Transatlantic Technical Services

Hard at work adding an ASP.Net backend to the Big Plain thumbnail application, I encountered an out of memory error.

//Throws Out Of Memory
Bitmap bmpCrop = bmpImage.Clone(cropArea, 
bmpImage.PixelFormat);

Your mileage may vary but what worked for me was to change the second parameter to PixelFormat.DontCare.

//Seems to work like a charm
Bitmap bmpCrop = bmpImage.Clone(cropArea, 
PixelFormat.DontCare);

I’ve noticed some jobs posted online asking for a clone of the Big Plain thumbnail application. The original code is available for licensing. Just call 913.904.1285 or email turlach_AT_bigplain_DOT_com for a quote.

This is how to do it in one line in VB.NET. Very useful:

stringArray = Array.ConvertAll(Of Object, String)(objArray, AddressOf Convert.ToString)

If you assign the same arraylist as a datasource for comboboxes on the same form they will appear to be linked together.

cbobox.datasource = al

I did not try to duplicate this effect but the solution I used was to iterate through the members of the arraylist and individually add items to the combobox.

For i = 0 to al.count-1

cbobox.list.add(al(i))

next

Here’s where the C# version came from: Devolutions.net

And here is the VB version:

   Private Sub dgvMacroGrid_EditingControlShowing(ByVal sender As Object,
            ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.DataGridViewEditingControlShowingEventArgs)
            Handles dgvMacroGrid.EditingControlShowing
      'Enable text editing in combo cells
      If (dgvMacroGrid.CurrentCellAddress.X = colMacroLookup.DisplayIndex) Then
         Dim cb As ComboBox = CType(e.Control, ComboBox)
         If (cb IsNot Nothing) Then
            cb.DropDownStyle = ComboBoxStyle.DropDown
         End If
      End If
   End Sub

A first version of a tool to generate thumbnails online has been released by Transatlantic Technical Services at http://thumber.bigplain.com. Designed to be simple and fast, you can upload your images, set the crop size and scale interactively and get a thumbnail easily. It is intended to be the first in a series of image manipulation tools, each making it easy to do just one thing.

Based on an article on word.mvps.org here is an enhanced version of a routine to make Word checkbox formfields act as radio buttons when grouped by Frame or in a TableCell.

Notes:

1. Assign routine to both Entry and Exit events
2. Routine will work with both mouse and tab/spacebar. With tab, 2 boxes may simultaneously appear checked until you exit the selected checkbox.
3. I trapped some kind of strange bug that occurred for me in Table cells. Details in the code.

Sub MakeCheckBoxesExclusive()

   Dim oField As FormField
   Dim oCheckedField As FormField
   Dim bChecked As Boolean
   Dim oContainer As Object

   On Error GoTo errtrap

   '\ Figure out if checkboxes are grouped by frame or table cell
   If Selection.Frames.Count > 0 Then
      Set oContainer = Selection.Frames(1)
   ElseIf Selection.Cells.Count > 0 Then
      Set oContainer = Selection.Cells(1)
   End If

   '\Get the value of the current checkbox
   '\If it is checked then it will be the checked box
   bChecked = Selection.FormFields(1).CheckBox.Value
   If bChecked Then
      Set oCheckedField = Selection.FormFields(1)
   Else
      '\Selected box is not checked
      '\Look through other boxes for checked box
      For Each oField In oContainer.Range.FormFields
         If oField.CheckBox.Value = True Then
            Set oCheckedField = oField
            Exit For
next_field:
         End If
      Next oField
   End If

   '\Uncheck all the boxes
   For Each oField In oContainer.Range.FormFields
      oField.CheckBox.Value = False
   Next oField

   '\Check the designated box
   If Not oCheckedField Is Nothing Then
      oCheckedField.CheckBox.Value = True
   End If

   Exit Sub

   errtrap:
   '\ This error occurred when enumerating formfields in table cells
   '\ Some fields enumerated as strings or numbers
   If Err.Number = 4120 Then
      Resume next_field
   Else
      Err.Raise Err.Number
   End If

End Sub

On several occasions I have encountered a spurious “Disk Full” Error when trying to save a VBA project after a digital signature was applied. Several online sources suggested that there might be a broken reference (Tools|References). In my case, I had some subroutines in the ThisDocument module that had been used to process clicks on WinForm objects that were later removed from the document. Commenting out those routines solved the problem.

Courtesy of a link on digg  is a link to a study showing that most people read web pages in an F shaped pattern, reading the first two paragraphs and then down the left side of the page. Something to consider when adding content to your layout.

Came across this fresh posting at an MSDN blog about free ASP.NET developer hosting at Verio until Jan 2010. The price is right. In the late nineties, I was partner in a business that hosted with Verio, and was never happy with their service, but getting something for nothing is definitely a better deal.