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Computer Help, Hints and Links This is not intended to be a fix-all source for computer problems but rather a source of help for machine embroidery users. If you are computer challenged already, you don't need to be further challenged by computer techie lingo, so answers will be as simple as possible. If you cannot find the answer for your problem in the hints below, email George. Always remember and never forget..... "The only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked."
Hint #1 - File Type Association File type association means that Explorer or other programs associates a file type (file extensions such as .pes, .pec, .pem) with the application program used to open that file. For example, the application program for .pes is paledit.exe for BabyLock Palette 1 thru 4 and embedit.exe for Palette 5 and 6. Open Explorer, click on View, Options, Show All, uncheck "Hide MS-DOS file.....", and select File Type. Type PES or scroll to PES Files and select it, click on Edit, open, Edit, Browse. Drill through the drives and folders until you find the application program used to open .pes files (for Palette it's paledit.exe or embedit.exe and should be located in C:\Program Files\Babylock\palette Ver #). Back your way out of Options by clicking OK. While still in Explorer find a .pes file and double click it. If you did it right, Layout & Edit launches and opens the design file.
Hint #2 - File Association (Short Method) Using Explorer find the type file you wish to change. Click once on the file, hold down the shift key, right click the file, and select " Open with..." The Open with dialog box will open. Using Browse, find the program you wish to associate/open the file with, click once, click the "Always use......" box, click OK. The new or changed association is in effect. Wasn't that simple? If you can't find the PES file extension in the list, click on Browse and drill your way to paledit.exe, embedit.exe, etc..
Hint #3 - Backing Up Designs and Documents Backing up designs and documents is a must because hard drives do fail. Its simple to back up you data but there are a couple of things you can do to make it even easier. First, keep all you data documents in the Window's My Document folder. Keep all your designs and related files in a single folder, i.e. C:\My Designs, Designer's Gallery, etc. Of course, you'll have all your category folders inside your design folder. See Hint #5 below for hints on getting your designs organized. When it's time to back up, at least once a month, all you have to do is back up your documents folder, My Documents, and your designs folder, My Designs (or whatever name you give it). There are a number of back up methods and medium but I'll cover only two. CD/DVD Burner: Nearly all new computers, desktops and laptops, come with a CD burner and perhaps a DVD burner. This is a very handy and quick way to save your backups, following the instructions/software that comes with your burner. If you are using Windows XP you can use Explorer and simply drag the folders to the CD burner and then burn the CD. The draw back to using CDs is that as your design collection grows you may have to burn several CDs to back up all your designs, unless you have a DVD burner. In that case you can save near 5Gig of designs. External Hard Drive: External hard drive is my favorite and recommended way to back up your data. External USB hard drives are very inexpensive, available from $70 to $200. I found a 40GB at Wal Mart for $69! Using an external hard drive you simply drag your target folders to the external drive. On the external drive create a new folder and name it the current date, i.e. 10 Oct 2004. Each time you back up your data, rename the dated folder to the current date so you'll know when you last backed up.
Hint #4 - Controlling Browser Download Location Have you lost the ability to tell your browser where to download a file and what to do with it? This will fix that. First, create a new folder, i.e. C:\Downloads. Now go surfing. Surf to a web site that has a graphic picture or embroidery design you want. If its a picture, Right click on the picture and select, Save picture As. If its a design select, Save Target As. You'll be asked for the location and filename to save. In the Save As window, drill through the drives and folders until you find C:\Downloads and open it. Click Save. This location will be the default for all future downloads until you change the location.
Hint #5 - Organizing, Managing and Using Embroidery Designs The
following are “George’s” rules for organizing, managing and using
your designs. They will make it “fall off a log” simple.
Rule #1: Create a
top-level designs folder on your C: drive to file all of your designs in.
This folder could be named, "EmbDesigns."
Next, create a system of folders (named by design categories) inside the
"EmbDesigns" folder.
Categories could be Animals, Alphabets, Bugs, Cartoons,
Holidays, Transportations, Sports, etc.. Within each category
you may need sub-categories. For example, under Holidays
you’ll probably want sub-categories like Birthdays, Valentines,
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. The category and
sub-category folder names have to make sense to you, the way you store and
search for your
designs. Try not to put more
than a thousand designs in a sub-category folder.
If you have two thousand Christmas designs, make two Christmas
sub-folders, like Christmas1, Christmas2 or
Santas, Ornaments.
Also, do not put designs in "EmbDesigns"
folder or the category folders. Put them in the
sub-category folders. Not
only does this method make it easy for you to
find designs, but when it’s time to backup your design
collection, all
your designs are in one spot, C:\EmbDesigns. Your
file structure in Windows Explorer could look something like the following:
Rule #2:
Keep a working copy of your designs on your hard drive sorted into
category and sub-category folders. Use floppies, CDs, ZIP disks, external
hard drives, etc. for backup and long-term storage only.
That’s right; keep all those downloaded designs, designs
purchased on cards, disks and CD on your hard drive where they are easily
found. This won’t eat up your hard drive space or slow down your
computer. One thousand designs will only take about 50Mb of space.
Rule #3: Purchase an embroidery
design management program to help you organize and manage your design
collection. You'll need one that offers thumbnail pictures of the
designs. There are a number of excellent programs such as, Baby Lock Designer’s Gallery
Studio or BuzzXplorer. In either case, do not
use the Catalog function. Stick to the Browse mode. Even Palette/PE Design 6
& 7 has a management
module now. Then make the program your home base or starting point anytime
you are sorting, managing, searching for, or otherwise using designs.
It won’t take long before you’ll be lost without one of
these programs. Rule #4: No need to unzip downloaded designs with a management program listed in Rule #3. All you have to do is drag the design you want from your download/temporary location into the proper design sub-category folder. A usable unzipped copy will be placed there. Once all the designs have been copied to their proper category folders, empty the download/temporary location of the zipped files. If you are using Palette/PE-Design database manager you will have to unzip the designs before it will read them. For this you can use your XP Windows Explorer or an unzip utility like Winzip. Rule #5: Here are some folders to create that will help you organize and manage files. Create them at the C: drive root level: C:/Downloads. Use this folder to download all Internet stuff, designs, program updates, etc.. And use it as the temporary holding place when installing purchased designs. Once in the Downloads folder, you can drag and drop designs to the appropriate category folders in "EmbDesigns." C:/Artwork.
Keep all your embroidery artwork, clipart, photos, etc. handy in
this top-level folder. C:/EmbDesigns/Workspace. Use a workspace folder to place designs that you plan to merge or otherwise work on in you editing or digitizing program. When you "Open" or "Import" designs to edit or merge you only have to look in one folder, Workspace. Rule #6: Back Up!! At least once a month backup your design collection. If you keep it organized per the rules above, all you have to do is backup one folder, "EmbDesigns." Simply copy the folder to your backup media, CD, DVD, etc.. Of course you'll want to back up your ProgramUpdates folder and your My Documents folder at the same time.
Hint #6 - Reserved
Hint #7 - Print Screen Key Captures Screen In Windows the Print Screen key captures the screen image and puts it on the clipboard. To use the clipboard image, open any word processor or graphics program and "paste" the image. From there you can print it, save it, incorporate it into a document or whatever you need. This is an excellent way of capturing the true colors of those nasty Tajima designs. While the design image is on the screen, hit the Print Screen, paste to Paint Shop Pro (or whatever you use), crop the design image, Save As and print for later use. No special programs are needed to capture the screen.
Hint #8 - Windows Keyboard Shortcuts The following hint was submitted by Kathleen in Seattle where retirement is great. To use the shortcuts hold the Windows Key on your keyboard (key with flag on it) and press the letter key.
Thanks Kathleen.
Hint #9 - Universal Serial Buss (USB) Ports Rather than offer a lengthy description of USB ports, I recommend you do a search on the subject in Google, YAHOO, or your favorite search engine. Search for USB, you'll find all you need to know there. In short, USB is the wave of the future for external devices, printer, modems, mouses, monitors, and the list goes on and on. USB gives you the ability to chain up to 127 devices. The point of this hint is to make you aware of USB and it's capabilities. If you are shopping for a new computer look for USB ports. If you have USB ports, look for devices that use USB interfaces. USB is a must for laptops! Since few manufacturers of device see fit to add a pass-through you may need to purchase a USB Hub to increase the number of ports available. Be sure to select a quality hub that can be powered or non-powered. If its powered there will be an A/C power adapter that will supply full 500ma to each port. Non-powered hubs will use your computer's power supply and provided only 100ma to each port. Check the power requirements of your USB devices to see which hub you need to use. Mice, security devices (like for Origins) Palette/PEDesign 5/6 card boxes, etc. will work fine on non-powered hubs. External floppy drives, external hard drives, external CDs, etc. will required a powered hub. When you absolutely must have a serial/comm port, like for the Palette/PEDesign V1-V4 card reader box, and you don't have a port available, you can use a Belkin USB to Serial adapter. It works great.
Hint #10 - Managing True Type Fonts A feature of Brother/Babylock software is the ability to use Windows True Type Fonts along with the built in fonts. However, Windows has a limit on the number of fonts that can be installed, a little over 1000 fonts, so don't run out to the computer store or Internet and grab 2000 new fonts and expect to install and use them all. Storing New Fonts. Create a new folder, i.e. C:\SpareFonts, and store your new font files there until they are needed. Do not put them in the Windows/Font folder. Installing New Fonts. When you need to installed a font in Windows 98/2000 go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Fonts, File, Install new and log to your spare font folder. Be sure the "copy" box is checked. For Windows ME or XP, use Explorer and simply copy the font file you want from the spare fonts folder and paste into the Windows/Fonts folder. It will be automatically installed. To remove fonts from Windows 98/2000 use Control Panel, Fonts and uninstall it. In Windows ME or XP, using Explorer, right click the font and "cut" it. Using Temporary Fonts. A great feature of Windows 98, 2000, ME and XP is that you can open fonts temporarily for use by application programs without installing them. For example, if you have a font you want to use in Palette, open Explorer, find the location of the font, i.e. C:\sparefonts, double click it and Window's Viewer will open the font. Minimize the viewer, open Palette and you'll find the font in the fonts list. When you are finished, close the viewer and the font closes. Viewing Fonts. There are a number of font management programs available, most at very reasonable prices. I use a program called FontXplorer, downloaded from TUCOWs that's only $20. With FontXplorer I can view all my fonts, the fonts installed and not installed, and I can install or remove fonts from Windows. I use the program to find the font in my spare font folder that I want to use in Palette or Origins, close FontXplorer and open the font with Windows Explorer/Viewer.
Hint #11 - Add a Firewall to Increase Security This hint is intended for those that use cable/DSL connection to the Internet and those with modems that spend long periods of time connected through their Internet Service Provider. Anytime you are connected to the Internet you are vulnerable to attack by hackers. Yes, they're out there looking for you, just for fun. Ways to Firewall Your Computer: 1. Firewall Software. There are programs ranging from the free ZoneAlarm (http://www.zonelabs.com) to commercial program from Norton and McAfee. All of these are excellent. Most software firewalls control incoming and outgoing Internet traffic. I use Norton Internet Security. 2. Window's Firewall. If you are using Windows XP Home/Professional, up date to Service Pack 2 and use the free firewall that's included. Its also free and works good. This firewall works only for incoming traffic but does not block your computer from trying to send information out, like spyware. 3. Hardware Firewall. The next method is to use hardware. If you are connecting to the Internet via a cable/DSL modem you can install a "router" between your computer and modem. Most good routers contain a hardware type firewall. With a router you can also set up your home network so all your computers can share a single Internet connection. And wireless routers are an excellent choice. Don't forget to keep you anti-virus software up to date....
Hint #12 - Reserved
Copyright, 1997 - 2005 by George Pope
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