Review: Customize and alter your photos with PC Image Editor

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AppId is over the quota

It’s a common misconception that you need Photoshop to get really good looking photos. The truth is that there are many excellent image editors out there on the Internet that allow you to make changes to your photos which are as good as anything Photoshop could do. PC Image Editor is one such app, free for personal use ($24 for business use), which allows you to make changes to your images.

Installation is extremely easy and extremely fast, with no hidden spyware surprises trying to sneak in, such as toolbars. When starting it up for the first time, you will be told that the software is free for personal use, while commercial users need to purchase a license. This becomes one of the main irritants of the entire software app – every time you open up the app to use it for free, that same nag screen is going to keep coming up because you haven’t entered a license code yet. I really hope the developer provides some way in a future release for free users to disable that screen as it gets really annoying after a while.

PC Image Editor provides you with lots of options to customize your images. The photo updates in real time as you tweak each option.

Once you’ve zapped the nag screen, click “open” and navigate to the image you want to make adjustments to. Then on the right hand side, you will see all of the tools  open to you. For example, you can resize the photo to either a size that you specify or one of the predefined sizes that the app offers. You can also rotate to various angles, zoom, sharpen, as well as change the color and contrast .
There are also numerous effects on offer which takes a page out of Photoshop's book. PC Image Editor offers a wide range of filters and effects such as blurring, twirling (turning the picture into a round shape) and changing the angle of the picture. If you would like to achieve a unique effect to the picture, then the filters include embossing, halftone (which pretty much turns the color picture black and white), and changing the RGB values of the colors.

Each adjustment can easily be made by moving the slider back and forth.

Every change is made in real time so you can see how each step of the affects the image. If you realize you’re making a right dog’s dinner of the image, you can click the “undo” button to roll back the last change you made. Once everything is to your satisfaction, you can save or print the new image . Formats which you can save in include all the usual suspects such as JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP and TIFF.

There is also the option to scan an image directly into PC Image Editor using a scanner, but every time I clicked on the “scan” button, PC Image Editor crashed and closed. I don’t know if this is a Windows 8 issue or an issue with PC Image Editor. So it may work for you. Let us know in the comments below if this is a problem you encounter.

These days, with ready access to image editors, there is no excuse for bad photos. If you find that your images need a bit of jazzing up,PC Image Editor offers a basic selection of  editing tools that provide the most-used features of more expensive applications. Although it’s not the best image editing program ever, it’s worth a try if you need a few basic tweaks.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Expatriate Scotsman now living in Wurzburg, Germany, freelance writer, frustrated future bestselling author, obsessed bibliophile. Other interests include trying to understand The Architect in the Matrix movies, decrypting codes and ciphers, and trying to persuade my landlord and my wife to let me have a Highland Cow for a pet.
More by Mark O'Neill

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Format and customize Excel 2013 charts quickly with the new Formatting Task pane

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AppId is over the quota

The new Excel offers a rich set of charting capabilities that make creating and customizing charts simpler and more intuitive. One part of the fluid new experience is the Formatting Task pane.  

Until now, precise adjustments to chart elements were made in the Format dialog box. The box sometimes obscured a portion of the chart, changes entered in the box were not visible until you closed it, and you had to select the exact element on the chart in order to see the options that were the best fit for the job.

In the new Excel, the Format dialog box is replaced by the Formatting Task pane. The pane aligns neatly with the right or left side of the screen, so it's less likely to obscure the chart, and changes happen in real time, so you can immediately see how your choices affect the chart. The Formatting Task pane also offers an element selector so you can jump quickly between different elements without having to select one to modify.

The new Formatting Task pane is the single source for formatting--all of the different styling options are consolidated in one place. With this single task pane, you can modify not only charts, but also shapes and text in Excel.

The fastest way to open the Formatting Task pane is to double-click a chart element. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+1 while a chart element is selected. There are two other ways to open the task pane:

The first way: On a chart, select an element. On the Ribbon, select the Chart Tools Format tab, then click Format Selection.

The second way: On a chart, select an element. Right-click, then select Format where is the axis, series, legend, title, or area that was selected.

Once open, the Formatting Task pane remains available until you close it. Since it always stays on the right or left side of the screen, the pane remains unobtrusive as you concentrate on other tasks. The options in the Formatting Task pane will change based on which element is currently selected. For example, if you select a legend, the Formatting Task pane offers layout, fill, and effect options uniquely tailored to the legend element. With this more intuitive experience, you can feel free to leave the Formatting Task pane open while you format different elements of your chart.

The element selector in the Formatting Task pane allows you to jump quickly between different elements without selecting them in the chart itself. Since some chart elements are small and perhaps difficult to select, the element selector is a great alternative to the "hunt and peck" approach.

The element selector is in the top left of the Formatting Task pane. The selected element is displayed, along with a down arrow. Clicking the down arrow opens a dropdown menu that shows all elements of the selected chart. When you choose an element from this menu, the Formatting Task pane displays options uniquely tailored to this element, and it also selects this element in the chart.

You can also find the element selector on the Ribbon on the Chart Tools Format tab.

Chart options in the Formatting Task pane are in two categories: Size & Properties and element-specific.

Size & Properties deals with sizing, alignment, and miscellaneous properties such as alt text and locks.

The Chart Area element is unique in that its Size & Properties options affect the chart as a whole. Size, scale, and aspect ratio can be adjusted only on the Chart Area element, from which all other chart elements derive their inherent size and scale. The Chart Area element also controls the alt text of the chart, whether the chart moves and/or sizes with its underlying cells, and whether the chart is printable and locked.

Other chart elements can adjust their alignment from the Size & Properties options, which dictate vertical alignment, text direction and angle, and margins.

There are unique, element-specific options for axis, legends, and series:

Axis Options. Axis options allows you to adjust the axis bounds and units, the placement and interval of its labels, and other options including tick marks and number format.

Legend Options. Legend options allows you to specify the position of the legend, and whether or not it overlaps the chart.

Series Options. Series options allows you to specify whether the series should be plotted on the primary or secondary axis, the spacing and width of the columns on a bar or column chart, and the angle and explosion (separation) of the slices of a pie chart.

In addition to chart options, the Formatting Task pane allows you to fine-tune the visuals of each chart element by offering a multitude of line, fill, and effect styles. These styling options are available for shapes as well.

Line options allow you to adjust the styling of the lines and borders of each chart element. There are two line types: solid and gradient. A solid line uses one color throughout, while a gradient line changes smoothly from one color to another along its path. Regardless of the line type you choose, you can adjust a line's thickness, transparency, dash type, and endpoint settings.

Fill options allow you to choose how the inner portion of each chart element is filled. There are four fill types: solid, gradient, pattern, and picture. A solid fill uses only one color, while a gradient fill smoothly blends multiple colors along its filled region. A pattern fill tiles the inner fill region with preset imprints such as crosshatches and tiles, and a picture fill uses preset textures or a picture that you specify.

Please note that certain chart elements, such as the series of a Line Chart, do not have an inner fill region to color or tile. Fill options are disabled for these chart elements.

Effect options offer a powerful set of effects that add visual impact to your charts. Effects include shadows, glows, soft edges, and 3-D formatting.

Shadow. This effect adds a shadow either outside or inside the chart element.

3-D Formatting. This effect adds a bevel to the chart element to give it a 3-dimensional relief.

In addition to modifying the look and feel of charts and shapes, you can also style text inside these objects.

Text options are in the top right of the Formatting Task pane. Clicking Text Options toggles the task pane into text styling mode. You can toggle back to the former chart and shape styling mode at any time by clicking the element selector's title.

In text styling mode, you can modify the look and feel of your text using the same line, fill, and effect options that are available for charts and shapes.

The new Formatting Task pane is just one of many ways to customize and refine the look and feel of your charts. The on-object buttons featuring the new Chart Elements and Chart Styles provide quick access to the most common chart customizations, but when you need detail-level control, now you can get it with the Formatting Task pane. Please try it out, and give us your thoughts and feedback on the experience--we'd love to hear what you think!

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Review: Decor8 lets you customize the Windows 8 Start and lock screens

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AppId is over the quota

Windows 8 comes with an entirely new interface called Modern (formerly known as Metro), featuring generous swaths of color, flat icons, and large typography. You'll first meet Modern in the lock screen, immediately followed by the Start screen. You'll be visiting both quite often: The lock screen whenever you start using your computer, and the Start screen whenever you want to launch an application. As such, you might want to customize them a bit to suit your personal style. Microsoft offers a few preset backgrounds you can choose from, but for no-holds-barred personalization, you should try $5 utility Decor8.

Decor8 includes almost sixty background images, but also lets you pick one from your own albums.

Decor8 comes from Stardock, and just like the company's other customization products, it ties into Windows very tightly. While Decor8 isn't a Modern app, it looks like one: It can only run in fullscreen mode, and there's no way to resize the window. A sidebar lines the left side of the window, with a simple menu done in large type: Background, Colors, Options, Lock screen, and About.

The Background section lets you set what appears behind the tiles in your Start screen. The first few backgrounds in the list are simple vector affairs, quite similar to the limited selection that ships with Windows 8. But then the list goes on to feature bold nature and macro photos that stand in stark contrast to the flat Modern aesthetic and lend the Start screen a dramatic flair far beyond the default.

If none of the included options appeal to you, you can specify your own Start screen background using any image on your computer. You can select several images and have them rotate throughout the day at an interval you set, or set the Start screen background to be the same as your desktop wallpaper. You can also fade the image, blur it, and adjust its tint and contrast.

Decor8 lets you customize the lock screen, but not as much as the Start screen.

The Colors screen is simpler, letting you adjust the Modern tiles color scheme. You can use one of the standard schemes included with Windows, create your own scheme, or have Decor8 generate a scheme according to the background image you selected. This last mode takes just a single checkbox to apply, and results in beautiful tiles that always work well with the background.

The Options screen is quite sparse, with just four options and lots of wasted screen space.  The only truly interesting option is for changing the number of tile rows on the Start screen–you can create a one-row Start screen, although I'm not sure how useful that would be. Last, the "Lock screen" section lets you configure a background for your lock screen. Even if you avoid the Start screen using a Start menu replacement (such as Stardock's own Start8 or the free and excellent Classic Shell), you'll still be seeing the lock screen quite often, so it's nice to be able to set your own background for it. Unlike the Start screen, the lock screen doesn't let you apply tint and fade effects to your selected background.

Decor8's insistence on running in a maximized window results in plenty of wasted screen space.

Decor8 joins the growing ranks of applications aiming to fix Windows 8's many deficiencies. It's evolutionary, and it works. If you're frustrated by not being able to set your own backgrounds for Windows 8's Start and lock screens, Decor8 offers a painless, inexpensive solution.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
More by Erez Zukerman

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Customize! 5 table of contents tricks

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AppId is over the quota

The Word 2010 gallery makes adding a basic table of contents quick: Click the References tab, click Table of Contents, and then click the gallery table of contents you want.

But what if you want more? What if your table of contents needs to provide different information--more levels, or fewer levels? What if you want a table of contents at the beginning of each chapter? What if you want to change the font?

Here are some of the ways you can customize your table of contents.

Quick reminder: Before you start, be sure you've applied styles to your headings. If you want to use a custom style, skip ahead to #4. You can always scroll back to catch the first three tips.

Click in your table of contents. Now click the References tab, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents. (You're going to replace the existing table of contents with the one you want.) In the Show levels box, type the number of levels you want to display in the table of contents.

After you click OK, Word asks you whether you want to replace the table of contents. Click Yes.

Click in your table of contents, and then press Alt+F9. You'll see a field code that looks something like this:

{ TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u }

The \o switch determines how many levels are in the table of contents. Change the numbers in the parentheses. For example, if you want to show only two levels, change "1-3" to "1-2".

To add separate tables of contents, you add a Word bookmark to the chapter or section (or a separate bookmark to each chapter or section). Then you add that bookmark switch to the table of contents code.

Step through the details in Add a table of contents for each section.

Apply the Heading 1 style to your section headings, and use a different style for the other headings. Click the table of contents, and then press Alt+F9. In the field code, add \n "1-1", which means no number for level-1 headings.

The field code now looks something like this:

{ TOC \o "1-3" \n "1-1" \h \z \u }

Step through the details in Add sections to a table of contents.

If you want to use a level-1 heading but you don't want it to look like the default heading style, you can create your own heading style and use it for your table of contents.

First, format the heading the way you want it, and then select it.Click the Home tab. In the Styles gallery, click the More button, and then click Save Selection as a New Quick Style.

Give your new style a name, and then apply it to all the headings you want.Now, when you're ready to insert a table of contents, click References, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents.Click Options, and then scroll to find the name of your new style. Type the heading level you want it to have in the box, and then click OK.

(In this picture, TOCBody is the name of my new style.)

Click OK again to insert the table of contents.Click the table of contents (if you've already inserted one).Click References, click Table of Contents, and then click Insert Table of Contents. (Again, you're going to replace the existing table of contents with the one you want.)Click Modify, click one of the heading levels, and then click Modify. Click Format, click Font, and then make the font changes you want.

Click OK, and then click Modify again to make the changes for the next level. (You change each level separately.)When you're done changing the font for each level, click OK, and then click OK again to insert the table of contents.

-- Joannie Stangeland

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Customize OneNote for you or your Conference (video)

We take a short video tour of OneNote from a special notebook, the Office.com for the MOM 2.0 Summitcreated.  You can a notebook for a special occasion, the participants send, so that they have all they need to know, customize right on their computer.

You can use the MOM 2.0 Summit OneNote notebook download on his website and view the video below an overview of creating your own notebook for a special occasion or Conference.

See summary of our MOM 2.0 coverage, including videos, here.

--Doug Thomas

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