Converting Office Documents into PDF Files

<p dir="ltr">PDFMaker 5.0 for Windows makes it ridiculously easy to turn any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document you create or edit with the Office 2000 or Office XP (2002) editions of these programs into the latest and greatest versions of PDF documents — all you have to do is click the Convert to Adobe PDF button on the PDFMaker 5.0 toolbar (automatically added when you install Acrobat 5.0 for Windows on your computer). But before you touch that button, take a gander at these commandments for making perfect PDF conversions.</p> <p dir="ltr">Check for consistent use of heading styles</p> <p dir="ltr">Click the Document Map button on the Standard toolbar to display the headings and their hierarchical relationship in the Document Map pane in Word. Because PDFMaker can automatically convert all Word document headings into bookmarks in the resulting PDF document, you should make sure that all the headings in your document use the appropriate Heading style. Word 2002 users can display the Styles and Formatting task pane (choose View --> Task Pane and then click Styles and Formatting on the Task Pane pop-up menu) to check and, if necessary, reapply the Heading styles.</p> <p dir="ltr">Check the paging of Excel worksheets</p> <p dir="ltr">Choose View --> Page Break Preview on the Excel menus. Because PDFMaker uses the current paging of the Excel worksheet in constructing the pages in the resulting PDF document, you will want to verify the page breaks before doing the conversion. Remedy bad page breaks that separate columns and rows of data that should appear together on a page by dragging the page break markers in the Page Break Preview mode.</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which type of PDF document you're creating</p> <p dir="ltr">You do this by checking the name that appears in the Conversion Settings combo box on the Settings tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings). When selecting among these presets, keep in mind the major use of the final PDF document: Select eBook for online viewing, Press for professional printing, Print for in-house printing, and Screen for fast downloading and viewing on the Web. Also, keep in mind that you can customize any of these presets by selecting it in the Conversion Settings combo box and then clicking the Edit Conversion Settings button.</p> <p dir="ltr">Confirm that all Word document headings and styles will be converted into bookmarks</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which settings are selected on the Bookmarks tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) in Word. Click the Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks check box to convert all Heading paragraph styles used in the document into bookmarks in the resulting PDF file. Click the Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks check box to convert all the other paragraph styles used in the document to bookmarks as well. To omit certain levels of headings or particular styles from bookmark conversion, click their individual check boxes that appear in the list box below.</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which Word features are marked for conversion in the PDF document</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which Word Features settings are selected on the Office tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) in Word. To convert document comments to hidden notes in the PDF document, select the Comments --> Notes check box. To add text boxes to the adjoining text using the PDF Articles feature, select the Text Boxes --> Article Threads check box. To retain the page numbers used in the Word document, select the Page Numbers check box. To convert all cross-references and any table of contents generated in the Word document into links in the PDF document, select the Cross References & TOC Links check box. To convert all footnotes and endnotes added to the Word document into links in the resulting PDF file, select the Footnote & Endnote Links check box.</p> <p dir="ltr">Make sure that you're creating a tagged PDF file</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify that the Embed Tags in PDF (Accessibility, Reflow) check box option on the Office tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) has a check mark in it.</p> <p dir="ltr">Confirm how the converted PDF document is set to open in Acrobat</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify the Document Open options on the Display Options tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings). To open the PDF document without displaying the Bookmarks palette in the Navigation pane, click the Page Only radio button. To display a page other than the first page upon opening, enter the page number in the Page Number field. To open the page at a set magnification, click the percentage (200, 400, 800, or 1600) or preset view (Fit in Window, Fit Width, or Fit Visible) in the Open Magnification pop-up menu.</p><p dir="ltr">www.digitalsankalp.org</p>

Converting Office Documents into PDF Files

PDFMaker 5.0 for Windows makes it ridiculously easy to turn any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document you create or edit with the Office 2000 ...

Read more »

Converting Office Documents into PDF Files

<p dir="ltr">PDFMaker 5.0 for Windows makes it ridiculously easy to turn any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document you create or edit with the Office 2000 or Office XP (2002) editions of these programs into the latest and greatest versions of PDF documents — all you have to do is click the Convert to Adobe PDF button on the PDFMaker 5.0 toolbar (automatically added when you install Acrobat 5.0 for Windows on your computer). But before you touch that button, take a gander at these commandments for making perfect PDF conversions.</p> <p dir="ltr">Check for consistent use of heading styles</p> <p dir="ltr">Click the Document Map button on the Standard toolbar to display the headings and their hierarchical relationship in the Document Map pane in Word. Because PDFMaker can automatically convert all Word document headings into bookmarks in the resulting PDF document, you should make sure that all the headings in your document use the appropriate Heading style. Word 2002 users can display the Styles and Formatting task pane (choose View --> Task Pane and then click Styles and Formatting on the Task Pane pop-up menu) to check and, if necessary, reapply the Heading styles.</p> <p dir="ltr">Check the paging of Excel worksheets</p> <p dir="ltr">Choose View --> Page Break Preview on the Excel menus. Because PDFMaker uses the current paging of the Excel worksheet in constructing the pages in the resulting PDF document, you will want to verify the page breaks before doing the conversion. Remedy bad page breaks that separate columns and rows of data that should appear together on a page by dragging the page break markers in the Page Break Preview mode.</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which type of PDF document you're creating</p> <p dir="ltr">You do this by checking the name that appears in the Conversion Settings combo box on the Settings tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings). When selecting among these presets, keep in mind the major use of the final PDF document: Select eBook for online viewing, Press for professional printing, Print for in-house printing, and Screen for fast downloading and viewing on the Web. Also, keep in mind that you can customize any of these presets by selecting it in the Conversion Settings combo box and then clicking the Edit Conversion Settings button.</p> <p dir="ltr">Confirm that all Word document headings and styles will be converted into bookmarks</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which settings are selected on the Bookmarks tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) in Word. Click the Convert Word Headings to Bookmarks check box to convert all Heading paragraph styles used in the document into bookmarks in the resulting PDF file. Click the Convert Word Styles to Bookmarks check box to convert all the other paragraph styles used in the document to bookmarks as well. To omit certain levels of headings or particular styles from bookmark conversion, click their individual check boxes that appear in the list box below.</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which Word features are marked for conversion in the PDF document</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify which Word Features settings are selected on the Office tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) in Word. To convert document comments to hidden notes in the PDF document, select the Comments --> Notes check box. To add text boxes to the adjoining text using the PDF Articles feature, select the Text Boxes --> Article Threads check box. To retain the page numbers used in the Word document, select the Page Numbers check box. To convert all cross-references and any table of contents generated in the Word document into links in the PDF document, select the Cross References & TOC Links check box. To convert all footnotes and endnotes added to the Word document into links in the resulting PDF file, select the Footnote & Endnote Links check box.</p> <p dir="ltr">Make sure that you're creating a tagged PDF file</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify that the Embed Tags in PDF (Accessibility, Reflow) check box option on the Office tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings) has a check mark in it.</p> <p dir="ltr">Confirm how the converted PDF document is set to open in Acrobat</p> <p dir="ltr">Verify the Document Open options on the Display Options tab of the Acrobat 5.0 PDFMaker 5.0 dialog box (Acrobat --> Change Conversion Settings). To open the PDF document without displaying the Bookmarks palette in the Navigation pane, click the Page Only radio button. To display a page other than the first page upon opening, enter the page number in the Page Number field. To open the page at a set magnification, click the percentage (200, 400, 800, or 1600) or preset view (Fit in Window, Fit Width, or Fit Visible) in the Open Magnification pop-up menu.</p>

Converting Office Documents into PDF Files

PDFMaker 5.0 for Windows makes it ridiculously easy to turn any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document you create or edit with the Office 2000 ...

Read more »

How to Customize Your Facebook Timeline

<p dir=ltr>Your <i>Facebook Profile, </i>or <i>Timeline,</i> is the online representation of who you are. Most likely, you have online profiles for various websites. Facebook Timelines tend to be a little more comprehensive and dynamic.</p><p dir=ltr>While you're getting started, Facebook asks for only a little bit of Profile Information<i>. </i>Facebook asks for this bio because this is the information that will help your friends find you.</p><p dir=ltr>There are five fields that Facebook asks for. You can fill out all or none of them, but it's recommended that you fill them all out:</p><p dir=ltr><b>High School:</b> Enter the high school you attended. If you attended more than one high school, pick just one to enter now; you'll be able to add the rest of them later.</p><p dir=ltr><b>College/University:</b> If you attended college, enter your school. If you attended more than one school, either because you transferred or because you also attended a graduate program, just pick one school for now. You'll be able to add the rest later.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Employer:</b> Enter the name of the company you work for. For now, enter wherever you're currently working or where you worked most recently. You'll be able to enter a full work history later on.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Current City:</b> Enter the city where you currently reside.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Hometown:</b> Enter the place you identify as your hometown. That may be the place you were born or the place you moved to when you were 10 years old. It's up to you.</p><p dir=ltr>You may notice that as you type the name of your high school or college, a list of names appears below the field where you're typing. Get used to seeing these <i>autocomplete</i><i> </i>menus around Facebook. As you type, Facebook tries to guess the rest of the word you're typing. When you see what you're looking for, use the arrow keys to highlight the correct match and press Enter.</p><p dir=ltr>Next to each field is a globe icon with an upside-down triangle next to it, shown next to this paragraph. This is one version of the<i> </i>Privacy Menu that appears throughout Facebook. Also known as the Audience Selector, you can click this icon to change who can see the information you just entered.</p><p dir=ltr>Privacy on Facebook is important. And complex. For now, decide who can see each of these items. So, for example, if you're choosing privacy for your High School, you would click the globe icon to open the privacy menu and select from the following options:</p><p dir=ltr><b>Public or Everyone:</b> Anyone who visits your Timeline can see where you went to high school. Additionally, anyone who searches for People Who Went to<i><High School Name> </i>will see you in the search results.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Friends:</b> Only people you add as friends will be able to see where you went to high school.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Only Me:</b> Only you will be able to see where you went to high school. A friend visiting your Timeline won't see this information.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Custom:</b> A specific set of people you choose will or will not be able to see where you went to high school. This option doesn't usually become very useful until people have responded to your Friend Requests.</p><p dir=ltr><b>Lists (Close Friends and Family):</b>Facebook tries to help you sort your friends into categories such as Close Friends or Family. You can choose to allow only people in those lists to see where you went to high school. Much like Custom, this option may not be very useful at this time.</p><p dir=ltr>If you don't want to share this information publicly, simply click the globe icon and select with whom you do want to share it. Each privacy setting has its own icon to represent it, so if you choose Friends, the globe icon will be replaced by the icon of two silhouettes.</p><p dir=ltr>Because these are the fields that help friends find you, it's recommended that you leave them set to Public. Especially if you have a common name, having some biographical details makes it easier for friends to find and identify you. But if you aren't comfortable with that, you of course can change the privacy setting. Privacy settings aren't set in stone; you can always adjust them later.</p><p dir=ltr>When you're done filling out these fields, click the blue Save & Continue button to move on to the next step.</p><p dir=ltr>Sometimes Facebook will use the information you just entered to show you some people it thinks you may know. In that case, after you finish Step 2, but before you get to Step 3, you may see an Add People You Know screen. This screen displays the name and photos of people you may want to add as friends.</p><p dir=ltr>Click the Add Friend button next to the images of people you know and want to add as friends. You can also choose to skip that part of the step using the Skip link (next to the Save & Continue button).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGDOljJTSpe5yoE0FYhyphenhyphenqTNsi7boiDiNT6fgwcgJMkjZvlYySofjuUlRu7nMhpXFZgMHnbxg4f4-DeDg_hu8hQuev1_d74psxPV4g0OwOeJO6s2jpL8M0bjGUTrHbz7Gv-j_R1HC-lM8tL/s1600/IMG_20140116_190825.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGDOljJTSpe5yoE0FYhyphenhyphenqTNsi7boiDiNT6fgwcgJMkjZvlYySofjuUlRu7nMhpXFZgMHnbxg4f4-DeDg_hu8hQuev1_d74psxPV4g0OwOeJO6s2jpL8M0bjGUTrHbz7Gv-j_R1HC-lM8tL/s640/IMG_20140116_190825.jpg"> </a> </div>

How to Customize Your Facebook Timeline

Your  Facebook Profile,  or  Timeline,  is the online representation of who you are. Most likely, you have online profiles for various websi...

Read more »

How to Customize Your Facebook Timeline

<p>Your <i>Facebook Profile, </i>or <i>Timeline,</i> is the online representation of who you are. Most likely, you have online profiles for various websites. Facebook Timelines tend to be a little more comprehensive and dynamic.</p> <p>While you're getting started, Facebook asks for only a little bit of Profile Information<i>. </i>Facebook asks for this bio because this is the information that will help your friends find you.</p> <p><img src="http://media.wiley.com/Lux/54/389754.image0.jpg"></p> <p>There are five fields that Facebook asks for. You can fill out all or none of them, but it's recommended that you fill them all out:</p> <p><b>High School:</b> Enter the high school you attended. If you attended more than one high school, pick just one to enter now; you'll be able to add the rest of them later.</p> <p><b>College/University:</b> If you attended college, enter your school. If you attended more than one school, either because you transferred or because you also attended a graduate program, just pick one school for now. You'll be able to add the rest later.</p> <p><b>Employer:</b> Enter the name of the company you work for. For now, enter wherever you're currently working or where you worked most recently. You'll be able to enter a full work history later on.</p> <p><b>Current City:</b> Enter the city where you currently reside.</p> <p><b>Hometown:</b> Enter the place you identify as your hometown. That may be the place you were born or the place you moved to when you were 10 years old. It's up to you.</p> <p>You may notice that as you type the name of your high school or college, a list of names appears below the field where you're typing. Get used to seeing these <i>autocomplete </i>menus around Facebook. As you type, Facebook tries to guess the rest of the word you're typing. When you see what you're looking for, use the arrow keys to highlight the correct match and press Enter.</p> <p>Next to each field is a globe icon with an upside-down triangle next to it, shown next to this paragraph. This is one version of the<i> </i>Privacy Menu that appears throughout Facebook. Also known as the Audience Selector, you can click this icon to change who can see the information you just entered.</p> <p>Privacy on Facebook is important. And complex. For now, decide who can see each of these items. So, for example, if you're choosing privacy for your High School, you would click the globe icon to open the privacy menu and select from the following options:</p> <p><b>Public or Everyone:</b> Anyone who visits your Timeline can see where you went to high school. Additionally, anyone who searches for People Who Went to<i><High School Name> </i>will see you in the search results.</p> <p><b>Friends:</b> Only people you add as friends will be able to see where you went to high school.</p> <p><b>Only Me:</b> Only you will be able to see where you went to high school. A friend visiting your Timeline won't see this information.</p> <p><b>Custom:</b> A specific set of people you choose will or will not be able to see where you went to high school. This option doesn't usually become very useful until people have responded to your Friend Requests.</p> <p><b>Lists (Close Friends and Family):</b>Facebook tries to help you sort your friends into categories such as Close Friends or Family. You can choose to allow only people in those lists to see where you went to high school. Much like Custom, this option may not be very useful at this time.</p> <p>If you don't want to share this information publicly, simply click the globe icon and select with whom you do want to share it. Each privacy setting has its own icon to represent it, so if you choose Friends, the globe icon will be replaced by the icon of two silhouettes.</p> <p>Because these are the fields that help friends find you, it's recommended that you leave them set to Public. Especially if you have a common name, having some biographical details makes it easier for friends to find and identify you. But if you aren't comfortable with that, you of course can change the privacy setting. Privacy settings aren't set in stone; you can always adjust them later.</p> <p>When you're done filling out these fields, click the blue Save & Continue button to move on to the next step.</p> <p>Sometimes Facebook will use the information you just entered to show you some people it thinks you may know. In that case, after you finish Step 2, but before you get to Step 3, you may see an Add People You Know screen. This screen displays the name and photos of people you may want to add as friends.</p> <p>Click the Add Friend button next to the images of people you know and want to add as friends. You can also choose to skip that part of the step using the Skip link (next to the Save & Continue button).</p>

How to Customize Your Facebook Timeline

Your  Facebook Profile,  or  Timeline,  is the online representation of who you are. Most likely, you have online profiles for various websi...

Read more »

Getting the Red Out without Eyedrops

<p>Red eye occurs when the subject of a picture looks directly into the flash, and the unfortunate result is that eerie reddish luminescence in the eyes that says, "Not only didn't I get any sleep last night, but I'm also auditioning for the remake of Michael Jackson's<i>Thriller</i> video."</p> <p>The flash bouncing off the blood vessels in the retina and right back into the camera's lens causes the red-eye effect. You'll see red eye most often in pictures taken in dim light because the pupils are at their largest in low-light conditions. You may also see red eye if you're using a camera with a flash that's very close to the camera's lens (thereby making it easier for the light to bounce straight back into the lens). The best way to fix red eye is to avoid it completely. That usually means getting a flash camera that can work around it:</p> <p>Many cameras have a red-eye prevention mode. Usually, this mode triggers a quick, bright preflash just before the actual picture is taken. The preflash causes the subjects' irises to contract, making their pupils smaller when the second flash (that is, the real flash) goes off.Some cameras mount the flash high or to one side of the lens. This simple trick also minimizes the chance of red eye.</p> <p>However, these preventive measures are of little solace when you have a great picture that features bright red pupils as its most dominating feature.</p> <p>Here's a quick way to paint out red eye and restore your image to a less zombielike look:</p> <p>1. Open the original photo with red eye showing.</p> <p>2. Select the pupil of one of the eyes.</p> <p>An easy way to avoid changing the color of more than the red part of the eye is by painting the selection by using the Quick Mask tool.</p> <p>3. Double-click the Quick Mask icon in the Tool palette.</p> <p>The Quick Mask Options dialog box appears.</p> <p>Make sure that the Selected Areas option is selected. This tells Photoshop that the area you're painting should be considered a selection.</p> <p>4. Double-click the Color preview box to produce the Color Picker dialog box. Choose a bright green color as the mask color.</p> <p>Photoshop uses a red hue by default that would make it difficult to see what part of the image you've already painted, so using a contrasting color eliminates this problem.</p> <p>5. Click OK to dismiss the Color Picker dialog box, and then click OK to close the Quick Mask Options dialog box and begin painting a mask.</p> <p>6. Choose a fuzzy-edged brush from the Brushes palette and paint around one iris.</p> <p>7. Press Q to exit Quick Mask mode.</p> <p>Only the pupil of the eye is selected, so you can paint without fear of covering up any other parts of the eye.</p> <p>8. Choose Select --> Save Selection and store the pupil selection. Give it a name, such as "Last Iris."</p> <p>You can reuse the pupil selection later if you accidentally deselect the area while working.</p> <p>9. Select the Brush tool and choose a small fuzzy-edged brush.</p> <p>10. In the Options bar, choose Hard Light as the blending mode from the Mode drop-down list.</p> <p>11. Choose a color that matches the iris color but is quite a bit darker.</p> <p>Pupils are ordinarily much darker than the iris that surrounds them.</p> <p>l2. Paint over the pupil.</p> <p>You may notice that two catchlights (reflections of light sources such as windows or the flash that made the picture) on the eye, which is unnatural. Of course, having no catchlight at all is even more unnatural! Cover the extraneous left catchlight in each pupil, but try not to obscure the main, right catchlight.</p> <p>If you must paint over one of the main catchlights to remove the red-eye effect, use some white paint to insert a new one.</p><p>www.digitalsankalp.org</p>

Getting the Red Out without Eyedrops

Red eye occurs when the subject of a picture looks directly into the flash, and the unfortunate result is that eerie reddish luminescence in...

Read more »

Drawing with the Pencil Tool in Photoshop Elements 4

<p><b>Drawing with the Pencil tool in Photoshop Elements 4 creates hard edges. You can't get the soft, feathery edges that you can with the Brush tool. In fact, the edges of a pencil stroke can't even be anti-aliased (where edges are softened). So keep in mind that if you draw anything other than vertical or horizontal lines, your lines will have some jaggies when viewed up close. But hey, don't diss the Pencil just yet. Those hard-edged strokes can be perfect for Web graphics. And what's more, the Pencil tool has the ability to erase itself, and it's great for digital sketches, as shown in Figure 1.</b></p> <p><img src="http://media.wiley.com/assets/1020/79/0-471-77483-9_1204.jpg"><br></p> <p><b>Figure 1:</b> The Pencil tool can be used for digital drawings.</p> <p>The awkwardness of trying to draw with a mouse disappears if you use a pressure-sensitive digital drawing tablet — the Pencil tool will behave much more like a real lead pencil.</p> <p>Follow these steps to become familiar with the Pencil tool:</p> <p>1. Select the Pencil tool from the Tools palette.</p> <p>You can also press the N key. By default, the Pencil tool's brush tip is the 1-pixel brush. (Yes, even though the Pencil tip is hard-edged, it's still referred to as a brush.)</p> <p>2. On the Options bar, choose your desired pencil options, beginning with a brush preset.</p> <p>3. Click the arrow and select your desired brush from the Brush Preset Picker drop-down palette.</p> <p>To load another preset library, click the Brushes menu at the top of the palette.</p> <p>Remember, you aren't limited to the standard old brush strokes. Check out the Assorted and Special Effects brushes. You'll be surprised at some of the interesting brushes lurking in these palettes. Use them to create stand-alone images or to enhance your photographic creations.</p> <p>Access the pop-up menu on the drop-down palette to save, rename, or delete individual brushes and also save, load, and reset brush libraries.</p> <p>4. Choose your brush size.</p> <p>A preset brush's pixel diameters are shown as text below a thumbnail image of the brush shape. If you want to change the size of that brush tip, drag the slider or enter a value.</p> <p>5. Select a blending mode.</p> <p>6. If you want the background to show through your strokes, adjust the Opacity by dragging the slider or entering an opacity percentage less than 100 percent.</p> <p>The lower the percentage, the more the background images show through.</p> <p>Your strokes must be on a separate layer above your images for you to be able to adjust the opacity and blend modes after you've drawn them.</p> <p>7. Select Auto Erase if you want to enable that option.</p> <p>This option removes portions of your pencil strokes.</p> <p>8. Click and drag with the mouse to create your freeform lines.</p> <p>To draw straight lines, click at a starting point, release the mouse button, and then Shift+click at a second point.</p>

Drawing with the Pencil Tool in Photoshop Elements 4

Drawing with the Pencil tool in Photoshop Elements 4 creates hard edges. You can't get the soft, feathery edges that you can with the Br...

Read more »

Drawing with the Pencil Tool in Photoshop Elements 4

<p><b>Drawing with the Pencil tool in Photoshop Elements 4 creates hard edges. You can't get the soft, feathery edges that you can with the Brush tool. In fact, the edges of a pencil stroke can't even be anti-aliased (where edges are softened). So keep in mind that if you draw anything other than vertical or horizontal lines, your lines will have some jaggies when viewed up close. But hey, don't diss the Pencil just yet. Those hard-edged strokes can be perfect for Web graphics. And what's more, the Pencil tool has the ability to erase itself, and it's great for digital sketches, as shown in Figure 1.</b></p> <p><img src="http://media.wiley.com/assets/1020/79/0-471-77483-9_1204.jpg"><br></p> <p><b>Figure 1:</b> The Pencil tool can be used for digital drawings.</p> <p>The awkwardness of trying to draw with a mouse disappears if you use a pressure-sensitive digital drawing tablet — the Pencil tool will behave much more like a real lead pencil.</p> <p>Follow these steps to become familiar with the Pencil tool:</p> <p>1. Select the Pencil tool from the Tools palette.</p> <p>You can also press the N key. By default, the Pencil tool's brush tip is the 1-pixel brush. (Yes, even though the Pencil tip is hard-edged, it's still referred to as a brush.)</p> <p>2. On the Options bar, choose your desired pencil options, beginning with a brush preset.</p> <p>3. Click the arrow and select your desired brush from the Brush Preset Picker drop-down palette.</p> <p>To load another preset library, click the Brushes menu at the top of the palette.</p> <p>Remember, you aren't limited to the standard old brush strokes. Check out the Assorted and Special Effects brushes. You'll be surprised at some of the interesting brushes lurking in these palettes. Use them to create stand-alone images or to enhance your photographic creations.</p> <p>Access the pop-up menu on the drop-down palette to save, rename, or delete individual brushes and also save, load, and reset brush libraries.</p> <p>4. Choose your brush size.</p> <p>A preset brush's pixel diameters are shown as text below a thumbnail image of the brush shape. If you want to change the size of that brush tip, drag the slider or enter a value.</p> <p>5. Select a blending mode.</p> <p>6. If you want the background to show through your strokes, adjust the Opacity by dragging the slider or entering an opacity percentage less than 100 percent.</p> <p>The lower the percentage, the more the background images show through.</p> <p>Your strokes must be on a separate layer above your images for you to be able to adjust the opacity and blend modes after you've drawn them.</p> <p>7. Select Auto Erase if you want to enable that option.</p> <p>This option removes portions of your pencil strokes.</p> <p>8. Click and drag with the mouse to create your freeform lines.</p> <p>To draw straight lines, click at a starting point, release the mouse button, and then Shift+click at a second point.</p>

Drawing with the Pencil Tool in Photoshop Elements 4

Drawing with the Pencil tool in Photoshop Elements 4 creates hard edges. You can't get the soft, feathery edges that you can with the Br...

Read more »

Getting the Red Out without Eyedrops

<p>Red eye occurs when the subject of a picture looks directly into the flash, and the unfortunate result is that eerie reddish luminescence in the eyes that says, "Not only didn't I get any sleep last night, but I'm also auditioning for the remake of Michael Jackson's<i>Thriller</i> video."</p> <p>The flash bouncing off the blood vessels in the retina and right back into the camera's lens causes the red-eye effect. You'll see red eye most often in pictures taken in dim light because the pupils are at their largest in low-light conditions. You may also see red eye if you're using a camera with a flash that's very close to the camera's lens (thereby making it easier for the light to bounce straight back into the lens). The best way to fix red eye is to avoid it completely. That usually means getting a flash camera that can work around it:</p> <p>Many cameras have a red-eye prevention mode. Usually, this mode triggers a quick, bright preflash just before the actual picture is taken. The preflash causes the subjects' irises to contract, making their pupils smaller when the second flash (that is, the real flash) goes off.Some cameras mount the flash high or to one side of the lens. This simple trick also minimizes the chance of red eye.</p> <p>However, these preventive measures are of little solace when you have a great picture that features bright red pupils as its most dominating feature.</p> <p>Here's a quick way to paint out red eye and restore your image to a less zombielike look:</p> <p>1. Open the original photo with red eye showing.</p> <p>2. Select the pupil of one of the eyes.</p> <p>An easy way to avoid changing the color of more than the red part of the eye is by painting the selection by using the Quick Mask tool.</p> <p>3. Double-click the Quick Mask icon in the Tool palette.</p> <p>The Quick Mask Options dialog box appears.</p> <p>Make sure that the Selected Areas option is selected. This tells Photoshop that the area you're painting should be considered a selection.</p> <p>4. Double-click the Color preview box to produce the Color Picker dialog box. Choose a bright green color as the mask color.</p> <p>Photoshop uses a red hue by default that would make it difficult to see what part of the image you've already painted, so using a contrasting color eliminates this problem.</p> <p>5. Click OK to dismiss the Color Picker dialog box, and then click OK to close the Quick Mask Options dialog box and begin painting a mask.</p> <p>6. Choose a fuzzy-edged brush from the Brushes palette and paint around one iris.</p> <p>7. Press Q to exit Quick Mask mode.</p> <p>Only the pupil of the eye is selected, so you can paint without fear of covering up any other parts of the eye.</p> <p>8. Choose Select --> Save Selection and store the pupil selection. Give it a name, such as "Last Iris."</p> <p>You can reuse the pupil selection later if you accidentally deselect the area while working.</p> <p>9. Select the Brush tool and choose a small fuzzy-edged brush.</p> <p>10. In the Options bar, choose Hard Light as the blending mode from the Mode drop-down list.</p> <p>11. Choose a color that matches the iris color but is quite a bit darker.</p> <p>Pupils are ordinarily much darker than the iris that surrounds them.</p> <p>l2. Paint over the pupil.</p> <p>You may notice that two catchlights (reflections of light sources such as windows or the flash that made the picture) on the eye, which is unnatural. Of course, having no catchlight at all is even more unnatural! Cover the extraneous left catchlight in each pupil, but try not to obscure the main, right catchlight.</p> <p>If you must paint over one of the main catchlights to remove the red-eye effect, use some white paint to insert a new one.</p>

Getting the Red Out without Eyedrops

Red eye occurs when the subject of a picture looks directly into the flash, and the unfortunate result is that eerie reddish luminescence in...

Read more »

Knowing Multiple Ways to Save Documents in InDesign CS3

<h1 style="font-size:20px;margin:0.25rem 0px;padding:0px 0px 0.5rem;border-width:0px 0px 1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:rgb(204,204,204);color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:17px;line-height:24px">The InDesign File menu contains a group of commands — Close, Save, Save As, Save a Copy, Check In, and Revert — that provide options for saving the active (frontmost) document. Here's a rundown of what each command does:</span><br> </h1> <ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><li><b>Close</b> (Command+W, or Ctrl+W or Ctrl+F4) closes the active document. If the document has never been saved or if it has been changed since it was last saved, a dialog box lets you save, close without saving, or cancel and return to the document.</li> </ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif">To close multiple windows at once, use the shortcuts Option+Shift+Command+F4 or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W.</ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"> <li><b>Save</b> (Command+S or Ctrl+S) saves changes you've made to the active document since you last saved. (If you choose Save for a document that hasn't yet been saved, the Save As dialog box is displayed.)</li> </ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><li><b>Save As</b> (Option+Command+S or Ctrl+Alt+S) lets you save a copy of the active document using a different name (or with the same name in a different folder). When you choose Save As — and when you choose Save for an unsaved document — the Save As dialog box appears. This dialog box lets you create or choose a folder for the document, as well as name the document.</li> </ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><li><b>Check In</b> saves the current document as a version within a Version Cue project. (Version Cue is Adobe software that helps track different versions of your projects.) This latest save will be considered a version of the previously saved file. (This expert option is available only if Version Cue is enabled. It had been called Save a Version in previous versions of InDesign.)</li> </ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><li><b>Save a Copy</b> lets you create a copy of the active document in a different (or in the same) folder using a different (or the same) name. When you use the Save a Copy command, the original document remains open and retains its original name. It differs from Save As only in that it keeps the original document open.</li> </ul><ul style="padding:0px 1rem;margin:0px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><li><b>Revert</b> undoes all changes you've made to a document since you last saved it.</li></ul>

Knowing Multiple Ways to Save Documents in InDesign CS3

The InDesign File menu contains a group of commands — Close, Save, Save As, Save a Copy, Check In, and Revert — that provide options for sav...

Read more »