Synchronize subtitles with the movie in VLC player

Re-sync by small steps:

g – move subtitles forward +0.5 sec

h – move subtitles back -0.5 sec

Re-sync based on clear sentence:

Press Shift+H to mark the recognizable sentence, when you hear it

Press Shift+J to mark the subtitles for this sentence

Press Shift+K to synchronize the subtitles

If subtitles are ahead of the video, press Shift+J, then Shift+H, and Shift+K to finalize

Re-sync in menu:

Tools -> Track Synchronization -> Subtitle track synchronization

Select negative number if subtitles are ahead of the sound

Command line:

Define delay in 1/10 of the second (negative or positive)

vlc –sub-delay 100 –sub-file myfile.srt file.avi

Permanent changes:

Subtitles editor (open source)

Oracle Data Modeler: change user interface language

Oracle Data Modeler in the current version (3.3.0.x) does not allow to change the user interface language in “Options” or somewhere else in the GUI.

However, it’s possible to force it to switch to some other language, using datamodeler\bin\datamodeler.conf configuration file.
The following lines should be added to the file for English:

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en
AddVMOption -Duser.country=US

AutoCAD: slow mouse reaction

Sometimes in AutoCAD the mouse hangs for some time (up to 1 seconds) for every operation.

Here are some methods to reduce these “sticking” moments.

  • If this is wireless mouse, check the batteries.  (In fact, this will work for every application, not for AutoCAD only!)
  • If the Layer Palette is used – turn it OFF (set LAYERDLGMODE to “0” to get the classic layer manager back)
  • If the “Selection Preview” is on – turn it OFF
  • If Dynamic UCS is turned on – turn it OFF
  • Set the anti-virus program to ignore AutoCAD related extensions (DWG, DWT, DCL, LSP etc)
  • Uncheck the “Check Web for Live Enablers” box  in Options->System
  • Remove unnecessary hyperlinks (or broken links)

Outlook 2007: set default font in Outlook

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.

MS Word: put syntax highlighed code into the document

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

    1. 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.
    2. Put your code into the Notepad++ edit window
    1. Configure the language, if Notepad++ did not do this automatically:
      Language->your language
      npp language select
      If necessary the additional configuration could be done in the Style Configurator: Settings->Style Configurator…
    1. Export the highlighted text with help of NppExport plugin: Plugins->NppExport
      It has the following options:
      npp export options
    1. Select “Copy RTF to clipboard”
    2. Paste the content of the clipboard into the Word document
    3. Make any changes in the Word document if necessary

Windows: local printer option is greyed out

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

  1. Start the policy editor (Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Local security policy)
  2. Select “Local policy” item
  3. Find the item “Devices: Prevent Users from Installing Printer Drivers” in the section Security Settings -> Security Options and change it to Enabled
  4. 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

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:

  1. Go to PDF Hacks site and download the zip file with the javascript.
  2. Extract the file bookmark_page.js from the archive
  3. 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.

  4. 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)
Bookmarks in PDF

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:
[amazon-product]0596006551[/amazon-product]

AppleScript: rotate mov file in QuickTime Pro

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