Phlogtastic

Remove All BookMarks

2019-05-12T02:13:00.001-07:00

Sometimes MS Word documents can get loaded with useless bookmarks. Here is a macro to remove them:

Sub RemoveAllBookmarks()
    Dim objBookmark As Bookmark

    For Each objBookmark In ActiveDocument.Bookmarks
        objBookmark.Delete
    Next
End Sub

PowerPoint: Change that Template

2019-05-12T02:12:00.002-07:00

To change the template in a PowerPoint document:

Design -> Themes -> (click drop down arrow at end of themes) -> Browse for themes…

Select the template, then Apply.

[Source Powerfinish]

Add a Copy Button to Code Blocks

2019-05-07T00:30:00.000-07:00

MadCap has a blog post about adding a copy button to code blocks, found here.

Here's what I had to do to get it working:

Step 1: Download the clipboad javascript and put it in your Resources/Scripts folder:
https://github.com/zenorocha/clipboard.js/archive/master.zip

Step 2: Add this to the <head> section:
<script src="../../../Resources/Scripts/clipboard.min.js"></script>

Step 3: Before the final closing body tag (</body>), add this:
<script>new ClipboardJS('.cbtn');</script>

Note: I named the button is named cbtn.

Step 4: Enclose each code block like the following:
<div class="Code">
<p class="Codeblock" id="t01">Here's my code block text.</p>
<button class="cbtn" data-clipboard-action="copy" data-clipboard-target="#t01" MadCap:conditions="Default.ScreenOnly"> </button>
</div>

Note: The button class must match what you defined in step 3.
Note: The ID must be unique for each code block.
Note: I added the Default.ScreenOnly condition so that it doesn't appear in PDF/Word.

Step 5: Add the following to your CSS file:
div.Code
{
position: relative;
overflow-x: auto;
}
p.Codeblock + button
{
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
width: 26px;
height: 26px;
margin-bottom: 6pt;
background: url(/url/to/image/content-copy.png)
}

Note: I use an image for the button, defined in the CSS. If you don't want an image, you can just put the plain text "Copy" in the HTML in step 4.
Note: The positioning places the button at the bottom right corner of the div.

Are You a Man or a Bloke?

2018-10-09T00:29:00.000-07:00

I recently tested the Mad Quality Plugin for Flare, which is a rule-checking application that uses various rule sets to check your text (kind of like the grammar checker in Word). The tool is a useful plug-in for Flare. Maybe I'll review it in another post.

One of the sample rule sets checks for British English (see the list below). Now, I really like finding all the differences between British and American English. I know what trainers are and sometimes I wear a jumper. But, I have no idea what some of the ones in this list mean.

Do you wrap your leftovers in aerofoil?

What do you do with a breakdown van? Is it really old and doesn't run well?

Courgette? Wasn't she that girl from Les Miserables?

Is a draughts game where you see whose lawn looks the best after not watering it for a month?

Are you insulted if someone asks you if you have a dummy for a baby?

Do you get green fingers after picking your nose?

I think there are some new diseases in England, like mangetout, aubergine, and diamante.

Is a windcheater a type of sailor?

Boob tube? Titbit? Um, maybe I don't want to know what those are.

Here's the complete list. How many do you know?

accommodation
action replay
aerofoil
aeroplane
agony aunt
Allen key
aluminium
aniseed
anticlockwise
articulated lorry
asymmetric bars
aubergine
baking tray
bank holiday
beetroot
biscuit
black economy
blanket bath
block of flats
boiler suit
bonnet
boob tube
boot
bottom drawer
bowls
braces
brawn the food
breakdown van
breeze block
bridging loan
bumbag
candyfloss
car park
casualty
catapult
central reservation
chemist
chips
cinema
cling film
common seal
consumer durables
cornflour
cos
cot
cot death
cotton bud
cotton wool
council estate
courgette
court card
crash barrier
crisps
crocodile clip
cross-ply
crotchet
current account
danger money
demister
dialling tone
diamante
double cream
draughts game
drawing pin
dressing gown
drink-driving
drinks cupboard
drinks party
driving licence
dual carriageway
dummy for a baby
dust sheet
dustbin
engaged
estate agent
estate car
ex-directory
faith school
financial year
fire brigade
first floor
fish finger
fitted carpet
flannel
flat
flexitime
flick knife
flyover
football
footway
fringe
full stop
garden
gearing
gear lever
goods train
greaseproof paper
green fingers
grill
ground floor
groundsman
hairslide
hatstand
hen night
hire purchase
hoarding
hob
holdall
holiday
holidaymaker
homely
hosepipe
in hospital
hot flush
housing estate
hundreds and thousands
ice lolly
icing sugar
indicator
inside leg
jelly babies
Joe Bloggs
Joe Public
jumble sale
jump lead
jumper
junior school
kennel
ladybird
a lettuce
level crossing
lift
lolly
lollipop lady
loose cover
lorry
loudhailer
low loader
lucky dip
luggage van
maize
mangetout
market garden
marshalling yard
maths
metalled road
milometer
minim
mobile phone
monkey tricks
motorway
mum
mummy
nappy
needlecord
newsreader
noughts and crosses
number plate
off-licence
opencast mining
ordinary share
oven glove
paddling pool
paracetamol
parting in hair
patience
pavement
pay packet
pedestrian crossing
peg
pelmet
petrol
physiotherapy
pinafore dress
plain chocolate
plain flour
polo neck
positive discrimination
postal vote
postbox
postcode
potato crisp
power point
pram
press stud
press-up
private soldier
public school
public transport
punchbag
pushchair
pylon
quantity surveyor
quaver
queue
racing car
railway
real tennis
recorded delivery
registration plate
remould
reverse the charges
reversing lights
right-angled triangle
ring road
roundabout
rowing boat
sailing boat
saloon
sandpit
sandwich cake
sanitary towel
self-raising flour
semibreve
semitone
share option
shopping trolley
show house
home
silencer
silverside
skeleton in the cupboard
skimmed milk
skipping rope
skirting board
sledge
sleeper
sleeping partner
slowcoach
snakes and ladders
solicitor
soya
soya bean
splashback
spring onion
stag night
Stanley knife
starter
state school
storm in a teacup
surtitle
swede
sweet
takeaway
taxi rank
tea towel
terrace house
tick
ticket tout
timber
titbit
toffee apple
touch wood
trade union
trading estate
trainers
transport cafe
trolley
twelve-bore
underground
vacuum flask
verge
vest
veterinary surgeon
wagon
waistcoat
walking frame
wardrobe
water ice
weatherboard
white coffee
white spirit
wholemeal bread
windcheater
windscreen
worktop
zebra crossing
zed
zip

Make APIs Look Nice with Shins

2018-10-07T22:03:00.001-07:00

Anyone who is documenting or using APIs has probably come across a new, slick web interface for viewing APIs, like the one in this image:

So, what is this interface? And how do I get my APIs to look like it?

This interface is called Slate. It provides a 3-pane view, with a TOC, the API reference, and code samples. Unfortunately, I am running a Windows machine, and I couldn't get Slate to install.

Fortunately, there is a port of Slate, called Shins (Shins Is Not Slate). This port runs on Windows and uses NodeJS instead of Linux, Ruby, Bundler, etc.

Shins generates the Slate-like output with minimal effort from a Markdown file that contains your APIs. Since my R&D team creates a YAML file, I used widdershins to convert the YAML to Markdown.

Here's what you need to do:

Create a folder on your computer called shins
Clone the Shins repository to your local directory.
Create a folder called widdershins in the shins directory.
Clone the widdershins repo to your local directory.
Copy your latest YAML file into the defs dir:
.\shins\widdershins\defs
Change directory to this one:
.\shins\widdershins
Run the following command:
node widdershins --search true .\defs\my-api.yaml -o my-api.md
Note: You can add a flag that lets you choose which languages to include in the output, such as:
--language_tabs 'javascript:JavaScript' 'shell:Shell'
Change directory to this one:
.\shins
Run the following command:
node .\shins.js --logo company-logo.png .\widdershins\my-api.md
The index.html file in that directory is created with the Slate/Shins output.

Now you have the Slate output. You can now upload the index.html file as well as the pub and source directories to your website.

Word Macro: Set all Columns to the Same Width in Every Table

2018-04-30T06:35:00.003-07:00

Use the Word macro code below to set every column in every table to the width of the corresponding column in the reference table.

Sub fixColumnWidth()
'
' fixColumnWidth Macro
'
'
Dim refTable As Word.Table
Dim curTable As Word.Table
Dim i As Long
Dim col As Long

Set refTable = ActiveDocument.Tables(7) 'set this to whatever table is the reference table
For i = 2 To ActiveDocument.Tables.Count ' set the start value. Sometimes you want to skip the 1st table (such as Revision History)
Set curTable = ActiveDocument.Tables(i)

For col = 1 To refTable.Columns.Count
curTable.Columns(col).Width = refTable.Columns(col).Width
Next col
Next
End Sub

[Source: Microsoft Community]

Flare: Thinking Outside the Box

2018-04-09T05:07:00.001-07:00

If you have large figures, you can create a style that is larger than your normal margins by using a negative left margin. For example:

p.wideImage
{
margin-left: -35pt;
}

[Source: MadCap Forum]

Flare: Creating a Numbered Appendix

2018-03-27T23:46:00.001-07:00

Refer to this page for help with the auto-numbering in Flare:

http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare2017r3/Content/Flare/Autonumbers/AutoNumber-Format-Examples.htm

Or just use this in your CSS:

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n+}. ';

}

h1.Appendix

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GM:Appendix {A+}. ';

}

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n}.{n+}. ';

}

h2.Appendix

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GM:Appendix {A}.{n+} ';

}

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n}.{n}.{n+}. ';

}

h3.Appendix

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GM:Appendix {A}.{n}.{n+} ';

}

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n}.{n}.{n}.{n+}. ';

}

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n}.{n}.{n}.{n}.{n+}. ';

}

{

mc-auto-number-format: 'GH:{n}.{n}.{n}.{n}.{n}.{n+}. ';

}

Welcome to Flare

2018-03-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

I've jumped onto the MadCap Flare bandwagon. There's sure to be numerous posts about tips for it.

Helpful links:

MadCap Flare help: http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare2017r3/Content/Flare/Introduction/Home-Flare.htm
The MadCap forums: https://forums.madcapsoftware.com
A helpful Slack group: madcapflareusergroups.slack.com

Modify PDF Metadata, Initial View, and more - for Free!

2018-02-13T02:01:00.001-08:00

Do you need to do any of the following tasks in your PDF files:

Edit the Title, Author, Subject and Keywords property fields
Edit the initial view

How can you accomplish these tasks if you don't have Adobe Acrobat?

Just install Debenu PDF Tools. They have a free version that installs a Windows menu command with these functions and more.

Note that for each change that you make it creates a new PDF with the changes.

[Source: gHacks]

Shades of Gray - Remove Shading

2018-02-11T23:25:00.001-08:00

I recently encountered text that had shading on it that was difficult to remove. It looked like this example:

FYI: The text above was generated with the lorem shortcut.

It tried to remove it using the Text Highlight Color tool, but it didn't remove it.

Then I tried to remove it with the Borders tool. I clicked Borders > Borders and Shading > Shading, then changed the Fill to No Color. Clicked OK, and nothing happened.

The trick to fixing it is to apply the shading to the text, not the paragraph. Change Apply to in the dialog to Text.

Click OK, and the shading goes away:

Ugly Lines in PDFs

2018-02-07T06:49:00.002-08:00

You might have ugly lines in your PDFs, such as these:

The outline on 3 sides of the Note style are 1/2 point, so they should be nice and thin. (Note that the left side is thick by design.) Unfortunately, Adobe makes the lines look strange, and even different at each level of zoom.

But, have no fear - Adobe Acrobat Reader has a preference to enhance these lines that actually makes it pretty ugly. And you can turn it off!

To disable the setting:

Select Edit > Preferences
Select Page Display
Unselect the Enhance thin lines setting
Click OK

Your output should now look more like this image:

[Source: Microsoft]

Kill Them All! - From the Command Line

2017-10-16T22:20:00.000-07:00

If you ever wanted to kill a process from the command line, there's an easy way to do it.

First, show what processes are running using the tasklist command:

C:>tasklist

Second, use Taskkill to kill it by process name or process ID:

C:>Taskkill /IM firefox.exe /F

C:>Taskkill /PID 26356 /F

The /F flag forces the process to quit.

[Source: Tweaks]

Plurals in English, by George Carlin

2017-01-17T23:15:00.002-08:00

This may or may not have been written by George Carlin. Since there's no profanity, he probably didn't write it. But, it's still funny.

George Carlin: The English Plurals

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes;
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese;
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen ?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet ?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth ?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose;
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother & also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his & him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis & shim !

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
Neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.

We take English for granted,
But if we explore its paradoxes,
We find that quicksand can work slowly,
Boxing rings are square;
A guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
Why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing,
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham ?

Doesn't it seem crazy that ...
You can make amends but not one amend ?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends ...
And get rid of all but one of them,
What do you call it ?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught ?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What does a humanitarian eat ?

Sometimes I think all people who speak English
Should be in an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what other language do people recite at a play,
And play at a recital ?

We ship by truck but send cargo by ship ...
We have noses that run & feet that smell;
We park in a driveway & drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance & a fat chance be the same,
While a wise man & a wise guy are opposites ?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
In which your house can burn up as it burns down;
In which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.
And in closing .....

If Father is Pop .....
How come Mother's not Mop?

Know Your Organization

2017-01-08T01:15:00.001-08:00

Technical Writers work with just about every department within a company. They get a feature description from a Product Manager, an implementation detail from R&D, and the terminology spin from Marketing. They may also deal with Support, Deployment, and whatever other deparments exist in their companies.

When dealing with all these different groups, especially when working in a large company, it helps to understand how the groups work together. This knowledge helps the TW more efficiently deal with his or her tasks, avoid hitting management walls, and know who they need to talk to. Unfortunately, it is only gained after working for the company for a long time.

Some illustrations, like the one below, of different org types were posted over at Bonker's World.

Which one is your current company most like?

[Source: Bonker's World]

Make your life easier - customize your MS Word toolbar

2017-01-03T00:49:00.001-08:00

You can make your life a lot easier by customizing the MS Word toolbar with functions that you often use.

Here's how.

Click the dropdown arrow () in the toolbar.
Select More Commands...
Click Popular Commands.
Select any command from the list and then click Add>>.

Add whatever commands you usually use. Note the following:

You can add a button to run a custom macro.
You can add a separator by selecting which is at the top of the list.

I usually add these commands:

Para Keep With Next - let's you turn on/off the keep with next attribute.
Para Page Break Before - adds a page break before the current line of text.
Style - shows the current style and allows you to select a new style.

Reopening Old Google Chrome Tabs

2016-08-30T04:01:00.001-07:00

I have Google Chrome (GC) configured to open whatever tabs were previously opened when the browser was closed. This setup is great since I often have 10-20 tabs open, and reopening them 1 by 1 would be a pain.

Unfortunately, what happens is that sometimes I'll have 2 separate GC windows open, usually one of them with 20 different tabs (let's call it A) and another with only 1 tab (called B).

A problem occurs if I close the window A first and then window B. Since GC only remembers the tabs on the last window (B) that was closed, when I restart GC it gives me the tabs from window B. Bummer.

There is another feature in GC that let's you open a closed tab. The keyboard shortcut is Cntl-shift-Tab. When you accidentally close a tab, just type the keyboard shortcut and it reopens the closed tab.

And now for the cool part....

When you open GC, if you type Cntl-shift-Tab, it reopens a closed tab from even before you closed the browser. I my case above, when GC is restarted, window B opens. If I type Cntl-shift-Tab, it opens browser window A that was closed!

Count the Number of Words using JavaScript in Adobe Acrobat

2016-08-24T05:03:00.003-07:00

This is the best hack that I've come across in the last several years.

Many times I wanted to count the number of words in a PDF document. The normal way to do this task is to save the file as a Word doc and then open it in MS Word that calculates the count. You can also upload your file to an online site that will count it (although most companies would probably frown upon sending your precious data to some random 3rd party site).

Today I stumbled across an Adobe forum thread that said that Acrobat can run JavaScript. Hmmm... And then I found another site that explains how to create a custom tool in Acrobat. Put these two together and you get a toolbar button in Adobe Acrobat to count the number of words in the doc.

Here's how to make it work. Note that this is for Acrobat DC.

Open Acrobat.
Click Tools.
Click Action Wizard.
In the button list under the toolbar, click New Custom Command.
This window opens:
Click Execute JavaScript.
Change the Label to something useful, like "Count words in document".
Change the Tool tip to something useful, like "Counts the number of words in the current document".
Click Command Options...
Paste in the following code:
/* Count number of words in document */ var cnt = 0; for (var p = 0; p < this.numPages; p++) cnt += getPageNumWords(p); app.alert("There are " + cnt + " words in this file.");
Click OK.
Click Don't show options, options are always the same.
Click OK.

You now have a custom command. All that's left to do is make the button that calls it.

Right-click in a blank part of the toolbar.
Click Customize Quick Tools.
Expand the Action Wizard section.
Find your new command and select it.
Click the Add to Toolbar button on the right side of the window.
Click Save.

That's it! You can now open any PDF and just click the button to get a word count.

[Source: KHKonsulting and Adobe]

List of Conferences for 2016

2016-02-28T04:46:00.000-08:00

Over at Firehead, they have a nice list of conferences for this year. Go to one. Learn something new. Schmooze with people. See their site for more details.

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

WebVisions, Barcelona, Spain, 7-9 July 2016

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

Special Characters in HTML

2015-03-09T04:55:00.000-07:00

Did you ever want to put a ✓ into your HTML? Or maybe a © symbool? How about a ♥?

All you need is the correct special character code.

This page gives a long list of possible codes: http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/charref

[Source W3]

Remove Underscores from Filenames

2014-11-16T03:45:00.003-08:00

Here is a quick and dirty (very dirty) way to remove underscores from filenames:

Open a terminal (like Cygwin).
Change the directory to the one with the files that you want to change.
Run: rename '_' ' ' *; ls
You may need to run the command several times until there are no more underscores left in the filenames.

There is probably a better way to do this using a sed or awk command, but I didn't have time to look it up.

Get Rid of MS Office 2013 Animations

2013-11-10T23:46:00.001-08:00

Some people like it, but I don't. MS Office 2013 introduces fluid animations to various actions. For example, in Excel, when you move from one cell to another the highlight box doesn't jump, but slides to the next box.

To get rid of all of these animations:

Right click on My Computer icon on the Desktop and choose Properties option OR just hit Win+Pause
In the System window click the Advanced system settings link in the left pane
Click Continue button if prompted by UAC
Now click Settings button under Performance section
Select the Custom and un-check the option Animate controls and elements inside windows to disable animations
Click OK button
Click OK button in the System Properties window

[Source: How To Code]

Pasting Plain Text

2013-08-21T23:50:00.003-07:00

Often I want to paste plain text, without any formatting. There is usually a menu option to do this, such as in Word by clicking the Home tab, then clicking the little arrow under Paste, then clicking the Text button. Or you can right click, then choose Paste as text. Those aren't too bad, but if you do this action a lot you want something faster. You want a keyboard shortcut.

I found a small application called PureText that accomplishes this task. It allows you to choose whatever keyboard shortcut you want and pastes plain text in any location.

You can get PureText here: http://www.stevemiller.net/puretext/

This little app runs when Windows starts. The tray icon provides a way to access the options dialog:

As you can see from the image, I assigned the keyboard shortcut to Ctrl-Shift-V. Now I can use Ctrl-v to paste formatted text or Ctrl-Shift-V for plain text.

Enjoy!

Delay Sending Emails in Outlook

2013-04-07T23:56:00.001-07:00

When you accidentally send an email there are several ways to prevent it from being delivered.

If you are using Outlook you can recall the message.
If you are using Gmail you can turn on delayed sending and "undo" the send.

But if you are using Outlook as a frontend for Gmail what can you do?

One solution is to apply a delay before sending all emails. This can be accomplished by the following procedure:

In Outlook, click Rules -> Manage Rules & Alerts.
Click New Rule.
Click Apply rule on message I send.
Click Next.
Click Yes in the window that asks if you want to apply it to all messages.
Check the box next to defer delivery by a number of minutes.
Click on a number of in the bottom window pane.
Set the number of minutes that you want to delay by, e.g. 1 minutes.
Click OK.
Click Next.
Give the rule a name, such as "Stop delivering stupid emails".
Click Finish.

All emails that you send are now delayed by 1 minute. If you realize your mistake you can go into the Outbox and delete the email.

[Source: HowToGeek]

Printing Comments for Adobe PDFs

2012-11-18T05:49:00.002-08:00

For those of you who have Adobe Acrobat X, there is a nice way to create a PDF showing all of the comments in the document. The result uses a landscape orientation with the original page on the left side and a list of the comments on the right side. It also has arrows that connect the comments to the text in the original document.

How to create a document showing all comments:

Click Comment on the top-right.
If the comment list is not open, then click Comments List.
On the top-right of the Comments List pane, select Options --> Create Comment Summary.
In the window that opens, select the radio button next to Document and comments with connector lines on single pages.
Click Creat Comment Summary.
This creates a new PDF document that shows the comments.
Save the document.

[Source Adobe]