How to get April Fooled by Google :P

This only works if you are using Gmail on Chrome...
Click on the Gmail Motion link ... and then see the pics and follow...

Funky new ways of letting your readers view your blogposts!

This is for all the people who use Blogger (like me)...

Google is doing interesting things with Blogger..

Blogger is now offering five 'dynamic views' for blogs. These views are only accessible if you (the blog author) allow it by sending out URLs like these:

Flipcard: - [yourblogURL]/view/flipcard

Mosaic: - [yourblogURL]/view/mosaic

Sidebar: - [yourblogURL]/view/sidebar

Snapshot: - [yourblogURL]/view/snapshot

Timeslide: - [yourblogURL]/view/timeslide

All of these views are very interactive with full mouse-over support and very light and quick to load (unlike something built in Flash)

For example, the URL for accessing the Sidebar view for my food blog would be http://eatbhaieat.blogspot.com//view/sidebar
You'll see something like this

In flipcard mode
http://eatbhaieat.blogspot.com/view/flipcard you'll see

In mosaic mode
http://eatbhaieat.blogspot.com/view/mosaic you'll see

To read more about this have a look at the official Google blog about this at:

All about Dynamic Views for Readers - Blogger HelpMosaic Mode

Transitioning from Office 2003 to Office 2007

I found a useful tip for comparing Office 2007 commands with Office 2003 commands in Jody Gilbert's article in Techrepublic.com

Some useful links are:

• A downloadable Excel worksheet that maps Word 2003 menu commands to Word 2007 Ribbon tabs, groups, and commands.
• The Interactive Word 2003 To Word 2007 Command Reference Guide

How to use Boolean Operators in GMail filters

 In short we have the following options


or --> OR (All caps is necessary)
and -->
not --> "-" (Minus sign)


Here is the official Google video

Here are a few site that explains how to use Boolean operators:


http://blogwaffe.com/2006/01/30/gmail-filters-and-boolean-operators/
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=8931


Reproducing the instructions from the first site (read the discussion after the post as well...):


"Gmail allows its users to construct email filters to tag messages with various labels, forward things to different address and so forth by specifying the conditions an email must meet before the filter in question is applied. One can specify that the message be From a particular source, be sent To a certain address, contain specific text and so on. Since the filters are implemented as Gmail search queries, Gmail filters may also include basic boolean logic. For instance, you can create a filter that catches emails From bob@example.com OR sally@example.org. In terms of Gmail’s search syntax, this filter would be denoted as from:(bob@example.com OR sally@example.org). Similarly, NOTs are specified with minus signs, and spaces are used for ANDs.

Gmail’s filters, then, are fairly robust. However, the interface for writing filters is very limiting. The user is presented with five text boxes: From, To, Subject, Has The Words, Doesn’t Have. And that’s all the options we get. Suppose, instead of the above, I wanted to create a filter that caught messages From bob@example.com OR To sally@example.org. I can type ‘bob@example.com’ into the From box and ‘sally@example.org’ into the To box to try to construct such a filter. But Gmail does not offer me the ability to specify the boolean operator that should be applied between the From and To conditions; it assumes AND. I’m hosed.

But only at first glance. You can actually implement a relative OR between fields. A cursory internet search yielded the following clever solution.

In the From field, enter

bob@example.com) OR to:(sally@example.org

It’s the sneaky use of parentheses that makes it all work. Another solution would be to enter the entire search query into the Has The Words field:

from:(bob@example.com) OR to:(sally@example.org)

Though more straightforward, some will argue it isn’t as clean.

Anyway, don’t let Gmail’s (in this case) crappy interface stop you from making arbitrarily complicated filters."

GMail Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are the reformatted GMail keyboard shortcuts. This is easier to print.

From:http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6594

Shortcut Key	Definition	Action
c	Compose	Allows you to compose a new message. + c allows you to compose a message in a new window.
/	Search	Puts your cursor in the search box.
k	Move to newer conversation	Opens or moves your cursor to a more recent conversation. You can hit to expand a conversation.
j	Move to older conversation	Opens or moves your cursor to the next oldest conversation. You can hit to expand a conversation.
n	Next message	Moves your cursor to the next message. You can hit to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
p	Previous message	Moves your cursor to the previous message. You can hit to expand or collapse a message. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
o or	Open	Opens your conversation. Also expands or collapses a message if you are in 'Conversation View.'
u	Return to conversation list	Refreshes your page and returns you to the inbox, or list of conversations.
e	Archive	Archive your conversation from any view.
m	Mute	Archives the conversation, and all future messages skip the Inbox unless sent or cc'd directly to you. Learn more.
x	Select conversation	Automatically checks and selects a conversation so that you can archive, apply a label, or choose an action from the drop-down menu to apply to that conversation.
s	Star a message or conversation	Adds or removes a star to a message or conversation. Stars allow you to give a message or conversation a special status.
+	Mark as important	Helps Gmail learn what's important to you by marking misclassified messages. (Specific to Priority Inbox)
-	Mark as unimportant	Helps Gmail learn what's not important to you by marking misclassified messages. (Specific to Priority Inbox)
!	Report spam	Marks a message as spam and removes it from your conversation list.
r	Reply	Replies to the message sender. + r allows you to reply to a message in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
a	Reply all	Replies to all message recipients. +a allows you to reply to all message recipients in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
f	Forward	Forwards a message. + f allows you to forward a message in a new window. (Only applicable in 'Conversation View.')
	Escape from input field	Removes the cursor from your current input field.
+ s	Save draft	Saves the current text as a draft when composing a message. Hold the key while pressing s and make sure your cursor is in one of the text fields -- either the composition pane, or any of the To, CC, BCC, or Subject fields -- when using this shortcut.
#	Delete	Moves the conversation to Trash.
l	Label	Opens the Labels menu to label a conversation.
v	Move to	Moves the conversation from the inbox to a different label, Spam or Trash.
+ i	Mark as read	Marks your message as 'read' and skip to the next message.
+ u	Mark as unread	Marks your message as 'unread' so you can go back to it later.
[	Archive and previous	Archives your conversation and moves to the previous one.
]	Archive and next	Archives your conversation and moves to the next one.
z	Undo	Undoes your previous action, if possible (works for actions with an 'undo' link).
+ n	Update current conversation	Updates your current conversation when there are new messages.
q	Move cursor to chat search	Moves your cursor directly to the chat search box.
y	Remove from Current View*	Automatically removes the message or conversation from your current view. From 'Inbox,' 'y' means Archive From 'Starred,' 'y' means Unstar From 'Trash,' 'y' means Move to inbox From any label, 'y' means Remove the label * 'y' has no effect if you're in 'Spam,' 'Sent,' or 'All Mail.'
.	Show more actions	Displays the 'More Actions' drop-down menu.
+	Opens options in Chat	+ moves from edit field in your chat window to select the 'Video and more' menu Next, press to select the emoticon menu Press to open the selected menu
?	Show keyboard shortcuts help	Displays the keyboard shortcuts help menu within any page you're on.
k	Move up a contact	Moves your cursor up in your contact list
j	Move down a contact	Moves your cursor down in your contact list
o or	Open	Opens the contact with the cursor next to it.
u	Return to contact list view	Refreshes your page and returns you to the contact list.
e	Remove from Current Group	Removes selected contacts from the group currently being displayed.
x	Select contact	Checks and selects a contact so that you can change group membership or choose an action from the drop-down menu to apply to the contact.
	Escape from input field	Removes the cursor from the current input
#	Delete	Deletes a contact permanently
l	Group membership	Opens the groups button to group contacts
z	Undo	Reverses your previous action, if possible (works for actions with an 'undo' link)
.	Show more actions	Opens the "More actions" drop-down menu.

 

Combo-keys - Use the following combinations of keys to navigate through Gmail.

Shortcut Key	Definition	Action
then	Send message	After composing your message, use this combination to send it automatically. (Supported in Internet Explorer and Firefox, on Windows.)
y then o	Archive and next	Archives your conversation and moves to the next one.
g then a	Go to 'All Mail'	Takes you to 'All Mail,' the storage site for all mail you've ever sent or received (and have not deleted).
g then s	Go to 'Starred'	Takes you to all conversations you have starred.
g then c	Go to 'Contacts'	Takes you to your Contacts list.
g then d	Go to 'Drafts'	Takes you to all drafts you have saved.
g then l	Go to 'Label'	Takes you to the search box with the "label:" operator filled in for you.
g then i	Go to 'Inbox'	Returns you to the inbox.
g then t	Go to 'Sent Mail'	Takes you to all mail you've sent.
* then a	Select all	Selects all mail.
* then n	Select none	Deselects all mail.
* then r	Select read	Selects all mail you've read.
* then u	Select unread	Selects all unread mail.
* then s	Select starred	Selects all starred mail.
* then t	Select unstarred	Selects all unstarred mail.

How to take a screenshot/screengrab of a video

Just figured out how to take a screenshot of a video playing in almost application.

Just turn off the hardware acceleration option and then either use the PrintScreen button or any screen capture other application (like IrfanView, Snaggit etc.). :)

Once you are done, it would be a good idea to turn on the acceleration again.

Here are a couple of grabs of the WMPlayer and VLC Player options which need to be turned off... (It's called different things in the other players like RealPlayer and QuickTime, butthey all work the same way)




If you are using VLC Player the Video>Snapshot option is an alternative. Here is a grab...

Increased the width of a fixed layout blogger template

I got bugged since the blogger template I chose for one of my blogs was fixed to allow it to be viewed in well in 640x480.

I dug into the HTML and did the following to increase the width...

1. Go to Layout > Edit HTML
2. Keep Expand Widget Templates deselected
   
3. Find the part which says #main-wrapper {
4. Change the part under this which say something like width: 410px; to width: 570px; (800 - 600 = 160 pixels... Assuming you want to fit it in 800x600 from 640x480)
5. Find the part which says #outer-wrapper {
6. Change the part under this which says something like width: 660px; to width: 820px;
   
7. Find the part which says #header-wrapper {
8. Change the part under this which says something like width: 660px; to width: 820px;
   
9. Find the part which says #header .description {
10. Change the part under this which says something like max-width:700px; to max-width:800px;
11. Do a Preview to check if you've got what you want
12. Save the code and you're done :)

Tada!