Category Archives: Technology

Viewing and printing PDF’s from the Internet or GMail in Google Chrome

Posted on by

Google Chrome does a splendid job of showing PDF’s inside a browser window so you can read/search/save/do-what-ya-gotta-do.  That is until it comes to printing anything that is either of an unusual paper size, or um… in landscape orientation. Yuh.  Sorry about that, but it’s true.  And it looks like Google might not get around to fixing that anytime soon.

Easier workaround:

  • download the file
  • open it in your favourite PDF viewer
  • Print from the PDF viewer.

Harder workaround:

For those of you who simply *must* print from Chrome because downloading a PDF to open/print in another application is just too hard for whatever reason, then you will have to fight Chrome to make it do your will. Here’s how it plays out:

  • Find your difficult PDF on whatever website/online email account and open it in the browser.
  • Tell Chrome to Print it.
  • You’ll be taken to a print-preview window, with print controls on the left side of the screen. (As per the screenshot below)
  • You might find that a single-page document gets another blank page added to the end. I don’t know why.  If it’s a single-side document, tick “Two sided” and the blank page will get printed on the back of the page you want.
  • If the document was set to be “Portrait” mode, just enter the number of copies, select the printer, tell it to do black and white, and when you’re happy, click “print”.
  • If the document was set to “landscape” mode, then you’ll have to tell Chrome *again* that you want to print in Landscape. Otherwise your landscape document will be printed in landscape on a portrait page. Then check the other options, sending to right printer etc.
  • And you *should* be done.
  • After getting this wrong a few times, as I inevitably do every time I try to do it this way, you’ll probably appreciate the “easier workaround” above.

How to stop sending emails from GMail before they’re ready

Posted on by
So there you were, happily typing your email on the Gmail web page when suddenly, #POOF!#, it starts sending and before you can do anything to stop it you’re taken back to the inbox. Message sent. Ready or not.

The reason:

  1. Google have set up their email page so that pressing the “Tab” key moves the cursor to the next field or button on the web page, which in this case happens to be the “Send” button. And then when you next press “Enter” to end the line you’re still typing because you didn’t know you’d done it, off it goes.  You probably hit the “Tab” key by accident, or you maybe pushed the button intentionally to create an indent like you would in Apple Mail or Word.
  2. Alternatively if you’re anything like me, sometimes you might just get trigger-happy and blatantly hit “Send” on things that really shouldn’t be sent…

Easiest workaround:

  • Log into Gmail in Chrome, then click on the big dark cog at the top right:
  • Then select “Settings” from the menu that pops up.
  • Click on “Labs”
  • Scroll down and find the “Undo Send” lab option. Select “Enable” next to it.
  • Scroll down to find the “Save changes” button, and click it.
  • You’ll be taken back to your inbox.

Now, when you hit the “Send” button, a yellow notice comes up at the top of the browser window offering the chance to undo the send – but you only get a few seconds to do it!

Easy-ish workaround:

Don’t put the recipient’s names or addresses into the “To”, “CC” or “BCC” fields before typing your new email. If you’re replying, delete the recipient addresses.

That way, if you activate this intentional keyboard shortcut (which is what it is, no matter how annoying), it won’t be able to send because there are no addresses to send it to. And it will tell you.  And eventually you’ll drop the habit of bashing the “Tab” key without sending embarrassing or otherwise empty or half-baked emails to others.

Harder workaround:

If like me you *still* keep sending messages before they’re ready, and particularly if you’re working on a longer message that will take a while to get right, there’s no shame at all in composing the email text somewhere else and then pasting it in before sending. For incidence, I’ve written this as a document in Google Docs, and that’s enabled me to get all of the formatting, layout and thinking sorted without needing to worry I’ll send before I’m ready.

Adobe drops Flash for mobile devices?

Posted on by

This is huge news, if true. Not necessarily just because they’ve chosen to drop it. That’s an entirely understandable decision if the number of mobile platforms is beginning to get so big as to be impractical to support properly.

No, the reason I’m so gobsmacked by this decision is the reason given.  Here in the BBC news article I spotted announcing the news, they are quoted as suggesting that HTML5 is the better technology because it’s universally supported.

Wow. Good move, Adobe. If this is as much out of humility as it is about the economics of supporting a growing number of mobile platforms, then I salute you.

GoogleDocs curiosity – how to insert image stored in GoogleDocs?

Posted on by

Found an interesting functional omission just now.

I’m trying to insert a JPEG into a Google Document, but the image is stored in with my Google docs rather than being online, on my machine, or on something like Picassa. So I click on the insert button, but have no way of using a stored image from this list. Google’s Insert Image help document is none too useful on the subject, nor did my quick search bring up anything productive.

The only way I can think to do it is…

  1. Open a new documents tab
  2. Find and download the JPEG in from GoogleDocs to somewhere on my machine
  3. Insert the image, using the “Upload” option.
  4. Grunt at such a faff while I’m trying to create a document with several images.

Short of using a “real” application, anyone know of a better way of doing this on GoogleDocs, or whether one is coming?

Hewlett Packard Laserjet 1015, Airport, Bonjour and Windows 7

Posted on by

As per the title, I had an unhappy half-an-hour trying to get this little bundle of joy working together this evening.  Turns out that the following process works rather well…

  • Install Apple Bonjour Print Services for Windows
  • Plug the printer into the Windows machine directly over USB, or manually get Windows to update its hardware drivers list.
  • Once the driver has been successfully been downloaded and installed for use over USB, the driver is now available for the Bonjour wizard to use.
  • Plug the printer back into the Airport Express/Extreme that’ll be sharing it.
  • Run the Bonjour Print Wizard and follow on-screen prompts.
Logical in a way, but a pain to figure out.

BBC iPlayer interface fixed!

Posted on by

Some of you might remember me posting about an annoying “bug” or feature where the search box didn’t clear its pre-entered text properly when the user started typing their search term.

Well, sometime in the last fortnight it’s been fixed – much better!  Almost wonder if someone in the iPlayer team has been reading this blog – I can’t think that many other people will have consciously noticed it, let alone bothered to post about it!

More “Accident” spam texts – Ignore, report and ignore.

Posted on by

Just got another SPAM message from +44 7591 260388 saying that I’ve still not claimed for that accident I never had, as I wrote about here earlier this year.

Again, I’ve ignored it and would continue to advise others to do the same.  Replying with the word ”STOP” as suggested in the text is thought to confirm your mobile number as being valid and active, opening the gates to yet more spam.

O2 SPAM prevention service

If you’re on O2, then you can flag it up wit them forward such suspicious unsolicited text messages to 7726, as per the advice on their website.  Thing is, my phone doesn’t have a “forward” function that I’m aware of for SMS, so I’m hoping they have the sense to block the number I quoted, not the number I sent it from!  Time will tell.

BBC iPlayer user interface fail

Posted on by

Just thought to post up something that’s really bugging me on the BBC iPlayer site lately.  Why does the search entry box not clear the text string “search” when clicked on, like pretty much any other search function on any other website I’ve ever encountered?  It would save maddening situations like this ever being a problem, however much the user knows about the web:

Confused, much?

iOS 4.x Calendar/Maps integration

Posted on by

I’ve been wondering for a long time how I can make the Calendars app tell me on a map where my appointment is.  Having looked at a new Genius Bar appointment I’ve made for today, inserting the address of the appointment in the “location” field doesn’t provide this functionality.  However, putting the address in the “Notes” field turns said address into a clickable link, which opens that address in Maps.

What gives?  Surely the “Location” field is exactly the field that most users would think to place the address of their appointment.  Whatever – it’s working nicely now I know how to do it.

Text scam – ignore and/or delete without reading.

Posted on by

Just received a strange text message from an unidentified (but quoted) mobile number, with the following wording:

Text from +44 7541 706527

Free Msg; Our records indicates you may be entitled to £3750 for the accident you had. To apply free reply CLAIM to this message. To opt out text STOP

I’ve not been in an accident that I can remember for many year, and it looks to me like this is a scam, supported by a quick Google search confirming the same.  Even the same wording crops up several times!

Advice

I think it best to simply delete this message, even without flagging it as “read” if possible. Certainly I think it unwise to reply even with the word “STOP”, for fear of suddenly being subscribed to something I can’t later get my way out of.