Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2007 September 7

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[edit] September 7

[edit] LaTeX pictures

Hi,

I'm trying to write a document in LaTeX using TeXnic Centre, am I'm having trouble with figures. It seems to only let me have one image per page, and just bumps all the rest of the figures to the end of the pdf. Is there a command to let it squeeze more figures on each page? Thanks Aaadddaaammm 03:44, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Objects that can move like that are called "floats" in LaTeX; here is a discussion about changing the rules about their use. You can also not use the picture environment, which creates the float; if you just include the graphics directly, it'll be in-line with the text as if it were a letter. The downside to that is that it can no longer get an automatically-formatted caption and doesn't participate in the references-to-figures system (making Figure 2 an inline will make Figure 3 be known as Figure 2 unless you modify the counters yourself, and there will be no way to use \ref to get a reference to the original Figure 2). --Tardis 15:15, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Font sizes in Excel

I have a number of Excel spreadsheets, all with similar text in them. I have formatted the text in one particular cell of each spreadsheet to 24pt Arial. But when I print the spreadsheets, this text is bigger on some sheets than on others. Does anyone know why this should be? My guess is that it is something to do with scaling - under Page Setup, I have selected the Fit To option - but beyond that I have no clue. Many thanks. --Richardrj talk email 07:25, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

If you use "Fit To" then Excel adjusts the size of the printout accordingly, and font sizes change in proportion. So if the sheet is shrunk by 50% to fit the number of pages you specify, text that is 24pt in the original will be printed as 12pt. AndrewWTaylor 07:33, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] has apple launched a PDA silently in the name of ipod?

Is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.106.235 (talk) 09:08, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

You mean iPod Touch which look a lot like the iPhone? --antilivedT | C | G 12:13, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

yes —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.92.127.32 (talk) 13:32, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Certainly it does a lot that a PDA can so I guess it depends on what you consider a PDA to be. I think...Touch screen, web-enabled, has applications, has a primative 'operating system' and bags of memory - very much like a PDA to me. It just needs to have calendar, document and perhaps a spreadsheet to make it official! I wouldn't be amazed if a defined PDA version is released in the futureny156uk 23:00, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

<scratch es head> do not understand what "primative" means. </scratch> --Do not click me! 19:39, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Boyhood of Raleigh

Moved to Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities Exxolon 13:48, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Color in Excel

Hi all:

I have an excel file with a grid that has different numbers in each cell. I would like to visualize the patterns better, and I was wondering if there is any way to program Excel to choose a background (or font) color for the cell based on the value of the number in that cell. For example, I would like the small numbers to be black, and larger numbers to be white (with shades of gray in between)... Thanks! --Waldsen 11:42, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

In excel2000 (not sure how other versions are similar), Select the cells that you want to apply the formatting to and go to Format --> Conditional Formatting.., that should open a dialog that you can set whatever constraints you want and get it to format the cells based on the conditions you set. You should be able to set a condition for each shade you want to get the effect you describe. Hope that works for you :) Capuchin 11:58, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Excel 2003 is the same. One limitation is that you can only apply 3 conditions, but you can add a fourth by pre-formatting the text. For example, if you want x<10 red, 10<=x<20 yellow, 20<=x<30 green, and 30<=x<40 blue, you can manually format all the text red, then make conditional formatting for the other 3 situations, which would override the red for x of 10 & up. jeffjon 20:24, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
You could write a macro that sets the colour rather easily. I forget the syntax exactly but it would be something along the lines of assessing the box's value and then setting the cell shading to be whatever you desire. ny156uk 22:57, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
I paste below an excerpt from my sudoku solver written in excel basic (If anyone wants it, I could provide the entire thing):
   For y = 2 To maxgrid
       For x = 2 To maxgrid
           v = Worksheets("Answer").Cells(y, x).Interior.ColorIndex
           Worksheets("Answer").Cells(yy + y, x).Interior.ColorIndex = v
       Next x
   Next y

-- SGBailey 08:40, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] uninstalling of spy-shredder without license/

≥ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.52.77.50 (talk) 12:22, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

  • This seems to be a comprehensive guide to it - [1] - but as it says - use at your own risk Exxolon 12:57, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Online Form Fill Pre-Popping

I could not find the definition for the act of allowing information to be displayed on an online form fill when passed as part of the URL query string. Is there a standard definition or what term would this fall under? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.216.185.98 (talk) 14:44, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

What you refer to is nothing more than prefilling a form. You may be thinking about registering variables though. This is a weakness in scripting languages that allow it. For example, if you "register globals" in PHP, a user has the ability to set variables that should not be set by sending them in the query string. -- kainaw™ 15:54, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] .xnk (Outlook)

Microsoft Outlook allows me to create a shortcut to an Outlook entity (e.g., a folder in Public Folders); this has a .xnk extension. With Windos XP and Office 2003, I could double-click to open it. With Vista and Office 2007, the extension is no longer recognized. I'm trying to find a way to open the shortcut. A Google search was unhelpful. I wanted to associate Outlook with the extension, but it didn't show up on the list of available programs. Matchups 18:01, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

I searched around google and picked up a hit that the removing of the .xnk is a feature, not a bug. According to the article, these are dangerous as they can make your more vulnerable to hackers. You can enable it though; just review the steps on this page. [2] Please keep me posted. Monkeynoze 19:38, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Thanks, that's good information. However, the steps don't quite work in Windows Vista. You need to right-click on the .xnk file, select Open With, and then enter the text suggested on the web page. You can also try saving the text below as a .reg file and importing it into the registry.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.xnk] @="xnk_auto_file"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xnk_auto_file] @="Outlook link"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xnk_auto_file\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xnk_auto_file\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\xnk_auto_file\shell\open\command] @="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Office12\\OUTLOOK.EXE\" /x \"%1\""

Matchups 18:02, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weird Image

When a wiki has an external link like this there is a little image of a box with an arrow coming out of it. Also when you link to an mp3 file like this there is a little speaker next to it. Does anyone know what those images are called and where they are located?

Wikiman232 18:34, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Called? Background images. Really. They're placed there by the [CSS] and it's done with selectors; for example
#bodyContent a[href ^="https://"],
.link-https {
background: url(lock_icon.gif) center right no-repeat;
padding-right: 16px;
}
will apply that background to every HTTPS link, with enough padding on the right so no text overruns it. --Blowdart 19:20, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
Functionally I'd call them icons. —Tamfang 16:52, 8 September 2007 (UTC)