How to set up Tweetbot iCloud sync across iOS and OS X

Tapbots recently released their much anticipated v.2 update for their Mac OS X Yosemite version of their Twitter client, Tweetbot. One of the most touted features is the ability to sync timeline position across devices using iCloud. However, a quick Google search reveals that many people are experiencing issues with getting iCloud sync to work. Some of the more detailed guides I came across are:

How To Get Tweetbot to Sync to iCloud on iPhone (Fix) via Apptactics

Tweetbot and that f*cking iCloud sync via Coupaman's New Digs

Unfortunately, neither of the above guides solved my iCloud timeline sync issues. In the end, the thing that fixed the problem was signing out of iCloud on my iPhone and then signing back in.

Steps:

1. In iOS, tap Settings, then iCloud.

2. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Sign Out, and then confirm when prompted.

3. Sign back in to iCloud.

That's what did it for me. I hope that this is helpful for those who are experiencing similar issues.

How to fix the no sound issue on a MacBook

I have been experiencing some sound output issues on my MacBook Air recently, and a quick Google search revealed that many people have been experiencing the same problem. Here is a short description of the the problem and my solution.

What's the problem?
I like to use ear phones with my MacBook. The sound works fine when I first boot up, however, if I am away from the computer and it goes to sleep (e.g., during lunch), the volume icon is greyed out when I wake the computer. The sound does not work and I cannot adjust the volume. Very annoying.

Troubleshooting
Sound is affected on a system-wide level. This is not restricted to a single app. Rebooting the computer resolves the issue, but this is not something I want to be doing all the time. Other users recommend flushing PRAM and doing all sorts of weird things in the Terminal that I don't want to be part of my regular workflow. Ideally, I'd like to do something once that fixes the problem for good.

The solution
When the volume icon is greyed out, click System Preferences | Sound | Output and select Headphone port as your device for sound output. That's it.

And there you have it. A simple solution to a persistent and complex problem.

How to disable Protected View and Enable Editing button in Office 2010

A very annoying feature in Office 2010 is the requirement to click Enable Editing when documents are opened in Protected View from 'untrusted sources'. It raises so many false alarms that it is ignored by most users and therefore fails to achieve the very thing that it was designed to do, namely security. Here is how to turn it off:

Click File | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings... | Protected View, which will bring you to this

click for larger view

Uncheck Enable Protected View for files originating from the Internet, and then click OK.

You will have to do this in Word, then again in Excel etc. to get it to work in each Office app.

Disable the built in Firefox and Chrome PDF viewer

Sometimes browsers try to be too smart. In-browser PDF previews might work for some, but other users require the power and functionality of a dedicated PDF application, such as Acrobat. It is possible to disable  the built in PDF viewers of browsers, you just have to know how:

In Firfeox, type about:config into the location bar. When prompted, press the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button. Search for pdfjs.disabled and set the value to true by clicking on it.

In Chrome, type chrome://plugins/ into the location bar. Disable the Chrome PDF Viewer and  it will become greyed out.

iPad keeps disconnecting from wireless network

I bought an iPad a couple of months ago before traveling all over the US. I must say that I love it. It is so light and convenient and the battery lasts for ever. I had read that some iPad owners were experiencing wireless network dropouts continuously. Having stayed in a number of hotels on my trip, as well as friends' homes, and even having visited several Starbucks, I hadn't experienced any major issues, so I didn't worry about it.

Upon my return to Australia, I configured the iPad to work with my home wireless network and I started noticing the wireless dropout issues that I had read about. This became very annoying very quickly. So, I started scouring the internet for a solution. As I trawled through forum after forum, I came across many different stories and problems, and quite a bit hate. Posts such as, "I can't believe that Apple put out such a piece of crap...", but having used the iPad for over a month on the road with virtually no issues at all, I refused to believe that the fault lied with the hardware - it had to be something to do with the network.

After many hours searching, I finally arrived at a solution. I have tried and tested it and it works. The reason why some people have been experiencing connection problems with their iPads while others have not is because of different wireless network setups. Specifically, the problem lies in the type of wireless security. My network was set up to use WEP security. It was under this setting that I experienced the dropouts. By simply changing the security setting to WPA2, my iPad dropout issues have been resolved. It really is that simple.

Import high quality, high resolution images and figures (charts) into Word

A few weeks ago, Chris Davis gave an excellent MMM on producing high quality tables and figures. Most journals ask you to provide the figures and tables as separate files. They have professional page-layout people that take care of this stuff. However, students creating a PhD thesis (or a Masters thesis for that matter) have to tackle this problem on their own.

So what's the problem? Well, by default, Word downsamples (compresses) images that you paste into your documents. It does this to keep the filesize of your .doc file as small as possible. This is because once upon a time people used 1.44 MB floppy disks to transport their files. Amazingly, there are still people alive that want to compress their images in Word (more than the default).

Thankfully, there is way to insert beautiful, crisp images into Word. Click on the Tools menu, and select Options. Once the Options box appears, click the General tab and then the Web options button. In the Web options box, click the Pictures tab. Change the Pixels per inch value from the default (72) to 300 (or whatever your requirements are).

A word of warning: After having set this value, do not assume that it will stay there. This value resets to 72 dpi unpredictably and without warning. My advice is to check this setting before inserting an imporant image or figure. Don't worry about it changing without you knowing. If it reverts to 72 dpi, when you insert an image it will look awful, which should make alarm bells ring.

Set up your laptop for work: Make Word useable

Microsoft Word 2003 is a powerful word processor and can be a valuable tool. However, some of the default behaviours are less than ideal for research students (or anyone else). I don't know how many times I've heard people scream "I hate Word," and with good reason. There are a number of changes that I make and a number of features that I turn off when I first install Word that make it a much friendlier program.

Turn off Word annoyances
Don't you hate it when you try to select only one or two letters, but Word 'helps' you by selecting the whole word? How about auto-correcting words such as customise, summarise, colour? How about when a quotation mark 'helps' you by turning the wrong way? How about having to click on those two little arrows at the bottom of the menu so that you can 'unhide' the command that you want because Word 'helped' you by hiding infrequent commands? There is a long list of Word annoyances. Lets begin by turning off those annoying things that Word does automatically.

1. First things first - lets set the language to Australian English. From the Tools menu, select Language and then Set Language... and choose English (Australia). No more -ize endings.

2. Select Options... from the Tools menu. Click on the Edit tab. Untick When selecting, automatically select entire word. Now you can select only one character of a word.

3. From the Tools menu, select Autocorrect Options... and click on the Autocorrect tab. Untick Capitalize first letter of sentences and Capitalize first letter of table cells.

4. While in Autocorrect Options... click on the AutoFormat as you type tab and untick Straight quotes with smart quotes.

5. From the Tools menu, select Customize... and click on the Options tab. Select Always show full menus and Show shortcut keys in ScreenTips.

Customise your toolbars
The default Word 2003 toolbar layout isn't terrible, however, it can use a little research-student-tweaking. Luckily, you can add, remove, or edit toolbar buttons.

To customise a toolbar, select Customize... from the Tools menu and click on the Commands tab. From here you may add any command to any of your toolbars by simply dragging it into the desired position on your toolbar. To remove a command from your existing toolbars, simply drag it off the toolbar and drop it onto the Customize... dialog box.

Here is what the default Word 2003 toolbars look like (click toolbar to enlarge):
Ok, lets get started. I always remove these buttons:
Print - we will replace this with a more useful print button.
Email - who emails from Word?
Research - what is this?
Tables and borders - if you need to insert or modify a table, just use the Table menu.
Insert Table - as above.
Insert Excel Worksheet - if you need to insert or modify an Excel worksheet, just use the Insert menu.
Drawing - you will never use this.
Help - there's a search box in the top right corner.
Read - you will never use this.
Outside border - accessible via right click if you ever need it.

Now that we've gotten rid of the useless buttons, lets add some buttons that will make our lives easier and save us time in the future. Remember that toolbar buttons are added by selecting Customize... from the Tools menu and clicking on the Commands tab.
Save As - (from the File category) allows the user to save the document under a new name. This is very useful for saving different versions of your important documents.
Print... - (from the File category) when clicked, it will bring up the Print dialog box, allowing you to specify the number of copies, zoom, staple, double sided printing, two pages on each etc.
Paste Special - (from the Edit menu) allows you to remove formatting from text that has been copied to the clipboard.
Find - (from the Edit menu) allows you to search for (and replace) text in your document.
Header and Footer - (from the View menu) place text at the top or bottom of a page.
Symbol - (from the Insert menu) insert special, foreign, phonetics characters.
Superscript - (from the Format menu) useful for transcription e.g. the superscript h that indicates long lag VOT.

Of course, you might have some buttons that are useful to you that I haven't listed here. You should add them to your toolbar. Let us know which button you added in the Comments at the end of this post.

In the Customize... dialog box click on the Toolbars tab. Check the box next to Word Count. This will make the word count toolbar appear. This toolbar displays the number of words right in your toolbar.

After the above modifications, here's what my toolbars look like: