Tips n Tricks

• ASP
• Java
• MS Office
• Web master

MS Office

• Shortcut key for making text bold in MS Office applications is Ctrl+B
• Shortcut key for making text italic in MS Office applications is Ctrl+I
• Shortcut key for making text underlined in MS Office applications is Ctrl+U
• Shortcut key for increasing font size in MS Word applications is Ctrl+Shift+>
• Shortcut key for decreasing font size in MS Word applications is Ctrl+Shift+<
• Shortcut key for formatting a cell in MS Excel applications is Ctrl+1
• In MS Excel, locking cells has no effect unless a sheet is protected
• In MS Excel, protecting a sheet automatically locks all cells, therefore unlock the cells you wish to enable editing, before protecting the sheet.

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Web master

• Use page include feature of FrontPage to manage changing pages
  if you have certain areas in your web page which need frequent updating, use the page include feature to insert that one page in all the web pages. Simply create a web page which contains the portion, then insert this page into the other pages using the following code:
  <TD>
  <!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="yourchangingarea.htm" TAG="BODY" -->
  </TD>

• Use your image alt tags effectively for search engines. Spiders cannot see your image, but they do read your alt tags. Inserting content relevant information is a plus point for your site.
  Doing this, you will also be performing a public service for the visually impaired visitors, as the special software they use to browse with, will read out the content from your alt tags.
   
• To go to the next line in MS FrontPage, without ending the paragraph, use Shift+Enter. This will generate a <BR> code in your html which means line break only.
   
• Page headings look great in fancy fonts, but those fonts may not be installed in your site visitors' computers. To bypass this problem, use an image for your headings. Either create one yourself, or visit www.flamingtext.com 
   
• Always try to keep your image sizes as low as possible. As a techie, you may have a high-speed internet connection, but remember that the world still has plenty of surfers who use dial-up internet connections! Ideally, image sizes should not exceed 30 kb.

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ASP

• Use Server.Mappath(.) to create relative paths
  while working on the local disk, one tends to use absolute url for the database, but when you publish your work to a server, you need to have the path relatively mapped, so that the file can be found. Customize the following code snippet to suit your requirement:
  set cn=Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
  dim str
  str="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source="&Server.mappath("..")&"\db\mydatabase.mdb"
  cn.Open str

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Java

• Use adapter classes where ever possible to avoid overriding numerous interface methods. Observe the window closing code handling below:
  addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter(){
  public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e){
  System.exit(0);
  }});
   
• When debugging your program, always looks at the first error your compiler has caught. Usually, most errors are resolved by simply correcting your first error.

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