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Posts Tagged ‘tips&tricks’

A Tip for the Modern Age

Posted in Other, tagged , , , , , on August 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I don’t usually curse, and when I do I try to pick my moments. Now that we’re in the AI era, here’s one such moment:

“Just give me the f***ing links!”—Cursing disables Google’s AI overviews

If you search Google for a way to turn off the company’s AI-powered search results, you may well get an AI Overview telling you that AI Overviews can’t be directly disabled in Google Search. But if you instead ask Google how to turn off “f***ing Google AI results,” you’ll get a standard set of useful web suggestions without any AI Overview at the top. (asterisks added to protect delicate reader sensibilities)

Seems to work with DuckDuckGo too. A handy tip for the modern age!

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Photo by sarah b on Unsplash

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A Useful (Yet Potentially Obscure) Illustrator Tip

Posted in Likes, Other, tagged , , , , , on April 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

I can’t draw, but I do love designing things like maps and logos and books and fun gifts. I use software to make it all work and shortcuts can be a terrific time saver. That’s why I’m excited to report that I recently discovered a very helpful trick for aligning objects in Illustrator.

I came to Illustrator from Freehand and found myself tripping over simple things. This particular tip fixes an issue that’s been bugging me for years, so I wanted to share in case I’m not the only one. (Maybe you already know this trick? Good for you, now give me a sec to share this bit of wisdom with those of us who have been less fortunate;)

I use Illustrator CS5 so ymmv, but here’s the gist, paraphrased from this useful article:

Select the objects you want to align, then (here’s the important bit) click once on the object or guide you want to use to control the alignment of the other selected objects. No shift key needed, just a straight click. The Key Object will show a heavy border outline around it. Align as usual.

It should look something like this:

Enjoy!

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