PDF File: Remove Password Protection

Posted on 27/11/2020 by PeteLong

KB ID 0001719

Problem

My daughter had a file that was protected by a password, (it had sensitive personal information in it). She wanted to send this file to someone, but wanted to remove the password protection first.

I thought this would be easy, open it in Acrobat Reader, find the bit that says ‘password protect’ and untick it right? Well to enable that ‘feature’ (called the “protect feature”), you have to pay Adobe?

Tech Rant: I really don’t like Adobe, I don’t like their pay for things monthly, nothing works without you paying for it, we can do whatever we like and you chumps will pay for it attitude. I’ve stopped using Photoshop because now I can only ‘rent it’. Adobe Acrobat needs to update at least once every two days, (which it has since 1985 for some unfathomable reason!)

Solution

Microsoft is our saviour! (There’s a sentence I don’t use that often!) Open the offending file in Microsoft Edge browser. (I’m using a mac, but the process is identical on a Windows machine, (I know because I did it that way first!)

Enter the password.

Print > Change the Printer > Save as PDF > OK > This will save the current file as a PDF file and it wont be password protected!

WARNING: Don’t message me below and ask ‘what if I dont know the password?‘ I’m not here to teach you how to hack into password protected PDF files. Learn to use Google properly.

Stop Edge Hijacking PDF Files

Posted on 26/01/2018 by PeteLong

KB ID 0001395

Problem

This question appeared in my inbox today, ‘Edge’ has a nasty habit of assigning itself the default PDF reader, particularly after a round of updates!

Solution

First I went and had a look at my old Experts Exchange Buddy Ramesh’s site (www.winhelponline.com) who had done the heavy lifting and worked out the registry keys;

Note: I’m only concerned with .pdf files, if you want to block .htm and/or .html files, then just repeat this process using the the REG_SZ values from above;

The solution for a single machine is to create the following two registry string values;

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\AppXd4nrz8ff68srnhf9t5a8sbjyar1cr723
REG_SZ Name = NoOpenWith
REG_SZ Name = NoStaticDefaultVerb

Then set the correct file associate like so;

Which is fine for one machine but what if you have hundreds of complaining users! Then we need to employ some Group Policies. But there’s a few hoops to jump though first. On your client machine, the one you have just tested the procedure on, export your file association to an XML file. Open an administrative command window, and execute the following command;

[box]

Dism /Online /Export-DefaultAppAssociations:C:\Windows\Temp\DefaultApps.xml

[/box]

If you take a look at the a file you will see, (providing you did it right) the Adobe/PDF file association.

Now copy the file to a location all your domain clients can see, in my case I’m going to drop it in the sysvol directory.

Crete a new Group Policy linked to the computers you want to apply the change to, then edit it.

Navigate to;

[box]Computer Configuration > Policies> Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer > Set default associations configuration file >Enable > Put in the path to your .XML file[/box]

Save and exit the, group policy, now create a SECOND POLICY linked to your USERS.

Navigate to;

[box]User Configuration > Preferences > Windows Settings > Registry > New > Registry Item[/box]

Note: Ive already created the registry values on the machine I’m configuring the policy on, (you can export the key and import it on a domain controller to make things easier for you). Close and exit the policy editor.

Then wait, or Force Group Policy.

Dreamweaver – ‘You Need To Install The Legacy Java SE 6 Runtime’

Posted on 28/06/2016 by PeteLong

KB ID 0001213

Problem

I used to use Dreamweaver all the time, it was used to design and build the site and handle all the uploads etc. Since I moved to WordPress I don’t use is as much. But it’s still a great code editor so I still fire it up on occasion. At least I did until this started happening;

To open “dreamweaver” you need to install the legacy Java SE 6 runtime.
Click “More info…” to visit the legacy Java SE 6 download website.

Solution

I’m a bit twitchy about Java, I need to tread a fine line between keeping updated, and still having a version that works with my clients firewalls. The amount of times things have ‘smashed’ because Java has updated for me are numerous. Java can turn a 25 second job into a two hour job.

So the thought of ‘downgrading’ to version 6 was not one I relished. But thankfully, if you avoid the Sun Java site and install the Apple Legacy Java package everything continues to work.

If you’re still having problems, see this article.

Photoshop All the Toolbars Have Disappeared?

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000192

Problem

When using Photoshop you have no toolbars or palettes etc.

No Toolbars – not good

Solution

Annoyingly simple! – Press TAB

As if by magic!

Photoshop – Drawing box’s

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000203

Problem

For the site I do a lot of screen shots / screen dumps for illustration purposes its good to be able to highlight thinks by being able to draw a box around them. Usually I do this with mspaint, but I finally got tired of doing half the tasks in mspaint and the rest in Photoshop, so I worked out how to do it properly.

Solution

1. Assuming you have you graphic already open, create a new Layer.

2. Click the Rectangle Marquee Tool > Then click and drag where you want the box to be.

3. Click Edit > Stroke.

4. You can select the width in pixels of the line and the colour > OK.

Photoshop – Drawing Arrows

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000204

Problem

I wrote a walkthough on drawing box’s earlier, the second thing I tend to do, is put arrows on my diagrams to point things out.

Solution

1. OK, so I’ve got my graphic, and I know something about it thats not obvious at first glance.

2. So I’ll open it with Photoshop and put an arrow on it. Firstly Select the “Line tool”.

3. On the toolbar at the top select the drop down arrow next to the free form tool > And tick the Arrowheads “End” box. Note: for a larger line/arrow width, change the weight from 1px (pixel).

Note: This mas moved in Photoshop CS6.

4. Click and drag on the graphic where you want the arrow to start and stop.

Yes that’s correct this girls nose and mouth are on upside down, did you spot that originally?

Batch Resizing and Batch Renaming Images in Photoshop

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000597

Problem

I have to do this quite a lot, I take a lot of screen-shots for the site, and have to resize them down, (usually to 550 pixels) so that, they fit with the layout. In addition I scale the larger screenshots down to 900 pixels for the images I Hyperlink to. This means I spend a long time in Photoshop messing about with image sizes. The smaller of the two images you see on the site nearly always has the same name, but has an ‘s’ on the end.

So If I can batch resize and batch rename these files I will save myself a LOT of time.

Solution

In Photoshop ,you can record an ‘action” of you resizing an image then ‘Batch process’ that action on a lot of images, but I find that ‘clunky’ and sometimes it simply will not do what I want it to do! So I use Adobe Bridge instead.

Batch Resize Images in Photoshop

1. Open Photoshop and select File > Browse in Bridge.

2. Browse to the location/folder containing your images and select them > Tools > Image Processor.

3. Select a folder to save the altered images to (Note: Even if you select the same location it creates a folder in that location and puts the changed images in that new folder – don’t panic). set the width to your required size, (the height will resize on an image-per-image basis). To start press ‘Run’.

Batch Resize and Rename Images in Photoshop

1. Now I want to create my ‘Thumbnails”, as before open the Image Processor.

2. This time I want my images 550 px wide (Note: For a thumbnail that’s pretty big! But that’s what I use on this site). ‘Run” with those settings.

3. Now MAKE SURE you have your modified images selected, and select Tools > Batch Rename.

4. The first time you see this screen it’s not very intuitive. You can delete and add options as required, keep changing them until the preview shows what you want, and select ‘Rename’.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 – Change the Dark ‘Theme’

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000648

Problem

Either I’m half blind or the default colours in Photoshop CS6 are a bit to dark for me to work with.

Solution

It’s easy to fix, there are four settings.

Windows: Press SHIFT+F2 to ‘lighten’, and SHIFT+F1 to ‘darken’.

MAC: Press SHIFT+FUNCTION+F2 to ‘lighten’, and SHIFT_FUNCTION+F1 to ‘darken’.

Dreamweaver CS6 – Backup and Restore Site Settings

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000672

Problem

If you are like me and struggle to remember settings, passwords etc. Then being able to back up all your website settings in Dreamweaver so you can restore them back again, (after a rebuild on a new PC) can save you some heartache.

Solution

1. On the SOURCE machine, Launch Dreamweaver > Site > Manage Sites > Select the site in question > Select the ‘Export Site’ Icon.

2. Choose whether to export the site login details and passwords > OK.

3. Select where you want to save the settings.

4. From the Same Menu on the TARGET Machine > Import Site.

5. Browse to the .ste file you saved earlier > Open.

Photoshop CS6 Flickers and Images Go Black When Cropping

Posted on 17/11/2015 by Migrated

KB ID 0000747

Problem

I am in the process of moving all my stuff to a new laptop, I installed CS6 and was doing some work when every time I used the cropping tool my images simply went black.

Also, for no reason images I was working on would flicker black as well?

Solution

Turns out it’s just a problem with the graphics drivers on this particular machine and the way Photoshop interacts with the graphics processor. The first step should fix the problem for you, if not carry out the second step.

Step 1

File > Preferences > Performance > Advanced Settings > Change the Drawing mode to ‘Basic’ > OK > OK. Now test again, if the problem is resolved skip the next step.

Step 2

File > Preferences > Performance > Untick ‘Use Graphics Processor’ > OK.

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Batch Resize Images in Photoshop

Batch Resize and Rename Images in Photoshop

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