SouthWest ouisiana PC Users
Transcription
SouthWest ouisiana PC Users
SouthWest February 2004 ouisiana PC Users Founded by Bob Pierce Nov. 1984 Volume 19 Issue 2 From The President’s Personal Computer Hello to all . We will be continuing with our picture series. Last month we showed you how to bring pictures into your computer , using different kinds of processes like; PC Camera, digital cameras, scanners, memory card readers using different flash media, USB thumb drive, floppy disk and cd’s. We also showed you how to print basic photos using Windows XP’s photo wizard. Woody Bearden President This month we are going to show you how to modify the pictures that you now have in your computer. We are going to have a demonstration of Paint Shop Pro 7 with Corinne Griggs showing some basic resizing , cropping and adding special effects like sharpening, contrast, lighting, darkening ,embossing & other filters. These features will help your pictures look like professional photos. We will also be having a demonstration on Photo Shop with Garrett Manuel . He will be showing some of the features that this high end software can do. We will also be handing out a list of these and other popular photo software that you can download and /or buy. You don’t want to miss this meeting !!!!!!! To follow up with this series of photo software’s, next month we will be showing you what you can do with your pictures now that you have them formatted the way you want them. We will be demonstrating ways to use them in your e-mails, word processors and to make, greeting cards, invitations and posters using Print Shop. This will be demonstrated by Lane Oliver & Woody Bearden . If any of you have made things with your own pictures and would like to show the club, we would like for you to bring some samples to share with us. Hope to see you there! In April, we are going to shift our focus to help you make your Windows XP run smoother and faster. Larry Hansen has offered to help show us some technics on enhancing the performance of Windows XP . He will show how we can tweak settings and turn on or off features to stream line performance. In May, Terry Benoit and Woody Bearden are going to instruct you on how to do minor maintenance and upgrading some of the devices in your computer. We will have full computer systems for demonstrating . We will also have close up video shots on the tv monitor so you can follow more closely . This will be a meeting you don’t want to miss!!!!!! Due to no availablity on our regu;ar meetimg night this month’s meeting will be the 2nd Tuestay, Feb. 10. I am looking forward to seeing everyone at the meetings! Woody Bearden UPCOMING EVENTS Board of Directors FOR THIS MONTH Regular Meeting 2nd Tuesday - February 10, 2004 6 P.M. - 9 P.M. Calcasieu Parish Central Library 301 W. Claude St. Lake Charles La. 70605 This Month Demo’s - PaintShop Pro 7 - Corinne Griggs Photo Shop w/ Garrett Manuel Next Board Meeting Dot Akins home.... Elm Street 4th Monday 7 P. M. - Internet Sig - Woody Bearden 6804 Bonne Meadow Drive Lake Charles LA. Ph# 479-0527 General Information (337) 477-1937 or (337) 528-2771 Web Site www.bmaweb.com/swlapcug or www.hello.to/swlapcug President: Woody Bearden..... 474-8287 Vice President: Gene Dugas.......... 527-0184 Past President: Ted Baehr............. 474-8287 Treasurer: Dot Akins............... 433-4215 Secretary: Robin Richard......... 477-1937 Club CD Chairman Woody Bearden....... 479-0527 Publishing Editor: Lane Oliver............. 528-2771 ASST. Editor: Corinne Griggs........ 477-1937 Publisher: Corinne Griggs Web Host: Ed Carpenter SIG Chairman Beginners & Windows 95/98/ME & XP Tom Spindler.......... 478-8301 Stuart Griggs........... 477-1937 Internet: Woody Bearden....... 479-0527 WordPerfect: Lane Oliver.............. 528-2771 Corinne Griggs........ 477-1937 Our web site has our monthly news letter posted in color & remember to check out the “Tips “ section for new ones. Change of E-Mail Addresses: Ed English - [email protected] What Have You Learned Today? Pass It On ! ! ! Hellooo Hollywood by Charles W. Evans DVD recording is here: This very large "CD" is becoming a standard appliance on new systems and the price is quickly dropping. DVD was originally considered an archive media, but now it is put to so many more active uses, such as wedding movies, music collections and large data files to travel shows, your personal photos and videotapes. Buy the best quality media (silver or gold) since it will last longer. As mentioned in a separate "101" article, CD and DVD "speeds" are not comparable. That is, a DVD "1x" equals about "9x" in CD terms. My only disappointment with the current recorders is that the CD record speed is generally 16x, which is slow. However, if you only burn a few CDs, it doesn't matter. jumper position (typically, not necessary), and plug in the power. The entire installation should take no more than 10 minutes. The 420N includes two CDs of bundled software. Bundled programs include Pinnacle Systems' Pinnacle Studio Version 8SE (reviewed in a prior Magazine issue and a powerful video editing tool), TDK Digital MixMaster (for audio) and InCD, for packet writing. The most useful program is NEROExpress, a lighter version of Ahead's hugely successful and powerful Nero Burning Suite v.6 software. Overall, the software package is well rounded, practical and easily understood. (See separate review of NERO v.6.) NEROExpress is powerful, and requires only a short learning curve - very intuitive interface. Burning a DVD Three past issues of the Magazine included a more is a similar to burning a CD and no one should have definitive series about DVD. Although parts are rather trouble with it. NERO takes the worry out of burning. technical, it would help you by speed-reading this informative series. The November DVD performance tests used: Burning DVDs for Dummies class is Buy the best quality media (silver NERO DVD Speed 053 and CDVD basic and not about DVD technology or gold) since it will last longer... Benchmark 1.02. The score is the but just what the newbie needs. average of two of the same test. DMA has been enabled for all IDE devices supporting it. When you see good deals on DVD blanks, read carefully. Many "specials" are 2.4x speed, rather than the current 4x Test Results speed. By the time you read this, there will be more Average transfer speed (CAV) - 4.7x burners on the market and the prices will be even more Burst speed - 15.8MB/Sec enticing. A semi-technical note: install your DVD on an Average access speed - 116ms IDE connection separate from whatever drive will serve as the "source" from which you copy. DVD write 4x - 12:44 minutes Enjoy, (3.71GB movie sampler) Charles W. Evans, Reviews Editor TDK indiDVD 420N+ Recorder/Rewriter TDK Electronics is one of the most respected names in the storage industry. Thanks to their good looks and impressive specs, their CD and DVD writers have been popular with consumers right from the start. The 420N includes features like 16x CD writing speeds, 32x CD read speeds and support for buffer under run protection (no coasters). If you need a DVD burner, do not hesitate to consider the TDK indiDVD 420N. Its sleek look matched with its high power and low price are definitely worth the buy. But for the price, the CD writing speed is mediocre. To install, connect the drive's IDE cable, adjust the Unfortunately, the 420N's performance is not perfect. The 420N writer was able to read single layer DVDs at about 12x, but it was noticeably slower reading other types of DVDs. It did very well in DVD writing tests, burning 3.71GB of data in as little as 12:44 minutes. Unfortunately, when it came to rewriting, the 420N wrote at 2.4x. However, the drive's 16x writing and 10x rewriting speeds are OK for an infrequent CD burn, but don't toss your CD-RW. Some comments and suggestions: Provide support for Mt. Rainier format Eject button, at least make it a different color - too hard to find Great documentation Excellent under run technology Add a headphone jack and volume control The indiDVD 420N offers many of the things we've come to expect from TDK including good looks, lots of features, excellent software package and impressive performance. Your retail box includes a new IDE cable, but no audio connection to listen to DVDs! You can buy this DVD+ for around $160, by the time you read these reviews. On a five-point scale, this unit is a 4.5 and you cannot go wrong with this hard working, high performance drive. TDK's available support: e-mail, webbased FAQs and their unique, real time, on-line chat with a live person! There is a firmware update and software updates, available at www.tdk.com. LaCie DVD +/- DVD Burner Occasionally you'll see the LaCie brand at the computer stores. Not a household name, yet, but big in PC devices. This is one of a newer series of industry drives that will burn either of the two major formats, the plus or the minus. Since standards are yet to be determined, this is a sensible approach to selecting a burner. Not all DVD players can play both formats, especially the rewritable disks. LaCie has included a very nice software package, which includes Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator, the wellrespected Sonic MyDVD Video Suite (video edit), and Intervideo WinDVD (one of the top DVD/Video CD players on the market). It'll read a CD at 32x or DVD at 12x and write at 16x and 4x, respectively. DVD re-write is about 2x. What this drive lacks in style is made up for inside. Installation takes about ten minutes. Check or adjust the jumper setting, slide it into the computer and put the screws to it. Plug in the power and turn on your system and you are ready to burn a DVD. LaCie has thoughtfully included an audio cable; an IDE cable would be appreciated. Install the software and you can now burn DVDs. Well, not quite. You see, Roxio requires at least two installations. Why? The first one will disable any CD-type drives. So you need to go into your registry and delete two entries, restart your system and reinstall Roxio. (Roxio, however, has a complete uninstall option on its CD, so it's easy to remove the program). How do I know this? Last summer I spent one frustrating week trying to figure out what happened to my two CD drives. Fortunately for me, and now you, I knew the two magic words."modem Bob". He found the exact web page that solved the problem. So when you come across this problem, simply point your browser to support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;enus;314060 (Knowledge base #314060) and say "thanks, modem Bob". The WinDVD has a comprehensive, but easily understood, feature set that plays several video formats and a flexible configuration. Aside from a few comments about Roxio, read the full review of this version 5.5 in an earlier issue of the Magazine. Its set of features and options is all-inclusive. For instance, to copy a CD or non-protected DVD, simply click on Roxio/CopyCD and press OK. How is that for simple? Easy CD/DVD Creator will automatically recognize the media and, if a DVD, its speed. There are five other major options, including Video CD and one to compress a larger disk's files onto a smaller capacity CD or DVD. It will not, however copy, copy-protected DVDs. Sonic is an old-line, well-respected developer of highend video editing software, but this one is designed for consumers. Editing video is not like writing a letter, but less complicated that you'd think. Sonic's MyDVD is well-designed and will shepherd you through its several options. Store files and use your DVD as an archive or use for current digicam files or photos or sporting events. I'd suggest you start with the storyboard approach. The time-line method is a bit more complicated. Test Results (similar for the minus) Average transfer speed (CAV) - 4.58x Burst speed - 16.8MB/Sec Average access speed - 121ms DVD write 4x - 13:39 minutes (3.71GB movie sampler) Like most other DVD re-writers, it wrote at less than 2.4x. Unfortunately, that is a typical re-write speed. But I doubt you'll be using it as a big floppy. All the controls are accessible right on the front of the drive. This LaCie product is a significant, value-added drive, burning both major formats. I didn't see any firmware updates, but there are software updates. Photoshop Tip: Cloning Basics Duplicate your friends, your family, a dog, the grass, or even your sister's latest pimple. By Alex Lindsay Video Highlight "For this month’s Photoshop trick I'll show you how to use the Clone Stamp Tool, a powerful aid in retouching photos. You can remove blemishes, fix tarnished landscapes, or just have some fun duplicating your friends. 1. Select Use All Layers from the Tool Palette. You'll be able to clone from one layer to another without doing any work on your original. Click the Stamp icon and select Clone Stamp Tool. The Pattern Stamp Tool is a whole different lesson. Select the Splatter Brush. Thirty-nine pixels is a good place to start. 2. Create a new layer. This will be the layer you clone to. You need something with texture or you'll see softening in the area of cloned grass. 3. Select Aligned in the Tool Palette. This will continue to move your cloned region with each brush stroke. If left unselected, it'll always return to the original sample. This isn't what you want. Double-click the Magnifying Glass to bring the image to 100 percent view. You always want to do image work while looking at every pixel 4. 5. If you need to move around your image (you'll be doing it a lot), hold down the space bar and drag the image around quickly. Select the sample you want to copy to another area of the image by making sure the Clone Stamp Tool is selected. Now Option-click or Alt-click the area of the image you want to copy. 6 7 In other areas, look for patterns you can repeat. Option-click or Alt-click and paint in similar areas. For example, select part of a stone to erase subjects from areas such as walls or buildings. Break up repetition in repeating areas by selecting a new region and dabbing the repetitive pixels. Begin painting the area you want to remove. Photoshop copies your selection from one place to the other “Happy Valentine’s Day” Saving your workspace arrangement in Photoshop 7.x Do you like the way your workspace is set up and want to quickly retrieve the arrangement every time you open a file? In Photoshop 7.x, you can save your workspace arrangement. Choose Window > Workspace > Save Workspace. In the resulting Save Workspace dialog box, enter a workspace name in the Name text box. To retrieve your workspace arrangement after you've opened a file, go to Window > Workspace and select your workspace setup from the menu. Layer merging tactics Have you ever tried to merge a layer with the layer below it and lost all of the effects applied to that upper layer? This is because when you choose Merge Down from the Layers palette's pop-up menu, Photoshop only applies the blending mode of the bottom to layer to the merged version. However, if you select Merge Visible, and hide any layers that you don't want combined, all of your blending modes will be preserved and your merged layer will look exactly as is does onscreen. Adding line numbers in Word to your documents (97/2000/2001/2002) If you work with lengthy contracts or manuscripts, you'll often need to verbally refer your colleagues or clients to a specific passage as you review the piece together. Chapters, page numbers, section titles, and descriptive headings can certainly come in handy during a sit-down review. However, Word offers another reference tool that you may not be aware of: line numbers. To add line numbers to your documents: 1. Switch to Print Layout view by selecting View | Print Layout from the menu bar. (If you're using Word 97/2001, switch to Page Layout view by choosing View | Page Layout.) 2. Select the text you want numbered. If you want to restrict line numbers to just a portion of your document text, select only the text you'd like to number. (Note: When you use this method, Word will automatically sandwich the selected text between Next Page section breaks when it applies line numbers.) Or, if you want to add line numbers to a specific section, place the insertion point anywhere within that section. If you want to number the entire document, you don't need to select anything. 3. Choose File | Page Setup from the menu bar (Format | Document in Word 2001), and then click on the Layout tab in the Page Setup dialog box. Select the item you want to number from the Apply To drop down list. 4. Click the Line Numbers button. Select the Add Line Numbering check box in the Line Numbers dialog box, and customize the available numbering options as desired. When you've finished, click OK to close the Line Numbers dialog box, and then click OK again to close the Page Setup dialog box. Word adds printable line numbers in your document's left margin, in accordance with the specifications you made in the Line Numbering dialog box. (Note: The Line Numbers feature does NOT number headers and footers, tables, footnotes and endnotes, text boxes, or frames.) Review a WordPerfect's Document Summary before opening it (8/9) Many of you use the Document Summary feature to collect information about a document. For example, you might use the summary to keep track of the author, revision dates, or keywords used in the document. If you use the Summary feature, did you know that you can view it even before you open the document? To do this, in WordPerfect choose File | Open from the menu bar or click the Open button to display the Open File dialog box. Select the file name and then click the Properties button in the Open File dialog box. You can also right-click on the file name and choose Properties. In the resulting dialog box click the Summary tab to see the summary fields. You can also view the summary from Windows Explorer. In the Windows Explorer window, right-click on the file name and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Then click on the Summary tab to see the summary information. Submitted by Lane WELCOME TO THE SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA PC USER GROUP, INC. The "SWLAPCUG” consists of people who are interested in learning and sharing their knowledge about computers, in particular IBM compatible microcomputers. The group was originally organized in November 1984. The general meetings are held the second Monday of each month, at the Calcasieu Parish Central Library, corner of Claude and Ernest street. Call any of the officers listed on the first page for the location of the next meeting. The first SIG (Special Interest Group - a small group meeting to learn about a particular program, etc.) starts at 6:00 PM and the General Meeting at 7:00 PM. Dues are $24.00 per year, per family. The money is used to deter operating expenses and print a monthly Newsletter. Our Newsletter is a combined effort of members passing on their knowledge about computers. The minutes of the last general and board meeting are also published. Articles for the Newsletter can be uploaded to the Internet, ([email protected]) or give to Lane Oliver, our News Editor. We are a informal and nonprofit club. If you are interested in joining or placing an ad in the News Letter, please fill out an application that will help us to get to know you better. You may give your dues to the Treasurer or any Club Officer. You may also send in your application along with your membership dues ($24.00), Ads ($35.00 business card size) for a year, to SWLAPCUG, P.O. Box 1124, Lake Charles, La. 70602. SW PC USER GROUP, INC. P.O. Box 1124 Lake Charles, La. 70602 Happy Valentine’s Day