HowtoForge: “In this tutorial I will describe how to install and configure MyDNS and MyDNSConfig 3 on Fedora 10. MyDNS is a DNS server that uses a MySQL database as backend instead of configuration files like, for example, Bind or djbdns.”
We’ve all had to sit through meetings that were nothing but a waste of our time. Here are some tactics you can use to salvage something productive from the ones that drag on forever or go completely off the rails.
A quick survey of Amazon.com reveals hundreds of books purporting to help manage meetings. The vast majority do, in fact, contain good ideas if you initiated the meeting, have the ability to set its agenda, and possess the social skills to keep all of the attendees focused. However, we all must occasionally attend meetings we do not control. What do we do in those meetings, especially when they go awry? The following tips will help you make each meeting an effective, interesting experience. No IM required.
Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.
The idea of a meeting agenda seems almost quaint in this era of too much e-mail and not enough time. When an actual agenda makes an appearance, it quickly breaks down as participants meander in a variety of unplanned directions.
Do not wait for an agenda. Instead, take a moment to contact the meeting organizer before the meeting. Ask him to explain to you, in 10 words or less, what he wants from the meeting. Once you know what he wants, you can help him achieve it.
In this case, forewarned is forearmed.
Finding out what the meeting organizer wants allows you to help him; knowing what you want from the meeting allows you to help yourself. So before the meeting begins, set yourself one action item you absolutely need to accomplish with this group of people at this time.
Select an action item compatible with the meeting organizer’s goal if you want the meeting to succeed. Otherwise, you could end up with a reputation for disrupting meetings.
Whether that’s bad depends on your point of view.
Meetings never start on time. Someone always needs a cup of coffee or has to answer a cell phone call about an unforeseen disaster. These idle moments make an ideal time for firing out instant messages to friends, family, and co-workers.
You can also use this time to make the meeting more productive. Jot down a list containing five things related to the action item you want to share. The act of writing helps focus your thoughts, even if you don’t use the list at all.
If you have something to say to the people in the meeting, you might not have to send IMs after all.
Meetings come, meetings go. Their details vanish into a haze of similar events because no one bothered to write them down. Then the next meeting rolls around, and you spend the first 10 minutes trying to remember what happened last time.
Break this cycle by taking the meeting minutes. You don’t have to record everything everyone says. Instead, focus on recording assigned action items, decisions made, and key information or questions revealed during the discussion. These minutes then become the meeting’s artifact, the record of what happened and what decisions came about. This record guides whatever actions take place after the meeting ends.
As the writer, you make most of the judgment calls about what was important.
All meetings, large or small, involve people interacting to achieve one or more goals. In a perfect world, these interactions would spontaneously organize themselves. Everyone would respect one another’s time. Comments would emerge in an organized fashion. Action items would appear and be agreed on, and the group would move to the next point.
Back in the real world, we need ways to stay organized and on track. You do not have to adopt Robert’s Rules of Order, but you should know the ground rules by which the meeting will run. If your organization does not have rules of order, make some. Share them with others and follow them.
Chaos happens, but you do not have to let it ruin an otherwise productive meeting.
There exists a breed of meetings seemingly designed to frustrate the attendees. These meetings “provide information” about a topic or update the attendees about the status of things they do not care about. In the breed’s most extreme forms, no one at the meeting can do anything with the information provided.
That does not excuse you from finding something useful to do. The meeting organizer obviously needs to communicate this information. Take the opportunity to practice your reflective listening skills. You get some practice, and the organizer will feel like he positively connected with someone.
It’s a win/win, or as close as you can get in this situation.
It never fails. In every meeting, someone derails the discussion with a host of interesting tangents. Sometimes these tangents relate to the topic at hand. More often, though, they affect it only indirectly. In either case, the time spent on them detracts from the meeting’s real goal.
Do not be this person. Ask yourself the following question before you interject a new idea or question: Is this really the right venue? If the meeting focuses on brainstorming, go ahead. If not, and if the question/idea does not directly relate to the meeting’s goal, set it aside for later conversations. Make it an action item, so you do not forget it.
Yes, everything connects to everything else in business. That doesn’t mean you have to bring it up in a focused session.
The meeting ends, someone cleans up the conference room, and…then what? Ask the meeting organizer for action items as the meeting starts to wind down. If need be, prompt him by asking if he wants you to take care of one or more items you noted during the meeting. Alternately, you can make some up if you have a good idea of what needs to be done.
Action items speak louder than words when it comes to ending meetings.
Meetings, with or without agendas, often drag on long past their useful lifespan. People get lost in quagmires or the meeting organizer forgets what he’s there for. Nothing useful gets done, but no one can escape without offending the powers that be.
Fortunately, you have a 10-words-or-less description of the meeting’s goal from your previous research. Ask the meeting organizer if he has achieved his goal. If not, help him get to it. If yes, mercifully end the meeting before everyone goes insane.
Mercy is, in this case at least, one of time management’s greatest gifts.
Meetings gather informed, active people into one place to address an established list of topics. Why not take advantage of the opportunity? If you have questions for someone who will attend the meeting, make a list of them before you arrive. Then, during the after-meeting meeting, whip out the list and get your questions answered.
Asking unrelated questions in the after-meeting meeting means you do not have to disrupt the meeting with them.
With these 10 tips you can participate in the meeting rather than just attending. Actively participating reduces your stress levels during the meeting. It also gives you some control over what happens next.
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Fedora 10 Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend
This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on
Fedora 10 and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol
as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone
server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user
has his own home directory accessible via the SMB protocol and all
users have a shared directory with read-/write access.
Flash drives aren’t quite a dime a dozen, but it’s pretty easy to amass a bunch of them in your office drawer. This guide helps you turn them into software-packed giveaway drives.
Many readers were curious about the giveaway flash drives in my laptop bag. Why give flash drives away? I found that despite only using a single flash drive, I had a drawer full of them in my office. Between promotional give-aways, lost or abandoned drives with no identifying information, and friends tossing their old small drives my way, I had quite a pile of them. Rather than let them rot into obsolescence, I pack them with software to give away to people. Whenever someone sees me using my flash drive on my laptop to run all sorts of programs, or someone expresses interest in the kind of stuff we write at Lifehacker, I’ve always got a few in my laptop bag to share.
My approach to creating the drives is to create mock drives on my main computer. I have a folder for each of the smaller drive sizes, like 128MB, 256MB, and so on. All files for that size flash drive are stored in the folder, ready to be copied onto a drive. I aim to only use 50% or less of the capacity of the drive. This way the person who receives it won’t have to clean house immediately to get some usable space for their own files. The list below is arranged in order of drives from smallest to largest. Each size includes the contents of the previous size, so Firefox, for instance, is on every drive size even though it only appears under 128MB; the largest drives contains everything on this list.
I include applications based on one of two reasons: Either the application is one I use on a daily basis and love (like Firefox and Everything), or the application is good enough for me to recommend it, even though I don’t use it on a daily basis (such as Thunderbird). Every drive includes, in addition to the software listed below, a readme file with a basic explanation of the software’s functionality and a link to the software’s website. Without further delay, the lists!
If you have a suggestion for an addition to the list of portable apps I include on my giveaway drives, sound off in the comments below; I’ll try the software out and consider adding it to my next batch of giveaway drives.
Want to save some time? Of course you do! You are probably always looking for ways to do this faster and make that easier, it’s human nature! One of the best ways to save time is experience. The more experience you have, the more comfortable you are working, the more you have developed your own best methods, and with experience you know how to better avoid mistakes and disasters. So always stay hard at what you do and you will definitely save more than “just” time!
However, regardless of your experience level, there are ways to speed up the common design tasks. You should find some of these not-so-well-known tips and strategies listed below very helpful for your workflow. And please feel free to suggest more ideas in the comments to this post!
When working, it is important to have all necessary tools and panels readily available to speed up your workflow. However, the tools and panels needed, fluctuate based on the project at hand. Adobe design programs provide several standard default workspace settings, such as Type, Web, Video, etc.
These are beneficial for a start, but customizing workspaces to fit personal and project needs can further speed your workflow. Experiment with different set-ups to find the best settings. It is best to save a workspace after working within a document for a while rather than at the beginning.
Numerous program settings are stored in the Adobe applications, including general display options, file-saving options, performance options, cursor options, transparency options, type options, and options for plug‑ins and scratch disks. These preferences are just that, preferences. It is no surprise that not everyone agrees with the same preferences, so for an optimal design experience, you should customize these preferences in each of your design programs to best suit your needs.
Edit Preferences
Suggested Preferences to Change
Design should never repeat itself, however there are certain elements that are often repeated out of necessity, such as icons, logos, symbols, etc. (particularly when you are creating a wireframe). Combine all of these common elements into one Photoshop or Illustrator document for future use. This will eliminate the search through past design documents for an icon or symbol you have already created.
Sure command-C and command-V are helpful for copying and pasting, but don’t stop there. A keyboard shortcut exists for most of the common commands and if there is not one, you can create your own. The time saving ability of keyboard shortcuts is priceless.
To create your own select Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (Windows) or Program Name (ex. Photoshop) > Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac OS). You can create different sets of shortcuts for different tasks
if desired. Browse to the command that you would like to edit and enter a new shortcut combination. Note: To enter the key combination, press the keys on the keyboard. You do not need to spell out the key names, such as Control, Option, and so on.
Resources for finding and learning shortcuts:
In general, when beginning a website mockup/design in Photoshop, there are several things you do (or should do) automatically before you begin, such as set the size and dimensions, create guides, and create common layer folders (see Always organize layers into several folders below). Instead of creating these generic settings each time, create a template file with these settings already created.
Next time you begin to design a website mockup, set up your basics, then stop and save a version labeled "webtemplate.psd," or any other relevant filename. Then begin every future design with that template file. You will appreciate eliminating this repetitive task the next time you design!
One of Photoshop’s most effective time-savers is the actions panel. It allows you to record a task or series of tasks to be used later for similar projects. As with many Adobe tools, there are a number of helpful default actions already set-up, however, the actions panel is best used when recording custom actions, many of which are project specific.
For example, if you had a series of filters and adjustments applied to an image within a design and you needed to apply the same effects to several other images, then recording the steps would allow for an exact and quick replication of the effect.
The actions panel can be very dynamic or it can be very simple, depending on your needs and experience. Follow the steps below for the basic functions of the actions panel. Then check out the additional resources listed here for further learning.
Helpful Resources for Photoshop Actions
When using basic Photoshop actions, you must click play each time to apply the action. This isn’t convenient when the same action needs to be applied to a large group of files. This is where batch actions becomes very helpful. The batch automation panel allows for the application of an action to a folder of images or files. For example, if you had a folder of 50 images that need to be resized to 500×500px and rotated 90 degrees, it would be time consuming to apply the action individually to each file.
Rather, configure the batch actions dialog box to apply the action to all files in the folder, then Photoshop will do the grunt work and spit out all 50 images, rotated and resized.
To access the batch actions panel, select File > Automate > Batch.
Similar to the batch actions panel, the image processor selects a folder of images or all open images and resizes and saves them to a desired location. The image processor is better for resizing images than the batch actions panel, though the same action can be performed in both.
To access the image processor, select File > Scripts > Image Processor.
Photoshop’s history panel is a life-saver sometimes, however it is even more convenient to create multiple instances of the same file to be compared later. The Snapshot command lets you make a temporary copy (or snapshot) of any state of the file. The new snapshot is added to the list of snapshots at the top of the History palette. Selecting a snapshot lets you work from that version of the image.
Create a Snapshot
It is best practice to always label layers and organize them into manageable folders/groups. It allows for quick navigation of layers and the movement of groups of layers. For example, when designing for the web, it is helpful to have several folders, such as header, sidebar, footer, etc. If the sidebar needed to be relocated within the file, select the folder and drag the entire group to the desired location.
To create a layer folder, click the create a new group icon, located to the left of the create new layer button inside the layers panel.
When editing images, using Photoshop’s adjustment features is a life-saver because of the expansive amount of control you have over the appearance. However, it isn’t always an exact science and you may not like the final outcome. This is where adjustment layers come in handy.
Without harming the original layer, Photoshop will apply the adjustment as a clipping mask to the previous layer or the entire document. You may apply as many adjustment layers to one layer as would like and the beauty of them is the ability to hide them with the click of a button, just like any other layer.
To create a new adjustment layer, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > the desired adjustment
Simple as it sounds, a right-click or control-click (Mac), can save a lot of headache when trying to locate layers. Within a document, to select a layer without scrolling through the layers panel, hover over the object to be selected and right click. Several layers will be displayed, click on the desired layer to move to that layer.
Recording and using actions is common to Photoshop users, however little-known is that Illustrator possesses the same capability of recording and playing actions.
Color is important to the success or failure of a design. Therefore, choosing colors can be a difficult task. So why not simplify the process by only browsing through colors that are worthy of being selected? Adobe provides a number of excellent swatch books that are a good start, but even those can be overwhelming. Creating custom swatch libraries, organized by project or client, allows for better color management.
A small but mighty time-saving feature, the "same" command in Illustrator allows the selection of all like elements, such as all objects with a red fill color or all objects with a 5pt stroke.
Also, check out the "object" command for similar options. The "object" command will select all common elements, such as all brush strokes rather than all red brush strokes.
Layers, another common photoshop feature, also exists in Illustrator, however it is not as widely used. The layers function similarly to those in Photoshop. Unlike Photoshop, Illustrator does not automatically place new objects into separate layers, but rather places them into sub-layers. Click the arrow next to the layer to access the sub-layers. It is important to keep in mind that Illustrator and Photoshop are different programs and each have their own purposes.
The biggest time-saving advantage of layers, is the ability to lock them, which allows for easier selection and editing. Also, layers add the ability to create clipping masks.
Anybody need a copyright symbol, some arrows, or a email symbol? If so, utilize the Glyphs panel in Illustrator. Many common symbols and some uncommon ones too, are listed there. Each font has its own set of glyphs, however symbol fonts such as Wingdings, Webdings, and Zapf Dingbats are the best to browse through for symbols from anything such as mail and phone symbols to arrows and circles.
Stylesheets in a web designer’s mind usually means only one thing, CSS stylesheets. However, if you are working on a print project in InDesign, stylesheets will also save you hours of time formatting, just as CSS stylesheets do. You can set them up as you work, saving individual styles to be applied to other similar areas.
Styles are handled in four separate panels: character styles, paragraph styles, table styles, and object styles. To add a new style, create the desired effect, then highlight/select the style and click the Create A New Style button. To apply the style, select the text/object to be formatted and click on the new style you created in the styles panel.
To access the styles panels, select Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph Styles OR Character Styles OR Table Styles. The object styles are located under Window > Object Styles.
500 personalized invitations to be completed by tomorrow? Not a problem, if you use the data merge feature in InDesign, also commonly referred to as mail merge. You merge a data source file with your current document and InDesign automatically produces each personalized version of the file. Use data merge for letters, envelopes, invitations, mailing labels, post cards, etc.
To access the data merge panel, select Window > Automation > Data Merge.
Additional Resources for Using Data Merge
You can’t commit all of these tips to memory in one day, so pick one to learn everyday, or at least one per week. Do something once, ok. Do something twice, great! Do something 10 times, now that’s dedication. You can also make a note or even a full-color PDF document, if you wish, that contains some of these time-saving tips for quick reference.
Michael Shelton is a web designer, developer and writer based in the United States with over 5 years of freelance and professional experience in the design field. He writes for a number of blogs across the internet and occasionally on his own website, www.michaeladesigns.com, where his entire design portfolio can be found. You can also follow him on Twitter.
© Michael Shelton for Smashing Magazine, 2009. |
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Post tags: illustrator, photoshop, workflow
