MacroMonster.com Hotfolders is here!

Have you ever found yourself working from a few consistent project folders? Have you grown weary of accessing them through the standard Windows dialogs? Hotfolders is for you!

click on the image for details:

Tracking down the Elusive Chkdsk results in Windows XP

I thought to myself:

"It's time to scan my system for disk errors, I haven't done this for looooong time."

After the utility did it's thing during a reboot, the results flashed for what seemed like 1 millisecond before booting into Windows. You're possibly geeky like me and want to know what's going on with your system on a primitive level.

How do you see the results of the analysis and the actions performed? By going in Window's Event Viewer. Go into Control Panel, then Administrative Tools. Click on the image for a clearer view:



To run a disk check, right-click a drive in Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) and choose Properties. Select the Tools tab and click on the "check now" button under the Error Checking area. Click on the image for a clearer view:

Extra JavaScript installs

While looking through my system, I found the following extra JavaScript installs. I deleted them one by one. This freed up some serious space on my rig.

Click on the image for a clearer view:

CorelDRAW Unleashed Conference

Well, another year gone by and it was great to see some familiar faces, and also some new ones too.

I picked up a couple of ideas - there's a unique atmosphere at these events that can't be replaced. After all, conferences in general haven't stopped happening for other products or industries.

The facility was large and well appointed, meals were great, and overall organization spot-on.

My classes went well, and once again I was requested to perform an encore performance. This is a repeat of a popular class. So I filled a total of 5 time slots - as many as Foster himself.

I didn't get to "show off" in Photo-PAINT as much as I would have liked; If CorelDRAW is my right hand, Photo-PAINT is my left. Fortunately, students who've signed up for the Boot Camp cruise in January of 2009 will be shocked how fast it can be to edit and manipulate photos in Photo-PAINT. Sure... Photoshop has some nice features. But for many reasons I'd choose Photo-PAINT over Photoshop for daily editing. It's the one I'd take to a desert island. :-)

Macromonster.com gave away many macro packages as door prizes to some lucky winners.

Tony Severenuk and I didn't get to talk too much, but the energetic and concerned John Falsetto (Product Manager for CorelDRAW) and I talked about many deep issues. Thanks for the candid conversation, John!

A round of applause from all of us for Foster Coburn who went through an awful lot of effort and expense to host the conference.

Bleed Limit & Creative Ganging

There is a time when I use Draw's bleed limit function, to get 24 full bleed cards up on an 11 x 17. This saves 4 press sheets per order. But, it's artwork dependent.

A full color photo filling the whole back of the card won't work. For that I print landscape with 20 up.

Click on image: (Note that the anti-aliasing lines in print preview won't print.)