Archive
Protected: LRC à la carte II: Choose from our start-of-term class inductions
How to sort a Pivot table by a calculated field column
(Click on image for original size version, now bigger.)
How to work around broken links and visible “Machine generated alternative text”issues with images from MS-OneNote in Windows Live Writer
- Problem: Sometimes when you use Windows Live Writer (2012) to post images copied from MS-OneNote (2010, 2013), the result (on WordPress) can get messed up, like so (post has since been fixed as described below):
- The image is missing (“src=” link broken).
- The “alt=” text is visible instead (and you did not want to post this “alt=”text anyway. (MS-OneNote OCRs images to make the text therein searchable; this text is put into the “alt”when pasting from MS-OneNote).
- Root cause:
- Windows Live Writer converts the pasted content by
- removing the “alt=”Machine generated alternative text: [deleted for brevity]”
- creating from the pasted content thumbnail images
- which it links in the “src=” tag, and links the thumbnail image to the full-size original image.
- If something – unclear what – prevents this conversion, Unfortunately, this is not obvious from the “edit” tab view or elsewhere within Windows Live Writer. But when posted, will result in “Machine generated alternative text” from MS-OneNote in place, but even break the image src link:
. - What exactly triggers (and would allow you to force) a successful conversion within Windows Live Writer I do not know. However, there is a simple:
- Windows Live Writer converts the pasted content by
- Workaround:
- After pasting your images, be patient : The trick seems to be to give Windows Live Writer enough time (more apparently if you have pasted multiple images) to finish
- Things you can look for in Windows Live Writer to make sure the conversion is finished:
- edit tab: you can tell the difference by the resizing of the image on the edit tab:
- before:
- after (= conversion finished):
- before:
- source code tab: A somewhat radical solution, but here beneficial is that the conversion removes the imported “alt” text of the image.
- before: alt=”Machine generated alternative text: [deleted for brevity]” src=”$clip_image006.jpg”
- after: alt=”clip_image006″ src=”$clip_image006_thumb.jpg”
- edit tab: you can tell the difference by the resizing of the image on the edit tab:
MS-OneDrive “Get link” incompatible with MS-Word “Always create backup copy”, use MS-OneDrive versioning instead
- Symptoms:
- If I edit my local MS-OneDrive copy with MS-Word, my collaborators lose access to the most recent copy via the link I shared with them.
- Worse, the new file MS-Word generates when the backup is created, won’t get automatically synched with MS-OneDrive, and no sync error seems to get flagged in Explorer.
- Root cause (presumably):
- When saving in MS-Word, I can see my focus moving to the backup file
- MS-Word, when creating a backup of the original file, actually rather creates a “fore-up”: The original file gets renamed (“Backup of…”) and the recent changes get copied into a new file.
- The MS-OneDrive link keeps pointing to the old file “Backup of…”, “when after (which one can see normally, if the user renames a file manually, is a desirable feature)
- Workaround: I managed to manually upload the files that got out off synch.
- When saving in MS-Word, I can see my focus moving to the backup file
- Solution:
- Turn MS-Word backup off, it is not compatible with MS-OneDrive under File / Options /Advanced / section: Save:
- Rather, rely on the MS-OneDrive versioning.
- Turn MS-Word backup off, it is not compatible with MS-OneDrive under File / Options /Advanced / section: Save:
Practice Chinese Stroke Order at varying speeds
Here we are providing over 80,000 animated GIF files for you to practice Chinese Stroke Order at varying (hopefully increasing) speeds of your choice (millisecs denotes the time you have for each stroke): strip, 1010millisecs, 1000millisecs, 990millisecs, 980millisecs, 970millisecs, 960millisecs, 950millisecs, 940millisecs, 930millisecs, 920millisecs, 910millisecs, 900millisecs, 890millisecs, 880millisecs, 870millisecs, 860millisecs, 850millisecs, 840millisecs, 830millisecs, 820millisecs, 810millisecs, 800millisecs, 790millisecs, 780millisecs, 770millisecs, 760millisecs, 750millisecs, 740millisecs, 730millisecs, 720millisecs, 710millisecs, 700millisecs, 690millisecs, 680millisecs, 670millisecs, 660millisecs, 650millisecs, 640millisecs, 630millisecs, 620millisecs, 610millisecs, 600millisecs, 590millisecs, 580millisecs, 570millisecs, 560millisecs, 550millisecs, 540millisecs, 530millisecs, 520millisecs, 510millisecs, 500millisecs, 490millisecs, 480millisecs, 470millisecs, 460millisecs, 450millisecs, 440millisecs, 430millisecs, 420millisecs, 410millisecs, 400millisecs, 390millisecs, 380millisecs, 370millisecs, 360millisecs, 350millisecs, 340millisecs, 330millisecs, 320millisecs, 310millisecs, 300millisecs, 290millisecs, 280millisecs, 270millisecs, 260millisecs, 250millisecs, 240millisecs, 230millisecs, 220millisecs, 210millisecs, 200millisecs, 190millisecs, 180millisecs, 170millisecs, 160millisecs, 150millisecs, 140millisecs, 130millisecs, 120millisecs, 110millisecs, 100millisecs, 090millisecs, 080millisecs, 070millisecs, 060millisecs, 050millisecs, 040millisecs, 030millisecs, 020millisecs, 010millisecs. 
Downloading the originals from the most helpful site (also available by direct download) created by Tim Xie for the California State University, Long Beach, and applying my bash shell script from here, then generating your own speed-differentiated versions, seems to difficult for most users. Even better, instead of perusing the above links, you could just hit my server once and download the whole lot of post-processed animated Gif files with different speeds from here.
ScreenToGif Debugging: Object reference not set to an instance of an object (#7)
- Trying to contribute a tiny bit to the development of this great utility ScreenToGif:
- 1st version:
- crashes on pressing “stop”:
- the Log
- Title: NullPointer in the Stop function 7
Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Source: ScreenToGif
TargetSite: Void Stop()
StackTrace: at ScreenToGif.Legacy.Stop()
Date/Time: 7/3/2014 12:55:16 PM
============================== - Newer version:
- does not hang on “stop”
- after adding overlay text (great new feature!),
- seems to hang on pressing “Done” with “Analizing [sic] Unchanged Pixels”
- crashes on pressing window close:
- Maybe I was just not patient enough? for:
- without adding overlay pixels:
- seems to also take a long time (2-3minutes analyzing, without a progress bar, or any other indication that the program is still working and has not crashed – the couple of minutes “Processing” seem to go by faster, thanks to the progress bar and frame counter) for a 5fps 1073*810, about 300frames, but hey! It works:
- Plus you can now open the resulting GIF file directly from the creator.
- Actually, when I click “Stop” (I realize I am supposed to click “Close”), I still get a NullReferenceException (#9), probably should not:
- No log has been outputted with the new version .
Your camera roll backup to OneDrive may not be turned on automatically on the MS-Surface after all
- Swipe from the right, tab on “Settings”, “Change PC Settings”.
- On the next page in the left menu, tab on “OneDrive”, and check:
- Turn it on. If necessary, start OneDrive, give it some time, then check in OneDrive whether your photos from your Surface camera get uploaded:
- My automatic camera roll backup may have been off
- due to an initial problem setting up OneDrive on my MS-Surface
- due to a path that was too long
- due to the fact that, in spite of trying the instructions to change this folder, my surface seems to insist on synching my OneDrive to a subfolder of my user folder: That, however, is a post for another day…
How to bind files to PDF with eXpert PDF Creator
- I tried PDF Editor (mind you, old version! 6 which I still have around from a promotion – nice software, though) first, including its help.
- Use Batch Creator instead,
- uncheck “Create multiple Documents”
- then you will be prompted for a (new) filename for the bound files.
- Then click the “save” icon in the upper right menu.
Questions? Read the About. Or just ask me a quick Our Databases: Resources with calendars -- Language learning material Moodle Sites, multimedia files -- films
FAQs for LRC student staff or for students or for teachers. To search our FAQs, in the browser addressbar, add after "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=faqs+/" "+TAG1" (from tag cloud below) OR "https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/tag=faqs
&category_name=" "CAT1" (from category hierarchy below). OR search both categories and tags, and multiple TAGs/CATs (connect with "," for OR-search, with "+" for AND-search), like so: https://plagwitz.wordpress.com/feed/?tag=TAG1+TAG2+...TAGn&category_name=CAT1
+CAT2+...CATn"
Other ways to find help
If you cannot find it here, look there: 5,500 Language-Learning Links and Programs for learning or teaching 150 languages
Shortcuts:Our Lists, Our Maps, LRC Staff Moodle Site,LRC Project Moodle Site, 49erexpress, UNCC Moodle, Student Recordings: s:claslcslrcsanakostudent
Learning usage samples: Sanako oral exam, Kaltura webcam presentation, Dictation with speech recognition, Sanako written exam, Chinese and Japanese interactive stroke-order practice
Test the Sanako Installer, Webbrowser Popup Konfigurator for XP, or Windows7, faster LRC TeacherPC Log-in Let MS facilitate diacritics writing by installing for you US-International keyboard layout
This is my personal blog (Google+). The views expressed on these pages are mine alone and not those of my employer. The information in this weblog is provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Thomas' Work Space 