Product Reviews
LEARNING CENTER
L. C. EDITORIALS
TUTORIALS
LIBRARY
NEWSLETTER
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
HELPFUL LINKS
PHOTOS, WEB SITES
FOR SALE AND MORE
BOARD
 |
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 6 Review by Louise Dawson July 2008 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Imagine a product so successful it becomes a verb. It is not unusual to hear an image described as "Photoshopped" as in, "Oh, she doesn't look that good in real life. That must be Photoshopped."
Even an amateur can erase those pesky tourists from Stonehenge photos, decrease glare, enhance colors and even change history.
Besides the ability to turn a "could have, whould have, should have" photo into a prize, Elements is just plain fun. Even the government of Iran has discovered that you can duplicate missiles.
In case you're worried about your math, Adobe went right from Elements 4.0 to 6.0 to skip right to an Intel version with a completely new interface and more features than the Windows version. Elements is easy to install. Step-by-Step assistants will teach you how to do almost anything. Elements 6.0 is the fastest and most efficient version yet and user reviews seem positive. With the "Quick Selection Tool" and the "Blend Tool" you can change one small part of a photo instead of the whole thing. You can change the color of one flower in a field. Or you can take several group shots of people and end up with one in which each person looks their best. Bridge is an application included to allow you to see and choose material you may want to use quickly and easily. This is by far the most user friendly, intuitive version of Elements ever. It is well worth the upgrade and if you do not already own Elements, you will find it a real joy. Use it to improve your photos or create photobooks, Yahoo! Maps, web galleries or even movies. You can also directly upload to YouTube. Check out www.adobe.com for videos to show you how to create the best group shot from multiple photos and other tutorials. See also Terry White's excellent presentation of Elements 6.0 from Macworld Expo at www.mugcenter.com » Blog Archive » Adobe User Group Breakfast Video Now Available Retail price is $89.00 and there is a $20 rebate for owners of previous versions. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
PEACHPIT BOOKS. Review by Louise Dawson June 2008 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Be sure to check out
www.peachpit.com for some very helpful books. Use the code UE-23AA-PEUF at checkout to receive a 30% discount. Here are just a few or our favorites:
Robin Williams' "Cool Mac Apps: Twelve Apps for Enhanced Creativity and Productivity, 3rd Edition." Scott Kelby's "The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers." Steve Schwartz's "Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide" But my favorite book right now is "The Mac OS X Leopard Book. How To Do The Things You Want to Do On Your Mac." The author, Scott Kelby, is “the world’s #1 best-selling computer book author” according to the cover and I can see why. What a wonderful little book! It serves as a quick resource manual with a page to cover probably every aspect of using OSX Leopard and the applications you may own. Scott is a fine author with great knowlege and the ability to educate others with expertise and humor. Each topic has its own page with screenshots, easy to follow directions and an occasional special tip. For example, on page 128, you will find one long paragraph telling you exactly how to find music at the iTunes store. On page 129 is a smaller paragraph explaining how to buy the music once you find it. The next few pages cover other aspects of iTunes. Then we move on to other music subjects such as burning an audio CD, adding music to your creations, and using speakers with your Mac. You will find instructions regarding the use and customizing of the computer, common applications such as iPhoto, and a few tricks you may have been hesitant to try or didn't even know existed such as video conferencing. There is plenty of advice for handling every aspect of mail and web browsing including how to deal with SPAM and Parental Controls. Even if you think you know all you need to know, there is enough in this 246 page book to inspire you and take away your fear of trying new things. At a very reasonable price of $24.99, you can find this fun and excellent book at www.peachpit.com. Use the code UE-23AA-PEUF at checkout for a 30% saving on any Peachpit book. Books make great gifts for the beginner, the challenged, or those who want o raise their game. Peachpit covers many areas including DVD production, Web Design and Photography so there is something for everyone, even those who don’t own a Mac. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Popcorn 3
Review by Louise Dawson April 2008 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most of us are well aquatinted with Toast by Roxio, a great software application for burning CDs and DVDs. Roxio also makes CD Spin Doctor which, among other things, helps you convert vinyl records or tapes to digital format.
The good people at Roxio were kind enough to send us a review copy of another of their products - Popcorn 3. What is it? Well, if you are making DVDs and would like to compress and/or copy them, or if you own Series 2 Tivo, you will be very interested in Popcorn 3. You can make high-quality copies of your own DVDs but if you think you can bypass copyright laws and copy professional DVDs, forget it. You will be able to transfer your homemade DVDs to your iPod, Playstaton and Xbox, and computers. And you will be able to do much more including print disc labels, create compilation DVDs with four hours of video, compress DVD-Video, create DVD menus, process several videos in a batch, and have iPod chapter markers. The software installs easily with step-by-step instructions. Although this is obviouly meant for people who are serious about DVD production and copying or those TiVo fanatics out there, it is really quite easy to use. If you don’t understand any of this, then Popcorn 3 is not for you. But at this price, DVD enthusiasts and TiVo fanatics will find it a real bargain and a useful, easy-to-use application. Speeds could be faster, and forget about editing out those commercials - no editing or cropping. Popcorn 3 is all about video copying and compression for DVDs. Popcorn 3 retails for $49.99. More information on this and other products can be found at roxio.com. System requirements are Mac OS 10.4 or later.  ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 4.0
|
Review by Louise Dawson July 2006
|
At $79, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 is a super bargain. Of course the application itself is great. One expects all Adobe products to be great. Not only does 4.0 allow the user endless creative possibilities but new features make it easier to use than ever. And this package also includes a plethora of extras.
| A book is included to walk you through just about any project you can imagine. There are tutorials in the application and on many websites including www.adobe.com. There are also offers for ten free Kodak prints, a discount on a hardcover photo book, a savings of $100 if you choose to buy Adobe Photoshop CS2 and, when you register your new copy of Elements, you will receive several very helpful free video lessons. Scrapbookers rejoice! One of those free videos concerns using Elements for your scrapbooking hobby and includes some free backgrounds. Also included in the box is an introduction to www.scrappersguide.com that includes even more freebies and special offers for members. If you like scrapbooking, try digital scrap-booking for a change. Included with Elements 4.0 is Adobe Bridge a separate application that allows you to navigate your entire computer and works cross-platform with Elements, Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Adobe Production Studio. From one application you can create new folders, rename, move, delete files and more. When you open the Elements application you are presented with a screen that shows the items you have recently worked on. This is great for people who forget how they saved a previous work. On that same opening screen are several choices: Start From Scratch, Browse With Adobe Bridge, and Import From Camera or Scanner. And, possibly most important, Tutorials. You can also choose to bypass this window. Elements has two editing modes: Quick Fix and Standard Edit. Quick Fix allows you to do as little as possible to correct images. Standard Edit gives you all the tools you need to work at your own pace and achieve the specific effects you desire. For me the most fun thing about Elements has always been the ability to combine images and create an impossible scenario, such as yourself receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. With Elements 4.0, Adobe has added the Magic Extractor (my favorite) and the Magic Selection Brush Tools. Some photographers may be interested in the basics such as Red Eye Removal and Skin Tone Adjustment. The simplification of all these tools shows Adobe’s desire to help the far from talented such as myself. And yet they continue to offer top rate options for serious photographers and artists such as Advanced Camera Raw and Artifact Reduction. Who doesn’t appreciate a WYSIWYG font menu? Maybe someone who can’t pronounce it. It simply means that “What You See Is What You Get.” Dozens of fonts are illustrated so you don’t have to guess how they will look in your project. Making a contact sheet with dozens of photographs on one page can be a real pleasure and paper saver. You can even print them on adhesive paper and use them as stickies. Attaching your finished work to email or preparing it for the Internet is as easy as pie. So if you are a serious photographer or graphic artist or if you are interested in taking family photos to create a scrapbook, spice up a newsletter, or doctor those far-from-perfect photos, Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 is a lot of fun and a lot of help. If you own a previous version, a $20 mail-in rebate is included in the box.  ADOBE GOLIVE CS2
|
Review by Louise Dawson July 2005
|
“Professional, standards-based Web and mobile authoring Adobe GoLive CS2 software lets you unlock the power of CSS with intuitive visual tools such as prebuilt CSS objectives that you can drag and drop to build sophisticated sites. Jump-start your designs by easily converting Adobe InDesign layouts into Web pages or design Web and mobile content in an advanced, standards-based coding environment.” Reprinted from www.adobe.com.
| Our Webmistress, Anne Clark, was anxious to try out Adobe’s new Go Live CS2 at www.lwmug.org and her experience is that once again Adobe has come up with a great upgrade to an already excellent product. She finds CS2 reliable, a pleasure to use and well worth upgrading. The most important improvement for Anne, and for any busy person, is that CS2 is much faster than its predecessor and much more stable. Stability is extremely important. You don’t want the frustration of an application quitting and even causing you to lose some of your work. Because Anne hand-codes all her web pages in HTML and CSS, she appreciates the color coding of each element of the code which gives a clear overview and facilitates troubleshooting. The current line of code is highlighted in pale yellow, which makes it easy to find the “active” line on the page and saves time. The ability to create her own keyboard shortcuts is also a timesaver. Now Anne is anxious to try the new profesionally designed and pre-coded CSS web page templates. In addition, coding errors are caught immediately and marked in red, which serves as an instant alarm, so that the code can be corrected immediately. And what a great treat to find enclosed a very helpful CD training video created by Total Training, one of our favorite training companies. Anne reports few flaws. “Several times, one or another of the server listings I had set up in the Server window disappeared and I had to set it up again. On my wish list is the option to enlarge the code font size, which currently is small and hard to read.” GoLive CS2 sells for $399 or you can upgrade for $169. But perhaps now is the time for you to consider buying the entire Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard for $899 which combines full new versions of Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, and InDesign CS2 software with new Version Cue CS2, Adobe Bridge, and Adobe Stock Photos. The ultimate is Adobe® Creative Suite 2 Premium software ($1199 complete or $549 upgrade) is a unified design environment that combines full new versions of Adobe Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, and Acrobat 7.0 Professional software with new Version Cue CS2, Adobe Bridge, and Adobe Stock Photos. Thanks Adobe for providing this review copy of GoLive CS2 for LWMUG. Be sure to check out www.adobe.com for trial downloads, tutorials and so much more.  MAC OS X 10.4 TIGER: |
Visual Quickstart Guide ISBN: 0321305264 by Maria Langer Review by Louise Dawson May 2005
|
Tiger is out of the cage and all those How-To books are competing for your business. Our excellent friends at Peachpit have much to offer including great authors like Scott Kelby, Ted Landau, Robin Williams and many more. They have books on every aspect of Tiger - installing it, personalizing it, applications, troubleshooting, etc. They also have books on web design, iLife, iPod, networking and so much more. You can’t go wrong with Peachpit.
| In this article we are reviewing Maria Langer’s new book. This 703 pager is a very in-depth, no-fooling-around guide to Tiger. The 23 chapters guide you to everything from installation to troubleshooting. The 20-page Index makes it easy to look up your particular interest such as ejecting discs, force quit window, Unix, Applescript and permissions. The Appendix covers, among other things, shortcuts, graphing formulas and menus. The book contains visual images and step-by-step instructions. Many tips are also included. For example, “You can use the Forget button in the spelling dialog to remove a word that you previously added to the dictionary.” (Page 233-Figure 51). This book would make a great gift for yourself or the person you would like to continue living with. It will answer every question, help you with problems, and you will never be able to say you have mastered it all and don’t need it anymore. List price is $24.99 but you can buy it for as little as $17.49 by checking out www.Peachpit.com> and using your special member discount. You will also find a Tiger Resource Center with a Tips of the Week Newsletters for Mac, Photoshop and Design users and others. You will also find some trivia. For example, did you know that a group of Tigers is called a “streak?” So streak on over to our Learning Center where this book will be on display. "Peachpit. Essential books for the creative community."  ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 3.0
|
Review by Louise Dawson February 2005
|
Have you ever taken a perfect photograph? If so, you’re the first. There’s always that, “if only” factor. If only his eyes weren’t red. If only those people weren’t in the background. If only this old photo weren’t scratched.
|
Well, now you have Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0. This award winning new version of our old friend has been said to not only meet but in some ways surpass Adobe Photoshop itself. Elements 3.0 has unique features that put it miles ahead of any competition and make it the perfect companion for Apple’s iPhoto and for the digital photographer. If you are a beginner or simply not interested in putting a lot of time into photo enhancement and repair, you can use Smart Fix to automatically improve an image with one click. You can stop right there or continue to fine tune to your heart’s delight. For the expert, Elements gets out of the way and lets you do your thing. One of the coolest features is the Spot Healing Brush which is unique and brand new to Elements 3.0. It is the easiest, most intuitive tool I have ever used to banish those blemishes or chocolate stains from the kids’ faces. When it comes to printing, you can have several photos of different widths and lengths on one page to save money. I really enjoyed Photo Merge which allows you to pull in several items and arrange them as you wish. 
Elements has a lot of practical improvements. Now there is a before and after palate so you can compare original and enhanced side by side. You can use Compositing to combine several photos on one page. And, of course, there are still "Layers" for the truly creative who want to make their photos into greeting cards or other exciting works of art. If you are unhappy with your work, the Undo option can be used again and again. Elements remembers every change you have made.
Elements is tightly integrated with iPhoto so enhancements to your photos are automatically added to iPhoto. Elements 3.0 has many features for the photographer who prefers camera raw format. File Browser allows you to navigate your entire computer with thumbprints to find the file, folder or photo you want. A Preview Panel gives you all the info on a file before you open it. You can see the last ten photos you worked with and the camera settings. You can organize your photos in folders and then use File Browser to peruse the photos and detailed camera information about each one. Elements includes “How To’s” for your own private classes at your leisure. And we are already using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 in our Digital Photo Special Interest Group (SIG) which meets at the Learning Center on the fourth Thursday of every month. So come in for demonstrations and give it a test run. You may find yourself with that perfect photograph at last! Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 for Mac is available in stores or at http://www.adobe.com/ for $89.99. You can save $10 by downloading directly to your computer. Also at www.adobe.com you can find many interesting things including demo versions and tutorials. And check out their Plug-in Finder or their Events and Seminars. The box includes an instruction manual and suggests a great website www.photoshopelementsuser.com. This site will provide you with one free issue of a great magazine and some amazing tips and video tutorials. Our recommendation, "If you don’t own Adobe Photoshop or Elements, now is the time. It’s fun, practical and one of those gifts that keeps on giving."  GOOGLE - THE MISSING MANUAL
|
Review by Murray Massin December 2004
|
When the time comes for new computer owners to get past Solitaire, e-mail, and even letter writing, they will turn to “www,” the World Wide Web. At this point, doing research and obtaining information will be their new goal, and they will need help. Google is the tool they will find.
|
The Web has all the information that anyone could want, BUT it had no index until Google came along. A popular quote used in the book says: “If its not in Google, it probably doesn’t exist.” Another quote is: “Knowing your way around Google lets you search smarter and faster.” Also, it is important to know when NOT to use Google but a different search engine.” In 1998, Sergey Brin and Larry Page met at Stanford University where they developed the concept for the Google company. They dropped out of school, went to Menlo Park, and began by answering 10,000 Internet questions per day. They now average 250 million questions per day. It is a surprise to learn that the company actually has some sites which they sell along with the unpaid ones. They are called “password links.” The Missing Manual has three main parts: 1 - Searching with Google; where and how. 2 - Google tools; systems that help. 3 - Google for Webmasters; for professionals. It is interesting to learn where the name Google originated. It is a misspelling of “googol” which translates to the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros, a number indicative of the number of Web pages Google searched every day. The book suggests “six cool tricks” for using the Google search engine. 1 - Start with the word “define” to get a definition. 2 - It will “calculate numbers” if asked. 3 - Its “phonebook” is very practical. 4 - You can get “maps” on request. 5 - “Stock quotes” are reliable. 6 - It has an unbelievable amount of information on numbers, such as patents, product codes, flights, FTC equipment, etc. A major clue to using Google successfully is to start each search with the actual name of the site requested, such as: “The sky is blue because--” - rather than “Why is the sky blue?” - or “The Vatican is...” rather than “Where is the Vatican?” There is a complete discussion of a facility known as the “Google Toolbar.” It is supposed to help the user to be quick, simple and effective. BUT, then it goes on to report that the tool is not available for the MACINTOSH System. It only works on WINDOWS. However, the book then explains that with OS X, using Apple’s SAFARI search engine, there is a box right at the top of the main toolbar, that takes you directly to Google. Safari also adds a “Pop-up blocker” as well as an “Auto-fill” ability. This reviewer was disturbed by the book’s poor concept of Netscape, which he has used successfully and pleasantly for eight years. The forecast that it might soon be terminated by AOL, its owner, is very frightening. The final chapters concerning “making a personal Web site” and ”earning money with Google” are not on my agenda, so they did not interest me. Those who use the Web will find this book very useful.  ADOBE GOLIVE CS
|
Review by Louise Dawson November 2004
|
Those great people at Adobe have kindly sent us a copy of their new GoLive CS for review and after testing at our own Web site (www.lwmug.org), we are happy to say that we can wholeheartedly endorse it.
|
The increase in speed and stability, combined with faster uploading and many other new or improved features, make this a first-class upgrade well worth the price for all you Web designers out there. Time is of the essence so you’ll appreciate the “Save-and-Upload” speed being much faster than GoLive 6. The program also allows you to create your own keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can create a keyboard shortcut for “Connect to FTP Browser.” To switch between Web sites in the Web Browser window, you do not have to disconnect from one and connect to the other but only select the other Web site from the “Servers” pop-up list in the Web Browser window and GoLive CS displays the files of the other server. Typing an HTML tag, the closing tag is created automatically and the cursor is placed between them, so you can type the text without delay. When uploading an image that has the same name as an existing image on the server, a message is displayed rather then replacing the image without warning. This avoids accidental image deletion. Even if you hand-code all your web pages and use only a small part of the program, you will be glad you upgraded. The included manual is excellent, especially for quick reference. The Store Price for the full version of Adobe GoLive CS is $399. The Upgrade is $169. Details, tutorials and trial versions of Adobe products can be found at their excellent website, www.adobe.com. Once again we would like to thank Adobe for their strong support of User Groups.  ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE
|
Review by Louise Dawson August 2004 | ||||||||||||||
Just when you thought things couldn’t get better, Adobe comes out with Creative Suite, all new, integrated versions of our favorite software solutions constituting a complete design and work solution environment and, ah shucks, a lot of fun and magic too.
Recently, Adobe provided the Laguna Woods Village Macintosh Club with a review copy of Adobe Photoshop CS, just one great application from the complete suite. You can give it a try at our Learning Center or download a trial version for yourself at one of the Internet’s finest websites. The Photoshop CS package comes with an excellent textbook and also installs tutorials and tips on your computer to help you improve your skills, amaze your friends and prevent you from ever saying, “Now I know it all!.”
Be sure to visit Adobe.com, and take a tour. If you are interested in business solutions, take the “Adobe Intelligent Document Platform” Web Tour. To find out more about Adobe CS, take the “Less Work, More Play” Tour. You will be able to explore the entire suite or the application that appeals to you most. Tryout versions can be downloaded to your computer “gratis” from Adobe’s website so you can give them a test drive.
You can buy the complete package or each application separately according to your needs. Jackie Dove of Macworld Magazine calls Photoshop CS, “. . . an awesome upgrade for every type of Photoshop user.” Dave Cross of MacDesign Magazine says, “In one of the most significant improvements to Photoshop CS, the File Browser will likely become everyone's choice for working with files.”
The Adobe Creative Suite is available in two versions. The Premium edition combines new, full-version upgrades of Adobe’s leading professional tools — Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, GoLive, and Acrobat Professional — with innovative Version Cue™ file management features, a smooth Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) workflow, and valuable training resources. If you don’t own a full version of Photoshop or Standard, this may be your best opportunity to upgrade your software world.
As someone who has just gone through an escrow and other estate planning situations, I can sing the praises of Acrobat Professional. Using it, I was able to download documents from escrow companies and brokers, fill out the long legal documents, save and print them, email them back and, hopefully, out of my life forever. To have printed each form and filled them out by typewriter or pen would have been aggravating, time-consuming, and more likely to invite mistakes.
Also available is a Standard edition of Creative Suite which combines the full-version upgrades of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign — also supported by Version Cue™ file management features, Adobe PDF workflow, and training resources.
The entire Premium CS package sells for approximately $1200 with an upgrade of $749 and the Standard package for $1000 with a $549 upgrade price. Considering what you are getting, that is quite a deal. Thanks again, Adobe, for a job well done. Keep up the great work!
Louise Dawson
 |
NEW iLIFE APPLICATION iDVD 4 HAS SO MUCH TO OFFER Review by Chris Breen for Tech TV March 2004 |
iDVD 4 is included in the $49 iLife package. Also included are GarageBand and iTunes 4 for music lovers, a faster and improved iPhoto 4, and improvements in iMovie.
Bigger movies - One of the major limitations of previous versions of iDVD was its refusal to create discs that contained more than 90 minutes of video. That's changed in iDVD 4. You can now create discs that hold up to two hours of movies.
To make that possible, you must launch iDVD's Preferences (found in the iDVD menu) and enable the Best Quality option. With this option enabled, iDVD examines the amount of material you have in your project (this includes all the project's content -- video, pictures, motion menus, and static menus) and configures its encoder to provide the best quality possible while also allowing everything to fit on the disc. Note that switching to Best Quality results in longer encoding times (and by longer I mean several hours to encode a disc that contains two hours of video).
New themes - IDVD 4 includes 20 new themes. Those who shoot video for weddings will be particularly interested in the four new wedding themes, two of which contain motion backgrounds. Some of the new themes even include a montage element, allowing you to drag a couple of pictures or movies into the menu screen to easily create still or motion menus.
Map view and Auto Play - When you click the Map View button, you're presented with an overview of your project presented as a flow chart. Double-click an entry to be taken to that screen.
While in Map View you'll notice the first box of the bunch bears the title of your project along with the words "Drag content here to automatically play when the disc is inserted." That message means that any still picture or movie you drag into this box will automatically appear when you insert the disc into your DVD player. The film industry uses this for the FBI warning, but you can use it for something more creative: a company logo, a brief video message to your audience, or a picture of your dog.
Kiosk mode - If you've spent more than a few minutes at a museum or trade show, you've seen kiosk presentations, videos that repeat in a never-ending loop. IDVD 4 allows you to create looping slideshows and videos on the discs it produces. To do so, simply click on the name of a slideshow or movie in your project and select the Loop command from iDVD's Advanced menu. To escape the loop when watching the DVD, just press the Menu or Title button to return to the main screen.
IDVD 4 also introduces a variety of slideshow transitions and a resource meter that tells you how much space you have left to add additional assets. Additionally, you can now create iDVD projects on Macs that don't carry DVD burners, allowing you to create projects on one Mac and burn them on another.
Given this passel of useful new features, iDVD 4 rates an "Essential Update" rating from The Mac Daddy. If you make DVDs for pleasure or work, I'm sure you'll think so too.
Tech TV's "Mac Daddy," Chris Breen, pens Macworld magazine's tips and troubleshooting column, Mac 911; is author of the best-selling "Secrets of the iPod," Third Edition (Peachpit Press, 2003), and is a popular speaker at Macworld Expo. Check out www.techtv.com/callforhelp and click on "Mac" on the left side to find his articles on many other Mac applications. Also see www.macworld.com/weblogs/mac911 to find out how to copy DVDs.
Louise Dawson
 |
MAC OS X THE MISSING MANUAL PANTHER EDITION By David Pogue Published by Pogue/O'Reilly Press Review by Murray Massin January 2004 |
First there was Cheetah, Mac OS 10.0
Then Puma, Mac OS 10.1
Then Jaguar, Mac OS 10.2
Now there is Panther, Mac OS 10.3
Each built for speed and comparatively light compared to an elephant. However, this December, 2003, book, and only the First Edition, is a dinosaur of 762 pages. It has 21 Chapters and 6 appendices. The amount of material rivals The Bible, only this religion is called the Macintosh Operating System, put together by the Apple Computer Corp.
Although in fact, Panther is a revision or update of the previous Mac Operating systems called X, it stands alone on its own four dynamic feet. However, its underneath platform is a basis called Unix, which with the other X Systems, separates it from all of the previous ones started by Steve Jobs and Steve Wosniak in 1984. With his innate sense of humor, Pogue calls the entire X series "Steve Jobs 1.0," because Jobs originated and supervised its birth and development by Apple Computer Co.
To explain the need for such a gigantic volume, it covers not only the latest, but all the previous items in the in Apple's 10 series. There is a study of the Dock, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, iSync, iDVD, along with the way to use the new Sherlock, Mail, and Address Book.
For people new to the Mac Computer, this Manual is a necessity. For people whose new computer started with OS 10.2, this book is very good reference for the many changes. For those old timers, still secure with the OS 8 series, this manual is a "must." Without it, their computer will never get "user friendly." This reviewer doubts if anyone can read the entire book without being hypnotized or frustrated, but it should be nestled next to their computer ready for instant reference.
David Pogue has worldwide reputation as a Mac advocate. Every lecture, class, and symposium he delivers is a sellout. His numerous Missing Manuals are well organized, well documented, and are written in non-technical language that is easy to read. At a publisher's price of $ 29.95 it is a bargain, because to learn Panther, this book is all you need.
 |
HOW TO DO EVERYTHING WITH YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA Third Edition By Dave Johnson $24.99 Review by Louise Dawson December 2003 |
Rejoice, all you camera lovers. Here is a book about cameras. Just cameras. You don't need Photoshop. Just a camera! How to calculate scanned image size, USB glitches, Keep the horizon straight. The past, present and future of digital photography. Composition essentials. Understanding file extensions. mastering flash modes. Master exposure controls.
Some chapters concern the camera alone: master exposure controls, composition essential, keeping the horizon straight, master flash modes. Study the past, present and future of photography.
Other chapters help you make the connection between your camera and your computer. How do you calculate scanned image size? What to do about those USB glitches. File extensions are explained along with retouching, printing, scanning and sharing your photos.
Dave Johnson is the author of many technolgy "How To" books. His style is easy to follow, and the book is loaded with helpful illustrations.
Also check out:
HOW TO DO EVERYTHING WITH YOUR DIGITAL VIDEO CAMCORDER
By Dave Johnson $24.99
.jpg) |
HOW TO DO EVERYTHING WITH GOOGLE By Fritz Schneider $24.99 Review by Louise Dawson December 2003 |
Bet you thought you knew everything you need to know about Google. Wrong! Nobody does. But this 348-page book may give you even more respect for one of the great success stories of the Internet. There is so much to Google and it is growing every day.
The book is a fun read that first of all, teaches you how to become a better, more efficient searcher. These lessons, once mastered, can be used with many other applications. Secondly, it introduces you to many of the features you didn't know even existed in Google. Use Google for news alerts, calculations, image hunts or change the tool bar and tabs to a foreign language.
Did you know that the Google Viewer lets you see a slideshow of search results? Can you use Google as a calculator? Have you noticed the Google Doodle? The Google logo changes on holidays. Click on that logo and learn more about the holiday. Feeling lucky? Do a search, and if you feel confident about your search techniques, click on I'm Feeling Lucky and be taken immediately to the web page you are looking for.
One of the best kept secrets, beloved by bargain hunters, is Froogle. If you are looking for a particular product, Froogle will search the Internet for you and find the best deal.
Like jokes? Go to google.com and type "french military victories" and hit the I'm Feeling Lucky button. There are many other such jokes.
Google Compute helps you volunteer your unused computer time to worthy causes such as mapping the human genome. This was Google cofounder Serge Brines way to help research communities benefit from Google's success.
And it answers the most obvious question - Why Google? "It is a play on the word googol, coined by nine-year-old Miltohn Sirotta in 1938, to refer to the number represented by the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. There isn't a google of anything in the universe, not stars, dust particles, not atoms. Therefore, Google reflects the mission to organize the immense amount of information on the Web." (page 343) Did you know there are at least 10 billion web pages? Boy, this is a fun book.
 |
ADOBE ACROBAT 6.0 STANDARD Review by Louise Dawson October 2003 |
The person sending you the document has not sent it to you in a format you can read. Suppose you get a letter written in Chinese. Unless some wonderful application on your computer automatically translates Chinese to English, you are out of luck and your friend will move down one notch on your list of fun people.
Your friends need educating. Some formats are easier to open than others. Some are cross-platform and universal. Tell your friends to be cognizant of the format they use to save and send files. If you can't open an attachment, check to see in which format it was sent. If, for example, it ends with .doc (Microsoft Word Document) and you do not have Microsoft Word installed on your computer, you won't be able to open it. Well, you can but it will be complicated, aggravating, unnecessary and may leave you in a fit of tears. If someone sends you a file that ends in ".exe," do not download it. If you already did, delete it immediately. The "exe" stands for Execute, as in execute a command now. This is a Windows file and could contain a virus or worse.
So what formats should we all use to save and email documents, photos, etc.? Which will open on any computer? Which are the easiest to work with?
That's where PDF's come in. Portable Document Format is one of the best ways to send just about anything over the Internet. This format has been adopted by governments and businesses worldwide including the FDA and U.S. federal courts. It is greatly supported by Apple and if you are using the Mail application in OSX, your PDF's will open automatically.
We are all familiar with Adobe Reader (formerly named Adobe Acrobat Reader), a free application used to view and print PDF files. Over 500 million copies have been distributed by Adobe. This application allows you to read PDF's, a universal file format that will open on any computer with Adobe Reader installed. So when you save a document, use Save As and choose PDF whenever you are given that choice.
But if you are a serious business person, a designer or publisher, and must be sure your recipients see exactly what you want them to see, that they can search the document easily, and that they can click on hyperlinks, and even edit material, then you want Acrobat Standard. “Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Standard enables business professionals to easily convert any electronic or paper document - even a Web site -to a reliable Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file for exchange and review with colleagues and customers,” to quote Adobe. Standard eliminates the need for paper. If the receiver has Standard, you can use the "Send By Email For Review" command to edit the document and send the revisions back and forth. Imagine the benefits for editors, lawyers, accountants. One of the coolest of many new features is Web Capture which takes a Web page or pages and converts it all to one PDF. Your scanner can be accessed directly from Standard. Impressive tool bars make tasks easier and the Comments Summary Window allows you to communicate with an associate without disturbing the original document.
The Laguna Woods Village Macintosh Club is moving towards the elimination of paper for our mailings. That is why we have been experimenting with Standard which Adobe has kindly donated to our Macintosh Club. Next year, you will be able to download Pealings from our LWVMC Web site - photos, hyperlinks, text and all, instead of receiving it in your mailbox.
So tell your friends to send you PDF's. If they ask what’s a PDF, tell them, why, it's the universal, cross-platform best way to exchange documents, photos, web pages, etc. If they don’t know what you are talking about, send them to adobe.com, one of the most useful sites on the Internet. We can all find tons of info on each of Adobe’s products and download 30 day trials of some. The new Creative Suite Premium ($549, upgrade $169) contains Acrobat Professional, an even more advanced application, along with four other highly regarded Adobe products. Acrobat 6.0 runs on 10.2.2 only. Price $299, upgrade $99.
 |
KEYNOTE
FOR SLIDE SHOW PRODUCTIONS Review by Louise Dawson July 2003 |
(For details, visit www.apple.com/keynote)
How many times has someone asked me, "Is there anything like PowerPoint for the Mac?" First of all I have to point out that PowerPoint was developed for the Mac. Yes, that's right, Virginia. Power Point was developed for the Mac. But for those of us who have tried to use it, whether on Mac or PC, it has been a challenge. It is not fun or easy to use and often crashes. I have used Graphic Converter, iMovie and iPhoto to try to avoid PowerPoint.
But now Apple gives us a fun, easy-to-learn, and stable alternative. It is called Keynote and I love it. Yes, it's true: everything is easier on a Mac. One evening I sat down and thought, "OK, I'm going to start to learn to use Keynote tonight." Flashing back on my problems with other slide show applications, I did not look forward to it but I figured I could learn in a week or two. Well, believe it or not, within one hour, yes, that's one hour, I had not only learned everything I needed to know, but I had a beautiful and exciting slide presentation. You can now see a QuickTime version at my website http://homepage.mac.yesyoucan. Of course, on a full screen, it looks a lot better. But putting that 184kb slide show on the Internet was a breeze.
Keynote has lots of flashy special effects if you like all the bells and whistles. But for your business presentation, it has spreadsheets, tables and charts of every description. It can be as wild or as tame as you want. The key to all those cool features is the Inspector.
You can add QuickTime movies, photos, audio. There are many themes to choose from. Keep your "show notes" private while your audience sees only what you want them to see.
Save your presentation as a QuickTime movie, a PowerPoint slide show or a pdf. PowerPoint presentations can be imported into Keynote. As a matter of fact, Keynote was introduced at Macworld Expo in January. Audience members (and that includes me) received a free copy. That afternoon most of the professional speakers imported their PowerPoint demos into Keynote and presented them to their audiences the next day. They all raved about how easy it was to use.
If you would like to try it out, Apple has kindly supplied all user groups, including ours, with a free copy which we have installed on a computer in our Learning Center. Please give it a try. And thank you, Apple, for thinking of us. We really appreciate it. And keep those innovations coming.
Home Page
.jpg) |
AUDIBLE FOR THE BEST BOOK YOU'LL NEVER READ - AND FOUR GIFTS Review by Louise Dawson July 2003 |
And then came Audible. Just as iTunes rekindled my love of music, www.audible.com has brought me back to reading.
Imagine lying around the pool this summer listening to an author read his latest best seller or sitting in the doctor's waiting room having the New York Times read to you. Make that root canal a lot more fun thanks to a good mystery novel. How much time have we all wasted trying to find a decent radio station while driving interstate when we could have been learning a foreign language?
A basic membership of $14.95 includes one free book and one periodical per month. But the Premium Membership seems a better deal. For $19.95 per month you'll get two free books of your choice. You may also choose to purchase additional books at very reasonable prices, sometimes as little as $3. You'll always save up to 80% off the retail prices of most audiobooks on CD or cassette.
MUG members get A FREE one-month subscription to the audio version of The New York Times, 10 FREE blank CDs, a free subscription to the audio version of Macworld Magazine, and six free issues of Macworld magazine--start or extend your subscription. Go to http://www.audible.com/mac/promo16 for this special offer. I'd appreciate it if you would use my referral name (yesyoucan) if you sign up.
Categories cover just about anything you can find at your local bookstore including the Bargain Bin and foreign language learning. Newspapers, magazines, radio programs and newsletters are among the categories. Periodicals usually include an additional subscription fee.
Choose a book and download it. You can play the file directly from your computer, but for portability you'll need an MP3 player. If you sign up for a year membership, you get a free player called Otis. But if you own an iPod, the files are automatically transferred via iTunes. You can also burn the books to a CD to play on your home or car CD player.
The iPod is your best choice since you can buy one for as little as $149 and use it not only for exceptional music and audio book playback, but as an external hard drive for transferring and backing up files. You do back up your files, don't you?
A 10 GB iPod can hold hundreds of audiobooks and thousands of songs or data files. And it will remember the last place you listened on each and every one of those Audible programs - one of the hallmarks of every AudibleReady device. Plus iTunes extends its cool, convenient features with "roundtrip bookmarking," which allows synchronization of playback positions between iTunes, your iPod, and vice versa. This means you can listen to an Audible program on your iPod or your computer, and switch between the two without losing your place
Audible works with both Macs and PCŐs and any MP3 player. If you have not upgraded to OS X, you can listen to the books through Real Player but you won't be able to burn CD's. The web site www.audible.com is full of information.
Home Page
 |
InDesign 2.0
Review by Louise Dawson |
Many professional desktop publishers have expressed consternation that Macromedia has not chosen to jump on the OSX bandwagon and update QuarkXpress. However, with the release of Adobe InDesign 2.0, they can relax. Adobe InDesign 2.0 is a big improvement over 1.0 and is OSX native. This $700 application is not for those of us making flyers for garage sales or the kids' soccer meets. It is for layout designers interested in producing top-of-the-line, multicolored layouts and exciting, highly constructed Web pages. If you are interested in learning this or Adobe's other professional products, you will want to look for a class at a local university or find an Apple Consultant (consultants.apple.com). But if you are proficient with Illustrator and Photoshop, youŐll be comfortable with InDesign.
It would be impossible to list all the great features: drag and drop colors onto objects, separate rulers for each page, amazing text wrap around objects - inside and out, the type-on-a-path feature, Eyedropper to copy and paste colors and type styles from one object to another and so much more.
To quote Cnet's review, "We think the new features make InDesign the top choice for producing four-color magazines, books, and corporate identity material as well as onscreen documents, such as PDF files, e-books, and Web pages."
As always, we encourage you to price-hunt. Adobe offers InDesign 2.0 for only $400 to registered owners of PageMaker or PageMaker Plus. Some vendors are offering rebates if you buy several Adobe products. So use Sherlock or similar search engines to check out those bargains.
Try it before you buy it. Adobe.com is a wonderful Web site with lots of info and free 30 day trials of most Adobe products. Our newsletter editor, Gladys Greene, plans to use InDesign soon, and Anne Clark is using Go Live 6.0 for the lwmug.org Web site. After Apple, Adobe is becoming our favorite company.