Menu items are unavailable

If you click to display menus in your browser or any other programme, you will probably see that some menu items (choices) are greyed out or dim. This means that the choice is not available to you at that time.

For example, when the Open Directory Project web page is first displayed, the first item that I can choose from the Browser Edit menu is Select All. Greyed out are the Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete menu items.

When I click in the Search field and type in a search term or keyword, the Edit menu shows that I can choose Undo. That is, I can undo what I have typed in the Search field.

Note: Some applications or programmes hide the menu items rather than make them grey or dim.

Justified or ragged?

In order to read text comfortably, you must be able to find the beginning of each consecutive line quickly and easily over and over again. The English language is read left to right. Your word processor or editor will often be set so that the left edge of each line is aligned with the left margin.

If the copy is centred, or is aligned on the right only, the reader has to search to find the beginning of each line.

Therefore, if preparing long columns of text, justified, or aligned left with ragged right are the only two prudent choices.

If your text columns are narrow, justified text can be difficult to read because the lines often become noticeably letter-spaced and have excessive wordspacing leaving rivers of white space within the text, and making some paragraphs look darker than others. When using narrow column widths, it’s better to set your columns aligned on the left and ragged right.

Sending an email to many people

If you wish to send an email message to multiple email addresses, then you need a way to address the email. For example, you may be emailing to and fro with a colleague, and wish to include another person in the conversation. Or, you may wish to send your travel plans or party invitations to all your friends and family at the same time.

In the To: field of your email programme, you can enter as many email addresses as you like by separating them with commas.

In Thunderbird (the email programme that I am currently using), you can press ‘Enter’ on your keyboard to give you another space or field to type in another email address.

Depending on the purpose of your email message, you may wish to use the Cc: (courtesy copy) or Bcc: (blind courtesy copy) email address fields.

Think of Cc: as the carbon copy or courtesy copy that you provide to others for their information, rather than their action. The person that you addressed in the To: field is the main recipient.

For privacy, you may use the blind courtesy copy. This way, none of the people who you send the email to will see the other addresses added in the Bcc: field; only their own and the person you addressed the email in the To: field. This is the polite way to do things so you don’t disclose people’s email addresses without their permission.

Make the To: field your own email address if you do not wish any of the Bcc: recipients to see any email addresses except yours and their own. Note: You will get a confirmation copy back yourself, of course, because you listed your own address in the To: field.

The same way you listed many addresses in the To: field, you can list them in the Cc: and Bcc: fields.

If you will be sending the same email message to a group of people, you may wish to set up their email addresses in an address book.

Stitching pictures together

There are many specialised tools available to stitch, mosaic, or create a panorama. But if you just want to create a simple banner for your web site or blog, then you may be able to use your favourite graphics or image manipulation programme.

The following steps are how I created a banner for a web site using images from BurningWell.org and the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP).

Create a new background canvas the final size of the banner that you want for your blog or web site. For this example, I chose the “Web banner common 468 x 60″ listed in the template drop-down list. The Create a New Image dialogue allows you to change the dimensions, so I changed the height from 60 pixels to 80 pixels.

Collate the images that you wish to use to create your banner. For example, I downloaded the thumbnails of four images of circus performers from BurningWell.org.

Add the images to your canvas. I aligned my file manager window alongside the GIMP canvas window and dragged the images onto the canvas roughly in the order that I wanted them.

Position the images as you wish. For example, I needed to move the images so that the person or action was centered in the banner.

Most graphics programmes will add new images into what is called a layer. Think of the images as printed photographs that you are spreading out on the table in front of you. You can choose to butt them up hard against each other or overlap them.

To change which image is on top of another, you will need to locate the dialogue or view function that allows you to manipulate the order of the stack of images.

I filled in the gaps by adding the image that has a black background and added it to either side to complete the banner.