Newsbreak September 2001
Contents
1. Volume 16 Number 6 SEPTEMBER 4 MEETING MacWor tp Expo REPORT AND DEMOS ELSA TRAVISANO MICROSOFT OUTLOOK EXPRESS SECRETS JAY MANNING Join us on Tuesday September 4th at 7 30 PM in Physical Sciences building room 121 on the SUNY Oneonta campus for our monthly MUG ONE meeting Vice President Elsa Travisano will report on Mac World Expo and demo Print Explosion Deluxe President Jay Manning will give his often delayed presentation on Outlook Express Jay and Christine anticipate that this will be their final MUG ONE meeting prior to their planned move to Florida Come to the meeting and wish them well For more information contact Terry Helser at 432 8123 or email us at mugone stny rtr com FAREWELL TO JAY AND CHRIS MANNING It s hard to imagine the local Macintosh community without Jay Manning For nearly adecade Jay has been an indispensible member of MUG ONE serving first as group Librarian followed by four consecutive terms as President As the owner of Music and Video Repair Jay has repaired and enhanced countless Macs and peripherals for schools agen cies businesses and individual Mac users over the years With unfailing good cheer Jay has salvaged our hard drives revived our ailing monitors and enhanced our computer memory Jay s wife Christine s failing health necessitates a move to Sarasota Florida where they will be closer to family mem bers Good luck Jay and Chris We ll miss you dread2. My only recom mendation to Adobe would be to add the capability for making photo greeting cards one of the most common activities for amateur digital photographers When I suggested this to product manager Terry White at the Adobe User Group breakfast he said sounds like a recipe to me Perhaps there will be a card making recipe available for download one day Ersa TRAVISANO Photoshop Elements System requirements PowerPC Mac OS 8 6 9 0 9 0 4 or 9 1 64 MB of RAM with virtual memory on 150 MB of available hard disk space color minotor with 256 color 8 bit or greater video card 800x600 or greater monitor resolution CD ROM drive Page 4 Newsbreak NOTARY MARIA LANGER EGA MICROSOFT FISEL FOR MACINTOSH Tench poneli Erel ihe aiok ad aay wea Tii Fine veo tent Cnet mor pinuri rather Sea lenin engMennations Fou U be tap and PUN iiia der iio Aare Adobe Illustrator 9 0 CLASSRO 3 BOOK Ctinplete Re erence Camnbarny froblas ee ee oe ee rga H BOOKS EXCEL 2001 IELUSTRATOR 9 CLASSROOM PHOTOSHOP 6 COMPLETE REF Excel 2001 for Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide by Maria Langer 304 pp Peachpit Press 2001 17 99 Microsoft s Excel 2001 has undergone enough of a redesign that long time Excel users may want to reorient themselves to the Mac s predominant spreadsheet software Maria Langer s Visual QuickStart Guide fills the bill for them as well as for newer
3. answers so you can test yourself on the content covered The book is extensively illustrated with screen shots and diagrams of how to use the various illustration tools and includes a section of color plates The requisite fonts design elements and beginning and end versions of each lesson are included on the accompanying CD ROM Photoshop 6 the Complete Reference by Adele Droblas Greenberg and Seth Greenberg 791 pp plus CD ROM Osborne McGraw Hill 2001 49 99 To distinguish themselves within the crowded field of Photoshop books the authors of Photoshop 6 the Com plete Reference have set out to combine a reference manual with an instruction book This effort meets with mixed suc cess As areference the book works well Practically every dialog box and command in Photoshop 6 is covered and chapters deal with the full range of Photoshop activities from the basics to advanced techniques The table of contents lists specific topics within each chapter like drawing with the freeform pen tool This makes it easy to zero in on tasks you wish to master The exercises however are less successful The step by step instructions can be hard to follow and are not always keyed to the images on the CD ROM More annoyingly most of the images on the CD ROM are saved in JPEG rather than Photoshop format which means you must use the File Open command from within Photoshop to open them double clicking on an image from the desktop opens
4. caps Apple iPens markers and more We are saving the 56K modem and lots of other prizes for the picnic raffle The soda and butter scotch bars disappeared while networking flourished Good job guys The next meeting will be Sunday June 24 at 1 pm atthe SUNY College Camp Join us to meet friends eat too much and win stuff TERRY L HELSER SECRETARY MacWorld continued from page I York s Jacob Javits Convention Center July 18 20 Show highlights included faster CD RW enhanced iMacs and the recently introduced iBook as well as the mounting wave of applications for OS X Vendors offered firewire CD and hard drives including several portable drives Beatware s Toonworks animation software was a surprise hit of the show The third User Group University conference held July 17rh brought 150 user group leaders from around the world to gether for workshops and brainstorming sessions on topics ranging fromTutorials to Stagnation and Motivation Adobe a surprising no show on the Expo floor Corel and Apple hosted informative User Group breakfasts My show highlight was serving on the panel for the conference session User Groups What They Can Do For You The next MacWorld Expo will be held January 8 12 in San Francisco ELsA TRAVISANO September 2001 SOFTWARE REVIEW PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS Adobe Photoshop Elements Adobe Systems Inc www adobe com 99 69 upgrade for registered users of Adobe PhotoDel
5. it in Picture Viewer or your computer s designated picture viewing software rather than Photoshop The accompanying CD ROM includes trial software a bonus chapter on color theory and images for exercises The book also includes information on ImageReady 3 0 not 2 0 as is mistakenly stated on the cover If you re looking for a thor ough reference guide to Photoshop 6 this is a good choice If you want an instruction book Photoshop 6 Classroom in a Book from Adobe Press is a better choice ELSA TRAVISANO September 2001 SOFTWARE REVIEW PRINT EXPLOSION DELUXE MACINTOSH Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh 3 CD ROMs 750 page user manual graphics catalog Nova Development www novadevelopment com 59 95 rebate for current users of Print Explosion There s a lot to get excited over in Nova Development s Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh This new version of the best selling Mac home graphics software boasts more than 8 800 ready made designs over 90 000 graphics 3 000 greeting cards 5 000 photographs 2 500 fine art images 8 500 quota tions to add to your creations and 500 fonts on three CD ROMs The software supports a staggering range of Mac operating systems from 7 6 1 to OS X Indeed Print Explo sion Deluxe Macintosh is one of the first consumer products for OS X Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh comes with templates for creating greeting cards signs and posters flyers banners certificates invitations ca
6. that he should be the raffle s grand prize winner Many thanks to everybody who attended and helped make the picnic a success Special thanks go to Louise Miller of Adobe for donating the grand prize See you at next year s picnic Page 2 JUNE 5 2001 MUG ONE MEETING Elsa welcomed about 30 of us to the last meeting until Fall She sent around a sign up sheet for the picnic scheduled for June 24 and told us the meat veggie burgers buns plates cups utensils drinks desert and grills will be provided We have recently received donations of Microsoft Office and AppleWorks 6 and talked about how to best use them We could raffle them put every member s name in a hat so not just those attending a meeting could win or we could use them as a fundraiser No decision yet The library has moved to the Main Street Print Shop at 353 Main St across from the Oneonta Post Office go in the side entrance The shop is open 9 30 AM to 5 PM Johanna Koenig Librarian will be in 2 4 PM Mondays but whenever the shop is open you can sign out books or drop off returns Call Barbara Dauria ahead at 432 7800 to check out hardware items like the camera or Zip drive Fran Sokol is taking orders for Peachpit Press books If 11 are ordered you get a 40 discount so order several and often Catalogues are available at the meetings or from officers Apple is looking for Mac experts and sales staff for the retail store to be opened in Coloni
7. 6 3518 fax 436 2654 Joanne Johnston Treasurer email ejohnston stny rr com Art Dauria Program Co Chair email dauriaaf oneonta edu Fran Sokol Program Co Chair email fransokol stny rr com Barbara Dauria Program Co Chair email msprintshop stny rr com Johanna Koenig Librarian email jokoenig dmcom net 607 433 1305 607 433 2569 607 432 8123 607 432 6320 607 433 2466 607 369 7645 607 433 2466 607 432 4975
8. AK is the monthly newsletter of MUG ONE the Macintosh Users Group of Oneonta New York Editor Elsa Travisano Contact us at NewsBreak 28 State Street Oneonta NY 13820 607 433 2569 Fax 607 433 0909 mugone stny rr com www mugone com NewsBreak is an independent publication not affiliated or otherwise associated with or sponsored or sanctioned by Apple Computer Inc NewsBreak received an award for excellence from the January 2001 User Group University NewsBreak SUNY Oneonta Campus Oneonta NY Hunt Union Map BY TERRY HELSER Directions to Physical Sciences Building room 121 e From Main Street in Oneonta take Chestnut Street to West Street e Take West Street to Ravine Parkway then take the second right by the big OSC sign e Follow this road around and up the hill to the flagpole roundabout next to Morris Hall e Go 3 4 around the roundabout and through the main parking lot behind the Human Ecology building to the small parking lots at the far end Park anywhere in these lots e Take the main sidewalk between Human Ecology and the Physical Sciences building e Enter the low glass main entrance to your left The front room on your right is room 121 MUG ONE OFFICERS FOR 2000 2001 Jay Manning President email mactechl dmcom net Elsa Travisano Vice President email mugone stny rr com Terry Helser Sec amp OSC Liaison email thelser stny rr com Office 43
9. ELSA TRAVISANO Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh System Requirements Any Power PC based Macintosh including iMac 16 MB available RAM CD ROM drive System 7 6 1 or later in cluding OS X Compatible with all printers Can print EPS graphics on non PostScript printers a pec he ce Pairin i EELA T premi o Es _ Doug Kinney Barbara Dauria Tom Slavinsky visiting Elsa Travisano Brian Foley Art Dauria and John Maas at the MUG ONE s booth at MacWorld Expo July 19th MUG ONE STAFFS USER GROUP BOOTH MUG ONE members were out in force at MacWorld Expo held from July 18 20 at the Javits Conference Center in New York City On July 19th eight of us took turns staffing the MUG ONE table at the Northeast Macintosh User Groups booth on the bustling Expo show floor We answered ques tions about our group and user groups in general and distrib uted membership forms and copies of Newsbreak Booth staffers included Art and Barbara Dauria who arrived early to handle the setup Brian Foley Doug Kinney Gerry Stoner Ellen Thorne Elsa Travisano who pinch hit through out the day and John Maas who handled booth breakdown Tom Slavinsky dropped by just in time for the photo op Gerry and Ellen are pictured on the website www mugone com Thanks to everyone for their help in making the MUG ONE booth such a great success and special thanks to Judy Sellers who created our much admired custom MUG ONE tee shirts NEWSBRE
10. age Graphics from other programs can also be dragged and dropped into Print Explosion Deluxe including libraries from Art Explosion Nova s line of clip art products This is a marked improvement over the proprietory file formats of many earlier graphics programs which limited the user to working within a single application A 750 page combination user manual and graphics catalog provides a black and white thumbnail picture of every graphic included in the three CD ROM software package Image styles in the collection range from cartoony to stylized to fine art Virtually all images are in color If nothing in the collec tion suits your fancy hard to imagine given the variety available you can import your own graphic or photograph from a scanner or digital camera using TWAIN or simply insert a photo through either the insert menu or by choosing import graphic from the file menu Greeting card projects are organized by theme with the dimensions of each card listed beneath its color thumbnail I would find it easier if cards were grouped by output size so I didn t have to hunt through the designs to find projects that fit the dimensions of the card stock I planned to use I would also like to see examples of the 500 fonts in the catalog though the customize text dialog box shows a preview of the font you ve selected as you type These are minor complaints about an otherwise top notch package I highly recommend it
11. d functions including new open paste acquire tutorials and the help menu A variation on the Photoshop tools palette appears on the left and two top bars under the menus offer icons for common functions a series of tabs for palettes file browser recipes filters etc and modifiers for the tool currently selected For example when the paint brush tool is selected the modifier bar allows you to choose brush shape and size mode opacity and wet edges One welcome addition to the tool palette is the red eye brush which streamlines the common Photoshop task of removing red reflection from the eyes of photograph subjects The palette tabs at the top of the screen give ready access to a range of functions Place your cursor over a tool or palette tab and the hints palette gives a brief explanation of the tool or palette along with a button to push if you want more help The file browser lets you navigate through folders on your com puter from within Elements then displays thumbnail photos of a folder s contents To open an image simply click on its thumbnail The recipe palette offers step by step directions for tasks like adding elements to an image color correction enhancing text cleaning up images and importing photos New recipes can be downloaded as they become available Page 3 Adobe Photoshop Elements ee ee ee The filters and effects palettes show thumbnail examples of what the filter or effect will look like s
12. e Mall Albany Go to Apple com for applications and information Elsa announced that she will be a speaker at MacWorld Expo in July and that MUG ONE has been invited to be one of six users groups staffing the user group booth in the exhibit hall Elsa needs members who can do two hour shifts on Thursday July 19 in NYC at the Javits Center Questions and Answers During a short Q amp A session a member was having problems with an HP Laserjet 400 and an Epson printer not working which may be related to the Adobe Type Management exten sion Turn all of them or just ATM off and try it A query about which books to give as gifts brought testimonials for Peachpit QuickStart and Wow books and to look at the reviews in past issues of the newsletter on our Web site www mugone com Recycling bags for inkjet cartridges were distributed to any one who wanted them To find the file that locks you out of a timed trial version the question was about Adobe software you can try a Sherlock search by date select advanced and show invisible files or do an Option Find in older OS versions Program MYOB s AccountEdge Barbara Dauria Barbara Dauria MUG ONE member and owner of Main Street Print Shop demonstrated MYOB s business software AccountEdge The program is compatible with Excel and Quicken which Barb uses for her checking account Barbara started her business in 1976 with QuickBooks Pro The most recent version of QuickB
13. fully ELSA TRAVISANO UGU MACWORLD EXPO HIGHLIGHTS At least a dozen MUG ONE members joined the record 64 000 attendees at MacWorld Expo and Conferences held at New continued on page 2 Beaming winner Terry Helser shows off the raffle s grand prize Adobe GoLive 5 0 at June s MUG ONE picnic PICNIC FEATURES FOOD FUN PRIZES Over 30 MUG ONE members and their families took time out from a particularly busy weekend to attend the third annual MUG ONE picnic on June 24th Hats off to Terry Helser who arranged for us to use the splendid lodge at the newly reopened SUCO College Camp Grillmeisters Jay Manning and Tom Travisano served pork and chicken spiedie shish kebabs London broil with Tom s famous soy marinade sausages and burgers meat and veggie from the grill as we feasted on the breads fruit subs salads and desserts brought by MUG ONE members At three o clock we gathered inside the lodge for the raffle Tickets were drawn from Terry s trusty hat and no one went home empty handed Among the happy winners were Ron Bailey and Tom Travisano who each won their choice of a book from Peachpit Press Doug Kinney a 56k modem donated by Jerome Rudd The full list will be posted on the website soon Terry Helser won the grand prize Adobe GoLive 5 For years Terry has put in an enormous amount of work behind the scenes aa MUG ONP s secretary and meeting site coordinator so it s especially gratifying
14. lendars labels letterheads enve lopes business cards fax cover sheets report covers post cards party sets hats masks gift boxes etc gift tags bookmarks and crafts New to this version are templates for CD labels electronic greetings tee shirts mousepads and web pages It s hard to imagine a project that Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh doesn t cover Powerful new features have been added to this version of the software including an improved user interface that looks particularly gorgeous in its Aqua OS X form mail merge which lets users create mailing labels from a database of Graphic from Nova s Print Explosion Deluxe Macintosh names and addresses improvements to label making that allow you make multiple labels as well as make changes to a single label a quotation database featuring nicely chosen quotes on subjects ranging from architecture to religion and special tools to publish a project directly to email or turn it into a web page Though it is not designed as a clip art collection per se Print Explosion Deluxe s graphics once opened from within the Page 5 1 Mp pRa Lae ee Lee A akel E a program can be dragged and dropped into other applications To place the graphic of the woman and computer Newsbreak s editor perhaps into PageMaker 6 5 I opened a blank document in Print Explosion Deluxe chose the graphic from the insert menu then simply dragged it onto the PageMaker p
15. o you can choose without having to try out each effect on your image Photoshop s image menu has been divided into two menus image and enhance The image menu has an automatic straighten and crop function This can lead to hilarous results in some cases No problem if it comes out looking strange as in Photoshop there are multiple levels of undo The enhance menu includes slider bar tools for adding fill flash and adjusting backlighting With some experimentation these tools can work wonders on imperfectly lit photos Elements uses standard Photoshop filters so the sky s the limit on the special effects you can apply The automate functions under the file menu allow you to perform functions on multiple photos contained in a folder including powerful batch processing you can convert the file type image size resolution and naming of a folder s entire contents with a single click printable contact sheets web photo galleries and photo package which sizes multiple copies of a photo on a single sheet of photo paper Photomerge allows you to create a panorama from a series of overlapping photos Elements files can be saved in 16 different formats including Photoshop JPEG TIFF PICT and PNG so compatibility with other applications shouldn t be a problem I m terrifically impressed with Photoshop Elements Unless you truly need the high end features of Photoshop Photoshop Elements should more than meet your needs
16. ooks Pro works with OS 9 1 and was updated for Y2K but is no longer supported by Intuit She found Peachtree Accounting too advanced and decided to try Newsbreak MYOB s program The first thing she did was print the help file She showed us the three LARGE three ring binders that resulted Can you say significant learning curve AccountEdge can do single or multiple users and can password protect sensitive areas as needed We then learned about doing business on a cash basis only mark paid when you actually receive the money or an accrual basis listed as paid when billed even if you don t get the money until later and that you have to decide which approach to take during the interview when you begin the program She then discussed entering new customers in the database how to enter Cash Sales so you don t have to enter one time customers and how to print multiple labels of the same customer This is a full network version which is not the case with some competing products She then did a quick demo of QuickBooks which she prefers for small businesses but alas is no longer supported and finished with the best advice I have heard in a while Do what you do best and hire out the rest Amen A 100 discount coupon was offered as a special meeting incentive which brought the retail price down to 149 We then used a cap to dispense raffle tickets Winners took home Apple OS X tee shirts black suede Apple
17. users of Excel The VOS format with its ample illustrations and step by step instructions for specific tasks makes for a painless refresher course The introduction gives a handy summary of recent changes including the list wizard calculator for entering formulas multiple pane clipboard formatting palette and improved integration with other programs Chapters cover the Excel workplace working with worksheets and files functions in formulas formatting cells creating charts collaboration working with other applications web pages and links and setting preferences to customize your workspace Pay particular note to the chapter on working with lists so that you can leverage this powerful new set of Excel features The book concludes with appendices of functions and of menus and shortcut keys The latter is especially useful as several key commands have been changed for this version Adobe Illustrator 9 0 Classroom in a Book 444 pp plus CD ROM Adobe Press 2000 45 Whether you re boggled by bezier curves or are struggling to scale Adobe J llustrator s learning curve Adobe Illustrator 9 0 Classroom in a Book will help you get a grip on this sophisticated illustration program The book includes a tour of Illustrator 9 0 followed by fifteen chapter long lessons on topics ranging from creating basic shapes to preparing graph ics for web publication Each lesson gives step by step instruc tions and concludes with questions and
18. uxe Photoshop Limited Edition and selected competitive software Photoshop Elements is truly a breakthrough product Adobe has managed to create an application that offers most of the functionality of Photoshop for 1 6th the price Photoshop Elements occupies the middle position of Adobe s photo software continium Software of choice for photo pro fessionals is of course the full version of Photoshop which features advanced color management ustrator like curves tools support for vector shapes web and dynamic media tools and ImageReady software for sophisticated web processing The software for true beginners is still PhotoDeluxe unfortu nately the Mac version hasn t been updated in years PhotoDeluxe uses vastly simplified tools and features tem plates for creating projects like cards and calendars PhotoDeluxe saves files in a proprietary format which is incompatible with most other programs Unlike Photoshop Limited Edition which it replaces Photoshop Elements is far more than a hobbled version of Photoshop Photoshop Elements is aimed at amateur photog raphers photo enthusiasts and hobbyists and business users who want to explore high end digital imaging but need an affordable entry point Elements uses real Photoshop tools but offers an easier to use interface along with many enhanced features that are not available in Photoshop Elements opens with a Quick Start screen offering button access to the most commonly use
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