May 5, 2018

People sending you .HCR files you can't open!?

.HCR files are usually created with Broderbund's PrintMaster program.  Here's the kick - you generally have to go to your local mega retailer and buy the program to open the card the other person made for you.

Now, personally, I'd email the person back and tell them to export it as a JPG or something useful.  But, for those that want to see the 'read deal,' here is a solution we came across: A FREE VERSION!

http://expressit.broderbund.com/400_co_branding/InternationalPaper/printmasterse.asp

May 4, 2018

Powerpoint Slideshow a “No Go”

We had a user with an automatically-playing Powerpoint slideshow that wouldn't automatically play. It also would not manually play. That's right, the first slide would come up and that was as far as one could get.

You could start the show on ANY slide and it would only display THAT slide. It took us a while to figure out, but we eventually stumbled upon the culprit:


The user had selected BOTH the "Browsed at kiosk" *and* "Advance slides manually" options.
In effect, Powerpoint was told to run fullscreen in a mode that prevented user interaction. At the same time, the program was told to advance the slides using ONLY user interaction.
The fix was simple: As shown above, use the "Presenter (Full Screen)" and "Use timings" options were selected and the show ran without a hitch.

May 3, 2018

PDF shows only grey boxes instead of pictures

An ongoing issue with PDFs lately revolve around certain PDFs showing grey placeholders instead of actual images.  I have read all kinds of solutions to this, changing all kinds of settings.  Some of those changes would work, some wouldn't.  After it happened to me again, I thought I would try to find a different solution than what I had been doing (namely, changing the Internet options within Adobe Reader and/or Acrobat Pro).

A little poking around, and I found what seems to be the most viable solution yet:

EDIT > PREFERENCES > DOCUMENTS > PDF/A View Mode > Always.

The setting is about halfway down the "Documents" screen and is most likely currently set to "Never."  Click the drop-down for that and change it to ALWAYS.  After that, EVERY grey-boxed PDF I have opened has show the images! Wahoo!

UPDATE/EDIT (10/28/10) - Several folks have reported not having an "ALWAYS" option.  I am checking into this and will hopefully have a solution soon!

May 2, 2018

Outlook Web Access and a "hidden" Navigation Pane

We had a user that opened up Outlook Web Access and all she could see was her Inbox.  She could use the drop-down to change folders, but the Navigation Pane was gone.

I searched the Internet for a solution and several suggested deleting a hidden message in the user's inbox.

Turns out the solution to our problem was much simpler.

The user's desktop shortcut to her OWA pointed to the actual INBOX and not to the OWA main login page.

So, if you have a user that can't find the Navigation Pane, check the shortcut on their desktop first.

May 1, 2018

Network path in the command prompt

I spend a lot of time at the command prompt in Windows. I'm an old DOS guy, and frankly some things are easier at the command line than they are clicking and dragging things all over the place. While poking around the 'net, I came across a very helpful tip that will show you the UNC (\\server\directory) of the mapped network drive you are currently browsing. At the command prompt, type:
prompt $m$_$p$g
The $m echoes the Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) name of the drive letter that the command prompt currently displays;
the $_ inserts a carriage return and a line feed;
and $p$g are the standard drive and pathname with the greater-than symbol (>). This command caused the system to display the UNC name of network drives.
To make this change stick on a Win2K/XP system, you must modify/create an environment variable.
You do this by going to Control Panel, then System, then Advanced. From there, click the Environment Variables button, create a system variable named prompt, and set its value to $m$_$p$g. This will make the setting permanently display the remote network path every time you open a command prompt.