Using Photoshop generally means using a brush at some point, and not just for painting. Several tools within Photoshop also use a brush – Eraser, Dodge, Burn, etc. Here are some useful shortcuts when using a tool that uses brushes…
Click, let go and shift – click elsewhere in your document and you will get a straight line
Click and hold with your mouse button, then hold the shift key, and then move your mouse – you will be constrained to horizontal/vertical lines
Whilst I love Flash Builder, it is somewhat daunting navigating the large amount of preferences. So, if you wish to change the font, size, and colour of your editing window here is where you go…
Window > Preferences > General > Appearance > Colours & Fonts > Basic > Text Font
For the background colour and stuff like that you go to …
Window > Preferences > General > (and click on the text) Text Editors
At the bottom of the panel you will now Foreground colour, Background colour etc.
I came across this one just recently – if you right-mouse click in your code, and navigate to Compare With > Local History, a History panel pops up.
Listed will be the various versions of your file, and all you have to do is double-click on one of the dates within the list to see that and the current version side-by-side.
What is even nicer is Flash Builder will highlight the areas that are different and also show you project lines between the files indicating where the new/old bits were/are.
Very nice.
Here are some of the plugins that I always install when using Flash Builder. Let me know what you think, and let me know what other plugins you recommend.
quantumDB – (quantum.sourceforge.net) – this will give you access to your MySQL database from within Flash Builder. Very useful to check what is going on and also to check if your SQL commands return what you think.
phpeclipse (www.phpeclipse.com) – this will install a php editor and internal web browser, so you now do all your php editing from within Flash Builder.
Again, here are some useful commands that I use to jump around the plethora of commands and menus etc that Flash Builder has.
Cmd/ctl – shift – T – goes through your codebase history and allows you to select a command/variable etc by typing, and it also allows wildcards and uses camel case, e.g. typing in BA will bring up BitmapAsset, ButtonAsset, ByteArray, etc. Typing in *bu will bring up ButtonAsset, BuildInfo, SimpleButton, etc.
Here are some very useful shortcuts that I personally use. In the past year or so I have decided to use Flash Builder to do most of my Actionscript coding, as a result I keep on finding the need to jump around my class files a lot. Here are a few of my favourite shortcuts when using Flash Builder…
Cmd/Ctl – click on a variable name or function and you will jump you to the definition of that variable or function. This is very useful when you have a lot of code and want to quickly edit a particular variable or function. It will also highlight all instances/calls at the same time.
Working recently on a new Actionscript 3 advanced course I decided to put together a mindmap of the various classes and libraries that I have come across. I have not tested them all, yet! but it is interesting to see what is out there.
If I have missed anything let me now, and I hope everyone finds this useful.
Mindmap as3
Masters within InDesign are very useful – they provide a common background for whichever page(s) you are working with. But here are some not so well known/used tips regarding masters and pages.
1] A master can also have a master
Say you want a master for Chapter 1 – usually a header and footer. But the footer may be fairly general, just Page X say. This would be the same for Chapter 2, 3 etc.
If you setup a master with just that footer, the next time you create a master (Pages panel > options in the top right-hand corner > New master) notice that you have the option of basing the new master on one already created.
If you are looking to test your skills on Adobe’s CS4 range then you might want to take a look at our free skills tests. These are available for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Flash and ActionScript as well as some other subjects and more details can be found here.