Sunday, January 27, 2013

Edit .pdf files in Word 2013.

Was reading a little about the new Office 2013 and this feature got me all warm and fuzzy:
Until now, you could not edit PDF files in Word without first converting them to the .doc or .docx format.  With the new Word 2013, however you can now open PDF files, edit them there, and then save them as either .docx files or PDFs.  Even when opened in Word, the file retains the structure of the PDF file, including that of elements such as tables.  So now you can just open a PDF file and get straight to work.


Here is what to expect in terms of pricing…
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57564342-75/office-2013-pricing-what-to-expect/

Saturday, January 12, 2013

How to make Follett Destiny Library software play nice with Google Chrome.

I received a question this past week posing this question:  

"My library uses Follett Destiny for our library maintenance/circulation program.  We also use Google Chrome, my principal wants us to migrate us entirely from Internet Explorer/Firefox to Chrome. The problem is when I check in a series of books in Destiny while using Google Chrome, I have to manually put the cursor back in the box each time.  It's so frustrating!  Have any of you solved this problem? I talked to a Follett rep today and he seems to think there isn't a solution, but I did find this discussion thread:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chrome/hNPy98VrhPk/WumDjccf_DIJ
It talks about installing an extension called: "IE Tab Multi (Enhance)" and then tweaking it further.  Unfortunately, it didn't say how to tweak it! Thanks for any ideas! "

It was funny this was happening to me as well but I never gave it a second thought, after some research here is the solution I came up with:


I downloaded IE Tab https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ietab/hehijbfgiekmjfkfjpbkbammjbdenadd?hl=en from the Chrome store and it works like a charm.  The only fix I had to do was to go to my Destiny site like I would normally do in Chrome then in the top right-hand corner of the browser you will see a very small logo of a folder with a globe in it.  Click that and it will open your Destiny page in an IE tab.  IE Tab makes a webpage act as if you were viewing it in Internet Explorer instead of Chrome. As of the moment the cursor is staying in the box and working like it should.  


Saturday, January 5, 2013

Free web editing/design, multimedia software from Microsoft.


We here at DIY strive to do things with budget constraints in mind so these downloads/news were a no brainer!
Microsoft has decided to pull the plug on its Microsoft Expression Suite and kill off some of the products completely while rolling others in to its Visual Studio suite. The focus appears to be more towards developers than designers moving forward but….for those of us would be Saturday morning web designer wannabes the news has a definite bit if upside to it. As a part of this move Microsoft has decided to make Expression Suite 4 available for free download. 

Those of us who have used Expression Web 4 know that it is a powerful web editing tool with a rich set of functions that put it in the top tier of html editors. There is a catch… if you download any of the following applications for free you will be running it without official Microsoft support. But hey, they're free! For those who purchased it they will continue to be supported in accordance with the with support lifecycle.

The Expression Suite includes;
Expression Encoder 4 
  • an advanced audio/video-encoding and live-broadcasting application that provides new feature support, updates, and stability enhancements.
  • Import and encode video files
  • Produce live webcasts

Expression Web 4

  • a full-featured professional tool for designing, developing, and publishing compelling, feature-rich websites that conform to web standards.


Expression Design 4

  • a tool for creative professionals and developers who want to build graphics for application user interfaces, the web, or any other medium.

For those who may not be familiar with web editing or are new to Expression Web 4 there is a whole slew of training videos available for free as well on the site.
So what are you waiting for? Click on the links, start downloading and creating!!
*Note: While the .exe file says trial it is a non-expiring, it's a full function copy.