Alternative to embedding live CueTable links directly in posts here
Folks:
Do we have any Firefox users out there? (Rhetorical and silly question, to lay the foundation for why I'm asking.)
If we do, there's a really cool (and FREE!) plugin called "Fireshot" that will capture
anything being displayed in your browser.
What is unique about this particular screen capture utility, is that it will allow you to capture the ENTIRE web page in the browser, including the parts of the page that are not visible because they're hidden by the scrollbar. (That is to say, if you have a web page that normally requires you to manipulate scrollbars to see all of it, Fireshot will capture the ENTIRE web page without scroll bars.) It will then pop that graphic into an impromptu editor, and from there you can fence whatever portion of that graphic you like, and crop it, cut it, save it, etc.
I use this plugin at work all the time, to do my network security vulnerability assessment reports as a consultant, and often, certain tools I use (e.g. SolarWinds Orion) generate reports where the graphics (histograms, pie charts, et al.) do not all fit within a browser window without scrollbars.
Here's where you can get it:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/fireshot/
I offer this not so much to address the immediate issue of CueTables not being able to be viewed under non-Windoze OSes, but more for the alternative aspect. That is, instead of embedding the live CueTable links into posts directly, you instead grab a snapshot of the displayed CueTable and attach it to the post as a .JPEG or .PNG file. This way ALL viewers/visitors can see your CueTable layout without having to muck with CueTable plugins or Macromedia crap.
Once you install it, it's really easy to use:
1. Create your CueTable layout on the CueTable website.
2. Once you get your shot diagram the way you like it, you don't even have to save it. As it's being displayed on your screen, just press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [z] (this is the keyboard shortcut for Fireshot).
3. An impromptu editor will be invoked, with your entire CueTable session snapped into it, and your cursor is now a fence crosshair.
4. Fence the part of the screen you want to show in your post (you'll probably want to place a fence around
just the pool table graphic), and after you complete your fence, when you release your mouse button, a dialog will pop-up asking you what you want to do. Click the [Copy] button, which will copy *just* the part inside your fence, to your Clipboard. (When I say "Clipboard," I mean the Windows Clipboard if you're using Windoze, or the Gnome/KDE Clipboard if you're using Linux or Solaris.)
5. Save that Clipboarded graphic as a .JPEG or .PNG file, and attach it to your post.
It may look involved (e.g. five steps -- but that's only because of how I explained the process), but it's actually quite easy. Once you get that [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [z] keyboard shortcut memorized and embedded in your fingers, it's quite natural, and you can forget about the very specialized process of embedding "live" CueTable links in your post.
Again, this is just an alternative to embedding live CueTable links.
TO-DO List for Sean: find out how to address the "multi-page" CueTable issue -- what graphic formats besides TIFF support multiple pages? Will TIFF graphics even display correctly here in vBulletin? I'll have to check into that...
-Sean
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