MS Word X and eps graphics

Category: Mac, Category: MS Word

Originally posted on my iBlog 19 July 2003 (for interest only; I've since moved to TeXShop with NeoOffice to open Word files).

Summary: I have often found myself in a situation where I need to get Adobe Illustrator figures into a manuscript that will be submitted to a journal in MS Word format. Word can import eps Pictures from files, but only some kinds, and it will not always print them out cleanly. Here are some notes on something that works. In general, I remain mystified by the unpredictability of this and tend to email figures as separate files to the Word manuscript when I can.

To import an eps graphic with a preview into a Word X document, you have to save it in Illustrator as eps version 8 (not 9 or 10!), and you must use the Mac colour preview. Further evidence that Word sucks.

If this is not for a science journal, I often resort to converting my figure to wmf format in Illustrator and importing that into Word. At least this consistently prints the vector image.

(In an attempt to further escape the baffling unreliability of MS Word X (not to mention its confounded second-guessing of my intentions!), I'm now learning LaTeX with Richard Koch's excellent (and free) TeXShop.)

Automatically renaming multiple files in OSX

Category: Mac, Category: iView Media Pro, Category: AppleScript

Originally posted on my iBlog 11 July 2003.

If they are image files, iViewMedia Pro does this nicely with its Batch Rename function. However, iView will only deal with files of types it can display (most image types, including pdf files).

OSX has an AppleScript that also does this nicely, although it took me a while to figure out how to get this set up.

First, the Script Menu needs to be in the Finder. To do this (if it is not there already), go to Applications:AppleScript and double-click on "Script Menu.menu." This will add the Script Menu to the Finder. (Not surprisingly, the Mac Help did not tell me how to do this when I looked.)

There are several scripts accessible from the Script Menu that rename files, all found in the Finder Scripts folder of the Script Menu. I wanted to rename all postscript files from MS Word, ending in ".doc.ps" to just ".ps" before converting them to pdfs. The script to do this is called "Replace text in item names." The big trick in using this script is that it will only work on items in the front-most window. That means that if you have a Finder Window in the list view, it will only apply to files and/or folders (you select) that are in the uppermost level of the list hierarchy. It is easiest to stay in the Icon view.



Before I figured this out, I explored how to do it do in the Terminal. There is no default way. The appropriate command for renaming files is "mv" (e.g., mv oldfilename newfilename). But after many attempts, I learned on the web that mv does not handle wildcard filenames. To get around this in UNIX, you have to write a little program (see below).

Source URL: http://www.ucc.ie/doc/World-Wide_Web/htmlfaq.html

How do I rename all the files from .htm to .html after copying them from a PC to a UNIX machine?

UNIX's mv (`move') command won't handle wildcard filenames. However, there's a program called htmaddl (for `HTM-add-"L"'), so you can login and type htmaddl . This will rename all .htm files to .html

If you haven't got this program on your UNIX machine, you can type it into a file called htmaddl :
#! /bin/sh

for f in *.htm; do
base=`basename $f .htm`
mv $f $base.html
done

After saving it and exiting your editor, make it executable by typing the command
chmod ugo+x htmaddl

Best of all, move it into your ~/bin directory, or ask your WebMeister to put it in /usr/local/bin so everyone can use it.

Turning off those damned Netware "new email" pop-ups

Category: MS Windows, Category: Novell Netware

Originally posted on my iBlog 3 July 2003.

Summary: When I am logged on to the Lincoln University network, I get bombarded with pop-ups, one per new email, displayed as soon as it arrives. It is an insanely annoying default feature (what was Novell thinking?!). I have figured out how to turn it off when logged on through Windows in Virtual PC (below) but I haven't figured it out in OSX. All I can do is stay unconnected to Lincoln network volumes while working.

How to turnoff Netware popup messages in Windows

Right-click (=Ctrl-click) on the red N logo on the bottom right of the Windows screen.

Select Novell Client Properties - Advanced settings - Receive Broadcast Messages.  Set it to None and you will no longer get the pop-ups.

This should work for both the NT/2K/XP and the 9x client

From
http://www.tek-tips.com/gviewthread.cfm/lev2/3/lev3/19/pid/871/qid/459098