Author Archives: JD Sartain

How to use Photoshop Blur Gallery for Bokeh effects and more

Posted on August 24, 2020 by JD Sartain

The Blur Gallery in Adobe Photoshop is different from the Blur Filters we’ve covered previously (both are found in Photoshop’s Filter menu). When you select Blur Gallery, Photoshop displays another dropdown menu with five Blur options: Field, Iris, … Continue reading →

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Photoshop Blur filters: What they are and how to use them

Posted on August 10, 2020 by JD Sartain

Photoshop Blur filters are designed primarily for retouching images—to soften, haze, cloud, fuzz, or distort specific areas of a picture or the entire image. Backgrounds are often blurred out to accentuate the main subject of a photo, or to reduce… Continue reading →

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Photoshop Shapes: What they are and how to use them

Posted on July 30, 2020 by JD Sartain

Photoshop Shapes are vector images that you can size up or down without degrading the image quality. The best thing about using Shapes is that it saves you time. For example, few people can draw a perfect circle (especially with a mouse). If you cl… Continue reading →

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Photoshop Styles: What they are and how to use them

Posted on July 17, 2020 by JD Sartain

Photoshop styles are works of art that can be applied to text, objects, vector shapes, illustrations, or photos. Unlike Microsoft styles, which are basically just a collection of attributes (such as bold, italic, underline) and minor effects (such … Continue reading →

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Microsoft Word reads to you: How to use the Speak and Read Aloud commands

Posted on July 2, 2020 by JD Sartain

Can Microsoft Word read to me? Yes, it can. The Speak feature was incorporated into Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.) back in version 2003. It was called Text to Speech (TTS) then, and it functioned much the same as it does now. For… Continue reading →

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Alternatives for Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop and more

Posted on June 15, 2020 by JD Sartain

I remember when Adobe made the switch. In 2013, not long after I purchased the Adobe Creative Suite CS6 program, Adobe terminated the desktop versions of its software and launched Creative Cloud, offering subscription-based access only to its suite… Continue reading →

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Outlook organization tips: 5 ways to tame the email pile

Posted on June 3, 2020 by JD Sartain

Microsoft’s Outlook is an irreplaceable tool for countless organizations and a veritable legion of people around the globe—but it’s not a beloved one by any stretch. Nobody actually enjoys sifting through a stuffed inbox or responding to meeting … Continue reading →

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Meet DATEDIF(), Excel’s secret Date & Time function that’s still handy

Posted on May 27, 2020 by JD Sartain

DATEDIF(), which means Date + Dif, is a compatibility function left over from Lotus 1-2-3 that Microsoft adopted in Excel version 2000, which is the only version that explains how this function works. It’s operational in all Excel versions, but it… Continue reading →

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How to edit PDFs in Microsoft Word

Posted on May 14, 2020 by JD Sartain

Editing in PDFs in Microsoft Word has become a lot easier since Microsoft built in more functionality, starting with Word 2016. Its cousin the Edge browser has impressive PDF capabilities too.While you can’t beat a full-fledged PDF editor for comp… Continue reading →

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6 ways to manage emails and control spam in Outlook

Posted on May 13, 2020 by JD Sartain

Spam lives on, despite all our efforts to snuff it out—but Outlook has some features to help slow it down. Here are some things anyone can do, plus some tips for working within a corporate Outlook system. 1. Use Block Sender frequently
Use Outloo… Continue reading →

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