Mandar Apte

UI/UX Designer from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

Articles

  • Fix Xcode error ‘Unable to boot iOS Simulator’

    Background:

    Xcode is a one-stop development app for OSX and iOS devices, including all Macintosh Desktops, laptops, iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch.

    Note: I Assume you are on OSX Yosemite 10.10.3 or the Latest Operating System & Xcode 6 or later installed.

    With the release of Xcode 6 and later, while developing and running your iOS app in iOS Simulator on your Mac, you may encounter a bug like this: ‘Unable to boot iOS Simulator’ with a blank screen.

    Unable to boot iOS Simulator in Xcode

    Here is how to fix it

    Solution 01:

    Select iOS Simulator, then go to top Menubar > iOS Simulator > Reset Content and Settings > Reset (On command prompt, press reset)

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  • How to outline the round corners effect in Adobe Illustrator.

    Adobe Illustrator is a full-featured, one-stop solution Vector Illustration program from Adobe, whose birth dates back to 1984.

    Adobe has various advanced and useful features, one of which is (Smart) Effects for vector objects, which are highly editable even after being applied to different objects.

    As stated in Adobe Help Documents, Adobe Illustrator Effects are described as follows:

    Illustrator includes a variety of effects that you can apply to an object, group, or layer to change its characteristics.

    Illustrator CS3 and earlier included effects and filters, but now Illustrator includes only effects (except SVG Filters). The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter modifies an object or layer permanently. Still, an effect and its properties can be changed or removed anytime.

    Once you apply an effect to an object, the effect appears in the Appearance panel. From the Appearance panel, you can edit the effect, move it, duplicate it, delete it, or save it as part of a graphic style. When using an impact, you must expand the object before accessing the new points.

    One of those effects is the round corner. You can apply round corners to your current drawn rectangle and square shapes in your document and edit their value at any time.

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  • How to Draw Perfect Triangle in Adobe Illustrator.

    While using Adobe Illustrator myself, I always wonder how to draw a perfect triangle, as no such tool as ‘Triangle’ exists in the Adobe Illustrator Toolbox.

    So, Here is how Adobe Illustrator Toolbar or Toolbox Look in Adobe Illustrator CC:

    Adobe-Illustrator-Tool-Bar

    So here is a way how to draw a perfect triangle in Adobe Illustrator.

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  • Fix Adobe Photoshop error ‘Could not edit the layer because the layer is locked.’

    When you open a PNG or JPG from the web and want to edit a locked background layer, you double-click on the ‘background layer.’ You get this warning: ‘Could not edit the layer because the layer is locked.’

    photoshop-locked-background-layers-panel

    Here is How to fix this error

    Step 01:
    Select Background Layer

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  • Using the Sticky Navigation Bar to increase the page views per visit (session) ratio for any website.

    It is a well-known, tried-and-tested method to have a sticky navigation bar at the top of a responsive website design and layout.

    A fixed navigation bar at the top helps mobile or desktop website users have a fixed area where they can find navigation icons and links through which they can browse and navigate the current website. Having a fixed navigation bar at the top helps webmasters increase page views, i.e., it helps webmasters increase the page views per visit ratio.

    Yes, it occupies space at the top, but it helps the user have navigation links handy whenever he wants to browse the website. Space constraints only refer to mobile devices with small screen sizes.

    The following is the code that helps you have a fixed navigation bar. Copy and paste the following CSS code in your style.css

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  • Fix the Xcode Storyboard error. The ‘Frame for “Text View” will be different at run time.’

    The Xcode error called ‘Frame for “Text View” will be different at run time.’ is frequent when you are trying to utilise Auto Layout by using reset to suggested constraints in Xcode Storyboard.

    So here is how to fix it:

    Step 01:
    Above Debug: In your Xcode Storyboard view screen, you will have four buttons at the extreme right. Use the pin button, third from right, to add new constraints per item at the top, right, bottom, and left, and uncheck the constraint to margins.

    ios-xcode-app-storyboard-pin-debug-area
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  • Here is how to fix if you are unable to update or install new apps from Apple AppStore on your iOS devices.

    I first faced this problem when I upgraded my iOS operating system from iOS7 to iOS8. I was unable to update my apps, and I was even unable to download new apps from the App Store or from recent purchases.

    The first time, I thought this was because of slow Wi-Fi, but to no avail after deleting the old network & adding the same network again didn’t fix my problem.

    So I called the Apple Online Support Toll Free number, and they said that this was happening because I installed a new operating system via Wi-Fi. It may cause errors because of Wi-Fi network loss or network interruptions. They said the best way to upgrade the iOS device operating system is via iTunes.

    So here is how to fix this problem if you are getting errors like unable to install updates this time, unable to download the app at this time, unable to purchase or app doesn’t exist on AppStore:

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  • How to fix WordPress Automatic Update Error.

    Background:

    When WordPress.Org releases a new update to its WordPress standalone CMS (Content Management System), you may have set your website to get your installation updated automatically, or you may like to do it yourself at your preferred time.

    But because of server load on the part of your web host, you may get an error something like this with a screwed-up blank website with the following error printed on the screen:

    Warning: require(/nfs/domains/your-domain-name.com/html/wp-includes/session.php) [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /nfs/domains/your-domain-name.com/html/wp-settings.php on line 122

Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/nfs/domains/your-domain-name.com/html/wp-includes/session.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/php-5.3.27/share/pear') in /nfs/domains/your-domain-name.com/html/wp-settings.php on line 122

    The actual cause of the above errors:

    As mentioned, errors are generated because of interrupted WordPress updates, primarily because of heavy load on your web host’s online server. As the update fails, all files mismatch with consistent version numbers, so some old source files remain as it is & only the remaining few get updated with the new version. So, it is a problem of source code version consistency.

    How to fix this:

    Error 01: [function.require]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in

    Error 02: Fatal error: require() [function.require]: Failed opening required & (include_path=’.:/usr/local/php-5.3.27/share/pear’)

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  • What do CTR (click-through rate), CPC (cost per click), and RPM (page revenue per thousand impressions) mean in online advertising?

    In today’s online advertising age, as an online publisher or advertiser, you will always come across jargon or terms like CTR, CPC, and page RPM.

    All the terms mentioned above help you understand the metrics you want to know before you can finalise & execute ‘Online Advertising’ campaigns. It also allows advertisers to make sound decisions on choosing the right publisher & on the other hand, it helps the publisher to know where his blog is heading or if his design decisions are right or wrong. Ad positions & placements are right or wrong, or should he tweak his website to increase CTR, CPC & Page RPM, respectively?

    So here is detailed information about:

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  • Fix Google PageSpeed Error ‘Eliminate render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content’ for WordPress Website.

    Here is how you may want to tune up your WordPress website performance, i.e., how long it takes to download your website from the server to your visitors’ computer, mobile or tablet.

    In the era of responsive design, we tend to embed more than one Javascript or CSS file, such as Bootstrap CSS and JS file bundles.

    If you have integrated third-party advertising into your website, vendors like Google add their own Javascript file through their AdSense ad code that you can’t control.

    But here is a simple way out of this problem.

    Important Note:
    Compressing, Minifying, or Deferring Files may harm the website’s functionality because of dependencies, so first, do the following steps on your local server. If everything looks to be working fine, you can update the duplicate files on Live servers—just for safety and security purposes.

    When you ‘Analyse’ your website on Google PageSpeed, you get a warning something like this:
    Your page has 4 blocking script resources and 8 blocking CSS resources. This causes a delay in rendering your page.
    None of the above-the-fold content on your page could be rendered without waiting for the following resources to load. Try to defer or asynchronously load blocking resources or inline the critical portions of those resources directly in the HTML.

    Solution 01:

    The safest way of Deferring JavaScript ‘JS’ would be the following

    Step 01:
    Add the word ‘async’ at the closing tag called ‘</script>’, So your code will not block loading any other resources.

    Step 02:
    Add the same line of code just before closing the footer tag so your code is already asynchronous (async). After moving the same code to the footer, it will load after the website loading.

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