Turning off Paste Options Floating Button in Word

Thank you, Allen Wyatt, for your Word tip on removing that annoying little floating button that covers up text when you paste something in Word 2007!

Here's the tip from Mr. Wyatt:

Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007 include a feature that really annoys some people: Paste Options. When you paste some tidbit of information in your document, Word displays a small, floating "button" right near the end of the pasted information. The button looks like the Paste tool on the toolbar: a small clipboard with a piece of paper over it. This is the Paste Options button. If you move your mouse pointer over the button, you find that it is really a drop-down menu, and clicking on the menu gives you a few options that you can apply to what you just pasted.

If you find the Paste Options button distracting, or if you never use it, you may want to turn it off. Follow these steps if you are using Word 2002 or Word 2003:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
2. Make sure the Edit tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Clear the Show Paste Options Buttons check box.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Word 2007 then you should follow these steps, instead:

1. Click the Office button and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. Click Advanced at the left side of the dialog box.
3. Scroll through the available options until you get to the Cut, Copy, and Paste section. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Clear the Show Paste Options Buttons check box.
5. Click OK.


FYI, the "Office" button is that big, round button with the Windows logo on it that appears in the top left corner of Word. The Office button is another feature of Word 2007 that takes some getting used to (they hid the Print and Document Properties there too). Here's a picture that shows the checkbox in Word 2007:


























Here's the original post from Mr. Wyatt: http://word.tips.net/Pages/T003857_Turning_Off_Paste_Options.html

(now to find out how to turn off those annoying animated rollovers on linked text in Firefox....)

Capture Screengrabs with Snag-It

If you have a need to capture screens — especially scrolling web pages with videos or Flash elements that are difficult to capture accurately with web browser print features, you should try SnagIt from TechSmith. A new version (version 10) was just released this week. You can download the 30 day trial here: http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp. I have been using this software for years and it has been well worth the $24.95 upgrade pricetag ($49 if you're a first-time purchaser).

The new "All-in-One" capture profile makes it so easy to capture exactly what you want on screen. Just open SnagIt, select "All-in-One", hit the red Capture button, and click on the window you want to capture. SnagIt automatically detects whether the page has vertical or horizontal scrolling and shows an overlay with arrows indicating the direction of scroll. Click the arrow and the capture begins. Then print the capture or save it to jpg, png, or any number of formats.

Here's a capture of the 4Next homepage which has a Flash header and several simultaneous animated elements:

I have captured a sequence of screengrabs as jpgs and then used Adobe Acrobat Professional Edition to assemble the jpgs into a PDF that shows the order of appearance online. Then I have used Acrobat to annotate the PDF with changes, feedback, or notations.

Another nice feature of SnagIt, that was added for version 9, is the "organize images" function that creates a handy archive of all the images you have captured with SnagIt. Just click on "Organize Images" to see thumbnails of all your captures.

This program does a whole lot more, but even these basic features are so useful you have to try it out!

Best Way to Copy and Paste Text Between Programs

If you need to copy and paste large blocks of highly formatted copy from Word (or a Web page) to another program (such as an online html editor or an email message), you may want to remove all that erroneous code first. Otherwise you end up with wacky font sizes, colors and odd paragraph spacing.

Get to know the simple Notepad program that comes with Windows. You'll find it under your start menu. Search under "all programs" and then "accessories". When you locate the program, drag and drop the icon from the start menu to your taskbar or desktop so it will be easier to locate when you need it next.

Open Notepad. Copy and paste all your highly formatted text content into Notepad to remove all the formatting. Then copy and paste the text back out of Notepad and into its final resting place to get clean content.

Here's an example:
Say you want to copy and paste the text from a PR that was provided to you as a Word file or a PDF into an online html editor (cms) for your website. If you go right from Word to HTML editor, you're going to get a mess of line breaks, indents, and font formatting that may not match the layout of the website where the content is needed. So, instead, copy and paste the text you want out of Word or the PDF and into Notepad first. This will clear out all that erroneous code you don't want. Then copy and paste the clean text out of Notepad and into your online html editor. You'll get much better results!

One thing Notepad doesn't do well is remove paragraph breaks. If you have ever had to manually remove paragraph breaks from a long page of copied text you know what a pain this can be! But I have found a quick way to remove unwanted paragraph breaks using Word.

Since you probably got all those paragraph breaks by copying and pasting content from a PDF or webpage -- go ahead and copy and paste the ugly content, littered with paragraph breaks every 65 characters, into a clean Word document. Then find Word's editing toolbar and click on Find/Replace. Select "Find" and then click the "More" button. Click the "Special" dropdown and select "Paragraph Mark". Click on "Replace" and leave it blank. Click "Replace All". All the paragraph breaks will be removed, leaving one continuous copy block!

Nice!

Handy html symbol codes

These are html codes I use all the time. To insert one of these codes, just hold down your ALT key while typing the code into your number keypad. (Be sure your NumLock is off). So, to make an em dash, just hold down the alt key and hit 0151 on your keypad. Voila! An em-dash!

ALT + 0178 = ² (superscript 2, squared number)
ALT + 0179 = ³ (superscript 3, cubed number)
ALT + 0153 = ™ (trademark symbol)
ALT + 0181 = µ (micron symbol)
ALT + 0151 = — (em dash, my personal favorite!)
ALT + 0177 = ± (plus or minus symbol)
ALT + 0174 = ® (registered trademark symbol)
ALT + 0169 = © (copyright symbol)
ALT + 0176 = ° (degree symbol)
ALT + 0149 = • (bullet)
ALT + 0160 = (non-breaking space)

Make Any Web Page Print Friendly

Do you have pages on your website with dense content that your viewers may want to print out to read later or pass along to a friend who isn't online? Or, for the environmentally-friendly non-clutterbugs, maybe they want to save your content as a PDF that they can refer to later?

Here's a new tool that will greatly simplify this process: http://www.printfriendly.com/

Just enter your URL in the box (works best with dense copy) and the site will generate a clean, printer-friendly file or PDF.

Web developers like 4Next can use the "get button" link to copy this code onto your website. Or if you already have a "Share" bar on your site, we can direct your share bar to this page.

Thanks to client Doug Rigdon for sending me a Blog post that uses this technology!

Cool new web capture tool!

Chris read about this new tool in Tom's Hardware today. Check it out!

Just type a URL in the box and Bounce will take a screen capture of the site. Then you can use the tool to draw boxes around elements and add your comments. Add your name to label your feedback.

Here's the link:
Bounce with me(@bounceapp): http://www.bounceapp.com/8651.

Here are the top ten reasons why you should consider 3D animation to help sell your technical products:

Marketing budgets are down. Tradeshow budgets have been slashed. Who can afford to ship their product line... or even one product... to a show these days? Tradeshows are invaluable for their face-time — customers and prospects look forward to seeing your staff and new product offerings at each event. But with so little money to spend on sales & marketing, what's the best way to stand out and make an impact? How can you draw visitors to your booth, communicate your products' features and benefits effectively, and — most important — get orders?

Here they are: the top ten reasons why you should consider 3D animation to help sell your technical products.

3D animation is:

1. Cutting-edge. It makes your company and products look fresh and innovative!
2. Persuasive. It's like having a clone of your best salesperson. It can take users on a guided tour of your product and operations using the exact, carefully-crafted sales pitch that your top salesperson uses to close deals. Once your story has been perfected... uniformity is best!
3. Enticing. Very good at pulling visitors in from the aisles at events, 3D demos can entertain and inform guests while your salespeople are busy with other prospects. And 3D can teach the non-technical decision-makers and influencers who enter your booth like purchasing folks, CFOs, support staff, and spouses — all about your product too using break-through graphics that transcend generations, gender, and educational training.
4. User-friendly. With 3D it's easy to demonstrate complex features and processes in a way that visitors can finally understand and absorb. If they 'get it', they'll buy it!
5. Versatile. It can serve as a one-on-one sales or training tool, streaming website content, direct mailer, POP display, and more.
6. Powerful. Have you ever been frustrated that visitors can't see what's happening inside your product housing? Wish you could show what's behind the panels without having to disassemble everything? Want to demonstrate a series of processes that take too long to get through during a typical demo? 3D is the perfect solution!
   
   With 3D, you can show what you want (and hide what you don't) in ways you can't with traditional video, photography, or live demos:
   
   
   1. Remove the shell and disassemble the components to see "invisible" details hidden behind exterior panels or other obstructions. Or go where you can't put camera equipment because of corrosive materials or other hazards. Get shots that are impossible in the real world!
   2. Show fluid and data lines flowing — without fluid or data.
   3. Simulate software without an install.
   4. Rotate your product to any angle and get 360 degree views.
      
   5. Zoom in to microscopic detail; or use a helicopter shot to get that bird's eye view!
   6. Skew time with animations that show time consuming processes quicker.
   7. Give your product a makeover — clean it up. Make it hip and sexy!
      
7. Valuable. 3D animation lets you capitalize on the perceived expense of 3D to enhance your product's perceived value... and it can even help you justify a premium price.
   
8. Ideal for training. You can use a 3D presentation for pre-show training of your booth staff to get them comfortable using the correct terms to describe your key features to important prospects.
9. A great pre-selling tool. Show products that look real and perform even though they are still in prototype / development stage!
10. A great backup plan. Are your products too large, delicate, or expensive to transport? Worried that you may not have a machine at the show... or that something won't function as it should? 3D animation can effectively demonstrate how your product works without having your product physically there (and functioning).

See some cool 3D animation samples from 4Next here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TF9iJiECEw&feature=player_embedded#!

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