Mail Merge to PDF files on Mac

Assuming everything is in place and merge is complete and one needs to save documents as pdf rather printing or sending via mail.

Finish & Merge -> Edit Individual Documents... -> Command+P -> "Save As PDF" from dropdown -> Save

Insert special characters using unicode in Google Spreadsheet

While trying to create IOS & NXOS keyboard shortcuts in quizlet for my students, I realized, it is pretty difficult to insert special characters in spreadsheets.

Solution:
for Google spreadsheet:
Use function "char" and use sub-function hex2dec
Get the unicode from:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_(symbol)


Illustration:
=CHAR(hex2dec("21C6"))

to get

⇄


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode_input#In_Mac_OS
http://wiki.brandoncurtis.com/w/Inserting_Special_Characters_with_Unicode

Google Spreadsheet - Insert Date & Time quickly.

Inserting date & time quickly date & time serves very specific purpose.

1. use =now function to insert date & time.
2. Copy the cell.
3. Go to the target cell or if it is the same cell, press delete to remove the above step - 1 function.
4. Double click in the target cell and get into editing mode.
5. paste only value, keyboard shortcut would be CTRL + SHIFT + V.

Setting up secondary dns using netsh

Recently I had hard time setting up secondary dns using netsh, here is the summary.

To add primary & secondary dns:
netsh interface ip set dns name="name_of_interface" static primary_dns_value
netsh interface ip add dns name="name_of_interface" secondary_dns_value
netsh interface ip show dns

Here you go....

Problem setting default gateway using netsh

netsh is not a tool which I would use on a daily basis, and I tripped on setting default gateway while on a project of video streaming. Hereunder is problem/solution statement.

Problem description:
Windows would not accept the command for setting ip address and would present the cli help for netsh context.

##### CAPTURE #####
C:\>netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" source=static addr=10.0.0.210 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.0.0.1
The syntax supplied for this command is not valid. Check help for the correct syntax.

Usage: set address [name=]
[[source=]dhcp |
[source=] static [addr=]IP address [mask=]IP subnet mask]
[[gateway=]|none [gwmetric=]integer]

Parameters:

Tag Value
name - The name of the interface.
source - One of the following values:
dhcp: Sets DHCP as the source for configuring IP
addresses for the specific interface.
static: Sets the source for configuring IP addresses
to local static configuration.

gateway - One of the following values:
: A specific default gateway for the
static IP address you are setting.
none: No default gateways are set.
gwmetric - The metric for the default gateway. This field should
not be set if gateway is set to 'none'.
The following options are used only if source is 'static':

addr - An IP address for the specified interface.
mask - The subnet mask for the specified IP address.

Remarks: Used to change the IP address configuration mode from either DHCP to
static mode or static mode to DHCP. Adds IP addresses on an
interface with static IP address or adds default gateways.

Examples:

set address name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp
set address local static 10.0.0.9 255.0.0.0 10.0.0.1 1

C:\>
##########

Solution :
You can't add gateway without a metric.
netsh interface ip set address name="Local Area Connection" source=static addr=10.0.0.210 mask=255.255.255.0 gateway=10.0.0.1 gwmetric=10

Hence, adding gwmetric with value resolved the issue.

Codec issue with some CBT's, video or audio or both would not play

Have received mails regarding issue in running CBT material from our group members.

Problem Description :
Symptom: either video or audio or both will not work.
Error message: on video panel you might receive something similar:
# video not available, cannot find vids:divx decompressor #
product: Learnkey training.
OS: winXP Sp2

Information :

When OS plays a sound or video, it uses CODEC which would compress & decompress the audio or video file to play. If this compression algo is not installed, you would receive such errors.
Now the call of action is to download the specific codec, or download a package of common codecs and get running. I prefer K-lite codec pack, does the job, and it's neat.

In order to find out whether the codec is present or not in XP, do the following:
control panel >system>hardware>device manager>sound,video and game controllers>video codecs>properties>properties

Action :
1. Download K-lite full pack from here: http://www.free-codecs.com/
2. Locate k-lite Codec Pack on the left and follow the link to get the codec, "current & full version", Current is K-Lite Codec Pack 4.4.5 full, the file would be klcodec445f.exe.
3. Install with default settings.

References :
http://www.codecguide.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec

This worked for me.. I am no expert on codecs.. if this does not work, mail me or google it..

DISCLAIMER #
Above document and suggestions are for students. Do not use it in production environment. Author is not liable for any loss pertaining to the suggestion or recommendation in the article. Use the “information/product” at your own risk.