Getting a Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font error message? Let’s fix it!

If you have a form on a your WordPress website and are trying to prevent spammers  from flooding your site with deals on  – well, you know the kinds of deals they promote, get yourself a “Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart” or a CAPTCHA.  You are undoubtedly familiar with CAPTCHA codes. They look like this:

Personally I’m a big fan of MM Forms so I’ll use that plug-in as my example but the theory is the same no matter what you use.

Easy enough to set-up: download it and FTP into your WordPress PLUGINS directory just like you have done for other plugins. I’ll use Filezilla in my examples. Its a great, FREE FTP program.

But do you do if you load your webpage and you get the dreaded “Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font…” error message? Well you could Google it – but the results are uglyyyyyy. Hopefully I can save you some gray hairs. Here we go:

The directions for MM Forms read:

1. Upload whole mm-forms-community folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Make following directories writable (chmod 777) /exports/ and /captcha/tmp /upload

Ok Wait . . CHMOD???

Its simple: “The chmod command (abbreviated from change mode) is a Unix command that lets a programmer tell the system how much (or little) access it should permit to a file. It changes the file system modes of files and directories.” Basically, you don’t want people visiting your website to just drill into any folder on your server and be able to run commands, upload files etc.

1. FTP into your website
2. Go to the folder you need to change (or check) permissions on.
3. Right Click on it.
4. In Filezilla the command to select is “FILE PERMISSIONS” – If you are using a different FTP program look for similar message.

And Ta-Da! Changing from the default of 755 to 777 is as easy as checking two boxes!

OK Done! Everything works, right? Oh wait a minute . ..  you load the webpage and get Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font in . . . error?

Usually this is caused by the permissions being wrong, the font files not being uploaded all the way or the font files being corrupted. Not OK. Let’s fix it!

Try this . .

1. Find the folder inside the the plugin you are setting up what has the actual font files in it. In our case, its in wp-content/plugins/mm-forms/captcha/gentium
2. Delete the .TTF and .VFB files. You’ll notice they are quite large compared to the other files in that directory:
   

And now for Trick #1.

99.9% of the time your FTP program is set to automatically decide how to transfer the files from your computer to the the server. 99.9% of the time you never have to change this setting. Welcome to the .1% of the time when you do.

In Filezilla, Select TRANSFER –> TRANSFER TYPE –> BINARY

Don’t worry about why for, or who what – Just select BINARY.

Trick #2 – upload the TTF and VFB files one at a time. Trust me.

Upload one, wait for it to finish (it will take longer than normal) and then check the filesize to make sure the whole file got to the server.

I repeat: check the filesize to make sure the whole file got to the server.

Repeat for your remaining files.

Cross your fingers.

Reload your webpage.

Sigh in relief. The dreaded Warning: imagettftext() [function.imagettftext]: Could not read font in . . . beast is no more!

And don’t forget to change your transfer mode back to AUTOMATIC!

Problem solved? All I ask for is Beer and Books. Beer and Books. (Kindle versions preferred)

Cheers!

Your brother is on AOL instant messenger, your cousin uses MSN instant messenger. Your buddy is a die-hard GoogleTalk user while everyone else is crazy about Facebook talk. And now that Twitter is gaining a foothold you are about to go insane!

Deep Breath. One, free application is here to save the day.

I have been using instant messaging since it was born in 1996 – I have a 7 digit ICQ number. ICQ is an instant messaging computer program, which was first developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis, now owned by Time Warner’s AOL subsidiary.[Wikipedia]

ICQ was brilliant in it’s simplicity – you could see when your friends and family around the world came online. Keep in mind this was the time of Dial-Up! To be able to talk to family on the East Coast of the United States while I was living time zones away in Hawaii was fantastic!

Well of course Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft all saw the potential and started creating their own instant messenger programs, however, unlike email or web pages there was no communication standard agreed upon – so there was no software interoperability. MSN couldn’t talk to AOL, AOL couldn’t talk to ICQ, etc. This is still the case to this day – there is no universal instant messaging standard but inroads have been made.

The second major problem was feature overload. All I want to do is see my brother pop online, say hello, maybe send a photo or a file. Simplicity. ICQ started adding advertisements, games, FTP servers, and other bloat as did the other major players. Flashing lights and shaking screens took instant messaging from a serene, zen-like walk in a park experience to the county fair on crack and acid.

One of the early pioneers in IM interoperability was Cerulean Studio’s Trillian. They are still around today and have a pretty dedicated following but the service costs about $25 to get started and it has to be renewed for upgrades: “A license to Trillian™ Pro costs $25.00 entitling you to unlimited use of the version of Trillian™ Pro you purchased along with one year (i.e., 365 days) of support and upgrades as set forth below.”

So how do we get free software that let’s us talk to multiple IM clients? A super-simple online option is  Meebo but you need to be logged into the website to use it.

For a while the best deal in town was GAIM:

Pidgin (formerly called GAIM) is a chat program which lets you log in to accounts on multiple chat networks simultaneously. This means that you can be chatting with friends on MSN, talking to a friend on Google Talk, and sitting in a Yahoo chat room all at the same time.

I loved pidgin, used it religiously, until I discovered Digsby.

Wakoopa, a social network centered around what software people use, has named Digsby the Best New App of 2008. It does 3 things and it does them well: Instant messaging, eMail and Social Networking.

Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. One combined buddy list for all your AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat Accounts.

Digsby is an email notification tool that alerts you of new email and lets you perform actions such as ‘Delete’ or ‘Report Spam’ with just one click. Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby.

And Digsby is a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to. Manage your Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, IMAP, and POP accounts right from digsby. Stay up to date with everything happening on your Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts.

Now with any of these multiple IM programs one think to take into consideration is that you need accounts at the various services (AIM, YAHOO, MSN, Etc.)  I won’t go into detail on how to set up each individual account but I will give you two settings for Digsby that change the way it looks:

Tools –> Preferences –> Accounts:

This keeps a lot of icons out of your task tray. Simplicity!

Next, Tools –> Preferences –> Buddy Lists:

This will create a crisp, clean interface. I blurred the image because I don’t need 2,000 of my new closest friends IM’ing me. But you can see groups like Family and Friends, the icon on the left shows what IM network they are using. The blue one is Facebook, the butterfly is MSN, the smiley face AIM. The Green, Yellow and Red balls to the right indicate the user’s status.

Towards the bottom of the above image, the four gray lines are email accounts that have no mail waiting to be read – Google, Yahoo, MSN and another Google account. Below that we have Facebook, two MySpace accounts, two Twitter accounts and LinkedIn.

Simplicity. Love It!

Hey Mac users! A mac version is in the works, until then I don’t want you to think I forgot you:

Check  Out Adium for Mac. Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

Looking for a free alternative to WinZip, PKZip, WinRar or any of the other various compression / decompression utilities?

Look no further than the Free, Open-Source 7-Zip.

You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don’t need to register or pay for 7-Zip. 7-Zip works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista

• Supported formats:
  • Packing / unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
  • Unpacking only: ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MSI, NSIS, RAR, RPM, UDF, WIM, XAR and Z.
• For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip

To use 7-Zip simply download it from the website and install it as you would any other application. There are no hidden settings or spyware.

Once it is installed simply right click on any folder or file you want to compress or decompress and select the appropriate option from the menu:

I don’t have 7-Zip set as my default compression / decompression application because I am quick with the click of the right mouse button. If you are someone who feels the need to make things a little more automated simply:

1. Open 7-Zip
2. Choose Tools –> Options
3. Select the System tab and then Select All
4. Followed by OK

Now 7-Zip is your default zipping / unzipping application and all compressed files will have a letter in the upper right corner denoting the type of compressed file they are. In this example one is a Zip file and the other is a Cab file:

There is also a full program interface you can use if you open 7-Zip from your programs menu. For me though, it’s right click – 7-Zip!

Wolfgang’s Vault is the home for the past, present and future of live music. It is the exclusive destination for The Bill Graham Archives, the King Biscuit Flower Hour and the Record Plant along with a dozen other archives that live here, and are relived here. Within the Concert Vault are thousands of carefully restored and archived concert recordings to stream for free, hundreds of which are available for download.

Concert Vault for the iPhone gives you free access to the world’s largest collection of live concert recordings right in your pocket. Brought to you by Wolfgang’s Vault, Concert Vault for the iPhone and iPod Touch lets you listen to the Vault’s latest additions, most popular concerts, and any of their radio stations playing hundreds of songs from thousands of concerts spanning the 1960s through today.

New to Concert Vault? No problem — register for free right on your iPhone or iPod Touch. Already a Concert Vault user? Even better — all your playlists and favorite concerts from our website play right on your iPhone so you can enjoy them anywhere.

The application offers full support over WiFi, 3G and EDGE connections on the iPhone, and WiFi on the iPod Touch, with advanced automatic bandwidth detection and stream adjustment.

A recent posting entitled “Viewing and Working With Multiple Calendars” has brought up the following question:

When I am using Microsoft Outlook can I print what I see in overlay mode?

The answer? YES! It’s a little tricky at first but I have full faith and confidence in your ability. Ready?

Microsoft has a free program called the Calendar Printing Assistant. With it you can print out your calendars and tasks in all the layouts and designs you have been wishing you could for years. You just didn’t know it existed before!

The Calendar Printing Assistant for Office Outlook 2007 is an application for people who need an easy way to print and customize their Outlook 2007 calendar information. It puts you in control of the tools you need and helps you plan and create designer-quality output.

1. Download it from Here and try to install it (Close Outlook first)

You may get a message that you need version 3 of the Microsoft .NET framework. It was initially released 11/21/2006 so you may or may not have it installed already.

2. If you need the .Net 3.0 program download it here, install it and then install the Calendar Printing Assistant again.

Ok, so you have your .NET 3.0 software up-to-date and you have installed Microsoft’s Calendar Printing Assistant.

You are not going to use Outlook to print the calendars that are in overaly mode, you are going ot use the Calendar Printing Assistant program.

Look in Start -> Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Tools -> Calendar Printing Assistant

Fire up the program! (You can also pin it to your start menu or drag it to your desktop so you can have faster access to it.)

You will see something like this:

Keep in mind that you cannot edit appointments here, you are just playing with printing options.

You should see your Outlook Calendar, and on the right hand side a list of template styles to choose from.

Select the dropdown and change it from View Templates to Calendars and Tasks. Now you will see all of your calendars from Outlook and all of the sharted calendars ytou have access to!

Clicking on a persons name will activate their calendar and add it to yours in overlay mode. To remove someone simply right click on their name or click the drop-down and choose Remove From Calendar.

Take a look at the left side of the program. You can easily modify the colors and symbols associated with the calendars you have selected by mousing over a name and clicking the drop-down button that appears.

And that’s where I am going to leave you! As always, poke around the program. There aren’t a lot of settings but it is very flexible. You should be able to master it fairly quickly. Stuck? Leave a comment and someone will be sure to get back to you!

Have you ever seen someone’s photos online and noticed that there is a map showing exactly where the photo was taken? Ever wish the Latitude and Longitude information your iPhone attaches to photo’s was more accurate? Need to correct GeoData? No Problem! YOU can do it!

Here is a great freeware program to easily and quickly geotag your photos. When I say quickly, I mean I can do a hundred photos in a few minutes.

Before we get started, take a quick look at the posting on How To Manage Pictures From Multiple Digital Cameras – (Think Family Vacations, Out with friends, Company Picnic, etc. . . )

Ready Freddie? Go download and install GeoSetter from Here.

You’re back! Great! Start up GeoSetter and you should have a screen that looks like this:

The first thing you will notice is that the map defaults to Berlin.

Let’s fix that. First, Click the pencil icon under the map. This will expand the Edit Fields

Next, lets enter a location we want the map to default to every time we open this program. You enter your address, I’ll enter 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Type your address in the Search field and select Search.

You will see a red upside-down tear drop marker. Zoom in a little bit on the map, get comfortable moving it around.

That red marker is key! The latitude and longitude of that marker will be transferred to our photos when we geotag them. If you click on the map you will notice that the marker moves around. This is how you correct the geotag location or make it more exact. How easy is that?!

Lets add your address to your GeoSetter favorites.

Got the marker on your house? Right above the search box, next to the Favorite field, select Add/Edit…

Give the location a name (Like Home) and then click the Get From Web bar to auto-populate the additional data:

Select OK and you will see that Home is on the Favorite location now! Feel free to add a few more places where you regularly take photos. (Work, Lake House, Neighbor’s Back Yard, Etc.) This will be such a time saver later!

Now that you have your home location saved, lets setup GeoSetter so that your default location is your home instead of the City of Berlin. Du bist kleine Berliner!

Select File -> Settings -> Map and then in the Initial Map Position box hit the drop down and use the location of your choice ( like Home!) Select OK at the bottom and you’re done!

Awesome!

Now that you have GeoSetter all configured, lets start at the beginning – GO!

1) Open GeoSetter

2) Navigate to the folder where your photos are stored

3) Select the location the photos were taken by:
- Choosing a stored Favorite, or
- Entering an Address and selecting Search, or
- Navigating the map manually and clicking on it so the red tear drop is where the photo was taken.

4) With the teardrop in position, Select photos taken at that location!
- Click a photo on the left and it will get a blue outline, that means it is selected
- Click one and type CNTRL-A to highlight all the photos in a folder.
- Holding down ALT will allow you to click on several photos:

Got the photos selected that you want to tag from the teardrop’s position? Hit the Assign Position Marker To Selected Image button:

You will see the GeoData in red under the photos you selected! If you make a mistake – No Problem! Just repeat the process to fix a bad location.

Continue on geotagging all of the photos you have in the folder. When you are finished you simply need to select the SAVE icon!

You will see a progress bar under the photos and the red data will change to black when it has been written to the photograph.

You’re done! How easy was that!

For advanced users – if you use a GPS tracking device like a Garmin Forerunner, you can import the data into GeoSetter and have it automatically GeoTag the photos! I love this feature!

Photo’s are geotagged, upload ‘em to Picasa Web or your favorite photo storage location.

Questions or comments? Leave em here!

Part Three Of Our Multi-Part DVD How-To!

1) How To Decrypt and Copy / Backup a DVD For Free
2) How To Copy an ISO File to a DVD
3) How to Mount an ISO File for Local Playback
4) How To Strip DVD Movies For Your Zune / Ipod / Iphone

So you made a backup copy of your favorite DVD and you now know how to burn that ISO file back to a DVD for safekeeping.

But let’s say you don’t want to carry around several DVD’s, yet you want them to be accessible for a vacation, business trip, etc.

If you have the ISO files saved on your hard drive you can use MagicDisk to create a “virtual” CD/DVD drive. Once you create a virtual drive you can “mount” the ISO image and it’s just like you popped the CD or DVD into your regular CD / DVD Drive. Sounds a little complicated? It’s not.

Here we go:

1) Download and install MagicDisk

2) You may be asked to reboot, if so, reboot.

3) You will now see and icon on your desktop and one in your tool tray.

If you don’t see one in your tool tray, find the MagicDisk icon on your desktop and click it to start the program. You may want to create a shortcut in your STARTUP folder so it launches when you boot.

4) Click the icon in your tool tray and you will get a pop-up menu:

5) Click Virtual CD/DVD-ROM -> NO MEDIA -> MOUNT …

6) Select the location of the ISO file (or any of the other supported filetypes) you want to mount.

7) The Autorun sequence will start up just as if you had popped a CD or DVD in a real drive!

Side note: If you were to click My Computer you will see that there is an additional CD/DVD drive available. This is the virtual drive we just created.

Imagine having 10 or 20 ISO images saved on your laptop and being able to watch movies just by loading them virtually! Not only does this cut down on the amount of stuff you need to carry, it prevents things from getting broken or stolen. Games will also run over 200x faster when mounted virtually.

But best of all – mounting images instead of loading disks increases your battery life because you are not spinning up a real CD or DVD drive!

When you are finished, UNMOUNT the image by following the same steps – and choosing UNMOUNT ALL DRIVES

MagicDisk has several more features you can explore – poke around! This is another fantastic Freeware program.

As always, if you have a better way of doing something I have mentioned or have questions / comments. Please let me know!

Is it just me or is Adobe acrobat reader bloated and slow? Uninstall it and get Foxit Reader.

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size (only 2.55 M download size), super-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Foxit Reader supports Windows Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista.

In the past, you’ve had to download a huge PDF reader from Adobe, go through a lengthy installation process and wait for an annoying splash window to disappear just to open a PDF document. Moreover, if you want to annotate a PDF document, you have to pay US$299 to buy the full version.

Now with Foxit Reader, you don’t have to endure such pain any more. The following is a list of compelling advantages of Foxit Reader:

• Incredibly small: The download size of Foxit Reader is only 2.55 M which is a fraction of Acrobat Reader 20 M size.
• Breezing-fast: When you run Foxit Reader, it launches instantly without any delay. You are not forced to view an annoying splash window displaying company logo, author names, etc.
• Annotation tool: Have you ever wished to annotate (or comment on) a PDF document when you are reading it? Foxit Reader allows you to draw graphics, highlight text, type text and make notes on a PDF document and then print out or save the annotated document.
• Text converter: You may convert the whole PDF document into a simple text file.
• High security and privacy: Foxit Reader highly respects the security and privacy of users and will never connect to the Internet without users’ permission. While other PDF readers often silently connect to the Internet in the background. Foxit PDF Reader does not contain any spyware.

Foxit Reader 2.3 was just released. The new version includes a multimedia player feature allowing Foxit users to not only read PDFs, but to watch and listen to the audio/video elements coming with PDFs as well.

Installation is straight-forward, no hidden settings or toolbar installers, etc.

Instead of Adobe acrobat Reader use Foxit Reader.

Part Two Of Our Multi-Part DVD How-To!

1) How To Decrypt and Copy / Backup a DVD For Free
2) How To Copy an ISO File to a DVD
3) How to Mount an ISO File for Local Playback
4) How To Strip DVD Movies For Your Zune / Ipod / Iphone

Ok, so you have created an ISO file backup of your treasured Electra Woman and Dyna Girl DVD. In the meantime you stepped on the original DVD and now you want to make a new one from your backup.

Buckle up – here we go.

First, Download the latest version of ImgBurn. Second, Install it. Good Job.

The latest version of ImgBurn has a MODE -> EZ MODE PICKER. In this mode you would select Write Image File To Disk:

The alternative would be to select Mode -> Write. They’ll both get you to the same screen.

Simply select the SOURCE file (Your ISO file you created in the last How To article) and use the icon of the folder with the green plus sign to select the ISO file you want to burn back to a DVD.

Leave the Write Speed at AUTO.

Insert a blank DVD and  . . . WAIT! Did you know there are two major DVD sizes?

• Single Layer (4.7GB)
• Dual/Double Layer (8.5GB)

Make sure you have the right size blank DVD. How? Right click on the ISO file you want to burn and choose Properties. How big is it? Moving on . . .

Insert the blank DVD, close anything that auto-starts and in IMGBurn select the Go Icon!

And away it goes! I usually select Eject Tray and Verify:

ImgBurn is probably my favorite “Burn Something To  Disk or DVD” program. It’s very easy to use, simple and intuitive. Play around with it, experiment. I think you’ll quickly grow to love it too.

OK, next up we have 2 more parts to this series:

3) How to Mount an ISO File for Local Playback
4) How To Strip DVD Movies For Your Zune / Ipod / Iphone

As always, I love hearing your comments about these articles. Like it? Got a better way? Leave a comment!

Here Comes Another Multi-Part How To!

1) How To Decrypt and Copy / Backup a DVD For Free
2) How To Copy an ISO File to a DVD
3) How to Mount an ISO File for Local Playback
4) How To Strip DVD Movies For Your Zune / Ipod / Iphone

If you own a DVD, you should be able to make a backup copy and you should be able to watch it on the devices you own. Here is one of the easiest ways to do so. It takes several steps but I have assembled all of the software you need in this handy 5 meg zip file: RipIt4Me

In this lesson we are going to make an exact 1-to-1 copy of your DVD. .

Ready? OK.

1) Download the RipIt4Me bundle – Save it to your desktop or wherever you save zip files.

2) Unzip the zip file. You will have 3 items, a READ ME, a “RipIt4MeWithInstaller” folder and a “RipIt4MeWithoutInstaller” folder. Read the READ ME.

3) Create a Folder on your Desktop called “DVDs” or something similar. This is where the working copies of the DVDs will be stored. We will delete them at the end to free up the space.

4) Pop a DVD in your DVD drive and close whatever pop-ups and programs it tries to run. (You can also  hold down the SHIFT key when you insert the DVD. This will tell windows not to run any programs for the DVD.)

5) Open the “RipIt4MeWithoutInstaller” and select RipIt4Me

a) You might get a pop-up saying you have an older version of one of the programs like DVD Decrypter. You can ignore it and everything will work fine, of you can click YES and get the latest version – just replace the file in the “RipIt4MeWithoutInstaller” folder with the newer copy.

b) If RipIt4Me asks for the location of another program point it to the correct one in the “RipIt4MeWithoutInstaller” folder

6) You should now see the RipIt4Me Screen:

There are two ways to proceed, we can do the 1-Click Mode or the Wizard Mode. If you are going to do the 1-Click mode you need to check the settings in advance so click on LOGS/SETTINGS and select PREFERENCES.

We need to tell RipIt4Me where it’s helper programs are.

1) Check “Base path for target rips”
2) Check “Path to Decrypter:”
3) Check “Path to Shrink:”

When I say “Check” I mean click the box with the period in it and tell RipIt4Me where the helper programs are. (They are in the “RipIt4MeWithoutInstaller” folder – Remember?)

Here is a screen-shot of my settings. Note that almost all of the boxes are checked:

So our DVD is in the drive, Settings have been checked, let’s have at it! Click 1-Click Mode.

The program will read the DVD drive and fill in the blanks.

1) Make sure your “Target Directory for DVD files” is correct. (We set this up above as “1) Check “Base path for target rips“)

2) Click “Make DVD jump to menu upon insertion“

Here I am backing up a Space 1999 DVD for safe keeping:

Hit Next, You might get a pop-up about virtual player and setup panel – just hit OK:

What the program is doing is telling you that you need to set the language. Assuming you speak English click the “en” in the box on the left and the three option boxes will change to English. The DVD will also be region free! You should only have to do this the first time you run these programs.

Hit OK and DVD Decrypter will fire up.

If you get any weird errors about PSL (Protected Sector List) don’t sweat it. Hit Ok, Yes, etc.

In the worst case it will throw you back to the RipIt4Me menu – Just click the 1 Click Mode button again and DVD Decrypter will work on the second go around. It may or may not auto-run when you get to the screen that looks like this:

You can see the log file in the bottom Window. All the encrypted crap has been detected:

19:25:30 Found 1 DVD±RW!
19:25:34 Protected Sectors List Imported Successfully!
19:25:34 20 areas have been marked as ‘suspect’.
19:25:34 Dummy sectors will be inserted where necessary.

In the top window of the image above, highlighted in blue, you see the .VOB files. The bigger VOBs are the movie parts. The smaller VOBs are menus and previews and special features. Anyway – If DVDDecrypter is waiting – click:

We are now decrypting the DVD and making a copy of the files in a temporary directory. We will still have to take those files and create something watchable. More on that in a moment.

If you got any weird errors up to this point or your laptop tried to hibernate, just (turn off hibernation) start again. Be patient, it will work.  Just reply to any errors you get, go back to the RipIt4Me screen and click 1 -Click Mode. I actually had all that happen to me while writing this. I am using a virgin laptop with Windows XP on it and muttered WTF a few times, but like I said, just reply to any errors you get, go back to the RipIt4Me screen and click 1 -Click Mode again.

When everything is chugging away as it should it will look like this:

Go get a cup of coffee, this will take a few minutes . . .

Once DVD Decrypter finishes, RipIt4Me will start cleaning up the VOB files and making final preparations:

What we have accomplished up to this point is to break any encryption that was on the DVD and make copies of the files that make up the DVD to our hard drive. But those files alone can’t really be read by anything. We want to “recompile” all this separate files back into a single file – an ISO.

Ok, I’m Lying – VLC player will play them. But the files are huge and have ugly names:

Let’s finish making our disk image, our ISO file.

When DVD Decrypter is finished DVD Shrink will start up, scan the video and open up this window:

Select BACKUP!, then change the Select Backup Target to ISO Image File and select where you would like to save the ISO image file to. Like So:

The program was a little uncooperative here when I tried to save the ISO to my desktop so I selected MY DOCUMENTS. I’ll just move it later.

You will now see your DVD’s video playing in fast motion:

Once you are done,

1. Close down any programs we used.
2. Delete the temporary DVD files from your hard drive.
3. Locate the ISO image file.

That ISO image file is a direct 1-to-1 back up of your DVD. Store it somewhere safe on your hard drive.

How to restore or copy the ISO file to something watchable will be addressed in . . .

2) How To Copy an ISO File to a DVD
3) How to Mount an ISO File for Local Playback

This procedure takes a while the first time, but print these directions out and follow along. I haven’t met a DVD yet that I couldn’t back up this way. You’ll get the hang of it and be backing up your Sigmund and The Sea Monsters DVDs in no time.

Did you notice we never discussed the “RipIt4MeWithInstaller”folder? Same programs, the difference was way back in Step 2 – Read the Read Me file.

Problems? Questions? Suggestions? Please leave ‘em in the comments!