Mashable: 11 Outstanding Online Resources for Web Developers

Worth looking at later:  11 Outstanding Online Resources for Web Developers

H&M Merged Cells Alignment Strangeness (& Fix)

Update: Unchecking the Preferred Width fixed the issue.  H&M’s support forums are great!

I merged the 3 cells in the top row of a table and want to center text in the single merged cell.  It isn’t working as expected.

 

Left Justified - Ok

Centered – Not Ok in .chm

Right Justified – Not Ok in .chm

StExBar Regular Expression File Renamer

I use the free utility StExBar on all my computers.  It is a toolbar that adds useful utilities to Windows Explorer.  This is a sample of its regular expression file renaming capability.

Another variation.

Note:  On some computers StExBar was not available to Windows Explorer until I added it to the Windows Taskbar and/or Internet Explorer.

Help & Manual Publishing Detail

My documentation partner discovered a detail worth knowing about Help & Manual Topic IDs and their corresponding names in HTML Help.  He wrote about it here.

Easier Dr. Explain to Help & Manual #1 of ?

The default Dr. Explain “Generate HTML” and Help & Manual “Import” settings leave each imported topic in a bordered table.  The table looks fine as Dr. Explain output, but it does not look good inside the Help & Manual generated pages with their navigation system.

The easy way to get rid of the table border is to get rid of the table on import.  It is a single-column table so this import option works great.

Using ESET Smart Security 4

If Interactive Mode is on and a new program requests to use the internet this dialog will appear.

Select the desired checkboxes if the program is expected and click Allow.  If Administrator rights are needed and you are not running with them a dialog will appear.  Enter the appropriate administrator info and continue.

Win7 Install on a Dell Latitude E5400

A Custom install (not Upgrade) from WinXP.  Installing Win7-64 Home Premium.  Initial install and updates went fine.  I used an admin user for install to save work later.  Next steps.

• Created & tested the User account.
• Radmin for working on the laptop from my desktop.  Not only is it a better screen and keyboard, I can take screenshots and blog them here.
• Fences.  I drag the install programs into their own fence for ease of deleting later, without the risks of deleting a wanted shortcut.
• Activated Windows.
• Firefox.
• ESET Smart Security.  As expected it shut down Radmin remote access.  Setting the UI to Advanced and turning on the Firewall’s Interactive Filtering Mode brought up a dialog to let Radmin work.
  
• Opera.
• Chrome.  No shortcut for the User account.  Installed also in User account.
• SnagIt
• TortoiseSVN
• Office
• Acrobat

How Fences Installation Handles the .NET Framework

Using Live Writer with Posterous

http://posterous.com provides an easy way to post to a blog: email.  I am trying to figure out how to use Windows Live Writer with posterous since I already use it for blog posting.  Googling brought up some links.

http://joshuazillmer.posterous.com/tag/windowslivewriter
http://zachishi.com/windows-live-writer-14 
http://www.belltowernews.com/2009/05/no-subject.html
http://quicktips.posterous.com/how-i-make-my-blogging-life-easier
http://posterous.com/explore/tag/windowslivewriter 

But I don’t see mention of which Blog Provider to choose.  Posting this for emailing the link to posterous help.

User Name for VMware Easy Install

I used the default user “Mark” for the “Easy” VMware installs of Win7-x86 and Win7-64.  On the install that worked this led to extra steps:  Creating “Admin” as an Administrator and converting “Mark” to a Standard User. 

In the future use user name “Admin” for the Easy Install.  Don’t use “Administrator” because it may conflict with the built-in Administrator account, if that still exists in Win7.

Win7 32 Bit VMware Install

Using key:  VVXYB-xxxxx-…

Installed fine, and the Downloads box never did anything.

After Shutdown & Snapshot, Updates.

… just one issue.  Apparently after the VMware “Easy Install” is still trying to log on to account Mark every boot.  After creating Admin and User accounts, and giving user Mark a password, this shows up on boot.

After the Admin logon “Log off” shows the expected screen.  Going to ignore this for now.

Win7 64 Bit VMware Install

Using this key: VTQB4-xxxxx-…

This never did anything…  Killing it.  (ESET didn’t block it.)

Drat.

Can’t find anything in vmware kb or communities.

Firefox Add-on for Google Docs

Update:  Try clicking on the image a couple times before installing the Add-on.  The built-in zoom feature is working on my test computer.  Was it a bug or operator error?  ;-)

This Firefox Add-on …

… has a right-click option that lets large images be zoomed in Firefox.  Otherwise many largish images have to be downloaded to be zoomed large enough to read the text.

Google apps Setup Snips

The Admin Control Panel

From Google Apps Admin Help Section 3

You can always access your account with the URLs below:

• Control Panel: http://www.google.com/a/your-domain.com
• Mail: http://mail.google.com/a/your-domain.com
• Calendar: http://calendar.google.com/your-domain.com
• Docs: http://docs.google.com/a/your-domain.com
• Sites: http://sites.google.com/a/your-domain.com

In each case, replace "your-domain.com" with your actual domain name.

 

Create custom URLs and web address mappings

For more convenient access to Google services and sites, you can create a custom URL or a web address mapping. In this section, both will be covered.

• A custom URL provides an easily remembered URL that redirects to the actual URL for the service login page.
  For example:
  http://mail.domain.com redirects to https://mail.google.com/a/domain.com.
• A web address map actually changes the URL for a given site. Web address maps do not redirect.
  For example:
  you can use http://www.domain.com instead of http://sites.google.com/a/domain.com/example-site.

 

Do these colored items later if needed.

Do you want to set up web address mapping?

Web address mapping allows you to host Google Sites at specific URLs.
For example, you can use

http://www.domain.com instead of http://sites.google.com/a/domain.com/example-site.

 

From Help Section 4

Do you want to set up a domain alias?

When creating a domain alias, mail addressed to user@def.com and user@ghi.com will be delivered to the inbox of user@abc.com.
Many organizations need to allow users to send and receive mail from additional domain names. For instance, you may also own a .org or .net version of your domain.

In Google Apps these additional or alternate domain names are called domain aliases. If you own the domains abc.com, def.com and ghi.com, you can create a primary Google Apps account for abc.com and add def.com and ghi.com as domain aliases to abc.com.

 

If you're interested, new labs will be posted to the Gmail Blog as they're released.

The best option to receive notifications and configure mailto links is to use Google Talk. By default, you'll be alerted to incoming messages.

1. Download and install Google Talk. Download it now.
2. To have Google handle mailto links, click Settings in Google Talk.
3. In the General section check Open Gmail when I click on email links.
   Note that not all mailto links will be handled by Google Talk, such as links outside of a web browser. For further integration with the Windows desktop or alternative options for maillto links, consider a third party product in the Google Solutions Marketplace.

 

From Help Section 5

Do you want to set up calendar resources?

Calendar resource scheduling allows users to reserve shared spaces or devices, such as a conference room or a projector.

 

Understand shared contacts

In order to collaborate with users at your domain more easily, you can turn on contact sharing. This creates what is commonly referred to as a global address list. By default, once enabled, all users in the domain are included in shared contacts. The next step in this section discusses the process of adding additional addresses to shared contacts.

 

From Help Section 10

To learn about new features and tips and tricks for using Google Apps, subscribe to these resources:

• The official Google Apps update feed
  This feed annouces all new features and enhancements to the Google Apps services.
  Email | RSS
• The Google Apps Blog
  The Google Apps blog covers product changes and tips and tricks for all apps services.
  Email | RSS

 

hi mom

Dr. Explain “Single Pages”

Dr. Explain technique for updating & adding individual topics in Help & Manual.

Export Options

Make the DrE output as close as possible to the desired layout in H&M.

The Key: DrE’s Topic Property

If the Topic is set the .htm and all the .png’s begin with the Topic.

Import Into H&M

I was surprised that the images automatically went into the Topics subfolder I wanted them in.  In my test H&M project I had to move them from the project’s root folder.  Yet another area of H&M I haven’t figured out yet…  ;-)

Next DrE / H&M Project

Before first import into H&M set up DrE topics logically.  Include a # in the Topic to make it easier to delete obsolete images.

Dell M6400 Win7 Sewell USB Video

Installed driver, reboot, first connect fine.  (Via 7-port hub.)

Plugged in another.  As expected won’t run 1920x1200.

9-Monitor Desktop Monitor #s Update

Previous Monitor Numbers:  http://markjerde.blogspot.com/2009/12/ultramon-308-beta.html

After DisplayLink update Win7 Monitor #s match UltraMon’s.

Going to install UltraMon 3.0.9 RC.

After UltraMon RC Install, Shutdown, Unplug USBs, Startup, and Deliberate One-At-A-Time-After-Fully-Up USB Connects

• Win7 Monitor #s match UltraMon’s
• UltraMon Hotkeys work quickly
• UltraMon Profiles work w/o modification because UltraMon’s monitor #s did not change

H&M Modular Projects

http://www.helpandmanual.com/help/index.html?hm_advanced_modular.htm 

http://www.helpandmanual.com/help/index.html?hm_ref_modular.htm

A modular help system is one that is made of separate modules at "runtime", i.e. when the user is viewing it. Modular help systems are only possible in HTML Help (CHM) and the obsolete Winhelp (HLP) format.

A modular help system consist of a "master" module containing the main TOC, which must always be present, and one or more "child" modules, any of which may or may not be present.

Th: Disclaimer as master module ??

Box.net Test

Need a simple way to get files to a customer.  Trying Box.net.

The Free Lite Plan

• Signed up.
• Created a folder, copied two files into it, invited another of my email address to collaborate.
• Other email required to create a box account to download either file.
• Other email can comment.
  
• Trying “Link to this file”.  (Need Pro to password protect.)
• Other email able to download.  Trying with a 3rd email…  Works.
• Make a new Web Document & sent link to 4th email.  The link sent to 4th email opens the doc.

Looks like a winner.

To Do Items

Firefox