Tag Archives: Hints & Tips

Page break issues in OJS 3 (Online Journal System v3) – Submissions Page⤴

from @ ICT & Education

For some weird reason, the closing tags on the /about/submissions page of OJS3 add a line break (br /) after them.

According to iclaudius (GitHub), “certain fields go through the Smarty nl2br filter, which converts newlines into br / elements. It makes sense to remove these, since that content is entered through the TinyMCE editor…”.

To fix this issue, here’s what to do:

  1. Open the file submissions.tpl located in lib/pkp/templates/fronteend/pages.
  2. Search for  |nl2br. You’ll find it is used in 3 instances.
  3. Keep the first instance and remove the 2nd and 3rd instances.

Credit for the solution posted here is attributed to iclaudius and asmecher (GitHub) at  https://github.com/pkp/pkp-lib/issues/1964. 

Issue importing references from WordPress to Endnote using Academic Blogger’s Toolkit.⤴

from @ ICT & Education

I love Academic Blogger’s Toolkit (ABT). It allows me to add references to my WordPress research and reflection blog (which isn’t this one and I don’t have a link to it as it’s for my eyes only—sorry). One particular feature I quite like is the ability to export references I’ve created in Endnote and have them imported into ABT.

That is, until recently. For some reason, the last update to Endnote has caused it to stop working. To resolve the situation, I sent a Twitter message to the creator of the plug-in, Derek Sifford, via Twitter (@flightmed1). Within a day—a day!—the issue had been reviewed and solved. Now that, ladies and gentleman, is what I call impressive.

So, if anyone else has the same issue, here’s what to do.

  1. Export as RefMan (RIS) file. Text only.
  2. Rename the file extension from .txt to .bib. On a Mac, you MUST …
    1. Select the file and choosing File -> Get Info
    2. Click the arrow to the left of “Name and Extension”
    3. Click return key
  3. Import using ABT

* Annoyingly, you can’t merely rename the extension on a Mac by clicking it. All that does it add .ris to the end of the file (so you end up with FILENAME.txt.ris). Go figure.

And, again, a huge thanks to Derek. You’ve got a fan for life now, sir. 🙂

Flattening Adobe forms made in FormsCentral⤴

from @ ICT & Education

I quite like FormsCentral. It’s a very easy way for me to keep track of the data I collect from the interactive PDF forms I’ve created. The problem arises if you want to send someone a flattened copy of the document without the submit button. Yes, you can go into FormsCentral and get it to create the document but this can (sometimes) cause fonts and font sizes to go … squiffy, shall we say.

So here’s an alternative using Adobe Acrobat XI. You can’t do this from Acrobat Reader. Sorry.

  1. Create an optimised copy of the document.
    File -> Save As Other…
    Choose Optimised PDF…
  2. A message pops up saying
    This document restricts some Acrobat features to allow for extended features in Adobe Reader. To create a copy of the document that is not restricted (and has no extended features in Adobe Reader), click Save a Copy”
  3. Click Save a Copy
    Save the file somewhere you can find it!
  4. Open the newly-created copy
  5. Repeat step 1
    This time, you won’t get the message and you’ll go to a menu.

    1. Make sure Fonts and Transparency are unchecked.
    2. For Discard Objects, make sure only Flatten form fields is checked
    3. For Discard User Data, make sure Discard hidden layer content and flatten visible layers is checked
  6. Save the file
    You can save over the current file.

Your created file will retain the fonts and font sizes, will not have a submit button and will be flattened.