The Heat Web » How-To

10 Tips For Dealing With Corrupt Files

Christian — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:29:10 +0000

This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, just drop me a message using the Contact page.

Files get corrupted for a variety of reasons. The hard drive might be failing, the computer was interrupted mid-write, or a virus may actively be corrupting your data. No matter what the cause, having a plan in place for corruption is essential. Here are ten possible solutions to correct corrupted files.

1. Make sure that the file is corrupt – Sometimes your file won’t open or print because of security settings. Sometimes it won’t open because the wrong program was chosen to open it. Make sure that the file is indeed corrupted before taking measures to correct the corruption that has been caused.

2. See if the TMP file is available – MS Office and several other applications will create a temporary copy of your file while you are working on it. If your documents get corrupted because of the program crashing or a power outage, you can recover them by searching for the TMP file that has been created.

3. Use a different program – Occasionally, files just don’t want to work in the program that you are working with. Take the file and attempt to open it in an application that is compatible with the original one. For example, open up your MS Word file in Google Docs or Open Office Writer.

4. Internal recovery – Office has an internal recovery program that you can use to force your application to repair the files that have been corrupted. Choose the file and select open and repair to make an attempt at recovery.

5. Move the file to a different place – Sometimes the foundation of the file is bad, rather than the file itself. Move it to another place on the hard drive or try opening it from an external hard drive. If you are able to work with the file, use ‘save as’ immediately and save another copy of it.

6. Convert to text – Try converting your file to text. This will remove nearly all of the formatting, but it will get most of the file back. With some of the text recovered, you can recreate the formatting that you have lost.

7. Use CHKDSK – CHKDSK comes with every standard application of Windows. It will check your disk and attempt to recover any errors that are on that disk. When you find that your file is corrupted, run the CHKDSK utility and then try to open it once more.

8. Check your email – Check your sent folder if you have been emailing this file to friends or clients. You may be forced to work with an older version of the file, but it has nearly all of the formatting and information that you desire.

9. Export your files – Try exporting your file to another file format. If your Word file is corrupted, try opening it to export it as an Excel file. If you have PDF files that you are concerned about, see if you have any files in the original format.

10. Third party disk recovery – There are several third party data recovery applications on the market today. You can also send your hard drive to a recovery service, where they will charge you based on the difficulty of your request.

One of the best ways to recover from data corruption is to have a backup of the files on hand. Data corruption becomes a mere roadbump rather than a tragedy. File corruption is aggravating, but it can be overcome with planning.

Also see: Document Corrupter – Give Yourself More Time To Finish Your Projects

About the author: During his time at an online supplier of ink cartridges, James has covered developments in hardware and design as well as analysing the latest in the world of technology, design and hardware such as the HP 300XL.

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: correct, corrupt, document, fix, How-To

How To Block Your Adsense Ads From Your Own PC

Christian — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:14:02 +0000

Google Adsense is probably the best way to monetize a blog. Almost all the blogs that I’ve seen have it expect for others who have been banned from Adsense. Most of the bloggers know that Google is very strict, once you accidentally click your own ad, you should start praying because anytime, you can receive an email from them telling you that your account has been disabled due to fraudulent click. Some bloggers have been lucky because they got another chance but there are also some who didn’t get a positive reply from Google.

If you do not want your account to get banned in Google Adsense, here are some easy ways that you can do to block your own ads from your PC to prevent accidental clicks and invalid impressions.

1. Install Adblock (or anything similar)

Adblock is a very famous browser add-on that can hide not just your own ads, but all the ads that you can see on the web.

Download Adblock for Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari

Download Adsweep for Opera

Download Simple Adblock for Interner Explorer

2. Turn off your Javascript

Adsense ads are displayed using Javascript so if you don’t want to see them, then just turn off the Javascript when you visit your website.

I’ll show you how to do it in Firefox:

Just go to Tools menu –> Options –> Content tab –> uncheck Enable JavaScript.

3. Edit your hosts file

This is a very simple yet effective trick. Just look for the hosts file using this path: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\. Once you found the file, open it with notepad.

Insert these two lines at the bottom of the file.

127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1 pagead2.googlesyndication.com

Other tips that you must remember:

1. NEVER click your own ads. If you ACIDENTALLY click your own ad, don’t panic. Send an email to Adsense (adsense-support@google.com) and tell them what happened. For more information, read this great post.

2. DO NOT tell your friends and family about these ads because instead of helping you, they might over-clicked the ads which can ban your account.

3. Most importantly, familiarize yourself with the Google Adsense Program Policy.

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: accidental clicks, addon, Adsense, ban, Firefox, Google

How To Add Custom Background Image On Google Homepage

Christian — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:51:04 +0000

Google is known for its simplicity that’s why many people love it. However, if you want to add spice to Google homepage, you can now add a background image so it will look more interesting just like in Bing where you can see amazing background pictures. But unlike Bing, Google lets you add a custom background image from your Picasa Web album, public gallery, or from your own hard drive!

Sign in to your Google account and go to Google homepage. Look for “Change background image” located at the bottom-left side. Select a background image from your computer, Picasa Web photos, public gallery, or Editor’s pick.

NOTE: Currently, this feature is available for Google.com only.

Once you’ve chosen your image, click Select. It may take a moment before your new Google homepage background appears.

* When you upload a photo, it is saved as a photo in a new unlisted album in your Picasa Web albums.

You can easily remove the image by click “Remove background image” located at the bottom-left side.

(via QuickOnlineTips)

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: background image, Google, homepage

How To Check Your Facebook News Feeds Directly From Yahoo! Mail

Christian — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 05:01:27 +0000

Good news to all Yahoo! Mail and Facebook users because you can now see Facebook news feeds directly from your Y!Mail. Now, even if Facebook is blocked in your office or school, you can still be updated with your Facebook buddies by just checking your email!

Before, we can only update our Facebook status from Y!Mail, but now, Yahoo! has taken us to the next level!

How to see Facebook updates from Y!Mail:

1. Link your Facebook and Y!Mail account. To do this, read this post.

2. After you link the two accounts, you can now see Facebook updates directly from your Y!Mail. You can then comment or like a post.

To know more about Yahoo! updates, check this out!

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: Facebook, news feeds, updates, Yahoo Mail

How To Select All Your Facebook Friends In Just One-click

Christian — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:54:42 +0000

If you’re planning to create an event in Facebook and you want to invite all your 1,000+ friends, it’s really time-consuming and very tiring if you’re going to click each of them. Since Facebook doesn’t have “select all friends” feature, Plumbo decided to create a javascript that will let us select all Facebook friends in just one-click!

Here’s the javascript:

javascript:elms=document.getElementById('friends').getElementsByTagName('li');for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === 'object'){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}

How to use the javascript:

1. Login to your Facebook account.

2. Try to create an event. Click “Who’s Invited?” and click Browse.

3. Your friends list will appear. To select all of them, copy-paste the javascript to your address bar and hit Enter.

4. Now, all your friends will be selected instantly!

You can also drag and drop the bookmarklet below to your bookmarks toolbar so the next time you would like to invite all your friends, just click the bookmarklet.

NOTE: You can also use the javascript to suggest a Facebook page to all your friends.

I’m sure most of you will find this script very useful and it will definitely save you hours of tedious work.

(via Plumbo)

Also see:

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: bookmarklet, Facebook, friends, javascript, one-click, select all

How To Add Drop Shadow Effect In All The Sides Of Screenshots Using Snagit

Christian — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:49:21 +0000

I’m a big fan of Snagit and for me, it’s the best screen capture tool that I’ve ever tried. It has a lot of features and offers different capture modes. It can also add effects to your screenshots like fade edge, drop shadow, torn edge, and many more. However, there are some people who are complaining (including me) because when we use the drop shadow effect, it only applies in two sides of the screenshot. There’s no option to apply drop shadow effect in all the sides.

Here’s an example:

WinSnap is another screen capture tool that can also add effects in screenshots like drop shadow, reflection, and more. What’s good about this software is that when you use drop shadow, all the sides will have a shadow effect unlike in Snagit.

Here’s an example:

If you already have Snagit installed on your PC, it’s not recommended to buy WinSnap (worth $24.90) just to add drop shadow effect in all the sides of your screenshot. I can show you a very simple trick on how to add entire drop shadow effect in your screenshots using Snagit. Check this out!

1. Launch Snagit and choose a capture mode. Under Profile Settings, click Effects –> Edge Effects –> Drop Shadow Edge.

2. In Shadow Color, choose dark gray (R:128, G:128 B:128). In Shadow depth (pixels), choose 25.

3. Make a screenshot. In Snagit Editor, go to Image tab. Choose Effects –> Shadows –> More Shadows. Change the Shadow depth to 25 and Shadow color to dark gray (R:128, G:128 B:128). Change the position. Click OK.

4. Repeat step 3 until you finish adding shadow in all the sides/positions. You’re done!

Here’s the result:

Now you don’t have to edit your screenshots in Photoshop or use other screen capture tools like WinSnap just to add drop shadow effect in all the sides of your screenshots!

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: drop shadow, edge, How-To, screen capture tool, screenshot, Snagit

How To Customize Windows Boot Screen With TuneUp Utilities

Christian — Fri, 28 May 2010 04:20:34 +0000

TuneUp Utilities is not just a good system optimizer and registry cleaner; you can also use it customize the appearance of your Windows PC. Today I’m going to show you how you can customize or create a new Windows XP/Vista boot screen by using TuneUp Utilities.

* If you don’t have TuneUp Utilities installed on your PC, you can download a free trial here. The free trial comes with all the functions of the full version and you can use it up to 30 days.

How to change Windows Boot Screen:

NOTE: You can find a lot of cool boot screens from different websites like DevianArt, Customize.org, and more.

1. Go to Start –> All Programs –> TuneUp Utilities –> All Functions –> TuneUp Styler.

2. Under Select a task, choose “Change the Windows boot screen, and create or download new boot screens”.

3. If you want to use a boot screen that you downloaded, click Add and choose Load boot screen from a file.

* You can also download boot screens from TuneUp website for free! Just click “Download Boot Screens from TuneUp Online”.

4. Locate the boot screen and once you find the file, click Open.

5. Click Apply.

How to create a new boot screen:

1. Open TuneUp Styler and choose “Change the Windows boot screen, and create or download new boot screens”.

2. Click Create new.

3. If you want to choose your own image, click Open image. You can also capture pictures from camera or scanner or find images with Google.

4. Customize the image appearance and the progress bar based on your preferences.

5. When you’re satisfied click Save boot screen.

You’re done!

If you decide to reset the boot screen back to the Windows default, click Restore Defaults.

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: boot screen, customize, How-To, tune-up, Windows

How To Add Twitter Feeds To Your Facebook Fan Page

Christian — Sun, 23 May 2010 06:47:07 +0000

Facebook fan page is a great way to promote your website/product and to keep in touch with your guests. There are a lot of ways that you can do to optimize your fan page and one of them is by adding your Twitter feeds directly to your fan page.

Check out these Facebook applications that let you integrate your Twitter feeds to your official Facebook fan page:

1. TwitterTab

TwitterTab has a very simple purpose — to let you include your Twitter Updates Tab within your Facebook Profile and Fan Pages.

This application is very nice because your guests can see not only your tweets but also your retweets, photos, and more!

To see its live demo, click here.

Add TwitterTab to your Fan Page

2. Involver

If you want a simple application that lets you integrate your Twitter account to your fan page, this one is for you. The refresh rate is every 3 hours and the maximum tweets shown is up to 5 tweets only. However, you can upgrade to PRO version to get faster refresh times and other benefits.

To see its live demo, click here.

Add Involver (Twitter app) to your Fan Page

3. Tweetpad

This has a “live update” feature that you can turn on to see what’s happening right now.

To see its live demo, click here.

Add Tweetpad to your Fan Page

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: applications, Facebook, Fan Page, feed, How-To, Twitter

How To Auto-Tweet Your Newly Published Posts Using FeedBurner Socialize

Christian — Mon, 17 May 2010 03:58:08 +0000

There are bunch of ways to tweet your newly published posts. You can tweet it manually or automatically by installing some plugins. However, if you’re using Google FeedBurner, you can use it to auto-tweet your newly published posts without installing any plugins, etc. Check this out!

The FeedBurner Socialize service makes it easy to distribute your content to interested subscribers or followers on social networks using any FeedBurner feed you already have. The Socialize service currently supports distribution on Twitter.

How to setup FeedBurner Socialize to automatically post updates from your feed to your Twitter account:

1. Login to your FeedBurner account.

2. Click your feed name.

3. Go to Publicize tab.

4. Under Services, click Socialize.

5. Click “Add a Twitter account”.

6. Login to your account and authorize FeedBurner to update your Twitter status.

7. It’s time to format your feed for Twitter.

NOTE:

The formatting must fit within the 140 character limit imposed by Twitter. If the options you choose create messages longer than 140 characters, FeedBurner will automatically truncate your messages into 140 character tweets.

* If you choose to include a link to the feed item, it will automatically be shortened using Google shortener (goo.gl).

8. You can preview how your tweets will look in your feed as you change Socialize options.

9. When you’re done, click Activate.

Check your Twitter account the next time you publish a new post.

Now, you don’t have to worry about “tweeting” your blog posts because FeedBurner Socialize will do it for you!

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: blog, FeedBurner, Google, socialize, tweet, Twitter, update status

How To Add Chat Room In Your Facebook Fan Page Or Your Profile

Christian — Tue, 04 May 2010 04:18:56 +0000

One of the most unique features of Facebook is its chat box. It allows its users to easily communicate with their other friends but this feature is only available in their profile and does not exist in Facebook Pages. However, if you want to have your own chat room in your Fan Page, you can install Clobby.

Clobby is an application that lets you add chat room in your Facebook Fan Page or even in your Profile for free! It will install a new tab called “Chat” where your fans and other users can easily communicate with each other.

How to add Clobby in your Facebook Fan Page:

1. Login to your Facebook account and go to http://clobby.com/setup. Click Fan Page.

2. You’ll be shown an instruction on how to add the chat room in your Fan Page. Click Get Started.

3. Select your page from the drop down menu and click Add Clobby. You’ll be transferred to your Fan Page.

4. Click the “+” symbol in the tabs and click “Chat”.

You’re done! You now have chat room in your Facebook Fan Page!

How to add Clobby in your Facebook Profile:

1. Go to http://clobby.com/setup_profile and follow the simple instructions.

Image Credit: Clobby

© 2010, The content is copyrighted to The Heat Web blog by Christian Casino. Please refer to the license before using our content.
Permalink | Post tags: chat, Facebook, Fan Page, profile

The Heat Web » How-To

10 Tips For Dealing With Corrupt Files

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How To Add Drop Shadow Effect In All The Sides Of Screenshots Using Snagit

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How To Customize Windows Boot Screen With TuneUp Utilities

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How To Add Twitter Feeds To Your Facebook Fan Page

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How To Auto-Tweet Your Newly Published Posts Using FeedBurner Socialize

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How To Add Chat Room In Your Facebook Fan Page Or Your Profile

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