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Adobe Acrobat X Pro – Unable to edit PDF/A opened read-only

Problem

When opening a PDF in Adobe Acrobat X  Pro – the PDF  is read-only and all edit options (e.g. Add or Edit Text Box) are disabled.

The following message is displayed at the top

The file you have opened complies with the PDF/A standard and has been opened read-only to prevent modification.

Solution

This issue often happens when a hard copy document has been converted to a PDF – e.g. scanned and saved as PDF using a photocopier.

PDF/A is different from a traditional PDF – PDF/A files are designed for long term archiving – which is why editing is disabled by default.

These steps show how to enable editing:

  1. In Adobe Acrobat X Pro, click on the ‘Edit’ menu then ‘Preferences’
  3. Open ‘Documents’ menu on the left hand side
  4. Under ‘PDF/A View Mode’
  5. Change ‘View documents in PDF/A mode’ to ‘Never’
  7. Click ‘OK’ to save the changes
  8. PDF documents using the PDF/A standard will now be editable.

Excel – How to calculate days until, between or after dates

The following Excel formulas show how to calculate the number of days for:

  • Days until date
  • Days between dates
  • Days after date

Days until date

This formula shows how to calculate the number of days until a date.

It uses the current date using the TODAY() function.

This is useful if you know your dates are all in the future.

=DAYS(A2,TODAY())

Days between dates

This formula shows how to calculate the number of days between two dates.

This is useful if you have two specific dates you need to measure the difference between.

Note: the DAYS() function parameters are DAYS( END DATE , START DATE )

=DAYS(B1,A1)

Days after date

This formula shows how to calculate the number of days after a date.

It uses the current date using the TODAY() function.

This is useful if you know your dates are all in the past.

=DAYS(TODAY(),A2)

How to enable ‘print view’ in Google Chrome debugger

How well a website prints is often not considered by web developers – but it can still be an important part of the user experience – especially if you have long-form content which some users may want to print to read offline.

The debugger tool in Google Chrome allows you to view a website an “print view” – making it easier for developers to customise the layout used when pages are printed.

To open “print view” in Google Chrome:

  1. With Google Chrome open, press F12 on your keyboard
  2. The DevTools console (debugger) will open
  3. Click on the menu at the top right
  4. Open ‘More Tools‘ -> ‘Rendering’
  6. Scroll down to the bottom, until ‘Emulate CSS media type’
  7. Change to ‘print’
  9. The web page currently loaded, and any other pages opened – will display how it will be printed
  10. If the page doesn’t change – or it includes content which is not suitable for print (e.g. the menu) – there’s work to do !

Word 2016 – Fix random list items indented

Problem

By default bullet and numbered lists have a ‘tab’ indent before each item.

However, this can be customised on a per-item basis.

Often this is done in existing documents or templates – leaving other users confused when some items display differently.

Solution

To fix this, you need to reset the list indent settings for the list.

  1. Right-click on any item in the list
  2. Open ‘Adjust list indents’
  4. Change ‘Follow number with’ to another value – ‘Tab character’ is recommended, as this is the default in Word.
  5. Click ‘OK’ to save the changes
  7. The list will now be displayed as expected

 

Office 365 – How to disable inbox ‘Other’ folder

By default the Outlook web app in Office 365 has an ‘Other’ folder.

This is similar to the Gmail’s category tabs – where emails are automatically categorised and shown in either the mail ‘Focused’ or ‘Other’ folder.

This can cause issues with some emails not being noticed because they’ve essentially been hidden in the ‘Other’ folder.

To disable the ‘Other’ folder in the Outlook web app (Office 365):

  1. Open the mailbox in the Outlook web app
  2. Click on the cog icon at the top right of the page
  3. Toggle ‘Focused Inbox’ to the off position
  5. All emails (except for ones directed to the Junk Email folder) will now be shown in the ‘Inbox’

 

How to disable OneDrive download notifications

Problem

When using Windows 10 to open files on a OneDrive – a notification appears at the bottom right of the screen saying:

Application is downloading from OneDrive

The message is distracting and covers part of the screen.

Solution

To disable the prompt,

  1. click on the cog icon at the top right of the notification and
  2. click on ‘Turn off all notification for Automatic file downloads’

This will disable the OneDrive notifications for ALL APPLICATIONS.

Why you can’t use 100% of hard drive capacity

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If you look closely you’ll see that hard drives never show their full advertised capacity.

Perhaps you’ve bought a nice new 1 TB hard drive to copy files to – but it only shows 930 GB of available space.

But why can’t you save 1 TB of files on that new 1 TB hard drive and where has the missing space gone? Continue reading “Why you can’t use 100% of hard drive capacity”

Windows 10 – How to Reset Bitlocker Recovery Key

The following steps detail how to change a Bitlocker recovery key in Windows 10.

This process does not decrypt the data on the hard drive – saving you A LOT of time.

 

NOTE: These instructions assume the BitLocker protected drive is the C:\ drive

  1. In the taskbar, search for ‘Command Prompt’
  2. When it appears, right-click on it and select ‘Run as administrator’
  4. Run the following command:
  5.  manage-bde C: -protectors -get -type RecoveryPassword
  6. Locate the protector you want to change (probably the only one displayed) and copy its ID field (including the curly braces)
  7. TIP: to copy you can select the text with your mouse then right-click to copy
  9. Run the following command, including the ID you copied in the previous step
  10. manage-bde C: -protectors -delete -id [paste the ID you copied here]
  12. The old recovery key has now been removed, you now need to create a new one
  13. Run the following command (leave last section blank to automatically generate a new key)
  14. manage-bde C: -protectors -add -rp [optionally specify the new 48-digit password or enter nothing to have it randomly generated for you]

And you’re done! You’ve changed your recovery password.

Remember to save it somewhere safe!