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reprint topical tips and tricks. If you ever have any questions
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contact
us.
Tip 1
Mac OS X’s
Auto-Defragmenter
Unlike in Mac OS 9, most
people don’t need a disk defragmenting
utility because
Mac OS X defragments
your hard drive as
you work.When a file is
accessed, it checks to see if
the file is fragmented (split
into several different areas
of the hard drive). If so,
the file is copied to an area
of the hard drive that can
hold the entire file. It
works on files only up to
20 MB in size because
smaller fragmented files
slow your system the most.
Tip
2
Drag-and-drop
Email Attachments
In Mac OS X, you can
quickly and easily attach a
file to a new email message
by dragging the file onto
your email application’s
icon in the Dock. Even
niftier, you can drag the
document icon from an
open file’s title bar (just
left of the document’s
name) to your email application’s
icon. Eudora, Entourage
and Apple’s Mail
all support this.
Tip 3
New File Naming Conventions
Web servers and operating
systems are moving toward
text case sensitivity in file
names, so Web developers
are adopting the following
naming conventions:
• Begin the name with a
letter, not a number
• Use “camelback” naming
such as myAddressBook, which is all lowercase with
mid-word capitalization
• No spaces
• No non-alphanumeric
characters, except the underscore
(_)
Charles E. Brown
Layers Jan/Feb 06, pg.37
Tip 4
See Resolution of Images in
PDFs
Adobe Acrobat 6 and
above gives you a way to
see the resolution of images
included in a PDF,
which is handy for making
sure you’re sending a
press-ready PDF to your
printer. Here’s how: Open
the PDF into Acrobat,
choose Document> Preflight,
and then choose
List All Images from the
list of Preflight Profiles
that appears. In the resulting
Preflight Results window,
click the disclosure
triangle next to “Problems”
and you’ll see a list
of every page in your document,
and every image on each page. Click the
disclosure triangle next to
any image to see the resolution
of that image. Additionally,
if you enable the
Activate Snap checkbox at
the bottom of the Preflight
Results window, another
window will slide open
that shows and highlights
your selected image on the
document page.
Tip 5
Retain Local Formatting
If you receive a Microsoft
Word document from a
client, and import it into
QuarkXPress, only to discover
that your client has
applied local text formatting
on top of applying
style sheets, you probably
want to keep the Bold and
Italic styling, but remove
the font size and font face.
How do you keep the Bold
and Italic, but apply the
correct font? Do this: in
QuarkXPress, change the
paragraph style so that it
uses the font style you
want to remove (font
name & size). Click OK,
then change the paragraph
style back to the font it’s
supposed to be. Simple!
David Blatner
Tip 6
Adobe CS2 Dialog Secrets
Adobe CS2’s dialog boxes
for Open, Save, Import,
Export, Place, etc. let you
rename and delete files. In
Photoshop CS2, Illustrator
CS2 or InDesign CS2, just
click “Use Adobe Dialog:”
in the standard file dialog
window, whereupon you
can rename and delete files
and folders without
switching to the Finder.
Adobe Dialog also lets you
browse Creative Suite documents
in thumbnail, icon,
tile or list views; read detailed
file information in
any view; and see at a glance
which documents are already
open for editing.
It is not necessary to work
with Version Cue projects
to use Adobe Dialog, but if
you do, the same rename
and delete functions also
become available within
Acrobat 7.0.
Alistair Dabbs
Tip 7
Another Use
for Smart Guides
If you’re having trouble selecting
objects in a complex
illustration in Illustrator,
turn on Smart
Guides (View> Smart
Guides). The built-in Object
Highlighting feature
of Smart Guides will highlight
objects as you mouse
over them.
Mordy Golding
Layers Jan/Feb 06, pg.33
Tip 8
Export an Area
in Illustrator
In Illustrator, if you want
to export just an area of
your artwork or Save it for
Web, use the Rectangle tool
to draw a rectangle around
the area. Then choose Object>
Crop Area> Make,
and when you export or
Save for Web, only that
area will be used.
Mordy Golding
Layers Jan/Feb 06, pg.33
Tip 9
Grayscale
with Muted Color
To convert a color image
to mostly grayscale, with
just a hint of original color
showing through, do this:
• Add a Channel Mixer adjustment
layer to your
image (Layer> New Adjustment
Layer> Channel
Mixer).
• Mix the channels to create
a grayscale image you
like.
• Reduce the Opacity of
the adjustment layer until
the color shows through.
Tim Grey
Layers Jan/Feb 06, pg.41
Tip 10
Faster Photo Scanning
If you have a batch of photos
to scan, and they all
have similar overall appearance,
you can load up
your scanner’s glass with
as many as will fit, and
scan them all at once.
Then (and here’s the trick)
in Photoshop, choose
File> Automate> Crop
and Straighten Photos.
Photoshop will then find
the edges of each photo,
rotate each photo to be
straight, crop it, and open
it in its own window.
Tip 11
Find the
Dominant Colors
When pulling a color from
an image to use on other
page layout items, how can
you be sure you’re sampling
from exactly a dominant
color? An easy way to
discover the dominant colors
in an image is to open
it in Photoshop, then
choose Filters> Pixelate>
Mosaic. Reduce the Cell
Size setting until the image
is reduced to just a few
colors. These are the dominant
colors.
Robert Ellis, Macworld 02/06
Tip 12
Photoshop
Transform Tips
When using any of Photoshop’s
transform functions
(Edit> Transform), the
edges of the transform
bounding box will usually
snap to the edge of your
document, to guides and
to other objects. To prevent
snapping, hold down
the Control key after you
start dragging one of the
transform handles.
I often lower the opacity
of a layer before transforming
it so I can see how
it relates to the underlying
image.When the Move
tool is in use, you can use
the number keys on your
keyboard to lower the
opacity of a layer (3=30%,
23=23%, etc.)
You can click on the settings
that appear in the
Options bar at the top of
your screen and then use
the up and down arrows to
change the settings. Just be
sure to first link the width
and height settings, otherwise
you might end up
squishing the image vertically
but not horizontally.
When rotating a layer,
Photoshop pivots your image
around the center
point (it looks like a
crosshair). You can drag
that crosshair to a different
location to change
where the pivot point is.
When rotating, try typing
Command-0 (zero) so you
can see any handles that
extend beyond the edge of
your image.
When scaling a layer, you
can drag the left edge handle
all the way to the right
(passing the right edge of
the layer) to flip the layer
horizontally.
If you need to perform
multiple transformations
at once (scale, rotate, etc.),
then it’s best to do them all
in one operation instead of
pressing Enter between
each one. You’ll get a higher
quality result when they
are all done as one step.
Just choose from the list
that appears in the Edit>
Transform menu and don’t
press Enter until you’ve
completed all the transformations
you want to apply.
(You can also choose a transformation from the
contextual menu that appears
when you Controlclick
the selection.)
To Transform a selection
(the marching ants) instead
of what’s inside the
selection, choose Select>
Transform Selection. After
choosing Transform Selection,
you can Control-click
to get to a list of functions
(Scale, Rotate, etc.).
Ben Willmore www.digitalmastery.com
www.WhereIsBen.com
Tips and Tricks
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