Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ Category

Eye Dropper, Firebug and Hex Color Generators

January 10th, 2010 Jojo Agot


My previous post about using Adobe Photoshop’s Eye Dropper Tool raises one question for most of us: What if I don’t have Adobe Photoshop?

Well, don’t worry, we still have other ways to work around that. The reason why I wrote about Photoshop is because along with the Hex Color Code Generator, I almost always use Photoshop every time I do some tweaks in my Wordpress themes. Let me explain these two tools further.

I use the Hex Color Code Generator mainly when I look at my CSS and have no idea what a certain HTML color code is. For example, I would encounter values like #7E8AA2. The first thing that comes to my mind is, “What the heck is #7E8AA2?” “Is it blue, green or pink?” I then turn to the code generator to find out for myself and look what other colors would look great with it.(In case you’re wondering, it’s a light shade of blue.) (more…)

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How to “Steal” Other People’s Color Combination

January 9th, 2010 Jojo Agot


Or maybe borrow, or get inspiration from, if stealing colors offends you.

The point is that in designing websites or customizing Wordpress themes, most people are stalled when it comes to choosing colors. In my previous post, I mentioned Hex Color Code Generator but that tool is useful only when you already have an idea on what colors to use and you simply needed the codes. But what if you’re still figuring out what colors to use?

Think of it this way: you were browsing the web and you found this one site that you really like. You did a little digging and you found out it’s a paid Wordpress theme but you don’t have the budget to buy that theme for yourself. What do you do? Aside from saving enough money to buy a professional theme, there is one trick you can resort to. (more…)

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How to Pick the Perfect Colors for Your Blog

January 9th, 2010 Jojo Agot


If you’re trying to design your blog to make it look more professional, one of the problems you will encounter after choosing your theme is to customize the colors to give it your personality. Not everyone of us has the knack for choosing the perfect color combination and if you’ve been to Blogspot, Friendster or Multiply, you will notice the ridiculous colors people use in their pages.

You know the problem why? Because even if they can imagine the colors they want, most of them don’t know the correct HTML color codes to use. For starters, HTML color code is the internet language for colors. We normally say BLUE when talking but in the internet world, BLUE is not an acceptable color. You should say #263248 blue or #000033 blue and heaven knows how many blues are there.

So how do you know the correct codes?

In keeping with my rule to write short blogs, I’ll give you one answer in this post and two in the next. Let’s start with the ONLY online Hex Color Code Generator I could find on the web. I have to say this is one of the most important tools you need in all your web design projects especially if you’re just starting out. The rotating color scheme below the page is great for choosing color families that would look great together. Use it and you’ll never have to make the mistake of putting together visually offensive colors. Go ahead and play with it. Come back here for the next two tools you might need.

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How to Free 10-20GB of Your Hard Drive

November 26th, 2009 Jojo Agot

http://theflowershowblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/computer.jpgOkay so this is the post that I promised yesterday. Of my four simple tricks on how to speed up your PC, this one is the easiest and the cheapest of all. All you need to do is clean up your drive C. You don’t need an external program to do this. If you’re doing this for the first time, I bet you can free at least 10-20G of your hard drive. Unbelievable? Try these steps: (Don’t forget that I’m using Vista Home Basic so the buttons might be a little different in your screen.)

Click Computer, right click drive C, click Properties. You will see a pie chart telling you of your hard drive status. Note how much is your free space.

Click Disk Cleanup.
Click Files From All Users On This Computer. Click Continue. Disk Cleanup will run for a few minutes.

A new small window will open with two tabs. Under Disk Cleanup tab, check all the buttons. Do not click OK yet.
Switch to More Options. Below you will see System Restore and Shadow Copies, click Clean Up. A little window will open, asking you if you are sure to delete all but the most recent restore point.  Click Delete. The process will take a few moments. Wait.

Click OK, if nothing happens, wait a little longer. Click OK again, the small pop up window will open, asking you if you really want to delete those files. Click Delete Files. Disk Cleanup window will pop up and after that, voila! Your Drive C  has bigger space now.

Click OK.

Pretty easy, right? So, how much space did you free in your hard drive? Is your machine running faster now? Tell me what you think.

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How to Speed Up Your PC

November 25th, 2009 Jojo Agot

http://www4.uwm.edu/enderis_tech/computers/images/computers-basics.jpgMy brother asked me to install programs and cleanup his laptop today. While I was waiting for the installation to complete, I figured I’d make us of my time by taking down notes on how I maintain my computer so that he won’t ask me again next time (such noble motives, right?). I already confessed I’m not an expert in this field but I just thought it would be nice to show you guys the simple steps that I do to ensure the best performance of your PC.  So far, in my three years of maintaining my PC and three other laptops, I never had any problems so I guess what I’ve been doing were right. Here’s my list:

1. Run Windows Defender every week. Press the Vista Orb (Start) and type Defender in the search field. The Windows Defender program will come out. Click it and the program will open. Click Scan. This will usually take two to four hours, depending on how often you perform this operation. Leave the computer running.

2. Run your registry cleaner at least once a week. I’ve been using CCleaner for the past two years and so far it’s working fine for me. If you don’t have CCleaner yet, download this free program from here. Install the program and run it. Click Analyze and after that click Run. This will clean the registry of your machine, making it perform faster. Another great program that can do this is EasyCleaner but I had one bad experience with it in the past so I uninstalled it from my machine.

3. Defrag your system at least once a week. This is my advise to my brother who is a light PC user. For others who do lots of stuff on their computers everyday, you might want to do this twice a week. Just try what works for you. I’m using Auslogics Disk Defrag on the four computers that I regularly maintain. Like CCleaner, it’s also free and it’s been doing wonders on my machines for two years now. To defrag means to neatly arrange the files inside your system so that when you need them, retrieval would be easier and faster.

So there you go with my three simple steps. I know there’s still a lot of tricks out there but let’s settle with these three for now. Tomorrow I’ll post my fourth tip. It’s a bit longer than these three so I’ll make a separate post about it. It’s guaranteed to free 10-20Gig of your hard drive space. Sounds unbelievable? Stay tuned!

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