Export R ggplot as windows meta file for powerpoint

I want to make a poster with graphs imported from R, using the ggplot package.

1. I could export the images as png, but they look pixelised on a big file. 
2. I would have liked to import SVG but it's not possible in microsoft powerpoint. 
3. win.metafile() is the solution

Took me a while to figure out that the windows metafile is also a scalable graphic format. It can be used as such:

win.metafile("file name.emf",width=17, height=9) # width and height in inches,
# You can divide by 72 to have the size in pixel
ggplot() + geom_line(data=dtf, aes(...))
dev.off()

Latex to word

My thesis co-director recommended me to use LaTeX, so I produced a document in LaTeX and exported it to a PDF. But one of the persons I'm collaborating with wants to comment on a word file. I tried latex2rtf but the output doesn't take into account my tables formatted with tabularx and the bibliography, so the reviewer will be missing on part of the document. Latex2rtf is not working for me so I'll be using the export option of Adobe Acrobat.

I might also try Pandoc.

OpenERP databases + export and import to forms

OpenERP uses PostgreeSQL to host databases.

• Databases can be created from the client interface. 
• They can also be deleted "drop" database
• Backed-up and imported. It appears some data was lost after a database backup and retrieval (I have to test that again).

Import into forms

• Vinay Rana had a good advice here:

"You just first try export the data from export wizard and import compatible field needs to be true in export wizard.
The generated wizard output csv will give you better idea regarding fields and format."

How-to Delete an Oulook autocomplete address

To delete an adress in the Auto-complete list of Outlook, press the delete key. Trick found on that forum:

>I do not use auto-complete, it has been disabled. Yet when I type in any
> letter in the 'To' box, a whole list of email addresses that I've used
> anytime in the past two years appears. I don't want any names to appear.
> Please help me. Thanks.

You can delete them from that list. Just tap the delete key when the list
appears, and the highlighted address will disappear. Keep deleting until the
list is empty.

OpenOffice find function returns error when nothing is found

I wanted to sort operations on my bank sheet. I thought I'd extract the value at the end of a row (contained in cell D4) according to the first word (the word "transfer" for example) in a cell at the begining of the row (Cell B4). So I used this formula

=IF(FIND("TRANSFER",B4),D4,"")

If the culumn B4 contains the word TRANFER, this will return the value of column D4

• But the problem is that if the word is not present, then the function FIND returns an error #value!
• The solution is to use the ISNUMBER() function, to avoid that error. The function becomes something of the sort:

=IF(ISNUMBER(FIND("TRANSFER",B4)),D4,"")

I found this solution on the OpenOffice wiki.

View your Google calendar in Outlook 2007

I was looking for a way to see my google calendar from work and I found this: View your Google calendar in Outlook 2007. It seems to work.

Turn off auto notifiers to increase your productivity

Process your email in batches:

A simple way to increase your productivity is to turn off auto notifiers. It’s simply not necessary to check email constantly throughout the day, and doing so will regularly interrupt more important tasks. After receiving thousands of emails I can safely say that I’ve never received one that couldn’t wait 12 hours or so.

Process your inbox in batches. Make it once or twice a day, and try to get your inbox down to zero. This will allow you to plow through the rest of your productive tasks without constant interruption.

I'm sad to say I use outlook at work. Turning off auto notification is called: "Turn Desktop Alerts on or off" in the outlook help page:

On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.
Under When new items arrive in my Inbox, clear the Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box.