Posted on by Michel

Fireworks contest for best tutorial

Do you use Macromedia Adobe Fireworks?

Do you love graphic design?

Did you ever tried to write a tutorial?

If the answers to at least the first two questions is ‘yes’, then the following info might be intersting to you:

Adobe Fireworks contestFireworks Zone is holding a contest for best Fireworks tutorial.

Here you can find detailed info about the contest.

The contest is sponsored by GenoPal (color selection software).

Here follow the contest’s regulations, in short:

  • Everybody can participate.
  • The contest has already started, but you still have more than a week to jump in (the contest started on January 28th and will end on February 28th 2008.)
  • Prizes (first, second, third): Genopal Pro v1.0 worth USD 49.95 (first and second prize win an additional bonus!;-)
  • The tutorials of the three winners will be published on the Fireworks Zone website.
  • Language is English. Possible formats: HTML document/Fireworks .PNG/MS Word document.
  • if you wish to participate, send your tutorial to: webmaster(a.t.)fireworkszone.com (change the (a.t.) part with the @ sign, of course;-)
  • More info? Here! :-)

Good luck, if you’ll participate! (I might participate, too, if I find a couple of free hours this week…) :-)

PS FZ is a good resource for Fireworks users. It is created and supported by Thierry Lorey (who wrote, for example, the tutorial How to create 3D crystals with Fireworks — on this tutorial even I tried my humble Fw skills;-) — if you have any questions regarding the contest, don’t hesitate to write to Thierry! :-)

Posted on by Michel · 1 Comment

How to re-create the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows

Sometimes you might accidentally delete the Show Desktop icon on the quick launch toolbar.

It’s fairly easy to restore it.

My preferred method is to just copy the icon from computer to computer, but there’s another way, too. Also, mind that the Show Desktop icon is not an ordinary program shortcut — but if the icon is deleted, you can re-create it easily, by following these steps (info copied from Microsoft kb #190355):

Read more

Posted on by Michel

Why you should ditch your car and ride a bike

Not that I didn’t write on the subject before, but it’s kinda nice to read about the same thing elsewhere, isn’t it? :-)

Top money saving tip #1: Get rid of your car + ride a bike instead.

Seriously, a car is a money suck, it ruins the environment and it makes you lazy. Having a bike is fun. It makes your quality of life go way up… you get exercise, you smile more and it’s kinda fast.

(via thesmalljoys.blogspot.com)

Posted on by Michel

Merry Christmas

A great cover of White Christmas, performed by Enrico Trevisan:

Merry Christmas!

Enrico doesn’t sing professionally, but this performance of his is touching the heart, and this is the most important thing, I believe!

Merry Christmas to everyone! :-)

(found via molif)

Posted on by Michel

Steve Jobs’ Three Stories

Although I am no big fan of Steve Jobs from Apple, I do like Pixar a lot (Apple, too, but to a lesser degree;-), and the stories he tells us, are certainly worth watching …and understanding.

Posted on by Michel · 2 Comments

MS Office 2007 – MS Office 2003 compatibility issue (fix)

Microsoft Office LogoIf you have an older version of Microsoft Office – for example, Microsoft Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), or even older (Microsoft Office XP) you might have problems opening the new file formats, introduced with the new Office 2007 (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, and others).

To fix this issue, without necessarily upgrading to the 2007 Office, you may download the following update from Microsoft:

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats

It supports the following versions of Windows: Windows 2000 SP4, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP SP1 (or higher, SP2 included), and the following versions of Microsoft Office:

  • Microsoft Word 2000 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2000 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 with Service Pack 3
  • Microsoft Word 2002 with Service Pack 3, Microsoft Excel 2002 with Service Pack 3, and Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 with Service Pack 3
  • Microsoft Office Word 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, Microsoft Office Excel 2003 with at least Service Pack 1, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 with at least Service Pack 1

and also the following Office viewers:

  • Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003
  • Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003
  • Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2003

So, if you have one of the above, you can download and install the update, and then open and even save in the new file formats without a problem, even if you still continue to use an older version of MS Office:)