BYU TechNews

Conditional Formatting in Excel

2012-03-02T13:05:00.002-07:00

Let's continue with learning a little bit more about Excel. This time we will review conditional formatting. It is very useful when you need to present data and quickly identify variances in a range of values.

Let's say you have a table with information on how much your employees sold in 2010 and 2011. Now you would like to identify top 3 and bottom 3 sales for each year. How can we do that quickly?

First, let's start with 2010 sales. Highlight the cells that contain the information you would like to work with.

Then go to Styles group in the Home tab.

Click on Conditional Formatting. A new menu will open up. In this case we would like to highlight only top 3 and bottom 3 sales for each year, so we will put our mouse button over Top/Bottom Rules. Let's select Top 10 Items...

Step 1

Step 2

Once we click on that, a new menu will open up.

We will change to only top 3 cells to be formatted and change the color of the formatting. Because it is top 3, we would probably want it green. So let's change that and then click OK.

Your worksheet should now look like this:

Highlighting bottom 3 sales is the same, only make sure that you will change what kind of formatting you would like; red, yellow, or you may customize it as well.

You might have notices that there are many different options to apply conditional formatting to your table, so experiment! When you are not quite sure what a certain option does, scroll over it with your mouse and a box with an explanation will appear. For example: we weren't sure what a data bar - gradient fill meant, but Excel helped us out like so:

In the end, you will find that conditional formatting can make certain data stand out and help you analyze it and identify its patterns and trends faster.

2012-02-10T14:25:00.001-07:00

Formatting using the fill handle

Ever wondered how to copy formatting you’ve used down asheet? What about along the same row? Well ladies and gentlemen behold the fillhandle!

The little black square on the bottom right hand cornerof each cell that makes it all possible!

Say I have filled in my summation formula in a cell and used the fill handle to copy the formula down the column but… This ruins the formatting (no more alternating cells)	I can edit the options by clicking on the contextual menu ( the square on the bottom right of the value $744.00)that shows up when I am done using the fill handle and select the “fill without formatting” option	And voila! The day is saved! The formatting is the same as before!

Format as Table

2012-02-03T11:38:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder how to transform your Excel spreadsheet from this...

To this...

Excel makes the process so simple!

Select the cells you would like to format

On the Home tab, in the Styles group click the Format as Table button

Select the desired table design
Complete the option dialog box

The headers in this example are included (ex. Employee Name, Position, etc.)

If you don't have headers uncheck "My table has headers" and excel will insert some automatically for you

Viola! You have a beautiful spreadsheet ready to present to anyone! You can continue to format the title text separately from your table.

Recognize Text in Acrobat

2012-02-02T16:30:00.002-07:00

So your professor has scanned in some pages of a book for you to read in class. You'd like to copy a paragraph to paste into your notes, but you can't because the PDF is made from a scanned document. Looks like you're gonna have to type one word at a time from the file into your notes. What a bother!

Wait a minute, here comes Adobe Acrobat to the rescue! Open your file in Acrobat, then find in the "tools" menu the "Recognize Text" panel. Choose "This document," then watch and be amazed as Acrobat magically converts the scanned page into copyable text! Pretty slick, huh?

Drop Caps in InDesign

2012-01-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

othing says "awesome" like a well made drop cap. Watch this short tutorial to learn how to make them in InDesign CS5.

Adobe Education

2012-01-19T16:20:00.005-07:00

Many of you may have opportunities to teach some of the things you've learned in your IT Training classes, or perhaps you are planning on teaching and just want to incorporate technology into the classroom. Maybe you just want to get better at using Adobe programs on your own. Whatever your reason, Adobe has a great resource that can help you prepare to teach and learn in a unique and fun way!

Enter Adobe Education Exchange. The Adobe Education Exchange is a place for instructors, trainers, and teachers to share lesson ideas using Adobe products. What does this mean for you? You can find fantastic lesson ideas or new activities to strengthen your own expertise with any Adobe program.

All you need to enter is an Adobe ID which you can create for free. Upon entering you can click "Find Resources" at the top of the page to begin your search. Narrow down results by subject, age, product, or the type of content you are looking for. Within just a few minutes I was able to find these fun typography games submitted by Lukas Engqvist. I also found a cereal creation activity submitted by Lori Coburn.

Have fun using and sharing ideas!

Make the most of your Wacom!

2012-01-13T15:19:00.016-07:00

Remember that a Wacom tablet is not meant to be just a replacement for your traditional computer mouse. Aside from making photo editing a more three-dimensional, hands-on experience, the Wacom can save you time when performing common functions such as navigating webpages and copy-pasting material. Imagine being able to move whole paragraphs of text from a web browser to a word document - with just a couple flicks of a pen.

To make the most of your Wacom tablet on a PC running Windows 7, you'll definitely want to know about Flicks. Flicks allow you to quickly navigate and perform shortcuts on your computer with a single stroke - or flick - of the tablet pen.

To start:
Open the Flicks panel from your deskband icons (deskband icons are the right side of your start toolbar, directly to the left of where the date and time are usually displayed). You will most likely have to display hidden icons by clicking the small upward arrow furthest to the left in your deskband. The Flicks button will look like a hand holding a pen.

Clicking anywhere in the main part of the Flicks panel should open up the Flicks training, which will guide you through what Flicks are, what they can do for you, and will even have you practice flicks so you can be confident you have the motions down.

Click Customize your flicks settings to edit what flick direction will perform what shortcut, and even add editing flicks. The copy, paste, undo, and delete flicks can be especially handy.

Once you get the hang of it, flicks can be useful and fun! They are easy shortcuts and something about performing a copy-paste with a couple of pen flicks just makes you feel happy.

So yes, the Wacom may be hard to get used to at first, but one of the Wacom's redeeming qualities is its ability to enable quick shortcuts that feel natural and fully functional.

Happy flicking!

Don't forget to spell check!

2011-11-17T16:04:00.001-07:00

After you've re-linked your images and checked your preflight panel in InDesign, don't forget to spell check!

In InDesign, select Edit >> Spelling >> Check Spelling. This brings up the Check Spelling dialogue, where you can check the spelling through your entire document.

Some spell-checking tips:

It will check every text box in your document, whether or not you have a specific text box selected.
At any time you can click outside the Check Spelling box and continue editing your document without having to close the box. Click the Start button back inside the box to resume checking the spelling.
Click Done to close the Check Spelling box.
When it has finished checking the spelling, the Skip button will change to Start.

Paintbrush Options in Photoshop

2011-11-03T16:09:00.003-06:00

Each of the above paintbrush strokes in the above boxes was produced by one click of the mouse!

Adjust your paint brush settings by adding scatter, color dynamics, and shape dynamics to add excitement and creativity to your artwork. With the paintbrush tool selected:

choose the style of paintbrush you wish to use, we used the leaf
click on the folder icon next to the paintbrush style icon
select the brush tab
under brush tip shape select or deselect scattering, color dynamics, shape dynamics

Playing with these options you can change the count of strokes per click of the mouse. Again, all three of the images above were produced with only one click of the mouse.

The first image has none of the above options. The second image has scattering with a count of three. The third image has count of 12 with shape dynamics, color dynamics, and scattering. With one click I had several different shades of orange (the assigned foreground color) producing a wonderful fall leaf look. Simply click and drag to add a beautiful wave of leaves to your image in photoshop

Non-destructive cropping in Illustrator

2011-10-24T14:31:00.000-06:00

Ever been frustrated working with a photo in Illustrator? Wanted to crop it? Well get ready to be happy. Friend, meet clipping masks. A clipping mask allows you to show only the part of the image (or shape or text box or whatever) that you want. The rest is hidden, or "masked out."

For this example, I'm going to use a shape to put a mask on an image, but you could just as easily use an image to mask a shape.

1. First, create the shape that will serve as your mask. It can be any shape or closed path. I'm going to fill mine with color for the sake of being able to see it, but when I turn it into a mask all the color will go away.

2. Then place the mask on top of your image. When you create the mask, whatever element is on top will be the mask.

3. To create a mask, go to the Object menu, select Clipping Mask, then Make. And presto! You have a masked (a.k.a. non-destructively cropped) image.

By default the mask and the image inside of it are linked together, so when you resize or move it they'll stay together. BUT if you want to edit either the mask or image independently (maybe you want to change the size of the mask or show a different part of your picture), select the masked image. The contextual panel at the top should change and show you these icons:

Depending on Illustrator's layout, they're probably located all the way to the left on that top bar. The first button allows to you edit only the mask shape; the second lets you edit only the content inside (in this case the image).

If you ever want to get rid of your clipping mask, go to the Object menu again, Clipping Mask, and choose Release.

EndNote X5

2011-10-19T09:04:00.002-06:00

As you may know, Thompson Reuters recently released a new version of EndNote. It's pretty much the same as X4, except for one important detail - you can now search the BYU library directly from EndNote! On the navigation panel, click the "more..." button in the online search group. From there, find the option to search "Brigham Young U" and voila! You can find any item in the BYU library. This is especially useful when citing BYU specific resources like Special Collections and the Hugh Nibley room. Try it out!

Embed a YouTube into PowerPoint

2011-10-12T10:26:00.005-06:00

Go to a YouTube video page
1. Click on the Share button
2. In the menu that opens up, click the "embed" button
3. Check the box, "use old embed code"
4. Copy the code

Go to PowerPoint
5. Click on the Insert Tab then the Video Button
6. Select, "video from website"
7. In the box that opens up, paste the code you copied from YouTube

Double click the black box that appears and watch your video!

Want to see?

1.

2.

3. and 4.

5. and 6.

7.

If you want to download the video to play without an internet connection, check out keepvid.com

Clipping Masks in Photoshop CS5

2011-10-06T16:19:00.001-06:00

Jordan just made a video about clipping masks in Photoshop CS5. You can find it on YouTube. Here.

Page Numbers

2011-09-23T09:49:00.006-06:00

This is a short video on adding page numbers in Word.

Compound Paths in Adobe InDesign CS5

2011-09-15T23:56:00.000-06:00

Ever wanted to place objects into multiple shapes in InDesign?
Like this?

Time to learn!

1. Draw your shapes or frames--either. They can be drawn anywhere on your page and do not need to be overlapping or touching.

2. Join the shapes' paths by going to the Object menu, selecting Paths and Make Compound Path. At this point, your shapes will behave like grouped shapes, but you won't get the option of ungrouping them. They will stay linked together, so the only way to edit them at this point will be by editing the individual points with the direct selection tool.

3. With the compound path you've just created selected, place your image. (File > Place or CTRL + D)

Customizing the Ribbon

2011-09-06T10:02:00.012-06:00

With Microsoft 2010, you can now customize the Ribbon by creating new tabs, changing the groups, and changing the tools within the groups. Creating a new tab is especially useful if you find yourself doing a certain function on a regular basis which requires you to switch between two tabs. For example, in creating weekly reports you might insert a table (on the insert tab) and a watermark (on the page layout tab). To create your own tab:
1. Right click on the ribbon and select "Customize the Ribbon…" OR Click the File Tab --> "Options" (on left hand panel) --> "Customize Ribbon" (on left hand panel). You should now be on the following window:

On the left side of the screen are all the different commands and tools offered in the Microsoft program. The default is to display popular commands, but on the drop down menu at the top are other command options (ie Commands not on the Ribbon, All Commands, Macros, etc.). On the Right side of the screen are the current tabs and groups in the program.

2. Click "New Tab" at the bottom of the right column window.

In the window a "New Tab (Custom)" appears.

3. To rename the tab, right click on it and select "Rename". For this example I'll rename it "Reports".

4. Next you can organize groups within your tab (for example on the default "Home" Tab the groups are "Clipboard" (with commands Paste, Cut, Copy), "Font" (with commands Font Size, Grow Font, Bold, Italic), and "Paragraph" (with commands Bullets, Numbering, Align Left/Right/Center)). In this example the groups will be "Basic" and "Finishing".
a. The new tab comes with a default group that you can rename.
b. You can add another group by clicking in the "New Group" button next to the "New Tab" button at the bottom of the window. Rename your groups by right clicking on them and selecting "Rename". Your new tab should now look something like this:
5. Now you can add commands to your group. Because the purpose of this new tab is to help me create reports without switching between other tabs, I will put some basic commands such as Font, Font Size, Font Color, Bullets, and Borders.
a. Go to the left column and navigate to the desired command. For example, go to the drop down menu and select "Main Tabs" --> click on the "Home" Tab --> Click on "Font size" --> Select "Font".
b. With the Font command selected (highlighted blue or gray), highlight the group you want the command to enter on the right side of the window (the "Basic" group we just created).
c. Click the "Add" button between the two windows to add the Font command.

6. Repeat step five until all of the desired commands are in the groups. It should look something like this:

7. When you have your tab arranged how you like, click "OK" in the bottom right corner of the screen. The new tab will now be displayed in the Ribbon.

Styling Web Content With CSS3

2011-09-02T12:14:00.001-06:00

The world wide web continues to expand and the possibilities for design also continue to grow. Anyone familiar with CSS knows that it is a great, flexible tool for creating great designs for websites. Now with CSS3 the possibilities for design continue to grow. Here are some of the new features:

Box Shadow

This a box shadow. In the past, this effect was very difficult to come by but now with one line of code it is done!
There are 4 attributes that need to be defined for this. The number of pixels right, below, the number of pixels to blur and the color of the drop shadow. The code for this is as follows:
#name{
box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #888;
}

Another related effect is a text shadow:

If your browser supports text-shadows, this text should have a gray shadow behind it

Similar to the box shadow the same parameters need to be defined as follows:
p{
text-shadow: 2px 2px 2px #999;
}

One other amazing feature is the resize feature:

This little beauty will allow you to put a resizeable box on the page.

This one is really simple. Define the height and width and then simply add the resize rule:
#resize{
width: 100px;
height: 100px;
resize: both;
overflow: auto;
}

You can also only allow the box to resize in one direction by replacing "both" with "vertical" or "horizontal".

Since many of these styles are new, they will not work in all browsers so it is always a good idea to have a back up style in case your new cool CSS3 style does not work. You can check out many of the new styles at CSS3.info under the CSS3 Preview tab. It will show a preview of some of the new things in CSS3 as well as tell you which browsers support them and special code that is required for different browsers.

Simple Invite

2011-08-05T15:12:00.004-06:00

If you're getting married, having a baby or throwing a party chances are you're faced with the daunting task of making the invitation. Follow these simple steps create a stylish, easy-to-read invitation using Adobe Illustrator.

1. Define the size of your Artboard size using the Artboard tool. Size dimensions are in the upper right hand corner of your screen. They look like this:

Remember to size your invitation keeping in mind your desired envelop size.

2. Add background color to your invitation using the rectangle tool. Click and drag across your Artboard to match its size. To change the color of this rectangle double click on the Fill Button at the bottom of your toolbar.

3. Live trace a simple image that you wish to place on your invitation. The more simple the image the better it will work. To Live Trace an image first bring it into Illustrator. Next select the image and select the live trace button at the top of your screen. Once the image is live traced bring up the Tracing Options Dialogue box.

The Tracing Options Dialogue box (below) allows you to change the settings of your live trace. Decrease the max colors of the live trace to create a more simple image. Feel free to change other options regarding your life trace to manipulate your image.

4. Expand your image by selecting it and choosing Object >>Expand. With your direct selection tool delete unnecessary aspects of your live traced image. If you can't delete it, use the eraser tool.

5. Last but not least, use the text tool to add the text of your invitation. I suggest using dafont.com or other online font sources to supply the font for your invitation.

An example of an invitation using this methodology is below:

Illustrator's Gradient Mesh

2011-08-03T12:23:00.000-06:00

10 steps to creating awesome gradient mesh

This tutorial assumes that you can already use the pen tool and have at least been exposed to gradient mesh (both things we cover in our Illustrator Foundations class).

1. Find a picture of the thing you want to create.

2. Paste it into Illustrator on its own layer.

3. Turn the layer into a template. That way when we switch to outline mode, we’ll still be able to see the image.To do this, double click on the layer and check "Template". You'll also want to change the dimming from 50% to 100%.

4. On a new layer, trace the shape using the pen tool. Keep in mind that gradient mesh works best on shapes that are roughly as long as they are wide (like circles or squares) and the further you get from those shapes, the harder it is to create nice gradient mesh. So, you might want to trace individual pieces of the picture as separate paths instead of just tracing the outline of the whole picture.

5. Now it's time to add the gradient mesh. Grab the mesh tool and hover over the edge of your path. You'll see that the mesh tool now has a little plus sign under it. Click to add either a row or a column. (Illustrator will try and determine which it thinks you’re trying to add)

6. Keep clicking around the edge to add more mesh lines.

7. Once your shape is nice and filled, (it's up to you how many lines you want) you might want to edit where some of those points are. You can do that with either the direct selection tool or the gradient mesh tool. Each one of those intersection points has 4 handles affecting it, and you can modify those or the intersection points itself. Don’t worry about making it perfect now, because you can move the points after we add color as well.

8. Now let’s add color to each of those points (they can hold a fill color, but not a stroke). Select a gradient mesh point with the direct selection tool and hit ctrl + y. This will switch Illustrator into outline mode. Grab the eyedropper tool and shift + click on the image template to grab the color from the template.

Outline Mode

Normal Mode

9. Repeat step 8 for all the points (Select the mesh point, then shift + click with the eyedropper tool).

10. Use the color sliders to make minor edits to individual colors. Repeat steps 4-9 for all the other paths you traced.

Voila! A beautiful Gradient Mesh.

Changing Word's Default Font

2011-06-09T17:49:00.001-06:00

Have you ever wanted to change your default font and text size in word, but couldn't quite get it to save as the default? Let us help you out!:

Every time you open a new word document, what's happening is that MSWord is opening up a blank document template by default. In order to change you setting so they show up everytime, you need to change the blank document template. There are a few options you have to fix this problem:

MS Word sometimes does this for you by changing your settings (font, spacing, and size) by clicking on the Font button on the bottom of the Font group in the Home tab. When you click on "Set as Default" you should get another pop up that asks you whether you want this in only this document or all documents. Be sure to choose "All documents based on the Normal.dotm template":

2. If the above doesn't work, you'll need to force the template change by opening up the template yourself and changing things. The template is found by clicking the start menu and typing this into the search "%appdata%\Microsoft\Templates" (if you're using windows 7, remove the parenthesis). Open the normal.dotm template in word, make your desired changes (font, spacing, size) and then save and close the template.

For the Mac users, the Blank document template is found /Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/My Templates/Normal.dotm

One of the above options should work. Hope it helps!

Easy Screen Capture - Mac

2011-06-02T11:42:00.000-06:00

As a trainer, sometimes it's tough to teach others exactly how to do things on the computer. Through Screen Capture you can record everything you do on your computer and then save it as a movie file which you can share with anyone you want. There are many screen capture programs out there, some of them free (jing), some of them not (Camtasia Studio). However, if you own Mac OSX Snow Leopard then you already have a wonderful screen capture program: Quicktime.

Thats right! Quicktime has built in screen capture capability that can also capture voice or webcam.
To start these features:

Open Quicktime
Select File in the Menu Bar and choose either

New Screen Recording - To capture your computer screen
New Audio Recording - To record your voice (Most Macs have built in mics)
New Movie Recording - To record via webcam (most macs have built in webcam)

When you choose one of these three options, you'll be given a new easy to use window to choose your options as well as a big record button:

Click on the down arrow in the bottom right corner of the menu to see more options. For example, if you want to include audio in your screen recording you have the option to choose Built-in Microphone: External microphone. Be sure to choose a save location so you can find your recording afterwards.

When your ready press the big red record button. Of course quicktime will want to make sure you're ready with a prompt. Be sure you are ready and then click Start Recording:

When you are finished your recording click on the Stop Recording button in the menu bar at the top of your screen: It's that easy!

When the video is finally rendered it will open in Quicktime player and you can watch it. Of course any mistakes you make will be fully rendered in the video so be sure to practice a lot. Or, another option would be to import your video into iMovie and edit it manually.

Well, good luck! Hopefully your newfound knowledge will enable you to start a new tutorial making carrer for friends and family!

Useful guides in Photoshop

2011-05-23T14:10:00.006-06:00

If you are meticulous like me, you may be annoyed when creating guides in Photoshop. There are all sorts of other specific tools but there isn’t anything to help get a guide lined up quickly and easily.

I stumbled into a useful extension for Photoshop called GuideGuide, created by Cameron McEfee. It allows us to create guides both quickly and easily with a simple panel that we add into Photoshop! Installation instructions are on Cameron’s website and you can simply open the panel and get to work right away.

The benefits:

Easily undo what you don't like,
Create midpoint guides horizontally, vertically, or both,
Create margin guides
Create columns or rows
Create gutters (the little space between a column or row)
... and do all of the above on a selection within your document too!

GuideGuide is a simple tool that expands the ease and ability of great features already within Photoshop. It uses different units for control (inches, pixels, percentage…) so you can work with what you are comfortable with. If you enjoy it, give Cameron some credit and tell your friends!

(Hint hint)

2011-04-28T16:58:00.002-06:00

Think you know everything there is to know about InDesign? Think again. CS5.5 is out, and we've all got plenty more to learn!

But regardless of that .5, here's an awesome function I never knew existed in InDesign: tool hints! The tool hints panel simply displays detailed descriptions of whatever tool is selected. Genius, right?

Get the panel by selecting Window > Utilities > Tools Hints. Then select any tool from the toolbar and get not only a description of the tool, but also an explanation of that tool's keyboard modifiers.

InDesign is just so helpful, right?
Enjoy!

Flash Meets Illustrator

2011-02-25T13:07:00.004-07:00

February 25, 2011

Flash is an incredible program and more and more people are looking to use flash in their electronic projects. Flash websites are becoming more and more prevalent and consumers like more dynamic websites that people can interact with. There are even sites that offer free templates to create your own flash website without needing knowledge of programing or designing (see wix.com).

However, you don’t need to rely on the skills of others when you can develop your very own website. Most students who first learn flash professional have a hard time figuring out how to create a classy looking website with the minimalist design tools and restrictions within Flash Pro. Something that most students might not be aware of is the amazing interactivity between Adobe programs like Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.

This means that you can design your animation or website in Illustrator or Photoshop and then import your file into flash. Vector graphics imported from Illustrator maintain most of their editability and Photoshop files will link back to your JPG or PSD file. All you have to do is go to file, import, and then import to Stage. This will take you to a dialogue box, in the case of illustrator, and allow you to choose which artboard, layer, or object that you want to import.

Another alternative is to grab the object in illustrator or Photoshop and dragging and dropping them or copy and pasting them onto your stage. Using these two program with Flash allows you to do much, much more with your projects and increase the quality of your animations or websites.

Check out this file here.

Adobe Acrobat, Typewriters, and Easy Form Creation

2011-01-31T15:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to send an electronic document to someone, have them fill it out, then send it back to you?

Many people who have tried to accomplish such a task have used programs like MS Word. First they create a Word document. Then they send it to their users in the hopes they are savvy enough not to destroy the formatting or delete important lines. The entire fiasco can be a headache.

Instead of using Word, create a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat and enable the typewriter tool. After the typewriter tool is activated any user using Adobe Acrobat OR Adobe Acrobat Reader can use the typewriter tool to type directly onto your form. Your forms retain their formatting and you get your information. Everyone is happy.

First Create a PDF. This can be done by “printing” your document to the PDF Printer. This can be done in any piece of software from InDesign to MS Word. The example below shows what it looks like in Word 2010.

Next, open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat. Then go to Tools>Typewriter>Enable Typewriter Tool in Adobe Reader…

After selecting this option, you will need to resave this.

Now, when you open up the file in either Acrobat Pro or Acrobat Reader, a purple bar will appear at the top of the file. Users can click on the button that says “Typewriter” to activate the Typewriter tool.

The Type writer tool is very intuitive. The dotted line on the bottom of the cursor is used to align the typewriter to the lines in the form. After you align the cursor, just left click and just start typing. You can change the font and the size in the purple bar at the top. Viola! You're done! Before you go a send this out to all of your future users, you may want to explain to them that you would like them to use the Typewriter tool. Not very many people know about this powerful convenient feature of Adobe Acrobat!

Below is a finished Example: