Monthly Archives: November 2012

fixed : edit or delete Outer Glow effect from Illustrator EPS

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Question :

I have added an “Outer Glow” effect to my vector drawing in Adobe Illustrator, but I have since altered the design of the drawing, and now I want to delete (or edit) the Outer Glow effect, but I can’t find the way to do so… What should I do ?

Answer :

“Outer Glow”, “Inner Glow”, “Drop Shadow” and “Feather” are some of the options of the “Stylize” feature in Adobe Illustrator’s “Filters” menu (on the top menu bar). They add effects that could previously only be created using Photoshop (because they are non-standard vector effects, they appear to be pixel-effects).

—- CREATE —-

To add an “Outer Glow” (or any other “Stylize”) effect to your vector drawing :

– select the objects you want to create the effect on

– go to the “Filters” (in the top menu bar) –> “Stylize” –> “Outer Glow” (or any other)

– in the window that appears, check “Preview”, adjust the settings (e.g. change the effect color) and press “OK” if you like the outcome

– Done.

—- EDIT —-

To edit an “Outer Glow” (or any other “Stylize”) effect that’s in a vector drawing :

– make sure the “Appearance” panel is visible (to do so, go to “Window” in the top menu bar and make sure there’s a check mark in front of “Appearance”)

– select the objects you want ot edit in your drawing

– look in the “Appearance” panel, there you should see the effect you want to edit listed (e.g. “Outer Glow”) with the indication “fx” behind it

– if you do not see the effect listed in the “Appearance” panel, you have probably selcted a Group of drawing elements, that does not have the effect applied the same way to all of them… to fix that, just ungroup the elements and select only the ones you need (again) until the effect appears in the list of the “Appearance” panel

– then double click on the effect’s name listed in the “Appearance” panel, and a window will popup in which you can adjust the filter’s settings

– Done. (but remember to re-group the drawing’s elements)

—- DELETE —-

To delete an “Outer Glow” (or any other “Stylize”) effect that’s in a vector drawing :

– make sure the “Appearance” panel is visible (to do so, go to “Window” in the top menu bar and make sure there’s a check mark in front of “Appearance”)

– in your drawing, select the objects you want delete the effect from

– look in the “Appearance” panel, there you should see the effect you want to edit listed (e.g. “Outer Glow”) with the indication “fx” behind it

– if you do not see the effect listed in the “Appearance” panel, you have probably selcted a Group of drawing elements, that does not have the effect applied the same way to all of them… to fix that, just ungroup the elements and select only the ones you need (again) until the effect appears in the list of the “Appearance” panel

– then click-and-drag the effect’s name listed in the “Appearance” panel onto the small Trash icon that is on the bottom of the “Appearance” panel

– Done. (but remember to re-group the drawing’s elements)

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fixed : creating a single outline with Illustrator’s Pathfinder tool

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Question :

I’ve always used the Pathfinder tool in Adobe Illustrator to add, join, trim & subtract shapes to get the more unusual shapes. Now I’m using Adobe CS (version CS3, but I don’t think that will differ from newer CS-versions), but after using the desired Pathfinder-option, I don’t get just one shape, but some kind of group of two overlaying shapes… what did I do wrong ?

Answer :

Nothing… you were actually almost there…

to get to the desired ‘one outline’ result… you just have to complete the Pathfinder-outcome by clicking the “Expand” button also…

it’s that simple 😉

NOTE : clicking the “Expand” button has the same effect as using the “Expand Appearance” option that is available from the upper menu bar under the “Object” pulldown menu

info : iCloud Photo Stream on OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard

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Question :

I have set up iCloud Photostream on my iPhone and/or iPad to automatically upload my pictures to iCloud, but my Mac is a Core Duo Intel-Mac, which can only run MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard…

…is there any way to get my photos ‘Photostream-like’ onto my Snow Leopard Mac automatically ?

Answer :

The requirement for iCloud Photostream-compatibility on a Mac is iPhoto 9.2.3 (from iLife ’11). But even though it is possible to install iPhoto 9.2.3 on a Mac running OSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, iPhoto will only show the Photostream option if you are on a Mac running 10.7 Lion or 10.8 Mountain Lion.

At this moment your options are :

1- use the workaround using the Eye-Fi app, as previously outlined here :

https://macmanus.nl/2012/07/28/fixed-icloud-photostream-from-business-iphone-to-family-mac/

2- use the rather costly and time-consuming setup of iCloud Control Panel for Windows on a virtual Windows-installation on your Mac [ see below for details ]

3- turn the iCloud control Panel for Windows into a OSX-app by putting it inside a (Windows Vista-compatible) Wine-wrapper [ this is a programmer-only option, which needs some (a lot of ?) debugging ; I’ve done various attempts myself, but haven’t got it working yet… help is welcome ]

4- use Dropbox (or alike) to bypass Photo Stream completely

…and a few less satisfying options :

5- wait for Apple to upgrade iPhoto and MacOSX 10.6 with support for Photo Stream [ if ever… the long awaited – but not yet (if ever) – released MacOSX 10.6.9 is/was said to bring Photostream-compatibility to Snow Leopard… but chances on that are fading day-by-day…]

6- upgrade to a new Mac [ sounds like “you’re busted” right ? ]

—- UPDATE —–

some new options have emerged :

7- get iPhoto for iOS and create a Journal that you publish online (on an iCloud webpage), from there you can export to iTunes ; more info on this can be found here :

http://help.apple.com/iphoto/ipad/1.0/#blnkaf3ef70a

8- in the iOS Photos app, create a secondary Photo Stream (a.k.a. “Shared Photo Stream”) that you publish online (on an iCloud webpage), from there you can import them on your Mac ;  more info on this can be found here :

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4379

 

——————————————————————————–

INFO ON SETTING UP THE iCloud Control Panel for Windows ON A MAC :

Apple has released an iCloud Control Panel 2.0 for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (iCloud Control Panel 1.0 was for Windows XP also).

And since MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard can run OSX and Windows side-by-side, using virtualization, it is possible to set Photostream up on a Snow Leopard Mac…

Like this :

– install virtualization software (on OSX)

– install Windows (on a virtual machine in the vritualization software)

– register Windows (else you won’t be able to run it in the long run)

– install iCloud Control Panel for Windows (on Windows)

– setup iCloud Control Panel to download iCloud’s Photostream to a shared Mac&Windows-folder (on Windows)

– setup iPhoto (on MacOSX) to auto-import photos from the shared Mac&Windows-folder

…but it is both time-consuming and expensive, since you will need :

– at least 10GB of free harddisk space (on top of the 25% or more free hard disk space needed for MacOSX to run properly)

– virtualization software like Parallels, VM Ware Fusion (both rather expensive if you’ll only use it for iCloud Photostream) or Sun/Oracle’s FREE VirtualBox for OSX :

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

– Windows Vista or Windows 7 with an official registration ;  which is NOT free, but you might have it lying around from an old unused PC…

(if you only have an official Windows XP lying around, you can either try to use the older WinXP-compatible version of iCloud Control Panel for Windows)

…or you can try upgrading to Windows 8, which is ‘relatively cheap’ until (‘only’ $40 or €30, but you will need a genuine Windows XP, Vista of & license…)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/buy?ocid=GA8_O_WOL_Hero_Home_FPP_Null

http://windows.microsoft.com/nl-NL/windows/buy?ocid=GA8_O_WOL_Hero_Home_FPP_Null

WARNING : iCloud Control Panel 2.0 for Windows is officially not supporting Windows 8 yet… (but it’s expected to run anyway…)

– and last but not least : iCloud Control Panel for Windows version 2 :

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1455

…or if you’re looking for the iCloud Control Panel that also runs on Windows XP :

http://icloud-control-panel.nl.softonic.com/download

…or you can try to make the latest iCloud Control Panel XP-compatible by :

– unRAR the iCloudSetup.exe using any un-archiver like RAR, UnArchiver or

– open iCloud.msi in Textedit (on OSX)

– search very occurrence of “Version>=600” and change it to “Version>=200”

– save and make sure the file-extention is back to .msi (adjust it in the finder if needed)

– run the iCloud.msi in Windows XP

So… as mentioned before : it is possible to ‘tap’ (kind of) your iCloud Photostream to your OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac… but… it’s costly and time-consuming to set it up…

NOTE :

as mentioned before : I’ve tried to make an ‘OSX-app’ by putting the iCloud Control Panel for Windows in a stand-alone Wine-wrapper, but despite various attempts I haven’t got that one working yet… (any help on this is welcome)

fixed : repair corrupt RAR-files on your Mac

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Question :

I have some RAR-archive-files on my Mac that I would like to decompress/unarchive. I have tried several unarchiver-applications, but they all end up telling me that the RAR-file is corrupted.

Is there any way to fix this ?

Answer :

RAR (which stands for Roshal ARchive) is a very popular file-compression that is developed and maintained by the Roshal brothers Eugene & Alexander. Their RAR & unRAR utility is called WinRAR (for Windows) or simply RAR (for all other platforms including MacOSX).

One interesting thing about WinRAR/RAR is that it is also capable of repairing corrupted RAR-archive-files. Slight down-side is that the utility doesn’t have a graphic interface (GUI) like most MacOSX-apps… it is a ‘command line only’ tool…

To repair damaged RAR-archive-files on MacOSX, do this :

– download WinRAR/RAR for MacOSX from the Roshal brothers’ website :

http://www.win-rar.com/fileadmin/winrar-versions/rarosx-4.2.0.tar.gz

NOTE : if you want to be sure you get the latest version of RAR for MacOSX, go to this website to find it :

http://www.win-rar.com/download.html

– After downloading, open the Terminal app that is in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder and drop the “rar” program file from the “rarosx” folder onto the terminal window.

– Then make sure there’s a space (by typing on the SPACE-bar of your keyboard)

– Then type “r” (without the quotes).

– Then make sure there’s another space (by typing on the SPACE-bar of your keyboard again).

– Then drop the file you want repaired onto the terminal window (it’ll give the path and name of the file).

– Then make sure there’s another space (typ the SPACE-bar)

– and type “/Users/yourname/Desktop” or wherever you want the fixed file to be delivered.

(if you want to deliver to a specific destination folder, it may be easier to just drop the folder where you want it placed onto the terminal window again so there’s no chance at typos)

– Then hit “return” and the repair scan will start. if the file has a recovery record, it will say that it was found almost immediately. Then the repairing the file will start. (this might take a couple of minutes, depending on the size of the file)

– After that, double click the repaired RAR-archive-file to have it unRARed

…that should do the trick!

NOTE : the file will have the prefix “rebuilt” appended to the beginning of the filename. You’ll need to delete that once the repair process has completed before you attempt to join the files again.

fixed : HideSwitch can’t hide invisible files

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Question :

I used to use the HideSwitch app to view the invisible files on my Mac from time to time.

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/36771/hideswitch

It used to work great, but now I’ve run into a problem that the “Hide Invisibles” does no longer hide the invisible files in the Finder (the ones that I had just made visible using HideSwitch’s “Show Invisibles” button…)

FYI : I’m running OSX 10.8.2 “Mountain Lion”

How can I fix this ?

Answer :

The fix is rather simple – if you don’t mind using the Terminal :

– inside your Applications folder, go to the Utilities folder, there you’ll find the Terminal app ; open it by double clicking on the icon

– in OSX’s Terminal window that opens, type (or copy-paste) :

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool NO

– and activate by pressing the RETURN-key on your keyboard

– then type (or copy-paste) :

killall Finder

– and activate by pressing the RETURN-key on your keyboard

…now your Finder will rebuild, and the invisible files will be invisible again

 

NOTE :

Offcourse, you can also use the Terminal to make invisible files visible. (the reverse process of what’s lined out above) To do so, type or copy-paste the following line into the Terminal :

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool YES

…activate using the RETURN-key, then type (or copy-paste) :

killall Finder

…and activate again using the RETURN-key ; that’s it !

 

[ thanks to Matt Swain and others for the tip ]

fixed : delete SPanel from Mountain Lion

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Question :

When I installed OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, the SPanel application for my Samsung printer was disabled. But it wasn’t deleted…

Now the SPanel application turns out to be incompatible with OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion, because nothing happens when trying to run it, but the SPanel icon now sits pointlessly in the upper menu bar of my Mac…

…is there any way of deleting it ?

Answer :

Yes – there is.

To delete the SPanel app (a.k.a. “Smart Panel”) and the menu bar item :

– open the Samsung folder inside your Applications folder

– drag the SPanel app to the Desktop

– open the Printers folder that’s in your main Library folder, so :

~/[your hard disk]/Library/Printers

Note : the SPanel folder may be inside the Samsung folder you’ll find there , but usually isn’t

– drag the SPanel folder to your Desktop

– restart your Mac

– then drag both the SPanel app and the SPanel folder from the Desktop to the Trash

– then empty your Trash

…done !

tip : play some Plants vs Zombies on your Mac for free

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Question :

I wanted to play the Plants vs Zombies game on my PowerPC (G4/G5) Mac, so I downloaded the demo from the PopCap-website. It installs okay, but when I try to play, nothing happens…

What can I do ?

Answer :

Even though the Plants vs Zombies game is compatible with MacOSX 10.4.11 “Tiger” and newer, it is only compatible with Intel-Macs… so you cannot play the demo, nor the full game on any PowerPC (G4/G5) Mac…

but…

even with a G4 & G5 PPC Macs running OSX 10.5 Leopard you can play the online version…

just use your web browser, and play online from PopCap’s official Plants vs Zombies website :

Plants vs Zombies Chrome (also runs in Safari 5) :

http://chrome.plantsvszombies.com/