Rename Via F2

Something that saves me a bit of time when renaming files is by enabling the rename function by pressing F2. It's simple, just select the file to rename and hit F2. This is much faster than doing a delayed doubleclick

or going through a menu option.

Microsoft Word's Insert Button

Have you ever ran into a problem where you move your cursor to edit text on MS Word and when you type, it ends up overwriting the characters after it? That is MS's over-write function. In case you ever may need it, tap the "Insert" button on your keyboard or doubleclick on the bottom part of your MS Word windows that saids "OVR" (for over-write).

Defragmenting The Hard Drive

Defragmenting your harddrive(s) is a task that you must perform if you frequently copy and delete files (especially small ones) from your harddrive. Essentially, defragmenting the harddrive is nothing more than rearranging free and used blocks. The idea is that if all used blocks and all free blocks are grouped separately, searching for files on your harddrive will be faster because all the blocks of a file will be grouped together and not scattered all around the harddrive. How data is written in files and on the disk is complicated to explain in a tip but just take it for granted that defragmentation is a general housekeeping task and has to be performed regularly.

You can make defragmentation a scheduled task that runs at specified times (i.e. at night when you computer is idle) or you can start it at any time you like. To start the degragmenter, right-click My Computer icon on the desktop and select Manage. Then go to Storage and click Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive you want to defragment and click the Defragment button (or you may first click Analyze button to see if the drive needs defragmenting or not).

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Verify Your CDs and DVDs

It depends on which program you use to record CDs and DVDs but most programs offer an option to verify the CD or DVD after you have recorded them. Although this takes additional time, verification is not a step to be skipped. Why? Because if the CD or DVD has errors that make it impossible to read the data and you do not have the same data somewhere else, it is virtually lost. If a CD or DVD passes the verification, you can rest assured that the copy is the same as the original. This will save you many unpleasant surprises later - for instance when you start installing software from a not-properly recorded CD or DVD.

Google Alerts

If you have ever missed important information because you had not searched the Web for a couple of days, you will greatly appreciate this Google Alerts. Go to http://www.google.com/alerts and log in. Then choose a search string or a topic that you want to be notified about if new stuff appears in the search results for this string and topic. For instance, I have several topics that I regularly monitor the Web about and it is really valuable when I get results delivered right to my mailbox, rather than perform searches manually and wonder if a particular entry is a new one or not.

Shift+F3 in MS Word

You have typed a whole paragraph of text and now you notice that you have left the Caps Lock on? Or all of a sudden it dawns on you that in headlines all words start with a capital letter? Don't worry - MS Word has a really cute keyboard shortcut for changing the case: Shift+F3. The same effect can be achieved if you select Format -> Change Case. This will open a dialog box you can select how exactly to change it - to Sentence Case, Upper Case, Lower Case, Title Case or just to toggle the case.

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View Folder Bar

The Folder Bar, which displays the folders of your computer in an expandable and collapsible manner, can be very handy when browsing through the files and folders on your computer. While this feature is set to appear, by default, in Windows Explorer, it is now shown when viewing My Documents of My Computer. To make the Folder Bar viewable (from within My Documents or My computer), click on View > Explorer Bar > Folders. The Folder Bar should now appear in a panel along the left side of the window.

View Internet History

While in Internet Explorer, one may view a list of recently visited webpages by pressing Ctrl + H or going to View > Explorer Bar > History. If everything went correctly, a new panel should appear on the left side of the window. One may now view which sites were recently visited and be able to open those sites again.

Pressing F4 will also bring up a list of the most recent websites which were typed into the address bar.

Navigate Through A Document

Use the Home and End keys on the keyboard to automatically move to the beginning or end of the document or Webpage you are currently viewing. One may also use the Page Down (PgDn) and Page Up (PgUp) keys to move down and up a webpage, rather than using the mouse to navigate through the page.

Doug Betts of Computer Age Consulting has joined the FPCUG as a Supporting Business.

Thanks to Don Cummins for his article contribution for this month.

This month's Raffle Item is a DVD/CD Media Kit. This media kit comes with DVD+R media, a labeling kit, DVD/CD dispenser, a wallet carrier and more! Raffle Tickets only $1.

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Protecting Your Outlook Express Email

There are, as usual, several ways to protect yourself from a drive failure and loss of your email. This tip is for users of OE only.

Your email is all stored in a single folder and, if you can find that folder, you will find that it contains a large number of files. Most of these files will have the extension of ".dbx" if you are configured to show the extension. Microsoft uses a proprietary format, which makes these files quite difficult to view except with OE. In addition, the individual files are not useful without the index, which is stored in a separate file within this folder. If you want to backup your email, it is possible to save the entire folder someplace. It is relatively easy to copy the entire folder to an external drive or to a second drive. Should you experience a problem that causes the loss of your email, you can merely copy the folder back to its original location. Sounds simple enough.

First, you have to find the folder. That is done via Tools/Options/Maintenance. There you can click on "Store Folder" and it will have the address of the folder you are looking for. You may notice that it is really buried deep into the system. Now that you know where it is, you can copy that address for future reference and periodically save the folder as backup. If you are not satisfied with trying to remember the default location of the messages, it is simple enough to move the folder somewhere else. For example, you could place the folder directly on the C: drive which would make it easier to find next time. That can be done by clicking "Change" and following the instructions. An even better solution is to place the email folder on a separate partition, which prevents it from being destroyed if you're C: drive should be corrupted by some foreign invader. Changing the location of the email folder will automatically move all your email to the new location.

So now you know how to save and restore your email. However, there is another step you may wish to take. Suppose you decide to backup you email once a week or every seven days. Should you have to restore the backup, you will only lose seven days worth of emails. Would you like to know how to recapture them, also? The answer lies within the options available in OE. The following will work with most ISPs although there may be some that do not allow this feature.

Open Tools/Accounts, select the account you are concerned with and select Properties/Advanced. Place a checkmark by "Leave a copy of messages on server". Now place a checkmark by "Remove the messages after" and set it to 8 or 9 days. Now place a checkmark by "Remove from server when deleted from Deleted Items". Now your email server will retain messages for 8 or 9 days. You don't have to worry about OE retrieving the messages each time you connect to the Internet since OE maintains an index of downloaded messages and will not download the same message a second time. However, if you have to restore from a backup, that index will not be up-to-date and the messages will be downloaded again. By telling the server to delete messages when you have deleted them, that should reduce the number of messages saved on the server - only the ones you intended to keep anyway.

One additional thought. If you decide to move the email folder, why not move it into My Documents? If you have already made sure you keep all of your critical information in My Documents, wouldn't it make sense to put your email there also? Now you can merely copy My Documents to that external drive once a week and you should be pretty well protected from major disasters.

It really pays to learn how to maintain and protect yourself. Once you have set up a procedure like this, it becomes something you can easily do once a week and feel more secure.

Computing should be FUN!!!

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.

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Shopping for free and open source software

By the time you read this, the holiday shopping season will be over and many of you will be trying to figure out what to put on your new computer. It seems fitting, then, to make a few suggestions of programs you will find in your Web browser-based shopping center, the Mall of Free and Open Source Software, or the Mall of FOSS. All of the suggestions made here are suitable not only for users of Linux and BSD, but also for Windows diehards. In some cases, other operating systems, such as the Mac and Solaris are supported. So fire up your computer and head on out to the Internet highway. Oh, and you can leave your credit card at home, for the goods at the Mall of FOSS are priced most attractively: free.

Screensavers

The holidays are really meant for the child that resides in all of us, and all children want to have fun. So spice up your PC with some fun items. Start by stopping at the Really Slick Screensavers Web site at http://www.reallyslick.com/. Here you will find out-of-this-world, mesmerizing screen savers that range from "psychedelic" to "nauseating." One includes great sound effects. They all perform best with hardware-based video acceleration, but that should not be a problem with recent hardware. Once you see these, you'll never go back to the flying Windows or pipes again.

Web browsers

Is your gift recipient still using Internet Explorer? Head on over to http://www.mozilla.com/ to get Firefox for him or her. Firefox is a great Web browser with such features as tabbed browsing, configurable security, extensions that provide additional features, and themes that change the look and feel. Firefox version 2.0 was released Oct. 24. Or you can shop for a newer browser, Flock, at http://www.flock.com/. Flock is based on the same page rendering engine, Gecko, that the Mozilla family of browsers is built around. But Flock focuses on sharing and connecting with other people online, with enhanced support for blog posting, RSS feed integration, photo posting on Yahoo Flickr, and saving your bookmarks on the Internet for sharing between all the computers you use.

Instant messaging

Maybe your giftee spends time in the world of instant messaging. If so, get Gaim, a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client, from http://gaim.sourceforge.net/win32/. Gaim will work with several different protocols, including AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Jabber, ICQ and others, so it could become the only IM client anyone needs. If someone prefers the more traditional Internet Relay Chat (IRC), consider getting Xchat (http://xchat.org/windows/) or Kvirc (http://www.kvirc.net/) for them.

Juice Receiver

Has someone on your holiday giving list complained about using iTunes on Windows? That person may enjoy receiving an open source replacement, Juice Receiver, available at http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/. It has access to many of the same podcast indexes that iTunes provides, as well as a number of indexes that it does not.

Bittorrent for file swapping

If you have diehard computer geeks on your list, they most likely share files with their friends. The standard file- swapping protocol is bittorrent, and you will find bittorrent clients for them at http://www.bittorrent.com and http://www.getazureus.com/. Perhaps they have always wanted to create their own dynamic Web site but have balked at the price of commercial Web server software for Windows or the Mac. If so, head over to the XAMPP for Windows store at http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-windows.html. XAMPP for Windows will give them everything they need to build a robust, full-featured, dynamic Web site, and it is ready to go out of the box.

CLAMAV

Does anyone on your list need or want to try a different virus scanner? The shop at http://www.clamwin.com/ has the open source scanner, CLAMAV for Windows, available for you to give. They'll be getting a GUI-based virus scanner, free and automatic signature updates, and scheduled virus scanning.

Outlook alternatives

The shops at http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird/ and http://shellter.sourceforge.net/evolution/ offer alternatives to the Outlook e-mail client. The former site has Thunderbird, an easy-to-use product of the Mozilla project, while the latter provides Evolution, which sports additional support for calendaring and Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers.

GIMP

Moving on to applications, if there is one on your gift list who does any sort of work with images, ranging from doctoring photographs to graphics for a Web site, you owe it to them to stop off at http://www.gimp.org/windows/ and pick up a copy of the GIMP. Somewhat mischaracterized as the "Poor Man's Photoshop," the GIMP provides a large range of image processing tools and plugins, as well as a framework for writing custom plugins. With the GIMP, they'll be able to do just about anything they'd ever want to do to their pictures.

Audacity

Or maybe you are looking for something for someone who is into sound recording, someone who perhaps was a Mr. or Miss A/V in high school? They undoubtedly would really enjoy receiving the Audacity sound recorder, editor, and writer. Look for it at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/. This powerful program literally will turn a PC into a full-featured sound recording and production studio. Pair it with a professional-quality sound card, and it is hard to beat at any price.

DVD-capable media players

Many of those on your gift list also want to be entertained, and maybe they'd like to watch a DVD while working at their computers. A couple of DVD-capable media players they would like can be found at http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ - which offers the MPlayer media player - and http://www.videolan.org/ - which offers the VideoLAN VLC player.

Office applications

Chances are the computer users on your holiday gift list use traditional applications such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and the like. There are several gifts in this category that you cannot go wrong with. OpenOffice.org is possibly the most popular open source office application suite available. The latest version, which can be found at http://www.openoffice.org/, is highly compatible with Microsoft's Word, Excel, and Powerpoint formats, and all but the most complex of documents can be shared in both directions. OpenOffice.org also supports out-of-the-box export to PDF and Flash formats.

OpenOffice.org is certainly not the only option in this arena. The Abiword word processor from http://www.abisource.com/ is a mature product offering a range of features. Since it is a lightweight user of computer resources, it runs well on older hardware that might bog down under OpenOffice.org, Microsoft Office, and Vista.

GNUmeric, from http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/, is a nice, mature spreadsheet program that has all the options and features your giftee wants for the spreadsheet work. If someone would like something to help create pretty, Visio-like organizational and flow charts, stop over at http://dia-installer.sourceforge.net/ and pick them up a copy of DIA, a diagramming tool.

PDFCreator, Scribus

Do your giftees need to produce PDF documents? If so, they'll be grateful to receive PDFCreator, which is available at http://www.pdfforge.org/. PDFCreator works with any application that prints to the Windows printing system, making it easy to create not only PDF documents, but PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, and EPS as well. Or maybe they want to create professional-looking documents like brochures, booklets, or newsletters. For them, take a trip to http://www.scribus.net/ and get them Scribus, a desktop publishing system with many of the same page layout and formatting features you expect to find in the more expensive commercial systems. Scribus also runs on the Mac.

Web page design

Do you have a Web designer on your giving list? He or she might like to receive Nvu (pronounced n-view, and found at http://www.nvu.com/), a WYSIWYG Web page editor that will remind you of Dreamweaver. With its integrated FTP client, it may be all an e-designer would need. Perhaps they prefer to develop their Web pages from scratch (or someone on your list might like to get an advanced text editor). If so, stop off at http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm and pick them up a copy of Notepad++, which is what Windows' Notepad might be if it consumed strong steroids. It will give your recipient syntax highlighting, auto-completion, WYSIWYG markup, bookmarking, zooming, multi-document viewing, and much more.

I hope this gives you some ideas about which stores to look at for your holiday gift-giving needs. And do not forget the most important person on your holiday gift list: you! If anything here looks interesting as you read about it, make sure to get yourself a copy. The great thing about all the stores offering FOSS software gifts is that they always have a great two-for-the-price-of-one sale going on, the perfect holiday sale.

There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.

Software Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0

Adobe Photoshop Elements 5 is a photo editing and organizing program that also includes easy to use features to backup your photos, and really fun creative ways to show off your photos to family and friends.

Adobe Photoshop is the top of the line photo program for the professionals and costs hundreds of dollars. Elements (under $100) has many of the same features as the professional version with a lot of fun and easy features added in, making it the software choice for the non-professional user like you and me.

The software installs the Adobe Photo Downloader in your system tray and is ready instantly whenever you plug in your camera or memory card. Your photos are downloaded into the Organizer where you have easy access to them for viewing, tagging, creating collections, printing, emailing, creating all the fun projects, or switching to the Edit mode for a Quick Fix or Full Edit. Your photos are identified by Elements in Catalogs. You can have multiple catalogs for different users of your computer in the family, or say for photos that you may use for work which you want to keep separate from home photos. You can even use the Organizer to select photos to order prints online or size and send through your email client. Your photos are managed by date with a timeline across the top of the screen that is very easy to navigate when you are looking for a photo at a specific time on the calendar. The Tags and Collections feature takes a few extra minutes when you first download the photos, but sure makes it easier to select certain photos when you are ready to create a project. Tags can be given for photos of specific family, friends or places and events. Collections work in a similar fashion but could include several different people, say in a vacation. Since software packages come with little or no manuals, I find that one of my first places to explore is the Help feature. The Adobe Help Center, which is on the Help menu, includes a very extensive index of help on the program as well as hyperlinks to video tutorials on the Adobe web site. The Help Center includes a very good Search tool with easy navigation and even a Bookmark feature where you can bookmark a topic that you may want to return to again quickly. I was also offered free online tutorials from Adobe after I registered the software. Be sure to take advantage of this offer. There are eleven video tutorials that give a very good overview of everything from getting your photos into Elements to creating fun creative projects. Another quick way to get to help on any of the tools on the screen is to hover your mouse over the tool and a link appears that takes you directly to the Help Center on that tool. You will find that you don't miss the manual with this complete Adobe Help Center.

When the Elements program starts there is a Welcome Screen where you can choose to open the Organizer, Quickly Fix Photos, Edit and Enhance Photos, or Make Photo Creations. Once you decide which mode you want to begin with you can set the Welcome Screen to always open in that mode or stay with the Welcome Screen. Since you need to open a photo in order to edit it or select several photos for projects it made sense to me to always open in the Organizer mode.

With a right click of a photo in the Organizer you can select the Go to Quick Fix feature as a truly "quick fix". With this feature you are able to fix the most common problems with your photos without having to know any of the more advanced features. Now mind you the advanced features are in Elements, but you may find that you seldom need to go into that mode to get the results that you want. With Quick Fix mode you have auto buttons for lighting, color, sharpen and red eye. Then if the auto button doesn't quite get the photo like you want there are fine tuning levers to adjust to finish the job. If you just can't get the look you want you can click the Full Edit tab from this window and go into the more fully featured mode of Elements to complete the task.

Some of the new features for editing in Elements include correct lens distortion, sharpen blurred edges, fine-tuning with curves, creating dramatic black and whites and support for raw files. One of my very favorite features of Elements in the Full Edit mode is the Artwork and Effects Palette. From this palette you can pick from dozens of backgrounds, frames, graphics and shapes. Then select a style for that object from a dozen more selections and just drag and drop onto your photo. This palette includes different themes for effects, filters for effects and text styles, all applied with a double click. There is even a Favorites area where you can drag an effect that you especially liked and want to get back to quickly. A couple other favorites of mine in the Full Edit mode are the Adjust Color for Skin Tone and the Spot Healing Brush. If you have a photo where the skin color just doesn't look right you can use the Adjust Color for Skin Tone feature to quickly change the skin tone by using the eyedropper over the skin. If you want the result a little more tan or blush there are easy adjustments in that same dialog box. The Spot Healing Brush works wonders for those marks and blemishes just by clicking over the area. There is also a new feature called Magic Extractor that provides an easy wizard to extract an object (or person) from your photo. Again there are fine tuning options in this wizard if the extraction is not quite what you want. I found that this features works very well. The red eye fix in Elements 5 is by far the best red eye fix that I have used in a photo editing program. There is even an option to have red eye corrected as your photos are being downloaded from the card reader.

Elements 5 has added a Back-Up and Restore feature that allows you to back up your photo catalogs to a server online (you have to sign up for this service). The online back up service through Adobe Photoshop Services gives you a 30 day free trial. There is also a Back-Up feature that will do Full and Incremental back ups of your catalogs to a CD or DVD, another drive, or another folder on the hard drive. This feature is Wizard driven and makes this very important task quick and easy, without leaving the Elements software. This feature is right there on the tool bar along with all the other online services.

Once you have your photos downloaded, edited and backed up it is time for the really fun part of Elements 5 - creating projects like photo book pages, photo layouts, album pages, greeting cards, CD and DVD jackets and labels, slide shows, VCD's with menus, photo galleries and flipbooks for the web, photo calendars, and PhotoStamps. Most of the print projects can be printed on your own printer or ordered through an online service that can be set up with a wizard right in Elements. I didn't register for the online service but was very tempted by some of the neat projects that can be created and then sent off for printing and delivery. For instance the photo calendar can be created with 12 of your photos and then step through the wizard to choose the cover, page layout, and title, etc. Then through the wizard the calendars will be printed, bound and mailed - what a great idea for Christmas gifts!

I decided to create a slide show with photos taken at Disney World. After selecting the photos from the Organizer and then selecting Slideshow from the Create menu the wizard started with slide show preferences and then the main Slideshow Editor opens with very full featured options that are available in most of the stand alone slide show programs. This feature is like a program within a program - I am really impressed with the scope of the Slideshow Editor. There are transition options, panning and zooming, audio and narration, and adding blank sides and graphics and text.

Once you have the show the way you like it the Output feature opens another wizard for options to save the show as a file, burn to disc, e-mail the show or send to a TV. The wizard works great burning to a Video CD format. (The only option that I would like to see added would be to burn to DVD.) If you have several slide shows that you would like to burn to one CD you can select the Create a VCD with menu and the wizard will allow you to add multiple slideshows and then create a menu before burning.

The next project I tried was to create a Photo Gallery. With the same Disney photos selected the Photo Gallery opens a wizard with three types of galleries; Web Galleries, Animated or Interactive. With Web Galleries chosen the wizard asks for arrangement of the photos on the page and a style with both options showing thumbnails of how your choice will look. Next the wizard opens a dialog window with more options to customize, such as Gallery Title and Slideshow duration and effects. You then can select where to Share the gallery; either choose Do Not Share (which saves to your hard drive), Photoshop Showcase (more about this later), My FTP Site, or CD. I also tried the Animated and Interactive galleries with the same photos. The wizard makes creating these very complex shows a breeze. If you don't know how to publish to your web space a dialog box offers simple steps to help with that task, or you can register and sign on to the free Adobe Photoshop Elements Showcase feature. This is an online community for users of Elements to upload and share their photos and galleries.

Each project that you create and save is added to the Organizer at the top. If you want to edit a project you just double-click the project file and the wizard that was used to create it opens. All of the print projects like the Photo Book Pages, Photo Layouts and Album Pages, are saved (with multiple pages when applicable) with a .pse extension. The print projects are wizard driven and offer step by step selections for size, layout, theme and then additional options depending on the project chosen. I decided to make a print project of a CD cover and label for the Disney slide show that I created earlier. The wizard walked me through the entire process opening Elements in the Full Edit mode with my selected photo and all the layers in the layer palette created - it truly seemed like magic. Since you are left in this mode you can then adjust or fine tune the project before saving and printing it.

One feature that I was not able to try but may be of interest to some reading this review is the ability to download and upload photos from a mobile phone.

I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements 5. There is an upgrade rebate in the box of $20, so if you are using an older version you can take advantage of that. The price today at Amazon.com is $69.99 with free shipping and your $20 rebate makes the total price $49.99. There are other special offers at local stores and online. Visit Adobe's web page www.adobe.com for system requirements.

Copyright 2007. This article is from the January 2007 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/ See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.

Book Review: The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book by Matt Kloskowski

Matt Kloskowski is the education and curriculum developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals where he eats, sleeps, and breathes Photoshop and Adobe training to NAPP members. Matt has written four books on Photoshop and Illustrator including Photoshop CS2 Savvy, Illustrator CS2 Killer Tips, and Extreme Photoshop CS. He’s featured on various training DVDs available from www.photoshopvideos.com and is a regular contributing writer to Photoshop User magazine, Layers magazine, and the Photoshop Elements Techniques Newsletter. Matt is an instructor at PhotoshopWorld and the Mac Design Conference and is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop as well as a Macromedia Flash Certified Developer. He also teaches basic and advanced Photoshop classes for sessions.edu online school of design.

This is the book that I have been looking for as most books only have a small section on how to do restoration and retouching of mainly old photos. This is the area where most of all our family photos will need greatest amount of help.

This is a very complete book on how to bring back to life our childhood pictures (or family photos). If you do scrap booking for your family history, this is the book you need to have because Matt gives very good step-by-step instructions on how to repair pictures that may be the only remaining pictures of your past. If you had to have them done by a camera store, it may be out of sight (price wise) to have them restored. One example is Matt’s Rebuilding Chapter: Piecing Together a Torn Photo—This a problem which may be required a lot if you are doing many very old and well handled photos. It is a fourteen step process which may require a number of other steps that are needed to handle a number of others things that more than likely go hand in hand with very old photos. Matt has added all the tools you need to follow his instructions. Another example is How (and Why) to Crop a Portrait. This one could be used much more often than it is used now and with both new or old photos. It is a seven step process that can make a good photo into a very good photo. Sometimes we show too much of the person in a portrait. It should show the person as the main subject with not a lot of excess space. Keep it simple and in good taste. I feel this cropping tool is over looked too much. But do not overlook the person’s eyes. Matt feels their eyes will tend to look best when placed in the top third of the photo. At all times you still must work with the Rule of Thirds.

Place The	Eyes in the	Upper Third
	Never Here or
	Below

Photo Grid: If you crop a person and their eyes are in the middle third or the bottom third line, then a person will typically look like they’re falling out of the photo. We still must follow some of the standard rules for a good and pleasing photo.

Thank you, Matt, for all of the information in your book, The Photoshop Elements 5 Restoration and Retouching Book.

I feel this book is very informative and useful for many of my photos which are in need of restoration and retouching. The price is $34.99 US for Restoration and Retouching Book which is much cheaper that just having one done by a Photo Restoration person. Plus we could learn some more about our family history when we do our own restoration.

If you need books to increase and/or update your photo/computer knowledge, check out Peachpit Press at www.peachpit.com. We are a member of their users’ group and they have a very nice discount for users’ group members. Please take advantage of their discounts, promotions, and review copies.

Donald L. Cummins Fresno Personal Computer Users’ Group

The following items were discussed or decided upon:

• Everyone attending agreed that the group needs a laptop computer in order to provide demonstrations at the general meetings.
• It was indicated that there are still preparations taking place to continue the Disk of the Month. Everyone agreed it was an important benefit to have available thru the FPCUG, and helpers for this job will be welcome.

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

If you are a PC Users Group member, join a Special Interest group--a great way to share information with others having similar interests. Special Interest Groups are subgroups within Fresno PC Users Group that meet on their schedules to discuss specific topics. Bring items to share, programs, hints and blank disks. Email SIG leaders ahead to verify meeting times and locations.

Digital Photo SIG:

The Digital Photo SIG is held on the first Saturday of the month at CompUSA on N. Blackstone at 10:30am and is hosted by Nancy Mason and Jo Townley.

At our last Digital Photo SIG, Bill Leidenroth again led the program, with his usual expertise and wit. He domonstrated the various tools he uses with the Adobe Photoshop program. This program is a much more comprehensive than the Adobe Elements program with which most of the SIG are somewhat familiar. The learning curve on the Photoshop is much higher and in fact it has been said that learning all the features of Photoshop is a lifetime commitment. Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it is complicated.

Bill showed us how to adjust the lighting and color of a photo, and how to adjust the lighting and color of certain parts of the photo in order to balance the picture and highlight the presence of the more submerged areas of the photo.

He also demonstrated how to take a part of one photo and add it to another, or to create a whole picture with just a small part of the original. For instance, he had a photo of a bouquet of artificial flowers. He separated the flowers into individual pictures and showed the group how to create a lovely background to blend in with the colors of a single flower. It was all quite artistic and Bill is to be commended for his willingness to share his experience with the group.

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Sanity Savers

Sanity Savers are members who have volunteered to help other members with their computing problems. SIG Leaders are also a valuable information resource.

Do not expect long term counseling, house calls, or to get pirated copies of software recommended to you. Also do not expect any of the volunteers to help you if you are not the legitimate owner of a software package.

If you have any experience in an area of computing, feel free to add your name to the Sanity Saver's list. You do not need to be an expert to be listed as a Sanity Saver--patience and willingness to help count for a lot.

DOS	Dean Mason & Krikor Geyoghlian
Excel	Krikor Geyoghlian
General Computing	Bill Myers
Internet Help	Dean Mason
Audio Help	Robert Caraway
Linux	Ben Lutes
Lotus 1-2-3	Krikor Geyoghlian
Medical	Cecil Bullard
MS Word	Krikor Geyoghlian
Office 97/2000/XP	Krikor Geyoghlian & Laura Barnard
Windows 3.x	Krikor Geyoghlian

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The Fresno PC User's Group (FPCUG) is a non-profit organization run by and for users of IBM compatible computers. The only membership eligibility requirement is an interest in computers.

FPCUG meetings are generally held the first Monday of the month at:

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FPCUG Officers:

President	Bill Myers
1st VP	Stan Barnes
2nd VP	Jo Townley
Secretary	David Smith
Treasurer	Wilda Moller

Directors At Large:

1.	Regles Bellamy
2.	Gary Gipson
3.	Monica Braun
4.	Brian Fulk

This newsletter was prepared using Macromedia HomeSite 5.5. Ronnie Ugulano is editor.

Contributions.While there's no guarantee that submitted material will be used, contributions to the FPCUG Newsletter are appreciated. Articles of 200-500 words should be submitted in MS Word doc or rtf format. Contributions can be in the form of an article written by a member or an article found on the internet with permission to reprint. Any screenshots or photos should be sharp and high resolution, and sent as jpgs, bmp, or tiff files, preferably not gifs. Files submitted as pdfs are likely to have their text and graphics extracted as separate entities so that they can be converted to html format. Graphics might be cropped or reduced to fit into available space. Contact Ronnie Ugulano for further information.

Reproduction Rights. Original articles may be reproduced by other computer users groups for internal, non-profit use, provided credit is given to the Fresno PC Users Group and the author(s) of the reproduced articles. This notice does not supersede the rights of authors whose copyrighted material is used by permission.

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Disclaimer. Trademarks used in this publication are hereby recognized and acknowledged. The information provided in this newsletter is believed and intended to be correct and useful. However, the Fresno PC Users Group cannot assume responsibility for errors contained in the articles or misapplications of the information provided. Unless specifically stated otherwise, opinions expressed are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the opinions of, nor endorsement by, the Fresno PC Users Group. The Fresno PC Users Group is an independent, non-profit users group and is not affiliated in any way with any vendor or equipment manufacturer.

Vendor Notice. Only review products that have been obtained by the product review coordinator and received through the FPCUG address shall be considered the responsibility of the FPCUG, unless otherwise indicated by the Board of Directors and with the full knowledge of the review coordinator.

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