Hot Software How-Tos

How To: Create a quick layer mask within Adobe Photoshop CS5

Want to create a fast layer mask in Photoshop CS5? It's easy. Learn how with this video guide. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or a seasoned graphic design professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with the unique features of Photoshop CS5, you're sure to find something of value in this free video tutorial.

How To: Remove stains, dirt and discoloration in Photoshop

Want to touch up an old printed photograph? Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial from the folks at Britec Computer Systems. This video offers a step-by-step guide on how to get rid of unwanted stains, dirt and discoloration using Adobe Photoshop.

How To: Use the Waveform Monitor in Final Cut Pro

Make sure your video projects are broadcast safe with color correction and the Waveform Monitor in Apple's Final Cut Pro. This free video tutorial presents a complete overview of how to use the Waveform Editor and FCP color correction tools for increased darker blacks and whiter whites while staying with broadcast specifications.

How To: Use Mail Merge in Pages for Mac

A step-by-step guide that will walk you through Mail Merge on a Mac computer. You will gain how to prep and print envelopes, letters or any document that you need to send to different names and addresses on each item. You can pull the data from your address book or from a Numbers Spreadsheet and will see how to modify and merge the information you will need to successfully set up your documents.

How To: Allow only Monday dates in a cell 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 593rd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to add data validation to allow only Monday dates in a cell using the custom option and the WEEKDAY function.

How To: Count Mondays between 2 dates in 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 and Mr. Excel, the 44th installment in their joint series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to count the number of Mondays between two dates using the WEEKDAY function or the TEXT function wrapped around the ROW and INDIRECT function.

How To: Summarize survey data with a pivot table in MS 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 and Mr. Excel, the 20th installment in their joint series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to summarize survey data with a pivot table (grouping & report filter), COUNTIFS function (4 criteria), SUMPRODUCTS formula, SUMPRODUCTS & TEXT functions and DCOUNT database function.

How To: Control percentages with a scroll bar in MS 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 and Mr. Excel, the 46th installment in their joint series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create scroll bars that will control a percentage in a cell.

How To: Use rounding functions & paste special values in Excel

Whether you're interested in learning Microsoft Excel from the bottom up or just looking to pick up a few tips and tricks, you've come to the right place. In this tutorial from everyone's favorite digital spreadsheet guru, ExcelIsFun, the 28th installment in his "Highline Excel Class" series of free video Excel lessons, you'll learn how to use Excel's rounding functions, how to paste special values – and quite a lot more besides. Specifically, this video addresses each of the following topics:

How To: Use the Advanced Filter tool to extract data in Excel

Whether you're interested in learning Microsoft Excel from the bottom up or just looking to pick up a few tips and tricks, you're in the right place. In this tutorial from everyone's favorite digital spreadsheet guru, ExcelIsFun, the 19th installment in his "Highline Excel Class" series of free video Excel lessons, you'll learn about using Advanced Filter to extract data from an Excel List/Table/Database. See these 7 Advanced Filter examples:

How To: Set up & solve simple word problems in Microsoft Excel

As you might guess, one of the domains in which Microsoft Excel really excels is business math. Brush up on the stuff for your next or current job with this how-to. In this tutorial from everyone's favorite digital spreadsheet guru, YouTube's ExcelIsFun, the 14th installment in his "Business Math" series of free video lessons, you'll learn how to set up and solve and write conclusions for simple word problems in Excel.

How To: Copy & paste a list of all names in an Excel workbook

Looking for a primer on how to create and work with names in Microsoft Office Excel? You've come to the right place. In this free video tutorial from everyone's favorite MS Excel guru, YouTube's ExcelIsFun, the 12.66th installment in his series of Excel name tricks, you'll learn how to paste a list of all names in the workbook, both the name and the formula that defines the name.

How To: Lose Weight by Using Photoshop

This video shows the method to do weight loss using Photoshop. Open the image and go to 'Filters' and 'Liquify'. Click on the 'Forward Warp Tool' on the left. Zoom into the back area and drag the mouse in towards the body to make it thin. Keep the 'Brush Pressure' high to get a sharp result. 'Brush Size' determines how large the brush is and the area affected by it. Use the 'Pucker Tool' and click on the ass to reduce it. Reduce the sides of the ass with the 'Forward Warp Tool' and reduce the...

How To: Calculate probability in an Excel pivot table

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 55th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to calculate probabilities with a pivot table (PivotTable). Specifically, you'll learn how to find joint, marginal and conditional probabilities.

How To: Create a two-variable data table 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 255th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a two-variable data table in Excel for what-if analysis. See the PMT function and learn about the formula equivalent to a data table.

How To: Get a tan using Photoshop CS4

Robert demonstrates how to use Photoshop to give yourself a tan. First, you need to upload your picture(s) into Photoshop. Then pick one to work on. Next, you will need to copy the background to save the original image. On the right side drag the background label to the new layer icon (you can just hit control J). You will then need to select a paintbrush tool. Go up to the tool bar and click on the paintbrush settings to set the hardness at 80%. The master diameter will be adjusted as you wo...

How To: Get rid of the shine on your face with Photoshop

In this how to video, you will learn how to get rid of shine using Photoshop. This is useful if you took a picture using too much flash, causing shine to appear on the faces of those in the photo. First, open the image in Photoshop. Duplicate the background layer. Select the clone stamp tool on the left and select a brush with no hardness. From here, change the opacity to 80 percent. Click the option key on an area of cheek. Now, click on the dots of shine on the faces. This can be used on wr...

How To: Master and mix a hip-hop song using Cool Edit Pro 2.0

In this how to video, you will learn how to master and mix a rap song using Cool Edit Pro 2. First, download the program and open the vocal track in the program. Double click the vocals to highlight it all. Next go to effects and pick amplitude and amplify. Choose center wave and click okay. Go to amplitude again and choose dynamic processing. Choose very fast processing. Go to delay effects and type in 250, 10, 1812, 20, 100%, and 30% in the window. Next, go to filters and pick FTT filters. ...

How To: Sort data in single columns & whole tables in Excel

To sort data in Excel spreadsheets, have each category (for example, first and last names) in a single column. Click on any cell in the column you wish to sort. Be careful not to highlight the entire column, or results will be sorted only in that column. Click on DATA on the ribbon at the top. To sort in descending order, click on the z-a button. For more detail, click on the main SORT button, and you can specify which columns you want sorted and how. For instance, you can sort by descending ...

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: Use Excel's VLOOKUP with dates to retrieve the season

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 353rd installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to make date calculations with Excel's VLOOKUP formula (e.g., finding approximate matches and returning a season for a date within a given range).

How To: Use Macromedia Flash 8

This how to video shows you how to use the program Macromedia Flash 8. First, open the program and click Flash Document. Next, select show frame in the drop down menu. Next, right click and select insert layer. Select the pen tool and choose a size. Next, select a color and then draw a picture. Click the other layer and zoom in. Click the onion skin. Continue to draw and then press F7. Keep on doing this for each new animation. Click control and test the movie. Go to file and save the file. Y...

How To: Match text substrings with an array formula in 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 321st installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to match text substrings with an array formula that uses the AND, ISNUMBER and SEARCH functions.

How To: Turn a photo into a drawing with Photoshop

In this how to video, you will learn how to turn a photo into a line drawing in Photoshop. First, open your image in Photoshop. Create three layers of the same photo. The top two layers will be worked with. The bottom layer will remain the same. Take the top layer and change it to color dodge. Select control and I on the keyboard to invert it. Go to filter and blur to choose Gaussian blur. If you have dark lines, use a small amount of blur. You can use a lot of blur to get a unique look. Clic...

How To: Convert TRUE & FALSE values to 1 & 0 in MS 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 314th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn four different methods for converting TRUE and FALSE values to 1 and 0 (zeroes).

How To: Create your own fonts & types in Illustrator

In this tutorial, user CollegeTut shows you how to customize the shapes of various fonts and text, essentially creating your own custom fonts, by converting the text of any font to outlines and then editing those outlines (bezier paths/strokes). You can modify the points on the path to create different shapes for the letters in your text, or you can manipulate the strokes of the text. You'll create some cool text effects such as text that looks like it's made of bricks, by converting the stro...

How To: Use ctrl-enter keyboard shortcuts 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 208th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the keyboard ctrl-enter keyboard shortcuts to speed up common tasks in Microsoft Excel.

How To: Rearrange parts of a text string 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 190th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to rearrange three parts in a text string (e.g., last, first, middle name) using the RIGHT, FIND, LEN, & LEFT functions in one formula.

How To: Analyze a CM statement with a data table in MS 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 254th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to do contribution margin income statement analysis across various units using a one-variable data table.

How To: Format decimals & fractions as inches in MS 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 235th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to create a custom number format for inches that will allow you to type decimals or fractions and have it formatted as inches.

How To: Force text formulas to wrap with Excel's CHAR function

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 228th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the CHAR (10) function to add hard line returns (forced wrapped text) to a text formula created with the ampersand (&) and concatenation tools.

How To: Summarize survey results with a pivot table in 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 168th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to summarize survey results with a pivot table (PivotTable) or a formula. See how to create a Pivot Table in Excel 2003 or 2007.

How To: Use data forms in Microsoft Excel 2003 or 2007

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 97th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use a data form in both Excel 2003 and 2007 as well as how to add a button to Excel's Quick Access toolbar.

How To: Measure the spread of a data set with Excel's AVEDEV

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 97th installment in their series of digital spreadsheet magic tricks, you'll learn how to use the AVEDEV function to measure the spread (variation) in a data set. Also see the STDEV function and learn how to measure whether a mean represents its data points fairly.