1. Open the Settings panel by clicking the wrench icon in the title bar.
2. Leave your settings the way they are, especially User Mode which should be set to YES for most users. If you use a location that isn’t one of the default locations for Painter (ex. a folder on D: drive), skip steps 3 and 4.
3. For consistency choose Painter 11 from the Painter Version drop down.
4. Click the button that says Set to Default Location, then check the checkbox beside it for using a custom path.
5. If your path uses Application Data or AppData in Windows or Application Support on Mac OS, change 11 (or your version number) to 12 — this should be most users. If your path uses Program Files on Windows or Applications in Mac OS, change “Corel Painter 11″ to “Painter12″ with no spaces. Windows 64-bit users should also remove ” (x86)” — the space in front of it too–  from the Program Files folder name.

That’s it! This will install brushes into the Default workspace in the Painter Brushes library. Changing “Default” to another workspace name will use that workspace instead. Changing “Painter Brushes” to another library name will use that library instead. It’s all pretty straightforward.

If you do choose to use a different workspace or library, my recommendation is to use the Browse button that opens beside the path’s text box, just to make sure spelling and spacing are exact. The folder selection dialog that opens will be set to your current location and you should be able to see the folders for your other workspaces. Expand a workspace along with its Brushes folder and choose a library (any folder inside of the Brushes folder) and click OK. Now Brush Manager will install into the chosen workspace and library.

WordPress 3.1 came out a couple of days ago, and I’m enjoying it so far. A lot of the new features will come in handy in a few weeks when I have time to sit down and tweak this theme.

One feature added in this release is the Admin Bar. When logged in, it is shown fixed to the top of your browser window. It has links to all of the important sections of the admin panel along with unapproved comment counts and update alerts. It also has a search bar to the far right. Something is off in the CSS for the search bar in a default install; the search button, which should be beside the search field, has dropped below. Form elements don’t always play nice.

After looking at it for two days, it bothered me enough to write some corrective CSS.

The results are shown above. If your search field has the same problem, add the following to your theme’s functions.php file or add it to a plugin, whichever you prefer — [Double click the code and then copy] — It will magically transform the broken search form into the “After” screenshot above.

<?php function sc_fix_admin_bar_search() { ?>


<?php } 

add_filter('wp_head', 'sc_fix_admin_bar_search');
?>

All it does is add a compacted block of CSS to the header of your pages that overrides wp-includes/admin-bar.css. It is working perfectly in gecko (Firefox) and webkit-based browsers (Safari, Chrome, Adobe AIR, etc). It is also working in Internet Explorer 8 (and probably 9). IE6, IE7 and Opera have padding issues. These will not be fixed because I don’t use those browsers regularly (“at all” would be more accurate except for testing).

Here’s the Quick Fix

If you’re experiencing the same problem as me, the fix is to disable the menu strip at the top of the tablet’s work area.

• Open the Wacom Tablet Properties application from your start menu (or from the Control Panel).
• Select Functions from the Tool panel.
• Select Tablet Menu from the tabbed interface.
• For each of the 18 Tablet Menu Buttons, choose Disabled as the function.
• Enjoy using your tablet without the strange mouse cursor bug.

Wacom Tablet Properties application – aka – Wacom Driver Preferences

What about Intuos 3 and Intuos 4?

Other tablets in the Intuos line are apparently affected by this bug as well. Some in the Wacom forums have suggested that tablet buttons, touch strips and the new touch ring may cause the bug to appear as well. The updated driver released a few days ago may help solve the issue, but may not. I didn’t dig any further after fixing my own problem.

If you are affected and can’t find a fix, to change your mouse cursor back to the normal size, open the Mouse settings dialog from the Control Panel (simply called Mouse), select the Pointers tab and click the OK button to reset to your normal cursor theme.

Are there other solutions out there?

If any of you have any other solutions to the issue, or notice that the updated driver fixes the issue, add a comment to let everyone know.

All this month, the Festival of Flowers has brought people from all over to Greenwood and the surrounding area, but today is the main event – Flower Day at the Park Seed Company, the Bluegrass Festival on Main Street, the arts and crafts fair at Greenwood High School, and the Festival of Flowers Juried Art and Photography Exhibitions at the Arts Council. Lots to do today!

For more information, check out the Official SC Festival of Flowers website.

Studio|chris is officially one year old today [Okay, one year and 2 days old today, but who has a party on Thursday?]!

As a thanks to everyone who has helped it grow, and especially the Corel Painter community, I have a gift in the works, but it isn’t ready just yet. In normal fashion though, here’s a sneak peek.

What could it be? Let the guessing and the party begin!