer, since they don't need to be separated-they're essentially just entries in a database, sorted later to the end user using searches. The benefit is that we could start using Vista's Photo Importer again like we used to in XP. We haven't been using it because it's horribly broken in my opinion, forcing you to import ALL the pictures on the card to a SINGLE folder - no checkboxes to include or exclude pictures from this round like there was in XP. Problem solved if you use the labels: they're SUPPOSED to go in one place, and you can label them from within the importer itself. May be why it's designed that way in the first place.

The problem then is that our saved searches folders (views?) don't work when accessing our pictures via FTP, as I do sometimes, so it's hard to figure out which picture I want when they're all called something like IMG00599.jpg, and double-clicking the saved search folder shows me the XML codes that Vista just interperts. So for now they're just still in their folders and I'm about 1/3 through labeling ALL of the pictures we have with location, people, events, etc (a painful, but one-time process). We could rename them in the single big picture folder, I guess, but that's got its own problems.

The labels are great, and allow me to just quickly find (for instance) all pictures of Kyla and Kate (and even specify which labels to include/exclude in the screensaver slideshow), I just wish there was a way to use the saved searches via FTP, as I haven't got my remote desktop setup how I want it for our home machine, leaving FTP my only option for grabbing pictures we haven't published on our website. Even if Vista's IIS even just included a "Labels" file information column in the directory listing, I could sort by that and date, and come pretty close. I just can't plunge fully into this system without some kind of fix for this situation.

Gmail IMAP e-mail access

So I'd heard about Google offering IMAP access a few weeks ago, but didn't think anything of it. Then I read Paul Thurott's review of the service, and learned how Gmail's labels work - rather than treating each e-mail as if it were kind of a file (like typical e-mail clients), it treats it more as a piece of information in a database.

What that means is (similar to the postings in this blog), each message can be in multiple categories, then you can go to a view that shows you all the messages that is listed in that category. Powerful, but up 'till now, only available through their web interface.

The power of the IMAP interface is that they've managed to let each label be a folder when viewed from your IMAP client. Make a new folder, and you'll discover that a new label with that name was created in GMail. Move a message to a folder, and you've applied that label to that message in GMail. But the cool part is that if I've labeled a message as both personal and tech-related, that e-mail will show up in both 'folders' in Outlook. And no worry about backing up your e-mails...they live on Google's servers (right now, up to 4.5 GB free, but always increasing), so even if your Hard Disk bit the big one, you can just point another client (presumably on your reloaded system on a new HDD) to your IMAP account, and everything's restored! Also, if I relabel or delete (or read) a message in outlook, that information is updated when I check my e-mail on my phone...IMAP is sync technology rather than 'checking for unread messages' technology like POP. It's very cool.

So now I'm in the process of moving my locally stored e-mails into my IMAP folders in outlook. I can even move messages from my local Sent Items folder into Google's Sent Mail folder and it appears in my gmail as if I'd sent it right from there!

Cellphones: Verizon's LG VX10000 Voyager Revealed and Groped (with Gallery) - Gizmodo

I saw this first on the Wii's news channel last night:
Cellphones: Verizon's LG VX10000 Voyager Revealed and Groped (with Gallery) - Gizmodo

Awww...so close! It looks awesome (though obviously a rip-off 'me-too' device), and I like some of its features better than the iPhone (read: a Qwerty keyboard), but... NO WIFI!!? Seems like they just should have slapped a better GUI on a Windows Mobile OS - like Media Center within XP or Vista. Give me wifi, internet explorer, office apps, etc WITH some of these very cool features.

Sorry to say, I don't think this device will cut it. It's along the right lines however, I'll sure be keeping my eyes peeled for the right phone for me. Maybe it's closer to reality than I was afraid!

(BTW, in the meantime, my XV6700 is still the best alternative out there, hands-down. The new firmware upgrade, along with Vista, took care of all my issues I used to have with it, except I wish it natively synched over wifi...)

Intelligent image Redimensionnement

Don't watch this expecting to be entertained, but if you ever manipulate images, take a look at the future!

This is some really cool software - I'd love to get a copy!

Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

This is extremely cool, and it'll sure revolutionize jobs like mine whenever it's released! Microsoft Live Labs: Photosynth

Photosynth is a piece of software that gets fed tons of different images of the same area or thing, then analyzes all the photos to find similarities, in order to determine where the camera was when the picture was taken, in relation to the subject. Then it finds points on the subject that are in multiple photos (thousands, usually), and creates a 3-d 'cloud' of points of the original subject!

It's really amazing - the free demo is definately worth the install. I found the 'Shuttle on the Launch Pad' to be the most impressive - how can it find the same point in multiple pictures on, say, the External Tank, when it's round and pretty much the same all around!!?

Anyway, I can just imagine only having to go to a building we're remodeling, taking a hundred or so pictures, then coming back and feeding them into photosynth, then taking the generated cloud and letting a 3-d modeling software make faces from it that I can cut down to a 2-d floorplan! The day is coming, I have no doubt, but I sure would love to get my hands on that software! The viewing interface needs a little work, however...they need to allow you to freely 'walk' or 'fly' around the model, rather than only jumping from one picture vantage point to the next...it's hard to ever get out to the view you want, though the 'fly around' button helps.