Easier way to add captions in Pinnacle Studio

Its not too hard to make captions that are short.

I got lazy and I just added a slab or maybe 20 seconds of captions on one caption, this made it really bulky, unprofessional and crowded the screen but it was convenient for me.

I then realised I can easily make then shorter without having to apply much effort.

1. Do what I have done above, add a decent slab of text into a caption and add it to scene.
2. Split the captions on the timeline along where you want the captions to change.
3. Now start deleting sentences so that you only have a short sentence on every split caption.
4. As the captions will include the original slab of text, all you have to do is delete more and more lines of text until you teach the last sentence in the slab.
2B. You may want to split the captions strategically to ensure you don't need to play around with timing realignment.

This has saved me so much effort in making shorter captions. Its easy , quick and looks so much more professional (which makes it more practical) as slabs of text are hard to follow.

WLM/ MSN Missing Messages: Solved

This is a place holder for a solution I am still evaluating.
The Solution, if it be one will be posted in around few months time after evaluation of it's effectiveness or relation to solving the problem.

I had a Modem that was connected to a Wi-Fi router (Router with wireless) and both were in routing modes. I suspect this could have caused issues with speed, drop outs, accuracy and loss of data (especially MSN/WLM lost messages)


Solution (Hopefully):

Set the Wi-Fi rouyter into "Access Point (AP) Mode so it simply just relays everything from the modem into Wi-Fi or Ethernet ports.

Other way is to set up the modem as a modem ONLY (most modems for ADSL have routers inside) and then set up the Wi-Fi router to do all the login and Internet authoisation processes. This process in my opinion is much harder and if the first soltuion above works then why make more work for yourself?

In my case anyway, it was easier to put the Wi-Fi wouter into AP mode, I have a Belkin by the way. Apparently it is harder to undo! so keep that in mind, if you set the Wi-Fi router into AP mode you need to use the Reset button at the back of the routewr to reset it (which emans you've got to set it up as if it just came out of the box which is a pain if you have all the computers set up to access a particular SSID and password.


Just quickly:

• Go to an Internet browser
• Smack in http://192.168.2.1/
• Enter
• Go down to "Set Up as Access Point" or soemthing similar
• Follow the prompts
• Check to see if all the computers can still connect and see the Modem, the router should now be an invisible device with the exception of the Searching for Wi-Fi connections.

EDIT: I've noticed that when messages aren't delivered it now tells me, usually when I send too many messages at the same time, like I type 1 word per message but I guess it is not a 100% fix but at least it's as simple as copy paste and then re-send rather than you or recipient swear at each other for being rude and not replying =]

Recovering / Migrating Mozilla Firefox / Thunderbird Profiles!

OK, I did a hard drive partition whilst running on battery and I left it running and forgot all about it, so.. logical tells us the battery didn't last as long as the process, hence my whole partition was partially stuffed up, big time!

Meaning windows would not boot. I ran the recovery options from the W7 disc and ta-da, Windows now boots.

OK now my desktop won't load at all, so my Windows install is pretty much stuffed up, ad not even the Admin or Safe-mode accounts can load anything up. I'll try a system restore point, opss I disabled that before for some unexplained reason :\

So now I am evaluating what I will lose if I do a fresh install over it, well Firefox Bookmarks NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and also Thunderbird E-mails and address book, Ahh NOOOOOOOOOO this can't be happening, I don't make a regualr habbit of back up, only like once every 3 months. =.="

So I decided to do a fresh install but on a different partion and keep the sutffed up W7 partition so I can attempt to recover the programs etc. (not really recover but like I can acces the Program files oflder of the stuffed up W7 and at least have a remidner of what programs I had installed etc.

I separate my data and OS for this purpose, so that only Firefox and Thunderbird data is lost (hopefully, I haven't yet thought of anything else I might lose except for windows shortcuts and layouts which some can be copied and pasted and maybe saved games, which can also be pasted, see why I said install in a new partition?? you can continue to recover some stuff)


IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN MY EVENT STORY AND JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO RECOVER THE PROFILES OF MOZILLA SOFTWARE DO THIS: (Windows 7)
Read Red Tips below first before beginning to save time =)

• Go to: C:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox
  Where C = Drive letter of stuffed up W7
  Where Gec = name of your Windows profile (e.g. Gec's Pictures, i.e. the name you see at the log in screen)
  
  
• Go to "Profiles" > fn489th3.default
  Where fn489th3 = random, your one will not be called this
  
  
• Copy the whole fn489th3.default folder into:
  
  
• D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
  Where D = new drive letter of working W7
  Where Gec = new windows account name
  
  
• Now in: D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Firefox\profiles.ini
  
  
• Change "Path=Profiles/zvdf31jz.default" to "Path=Profiles/fn489th3.default"
  Where zvdf31jz.default = random name made by the new Firefox install
  
  
• Save the changes and now open up Firefox, most bookmarks etc. should be there with the exception of Themes.
  
  
• !!! The same works for Thunderbird, with the exception that the location is
  C:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
  
  
  
• !!! To avoid this situation again, try using a Mozilla Backup tool called "MozBackup" (recommendation only, i am no way associated with the promotion of the product, BTW it's free anyway ;P)
  
  

TROUBLE SHOOTING / TIPS:

1. You need Firefox and or Thunderbird installed in the new W7 install first.
   
   
2. You also need to run the application once first and when asked, select "do not import
   anything" as this will set up the profile folders.
   
   
3. You need to go to Tools > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files, folders and drives
   before you can see the "AppData folder in D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
   
   
4. You may only see profile instead of profile.ini unless you un-check "Hide file extensions of known file types" (Tools > Folder Options > View > Hide file extensions of known file types"

Automated resize of pics to upload

We all now have better quality cameras, camera phones etc. which is all good until you need to upload over 30 pictures to the Internet at >500KB an image.

Using Photoshop to re-size them is a good way to really compress the size but keep the quality but how long will it take YOU to re-size it in Photoshop? (without learning how to make an automated batch script thingy)

Here is a quick and very small solution! :

RESIZE - http://www.snapfiles.com/publishers/peter-bone/index.html

Also check out the stick figure animation whilst your there, I have also used this before and it was great!

MSN/WLM: Flash Player Required error on start up

"To send or receive Windows Live Messenger content, you need a newer version of Adobe Flash Player. Once adobe Flash Player has been installed, you may need to exit and restart Windows Live Messenger.

To download and install the most recent version of Adobe Flash Player, click install"


SOLUTION: Feel free to post your solutions, mine is still not fixed.

SOLVED: (Special thanks to ParadoX)

ParadoX said...

Hi,

Had the same problem. Go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash and launch NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. That's it, restart MSN, the problem is gone :)

Cheers,
ParadoX

Lightweight PDF Viewer (SumatraPDF)

I got copped with a 33MB update file from Adobe Reader and that's what tipped me off to get a better PDF viewer.

SumatraPDF is my new replacement:

• At first the lacking of interface buttons compared to Adobe does put you off but then when you use it for a while you realise that you never used those buttons on Adobe anyways.
  

Goods:

• Small download file
• Opens very quickly
• Does the job
• Has the option (on by default) to remember where you last read the PDF up to, very good idea and tool if your reading Uni lecture notes or a big e-book, you'll want to not have to use bookmarks or remember page numbers. This alone is a great competitive advantage. Adobe may have had this feature, I am not sure but my Adobe certainly didn't remember pages upon closing.

DOWNLOAD: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Delete / Move / Unlock locked files by windows or other applications

I can't remember why I never posted about "Unlocker" the application, that is really good for unlocking files and folders being used by applications or Windows itself.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

I had a folder that was created by windows during an update I'd presume or an install of something but the computer crashed and so the temp folder was never unlocked or deleted. Ran Unlocker for 5 seconds, couldn't find any application locking it but gave me the option to delete it, so i did. done!

Install Windows Live Messenger (WLM) Without re-downloading

I run a dual boot OS laptop and also maintain many computers at home and what bugs me about the new system of WLV compared to the old Windows Messenger is that you have to download a small installer file which will then download a huge file to install WML and when you are doing this for lots of computers or the same one but running a different OS then that is just plain annoying. You'll think so too when your living in Australia and have download limits.

This is a really good link that shows you how to do it:

Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 standalone individual setup installer msi.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/10/21/retrieve-windows-live-messenger-2009-standalone-individual-setup-installer-msi-from-web-download/



AND again for my lazy viewers :P :

1. Go to OS drive, C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\
2. Type in the address bar after C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\
   .cache to give C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\.cache
3. Press enter
4. Go to search bar up the top and type in "Messenger"
5. You should see in the results field, Messenger.msi
6. Copy and paste that file into a folder for keeps and then run it to install WLM.

Hope this helps! :P I seriously do cause it's annoying, that and I sort of wrote this post before I checked if it worked. LOL


EDIT:

Also Search for "wllogin.msi" whilst your there and also install that. That is the Login-Assistant and without it you might not be able to sign in to WLM even though you have it installed.

A second note is the MDi is ment for the small installer program you used before to install WLM and hence no uder interface is visible, it simply installs and closes itself when done. So if you clicked it once see a installing window and it disappears, check the Start > All Programs. It has been installed.

How to restore a deleted bookmark? (accidental deletion)

Well, if your using Firefox then its as simple as:

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Restore > (Select a date that the bookmark wasn't deleted yet.

This obviously only works well if:

1. You had deleted the bookmark recently
2. Have not added a lot of new bookmarks since the deletion of the bookmark.
   

MS Word 2007 Shortcuts

Press Alt and labels come up to shortcuts to others.

How to Uninstall Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) 2007

You may have auto update enabled and automatically downloaded the OGA and now for some reason it says your copy of Office is not genuine and you've called up Tech Support and still they can't fix it and now your embarrassed in front of your friends and or colleges because your a honerable man/women and have never ever used non-genuine or fake copies of software (you never buy from markets or online and only at leading retailers)

So what you can do to remove this OGA notice is:

(copied from a comment from this site: http://www.makefriendsandmoney.com/blog/how-to-uninstall-office-genuine-advantage-notifications-kb949810/)

anonymous said,

in March 21st, 2009 at 10:27 AM

"
Run this DOS command at C:\>
MsiExec.exe /uninstall {B148AB4B-C8FA-474B-B981-F2943C5B5BCD}
You will be prompted if you are sure you want to unistall. Click ‘Yes’
This will uninstall the OGA notifier 1.7.0105.35.0 described on this blog.
Works for vista and XP.

This thing worked
"

Extra Info:

To run the Dos command prompt, just use the CMD (Command Prompt) by pressing

1. Windows + R
2. Type in "cmd"
3. Press enter

To get to C:\>, in order for it to work(you can't run it at another other location)

e.g. if it is at C:\PeterWong

1. Type in "cd .." (this brings it up a level, so its = to pressing the up button in Windows XP interface)
2. Press enter

Free software for.. (2009 list)

(Ongoing post, keep checking back occasionally)
Here is what I am running currently and doing it for free:


Internet Browser:
FireFox

E-Mail client:
Thunderbird

Defrag:
Auslogics Disk Defrag

ZIP/RAR:
IZArc

CD/DVD burning:
BurnAware Free Edition

Security:
Spybot Search & Destroy
SpywareBlaster
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Comodo Firewall
Avast Anti-Virus

Audio Recording and manipulation:
Audacity

Anything to PDF:
Primo PDF


Any Requests?????

FREE Flv to MP3 converter software

Freez Flv to Mp3 Converter
From SmallVideoSoft

"Freez Flv to Mp3 Converter is a a tool to extract audio stream from Flash FLV files to Mp3 files."

Does what its suppose with little hassle and really a use and forget about software (Use it when needed else it hides away, never bothering you or needing maintenance).

5/5 for my use in my flv to mp3 task.


Download Page

FREE Mp4 to Mp3 conversion Software

Free M4a to MP3 Converter
From Maniactools

Do you need to convert AAC to MP3? M4a to MP3? MP4 audio to MP3? Your favorite player doesn't support M4a audio? Then take a look at the new tool from ManiacTools, Free M4a to MP3 Converter.

The program supports a number of input formats, like the above mentioned AAC, M4a, MP4 audio, M4b (audiobooks), and some other MPEG-4 based audio formats. You can convert those types of audio files to MP3 or uncompressed WAV.



Download/Info page


Does what its suppose to in nice interface and FREE!
5/5 for my purpose of converting mp4 to mp3s.

MS Word Single horizontal page

How do i have a horizontal page with other being vertical?
How do i have a vertical page with other being horizontal?

If I have guessed correctly your wanting to add a diagram in a word doc or some writing to a diagram document hence the different page set outs.

Check out this: (The Phlebob from Yahoo! Answers)

"
prior to Word 2007
1. Select the text you want in Landscape orientation. (Skip this if you want the entire file put into Landscape orientation.)
2. Click the File->Page Setup menu item.
3. Click the Landscape orientation box.
4. In the Apply To list box, select Selected Text or, if you want the entire document, select Whole Document.
5. Click OK.

In Word 2007:
1. Select the text you want in Landscape orientation.
2. Click the Page Layout tab on the Ribbon.
3. If you want the entire document switched to Landscape orientation, click Orientation in the Page Setup group.
4. If you want only the selected text switched to Landscape orientation, click the arrow in the lower right corner of the Page Setup group and continue with step 3, above.
"




for me it didn't work, doing that made ALL my pages turn into horizontal or vertical so here is my stab as it.

1. Select page you want to be Horizontal or Vertical (differnt to rest)
2. File > Page Setup >(Portrait or Landscape)
3. Apply to: [This point forward]

4. Go to page where normal orientation begins
5. File > Page Setup >(Set back to normal)
6. Apply to: [This point forward]

Using the above logic should get you to create a part of the word doc that has the orientation settings applied. I was editing a already written document (hence had many pages after the one I wanted horizontal so maybe that's why the Yahoo! Answers method didn't work for me)

;)

Can't copy and Paste Diagrams in MS Word

the diagrams are missing things such as text, the boxes are different shapes or places, the lines in the diagram are in the same place as original diagram. Fixing the new pasted diagram in Word is useless and annoying.

i don't got a solution for fixing that but I have a work around:

• Take the "to copy from" word doc and open it up
• Go to the page zoom option and set it to whole page
• go to view > full screen
• Press screenshot button keyboard (PrtScr) button
• Open up photoshop or another nice imagine editing software
• Paste it in there
• Crop out the unwanted parts
• Save as a JPEG
  
  
• Open up "to paste in" doc and insert image and point to the JPEG.
  
  
  A simple yet sometimes hard to think of work around that has worked for me well during my first year of uni.
  

Can't copy and paste PDF text

I can't copy the text from a pdf file.

There is a work around for this, the reason why you can't copy and paste is most likely due to the fact that the pdf has had the copy and paste permission disabled by the creator.

The workaround is called Freeware PDF Unlocker. Its a very very simple program that does what you want and then hides away. The way it works is you get the protected pdf and drop it into the icon and done! a new unprotected pdf is created.

The program is mainly designed to remove the copy and paste permissions. It can also remove password protected pdfs but you first have to unlock it. I suggest this program because I got annoyed having to re-type things i could copy and paste but do not encourage the hacking of passwords on pdfs unless you are the owner and have forgotten the password.

Freeware PDF Unlocker

Truely brillient, simple, easy and FREE!

Orginising your desktop for tidy PC users

I have all my icons neatly organised at the bottom of my desktop BUT now there's a new better way to organise icons on the desktop. You can organise everything from type of shortcut, purpose area to place all the software (for work, home, kids etc.)

The software is called Fences from Stardock.
http://www.stardock.com/products/fences/downloads.asp


Click picture to view full sized version.

Installing Drivers off product disc

This is probably the most major tip I can give for newbie users trying to install hardware manually. Usually if you buy generics you will get a CD full of cr*p and sometimes even drivers from other products from the same company, to save money they've just produced the same CD for all products.

Older computer, OS and hardware may needed to be manually installed, no auto run CD wizard with nice graphics. Usually you have to go to Add New Hardware from control panel and let the computer find the new hardware and then ask you if you want to use the Internet, Floppy disc, Windows/Cab folder or specific location.

Many times you will point it to the CD or floppy the drivers are on but sometimes or most for me it won't find it as the drivers are rarely in that directory.

Usually it is in this format: D:/GenericsRus/Drivers/Windows/Winxp

Or something like that, the trick is to point it to the folder that has the .INF file or whatever instead of simple D:/ the directory of the CD but the folder in which the driver is in.

NHC (Notebook Hardware Control)

This is in relation to the event of Undervolting and Throttling


Current success:

• Yet another Fail
  

Reasons for (fail):

• The GUI is much more nicer and basic then the RM Clock application. Haven't got Dynamic switching working yet but no crashes so far. Might not be good for those advanced users who want to over control every single aspect ;)
• Haven't been able to get undervolting to work either, maybe its only for full registered users. Also didn't have suggested volts and multipliers installed by default so have no idea what to use without blowing up X|.
  

Reasons against (Fail):

• I get an error message saying "Error on changing the CPU speed" when trying to change anything. I can only manually set the CPU modulation which didn't reduce heat or save batteries.
  
• It made my computer slow, permanently even if NHC was turned off, after a bit of analysis and crying over my now 1.4Ghz laptop which is slower than my previous single core desktop and having 1998 HDD response rates, I went to check the BIOS and yep the software turned off dynamic switching and left my laptops CPU stuck on a low CPU frequency. So if you've noticed your computer being super slow then do that!

FINAL CONCLUSION (for the 20009 at least):

If you have a Toshiba laptop like mine and its loaded with enough power to blow up your house, then I guess don't try to limit its speed with throttlers you'll regret it, it will feel like the 1990's and it for me anyway, didn't save power or make the laptop cooler.

My solution:

1. Elevate laptop with a CD jewl case (not needed if you follow 3 or 4)

2. Get a deskfan from Target or somewhere for about $8, aim fan at air vents (not really needed if you follow 3)

3. Get a high profile laptop cooling pad (not sure it is works as well if you follow 4)

4. Buy a 8 Cell battery spare or replacement battery which will elevate the latop and add battery power and cooling effect! you can even save on the 20 cent CD case ;) (not needed if you just find a wall plug in, lol)