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Didn't you always wish there was a way to make your life just a little bit easier? Well with using Actions in Photoshop you're one step closer to making that wish come true. While your Actions palette isn't going to do your laundry or take the dog for a walk, it will help you to automate some of the more common tasks that you do when you're working with Adobe Photoshop.

In this series, we'll take a look at how you can use your actions in Photoshop and how you can create your own actions in order to simplify some of the common tasks that you perform.

To begin, we'll open up the Actions palette and take a look at what we have available. You'll find your actions palette on the far right hand tab of the same palette where your Layers are located. Or, you can go to Window, Actions to display the palette automatically.

Now, if you haven't used your Actions palette then you're likely just to see the Default Actions listed in the window. A quick scroll through that list probably isn't going to impress you much, since these default actions are just a way of setting up your Photoshop work space to accommodate for the project that you're working on. What we're more interested in are the actions that really show some immediate results.

If you click on the tiny arrow in the upper right hand corner of your actions palette you'll be presented with a menu for your actions palette. Included in the bottom of this menu are the pre-installed actions that the good folks at Adobe decided to bundle along with Photoshop.

If you're using Photoshop CS2, then some of your available action sets will include Commands, Frames, Text Effects, and Image Effects along with a few others that you can play around with.

To get you more familiar with some of the fun you can have with actions, select the Image Effects action set from the list. Immediately a list of pre-installed Image Effects will load into your actions palette and you can scroll through the list to get a quick idea of what you have to choose from.

Next, open a photo or other image that you would like to experiment with. Be sure to make a copy of your image, so you don't destroy your original image.

With your image now open, it's time to put some actions to work. With the pre-installed actions you can quickly make the photo look aged, add a blizzard effect or even make it appear as if it's raining. Try out these actions by selecting the one you want and then clicking the “play” arrow at the bottom of your actions palette. Immediately you'll see Photoshop going to work playing through the set of instructions that are coded into the action. To see these instructions, simply click the little blue arrow immediately to the left of the action title to expand a list beneath that action. That list will include all of the commands that have been recorded within that action so you know exactly what is being done to your image.

Once the action has completed the list of recorded commands, you'll immediately get to see the results that it had on your image. If you don't like the results, then don't worry. Simply close out the copy without saving any changes and reopen to try again, or click onto your layers palette and delete any layers that were created by Photoshop during the process of the action, leaving only your original background image.

Experiment with all of the pre-installed actions to see what kinds of effects you can create with images and text.

In the next Actions tutorial we'll take a look at how you can create your own actions, just in case the ones you already have aren't good enough!

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Recently, Didier Stevens, a well-known security researcher, demonstrated a social engineering attack, which relies on the “/launch” functionality as described in the PDF specification (ISO PDF 32000-1:2008) under section 12.6.4.5. This is a good example of powerful functionality relied upon by some users that also carries potential risks when used incorrectly by others. The warning message provided in Adobe Reader and Acrobat includes strong wording advising users to only open and execute the file if it comes from a trusted source. Furthermore, the default option within the dialog is to not execute.

Adobe takes the security of our products and technologies very seriously; we are therefore always listening to and evaluating ways to allow end-users and administrators to better manage and configure features like this one to mitigate potential associated risks. We are currently researching the best approach for this functionality in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, which we could conceivably make available during one of the regularly scheduled quarterly product updates.

As we investigate this, users can use the following method to further mitigate against this risk. For consumers, open up the Preferences panel and click on “Trust Manager” in the left pane. Clear the check box “Allow opening of non-PDF file attachments with external applications” as shown below.

For administrators who wish to accomplish this with a registry setting on Windows, add the following DWORD value to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\Originals

Name: bAllowOpenFile
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0

Furthermore, an administrator can grey out the preference to keep end-users from turning this capability on, by adding the following DWORD value to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\9.0\Originals

Name: bSecureOpenFile
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 1

Note: These samples assumed you were adding registry settings to Adobe Reader 9. For Adobe Acrobat, you would replace “Acrobat Reader” with “Adobe Acrobat”, and for a different version, you would substitute its value for “9.0″.

In a future post, I'll focus on how to embed simulations in Adobe FrameMaker during the authoring process in order to avoid any post-processing work, but for now, my focus is on customizing the poster image for an embedded Flash movie directly in Acrobat 9.

Embedding Flash content in Acrobat 9 is quite easy, you use the Flash tool from the Tasks toolbar, double-click where you want to insert the SWF, Browse for it and click OK. That's it.

However, the purpose of the video below is to illustrate how to use one of the slides in Captivate to create a poster image for the embedded simulation, in order to make it obvious to the end user that this is a video simulation and not a simple, static screen shot.

If you are embedding Adobe Captivate simulations in your PDF document, I'd love to check it out. If you are able to share, please send me a tweet @rjacquez.

Click the image below to launch for the video in a new window.

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PhotoShop users have complained for years that PhotoShop can be quirky, unyielding, stubborn and generally difficult. Here are just a few tips and tricks that which you might not be able to locate in the Adobe PhotoShop manual when you need them. These will definitely make the Adobe PhotoShop work more easily for you. Most of these ideas will work on many versions of PhotoShop. 

By and large, these same tips and tricks work on PhotoShop for a Mac as well. The difference is that instead of using the Control key, Mac users will be using their Command key.

Layers Palette
When you start to work on an image in PhotoShop, check your Layers Palette first!

Don’t see the Layers Palette? No problem. Click on WINDOW (at the top of the PhotoShop screen, towards the right hand side) then click on Layers. The Layers Palette will appear on the screen.

If your Layers Palette has one layer, and the title of that layer is “Background,” you will need to change the title. As long as it says “Background,” quite a few options will be “grayed out” and will not allow you to use them when you click on them. This has been a huge source of frustration to new PhotoShop users for years now.

The solution is to double-click on the word “Background.” A new window will pop up which is called “New Layer.” 

Look for ” Name: Layer 0” …fFind it? Good! Highlight “Layer 0” with your mouse and type the letter “a” (or any other letter or number key you prefer) and hit OK (After this, whenever you double click on a layer title to change it, you will not get the pop-up window anymore. The title will simply become highlighted allowing you to type in a new name for that layer).

“Layer 0” has been replaced by “a.” (or whatever key you designated). You can name this just about anything, so find a key that is easy to hit. Yeah, you could give this layer a descriptive name if you wanted to, however you will often be working on many layers, knowing that they are going to be flattened eventually so you can save your work as a .jpg.

Only take the time to name your layers descriptive things if you plan on saving this file as a PhotoShop (.psd) file, or have confusingly similar layers that you would otherwise have a tough time keeping separated. It is important to remember that .psd files are larger and take up a lot more file space than .jpg, .tiff or .png files.

Now, if you want to click on EDIT, then Transform or Free Transform, those options are now available to you. Transform gives you options like scale, rotate, skew, distort, perspective, warp, rotation, flip horizontal and flip vertical.

Rotating Your Entire Picture
While Transform will allow you to change selected pieces of a layer, you will need to use IMAGE, Rotate Canvas to turn your entire picture. If you download a digital image from your camera, it might appear sideways if you turned the camera to get a long horizontal shot. Now’s the time to flip the image using IMAGE, Rotate Canvas. By using this option, the image doesn’t spill off the canvas. Sometimes, if you use EDIT, Transform, Rotate to turn a selection, that selection could end up partially off your canvas. You can only see what is on your canvas. So if you want to turn an entire picture, rather than just the selected part, use IMAGE, Rotate Canvas.

Beware of the Tools Palette Crop Icon!
Speaking of changing the picture drastically, if you use the Tools Palette’s Crop icon to crop your picture down to a smaller size, it will crop the entire file! Not just the layer you may be on at the moment.

Sizing Your Graphic
If you are fooling around with sizing, use the Marquee icon on the Tools Palette to copy the part of the picture you think you might like to keep. Copy and Paste that to a new layer. Don’t worry about creating a new layer. When you give PhotoShop the “paste” command, it will automatically paste that selection into a new layer for you. It is better to try out sizes with a new layer than it is to use the crop feature, then have to get into the History Palette to back up to where you were when you decide that you don’t like the cropped file.

Making a New Layer – Combining Several Merged Layers
Sometimes you have 5, 10 or 15 layers that you’d like to merge into one convenient layer. Perhaps you’d like to copy your work, at least those layers which are turned on and visible. But you might not want to merge all the layers. If you simply click on Merge Down, Merge Visible or Flatten Image, you will never be able to go back and “un-merge” them again after the file has been saved as one layer.

Why is this helpful? Sometimes I will have layers that change the look of the file and will turn on some layers for one use, and turn on others for another use. For instance, if the graphic is a woman with her hands outstretched, one layer may have her holding chocolate cake and a dish of ice cream. Another layer may put a pot roast and steaming hot mashed potatoes in her hands, and a third layer may contain a salad and bread. The same file can be used to illustrate different chapters in a cookbook, by simply making visible the food layer that is currently desired.

You can create a new layer which incorporates all the layers currently visible. BE SURE THAT ALL LAYERS YOU WANT TO HAVE INCLUDED IN THIS NEW LAYER ARE TURNED ON, that is, the little eyeball icon at the left of the layer title is showing. If not, click in the blank space where the eyeball should be and it will appear, and your layer will show on the canvas also. Then hold down all of these keys: Control, [Command instead of Control on a Mac] Alt, Shift and e.

If you clicked on your top layer before making a merged layer of visible layers, then the new merged layer will appear above that, at the top of your list of layers. The new merged layer always appears above the last layer that you clicked on, which is highlighted in the Layer Palette and is referred to as your “active layer.”

Cutting and Copying a Layer
Let’s say you want to copy a layer. You’d find that command under EDIT. But wait! It is grayed out. Regardless of whether your layer is called “Background” or something else, you will need to select what is to be cut or copied before that command will let you use it! If you will select the layer by either clicking on SELECT and ALL, or holding down both the Control key [Command instead of Control on a Mac] and the A key, then the layer will be selected and you can then go to EDIT and will see that CUT and COPY are now usable.

Hot Keys
Starting to use “hot keys” on the keyboard to activate commands, instead of clicking within PhotoShop itself, will save you a lot of time in the long run. Many people who are accustomed to using Microsoft programs will find it second nature to use the hot keys for Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All, etc. And those hot keys are the same in PhotoShop! When you put your mouse over an icon in the Tools Palette, the hot key equivalent will appear along with the name of the icon. The selections in toolbar at the top of PhotoShop (such as Image Size under IMAGE) show you the hot keys, when one is available. Not every command comes with its own hot key combination.

Drawing Around An Image With the Lasso Tool
This tip has saved me hours of aggravation! There are three lasso tools available for your use within the Tools Palette. Only one of the lasso tool icons will be visible on your Tools Palette at any given time. If you click on that lasso icon and continue to hold the mouse button down, the three lasso icons will appear and you can click on the one you want to use.

The regular lasso tool (the one at the far left) is a free-form way to draw borders. However, if you will hold down the ALT key while you use this tool, the lines that it draws will all be straight lines. This is very useful when you are outlining something! Increase the viewing magnification until the outline becomes a jagged edge of pixels. Then draw along the edge with the lasso tool, holding down the ALT key so that you go from point to point. When the magnification is high, you will find that just about anything you want to draw around is easier if you use straight lines. Some of those lines will be very short though. When you have completely enclosed what you are outlining so that the starting and ending points meet, reduce the magnification and you will see the entire outline. At this point, it is very helpful to save what you have just drawn. You'd hate to have to go through all that all over again!

Saving Your Lasso Outline or “Selection”
Click SELECT and Save Selection. The pop-up window gives you a place to name your outline. Next to  “Name:”  type in the name of the outline you just created. You can save quite a few outlines in there and go back to them when you need them. This function will not allow you to access an outline in any file, only the one you were working with it in. When you re-save the file, the outlines that you saved will be included.

The next time you go into PhotoShop, give these tips and tricks a try. They will make using PhotoShop easier, you’ll notice less grayed-out options and you may find you are working faster and with less frustration.

FedEx finally delivered me an iPad this weekend and, after spending some time with the device, here’s what I think about Apple’s latest gadget.

1. The iPad feels slightly heavy so you may want to grab a couch if you intend to use it for long. It’s something like holding a heavy dinner plate in a buffet – you can definitely eat while standing but it feels more comfortable if there’s a vacant chair around.

2. You need a Windows or Mac computer with iTunes to initialize the iPad – it comes fully charged but it won’t run “out of the box”.

3. If you are setting up iPad with a Windows 7 (or Vista) computer, you might see some unexpected errors like “Can’t sync iPad to itunes. Not enough access privileges.” This has something to do with “User Access Control” settings of Windows but you can fix them easily.

4. You’ll effectively get only 13-14 GB of storage space on a 16 GB iPad.

5. The iPad has plenty of storage space but, like the iPhone and iPod Touch, you don’t have access to the file system so you can’t directly transfer documents from the computer to the device over USB. That said, there are some third-party apps that let you copy files to the iPad through the iTunes interface or over the air (Wi-Fi).

6. If you are working on an iPad while standing, there’s always this feeling that the thing will slip out of your hands and break. You need to get a case for the iPad.

7. The touch-screen of the iPad is beautiful and extremely responsive. It’s also a magnet for fingerprints.

8. The iPad is NOT a giant iPod Touch. I have an iPod Touch (as review unit from Apple) for some time now and can easily say that these are just two absolutely different devices that can’t be compared.

9. The virtual on-screen keyboard of the iPad is brilliant and you can actually type pretty fast in landscape mode.

10. iPad doesn’t support multi-tasking and I actually find this “limitation” useful in certain situations. For instance, when you are reading books or writing a document, you get a “distraction free” environment.

11. Apple says that all existing iPhone apps can run on the iPad. While that’s technically correct, the iPhone-only apps (most of them) look ugly on the iPad so you may want to install only apps that are not just iPad-compatible but actually designed for the iPad. Examples include EverNote, Kindle, Wolfram Alpha, Twitterific (Twitter client), etc.

12. To capture a screenshot in iPad, you need to hold the “Home” button and then press the the “Sleep” key – it’s the same as your iPhone or iPod Touch.

13. iPad doesn’t have a built-in PDF viewer and I don’t know if Adobe is planning to build a version of their Acrobat Reader for the iPad. Until then, you can download a copy of the very awesome Good Reader app from the iTunes store and read PDF eBooks on your iPad without having to convert them into ePub files.

14. Google has developed a beautiful version of Gmail for the iPad but not for other apps like Google Docs or Google Reader. The NetNewsWire App for the iPad is a decent alternative as it can sync with Google Reader as well and also supports authenticated feeds.

15. I don’t have any movies or TV shows on my iPad but video podcasts look great on the screen. The volume levels are a bit low and, unlike the iPod, Apple doesn’t ship headphone cords with the iPad.

16. A number of popular iPad Apps are currently not available outside the US. For instance, you’ll be disappointed to know that you cannot install Zinio, iBooks, iWork, Adobe Ideas, Nuance Dictation, etc. on your iPad if your iTunes Account is linked to an non-US address.

17. Unless you have a Mac and the iPhone OS SDK, it is impossible to record a video of your iPad screen (screencasts).

18. There are some nice “doodle” apps that let you write on the iPad “slate” but handwriting recognition, a popular feature of Windows based tablet PCs, is still missing from the iPad.

19. Apple has created some excellent videos to demonstrate the various features of the iPad. The expectation levels have already been set so high but once you get to use the device on your own, the experience will still blow you away.

20. Overall, I would say that the Apple iPad is a truly stunning and must-have device. And at $499, you will actually be getting some great value for your money.

Also see: Screenshots of Apple iPad Apps

Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/gadgets/ipad-review/13425/

Tags: Archives, How-to Guides and Software Tutorials, ipad, z, Gadgets

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, we are planning to release Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 and 8.2.2 as part of our regularly scheduled quarterly updates.

As mentioned in a previous blog post titled Adobe Reader and Acrobat Updates Include New Security Improvements, we have been testing a new updater technology with select beta customers since our October 13, 2009 quarterly update. The purpose of the new updater is to keep end-users up-to-date in a much more streamlined and automated way.

During our quarterly update on January 12, 2010, and then again for an out-of-cycle update on February 16, 2010, we exercised the new updater with our beta testers. This allowed us to test a variety of network configurations encountered on the Internet in order to ensure a robust update experience. That beta process has been a successful one, and we've incorporated several positive changes to the end-user experience and system operation. Now, we're ready for the next phase of deployment.

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, as part of our quarterly update, we will activate the new updater for all users needing Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.3.2 and 8.2.2 for Windows and Macintosh. As of yesterday, April 7, 2010, we have been activating our new updater for those users who are not yet up-to-date with our latest versions. During this phase of the process, we are utilizing users' current update setting found in the Adobe Reader and Acrobat Preferences, under the “Updater” panel, as shown in the screen captures below.

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Some advanced tools are easy to use and fun with Adobe's Photoshop Elements 4.0. Here's a quick guide to what some of these tools do.

The Magic Wand tool will select pixels in a similar color range to the ones you click on your picture. This tool is great for erasing large areas of an image that is very similar in color. I used it in my example photo to erase the clouds of the picture. I clicked on the wand tool and then clicked an area that was basically all clouds. I then got a dotted line outlining most of the clouds in the sky, then erased them using my delete button.

After the clouds are gone you can fill the dotted area using the eyedropper tool and the paint filler, or bucket. Click on the eye dropper tool and then click on a portion of the sky that is the color you want the rest to be. Looking at the color selection at the lower left of the window you can see what the color will be when you use it. Clicking on this box will bring up a window that allows you to alter or change the color. Now click on the Paint Bucket Tool and then move the bucket into the dotted area and click. It will fill the area with that color, you then use the brush tool with to smooth and fill in the color on the rest of the areas that did not get erased.

To remove the dotted lines of your selected area you have to be in the Magic Wand selection, click on the Magic Wand tool and then right click anywhere to get rid of the dotted lines. You then click on the brush and color in the areas of clouds that you did not get rid of with the Magic Tool.

The Magic Want Selection Tool is a handy and easy way to select one particular color in the picture, but beware that you only have that color of the thing you want to get rid of or alter in the area you want to be altering. This will choose any of the same colors in the entire picture. For instance if you have a picture with a person wearing a white shirt with clouds in the background and you choose the clouds to get rid of them, the shirt may also be chosen if the color is close to the one you picked.

If you want to pick and choose an area with a similar color and only in that part of the picture you would use the Magic Selection Brush Tool. This tool picks the area that is similar based not only on color but on texture to the areas near it. You can use this brush to paint the sky, not having to be careful of getting close to the trees and such of the border and it will automatically select the entire sky. You can then select a color and fill in the area to create your own sky color. You can use this tool to change the color of objects easily and quickly.

The brush shows the color that you use to see what you are selecting, let's say someones shirt. You can change the color of the brush to anything else if it is too similar to what you are working on by using the toolbar at the top of the window. Clicking on the color block will pop up a color chart and you can choose a different color for the brush that helps you see the area you are choosing.

When you paint in an area using the brush you will have a dotted line on the edges of the areas that are similar in color and texture. Using the brush you don't have to get real close to the edges, just paint any areas that are similar with a quick line of the brush. You can then delete that color and area and fill in with another, changing someones shirt color easily. You can alter the color using the color fill and the opacity settings by just filling over the original color and having the opacity set somewhere below 100%. With this method you can tone down a too bright shirt and not alter any of the rest of a picture.

The Lasso, Polygon Lasso and Magnetic Lasso Tool is other useful tools that selects areas using a drawn line that follows either the brush you are using or snaps to the objects that you select depending on which feature you select. These tools are very useful but hard to use and takes a lot of practice. This is one of those advanced features that takes a lot of patience and practice to become adept at. Using these tools in conjunction with the features of the tools you can select objects that have varying colors and textures to alter or edit them. This is handy for things like selecting something like a basket with a bottle of wine in it that would be different textures and colors.

The Spot Healing Brush is another very easy to use tool but is one that takes patience to use. This brush replaces the color and texture with one that is appropriate to the one that yo choose using either of the options of the tool. If you choose Proximity Match it will color over the area of the brush with the color and texture that is near it. This is useful to hide or color over blemishes or other unwanted features on people skin. If you select Create Texture the tool will automatically use the colors under the brush to make a color and texture to replace the ones there. Another very useful function of this tool is to cover over distracting portions of a picture. I have pictures of my son we are going to use for his Senior Portraits. One has him sitting on a tree and there are some large brighter and darker colored areas and knots on the tree that is somewhat distracting. Using this healing tool you can get rid of those areas and replace them with colors and like textures that are of the bark near the areas we want to replace. This quickly and easily replaces those areas you don't want on a photo with the colors and textures near by or with ones created like the ones they are replacing.

Two other handy tools are the Blur and Dodge tools. The blur tool does just that, blurs the area under the brush at the strength that is selected at the top of the window. The size and the strength can be changed along with some other features like whether you want to darken or lighten the blur or if you want to change the color or other features like this. Blur is nice to use to highlight a person or object in a photo and make the background less busy. If the subject of your photo is in a busy background or if the colors in the background are similar to the ones of your subject you might want to blur the background to make the subject stand out more.

The Dodge tool is also a handy tool to change certain areas of a photo and keep the original texture and color, only lighten or darken the area. If you want to darken or lighten an area you would simply use this tool and paint the area. Using the brush size for the control to color the areas and dodge to lighten or burn to darken you can color an area of a photo to lighten or darken it. This is handy when an area of a picture is in shadow but you don't want it to be or if you want to create a shadow area.

The Sponge tool is a very similar tool that changes the color saturation of an area. This will make colors appear brighter or darker without coloring over them with a white or black as in the Dodge Tool. This is handy for toning down a color or brightening one without changing the actual color. The Dodge Tool changes the color of the object by adding or taking away from the color using black and white. The Sponge tool uses the same color only it moves up and down the color scale depending on whether you are brightening or darkening.

These tools are handy ways to edit and fix photos and make the subject in your photo stand out. They also help you separate your subject so you can work on areas that need to be altered without changing other parts of your photo. Adobe's Photoshop Elements comes with many handy tools to help you make the most of your digital imaging.

As a supplement to this technote, you'll need to patch 9.0 in the following sequence to get to 9.3.1. You cannot jump directly to 9.3. Here's the sequence for Acrobat…

9.0 > 9.1.0 > 9.1.2 > 9.2.0 > 9.3.0 > 9.3.1

If you are deploying Reader, you can download 9.3 and then simply patch that with 9.3.1.

 

What next? Time to add or fix fields

Acrobat doesn't always do a perfect job finding form fields.

• Acrobat may find too many fields
• Acrobat may not find all your fields
• Acrobat might add the wrong type of field
• Acrobat might make a field too big or too small

Deleting and Sizing Fields

• To delete a field, simply select it and hit the DELETE key.
• To make a field larger, simply drag one of the "handles" to the desired size.

 

Adding new Fields to the Form

Acrobat allows you stamp several kinds of fields on top of the form as needed.

Here are the types you will use most often are:

• Text Fields
  Allow your patient to type whatever they want into the field

• Check Boxes
  Allow the patient to tick off an item

• Radio Buttons
  Allow the patient to select only one out of a series of options

• Regular Buttons
  Allow the patient to clear fields or submit a form via email.

You can add additional fields by clicking the Add New Field button at the top of the window

Acrobat offers several types of form fields. Select the type you want from the list and stamp it on to the document.

Changing the Text Fields

Text fields in Acrobat can hold thousands of characters of text. By default, if the text doesn't fit the field, Acrobat makes it smaller until it is eight points high. After that, Acrobat can (optionally) scroll the text in the field.

If you double-click on a Text field, you can change various options for it:

1. Font, size, color of the text
2. Allow or disallow multiple lines of text
3. Limit the amount of text in a cell
4. Formatting (e.g. make all phone number conform to a style like (888) 999-0000 even if the patient didn't type it in that way

Adding or Changing Radio Buttons

Radio buttons offer a mutually exclusive set of choices to your form. By using a radio button, you can ensure that the patient only chooses one out of an allowable set of options. For example, you can be either married or single, but not both.

O the sample form, Acrobat did not create fields for minor, single, married, at the top of the form. I've marked them with the red lines below.

Adding radio buttons is a bit trickier because Acrobat maintains them as a group.

Here's how to add a set of radio buttons:

1. Click the Add New Field button and chose Radio Button from the list
2. Stamp a Radio Button on top of the document
3. A yellow options window appears:

   A) Fill in the name of the group of buttons
   B) Fill in the name of the button that is being clicked
   C) Click the Add another button to group and then add the next radio button

Adding an Email Button

HIPAA rules state that doctors and healthcare organizations need to be extremely careful when transmitting patient data.

Fortunately, patients are not covered entities and can choose to convey information to you the way in which they are comfortable, including email.

Here's how to add an email button:

1. Click the Add New Field button and chose Button from the list
2. Stamp the button onto the form (usually in the upper right)
3. Give the button in name in the yellow options window, then click the Show All Properties link
4. Click the Appearance tab in the Button Properties Window
   Change the fill and border colors to your taste
5. Click the Options tab of the Button Properties window
   Fill in the Label field with the text you want to appear on the button face

6. Click the Actions tab of the Button Properties window
   A) Choose Submit a form from the Trigger pop-up menu
   B) Click the Add button
7. Make the following changes . . .
   A) Enter mailto: followed by the email address you wish to receive the form
   B) Click PDF The complete document
   C) Click the OK button
   
8. Click the Close button

Reader-enabling the Form

Normally, a patient using the free Adobe Reader software can view, print and navigate a document, but cannot save any changes. This limitation includes saving data patients have typed into the form.

However, if you have Acrobat 9 (Standard or Pro), you have PDF superpowers. You can "bless" a PDF for your patients so that they can save their information in the form.

This process is called Reader-enabling the document.

Here's how:

1. Open the form you wish to Reader-enable

2. Next choose the appropriate option based on which version of Acrobat you have:
   
   Acrobat 9 Pro:   Advanced> Extend Features in Adobe Reader . . .
   Acrobat 9 Standard: Advanced> Extend Forms Fill-in & Save in Adobe Reader . . .

3. Acrobat will prompt you to save the form.

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In this Photoshop Tutorial I will show you how to create a Red Gel Butterfly. The gel effects can make some nice looking icons and graphics. You can create this butterfly any size that you want. You can make a small icon out of it or you can create a nice graphic from it. I will write the first part of this tutorial for beginners and the second part for the advance Photoshop users. If you are an advance user, please skip down to the advance part of this tutorial.

How to Create a Red Gel Butterfly in Photoshop for Beginners

Open Photoshop and let it load. Then click File > New at the top of your Photoshop window to create a new canvas. Create your canvas 150 pixels by 150 pixels. Set your background to white and click OK.

Create a new layer in your Layers Panel. If you do not see your Layers Panel then press F7 on your keyboard. Click the icon in the bottom of the Layers Panel that looks like a sheet of paper with the corner curled up.

Click on your Shape Tool in your toolbar and hold it down until the menu drops down. Then click Custom Shape Tool. At the top of your window you will see Shape and a drop down box. Click the arrow to drop the box down. On the right side of the box you will see a little arrow. Click that arrow and select All from the drop down menu. This will load all of your shapes in your shape box. Now select the Butterfly Shape Tool. Draw your butterfly on your canvas whatever size you want it.

Right click on your Shape Layer and click Rasterize Layer from the pop up menu. Right click on the Shape Layer again and click Blending Options from the pop up menu. This will open your Blending Options window and this is where you will apply all of your effects to get the Gel Butterfly.

Blending Option Panel

Inner Shadow

Blend Mode – Multiply
Color – # a13333
Opacity – 50
Angle – 65
Distance – 11
Choke – 25
Size – 23
Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Unchecked
Noise – 0

Inner Glow

Blend Mode – Multiply
Opacity – 20
Noise – 0
Color – # 600000
Technique – Softer
Source – Edge
Choke – 0
Size – 8
Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Unchecked
Range – 50
Jitter – 0

Bevel and Emboss

Style – Inner Bevel
Technique – Smooth
Depth – 90
Direction – Up
Size – 12
Soften – 4
Angle – 90
Use Global Light – Unchecked
Attitude – 67
Gloss Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Checked
Highlight Mode – Screen
Color – White
Opacity – 100
Shadow Mode – Multiply
Color – Black
Opacity – 0

Satin

Blend Mode – Overlay
Color – fa0f0f
Opacity – 100%
Angle – 70
Distance – 38
Size – 38
Contour – Ring
Anti-aliased – Checked
Invert -Checked

Color Overlay

Blend Mode – Normal
Color – # f70303
Opacity – 100%

Stroke

Size – 1
Position – Outside
Blend Mode – Normal
Opacity – 100%
Fill Type – Color
Color – Black

You can apply a Drop Shadow to your butterfly if you want to by clicking on the Drop Shadow effect. Click OK on the Blending Options window once you are done. Your butterfly should look like the one in my image. If you have any problems with this Photoshop tutorial, please feel free to contact me using the contact button at the top of this page.

How to Create a Red Gel Butterfly in Photoshop for the Advance

Create a new canvas 150px by 150 px. Set your background to white.

Create a new layer.

Select your Custom Shape Tool and change your shape to the butterfly.

Draw your butterfly on your canvas whatever size you want.

Rasterize your Layer.

Open the Blending Options for your Shape Layer and apply the following effects.

Blending Option Panel

Inner Shadow

Blend Mode – Multiply
Color – # a13333
Opacity – 50
Angle – 65
Distance – 11
Choke – 25
Size – 23
Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Unchecked
Noise – 0

Inner Glow

Blend Mode – Multiply
Opacity – 20
Noise – 0
Color – # 600000
Technique – Softer
Source – Edge
Choke – 0
Size – 8
Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Unchecked
Range – 50
Jitter – 0

Bevel and Emboss

Style – Inner Bevel
Technique – Smooth
Depth – 90
Direction – Up
Size – 12
Soften – 4
Angle – 90
Use Global Light – Unchecked
Attitude – 67
Gloss Contour – Linear
Anti-aliased – Checked
Highlight Mode – Screen
Color – White
Opacity – 100
Shadow Mode – Multiply
Color – Black
Opacity – 0

Satin

Blend Mode – Overlay
Color – fa0f0f
Opacity – 100%
Angle – 70
Distance – 38
Size – 38
Contour – Ring
Anti-aliased – Checked
Invert -Checked

Color Overlay

Blend Mode – Normal
Color – # f70303
Opacity – 100%

Stroke

Size – 1
Position – Outside
Blend Mode – Normal
Opacity – 100%
Fill Type – Color
Color – Black

Click OK when you are done. If you have any problems with this Photoshop tutorial please feel free to contact me.

In response to two critical vulnerabilities in Acrobat and Adobe Reader 9.3, yesterday Adobe released the 9.3.1 update for both applications; users of the older 8.x versions can update to 8.2.1 to resolve the security issues. One of the two vulnerabilities addressed would allow a malicious PDF to make unauthorized cross-domain requests; the other could crash the PDF application and possibly allow an attacker to gain access to other parts of the system.

The first flaw is related to a Flash Player issue that was revealed last week; if you have not updated Flash to the latest version (10.0.45.2 as of this moment, see your version & current versions here) & you aren't blocking Flash, you should go get the latest build right away. Although you can configure auto-update notifications in Flash Player, it's not clear if Mac OS X clients are consistently getting these reminders to update.

Even though Mac users are far less likely to be targeted by malware than our Windows-using friends and family, vigilance is still critical. Security analysis firm ScanSafe reported that it saw the percentage of exploits delivered via PDF files rise from 56% at the beginning of 2009 all the way up to 80% in the 4th quarter, so keeping those Adobe apps current — or, better yet, using Apple's Preview app as the default PDF reader on Mac OS X — is only prudent.

Today, a Security Bulletin has been posted for Adobe Reader and Acrobat. The update addresses critical security issues in the products. Adobe recommends that users apply the updates for their product installations.

This posting is provided “AS IS” with no warranties and confers no rights.

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Are you just starting out on Photoshop? Do you have absolutely no idea where to begin? I was exactly where you were not too long ago. After hours of research and exploring Photoshop I've finally got a strong grasp and you can too! In this first tutorial, you'll learn the basics of Photoshop. You'll be a pro in no time!

First, I'd like for you to open up Photoshop and start with a blank canvas. To do that you must go to file. From file you go to new and then create a new image. It'll offer you the option to make the image a preferred size. If you make a mistake, much like many other programs you can go to the top at “edit” and it'll offer you the option to undo the last thing that you did. 

The best thing you can do as a graphic artist is create intricate art in layers. To work in layers, there is a section on the right side of your Photoshop window that's dedicated to them. You click the “new layer” option. This will help in the long run if you want to take something out of the image. 

If you would like to edit a certain section of the image you use the rectangle selection tool. After selecting it, do whatever you would like to edit that specific selection. Do you know how to select a color? Well, if you don't-I can help you. On the right side there is a box that has two boxes with colors in them. The one box that is the top is black. The other one below that is white. Click on one of them and a chart of colors will pop up. You can select from there. If you want to switch between whatever color is in either the top box or the bottom box, just click the arrows and they'll switch. The top box will be the color that you're using. Another thing that you can do to make your life easier is fill in an area with the preferred color with just one click. On the left side of the screen there will be a bucket pouring paint out. Click that button. Select the color you'd like to use and then left click the mouse in the spot you'd like to be that color. If you would like to add text to your image click the “T” button on the left side and click where you'd like add it. You'll notice a box that offers a chance to change the size, font, and color of the text if you would like to.

Next, I would like to tell you about the History Brush tool. We've all been there, we've made mistakes and want to revert back to the previous step. I've already told you about the undo option, but there's another option of finding up to 20 steps of history. Really, the only problem I've found with this is that it uses memory up. If you would like to change how many steps back it'll go whether smaller or bigger (assuming you've got a lot of ram) go to Edit, Preferences, General – History States. 

That's it for now, but please look forward to my other tutorials that I plan on creating. Hopefully this has helped you.

Download Adobe Reader 9.3 for Windows from Fileforum now.

Usually on a Patch Tuesday, the discussion turns to Microsoft; but amid a very light round of Windows fixes, it's Adobe in the spotlight today. Last month, a serious and potentially easily exploitable vulnerability was found in a JavaScript API call, DocMedia.NewPlayer — a situation where an intentionally crafted PDF file could invoke the call, deallocate the memory allocated when the media player is generated, and then execute the code in that de-allocated memory, without need for privilege.

Adobe Reader 9.3 was released today, right on schedule, to address this issue. In the meantime, the company is realizing the changing nature of the platform business, and how Reader/Acrobat and Flash are now just as susceptible to potential attacks as any other platform, including Windows. Interestingly, the cross-platform nature of the Acrobat platform means that Mac users were just as susceptible to this exploit as Windows users.

Beyond today's update, Adobe is busy working on non-improvised means for improving its platform users' security long-term. Already last October, it began implementing what it calls the JavaScript Blacklist Framework — a way for its platforms to maintain actively updated lists of non-trusted sources for executable content. Last month, Adobe advised users to use this Framework to effectively blacklist the API call — a way of turning off the vulnerable function (which was rarely in use anyway) as an alternative to disabling JavaScript.

Meanwhile, beta testers are working on a potential update to today's update: a new version of the Reader that replaces its current updating mechanism. Today, Reader automatically checks for updates whenever it starts. But as Adobe Senior Security Researcher Kyle Randolph blogged this morning, testers are examining the efficacy of an always-resident mechanism instead — something that could silently update Reader and Acrobat (and perhaps Flash as well) in the background.

“The new updater improves the user experience and helps users stay up to date with the new option of receiving security updates automatically, via background updates, which have been shown to have better patch adoption,” Randolph wrote. “Some customers, such as corporate IT administrators, need to know and manage which updates are installed and when. But a lot of customers, particularly consumers and individuals who don't have the autopilot luxury of a managed desktop environment, just want to have the most secure and up-to-date version, and don't want to be interrupted when it is time to install an update. By allowing customers to select an update process that automatically runs in the background, we can help protect more users from attacks against known, patched vulnerabilities.”

It would be yet another always-present driver in the system, which in the case of Windows might go against the company's new architecture. Last November at Microsoft's PDC 2009 conference, Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich introduced Windows 7 developers to the Unified Background Process Manager — a service that leverages the task scheduling system to enable processes to do their jobs and leave memory without staying resident all the time. At the show, Russinovich explained several reasons why this new architecture was not only more efficient, but conceivably more secure.

Adobe already uses one stay-resident utility, Speed Launcher, whose efficacy at performing its stated task has been somewhat variable — more accurately, Adobe uses one Launcher for Reader and another for Acrobat. Having both on the same Windows XP-based system was the cause of a problem Betanews encountered a few years ago.

I'm so glad I ditched Adobe Reader a long time ago. It's a real POS.

A little bird told me that part of the reason for compulsory updates is so Adobe can keep an eye on other Adobe software installed on a users system. Using the reader as a kind of trojan horse to get in and send back information about the keys to Adobe apps like Photoshop. This is of course just a rumour, one I may, or may not have started.

Here's a typical user case scenario for the viewing of a PDF document. User gets out of bed. User wants to read PDF's, has heard Adobe Reader will do that. User goes to download it and instead of getting the download, first has to go through installing a new download system. After lunch user finally has the 16 gigabyte install for the reader software done, along with some extra software they didn't ask for. User goes to read PDF document but now there are updates, these are important security updates. User believes they must have these. After dinner user tries again to read the PDF document and the crowd goes wild, he shoots, he succeeds!

Cue Jingle

|At Adobe Dynamics, we make simple tasks stupidly hard, because we can.

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