New Release worth Download Today

Following applications has a new version, what are you waiting for go download it.

• Paint .NET 3.35 Build 3096
• 7-Zip v4.59 Alpha 3
• FastStone Image Viewer 3.6B
• Sysinternals Suite

How to save on paper usage

Some department in my company are on cost saving drive and the first thing they did is to cut down the paper usage. Below are some solutions which can be done.

1. DON’T PRINT…. Simple, just view on screen
2. Use Fine Print http://www.fineprint.com
3. Use your Printer Driver to print up to 2 or 4 pages per paper. Make sure you download the drivers from your printer manufacturer. The default print drivers from Microsoft does not support this. Alternatively you can use the Xerox Universal Printer Driver.

Multi Page Printing (Poster Printing)

A colleague of my asked me how to print an A2 PDF file into multiple A4 pages (to be exact 4 pages of A4, because A2= 4 x A4)? After some searching and finding below are the possible solutions. I divide the solutions to two part, printing Images and printing PDF documents (non Image).

A. Printing Images files as Poster

Microsoft Paint
Yes Microsoft Paint actually support Poster Printing, this features are hidden from most of the users (including me, only discover recently). Below are steps to do it in Ms Paint.

1. Load up an Image (File –> Open)
2. Open the Print Setup dialogs (File –> Print Setup…)
3. Change the Scaling Fit to option

Freeware 
There is freeware / shareware which support this features. Below I listed two freeware, you may Google “poster printing freeware” to check out more.

Posteriza
Postaganda

 

B. Print Everything as Poster

Printer Driver
If your printer driver support this, you are lucky else you need to rely on others method / virtual printer driver as describe later. In screen below my HP 2420dn support poster printing while my HP 4200 don’t. If your printer support poster printing you should be able to find the setting under Printer Printing Preferences.

Virtual Printer Driver
PrintGhot 1.0 from UsefulSoft allow you print any documents into multi page. Basically it is a virtual printer driver allow you output anything printable documents to multi page (poster print). http://usefulsoft.com/printghost/

Possible Solutions
This might work, but I have not try. It is just an idea only, in anyone try this out let me know.

1. Install Microsoft Office Document Image Writer. This will allow you print anything to an Image file
2. Use the method describe in part one and print the image files to multi page.

This might work for PostScript printer driver which can produce image files.

FireFox 3 Final

Yup… it’s final and to my surprise the Google Toolbar works (it’s not working in RC2). Below are Plug-ins I used in FF2 which does not work in FF3.

Need another reason to upgrade to FireFox 3, check this article, it does a benchmark using between browser on JavaScript and ACID 3.

Xerox Global Print Driver – Quick Review

Fuji Xerox release an universal printer driver which claim can be used for all printer, below is a quick review on it. In summary work pretty well with Laser Printer, so far able to detect a few HP LaserJet I added and one plus point I like about this printer drivers was it

• provide multi page printing (including booklet) – this instantly add multi page support to those printer driver which does not provide this function and need to rely on third parties application like FinePrint
• page scale up / down
• watermark.

Link to official site :
http://www.office.xerox.com/software-solutions/global-printer-driver/enus.html

Upgraded Live Writer to Technical Preview Edition

Had upgraded the my Microsoft Live Writer to Technical Preview edition, below are some of the new features.

SDK Updates

This release is largely about updates to the Writer SDK, which now includes hooks for pre- and post-publish events. These updates are still experimental and these APIs are not stable--we may make changes based on your feedback that break plug-ins that use these new methods. However, we’re really excited about the new set of scenarios have been unlocked and look forward to hearing feedback from all of you Writer plug-in developers out there.

For more details about the SDK, please see the blog post on Windows Live Dev.

New Features

You’ll also get an early look at some improvements and new features we’ve been working on:

Video and Image Publishing Enhancements

• Upload videos to Soapbox
• Image cropping and tilting
• Additional border styles
• Support for LightBox and other image previewing effects (like Slimbox, Smoothbox, and others)
• Support for centering images

Editing Enhancements

• Auto Linking
• Smart quotes/typographic characters
• Word count

UI Improvements

• Revised main toolbar
• Tabs for view switching
• Improved category control with search/filtering

Want to be part of Guinness World Record setter?

Here is your change to take part in this, as highlighted in the web site;

Set a Guinness World Record Enjoy a Better Web

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours - it’s that easy. We're not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

By the way, the official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted here soon - so check back! Join our community and this effort by pledging today.

Adobe ConnectNow

Meet live over the web and share your screen with anyone

Adobe ConnectNow is a great way to share ideas, discuss details, and complete work together — all online. Reduce travel costs, save time, and increase productivity with a web conferencing solution that is easy to access and simple to use. It's free, so sign up now.

http://www.adobe.com/acom/connectnow/ another big player who start to offer web conference services. According to the web site it offer following features. Will give it a try and provide some feedback if time permit.

• Unique meeting room URL
• Screen sharing palette
• Video conferencing
• Chat pod
• Screen sharing
• Whiteboard
• Integrated audio choices
• Remote control

Basically all the features offered by Microsoft Live Meeting and WebEx.

Posting of link in SharePoint Services

If you like to include attachment links in Windows SharePoint Services posting I would recommend you post it as relative link instead of the whole URL link. Doing it using relative link will make sure it work if your administrator decided to extent the SharePoint site. Below are how a relative link looks like as compare to the full URL link.

Full Link
http://<server-name>/SiteName/attachment.jpg

Relative Link
/SiteName/attachment.jpg

Technorati Tags: WSS,SharePoint

Google Finance - NASDAQ Real Time Stock

 
Google Finance now support real-time stock code quote for NASDAQ counter.