Hot Software How-Tos

How To: Make a glossy Vista wallpaper in Photoshop

This is a video tutorial that is showing its audience how to make a glossy Vista wallpaper in the program Photoshop. The first step is to open Photoshop. Photoshop is a very large program so it might take a few minutes to open fully. The second step is to go to file open and open up your wallpaper folder that is on your computer. Choose one of the images and click okay. Then you should select different parts of the wallpaper that you chose and use the elliptical tool and the paint brush tool ...

How To: Make a bootable ISO image or CD/DVD

Ali440134 demonstrates how to make a bootable ISO image or a CD / DVD disk. Making a bootable ISO disk is easy and requires just a few simple steps to complete. First, use the Magic ISO program to make the disk. Open Magic ISO and click your desired file. Then, click the open button. Your Magic ISO panel should then say Bootable which means that you can make a bootable disk. Next click tools and under the tools drop down menu click the burn CD / DVD with ISO option. Then, select your file and...

How To: Change/convert a pivot animation into an AVI video

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to change/convert a pivot animation into an AVI video format. Begin by loading the animation in the Pivot program. Now click on File and select the Save as type to Animated gif. Nam the file and click on Save. Then open Windows Movie Maker and add the pivot animation into the time line. click on Publish Movie and select This Computer. Name the file and select the save location. Click on More Settings and select DV-AVI (PAL) and click on Publish. This ...

How To: Create a series AA, AB ... ZZ in Microsoft Excel

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 279th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how use the ADDRESS, LEFT, ROW, ROWS, and COLUMN functions to create the series AA, AB, ZZ with a formula.

How To: Make an Excel gradebook that removes the lowest score

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 195th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the SUM, MIN and VLOOKUP functions to create a grade book based on given total score that drops the lowest score and calculates grades automatically.

How To: Randomly select an employee name from an Excel sheet

New to Microsoft Excel? Looking for a tip? How about a tip so mind-blowingly useful as to qualify as a magic trick? You're in luck. In this MS Excel tutorial from ExcelIsFun, the 169th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to randomly select an employee from a list using the INDEX and RAND and INT functions (also RANDBETWEEN).

How To: Find the BPM of a song in Logic Pro 8

In this video, you are shown how to find the BPM, or beats per minute, of a song that you have recorded by using Logic Pro 8. Start by loading up your song. Then go to the inserts menu, and from there go to metering. Inside the metering menu, click on the beats per minute counter. Then click on either stereo or mono, depending on your speakers. Play the song that you uploaded, and the counter will automatically find the beats per minute of your song. Go back into the inserts menu and click on...

How To: Shoot a bow in Pivot

In this Software video tutorial you are going to learn how to shoot a bow in Pivot. Open Pivot and select a stick. You can adjust the size of the working space. Adjust the position of the stick in to an arrow shooting position. Then put a bow in his hand and move up the arm to a horizontal position and move the bow in a similar manner. For every new position, click on ‘new figure’ and then adjust the position. While stopping, make the gaps smaller. Now start moving up the other arm. Then move...

How To: Make a professional Google Chrome logo in Photoshop

The tutorial shows you how to make a professionally looking Google Chrome logo in Photoshop CS4. To start, download the Google Chrome logo, as well as an Earth picture, in a Zip file from Inteltuts. Next, open the logo file in Photoshop CS4, turn the white background layer into transparent, and transform the logo by de-saturating the picture, but make sure you leave the blue center area untouched. The last step is to transform the Earth picture so that it fits right into the center of the des...

How To: Create rounded-corner rectangles in Xara Xtreme

One must have often wondered how to create rectangles with smooth rounded corners. Open Xara Xtreme and create a rectangle on the stage. To change it to rounded corners, click on 'curved corners'. Then one can edit how much curve is required on the rectangle. If we scale the rectangle, then it will lose the curve path. So it should be converted to 'editable shapes'. This will maintain the curves, even if scaled from one angle. This will be helpful to create those party fliers.

How To: Reduce depth of field in Photoshop

This video tutorial, by photoshopuniverse, shows you how to reduce the depth of field after a photo is taken using Photoshop. This enables you to ensure that your main subject is clearly in focus while the background is out of focus or blurry. First duplicate the layer using the short cut that was mentioned and apply the filter lens blur to the new layer and adjust the radius so that an adequate amount of blurring is achieved. Add a layer mask and bring the subject to focus by selecting the b...

How To: Protect PDFs with a password in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

In order to secure a PDF with a password when opened in Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro, press the secure button and go into password security settings. Here you can change on what versions of this software the file will run on, the next option asks which portion of the document is to be encrypted when a password is placed. Further below here is where you actually choose the password, this ensures that only people who know the password will be able to see the contents of the document. Below this is the d...

How To: Remove sensitive information from PDF's in Acrobat 9

This video shows how to use a special tool to redact or remove sensitive information from Adobe Acrobat 9. This includes hidden metadata, file attachments, comments, hidden text and layer elements within a PDF file. You can also set it up when you're emailing. The Examine Document function highlights information that you may want to remove. You can then select the different types of data and choose which things you want to remove.

How To: Fix missing grids in elevation in Revit Architecture

Have you ever had the problem where your grid lines will NOT show up in elevations?!?!?! This is of course after you have checked your VG settings and maximized 3D extents, still NOTHING! Chances are the elevation view is not perpendicular to the grid lines. In most cases this makes sense, how is Revit going to know where you want to intersect the infinite planes of the grid lines. In this Revit tutorial David Fano establishes the point of intersection as the point where the site boundary and...

How To: Use animated gif files in Fireworks 8

Fireworks provides all the tools you need to create animated GIFs. In this Fireworks 8 video tutorial you will learn how to use animated GIF files, including how to view individual frames, and adjust frame timing. Make sure to hit "play tutorial" in the top left corner of the video to start the video. There is no sound, so you'll need to watch the pop-up directions. Use animated gif files in Fireworks 8.

How To: Color using text file in Embird

Embird software confusing and difficult to use? Rosanne shows us a new feature with Embird recoloring using text file and color numbers. Take note to how she uses the internet designs to predetermine the colors that will be used in the text file. Color using text file in Embird.

How To: Play Google Video files in Windows Media Player

This video demonstrates how to download Google Video movies onto your computer and play them using Windows Media Player. The video walks you through downloading the right software, downloading the video you want, modifying the movie, and playing in Media Player. This video is silent and goes fast, so you will have to watch a few times to understand what is happening.

How To: Remove body fat or stretch marks in GIMP

In this video, we learn how to remove body fat or stretch marks in GIMP. First, go to filters, then distort, then warp. When you are in this window, you will be able to see all the different distortions that you can do. To help you remove the fat, use the "move" tool and a proper sized brush. Now, press on the stomach and slowly press down on it until you see the part of the body start to become smaller. Don't do it too quickly, or the picture will look fake. When finished, save your new pict...

How To: Corner pin a video with the Mocha 3D tracking tool in Adobe After Effects CS5

Learn how to corner pin a video onto an iPod, mobile phone, TV or monitor with the Mocha 3D tracking tool in Adobe After Effects CS4 or CS5. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Reset and purge in Adobe Photoshop CS4 or CS5

Deke gets things started with a pair of options that can clean out Photoshops plumbing when things get clogged up: Reset and purge. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular raster graphics editing software or a seasoned professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the program and its various features and filters, you're sure to be well served by this video tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, watch this free video guide.

How To: Soften skin, control color & tones in Photoshop CS4

Learn about skin softening techniques and the controlling of color and tones when working in Adobe Photoshop! Whether you're new to computer graphics, new to Adobe Photoshop CS4 or a seasoned design professional just looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're certain to like this free video software tutorial. For more information, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started managing skin tones in Photoshop yourself, watch this designer's guide!

How To: Remove Vocals from a Song in Pro Tools

If you need to remove vocals from a song in Pro Tools first you need to open Pro Tools and load the song. First, you need to split this track so go to Track and click split to mono. Now, mute this first track. Next, you want to remove the stereo by panning each the bottom to 0. Now, flip the phase by going to the bottom clicking EQ plugin. Now the vocal is pretty much gone.