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Tag: Cool things

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL SPACING

CREATING PARAGRAPH INDENTATION:

There are three main ways of creating paragraph indentation:

1. One method is to create an empty, completely transparent image with a height of 1 pixel and a width of about 40 to 70 pixels (depending on how wide you want your indentation), anchor the image at the beginning of each paragraph, and the text will wrap around the image creating an indentation. It’s too much work for me.

2. You can also create an indentation using the <SPACER> tag, but keep in mind, this tag is recognized by Netscape 3.0 and 4.0, but not by any version of Internet Explorer to date.

Use the HORIZONTAL SIZE attribute of the <SPACER> tag to create a paragraph indentation. For instance, to get a 50 pixel horizontal indentation before a line of text, your HTML should look like this:

<SPACER TYPE=HORIZONTAL SIZE=50>Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here.

And you will get this (no indentation if you are using Explorer):

Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here.

3. The quickest way to create paragraph indentation – and the method recognized by all browsers – is to use a series of non-breaking spaces. HTML ignores extra white space within text. A browser will recognize the first space after a character, but any white space after is ignored. However, you can use a non-breaking space ( ), or a series of non-breaking spaces, to put extra white space within, or at the beginning or end of a text string.

For example, adding 6 non-breaking spaces at the beginning of the text string will indent the following sentence by 6 character spaces:

This text has an indent of 6 non-breaking spaces.

SPACING ABOVE AND BELOW TEXT:

There are two ways to create space above or below text:

1. You can use the VERTICAL SIZE attribute of the <SPACER> tag to create space above text. For instance, to get a 30 pixels of space above text, your HTML should look like this:

<SPACER TYPE=VERTICAL SIZE=30>Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here. Your text here.

And you will get this – 30 pixels of space before the following text:

Once again, the <SPACER> tag is recognized by Netscape 3.0 (and later versions), but not by any version of Internet Explorer to date.

2. The cheater’s way to include space above or below text (and the one method recognized by all browsers) is to just add some blank lines. Adding a series of paragraph breaks will not work (i.e. ), but add a non-breaking space in between each paragraph break, and you have a very simple way of adding space above or below text:

SPACING AROUND IMAGES:

Using HSPACE (horizontal space) and VSPACE (vertical space) within the IMG SRC tag will give you horizontal and vertical padding around an image. For example, the following with give you 10 pixels above, below, and on each side of your image:

MS-DOS and command line overview

Below is a listing of each of the MS-DOS commands currently listed on Computer Hope and a brief explanation of what each of the commands do. The below commands are all MS-DOS commands, which means not all the below commands will work in your version of MS-DOS and/or Windows command line. Clicking on the command will open the help page for that command with full details about it.

Command	Description
Aansi.sysNSI.SYS	Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys.
append	Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command.
arp	Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.
assign	Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter.
assoc	View the file associations.
at	Schedule a time to execute commands or programs.
atmadm	Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager.
attrib	Display and change file attributes.
batch	Recovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file.
bootcfg	Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.ini
break	Enable / disable CTRL + C feature.
cacls	View and modify file ACL’s.
call	Calls a batch file from another batch file.
cd	Changes directories.
chcp	Supplement the International keyboard and character set information.
chdir	Changes directories.
chdsk	Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors.
chkntfs	Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors.
choice	Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file.
cls	Clears the screen.
cmd	Opens the command interpreter.
color	Easily change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS window.
command	Opens the command interpreter.
comp	Compares files.
compact	Compresses and uncompress files.
control	Open Control Panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt.
convert	Convert FAT to NTFS.
copy	Copy one or more files to an alternate location.
ctty	Change the computers input/output devices.
date	View or change the systems date.
debug	Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings.
defrag	Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs.
del	Deletes one or more files.
delete	Recovery console command that deletes a file.
deltree	Deletes one or more files and/or directories.
dir	List the contents of one or more directory.
disable	Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers.
diskcomp	Compare a disk with another disk.
diskcopy	Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk.
doskey	Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past.
dosshell	A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users.
drivparm	Enables overwrite of original device drivers.
echo	Displays messages and enables and disables echo.
edit	View and edit files.
edlin	View and edit files.
emm386	Load extended Memory Manager.
ename	Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver.
endlocal	Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command.
erase	Erase files from computer.
exit	Exit from the command interpreter.
expand	Expand a Microsoft Windows file back to it’s original format.
extract	Extract files from the Microsoft Windows cabinets.
fasthelp	Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.
fc	Compare files.
fdisk	Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive.
find	Search for text within a file.
findstr	Searches for a string of text within a file.
fixboot	Writes a new boot sector.
fixmbr	Writes a new boot record to a disk drive.
for	Boolean used in batch files.
format	Command to erase and prepare a disk drive.
ftp	Command to connect and operate on a FTP server.
ftype	Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
goto	Moves a batch file to a specific label or location.
graftabl	Show extended characters in graphics mode.
help	Display a listing of commands and brief explanation.
if	Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing.
ifshlp.sys	32-bit file manager.
ipconfig	Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values.
keyb	Change layout of keyboard.
label	Change the label of a disk drive.
lh	Load a device driver in to high memory.
listsvc	Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers.
loadfix	Load a program above the first 64k.
loadhigh	Load a device driver in to high memory.
lock	Lock the hard disk drive.
logoff	Logoff the currently profile using the computer.
logon	Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login.
map	Displays the device name of a drive.
md	Command to create a new directory.
mem	Display memory on system.
mkdir	Command to create a new directory.
mode	Modify the port or display settings.
more	Display one page at a time.
move	Move one or more files from one directory to another directory.
msav	Early Microsoft Virus scanner.
msd	Diagnostics utility.
msdex	Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM.
nbtstat	Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
net	Update, fix, or view the network or network settings
netsh	Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS.
netstat	Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information.
nlsfunc	Load country specific information.
nslookup	Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.
path	View and modify the computers path location.
pathping	View and locate locations of network latency.
pause	Command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command.
ping	Test / send information to another network computer or network device.
popd	Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command.
power	Conserve power with computer portables.
print	Prints data to a printer port.
prompt	View and change the MS-DOS prompt.
pushd	Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time.
qbasic	Open the QBasic.
rd	Removes an empty directory.
ren	Renames a file or directory.
rename	Renames a file or directory.
rmdir	Removes an empty directory.
route	View and configure windows network route tables.
runas	Enables a user to execute a program on another computer.
scandisk	Run the scandisk utility.
scanreg	Scan registry and recover registry from errors.
set	Change one variable or string to another.
setlocal	Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else.
setver	Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs.
share	Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
shift	Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.
shutdown	Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
smartdrv	Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
sort	Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen.
start	Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt.
subst	Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.
switches	Remove add functions from MS-DOS.
sys	Transfer system files to disk drive.
telnet	Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt.
time	View or modify the system time.
title	Change the title of their MS-DOS window.
tracert	Visually view a network packets route across a network.
tree	View a visual tree of the hard disk drive.
type	Display the contents of a file.
undelete	Undelete a file that has been deleted.
unformat	Unformat a hard disk drive.
unlock	Unlock a disk drive.
ver	Display the version information.
verify	Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly.
vol	Displays the volume information about the designated drive.
xcopy	Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another.

How to backup and restore my Internet Favorites / Bookmarks.

Although there are several third-party software programs that will enable you to backup, restore, and manage your Internet browser bookmarks or favorites, all modern browsers today include bookmark managers and are capable of backing up and restoring your bookmarks and/or favorites. Below is a listing of each of the major browsers and how to backup and recover your Internet bookmarks or favorites.

Tip: If you’ve considered moving from one browser to another you can often backup your bookmarks in one browser and then follow the below restore tips to import those bookmarks into your new browser.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Note: By default, Microsoft Internet Explorer will save your bookmarks as bookmark.htm.

Internet Explorer 5.0 and above users backing up favorites.

1. Within Internet Explorer, click the File menu and “Import and Export…”.
2. Within the Import and Export window click Next.
3. Click “Export Favorites” and click Next.
4. Select the folder wish to backup; if you wish to backup all favorites, leave the Favorites folder highlighted and click Next.
5. Select the destination you wish to save the favorites and click Next.
6. Click Finish.

Internet Explorer 5.0 and above recovering backup files from an Internet Explorer or Netscape backup.

1. Within Internet Explorer, click the File menu and “Import and Export…”.
2. Within the Import and Export window click Next.
3. Click “Import Favorites” and click Next.
4. Select the location that contains your favorites and click Next.
5. Select where you with to save your favorites and click Next.
6. Click Finish.

Mozilla Firefox

Recent versions of Firefox backup

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Click Bookmarks and then “Organize Bookmarks”.
3. Click “Export HTML” or Click “Import and Backup” and then “Backup”. We suggest Exporting to HTML since all browsers support the ability to easily read these files.
4. Type the filename you wish to save the file as and the destination and then click the Save button.

Recovering favorites in recent versions of Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Click Bookmarks and then “Organize Bookmarks”.
3. Click “Import and Backup”.
4. If the file is a JSON file click “Restore” and choose file. If the file is a .HTM/.HTML file or other browser file click “Import HTML” and follow the import wizzard.

Other versions of Firefox backup

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Click Bookmarks and then “Manage Bookmarks”.
3. In the Bookmarks Manager window click File and choose Export.
4. By default your bookmarks file will be called bookmarks.html. Choose the location you wish to save the bookmarks file to and click the Save button.

Netscape

Note: By default, Netscape will save your bookmarks as bookmarks.html.

Netscape Communicator / Netscape 7.0 and above users backing up bookmarks

1. Within Netscape, click Bookmarks and “Manage Bookmarks…” or CTRL+B.
2. Within the Bookmark manager click Tools and Export
3. Select where you wish to export the file and click ok.

Netscape Communicator / Netscape 7.0 and above users recovering backup files from Netscape backup or Internet Explorer.

1. Within Netscape, click Bookmarks and “Manage Bookmarks…” or CTRL+B.
2. Within the Bookmark manager click Tools and Import
3. Select the file you wish to Import and click open.

Opera

Note: By default, Opera will save your bookmarks as Opera6.adr. If your version of Opera is not 6, this filename may change.

Opera users backing up your bookmarks

1. Within Opera, click the File menu and Export.
2. Select the destination to where you wish to save the backup of your favorites to and click Save.

Opera users recovering a backup of your bookmarks.

1. Within Opera, click the File menu and Import.
2. Select “Opera bookmarks”, “Netscape bookmarks”, or “Internet Explorer favorites” depending on which bookmarks or favorites you wish to recover.
3. Select the file or folder you wish to recover.
4. Click ok.

Folder Background Images in WinXP

This brief tutorial explains how to add a background image to any folder in Windows XP.

First, make sure all hidden files are visible on your system. Then, open the folder for which you wish to add a background image. Within the folder, right-click and select Properties » Customize tab » Customize. There, choose any icon, click Apply and OK.

That process should have created a “desktop.ini file. Open that file with a text editor and add these lines of code:

[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
IconArea_Image=C:\path\folder\background.jpg

To customize this according to your needs, edit the path in the last line to reflect to the location of the image you wish to use as the background image for that folder. Refresh the folder and the new background should appear.

Finally, to remove the default icon chosen during the creation of the desktop.ini and restore the default folder icon, delete these lines of code from within the desktop.ini file:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll
IconIndex=(some number)

A NotePad Trick – What happened on 9/11/2001 !

Amazing but true , Notepad knew about 9/11/2001 ! The flight number which hit the World Trade Centre in New York was Q33N ! And Probably this was the code for the hit. I belive you will be shocked to watch this….

Do it yourself :

1. Open Notepad
2. Type : Q33 N
3. Now, go to Format menu
4. Choose Font.
5. Now, change the size to ’72’
6. Now, change the font to ‘Wingdings’
7. See what is displayed !

Shocked??

Set More Than One Firefox Homepage

For those Firefox advocates including me myself, I relish the thought of knowing another simple trick about the ever powerful Firefox itself that will enhance my web experience. A little unknown feature available in your latest version of Firefox 3 is that is allows you to set more than on homepage. What i mean is that you can now open several instances of Firefox homepage when you first execute and run the popular web browser.

Select and follow the following directions on how to set and run more than one homepage in Firefox.

Tools -> Options -> Main (Home Page)

After which, simply separate each desired homepage with “|”. For example assuming you would like to make Facebook and Google to start up together when your launch Firefox, it should reflect as follows:

Well so what do you think of this simple trick that you’ve just learnt? Not too tough huh?

Make Your CD Write Protected

Friends Many of people thought to make a CD Protected(Non-writable nor copied)

Here Are Some OF the Software Used to Make a CD Protected :

CCD-Lock

CD-Protector

CloneAudioProtector

Easy Audio Lock

FreeLock

TZCopyprotection

WinLock

WTM CD Prot

Record a Screencast

Do you feel handicapped with the limitations of screen shots? Switch to screencasts and create a movie of your computer screen.

Everyone knows how to take a simple snapshot of the computer screen. Whether you use the [Print Scrn] keyboard shortcut and paste the image in your computer’s default paint application, or use a more sophisticated application to automate it, the purpose of capturing an image of your computer screen is the same. It is much easier to convey to other people want you want done.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video should be worth at least ten thousand. We use screenshots a lot in this magazine to effectively communicate how a certain task is to be performed. And, of course, CHIP readers, being the whiz kids that they are, are probably used to being inundated with calls from friends and family for help to sort out their latest computer problems. Wouldn’t things be a whole lot easier for both parties if there was a way to communicate the solution in an easy to understand manner? This is where screencasts come in.

Screencasts are analogous to screenshots. As a screenshot refers to an image of the computer screen, a screencast is a digital recording or a movie of what one sees on the monitor. The best thing about screencasts is that along with video capture of the screen, one can also include audio in them. This audio might be your voice as you describe the actions taking place, or something entirely different—for instance, background music. While narration will require a microphone to record your voice, music from a file on your computer can be used just as easily as playing it with a standard media player.

This workshop will deal with how to successfully capture a screencast. For this purpose, we shall use the free product ‘CamStudio’, available on the CHIP DVD or the official website (http://camstudio.org). While there are many shareware applications available on the market, this great piece of screen recording software is released under the GPL license and is open source. Apart from digitally recording the screen and adding audio, CamStudio has the additional capability of inserting high quality screen captions with no jagged edges. Customization of cursors, for instance, using a unique cursor style that you wish to be displayed instead of the default white and black one, is also possible. A special video annotation feature can be used to capture yourself on the screen—a sort of ‘picture-in-picture’ effect.

The region of the screen can also be specified—the full screen or only a certain portion of it. Changing the quality settings of the movie recorded is easy—smaller videos sizes are better for emailing while high quality ones are appreciated when distributed on optical discs or presented in front of an audience. CamStudio comes with its own Lossless Codec compression format, as well as other video codes. There are two file formats that the application can record the movie in—AVI and SWF. This comes in really handy when you want to embed the Flash video on your blog or website.

Step 1: Installation

Install the application CamStudio and its associated video codec from the CHIP DVD or download the installation file from the official website (http://camstudio.org). This should place a shortcut to the application on your desktop, so double-click the icon to run it. CamStudio has a bare-bones feels to it, and its main toolbar reflects that. It only has six main buttons which include the record and playback controls, a shortcut to the annotations window and toggle for the view—’Normal’, ‘Compact’, and ‘Buttons’, and file formats—AVI and SWF.

Step 2: Screen area

We are going to make a movie that will capture all the actions taken on the computer screen. The first thing to do is to set the area of the monitor that needs to be recorded. In the CamStudio window, select ‘Region | Fixed Region…’. In the proceeding dialog box titled ‘Fixed Region’, check the option ‘Drag Corners to Pan’. Next, press the ‘Select’ button and drag the crosshair cursor from the top-left of the screen to the bottom-right, excluding the taskbar. This way, the screencast will exclude the taskbar area and not give away to the viewer any other programs or hidden applications you may have running in the background.

Step 3: Cursor Options

CamStudio comes with a bevy of in-built cursor options. The normal cursor is a little bland, so we shall choose to record a differently styled one for the movie. Select ‘Options | Cursor Options’. In the window titled ‘Cursor Options’ check the radio button option ‘Use Custom Cursor’ and choose one from the list, for instance ‘PENCIL2’. If you have created a cursor that you want to use, select the option ‘Use Cursor From File’ and press the ‘Browse’ button. Next, browse to the folder location where the CUR (Cursor file) or ICO (Icon file ) file resides, select it and press ‘Open’. The cursor highlight option is available for those users that wish to highlight the cursor in a certain shape, color or size. Finally, exit the ‘Cursor Options’ window by pressing ‘OK’.

Step 4: Codec Configuration

To configure the codec that is used when the recording is made, go to ‘Options | Video Options’. The default compressor used is ‘Microsoft Video 1’ and while the video output using this compressor plays well in Windows Media Player, the same can’t be said for others, for instance, VLC player. So, we shall choose a more common compressor, for instance, ‘ffdshow Codec’. However, if you are sure that the end party has Windows Media Player, then just stick with the default option. The ‘CamStudio Lossless Codec v1.0’ is another option, and is available on the CHIP DVD. Make sure that the ‘Auto-Adjust’ option is checked and save your changes by pressing ‘OK’.

Step 5: Audio In

Since the movie needs to be accompanied by an audio narration, it is time to plug in your microphone to the ‘Mic in’ jack. Next, in the CamStudio window, select ‘Options | Record audio from microphone’. This tells the application to use the sound signal from the ‘Mic in’ jack as the audio source. To tweak the audio recording settings, go to ‘Options | Audio Option | Audio Options for Microphone’. Press the ‘Volume’ button to adjust the sound settings and press ‘OK’ to save your changes while exiting.

Now you are ready to press the record button and start recording. The sky’s the limit when it comes to taking digital recordings of your screen.