Adobe Reader, the tool to opens PDF files created using Adobe Acrobat is one of the most used software for reading files. It is compatible with many devices, it easy to print PDF files, and also has several alternatives to accessing PDF files. One of these alternative to accessing PDF files that many people do not know is called Read Out Aloud. This feature converts text to spoken words. Adobe Reader versions 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 have this feature. You can use it to listen PDF files that have editable text. It cannot read images and documents that are scanned. It works in English.

Setting the feature Reading Out Aloud

For better use of this feature you need to set your preferences. Here, these are the steps:

-Open Adobe Reader

-Open Edit Menu and choose "Preferences" or hit "ctrl+k". This action opens a pop-up window.

-Choose in the left column headed "Categories", "Reading"

-In the box called "Read Out Aloud Options," set the volume that you want. Also, you can set pitch and velocity of listening in words per minutes. Windows only has a one default voice.

-In the box called "Reading Order Options," choose the reading order. The option recommended is: Infer reading order from the document.

-In the inferior right corner of the pop-up window click "OK"

Listening Your File

First, open your PDF file. Now, for listening your file you need to start Reading Out Aloud feature. The easier way is hitting the command "ctrl+ shift+y". Then, your have the following options to listen your file: listen one page, using the command ctrl+ shift+ v or listen the entire document use: ctrl+ shift+ b. If you like to make a pause in the listening use: ctrl+shift+c and resume using the same command again. Use the command ctrl+shift+e, if you want to stop your listening.

This accessibility feature is useful for people that have vision problems, or do not want to read a file. Also, it allows you to do other things like clean the house or cooking while you are listening your PDF files and it is a useful tool for people that are learning English.

For example: You are creating a help manual which contains numerous processes and steps for doing those processes. In the help manual, you want to convey to the user that they should not skip any of the steps while carrying out the processes. To convey this, you create a Note.

Note: Do not skip any of the steps.

For this Note, you select a formatting style so that it appears difference from the general text.

Since the help manual comprises of numerous processes and steps, so the same thing repeats wherever applicable. This is where Snippet comes into picture. You just need to store the message as Snippet and insert it wherever required.

How to create Snippets?

To create snippets follow the steps given below:

1. Open a RoboHelp Topic
2. Enter the message like Note, which is as shown below and select a style format or create a new style format
3. Select the text and right click. From the drop-down menu, select Add to > Snippets. A Snippet dialog appears. Enter the name of the Snippet and click OK, a new Snippet named Note will be added.
4. To insert the Note Snippet in another topic, open the topic and place the cursor at the place where you would like to insert the Snippet - Note
5. From the Insert menu, select Snippet as shown below.
6. A Snippet dialog appears. Select the Snippet - Note and click OK. The Snippet text is automatically inserted into the topic at the place of the cursor.

Virtually every program code has inputs and outputs. Before compiling a source code, programs generally request an input from the user and then output it to the screen after compiling if the program is well designed and there is no error inside it. Usually, as the program becomes more complicated, error possibility increases. A good software expert easily realizes where the code has faults and corrects it. Since our first code will be very small and very simple, we will not face with any error.

Before starting to write code, we initially have a compiler which is going to evaluate our code. I use Dev C for this. There are many other compilers which run on different platforms like Unix, Linux and Windows.

In this project, we will output the names of the subprograms of Triond on to C terminal screen. This is the simplest algorithm since there is no input in this example. Let's start writing our code step by step.

Step 1: Open the File from the menu bar of C software and save as the blank page Project1. This yields a file with an extension of cpp.

Step 2: Describe the name and aim of the programs. To do so, we use comments. Comments are ignored by the compiler. For commenting, we use some special scripts like double slash or slash-asterisk character .

If we use a single line comment, double slash is enough. However, if our comment is placed more than one line, we use double slash for each line or take the commented part between slash-asterisk and asterisk-slash characters .

Step 3: C needs library files which define what the input and output functions are and what they do when they are used in a code. Iostream is the library file of input and output function.

Before the name of library files, we use a special character, preprocessor directive character. Include is used before the name of every library file and such file names are placed mathematical comparison characters.

Step 4: Every C code uses functions. The default function is main. Main function is the first function compiled by the programs. This function usually calls other functions. Before the name of function, we specify which type of output our code returns. In our program, we think that it returns to integer and use int. After the function name, we use parantheses. In this example, there will be nothing between parantheses but in more complicated programs, there may be parameter names and it's types or definitions. We place our statements between left brace and right brace.

Step 5: To print on to the screen,we use cout function. We simply place our string inside double quote characters. Every statement inside the functions ends with a special semicolon character.

Step 6: To check the validity, we use return function.In this simple example, it returns to 0.

Click here for the code

Hopefully these programs help you.

1. Open a 500x500 pixels document with Black as the background colour.
   
   
   
   
2. Create a Text on it. I'm using Arial font. Just Type “Photoshop”. Font colour should be white. Better to be in upper case. And Select the text layer and Go to Layer>>Rasterize>>Type.
   
   
   
   
3. Now duplicate the “photoshop” layer once. And Select the middle layer (“Photoshop”).
   
   
   
   
4. Now we want to create a wind effect to this text, for that rotate canvas 90CW. Image >> Rotate Canvas >>90CW. Now Go to Filter >> Stylize >> Wind. Click the direction from the left, and method as wind. Click OK. To make more effect press “Ctrl + Fthree times. Now rotate the canvas to 90 CCW. Image >> Rotate Canvas >> 90 CCW. “
   
   
   
   
5. To make more effect to the wind, Go to Filter >> Blur >> Gaussian Blur and set the radius to 2
   
   
   
   
6. The next step is to give our Photoshop layer a black background which will be needed for the next step. To do this, duplicate Layer 1 (our original background layer) and merge this duplicate layer with the blurred text layer we just made.
   
   
   
   It will look like this...
   
   
   
   
7. With the middle layer still selected, go to Filter->Liquify. St the brush size to 80, density to 11 and pressure to 92. Now take the Warp tool and push the streaks around to get a sort of rising "S" pattern over the letters. Then hit OK
   
   
   
   
8. Select the middle layer. Now go to Select Image->Adjustments->Hue/Saturation and select Colorize so we can fiddle with the color. Bring Saturation up to 100 and set Hue to about 40. Make sure the option “Colourize” is ticked.




9. Duplicate this colorized layer and select this duplicate. Then Go to Image->Adjustments->Hue/Saturation again, this time with Colorize off. Set the Hue to -20 to make the flames red. Set the Blending Mode of this duplicate layer to Overlay.
   
   
   
   
10. Select the “Photoshop copy” layer and click the transparency lock button.
11. Set foreground color to #f9e400 and the background color to #a36a06. Then click the gradient tool and draw. Finally it will look like this. You can also change the layer style.
    
    

That's all. Enjoy the tutorial.

1. GIMP

   It's a lot like Photoshop without the huge price tag. Free! Originally designed for Linux, it has been made for Windows as well. Works great for Vista where older Photoshop versions and other issues of compatibility don't exist!
   

2. Namo WebEditor

   So you want to create a website and may or may not know some html. Not a problem. Namo is structured similarly to Dreamweaver and again without the huge pricetag. This software runs $100 and comes with Namo FreeMotion and Namo FreeCanvas. I'm more impressed with FreeMotion as it's a flash based program and the instructions included make it easy enough for an amateur to use. Namo FreeCanvas isn't bad but I wouldn't pay anything extra for it. Worth checking out as part of the bundle. If you already own another web editor, there is typically a rebate for $20 off.
   

3. Pinnacle Studio

   Do you like editing video clips? If you do this program is reasonably priced and though not as fancy as Adobe's Premiere it's also much cheaper! Versions range from the original studio through Plus and Ultimate based on your needs. If you're editing standard video you can pay as little as $50. High Definition will cost you $100 and Studio Ultimate which allows for Dolby 5.1, fx editor, and a few other features be prepared to dish out $130. Typically Studio allows for an upgrade version and/or rebate based on your previous purchase.
   

4. Paint.net

   Again another photo editing software similar to Photoshop but easier to navigate for those that aren't advanced users. Free software again, can't complain there. The interface is easy and it doesn't lack features

I'm a graphic designer. I have a pretty broad range of projects on the go at any one time and accordingly, use a wide range of tools. I build websites, design for print, create video presentations, flash animations 3D models and some animation. I still use older, Macromedia versions of programs (thank you eBay), as I don't have the money to upgrade to the newest Adobe versions.

My computer has plenty of RAM, and a decent processor. I have the full use of both arms and all of my fingers. So why does it take me so long to finish a project?

Well, no one program can do what I need. I used to be fairly Photoshop-centric in my work, but now I like Adobe Illustrator, as it does almost everything Adobe Photoshop can do short of photo editing and having all my art as vectors is better for file sizes and for scaling up in later projects. But, for example, if I'm making a video, and posting it online, often my work flow looks like this:

Receive brief from client. It's in .doc format, so I open it in Open Office. (if it's in .docx format, I get angry and have to dig out my Microsoft Word viewer)

• Create concepts in Adobe Photoshop.
• Email them to client from Thunderbird.
• Get the go-ahead from the client.
• Animate some segments in Blender.
• Edit together footage in Adobe Premiere.
• Export using Adobe Media Encoder.
• Import into Macromedia Flash.
• Create title overlays in Illustrator, as Flash wont read all my fonts.
• Import these as vectors.
• Save as a .swf.
• Build web page in Dreamweaver.
• Write the rest of the page code by hand in Notepad2.

Phew. As fast as my PC is, I can't realistically keep all of those programs running. However, to speed things up, I'll often have five or so open at any one time. Once I start moving content between them I start losing time.

I have several options. I could use Adobe Bridge. I could. It's cumbersome and at the end of the day, eve if I liked the interface, it's just one more program to run and will only link about a quarter of the programs I want.

I don't use Windows Flip 3D. It's beautiful, it's original (unless you've ever used a Mac in the last 10 years), it's.... ..utterly useless. It's eye-candy and the sort of thing that ageing men everywhere use when someone walks past their PC, just so they can look as if they're doing something complicated.

But, I digress. What I want to do is finish my project. I need to edit content, add stuff in and export it. I'm fairly sure that given enough motivation, someone, somewhere, could teach my PC to understand that a vector in one program can be a vector in another. I can drop stuff from Illustrator into Flash, (after a fair amount of groaning on my computer's part). Premiere can open up Photoshop files, though why it would want to is utterly beyond my comprehension. This is a start. And it's the reason I was happy to hear Adobe bought out Macromedia, though it will still take a while before the Macromedia programs are anything but Adobe in name only. Premiere has been an Adobe project of several generations, but still remains very different, besides it's ability to crash at the slightest provocation.

So, what am I getting at?

I think the very concept of the Windows OS needs re-examining. Windows functions by running, applications, processes and everything else in, (would you believe it!?) Windows.

Once upon a time, this model worked very well, everyone had 256k of RAM and they were happier for it. But not any more. Let me give you an example:

I'm running Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Blender and Open Office .org at the moment.

All of them have options to insert text into a document. This means on my PC, I have five instances of text features, running at once. They're not all compatible, Flash wont read all my fonts, Blender wont read the other half and that only leaves me with with Arial Black and Papyrus (which just screams, “I'm six years old, here's my Egyptian homework project!”).

I think, I could save RAM and improve compatibility if my OS handled fonts. Then, I could just call up that feature, like the character map and chose my font. It only runs once on the system, so I save memory. These days Photoshop and Illustrator are about 50% identical, already it would make more sense for there to be a basic framework with individual features which can be called upon as needed. Both have colour pickers, (think what integration could do for managing colour profiles), Photoshop has vectors, Illustrator has layer styles... ..can you see where I'm going with this?

So, really I think it's up to the OS to incorporate everything, or at least provide a framework to make this possible. That way, more features could be integrated as individual modules. Think of the amounts of memory we could save. No longer would I have to load huge font list in five individual programs as they start up. Nor would I have to wait for all those Photoshop brushes to load when all I want to do is correct red eye in one photo.

It could work from a marketing perspective too; iTunes found success by selling individual songs from albums, I think programs could do the same with features. It might provide useful feedback on exactly what users want in applications. I think Adobe would be hard pressed to find anyone willing to buy some of the tackier Photoshop filters. And if users could spend less at a time, I'm sure more people would invest in these programs. People could buy the basic module, the equivalent of Photoshop Elements and then customise their package. Illustrator already doubles up with Photoshop on so many features, and Adobe already allows people to build packages of whole programs as custom Creative Suites, they're getting there already.

I realize it's not an easy answer, but you have to do these things one step at a time. If we ever want to make changes this immense, and in my opinion, this useful, we have to plan them and then implement them one step at a time.

Surely some of this is almost reaching the point of being a necessity? I thought that code was meant to get leaner and cleaner with each new release. And whilst this seems to be the case with smaller open source applications, like Lightbox and full open source programs like Blender, other programs, like Microsoft Word are power-hungry beasts, with god-knows what built in as standard. It's a Word processor for gods sake!!! You know, I got the feeling that perhaps Word Art was a step too far in 1998, I can't even use Word these days! On my new Vista laptop I had a 90 day trial of Microsoft Word, and along side it, a whole program just to activate it. To activate it. Am I insane here!? Why does my new laptop have a program on it to activate a 90 day free trial of an unusable word processor!?

But I digress, I want my OS to take on more of the workload. It's a lot to ask for, I know.

Having said this, I'm not the first person to think about this. Douglas Adams, suggested being able to "cut and paste" functions in Macs, nineteen years ago in an article in MacUser magazine.

Just stop and think, for a second. Think of Minority Report, The Matrix, Twenty Four, well, actually any film where the writers had no clue about how technology really works. And it's no slur on them, (god forbid we criticise the Writers Guild of America, I'm only just getting over my TV withdrawal) it's just the way we want computers to work. They are simple, integrated and fast. Agent Smith never had to pause to buffer, Jack Bauer never found his computer couldn't open PNGs, Tom Cruise never had to wait whilst his image manipulation software loaded, so why should we?

Photoshop is a quite expensive program but it is worth it. Now the free online version is certainly not a full blown application. It can do a few things but will not replace the application it self.

Photoshop Express is free to sign up to. Adobe gives you a 2GB space on which you can create albums and upload images to. From there you can download images, email them to friends and family and also link to from other websites.

The Interface is simple and easy to use. It is clear about where you have to click to get certain actions. No need to search for hours to find a simple function.

When you start editing your images, you will be able to access three types of tools:

1. Basics
2. Tuning
3. Effects

In the Basic Tools you will find tools to crop the image or rotate it, auto correct colors, change the exposure, remove red eyes and a couple more.

The Tuning Tools are quite usefull too. Here you can change the White Balance, sharpen or soften the images, change the fill light and more.

The effect tools are as well only very basic. You can distort thr image, change it into a sketch image, change it to a black and white one and some other tools.

All together Adobe managed to createa useful application and if they continue to improve it, they will be able to match the full blown application soon. The question then will be if they will continue to offer this service for free or for a charge.

Well done Adobe.

Turn off the Welcome Center startup page.

This is as simple as deselecting the Run at Startup check box. You do not need this to run at startup to enjoy Vista.

Change the sleep time on your computer.

If your computer has already gone to sleep please note that tapping a couple of times on the space bar wakes it quicker than moving the mouse. Go to the Windows start button and select Control Panel. It is the 3rd item from the bottom right. Select System and Maintenance green link, then go to Power options and select the blue link Change when the computer sleeps. You will notice they have it set for a measly 30 minutes, way too short for going to get something to eat and drink while you work at home. Set the Turn off display time to something you can live with, say 4 hours (I set mine to never). Set the Put the computer to sleep time to something you can live with. Save changes and exit out of the power options.

Change the defrag disk parameters.

It comes set to defrag every week and this is overkill for most users. I set mine for monthly defrag although on my old XP Professional system I only defragged once a year. Go to the Windows Start button and select Control Panel, the 3rd item from the bottom right. Select the green System and Maintenance link then scroll down to the category called Administrative Tools. Select the blue link Defragment your hard drive and click on the link. It should come up as Run on a Schedule and you can modify schedule. Do so. Select monthly out of how often, day 1 in days and 6pm or another time suited to you. This would mean defrag at 6pm on the first day of the month. Defragging keeps your files tight and together on your hard drive so they load faster. Of course, you could always take it off the schedule and defrag by going to the defrag scheduler when you want to.

Get on the Internet.

Get with your ISP and hook up to the Internet. Hopefully you do not have dial-up as it is much slower than anything else out there. I use my cell phone as a modem and typically run 7-10 times faster than dial-up for $25 a month. If you are stuck with dial-up but have a cell phone see if this option is available to you. After you connect to the Internet, just let your computer sit idle for awhile….Windows will download some updates and notify you to restart when it is done.

Get rid of PC-cillin by Trend and buy Norton Internet Security 2008 for $49.

If you decide to do this, go to the Start button and select Control Panel. Under the green link Programs select the blue link to Uninstall a program. Select Trend software PC-cillin and uninstall it. After it has done its' job close the Control Panel. Have your Internet up and running and put the CD in the CD player to install Norton Internet Security 2008. Once Norton Internet Security 2008 has been installed, change the scan schedule. It comes set to full scan weekly as did disk defrag, this is also overkill as long as you do a quick scan after every days work is done if you were on the Internet. Double click the Norton Icon and select Schedule a scan. The select Schedule a full system scan. Select month for Schedule Task: and then select The 1st Sunday of every month, select time consistent with when you will be on the computer (You might shy away from 6pm or whatever time you set your defrag to, give full system scan a couple of hours prior to defrag. Select OK to save your changes and exit out of Norton.

Burn your music library to Windows Media Player.

Windows Media Player has been completely revamped and it is well done. Once again make sure the Internet is up and running. This will fill in your album information and your song tracks for you. Place the CD you want to copy songs from in the CD player and it should auto start. You will see a tab on the Windows Media Player that says RIP. This is the tab to copy from CD to computer, they call it ripping now. Select the RIP tab. You should see the list of song titles with them all checked. Deselect the songs you do not wish to copy. Select START RIP at the bottom right. Wait for ripping to finish and then you can close Windows Media Player. Repeat this process for each of your CD's you want to copy from. I have 95 songs from 24 CD's in my music library.

Burn a custom CD for your car from Windows Media Player.

You do not need the Internet up and running to do this. Install a blank CD in your CD-W drive. Open Windows Media Player and select a playlist you have made and want to burn from, or select Play All if you do not have a previously made playlist. Select Play, and then View Queue. You can then Edit Queue which will allow you to select a delete box by each song. Delete the songs you do not want burned to your CD, bearing in mind the CD can only hold 80 minutes of audio. Once you have done this, save the playlist under a new name. Use the Window button to return to the main selection screen and select your new playlist. This time select Burn, if you have too much songs selected it will warn you and you can delete some more. If not, it will merrily burn you a music CD with your favorite music on it.

Change your desktop background to your favorite photo.

You do not need the internet up and running for this activity. Your photo must be downloadable from where it is. I have a digital camera with compact flash card, so here is what I do. I have taken a photo of my son and his fiancée, turned off my camera, removed the compact flash media card and inserted it in the appropriate compact flash reader in my 9 in 1 card reader on the front panel of my computer. I then go to Windows start button, select computer, and select the drive with the media in it. I then select the photos I want copied and copy them to the Sample Pictures folder. This is under C:/users/public/public pictures. After doing this, make sure you expand your right task bar and find the safely remove hardware icon and click on it. It should bring up a yellow dialog box telling you it is safe to remove your media card. Do so and click the dialog box. Go back to the Windows start button and select it. Select the Control Panel, 3rd item from bottom right. Go over to the second column and find Appearance and personalization the second from the top. Go to the blue link called Change desktop background and select it. Browse photo locations if not started in Sample Pictures to Public pictures/Sample pictures which is where you should have put your photo when you copied it over. Just click on your picture twice to turn the background to it. Under How should the picture be positioned select the leftmost button. This stretches the picture over your monitor screen. Select OK and close the Control Panel.

Getting the red eye out of your computer photos using Adobe Elements Studio. You need the Internet up and running if this is the first time you've used Adobe Elements Studio. You will patiently wait at most an hour, unless you have dial-up and then it will be even longer, for an update package to load of 193 Mb. Open Adobe Elements Studio and allow the updater to do its thing. Afterwards, click on the camera icon to load Adobe Elements Photoshop 6.0. Select the Edit button. Once the program has loaded, under the menu heading FILE select open. Navigate to Sample Pictures, or wherever you put the photo with red eye at. Double click the photo to load it. A little past mid-way down the left screen side you will see a “red eye”. Select this tool and then position it over your photos red eye and click it. This however, does not remove the entire red eye-it did not on mine. The third icon down on the left side is an eye dropper. Select this tool and then at the top of the icons set sample size to 3 by 3. Using the keyboard hold down the CTRL key and press the "=" key 2 times to enlarge the photo. Move the eyedropper tool over the part of the eye you want the color to be and click one time. Now switch to the brush tool, it is above the paint can icon on the bottom left. Using the eye drop tool this way causes the paint brush to change to that color. Set the paint brush paint size at the top to a small brush. Then just paint over your red eye and your job is complete. Don't forget to go to the file menu and Save your changes. If you were working on your background picture you will need to reload it or restart your computer for it to take effect.

Burn a movie DVD. Once again, if this is the first time you have used Adobe Elements Video shop 4.0 you need to be connected to the internet. Double click the Adobe Elements Studio icon, and then click the camcorder icon in the middle. If this is the first time, let the updater do its job prior to continuing, the wait could be as long as an hour, much longer if you have dial-up. Assuming this is a new project select the new project icon. Name your new project and the film layout studio will load. Click on the left most tool bar item titled Get Media. Click on DVD on the lists that come up. Select GET MEDIA FROM: to be your DVD player where the movie you want to make a copy of is in. Then click the Get Media button at the bottom of the pop up box. It will load the time clips backwards, if you hold the mouse over the first clip it will be VTS_01.03, the second clip will be VTS_01.02 and the third one will be VTS_01.01 if you have 3 scenes.

When you drag and drop them to the time line make sure you drag them in numerical order so you do not play your movie backwards. After you do this you can press play in the center of the screen to make sure your movie plays in the correct order. Then insert a blank DVD of 2 hours total time and select the green share tab at the top left. Click on disk Burn DVD or blue ray disk. Make sure your Burn To: is set to disc. Disc name should be what you want to name the disc, such as Jenna's Wedding. Burner location is the DVD drive you have the blank disc in, either DVD or Blue Ray drive. Select how many copies you want to make. Leave presets alone. On quality, deselect the Fit contents to available space. The Burn button is in the middle right of the screen. This will start encoding the material for you. It takes about 12 minutes to encode 1.5 hours on my system. After that it burns the disc in about 5 minutes, and if you are making more than one copy each copy will take about 5 minutes. That is all there is to it.