Draw attention to your text with compound paths (InDesign CS/CS2/CS3/CS4)
Compound Paths let you cut letters out of the background
Looking for a way to call attention to some text? Perhaps you want to enhance a drop cap or design a letter-based logo? You can create this sort of effect easily using the Compound Paths command in InDesign.
To do so, type your text as usual and use one of the shape tools to create the background object. Choose Object > Arrange > Send To Back, or press [command][shift][[] ([Ctrl][Shift][[] in Windows) to place the selected object behind the text. Now, select the text and choose Type > Create Outlines to convert the text to paths. Then, select both the text and object with the Selection tool and choose Object > Compound Paths > Make. The text path is then cut away wherever it overlays the underlying object to reveal whatever lies beneath the background object.
You work hard to design slides that grab and retain your audience’s attention, but if you have to redirect your audience, you might find they’re too captivated by your fantastic slides to refocus.
If you take the time to turn off an overhead projector or to minimize your slideshow, you might lose your audience with the disruption. Instead use a single keystroke to blank out your screen without interrupting your slideshow and disrupting the flow.
While in Slide Show mode, simply press [B] to switch to a plain black screen or [W] for a white screen. Press the key again to return to your slideshow right where you left off.
You’ve probably seen that Mac commercial where the “Mac” keeps trying to talk to “Vista,” but they keep getting interrupted for requests for permission to continue. As funny as “You’re coming to a sad realization: Cancel or Allow” is, working around Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) to perform many daily functions is no laughing matter.
What is UAC and why is it good for you?
Vista’s User Account Control allows both administrator accounts and standard user accounts, but is more secure than XP accounts because it limits the general access that even an administrator has. Both account types run applications as standard users because without administrator access to applications, viruses can’t propagate.
Will you love UAC or hate it?
Whether you love or hate UAC will depend on how much you take advantage of administrative rights in Windows XP.
Click this link to download a pdf and learn more about the changes for each user role.
If you haven’t heard of Delicious, today’s your lucky day. Lucky, because I’m introducing you to it, and it will change your life.
What is Delicious?
It’s an online bookmarking application. It was built for people like me who have 112 “favorites” on their laptop that are ESSENTIAL to their daily lives. But then your laptop dons the blue screen of death and IT gives you a loner, or you want to check on something at home and don’t remember the url for your partner’s sales portal, or you have a new person at your company and want to give them a list of sites they should know.
Delicous lets you mark your favorites, share them with friends, and check out bookmark lists of peers and associates- and you can do all of this from any computer with web access! Not to mention it’s a great way to search the web. Each bookmared item is marked with identifier tags, so if you want to learn about underwater basketweaving, seach Delicious, and you’re bound to find a link that someone else has already bookmarked, and if they’ve taken the time to do that, it’s likely quality content, so you don’t waste time wading through search engines.
I have a personal list of bookmarks, which I won’t share, but check out this list, and then start your own!
I had a conversation with a co-worker today about some issues they were having with a kid reading “inappropriate material” on the web. Thus, a lesson on implementing parental controls with Vista is below.
Parental Controls on a Domain
If you want to use Parental Controls on a domain member Vista Ultimate computer, you need to enable the option with Group Policy. This might come in handy if you use a laptop for work at home and in the office — but allow your kids to use it. To enable Parental Controls for the domain machine, use the Make Parental Controls Control Panel Visible On A Domain policy in the Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Parental Controls node.
