Tech Tips – Page 38

Adobe Bridge CC

By Moez Janmohammad

Adobe Bridge is a digital asset management software that allows a user to organize any kind of media. The name Bridge comes from the idea that Adobe Bridge will be the link between all of the programs in the creative suite. From Bridge a user can drop an Illustrator vector image into Photoshop, or an After Effects video into Premiere. This tutorial covers the basic interface of Adobe Bridge, from selecting images, to the filmstrip view, to reading the metadata of a file.

University owned computers can download any of the Master Collection Adobe Creative products via LANDesk. For more informaiton, visit our service page http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Services/Info/Adobe.

f.lux: Sleep and Screen Color

By Moez Janmohammad

If you’re a college student, chances are you’ve stayed up late to finish an assignment, but have you ever paused to think about your eyes? The bright and blueish lights emitted from most LCD displays mimic bright sunlight and cause a disruption to normal sleep patterns (because we all have normal sleep patterns in college) and inhibit the amount of melatonin, a chemical our bodies produce that causes drowsiness. f.lux seeks to solve this problem by changing the screen temperature of your display to have it emit more red light after sunset. At sunset, f.lux automatically adjusts your display, making whites appear reddish or salmon, matching natural light cycles and our body’s Circadian rhythm.

f.lux is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. It is only available on jailbroken iOS devices, and an Android version is in the works. To get it go to www.justgetflux.com.

Photoshop Toolbar

By Moez Janmohammad

Long-time users of Photoshop can look at the icon of any tool on the Photoshop toolbar and tell you exactly what you could use it for, but chances are, the average user only knows what a handful of these tools do. The Photoshop Toolbar makes up almost 80% of anything you could ever need to do in the program, so below is a rundown of most of the tools.

*Tip- Any tool with a small triangle in the bottom right-hand corner has more tools hidden underneath. To reveal, simply click and hold until the hidden tools appear.

In the first box are the Selection tools. These allow you to manipulate layers and select objects. The Move tool lets you move objects in the selected layer. To use it, just click and drag.
The Rectangular Select tool lets you select areas of a picture, a rectangle by default. To make a perfect square, hold the shift key while drawing the shape. By using the context menus across the top of the screen you can make any shape you want.
The Lasso tool allows you to trace the shape of an object and the line will adhere to the hard edge of your object.
The Crop tool lets you cut parts of the picture out. It’s useful if there is something on the edge of the frame that you don’t want there.
The Eyedropper tool helps you to match the color in specific parts of the image. Just click on a pixel and it will add the color to your paint swatches.
The Spot Healing tool allows you to remove blemishes from pictures, including red-eye, acne, dust, and other particles. Photoshop will sample around the area and make it blend in.
The Clone Stamp tool duplicates part of an image onto another spot in an image. It’s useful if you want to reposition something, like moving a soccer ball closer to a player in an image.
The Gradient tool creates a gradient to cover a whole image from foreground to background. You can use your own colors or choose from Photoshop’s presets.
The Blur and Sharpen tools both act like paintbrushes but have different effects on your photo. The Blur tool allows you to blur parts of the photo, and you can choose the strength of the blur, the style, and how much it feathers. The Sharpen tool will remove unnecessary pixels and make the area look sharper.
The Type tools allow you to add and manipulate text or shapes in an image. The most commonly used of these is the Text tool which lets you type into an image and create text masks.

To learn more about Photoshop and how to use it, check out the Photoshop tutorials page.

Or, to learn more about downloading Adobe CC on your University-owned computer, visit our service page.

Update: Removed reference to Adobe TV.

What’s behind the Excel Design tab? 5 tips worth knowing.

If you’ve been working with Excel for a while, my guess is that you are probably somewhat familiar with the basics of converting your data into a table. However, you may not be aware of some of the features behind the Design tab. The Design tab will display anytime you click in a table.

Here are 5 handy tips worth knowing. I will review them from right to left.

When you click on the drop down in the Table styles options you’ll see an assortment of Table Styles available to suit your preferences.
If there is a table style you like and you want to add additional customization you can do so by selecting a feature in the Table Style Options section. I often choose to have items displayed with banded rows (every other row shaded), but sometimes it might be easier on the eye to have banded columns.
Selecting the Total Row not only adds a total line to your table, but it also has built in functions that you can toggle to further analyze specific data.
Did you know you could add a slicer to filter through data? Select Slicer, next select what column you want to filter. In my example, I wanted to view specific types of charges, so I chose the account columns to filter.

Next, select the item you want to filter and the results will be displayed.

5. Selecting the Remove Duplicates button will allow you to delete duplicate values. You’ll simply need to tell Excel what column you want the duplicates to be removed from. Oh and by the way, if you remove duplicates from the wrong column, don’t forget the handy Ctrl+Z function to undo your last action!

To learn more Excel tips, check out one of my Basic Formula workshops or Rachel Mulry’s Advanced Excel training.

smu.edu/BusinessFinance/OIT/Training

Geekspeak 101

By: Amber Clark

As you may have experienced in your own discipline, having a common language, or technical jargon, is immensely helpful. It is a shortcut that makes communicating easier. We computer technologists have our own common language. However, the SMU Help Desk staff understands this possible communication problem, and will gladly translate “geekspeak” in order to better assist you when you have a problem.

These are a few “geekspeak” terms that you may or may not know:

Browser, formally known as a web browser, is a program on your computer that you use to surf the Internet. Most of you use Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

Internet service provider, or ISP, is the company that provides your access to the Internet. Here on campus, SMU is your ISP. At home, you would contract with companies such as Time Warner for cable Internet or AT&T to be your Internet provider or ISP.

Java is a programming language that most advanced websites need to function properly. It is a program or applet that needs to be installed on your computer and periodically updated. Java is needed to provide the interactivity that we have come to expect from most websites. It allows a website to customize its content, words and graphics for you based on your activity or information you submit in a form.

Blog, or web log, is a web page made up of posts displayed in chronological order with the most recent appearing first. A blog is most commonly used for informal information and discussion devoted to a subject area. For example, IT Connect is a blog that has posts all related to informing you about new technologies or tips for technologies you already use. You access blogs through their webpages. Blogs gained additional legitimacy when “certified bloggers” were given press credentials to post on events from the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. From time to time, there are now bloggers in the White House Press Corps.

Twitter is a micro version of blogs. Individuals post tweets, statements of no more than 140 characters, that individuals can interact with in much the same way as commenters to a blog. You access Twitter through its main webpage, twitter.com, or an app. OIT has a twitter account, @smuoit, for IT updates if you are interested in following us.

Those are just a few terms you will overhear in the Office of Information Technology. Please tweet @smuoit comments asking us about geekspeak you are curious about or want to share with others!