MemoSoup » Tips & Tricks

Outlook 2007: set default font in Outlook

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 13:10:13 +0000

I think, the “Options” window in Outlook is one of the most tangled things in IT. The programmers were so smart to create real “spaghetti” window! Did they ever hear about “user friendly” interfaces? They could at least add the “Search” field somewhere – otherwise, it’s not possible to find anything.

Here is the way to change the default font:

Tools -> Options
Click “Mail Format” tab
Click “Stationery and Fonts…” button
Select “Personal Stationery” tab
Click “Font” button to change the font

It’s nice, isn’t it?

Here there are even more paths for different options.

Oracle: checksum function for strings

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:40:19 +0000

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION get_checksum(source_string IN VARCHAR)
RETURN VARCHAR IS
raw_string RAW(2048);
result RAW(2048);
BEGIN
raw_string := utl_i18n.string_to_raw(source_string);
result := sys.dbms_crypto.hash(raw_string, sys.dbms_crypto.hash_sh1);
RETURN result ;
END;
/

MS Word: put syntax highlighed code into the document

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 10:26:44 +0000

Here is the simple method to put the code with highlighting into the Word document:

Download and install Notepad++. This is easy-to-use and yet very powerful text editor with a lot of features, support of the plugins etc.
Put your code into the Notepad++ edit window

Configure the language, if Notepad++ did not do this automatically:
Language->your language

If necessary the additional configuration could be done in the Style Configurator: Settings->Style Configurator…

Export the highlighted text with help of NppExport plugin: Plugins->NppExport
It has the following options:

Select “Copy RTF to clipboard”
Paste the content of the clipboard into the Word document
Make any changes in the Word document if necessary

Windows: local printer option is greyed out

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 12:17:36 +0000

Some time ago I need to add the local printer to the system, however, this option was greyed out in the “Add printer” wizard.
The problem was caused by local policy, preventing the adding of the new devices to the system.

The following should be done to enable “Add local printer” option

Start the policy editor (Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Local security policy)
Select “Local policy” item
Find the item “Devices: Prevent Users from Installing Printer Drivers” in the section Security Settings -> Security Options and change it to Enabled
Go to “Security Settings -> User Rights Assignment” section and check, that “Load & Unalod Drivers” option contains the active user group. It important, that even if it has “All Staff” already, it still could miss “Administrators” group, so it’s necessary to add it manually.

PDF file: set the bookmark

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 12:58:48 +0000

Strange enough, Adobe Acrobar Reader does not allow to put the user-defined bookmarks into the PDF file (and this is so simple and necessary thing!)

However, with the help of some “hack” the bookmarks still could be used.

Here is the trick:

Go to PDF Hacks site and download the zip file with the javascript.
Extract the file bookmark_page.js from the archive
Copy the file bookmark_page.js to one of the following folders:
- %ProgramFiles%\Adobe\Reader\Javascripts
- %AppData%\Adobe\Reader\Javascripts
Please, check the real installation path of the Acrobat software, it could be different on Your system.
Restart the Acrobat Reader

Now You have 4 new menu items in the menu “View”. The first two could be called using shortcut “Alt-V-5″ and “Alt-V-6″ (for English version of Acrobat)

The bookmarks are not saved in the PDF itself, so they could be lost, if the PDF file is moved to some other location.

To uninstall the bookmark script, just remove bookmark_page.js from the Javascripts folder and restart the Acrobat Reader.

Some other PDF tricks could be found in this book:

AppleScript: rotate mov file in QuickTime Pro

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:31:03 +0000

Some kind of life hack: it’s very easy to make mov file with digital camera, rotating it 90 degrees. However, it’s not so easy to convert the result file to the ‘visible’ form.

QuickTime Pro(the native product from Apple) could do this, and I found the AppleScript script, which could make it even more easy.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
set m to (get movie 1)
rotate m by -90
save self contained m in (choose file name with prompt "save self contained movie")
end tell

The script is mentioned here

Office: check if PowerPoint is running

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:32:34 +0000

Dim objAPP, sMsg

On Error Resume Next

Set objAPP = GetObject(, "PowerPoint.Application")

If TypeName(objAPP) = "Empty" Then
sMsg = "not started"
Else
sMsg = "started"
End If

MsgBox "PowerPoint is " & sMsg, vbInformation, "PowerPoint"

if sMsg = "started" then objAPP.Visible = true

MS Word: replace spaces to non-breaking

admin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:57:51 +0000

To insert it manually, use Ctrl+Shift+Space

Selection.HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Style = ActiveDocument.Styles("Normal")
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = " "
.Replacement.Text = "^s"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = True
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll

Check the default browser

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:15:04 +0000

The following section in registry should be checked:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\open\command
Key: (default)

Most (but not all) browsers check it to determine the current browser.

currentBrowser = RegistryGet("HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT","http\shell\open\command","")
MsgBox( currentBrowser )

Some browsers could create additional section HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\http\shell\OpenWith\command, which helps to avoid the conflict with IE settings.

WHICH command for DOS

admin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:59:34 +0000

If You need the analog of Unix ‘which’ command and do not have Resource Kit, the following batch file will help.
The code was found on www.ss64.com
Published with the permission of the author, Clay Calvert.

@echo off
SETLOCAL
(set WF=)

:: Look for file in the current directory

for %%a in ("" %!!%) do (
if not defined WF if exist "%~1%%~a" set WF=%CD%\%~1%%~a)

:: Look for file in the PATH

for %%a in ("" %!!%) do (
if not defined WF for %%g in ("%~1%%~a") do (
if exist "%%~$PATH:g" set WF=%%~$PATH:g))

:: Store the Help Error message

if NOT "%~x1"=="" goto:END
for /f "delims=." %%a in ('help.exe *') do set HlpErr=%%a

:: If command missing from Help, goto end

help.exe "%~1" |find "%HlpErr%">nul && goto:END

:: Listed in help so find file in System32

for %%a in (exe com) do (
if /i "%WF%"=="%windir%\system32\%~1.%%a" goto:END)

:: File not in System32, so must be an internal command

set WF="%~1" is an internal command

:END
if defined WF (echo.%WF%) else (
echo The file: "%~1" was not found)

:: Credits:
:: Clay Calvert
:: alt.msdos.batch.nt