C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XIX: NUMBER 4 APRIL, 2004
NEXT MEETING: April 20, 2004 6:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Sharon Allen on "Multimedia Madness"
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) OFFICERS, HELPLINES, S.I.G.S
(2) PRESIDENT'S CORNER Spence Stimler
(3) ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS REVIEW Charles Barney
(4) EDITOR'S COMMENTS Dick Trissel
(5) WEB WANDERINGS Gil Smith
(6) DIGITAL IMAGING S.I.G. Charles Barney
(7) SYSTEMS S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(8) WINDOWS EXPLORER PART 2 Dick Trissel
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Spence Stimler 938-0217 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
spence@pronet.net colgil1@juno.com
Vice President Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Bill Corning 934-0775 Amy Malicki 925-5780
foster95@juno.com savvyseniors@juno.com
Secretary and Book Librarian Hardware and Windows XP
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yung.bag@verizon.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer AOL
Gerry Miller 934-1396 Frank Maciel 922-2318
2741 Banyan Way frm8198@aol.com
Santa Maria CA 93455
gandamiller@verizon.net
Disk Librarian Visual Basic and Genealogy
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Gerald Miller 934-1396
sallen4060@aol.com gandamiller@verizon.net
Publicity Help With Any Problem
Bill Corning 934-0775 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com fredeadams@verizon.net
Newsletter Editor Digital Imaging
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Charles Barney 937-1240
rtrissel@juno.com Cbarney@lightspeed.net
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Digital Imaging (6:00pm) Genealogy (6:00pm) Systems (5:45pm)
Charles Barney Gerry Miller Dick Trissel
Cbarney@lightspeed.net gandamiller@verizon.net rtrissel@juno.com
CCCC Membership is $15 for twelve months ($20 family). For this you
receive:
Monthly newsletter
EXTRA4C E-mail Messages
Access to the clubs software library
Disk of the month (usually for $1)
Helpline support
Monthly presentation
Valuable door prizes
Question and answer sessions
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CCCC Page 2 April 2004
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Spence Stimler
By the time you receive this in the mail, you will have had it emailed to
you and also had the opportunity to download it from the website. How's
that for coverage? We are still looking at ways to get the Newsletter to
you other than by USPS. As a computer club, we should at least be able to
communicate with each other using our computers. We know that some have
problems downloading it off the web. Did anybody have problems receiving
it via email? What did you do with it once you realized it was being sent
to you by email; read it? Print it? or dump it? If you printed it, did you
print the entire newsletter or segments of it that you wanted to keep and
peruse later? We are interested in your input.
Speaking of input, there is a need to come up with ideas for SIGs. Dick
Trissel's - Systems and Charles Barney's - Digital Imaging, are well
attended and will continue for the foreseeable future. If the attendance
of the last Genealogy SIG is any indication, it is in trouble and will
probably go the way of the Hardware SIG conducted by Ray Isenson. What
SIGs would you like to see? The SIGs don't necessarily have to be an
ongoing twelve month session. They could serve a purpose in as little as
two or three sessions. What you like to learn how to do? What do you
think you need more instruction on to get the most out of your computer?
We really would like to get your input. It is very difficult to try to
guess what you might want. If you are having problems with a particular
operation, let us know. We will do our best to find someone who is
knowledgeable in the area and try to come to your rescue. The very nature
of Dick Trissel's System SIG inundates him with a myriad of questions. Is
there one or two that might be expanded upon in another session?
We are in for a treat at our April meeting. Sharon Allen will give us a
presentation she entitles, Multimedia Madness. I know it will be well done
and very interesting. If you miss this one, you will be sorry.
Speaking of sorry; the following missed out on receiving a door prize
either because you weren't in attendance or left early: Jack Sutherlin,
Peter Dettelis, Richard Holmes, Shirlee Hickey, Stanley Voris, Cliff
Newbold, and Sylvia Fischer. Winners were Jerry Miller, Barbara Flood,
Marshall Wiley, Jim Burress, and Paul Highfill.
Our attendance at the March meeting was low. Only forty seven of you made
it. We hope that you will make the effort to put in an appearance in
future meetings. Again, if you have any ideas or suggestions for future
sessions, please let me or any of the other officers know. It is probably
impossible, but wouldn't it be nice if all of the approximately 100 members
attended? It would probably put a dent in our cookie supply, but I'm sure
we can handle it.
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CCCC Page 3 April 2004
Adobe Photoshop CS
A review by Charles Barney
Long regarded as the 'King Kong' of digital imaging programs for graphics
professionals and serious hobbyists, Adobe's heavyweight champ Photoshop is
now in it's 8th incarnation. Why is it called Photoshop CS? Apparently the
new marketing strategy from Adobe is to emphasize the close integration of
their various graphics applications, each as a part of the 'Creative
Suite.' An in-depth review could fill volumes and is way beyond the scope
of this newsletter (and most folks' attention span). I'd like to tell you
about just some of the new features in this version that might be of
particular interest to digital camera users and pixel monkeys such as
myself.
In the highly-improved File Browser, you can now create custom-sized
thumbnails (think big!) plus drag and drop them into any order you please.
Flag and assign keywords to individual or groups of images for very useful
search and sort capabilities. The File Browser also now comes with its own
menu bar with easy access to the most frequently used file commands and
tools. The new capability to edit metadata that is embedded within each
image allows you to add personal information, such as your copyright, to an
image file. An entirely customizable workspace now allows you to truly
'have it your way.'
Previously only available as a plug-in, Photoshop CS now has built-in
support for Camera Raw files (and I'm not talking about sushi here). Raw
files are just that, raw data that is captured by the camera's photo sensor
without any pre-processing. If your camera can save images in this format,
after opening them in File Browser you can have complete creative control
over white balance, color rendition, brightness, sharpening and other
parameters through the software's slider adjustments.
New support for 16-bit images (as captured in Camera Raw files) means that
an incredible amount of color and brightness information per pixel can now
be manipulated with most of Photoshop's tools.
8-bit images can only contain 256 shades per RGB channel, while a 16-bit
image has 65,536 possible shades!
Starting off with this much more picture data now allows quite a number of
edits to be performed on an image before any noticeable loss of quality is
produced in the final output.
One of my favorite photo projects is creating 'panoramas' - wide view
compositions produced by joining a number of pictures together. The new
Photomerge feature makes what used to be a very tedious and often hit-and-
miss undertaking into one that is a joy to work with. Virtually seamless
panoramas are now possible with Photomerge's 'Perspective Adjustment' that
automatically corrects any angular distortion in overlapping edges that, no
matter how carefully you take your pictures, always seems to occur.
'Advanced Blending' smoothes out most of the tonal variations between
joined images. Just one bit of caution here - make sure you have a boatload
of RAM first!
Have you ever seen those colored glass filters that screw onto the front of
a camera lens? These expensive accessories allow photographers to alter the
color 'temperature' of the light passing through the lens. Even if your
camera can accept these color filters, they are a hassle to use. Gee, do
you think maybe Adobe has an easier solution? If you said 'yes' then you
are correct! Photoshop CS emulates the very same effects with the Photo
Filter command. Choose from a long list of preset filters, or customize
your own. Now your photos can be made to look 'warmer', 'cooler', or
whatever and no one will be the wiser.
One of the most common problems that photographers (film or digital)
encounter is failing to obtain the proper exposure for their subject. Key
areas of the photo can easily come out too dark or too light in what would
otherwise be a great shot. Photoshop's new Shadow/Highlight Tool can
eliminate most of these problems after-the-fact. Independent adjustments
over the image's entire tonal range can bring out hidden detail without
under or over exposing other areas. This one is a real lifesaver!
Scan a bunch of photos tossed onto your scanner's glass and what do you
usually end up with? A page full of crookedly scanned photos! Not a problem
in Photoshop CS. Simply by running the Crop and Straighten Tool, each image
is copied into its own document, already rotated and perfectly straight.
This will be a huge time-saver for those who do a lot of scanning.
So, is Adobe Photoshop CS worth the $649 retail price ($169 upgrade from
ver 7)? If you are as passionate about digital imaging as I am and want the
very best tools to work with, the answer is a resounding yes! If you are
more of a casual user or a beginner, then I recommend going with Adobe's
Photoshop Elements - a somewhat reduced, but very powerful program just the
same. You can always decide to step-up to the full Photoshop later!
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CCCC Page 4 April 2004
EDITOR'S COMMENTS by Dick Trissel
As most of you know by now, the CCCC April newsletter got sent to you by e-
mail as well as this hard copy. We are trying all the different ways to
circulate the newsletter.
The hard copy doesn't require any effort on the part of the recipient
(except opening your mailbox), but it is expensive at about $1.00/month per
member.
The Web site copy requires a deliberate effort on the part of the club
member.
The e-mail is a compromise--it's in your face, but you will have to
deliberately save it and/or print it.
Obviously, the last two methods are no cost except the $50/year membership
fee to APCUG (Association of PC Users Groups) which hosts our Web site:
http://member.apcug.org/fourseas
The non-hard copy methods do require the club members have an ISP (Internet
Service Provider). But, after all, this is a computer-oriented
organization. And nowadays, that pretty well implies using a computer on
the Internet. The e-mail method does require all the members' e-mail
addresses be known by the newsletter editor. If you didn't get an e-mail
copy of the April 2004 newsletter, then I don't have your e-mail address.
Let me or one of the officers know what you think of each of the methods
for future application.
Maybe I should explain the cost of mailing a hard copy newsletter each
month. We currently mail out 87 copies (86 member addresses plus Microsoft
Mindshare). The repro rate at Office Depot for one to 99 newsletters with
ten pages double sided (5 pages) collated and stapled is $0.135 per
newsletter times 5 pages ($0.675) copies. So, for 87 copies the cost would
be $58.73 plus $1.74 for stapling plus $4.84 tax ($65.31).
For 100 or more newsletters, the Office Depot repro rate for ten pages
double sided (5 pages) collated and stapled is $0.095 per newsletter times
5 pages ($0.475) copies. So, for 100 copies the cost would be $47.50 plus
$2.00 for stapling plus $4.70 tax ($54.46). Therefore, the 100 copy method
is cheaper and provides 14 extra copies for replacement of damaged mail and
for guests (undamaged ).
Now, we add postage at $0.37 times 87 ($32.19), and we have $86.65 per
month (not counting master-copy paper, labels and ink). For 12 months,
that's $1039.80. That's about $12 per member household per year.
So, you see, most of the annual membership dues go for the newsletter
costs.
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CCCC Page 5 April 2004
WEB WANDERINGS
By Gil Smith
INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION
When a business commits fraud, you can always turn to the Better Business
Bureau and other governmental organizations for help. That's great for
companies located in the United States.
If the company is in another country, to whom do you turn?
About 30 countries have banded together and created an organization to
provide consumer protection. Go here to find out which countries
participate and how to file a complaint.
http://www.econsumer.gov/english/index.html
GROUP IT TOGETHER
The "Yahoo! Groups" allow a group of people to share and discuss a certain
topic on the Net. For example, if you love to cross-stitch, you can join a
group on cross-stitching. Discuss ideas through the message board. There
are also tools to help share files, pictures, events and more. There are
endless groups that you can join. Or, if you don't find a group to your
liking, create your own. Be sure to read the message delivery option when
subscribing to a group. If you're not careful, every message posted could
be e-mailed to you. And that can be annoying.
http://groups.yahoo.com/
SHOCKINGLY GOOD WEB SITE
A virtual museum created by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers) doesn't sound very interesting. Surprisingly, it is.
Learn all about the evolution of sound recording as music and as part of
movies. The interactive exhibit has demonstrations to visualize difficult
concepts. Listen to how multi-track sound recording influenced popular
music like the Beach Boys. There are exhibits on electricity, microwaves,
the history of women in the electrical revolution and more!
http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/index.php
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
Music lovers rejoice! This comprehensive Web site has the answers to all
of your music questions. You'll find information on just about every
artist and group in every possible genre. Read important information on
artists, their discographies, who they worked with and more. There are
interesting articles on the history of music. The search tool allows you
to find information based on artist, album, song, style, and label.
http://www.allmusic.com
CLINICAL TRIAL
If you have an illness that is not responding to traditional or holistic
medicine, you might want to take part in a clinical trial. Clinical trials
are research studies that try new methods of treatment. This could be a
new drug not yet approved, a drug used for a different illness, a device
(like a Pacemaker) or something else. WebMD has a matching service that
will help you find a clinical trial. It also has information on the risks
and benefits and what to expect if you participate.
http://my.webmd.com/medical_information/clinical_trials/default.htm
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CCCC Page 6 April 2004
DIGITAL IMAGING SIG
March '04 Recap
By Charles Barney
There were just about a dozen members sitting in for my SIG at the March
16th meeting. At first, I thought that perhaps I should change my brand of
deodorant! But, as it turned out, the over-all attendance at the clubhouse
was lower than normal for some reason.
Some good topics for discussion were brought up by the group, which
included: How to select the various Tools in Photoshop Elements, which then
display their own particular symbols as your 'cursor'; keeping Elements'
palettes easily available by 'docking' them to the Palette Well; printing
multiple images on a single page; and White Balance settings on a digital
camera. I'd like to expound on a couple of these subjects that I didn't
explain quite adequately at the SIG.
Printing multiple photos on a page is something that many of us would like
to do in order to save time and paper, but is no simple task unless you
have the right software! Elements 2 has a feature called Picture Package
that is designed to emulate the multi-size print layouts like those that a
child's school pictures come on. It works fairly well if you just want to
print the same photo in various sizes, but I found it to be cumbersome and
quirky to select different images on a page. A much better solution is
offered by Elements' companion program, Adobe Photoshop Album 2. By simply
selecting the different pictures you want from the Photo Well (try
ctrl+left click) and then clicking the print icon, Album brings up a page
layout view that is highly customizable. You can choose the sizes you like
and see exactly how your photos will look on the page(s) before you commit
them to print.
White Balance is an adjustment found on most digital cameras that attempts
to assure the capture of accurate colors under various lighting conditions.
These could be, for instance, when shooting outdoors on a sunny or a cloudy
day, under artificial lights like fluorescent (notorious for causing green
casts) or an ordinary tungsten light bulb (produces reddish tones). It is
an interesting fact that our eyes and brain automatically compensate for
these color variations while the camera's image sensor does not. Consult
your camera's documentation on how to change the White Balance settings for
different lighting situations.
I used Elements 2 once again for my demonstration, this time showing how to
correct a photo that had multiple problems. A crooked scan was fixed using
the Rotate/Straighten and Crop feature. Underexposed highlights were
brought out with the Levels tool and dull colors made richer using the
Hue/Saturation sliders.
Bring your questions and ideas to the next Digital Imaging SIG. There may
even be a surprise in store! Hope to see you there.
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CCCC Page 7 April 2004
SYSTEMS S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
As usual, we started the session with an animated display. This one is
called "Ice Fishing". Since it is small enough to fit on a floppy disk,
anyone that wants a copy just send me a request by e-mail.
Now that we have the use of the old CCCC projector, I gave a demonstration
of how to access the club's Web site. I showed how to use the homepage to
go the various links on the site, and how to access the club's newsletters
that are archived there. From there the newsletter, or any of the other
link pages, can be printed or saved to a file.
I suggested toggling the F11 key to get a "full screen" display while
viewing a Web page in Internet Explorer.
While we were on the CCCC homepage, I explained why the officers' e-mail
addresses contain the letters "nojunk". It is to prevent Web Bots (Web
searching robots) from obtaining valid e-mail addresses.
The changed room seating layout and the use of the projector was generally
agreed to be an improvement and will be continued. This will allow us to
have more demonstrations that weren't practical with just a monitor
display.
Then we got on to trying to solve member's computer problems. One question
was how do you make all Windows Explorer show the same display settings
screens for different folders--such as "Details"? After you have gone to
View / Folder Options / View and selected the settings you want, then click
the "Like Current Folder" button.
A similar question was how to get the Folders display pane in Windows
Explorer window? Under View / Explorer Bar, be sure there is a check mark
on Folders (click it to toggle the check mark off/on).
There was a question about how to not lose the right-most words in a Web
page print. One suggestion is to select the page and paste it in a text
editor.
Along that same line, you can change the size of the display character
size. If you have a scroll mouse, hold down the CTRL key and roll the
mouse wheel to change the font size. This works in some other applications
such as MS Word, etc. I don't know if this will affect the direct print
from a Web page.
A neat suggestion was made involving "stacked" e-mail attachments--you
know, attachments within attachments. Don't necessarily save the entire
message if all you want is the last attachment. Just go to the last
attachment and save it. Do this as a favor to others if you plan to send
it on.
An announcement was made that the version 6.01 of Adobe Acrobat Reader will
read the file to you. I guess I'll have to upgrade my version 3 .
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CCCC Page 8 April 2004
EXPLORING WINDOWS EXPLORER PART 2 by Dick Trissel
In Part 1 I setup Windows Explorer for maximum utility. In this part I
will describe some of the toolbar menus. Some are obvious. Some need
elaboration. Therefore, I'll not discuss all of the options-just the ones
used most often.
1) File
a) Open-opens the selected file with the associated application.
b) New
Folder-to create a new folder under the selected
folder (click on the folder to select it.)
Shortcut-creates a shortcut for the selected file.
2) Edit
a) Select All-to select all the items in the right pane.
3) View
a) Toolbars-check the Address, and Text Labels options.
b) Status Bar-check.
c) Explorer Bar-check the All folders, and the Details options.
d) Arrange Icons-choose Name for now (more later).
e) Folder Options
General-choose Classic
View-(covered in Part 1)
File Types-(more later).
4) Go-(more later, maybe)
5) Favorites-(shades of Internet Explorer).
6) Tools
a) Find-same as Find in the Desktop Start.
7) Help-same as Help in the Desktop Start.
When a folder has been selected in the left pane, the content is displayed
in the right pane under column headings of Name, Size, Type, Modified, and
Attributes. The widths of these columns can be adjusted by placing the
mouse pointer on the little divider bar (a double arrow appears) and
dragging the bar. The spacing can be set automatically by double clicking
a column divider line. The order of the columns can be changed by right
clicking on a column heading and dragging it to a new position.
The order of the items displayed can be selected by clicking on a column
heading. One click selects that column in ascending order. A second click
inverts the order (descending).
Many of the toolbar options are duplicated in the menus obtained by right-
clicking in a pane. The only cautions are; don't do Customize in the right
pane, and be careful with the Format option in the left pane.
Here are a few exceptions to the above recommendations. You may want to
choose the Standard toolbar in the View/Toolbars. I don't use it-it just
takes up space.
That should be sufficient to get you setup in Windows Explorer. The next
part will be how to use Explorer to manage your system.
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