Some Sage Advice

Visual Basic Error: Compile Error in Hidden Module: DistMon When Starting Excel in Windows

Dean — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:16:06 +0000

After installation of Adobe Professional 7, 8 or 9, you may get the following error when you start Excel 2003 or Excel 2007:
“Compile Error in Hidden Module: Distmon”

The cause of this error is PDFMaker.xla, which loads at startup. Since Adobe Professional 8 uses DLL-addins to add the toolbar in Excel, you can safely delete the PDFMaker.xla file on your computer.
Sometimes PDFMaker.xla is located in your profile directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\PDFMaker.xla
Other times, PDFMaker.xla can be located in your Program Files directory.

After you deleted the file PDFMaker.xla, the error “Compile Error in Hidden Module: Distmon” at startup of Excel shouldn’t appear.

The error described above has been seen in combination with the following applications:

Adobe Acrobat Professional 7
Adobe Acrobat Professional 8
Adobe Acrobat Professional 9
Microsoft Office Excel 2003
Microsoft Office Excel 2007

Free Font Tool for Mac OS X

Dean — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:26:30 +0000

An outline font editor that lets you create your own postscript, truetype, opentype, cid-keyed, multi-master, cff, svg and bitmap (bdf, FON, NFNT) fonts, or edit existing ones. Also lets you convert one format to another. FontForge has support for many macintosh font formats. This requires the X11 environment which is on the Tiger or Leopard Install DVD (in the optional installs folder).

License: Freeware
Author/Publisher: George Williams
Modification Date: August 28, 2008
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and X11

Download File Size: 5.1 MB - Intel version for Leopard
Download File Size: 5.1 MB - PPC version for Leopard
Download File Size: 8.9 MB - Intel version for Tiger
Download File Size: 8.9 MB - PPC version for Tiger

Spotlight Indexing and Some Possible Fixes

Dean — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:24:50 +0000

Spotlight is probably the greatest feature to hit the Mac OS in years, once you get used to using it, going to a PC without it feels hopelessly inadequate. I use Spotlight for everything from launching applications, retrieving pictures, searching for old emails, literally just about everything. If you aren’t using Spotlight, you’re missing out. If you are using Spotlight, every now and again, the Spotlight menu mysteriously stops working (apparently this is more common since the 10.4.8 update), and we’re going to give you a few methods to troubleshoot Spotlight and get it back in full working order.

The Problems: Spotlight won’t work

There are several incarnations of Spotlight problems that I have personally run into, they are:

Problem #1) Spotlight menu icon highlights, but no search form appears
Problem #2) Spotlight search form appears, but no results are shown
Problem #3) Spotlight search works, but results are poor and incomplete

While not entirely sure what causes any of these problems, try these troubleshooting methods that frequently work to repair Spotlight:

The Solutions: Troubleshooting Spotlight

Solution #1: Kill SystemUIServer

Launch ‘Activity Monitor’ (located in /Applications/Utilities/)
Locate the process ‘SystemUIServer’, highlight it, and click the red button “Quit Process”
Within a few seconds the menubar will rebuild itself and often Spotlight will magically work

Solution #2: Rebuild the Spotlight Index manually

Launch ‘Terminal’ (located in /Applications/Utilities/)
At the command prompt, type this exactly: sudo mdutil -E /
You will be asked for your password, provide it, as this command requires administrator privelages to run
You will receive a confirmation message saying that index will be rebuilt
Wait until index is finished rebuilding, this can take a while depending on the size of your hard drive, amount of files, etc.
Note: You can also rebuild the Spotlight index with MainMenu, mentioned in Solution #4

Solution #3: Change Desktop Resolution

This is a strange fix but it works everytime for me when my Spotlight menu icon highlights but the search form doesn’t appear
Open “System Preferences” via the Apple Menu
Click ‘Displays’ and select a resolution smaller than what you are currently using, 640×480 seems to always work
Select your native resolution again, changing your screen resolution back to normal
The Spotlight search tray will magically become available again

Solution #4: Clear caches and preferences

Clear caches and preferences relating to Spotlight, this is best done through either the free tool OnyX, or the free tool MainMenu, we recommend MainMenu because it’s easier for novices
- Download MainMenu here
- Download OnyX here
Install MainMenu
- a little Hammer and Wrench icon will appear in your menubar
- navigate down to ‘Cleaning’ and clean out User Cache, System Cache, and Font Caches
Note: Some users discover that just cleaning the Font caches is adequate to repair a screwy Spotlight, but it won’t hurt to clear them all

Solution #5: Reboot your Mac

This should almost be listed as #1 just because sometimes a simple reboot will fix Spotlight, but if I can avoid a reboot I will, and often, a reboot isn’t good enough

TCP Problems in Windows XP and Vista

Dean — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:17:12 +0000

Many times a corrupted registry entry (usually caused by a virus, spyware, or malware) can cause TCP related errors. For example, your network connections are suddenly and mysteriously gone or you get various TCP Transport errors. To fix this problem, try the following:

Uninstall all Network Connections in the Network Control Panel and reboot.
From another machine download WinSock Fix XP
Run winsockfix.exe which fixes your registry entries and clears any errors.
Restart the system and install the network connections.
Run every anti-virus and anti-spyware program you can find.

This happened to my PC several months ago. I had visited a website and all of a sudden my AVG Anti-Virus warned me of an infected webpage. My computer froze and when I rebooted I had no network or internet connectivity. It took me several hours to fix it! Had I known about this tip beforehand I would have saved myself hours of work.

No More New Macs for 2008

Dean — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:36:04 +0000

On Monday, Apple quietly announced that there will be no more new Apple hardware changes for the remainder of 2008. This means that the holiday hardware is set and you can buy all your holiday gifts now and avoid the crowds!

Mac OS X Leopard and Incompatible Applications

Dean — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:54:37 +0000

There is a huge list of incompatible applications that won’t work properly under Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on the MacRumors site. So before you try to run Quark 6 on your new Intel Mac with Leopard, check to see what won’t work properly!

Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 Won’t Connect to Windows Server Using AFP Appletalk

Dean — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 18:51:38 +0000

If your new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Mac won’t make an AFP connection to a Windows 2000/2003 Server running File Services for Macintosh, it’s because Leopard no longer allows sending passwords in clear text to a file server. This is an undocumented new “feature” from Apple. And to make matters worse, the option to allow sending passwords in clear text has been removed from the Connect to Server dialog box!

There are two ways to fix this. The first way involves using terminal to edit the com.apple.AppleShareClient.plist file which lives in the User… Library… Preferences folder. The second way uses a text editor (like the free TextWrangler) to edit the same file. (Note! Do not use TextEdit to make changes to the plist file! Apple’s built-in Text Edit can not save files in the proper format and will corrupt the plist file! You must use a plain text editor or use the terminal command outlined below.)

Method 1 Using Terminal

With no AFP connection active, open Terminal (in the Applications… Utilities folder)
Type the following commands hitting enter after each line:

defaults write com.apple.AppleShareClient “afp_cleartext_allow” -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.AppleShareClient “afp_cleartext_warn” -bool YES

Reboot the Mac.

Method 2 Using TextWrangler

1. With no AFP connection active, open TextWrangler. Navigate to the User… Library… Preferences folder and find the file named com.apple.AppleShareClient.
2. Drag this file onto TextWrangler to open it.
3. Change the value of the item called “afp_cleartext_allow” from FALSE to TRUE.
4. Change the value of the item called “afp_cleartext_warn” from FALSE to TRUE.
5. Save the file.
6. Restart your Mac.

Search Engine Optimization

Dean — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:29:07 +0000

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Microsoft Office 2008 Slow to Launch in 10.5.2

Dean — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:52:04 +0000

A number of users are reporting incredibly slow launch times (up to several minutes) for Office 2008 applications under Mac OS X 10.5.2. Some MacFixIt readers report that Apple and Microsoft have both identified this as a known issue.

For some users, the following fix has proven mildly successful: In Word, turn off WYSIWYG fonts and “Show Project Gallery at Startup” in (go the “Word” menu, then Preferences > General). Quit any Office apps. Next delete the files:

HOME/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/Normal.dotm
HOME/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.Word.plist
HOME/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/Office 2008

and restart.

Apple is aware of the problem and they claim there is a conflict with Office 2008 and Leopard 10.5.2. No word on when a fix will be available.

True Story About Identity Theft

Dean — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:58:39 +0000

This is a little off-topic but it is important enough that I need to share it with you. A close friend of my wife had sort of disappeared for a while so she was surprised when her friend called out of the blue. She asked where she had been and she explained that she had spent the past several weeks on the phone everyday trying to get her life back—she had been the victim of identity theft.

The thieves had done a great job. They had ordered credit cards in her name, somehow convinced Verizon to transfer her phone calls to a house in New Jersey, and had racked up $30,000 in credit card bills in a short amount of time.

This phone call came coincidentally the same day I had called my insurance agent and asked her about my identity theft protection. I had purchased it last year as part of my “golden blanket” protection from Nationwide. For $45/year, I was covered. However, the coverage would only help me straighten out my credit. If someone hacked into my bank account, that money would be lost.

So, I immediately signed up for LifeLock. Lifelock is a service that not only monitors your credit, but they will cover you for up to $1,000,000 in damages and they will hire the best people they can find to straighten out your credit and to get your identity back. For $10/month or $99/year, you are covered. They are so sure of their service, that the CEO of the company has posted his own social security on their website. If you are concerned about this very serious issue, I would urge you to take a look.