Setup Netgear Nighthawk D7000 AC for ISP Zen VDSL FTTC

Zen seem slow to offer or recommend any official AC/VDSL routers for Zen that they support, somewhat disappointingly as AC has been around for some time. Technical support did say there was no problem using one and so purchased Netgear D7000 with integral VDSL modem and had good reviews.

The best guidance I could find (for Draytech) was that all that was required was to use WAN VLAN UID 101 , PPoE, Zen user name and password, mode VDSL. 

On boot up offers list of ISP by country; for UK there about 10 and include TalkTalk, BT, Be and Other. As Zen was not listed seemed logical to close other but this takes you back to opening screen and not just give you option to enter your username and password, PPPoE etc. as I had expected; the only option seemed to be manually configure. Unfortunately manual configuring is not intuitive. There is no VLAN UID to set to 101 but some thing that lists priority 0-9 (still do not know what this does).

After multiple unsuccessful attempts was on verge of giving up but decided to start from scratch and choose BT as my ISP on basis that OpenReach BT supplied line for Zen. Amazingly this did work and the Internet light changed white for first time, however not all was sorted. 

I did have internet access and could download Netgear Genie when given option from within setup wizard. However every time there was any internet access required it asked for router admin and password even when Safari could access internet via new tab. What eventually became apparent was that the wizard needed to be completed and internet access was locked via router login till then. This was not immediately obvious as the wizard was hidden behind Safari. Once I found this and completed setup wizard which was product registration with Netgear normal internet access seemed restored.

So Netgear D7000 AC does work with Zen but choose BT as your ISP and ensure you complete the wizard. Personally dod not find the menu system as intuitive as other routers but this may be lack of familiarity.

OSX Yosemite Mail app settings for GMail accounts

Getting Gmail accounts to integrate nicely with Apple Mail has always had some difficulties as Gmail does not use a standard IMAP system and uses labels instead of folders and messages can have two labels. The concept of the All Mail label is effectively an archive and has caused confusion between a delete and an archive. Apple has been improving this interaction with Gmail (e.g. in iOS8) and in OSX it has steadily improved as OSX has evolved from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and now Yosemite. Unfortunately many of the settings and tips that were described for earlier version and are still easily found via search engines are no longer relevant in Yosemite and in some situation make the situation worse. Below are settings (click figures for enlarged view) which seem to work reliably both for @gmail.com and Google App @mydomain.com accounts.

1. In web interface for Gmail under the account settings > labels tab all the labels need to be exposed to IMAP by ticking the right hand column check boxes. (For previous version of OSX it was suggested not to select certain ones e.g. Bin or All Mail but this makes Yosemite worse).

2. In web interface for Gmail under the account settings >  Forwarding -POP/IMAP tab set the auto-expunge settings as below, to be controlled by client. In the figure it shows messages moved to the bin and they will be deleted after 30 days - you can choose to delete them immediately if required. The settings on this tab need to be saved with button at the bottom of page unlike the settings for labels.

3. This assumes that a Gmail account has already been added in usual manner to Mail app on the Mac. With Mail app open on the Mac you need to open Preferences from the drop down menu of the Mail item in the menu bar at top of screen and then choose Accounts tab and from within Accounts select the Gmail account on left side (the second one in the screenshot) and choose Mailbox Behaviours tab. Set all the option boxes to be ticked as shown below. When set select another account and this will give you option to save the new settings. It is all pretty much done now but it is worth closing mail (Quitting with CMD-Q not just minimising) and then reopening. IT may take a little time to resynchronise the account. Sometimes it is worth selecting a mailbox and choosing to "Rebuild" from the Mailbox menu in the menu bar at the top.

[Addendum 18 Dec 2014: Some have described issues with GMail and saving drafts multiple copies of drafts as emails written in Mail app, perhaps every minute. This does not seem universal to everybody and seems to only affect Gmail accounts. It has been suggested it relates to the timing of the send command and updating the last draft. In practice the only solution seems to untick the Save Drafts on Server settings shown above - although this does mean that drafts started on one machine will not be able to be accessed on another unless they are first moved to a user defined folder/label. If drafts are not saved on server then the layout described below will differ and drafts will be displayed in seperate folder at bottom of sidebar]

4.  After reopening Mail on the left hand side bar will now display as in the screenshot below. In this example there are four accounts and each has an entry in the submenu for Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Junk, Trash and Archive . Deleted messages from Gmail account will show in the relevant mailbox under Trash and under Archive it will show the Gmail "All Mail" label/folder mapped to the Archive as it should. However beware when working with the All Mail Archive folder as all GMail items will be present but may well exist in other folders if they have user labels and best to deal with this folder via Gmail web interface where all the labels for each message in the All Mail folder can be seen.

All the user defined labels/folders as opposed to these system labels can be seen uinder the individual accounts lower in the sidebar (providing the labels have been exposed to IMAP in settings)

Turning on Two Factor (Step) Authentication for Outlook.com - some practical experinces

Having just gone through the process of turning on Two factor (step) authentication (2FA) for one individual for Microsoft Outlook.com (and hence the services associated with the Microsoft login) these are some observations and comments on practicalities and implications which some may find useful. It is not intended as a guide to basic process that has already being covered in detail by many others. 

If you are not going to read detail below just take one concept away. Turning on 2FA and getting it sorted on all your apps on all physical devices is not a 5 minute job like changing a password, although it is not very complicated. Allow time and plan what will need to be done.

2FA is increasingly being encouraged as something all users should adopt as standard to improve security with good reason. It is about the two factors - something you know and something you have. It is also sold as being very easy and in principle is but the need for understanding of what is happening and the potential on-going use may well be relatively small but is not insignificant for the 95% of users who are non-technical. This is particularly true in guidance with use of the term "trusted device" which may not equate to how many non-technical users may use this term. It should also be noted that different organisations implement 2AF in slightly different ways.

In the example the user already had a very strong "main" password for Outlook.com (this was not changed during this process) but wished to turn on 2FA for a system that consisted of various devices:

• iMac desktop using Apple Mail, Safari and Chrome, OneDrive
• MacBook Pro using Airmail, Safari and Chrome, OneDrive
• iPad using iOS Mail, Safari and Chrome, OneDrive
• Android (4.4.) smartphone using Chrome, Outlook.com app, OneDrive

These devices seem representative of many a user's situation

• After logging into Microsoft account on the web and turning on 2FA in the Password and more security section of the account settings there are a number of choices that need to be made. The main one is how you are going to get a 6 digit authentication code when required. This code can be sent from Microsoft by text to a mobile phone but if you were in a location of no signal this would not work and the best option seems to install an authenticator application on the smartphone which once setup correctly will generate the code for you without any phone signal.
• Microsoft seems to default to suggesting installing the Microsoft authenticator but there are other options and the most widely used is Google Authenticator (GA). This simple app generates a 6-digit code every 20 seconds once installed and connected to an account. You can download and install Google Authenticator for iOS or Android before you enable 2FA at Microsoft and then when choosing authenticator application choose other device and this will show a QR barcode on screen. To link the Microsoft account to the Google Authenticator on that smartphone just use Google Authenticator to scan the QR code (from the screen works) and this will set it up for that account. Other accounts e.g. Gmail can be added into same app later.
• In theory people have described it is possible to have Google Authenticator on two devices e.g. iPad and Smartphone with the same account linked but it seems not easy and they have to be linked from the same QR code at the same time ( as once QR code not displayed on screen you cannot get the same one back). I am not sure there is much advantage as if the phone is stolen or lost all authenticator apps have to be revoked, you cannot specify one device to revoke.
• Most versions of 2FA describe how if a device is frequently used when authenticating it with a code on first occasion it can be marked as "trusted" or a frequently login to this device. There are a few important aspects to understand about this and avoid potential confusion.

1. Most would think of a device as being an iPad, iMac desktop etc. i.e. a physical device and once authenticated everything (browsers, apps) on that physical device would be trusted- this is NOT the case.
2. It may be better to think of the device as an application e.g. a browser and this means that in case of having both Safari and Chrome browsers if you login to Outlook.com with Safari and validate it with a code and mark it as trusted when you login to Oultook.com with Chrome you will have to validate that browser separately as well. This may relate to cookies and if these are cleared the browser will have to be revalidated.
3. Most systems have time outs for their trusted "devices" e.g. 90 days and this means that if you do not login to web interface of Microsoft with Chrome it will become untrusted and you will have to enter a GA code even if in that time you have logged in with e.g. Apple Mail or with the Safari browser. This only adds one step and in is not a major issue but does mean you need to have the GA app on the smartphone handy. However this is the same situation as if you were logging in from another non-trusted computer.
4. Even if a “device” is trusted from within a browser this does not pass on to applications on same “physical device” regardless whether they support 2FA (e.g. OneDrive) or not. On the iMac, MacBook, Smartphone and iPad all the browsers (7 instances) had to be trusted independently using a GA code. Even after that OneDrive on same physical device which supports 2FA had to be trusted separately with GA code. This only worked by closing OneDrive and reopening it and it did not just accept it but forced me to choose again my local OneDrive folder. As OneDrive starts at each login it will presumably not timeout but it looks as though if I did not logon to a computer within 90 days and have OneDrive login then I would have to revalidate again and may have to choose my OneDrive folder again etc.

• Not only is “trusted device” located at the application level e.g. Safari and OneDrive on the MacBook with each having seemingly its own time out (only time will tell) but the majority of applications e.g. Apple Mail, Airmail etc. do NOT support 2FA directly and this means that these will need to use “ an application specific password”.
• Application specific password are easily generated after logging in to the Microsoft account settings Password Security section and choosing new application password. This 16 digit code can be used for an application such as Apple Mail or Airmail on the Macs or Mail app on iPad. However each app requires its own password, each password can only be used for one application on one physical device. This means even for the same Outlook.com account in Apple Mail on the iMac and MacBook it will require different passwords. However an Outlook.com account in Apple Mail on one physical device e.g. iMac will require the same application specific password for both the IMAP incoming server and SMTP outgoing server (the latter is not obvious in Apple Mail > SMTP dropdown> Edit Advanced). It has been suggested that on Apple OSX devices using iCloud that it may need to be entered in a third not obvious place – the iCloud account settings for the account using Contacts – something not yet explored as this user did not use the Outlook.com contact facilities.
• Once you have created the application specific password in Microsoft accounts and you click “Done” it disappears off screen and there is no way to get it back; it is still valid. If you think you are going to have to enter it elsewhere as described in the iCloud example above make a temporary note of it somewhere. You cannot revoke a single application specific password you can only revoke all application specific from the Microsoft account settings and this would mean all applications setup on all physical devices would have to be reconfigured with new passwords; a significant piece of work. However in the above Apple Mail example, if you have not made a note and find you do need to enter it in a third place, you could generate a new application password and then re-enter it in the appropriate all the appropriate fields (incoming and outgoing) and this time in the third place  
• The good news about application specific passwords is they do not expire in same way that trusted devices do.
• The Android Outlook.com app was not as straightforward as I would have expected, given that it is a Microsoft app to only support a Microsoft service. The app does not seem to have 2FA built in (surprisingly) which means it needs an application specific password – just like Apple apps. The instructions on the Microsoft help on 2FA describe opening it, choosing settings and then server and adjusting the user passwords. I could find no way t access serve settings for the Outlook.com app and as such could not get to anywhere to adjust password. It did ask for a password at one point in a pop up but no indication of what was required a GA 6 digit code for 2FA or a password and when an incorrect code was entered and no further options appeared. In the end I deleted the whole app, reinstalled on phone and reconfigured with a new app specific password.  This did mean that all the email settings needed setting up as before (email to sync in time and size, signatures,, folders to sync) and then all email had to sync. Others may not have had problems but be aware that all may not be smooth or it may go smoothly if you enter an app specific password (not GA code) when first asked after turning on 2FA

So in summary 2FA is worth turning on but you need to allocate appropriate time to do this – it is not just like changing a single password. It certainly is not as simple as “just turning on 2FA” as some writers imply. The terminology may be somewhat misleading (e.g what is meant by a device) and the majority of applications do not have 2FA built in and will need application specific passwords and you need to understand how these work. There are other methods such as USB hardware keys to implement 2FA but as yet are certainly not main stream for the general population. It is disappointing that more applications do not have 2FA built in but it may be that biometrics such as on Apple iOS devices may aid ease of use for the non technical average user.

Why was iOS Mail app archiving GMail messages even though was set to delete?

iOS 8 and Gmail was behaving oddly with regard to a delete action  and was still only archiving them. The preferences in account setup was set to to the delete option  not archive and the delete folder target was set as Bin on Server.

What happened in iOS 8 Mail app

In iOS8 Mail app in GMail account, a long swipe left (=delete) or short swipe left then choose Trash all had the same effect on message. The message disappeared from inbox and if you looked in the trash folder for the gmail account you may momentarily see message as it syncs with server then the message disappears from Trash folder. Checking directly on server via browser confirmed the message was not in Trash (Bin), however looking at the "All mail" GMail folder (the GMail archive folder) showed message STILL present there.

Compared to how it should have worked as in iOS GMail app

In the iOS Gmail app Deleting a message from Inbox and it appeared in Trash (Bin) folder and remained there; at this time it was also still present in the All Mail folder. However choose then to delete forever option (from within Trash (Bin)) and disappears from both Trash AND the All Mail folder.

Summary of problem

iOS Mail app with Gmail accounts appeared with the TRASH option only to move emails to trash locally but then as soon as sync with server it disappeared from the Trash folder with no further action but remained in the All Folder. This is in effect an Archive.  It should work as as the Gmail iOS app - messages deleted or trashed are moved to Trash (from where they can be restored ) and remain there till deleted permanently manually or the Trash can is automatically purged after set time on server.

Solution

Others did not seem to have this problem but took some time to realise the issue was with the type of account configured to connect to the Gmail account, not the settings of that account.

The account was originally setup  on iOS 6, upgraded to iOS 7 and then iOS 8. Due to syncing problems with previous versions of iOS and Google many had recommended using the Exchange interface to Google and this is what  had done. When the connection was originally established the type of account chosen was "Exchange". 

For the GMail account in settings I deleted the Exchange type connection and made new account setup using the Gmail type account option in iOS8. It now all seems to work correctly , so solution was to use correct type account. I cannot remember whether I tested the Exchange version thoroughly in previous iOS versions so cannot say if this is a new problem or also existed in iOS 7. Since identifying the problem and looking at the contents of my All Mail folder it looks as though this was occurring in iOS 7.

Tidying up GMail "All Mail"

Having fixed the issue for future deletes the issue was then how to delete messages in the All Mail folder that I thought I had deleted. It is important to state that I have my own set of user defined folders (labels) where I place messages to be kept and hence do not use the Archive facility of Gmail. The following will delete all messages that exist only in the All Mail folder

• To identify messages in All Mail that do NOT have any user applied labels (i.e. in my folders) and are not in the system folders (labels) Inbox, Drafts or Sent then use the advanced search facility while logged into GMail via a browser. In the Search box type:
         has:nouserlabels -in:sent -in:chat -in:draft -in:inbox
• This will present the large number of messages as multiple pages. Select the tick box in header area that will select all the messages on that page and this will also then give you option (if you have selected all on that page) to select all conversations that meet this search criteria - select Yes. With all conversations selected then choose delete.
• At this point they will still show as are in the Trash Bin. Go to Trash bin and scan the messages just to ensure that you have not accidentally deleted a large number of messages you do wish to keep - if there are then undo the delete function. If all is OK and you are happy to get rid of the messages then Empty Trash Bin.

GMail Contacts sync - Fields display in wrong order in Addresses on iPad

I use Gmail for email and contacts syncing them to iPad, iMac and MacBook. For some time some I have been confused by how some addresses display on iPad with data above the first line of address.

Address should show as [ Fields where data is entered on Google Contacts]

32 Hunter Street     [Street]
Nether Green         [Local Area]
Sheffield                [City]
S11 1AA                [Zip/Post Code]
United Kingdom    [Country]

on iPad reads as

Nether Green
2 Hunter Street
Sheffield [City]
S11 1AA
United Kingdom

Confusingly choose to edit record on iPad and the [Local Area] entry appears above the street entry. If  you change the order to correct  this on iPad in Edit screen (delete the area entry and enter the street area, delete the original street entry and enter the area entry) an odd thing happens. On Gmail contacts the updated entry are BOTH put in the street entry (as I suggest doing below).  The problem seems related to the [Local Area] field. If you want it to display correctly then do not use the [Local Area] field when entering on Google Contacts and enter a second line in the street field with the local area information and this will then display correctly.

If using Contacts on OSX and syncing with Google then also enter the Local Field as a second line in the street field as suggested above for the Gmail web interface.

The iPad sync I use takes place with the Google type internet account and hoped iOS8 would solve it but this is not the case. I have tested this on iPad with a separate CardDav account (disabling the contacts in the main Google account) and makes no difference. As such it seems like a bug in the iPad contacts display - I am surprised it has not been picked up by Apple and corrected. As I use Android phone switching to iCloud is not really an option.

OSX DiskUtility fails due to inability to unmount USB drive

On OSX 10.9.3 trying to format some USB drives but the Mac Disk Utility failed when trying to reformat or repartition with " error unable to dismount " and consequently fails. This seemed a bit hit and miss which USB drives it effected but the fix was to temporarily disable Spotlight indexing - why it was indexing these particular drives it was not clear. Note after re-enabling indexing OSX will reindex all disks which will take some time.

To disable Spotlight in Terminal use command

       sudo mdutil -a -i off

After using DiskUtility re-enable indexing in Terminal with

       sudo mdutil -a -i on

Spotlight not working on Mac (OSX)

On a hackintosh with OSX 10.8.2 Spotlight suddenly stopped working with these symptoms:

• It was possible to enter search term but did not show anything other than Web or Wikipedia.
• In preferences it was set to show all and the privacy pane was empty.
• In terminal (terminal commands in blue, terminal response in red)
  "sudo mdutil -i off /" (to turn off service),
  "sudo mdutil -i on /", (to turn on service)
  "sudo mdutil -E /" (to delete meta data)
  all produced the result 'Spotlight Server is disabled' i.e. the usual command seem to have no effect.

The following terminal command seemed to produce some results, time will tell if it is temporary

• "sudo rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100" removed the index but had no effect on above commands
• "sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist " produced 'com.apple.metadata.mds Already loaded'
• "sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist" seemed to work.
• "sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist" then seemed to work also [using the reverse has also been required i.e unload load unload and then reload]
• Restarting Spotlight then with "sudo mdutil -i on /" produced \
  /:  Indexing enabled.
  /Volumes/MacDell435TMBU: Indexing enabled

There are multiple descriptions of problems with Spotlight and it is unlikely there is one common cause but a number do describe the issue of the Server disabled command when usual terminal commands are used trying to reset it. This may help in some circumstances.

Android Fix: App could not be downloaded due to an error 492

Full article 

http://appslova.com/android-fix-app-could-not-be-downloaded-due-to-an-error-492/

Running Cynaogenmod Android 2.3 on original HTC - this allows me to use the SD as app storage and get over memory limits. It has extended life of phone from 15 months (when ran out of space) to now almost 4 years and phone is still fine.

Recently unable to update a 5 Apps. The above link was very helpful and and simply wiping the disk cache and the Dalvik cache by rebooting into recovery mode and choosing the appropriate options solved the problem.

OS X Mac asking for password when moving files to Trash

Credit for this solution to:
http://www.fixkb.com/2012/09/mac-asking-for-password-when-moving-files-to-trash.html#comment-72799

This started after Mavericks upgrade. When dragging files to the trash you are prompted for a password this is result of sometimes when moving files or folder the permission are not carried over or permissions on trash can have become corrupted. Ownership corruption of trash can can also manifest itself as Trash always shows empty but Terminal can identify files present. You will need to re-take ownership of the trash folder or reapply permissions to folders. 

Method 1

1. Click on the Spotlight (magnifying glass in top right), type “Terminal” and press enter.
2. Type the following command replacing “your_user_name” with your user name.
   sudo chown your_user_name ~/.Trash
3. You will need to enter your password and press Enter.
   • It won’t show any characters when you type.
   • If you do not have a password then set one first.

If you are presented with the following error:  “No such file or folder” then do the following:

1. Type the following command:
   mkdir ~/.Trash

Method 2

Check your permisions are correct on your user files.

1. Navigate to your main hard drive (usually Macintosh HD) and select your /Users folder.
2. Press  “Cmd+I” to bring up the Get Info window.
3. Expand the “Sharing and Permissions” arrow.
4. Next to your username you should see “Read & Write”.
5. Click the small Gear icon  and then click “Apply to enclosed items…”

Uninstall printer drivers in Windows7, non responding Excel and Word

In a recent odd problem on Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit machine Word, Excel started to hand/crash when trying to format bold, alter page layout etc. Eventually realised this was not within Word or Excel but seemed to be crashing of the Print Spooler Service [e.g. open another app e.g.  Firefox and choose to print but it then says cannot find any printers ].

Repeated crashing of Print Spooler Service seems to have multiple causes and hence multiple solutions but one of the more consistent is that relates to a bad printer driver and indeed the HP Universal Driver had been installed recently which seems to have a chequered reputation. . The genera advice is to uninstall the Driver and to ensure complete uninstall manually by stopping spooler service,  going to Print Server settings under File  in Print Folder and uninstalling the driver. This is not shown in Windows' 7 Home Premium which seems not to have Print management installed and the alternative of typing Print Management in Search also does not work.

However … if you type printui /s /t2  in a run command box the magically you get a window that lists all the installed print drivers and allows you  select the relevant one and uninstall it. Even if you choose to uninstall package certain services seem left behind e.g. Net Driver HPZ12 but at least these are set to manual.

Tweetcaster and network time

Running Android 2.3 CM7 for some time and suddenly after many months Tweetcaster app stopped working. Initially said time scale out of bounds (this was really a clue) , re-installed app, cleared cache all to no effect. It still said "cannot connect to Twitter. " The official Twitter app worked fine. Eventually the problem was solved by adjusting the android system time to use the network automatic time. Somehow this had become unticked and Tweetcaster then worked. It was the only app that seemed affected by by not using an auto network time.

Notability 4.4 converts office docs to PDF

How do you convert an Office document to PDF while on an iPad? You can purchase additional apps but if you only want to use this occasionally and you have Notability, one of most popular note taking apps, there is another option. While on iPad in something like the mail app, e.g. docx or xlsx email attachment , view it for and choose the “Open in” function and choose Notability. Notability will show importing and the document will be saved as PDF. It can be then reopened in other PDF apps e.g. GoodReader. It does need an internet connection to do the import and conversion as Notability is actually using the Google Docs API to do the conversion in the cloud.

Using Notability in wider iOS iPad ecosystem with Google Drive, Evernote, PDFs and OCR

UPDATE: as of August 2012 there is now an editor for RTF files on the iPad RichText Edit ( Knowtilus ) in app store . This seems a good start for v1 of an app does have some basic cloud sync function for DropSync etc. It also has an export to Evernote and you can choose PDF, RTF, Text or HTML. The HTML and text is entered directly in a note an the RTF as an attachment. You can get RTF files from Noteability into the editor but you may have to use an intermediate app to get from cloud and then use an Open in from another app. Also beware of RTF round tripping to G Drive in terms of conversion from RTF to gdoc format.

Google Drive

Share / Export File formats in Notability

1. PDF
2. RTF

Evernote

OCR

1. Handwriting recognition
2. Searchable PDFs

After reviewing the Notability note taking app on iPad it seems one of the best note taking apps albeit like all it has some limitations in its current format. Some of these limitations are due to the wider iOS ecosystem and some due to the app itself. After experimentation with a number of other apps this blog offers some suggestions of how it could be integrated in with apps to make it more productive.

Google Drive (briefly covered in previous post)

Currently Notability does not support Google Drive directly as cloud provider. The easiest way is gain access is to use a WebDAV gateway or cloud aggregator. Not all WebDAV cloud aggregates seem to work with each WebDAV implementation in each app but the free project https://dav-pocket.appspot.com/ which is solely a WebDAV gateway to Google Drive works well. You will need to register and then in Notability under Cloud providers in settings set the WebDAV Server to https://dav-pocket.appspot.com/docso with username and password.
To get notes from Notability to Google Drive select the note within Notability choose the Share option from toolbar, choose WebDAV this should then list your Google Drive folders and choose the folder you wish to export to. When you export (share) a note it will create a subfolder with the name of the Subject of the Note within the folder chosen for export. As an example id there is a note called “MyLetter” within a subject called “Finance” in Notability on the iPad and on share you choose a Google Drive folder called “My Exported Notes” on share the file will be called MyLetter (with appropriate ending – see below) in a folder called Finance (created by Notability in the share process) within the folder My Exported Notes (created manually by user and chosen for sharing). Any future notes from within the same subject (Finance) will go to the same folder on Google Drive.
Other cloud aggregators such as Otixo (free basic account) will give access to all your cloud providers within one WebDAV gateway

Sharing File formats in Notability

Many will wish to continue to work on files that perhaps they have started from off in Notability. The options (excluding Notability internal file format) for file sharing to the cloud e.g. Google Drive via WebDAV are currently limited to PDF and RTF file format.
If you choose to Share to / Export a cloud destination e.g. Google Drive or Dropbox then you can choose PDF or RTF but if you choose to “Open in” another app on the iPad the PDF is only option.

PDF

If it is typed text within Notability note then the PDF exported is searchable and can be edited in some format with more specific PDF tools that allow annotation, bookmarks etc. either on a PC (accessing the cloud) or directly on the iPad e.g. Readdle PDF Expert. To get it into apps such as PDFExpert it can be either opened from the cloud where you have saved it or directly from within Notability using the Share option at the top of a note and choosing “Open in” then the relevant app e.g. PDFxpert in my example. Each app varies when opening rom a cloud as to whether it keeps a local copy of not (e.g. Office2HD does not but PDFExpert does) so thought will be need to ensure which edited copy is the latest. Any Notability handwritten notes in PDF will not be editable as they will be graphics (see OCR comments below).
It is possible use cheap or free desktop software to convert the PDF file to Microsoft to Word e.g. Nitro 6 (often freely distributed on magazines etc.) and conversion is OK but for more consistency RTF may be better option.

RTF

Many may wish to continue to edit (either on PC, Mac or iPad) a note they have started e.g. an outline of a proposal taken at a meeting on iPad and then it is fully expanded and written later on different platform or more specific app, this usually means Word docx format at some stage and Notability does not support that.
It is possible to do a simple Copy All of typed text from within a Notability note and paste it into another iPad app e.g. Office2HD to produce a Word docx document BUT any formatting does not seem to get copied which may defeat some of the object. The most consistent way seems to be to Share/Export to a cloud server in RTF format then open the RTF note from a word processor on a PC or Mac and re-save in Word docx file format. At that point it can then be shared with co-workers in a normal manner e.g. via Google Drive, Dropbox et or can be edited locally on the iPad in docx format in apps such as QuickOffice or Office2HD. Currently there appear no apps that will edit RTF files on the iPad although some may display with or without formatting but that is no advantage over the PDF option.


If you choose to export in RTF then it is best to turn Off paper on shareas otherwise you may have each line interspersed with a right side carriage return prefixed by a long underscore to mimic a line
There appear no conversion options for running directly on the iPad to convert RTF to docx and although there are in theory cloud services to carry this out accessing them realistically from iPad does not seem feasible. If Google docs format is required not docx then the file conversions can be done in normal way on Google.

Evernote

Evernote is one of the most popular cloud resources for organising and managing notes, associated documents across multiple platforms with specific apps for iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows as well as a web login. Details of Evernote are outside the scope of this article. There is currently no direct support from within Notability for either the Evernote cloud or the Evernote export/file access.
The simplest way to get the note from Notability into Evernote is to have the free Evernote iOS app and from within a note in Notability “Share” and then choose “Open in” (PDF only option) and the choose Open Note in “Evernote”. A new note will be create within Evernote with the title of the Notability note but added to default Evernote Notebook. The PDF will show in line (i.e. not as an attachment) and the Evernote note itself is editable in that you can type above or below the PDF section in line section. If the note was typed in in Notability it should be searchable using the Evernote search facility. [For Notability photos and “scanned” but searchable PDF notes into Evernote via Notability see the OCR section late.].
To get a non PDF version of a note into Evernote you will need to save it to a cloud server and then add it to an Evernote note from within Evernote on either a PC or Mac (little experience of Android) as there is no way of adding it within the Evernote iOS app. Once the RTF (or converted to docx file) is added to a note it is available via Evernote app on the iOS but shows as an attachment and not inline. It can be opened in another app e.g. Office2HD and can be edited BUT this creates a local copy and no direct updating the attachments in the iOS Evernote app. To update the attachment in Evernote either (i) the file would need to be copied back to a cloud server from within the iOS office app or (ii) email the updated file to the Evernote email address. Whichever update route from iOS is chosen a new note from the updated file will be created and the attachment in the original Evernote note updated from a PC or Mac will need to be corrected.

OCR

There are two types of OCR to be considered in relation to Notability (i) handwriting conversion to text and (ii) readable text from scanned documents into a PDF

Handwriting OCR

Notability does not offer OCR directly from handwriting recognition and behaves more as a jpg image. Evernote server does have OCR capability (prioritised for premium customers) but really expects to find jpg image and the for rules for OCR processing seem unpredictable despite the guidelines given by Evernote. Many Evernote users recommend to OCR their files before upload to Evernote.
The easiest way to get OCR of handwriting into Notability on iOS is to use a simple app called MyScript Memo whose main function is to convert handwriting into text. The free version is avaiable to test the basics but for decent amounts of text (multiple pages and more features) you wil have to purchase the paid for version. Use MyScript Memo to collect the handwritten notes and then choose the Export this page (top right arrow). To get the OCR choose as text then convert >>language. The Options are then to
(i) Copy and then paste the text into a Notability note (where any OCR errors can be adjusted)
(ii) Output the converted text directly into a Evernote note by choosing the Evernote service where anew Evernote will be created. You can then paste.
It is also possible to output an image of the handwriting from MyScript memo and send this image directly to Evernote where a new note will be created . The Evernote will attempt to read the image and OCR it to index it for search but this may take some time ( hours) on free service. OCR from iOS and MyScript before upload seems more reliable and correctable if you really wish to OCR handwritten notes.

Searchable PDFs

If a typed document is scanned on the iOS using something such as Readdle Scanner Pro it produces a PDF image that can then be opened in Notability and annotated as required. In Notability a simple “photo” can be inserted into a note as an image. The output from Notability would be a PDF which image content; any text inserted as annotation would be searchable within the PDF. To get a searchable PDF you will need to OCR the scanned image. The iOS app Snap2PDF is capable of doing this at least for simple documents. First scan the document then use the adjustments for contrast and or warp due to page binding etc.. etc. and choose preview and then done. (Get contrast as good as possible.) You can then select OCR option and searchable PDF will be produced (with option of document metadata etc.). After document the PDF is produced you can preview it and then choose to either (i) open it in Notability and later upload it to Evernote or (ii) directly open it in Evernote in which case a new note will be created containing the PDF bu which is searchable ( for any correct OCR). There seems no easy way to know what has been OCR and indexed correctly and what has not.
A word of caution. On the iOS and in the web versions of Evernote the text of the PDF produced from the OCR of the san seems searchable BUT even though the file is visible in the Windows Desktop app of Evernote it does not seem to searched. Whether this something to do with search index for the PDF being held on server or not downloading locally or a software bug is not clear

Send notes to Google Drive from within Notability on iPad

Notability on iPad supports sending to DropBox but not Google Drive. There is support for WebDAV but I have found that using some WebDAV gateways to Google drive (e.g. smestorage and dav-pocket.appspot.com ) currently give errors from within Notability. However the otixo WebDAV implementation does work and allows Notes to be sent directly to Google Drive

• Use Cloud aggregator www.otixo.com
• Create free account (2BG bandwidth / month limit)
• Add Google Drive as a service to your otixo account
• Use the beta WebDAV service https://dav.otixo.com as WebDAV entry in Notability
• Select notes to send in Notability and then choose Share within Notability and then select WebDAV as destination
• Select folder arrow and GDrive (or whatever you named in in otixo) appears as "Folder" within Notability WebDAV account. you can then choose an appropriate subfolder from Google Drive Send to WebDAV then works within Notability and documents ends up in your Google Drive

A comment on Autosync if you choose the WebDAV service, it is not full autosync in that deletions on the iPad are not carried through to Google Drive and they have to be repeated on Google Drive but this is also true for DropBox.

Removal of padlock symbol on files–taking ownership does not work

Windows 7 and DVD writing. While backing up photos to a DVD using the built in DVD burner in Windows Explorer when it failed to burn as the files did not seem to fit – even though the size was < DVD size afterwards a number of directories concerned had all fields marked with a padlock symbol. Somehow Windows remembered that files till need writing and even after choosing to delete temporary files (on DVD burner item) and rebooting the files were still “padlocked”. general device seemed to be that this was related to ownership and that by taking ownership this would cure the problem. However I already was owner and this made no difference. Others suggested it was due to the Computer\HomeUsers security group but removing them did remove the padlock file from the files but added a new one to the folder icon!

Solution. For each folder under my Pictures>>properties>security>Advanced>.leave the Inherited box ticked but tick the apply box to objects and confirm. hey presto all padlocks disappear!

My guess is somehow the DVD Burner was locking the files while copying them but after release this did not cascade down to the files (? because the job was not competed) and perhaps deleting the temporary files somehow removed the job but the locks still remained. All this solution does is seem to reapply the original security from the top level but it is difficult to see even fro the “effective permissions” tab exactly what changes.

Android phone and searching contacts

Well new HTC Desire Android phone which overall is very good. Currently Outlook on desktop syncs to Google account using gSyncit (recommended) and then down to the phone. However there is a major weakness in Android Search (unbelievable for a product from Google) – especially on latest Froyo 2.2. If you want to search by Organisation / Company – you can't. The Contacts / People will only search Organisation if name is blank – useless for business use. In Outlook you can file / display by Company or Surname as appropriate. The only solution so far is to use third party app to fill Google’s search inadequacies! Power Search is very good  and fast.

Android apps from Market place hang on download

On an new HTC Desire with Android 2.2 sometimes installing apps from Market Place will hang on download – this seems intermittent. This options for a fix may prove helpful – for me the uninstall updates from the Market Place app seemed to work. Hope a proper fix comes for this soon - what should be quick in core system  is a bit like going back to windows 95 to get an install to work.

Office 2010 will not install or upgrade Office 2007

I have been trying to install the retail version of Office 2010 Pro Plus (32 bit) to upgrade an existing Office 2007 (32 bit) installation. On starting the install I get the error:

Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s):
Microsoft Office 2010 does not support upgrading from a prerelease version of Microsoft Office 2010.  You must first uninstall any prerelease versions of Microsoft Office 2010 products and associated technologies.
Correct the issue(s) listed above and re-run setup.

This is even though I never had a 2010 beta on the machine. The culprit in my situation was Outlook Hotmail Connector Addin. Running the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 ) just to list the components showed that Office components were all v12 but the Outlook Connector was v14. Uninstalled the connector and Office 2010 installed fine. After the install of Office 2010 on first use of Outlook recognised there was a need for an Outlook Connector and offered to download it by taking you to the correct download page – but you need to manually install it.

It is a pity that the install did not tell you what needed to be removed or actually upgraded it for you as it is all Microsoft software – a bit of non joined up thinking. Many people will not know what to uninstall.

Office 2010 definitely seems quicker and slicker and is probably worth the upgrade.

KIS detects change in security as new network

Recently upgraded a wireless network security from WEP to WPA. This went fine and the machines could still access the Internet etc. However later it was realised that the wireless connected computers could not longer communicate with the wired computers on network. This was traced to Kaspersky Internet Security on the wireless computers. Even though the SSID of the wireless network had not changed (and previously set to local network for the firewall) KIS had detected the change in security as a new network this had been added and the default for all new networks was Public – hence the problem. Two networks with the same SSID showed in KIS settings – one disconnected and Local and one connected and public. Deleted the old disconnected one and change the new one to Local and all works fine.

Fix PDF Previewer in Windows x64 Outlook or Explorer

PDF Preview (Outlook and Explorer) should work in Windows 7 with Adobe Reader installed (this contains preview handler). However due to the broken (for 2 years) Adobe installer not inserting correct registry key it does now work in 64 bit version. There is a very simple tweak (download .reg file and click it) to make it work.

Full details are at http://www.pretentiousname.com/adobe_pdf_x64_fix/index.html