JUNE 2007 www.limac.org
NEWSLETTER OF THE LONG ISLAND MACINTOSH USERS GROUP
LIMac was estab- lished in 1984, when May’s Meeting June’s Meeting the Mac was intro- On Friday night, May 11, we had a second Get ready… it’s time for the duced. Annual dues LIMac Inc. for membership presentation by James Lee, President and Dave Marra Experience P.O. Box 2048 are $36. (The first founder of Tropical Software. He showed the JUNE again! As in the past, Seaford, NY meeting is free.) newest version ofTop XNotes and the new Dave Marra, Apple Senior 11783-0180 For information, TopXNotes iPod. If you want to look at the Systems Engineer, will be President contact any of the basics of TopXNotes, download the January exploring the amazing new Bill Medlow following: 8 [email protected] 2006 Forum. TopXNotes is a combination of products recently released Membership Notepad and Stickies. Many of our members from Apple. First, we Vice President Donald Hennessy have found it to be a great organizer. The latest will take an in-depth George Canellis (516) 541-3186 version has many improvements. Among these look at the brand new [email protected] [email protected] are: universal binary; quartz text support; iPhone and Apple Treasurer Technical Advice scroll wheel and two-finger scrolling support; TV, as well as the next Donald Hennessy Bradley Dichter new import and export options; preferences generation AirPort [email protected] (631) 348-4772 control note organizer columns; note-level Extreme and the new Secretary [email protected] encryption; addition of styles colors and high- iPod Shuffle. And just in Bernie Flicker Program lighting; and possibly the best feature, a note case there are any other [email protected] Coordinator organizer that is similar to a table of contents. announcements, be ready for the scoop on The LIMac Forum: Rick Matteson Basically, the new features make it much those too! Editors/Graphics rgmlimac Mo Lebowitz @optonline.net easier to keep yourself organized and have your Following Dave’s product update presen- Loretta Lebowitz Photoshop SIG needed information, such as online shopping tation, he will demonstrate podcasting, an addresses. Conveniently, these are all live links. exciting new way to create, publish and dis- [email protected] Brian Revere [email protected] [email protected] You can also have your user name, password, tribute your own dynamic multimedia content (516) 997-5370 and credit card information for each site avail- from your home, office, or classroom. With Board of Directors: MacBasic SIG able for copy/paste, freeing you from having to podcasting, anyone can have anywhere, anytime Rick Matteson Geoff Broadhurst type it out each time. access to the latest audio and video content, on a (Program Coordinator) Albert Zygier [email protected] Mac, on a Windows PC or on an iPod! Discover Worried about having this information on Geoff Broadhurst Multimedia SIG your computer? Don’t be, the note level encryp- how easy it is to get started in the exciting world George Canellis Al Zygier tion allows you to keep this information from of podcasting today! Al Choy [email protected] all eyes but yours. The addition of colors, styles, We will also hold our ever-popular Q&A, Donald Hennessy Produced using: and highlighting is really great if you need with Brad solving all your problems and satis- Bradley Dichter Tex-Edit Plus, to call attention to a specific note. Control of fying your thirst for knowledge about your Mac. (Technical Director) TextSpresso, which columns are visible allows you show only (June’s Meeting continues on Page 2) Scott Randell Adobe’s InDesign, what you need, saving desktop space. The note Bernie Flicker Photoshop, Illustrator, organizer is on the left and it makes it quite easy General meeting time schedule: Bill Medlow and Acrobat. to find and select your note. Meetings are held at The New York Institute of Technology, Harold Silvers Building 300 (Anna Rubin Hall), Old Westbury, Long Island. Brian Revere Fonts are ITC’s Another nice feature that is not really new, Franklin Gothic Meetings start promptly at 7:00 p.m. Richard Hickerson Compressed and but definitely worth mentioning again is the Bradley Q&A 7:00–7:30 p.m. Galliard Pro. MultiNote view. You can see as many notes Beginner’s Q&A 7:00–7:30 p.m. The Forum is published monthly by LlMac. All (horizontally) as your display will allow. You can Featured presentation 7:30–8:20 p.m. contents, except where drag-and-drop from one note to another, or to followed by announcements and raffle drawings. noted, are copyright SIG (Special Interest Group) meetings 8:30–10:00 p.m. ©2007 by LIMac. and from another application. Also, an old but Opinions expressed are the very useful feature is the floating palette that Photoshop SIG: Photoshop CS 2 – Layers views of the authors and do Multimedia SIG: “Do’s and Don’ts on Vacation Videos” by expert Al Zygier. not necessarily reflect those allows you to call up your note from the Finder, of LIMac. Contents may be MacBasics SIG: More of what’s included “free” on your Mac. reprinted for non-com- or while you are working in another application. Demonstrations and discussions of mercial use, with due The last part of James Lee’s presentation Calculator, System Profiler, Chess and some acknowledgment to LIMac. The LIMac Forum is an showed the new TopXNotes iPod. It is basically important Preference Panes – including independent publication identical to TopXNotes, but iPod export is added. Energy Saver, International, Keyboard & and has not been author- ized, sponsored or other- We would like to thank James Lee for a very Mouse, and Universal Access. wise approved by Apple informative presentation. I am sure many of you | In bad weather, call (516) 686-7789. Computer, Inc. will find this product quite useful.0 | The next LIMac board meeting will be at –Scott Randell the Plainedge Library, (516) 735-4133, on Wednesday, June 13th, at 8 p.m. Sleep, Shut Down, Power Off? for more than 20 minutes however, drain the battery in your Mac until you how much your time is worth. If it takes a long Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Energy | Both the CPU and monitor if you’re no going to resume use. Ed.) time to shut down the Mac and then restart it (From UCDA’s “Designer” publication) use your Mac for more than two hours. Most Macs reach the end of their useful life later, the value of your time will probably be Though there is a small surge in energy when Make sure your monitors, printers, and other due to advances in technology long before the much greater than the value of the electricity you a computer starts up. The small amount of accessories are on a power strip/surge protector. effects of being switched on and off multiple will save by turning off the Mac. energy is still less than the energy used when When this equipment is not in use for extended times have a negative impact on their service life. Power down or sleep mode features: a computer is running for long periods of time. periods, turn off the switch on the power strip The less time a Mac is on, the longer it will last. Macs today come with a power-down or sleep For energy savings and convenience consider to prevent them from drawing power even when Macs can also produce heat, so turning them off mode feature for the CPU and monitor. Energy turning off: shut off. If you don’t use a power strip, unplug reduces building cooling loads. Star Macs power down to a sleep mode that con- | The monitor if you aren’t going to use your Mac extra equipment when it’s not in use. (You will, For cost effectiveness, you also must consider (Sleep continues on Page 3) 2 Bradley’s Tech Session President’s Message | I have generic icons on my desktop that Some of the board members were talking a few used to be regular icons for QuarkXPress weeks ago and the heart of the conversation files. I’m runningMac OS 10.4.9. How do I was that the feature presentation is only the tip fix them? of the LIMac “iceberg.” You can use the free OnyX from Titanium Our meetings start off with ourQuestion Bradley Dichter Software to reset the LaunchServices database. & Answer session which is invaluable, especially Bill Medlow President [email protected] That might restore your icons assuming your since Bradley will place the questions with [email protected] QuarkXPress application still has it’s bundle bit responses in the next Forum which will then set so the system canf nd the correct (type & appear on our Web site, what coverage! We all creator code) resources. Mac OS 9’s Finder have questions. database (Desktop DB and Desktop DF invisible Following this, we have our featured pre- fles you probably rebuilt often) relied exclu- sentation which covers a wide variety of subjects sively on this information. Mac OS X relies also for broadening our Mac experience, followed and Swatches panel on fle name extensions. Unless the applica- by our raffle and announcements. (New Swatch). By TIP! tions automatically add the fle name exten- Our SIG meetings offer special help. Some default, these sions while saving, most old time users never of our members offer questions, some consult Swatches are named Additions to by CMYK value, which Swatches Panel put them in themselves. In the case of on projects at a professional level. I feel a real I always did manually have many pluses QuarkXPress 6/7, they save as Projectf les, so advantage of this help is the opportunity to see in my illustrations. in Adobe Illustrator they should be named
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007 (Illustrator CS3 continues from Page 2) Make sure you have power-down feature set Illustrator CS3 tools; can’t create multiple-page documents. sumes 15 watts or less power, which is around up on your Mac through your operating system A few new features make a Processor Compatibility: Universal 70% less electricity than a computer without software. This has to be done by you, otherwise huge difference OS Compatibility: 10.4 (Tiger) power management features. Energy Star moni- the computer will not power-down. If your Mac By Ben Long Price as rated: $599; upgrade from Illustrator tors have the capability to power down to two and monitor do not have the features, and even Summary 10, CS, or CS2, $199. Also available in numerous successive sleep modes. In the frst, the monitor if they do, follow these guidlines about when to Pros: Intel-native; excellent new color features; Creative Suite configurations. energy consumption is less than or equal to 15 turn the CPU and monitors off. helpful interface tweaks; useful improvements Company: Adobe, www.adobe.com watts, and in the second, power consumption –From A Consumer’s Guide to Energy Effciency to the Control panel. While all owners of Intel Macs will be thrilled to reduces to 8 watts, less than 10% of its oper- and Renewable Energy . 0 Cons: Basic color picker still a bit of a hassle; no finally have an Intel-native version of Adobe’s ating power consumption. changes to some older features, such as the 3-D (Illustrator CS3 continues on Page 4) More of Bradley’s Tech Session 3 make a proper format video you can burn to a spinning and the MacBook gets very hot. DVD with audio intact. The trial version can I have installed theMac OS 10.4.9 update. do a two-minute duration conversion. Also, That may not be enough, there was also the TIPS! for extracting movies from protectedDVD s, MacBook EFI Firmware Update and the running at the time. get the free MacTheRipper from ripDifferent. MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.1 for the While Apple’s soft- Don’t touch your ware update feature Mac during soft- The last official version was 2.6.6, but many original model. When the MacBook’s display/ does not make it ware updates. people who donate (via PayPal, see www.ripdif- lid is closed, the display is turned off and the easy to tell when a This tip’s headline is ferent.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=3861) are indicator comes on solid. The problem is the particular update a bit alarmist — so let using the 3.0 release 14d. As for getting the computer has not gone to sleep and the sudden was released, we us clarify. When you video onto the iPod, you can drag the fle into motion sensor is still active. Many people don’t generally recommend are running software iTunes’ window and have it sync to the iPod. wait for the light to start pulsing before waiting about a week updates, or installing VisualHub can add the converted movie to moving the MacBook, perhaps putting it in a after a major update new security patches, iTunes’ list for you. carrying case. This poor timing causes the is released before you shouldn’t do | you install on your anything with your I just got a MacBook and have a few hard drive heads to park and not allowing it to problems: I get the spinning beach ball fnish going to sleep which involves backing up Mac. For our clients Mac while it’s running who schedule regular RAM through the last cursor when I go to restart. I have to press the active to the hard drive. This causes a monthly maintenance Optimizing System and hold the power button to shut it off. kernel panic and the machine drains battery visits, we generally Performance phase That means something running at the time power without any thermal regulation and run all software of a software update. can’t quit. This could require you to reinstall thus, it gets very hot. My suggestion is to man- updates on each Launching applica- the Operating System, but hopefully it won’t ually put the MacBook to sleep via the Apple Mac once a month tions while your come to that. I’d run the Activity Monitor and menu or the power and then sleep key after a fresh reboot. Mac is performing quit, or perhaps force-quit, any processes and sequence, wait for the blinking light, which –Creative Techs this last phase of a then try to restart. I’m guessing you have indicates sleep and then closing the lid. Keep software update can potentially damage something incompatible with the new Intel- in mind that a laptop still uses a tiny amount of system library files. based machines running, perhaps as a faceless power when it’s sleeping, so sleep should only In the worst case, driver maybe for a scanner or all-in-one, or be used for relatively short time periods. If you there is a chance some other add-on that doesn’t show in the intend to put the MacBook away for a weekend, your Mac won’t be Dock, otherwise, you would have just quit you should shut it down, not just put it to sleep. able to start up again them yourself. Don’t trust any software that A laptop sleeping too long will exhaust it’s without significant comes on the installationCD , always check for main battery and then drain the clock battery troubleshooting. a newer version online. Your machine could till it looses the data and time and other PRAM So how should have a volume mounted, maybe a Flash drive settings. you run software or maybe was syncing with your .Mac account. | I’ve installed a Widget and now I don’t updates? We recommend you First, try repairing the disk withDisk Utility want it. How do you get rid of them? run security updates and also see what happens when you start up You can bring up Dashboard, click the plus at the end of the in Safe Mode. (Start up with Shift key pressed sign at the lower left of your screen, then click day. Ideally after as soon as you hear the startup tone) That the Manage Widgets... button that appears to restarting and with should temporarily disable non-essential it’s right. That should bring up the Manage no other software extensions, fonts and startup and Login Items. Widgets widget itself. Scroll to reveal the unde- Restart again normally, if possible, to return to sired widget and click the minus sign in the normal. As part of the troubleshooting proce- red dot to the right of the widget’s name. Then dure, you can create a new admin-level user confrm that you do want to move the widget account, log out as your usual account and log to the trash. Then click on the desktop to in as the test user and see what happens when bring you out of the Dashboard environment, you try to restart. If it works, the problem is you can then empty the Trash. You can also go user specifc and you can concentrate on your to ~/Library/Widgets/ and /Library/Widgets/ home folder. If it still doesn’t then it’s system and delete the widgets manually. By the way, wide and you should look at the /Library/ keep your Widgets up to date with the Widget folder at the root directory of your hard drive. Update Widget and check out more widgets at | Also the MacBook does not go to sleep www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/index. when I close the lid. I hear the fans still (Q&A continues onPage 6)
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007 (Illustrator CS3 continued from Page 3) complete color-exploration environment that INTERFACE CHANGES on a selected color. The Live Color dialog box lets Creative Suite, Illustrator users typically haven’t makes it easy to develop and experiment with Illustrator’s interface has been updated to you quickly change the colors of multiple objects, had to deal with slow-moving progress bars different color themes. In addition, no matter match the rest of the CS3 programs’— its tool so you can easily employ the new color schemes the way that many Photoshop users have, so what kind of Mac you’re using, you will notice palettes (now called panels) sit inside of docks you’ve explored with the Color Guide feature. performance hasn’t been a primary concern for some performance improvements when you’re that can be expanded or collapsed, allowing you The redesigned Control panel further reduces them. However, there are plenty of other reasons scrolling and zooming, and you’ll see faster to better manage screen real estate. on-screen clutter. Introduced in Illustrator CS2, to upgrade to the CS3 version: Adobe has made screen redraws when you’re working with very PICTURES the Control panel has been expanded to include some significant interface changes, updated complex documents. But there’s still a little room Illustrator CS3 more options and tools. For example, when a some important components, and added some for improvement, especially in the program’s You can use the new Color Guide feature to auto- path is selected, the Control panel now provides innovative new features, such as Live Color, a basic color-picking facility. matically generate entire color schemes based (Illustrator CS3 continues on Page 5) Sore Eyes 4 OK. Now we have reduced the 1000 photos we and drag the pics you want to share into the have from our (almost) three weeks in China Public folder. These pics should be sized reason- to a more reasonable number and have made a ably. (My camera is set for 16x22 inch shots.) backup copy on CD to save for the future. Be sure that all the editing is done before you What’s the next step? transfer the pictures. We removed the iPhoto library on one com- How do we tell our friends and family how TIP! puter and started with a new library, theChina to view the shots? How do Mac users get to Fix embedded media Library. The photos are all in folders by city so view them? If the user’s Mac is running OS X in Safari: that we have some idea, when we look at them, 10.3 or greater, just direct them toiDisk under QuickTime: To just what we are seeing. We have replaced the the Go heading in the menu bar and select fix a QuickTime- stupid numbers that come out of the camera Other User’s Public Folder. related problem Helen and with names that have some meaning for us. Our name is rty13 and you will not need with Safari, quit Sheldon Gross We’ve even sent a few photos on e-mail to family a password to see our shots. If the folder you Safari and look in [email protected] and friends. Of course, the key word here is select is large, it may take time to load. the/Library/Internet Plug-ins folder (this Note: Sore Eyes site “few.” I’d like to put them on line so that those Be patient. who really care can look at all of them. Mac users running earlier systems: If you're is the Library folder referrals are for your at the root level of information only. First of all, we have a .Mac account. How using Mac OS X version 10.1 or 10.2, choose Go your hard drive, not Neither the Grosses many pix can we reasonably put on this account >Connect To Server and type http://idisk.mac. the one inside your nor LIMac endorse without incurring additional expense? com/rty13-Public. Users/username/ any of the sites or Should we take things that are already on How do non-Mac users get to view them? folder). Try removing their products. the .Mac account off, so that there will be Open a browser and type http://idisk.mac.com/ the VLC Plugin.plugin additional room? I think it helps. rty13-Public. (if you have it) and What are the steps to putting these pictures I believe this is the simplest way to share QuickTime Plugin. on line? large numbers of photos. Our next project will plugin files from this Actually, this is easy. Just open your iDisk be making a .Mac home page for this purpose. 0 folder (start with any third-party plugins that are present), User Group News and then, relaunch Safari. LIMac is a proud member of the Peachpit User preserve data and prevent data loss. Prosoft If the problem Group Partner Program and as such all LIMac offers a 25% discount to all MUGs using the isn’t fixed, a dif- members are entitled to a 30% discount off the special MUG discount code. Their products ferent plugin may list price of any of Peachpit’s books. When include: Drive Genius – maintain, manage and be to blame, keep removing files from George Canellis ordering at their Website (www.peachpit.com) at optimize your hard drive; Picture Rescue – this folder (start gwc11713@optonline. checkout, right before you enter your credit digital picture recovery; Data Backup – backup with any third-party net card number, you must enter the user group made easy; Data Rescue – emergency file ® programs that are coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). recovery; and TuneTech for iPod – maintain, present) until the This coupon code is an exclusive offer that may manage and optimize your iPod. (www. problem disappears. not be used in conjunction with any other prosofteng.com) Replace the plug-ins coupon codes. Through the generosity of MUG members can now take 30% off a single that don’t cause any Peachpit, LIMac will also be receiving free book or 35% off two or more books from problems. books as raffle prizes. Look for them on the O’Reilly, No Starch, Paraglyph, PC Publishing, Flash: The most prize table when you’re purchasing your raffle Pragmatic Bookshelf, SitePoint, or Syngress common Flash tickets at the monthly meeting. books you purchase directly from O’Reilly. problem is that the The following vendor offers require a top- (www.oreilly.com/store) audio doesn’t work, usually caused by BITS secret user group offer code. If you are inter- Adam and Tonya Engst of Tid are con- an erroneous Audio ested in any of the following products, please tinuing their sixteen years of supporting user Output setting. send an e-mail to me at [email protected]. groups with a special 10% discount for all orders Here’s the fix: Prosoft is dedicated to creating professional in their new Take Control electronic book series. 1. launch Audio quality software designed to be easily used by Take Control ebooks provide highly practical, MIDI Setup both novice and expert users. Prosoft adopts tightly focused, inexpensive help from leading (/Applications/ the role of being data advocates, fighting to (User Group News continues on Page 6) Utilities). (Continues on Page 5)
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007 (Illustrator C3 continued from Page 4) The actual selection process has been Illustrator CS3’s easier-to-see anchor-point illustration. options for selecting similar objects and aligning improved by some changes in the visual feed- highlighting is the one you’ll encounter most The interface changes that Adobe has made those objects. When a point is selected, the back that Illustrator provides as you mouse often, and it’s a great idea. are significant, but longtime users don’t need to Control panel provides all the anchor-point around your illustration. When you pass the Illustrator CS3 also introduces Document worry about a burdensome learning process or controls that you used to have to access from the Direct Selection tool over a control point, the Profiles, preset parameters that allow you to changes to familiar keyboard shortcuts and com- main Tools palette. Adobe was very smart about control point enlarges so that you can easily see create new documents configured for a specific mands. It’s easy to adopt the new features into what it put in the Control panel, and you’ll prob- and select it. While this may not sound like much, final output. For example, the Video And Film your workflow. New drawing tools ably find that, after a while, you use it for more you’ll get accustomed to the change very quickly, profile gives you a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel docu- Illustrator CS3 is the 13th version of Illustrator, of your parameter selection than the customary and you’ll soon realize how helpful — even luxu- ment in RGB color. This feature can save you and as you’d expect after all this time, its palettes and dialog boxes. rious — it is. Of all the program’s new features, some hassle when you’re ready to output your (Illustrator C3 continues on Page 6)
Bullets 2. Click the Audio Devices tab at the 5 Simply put, a bullet is a large dot used to draw that the copy aligns with itself, and not with the top of the window. attention to each item in a list or series. The bullet on the first line. To be more creative, sub- 3. In the Properties items can be single words, phrases, sentences stitute symbols or dingbats for the actual bul- For pull-down menu, or paragraphs. Even if you use the bullet that is lets. Try squares, triangles or check marks (just select Built-In Audio. part of your font, don’t automatically assume not all at once, as shown in the illustration!). 4. Change the Audio Ilene Strizver it’s the right size: it might need to be altered in Keep these simple and in proportion with the Output>Format set- [email protected] scale or position to make it look balanced next rest of your text. To save time and maintain ting to 44100.0Hz. Ilene Strizver, founder to the text. Here are a few guidelines to consistency, copy and paste your perfectly styled 5. Quit Audio MIDI Setup. of The Type Studio, making the most out of this simple yet strong and adjusted bullet for each usage. is a typographic 6. Quit and relaunch element: TIP Remember to copy a bullet that is a consultant, designer, : Safari. writer and special- Bullets should be centered on either the cap dingbat or other decorative image before you Rosetta: If you izing in all aspects height or X-height, depending on the nature of make global font changes to your text, in order have an Intel-based of typographic com- your copy. If all of your items begin with a cap, to simplify reinsertion. 0 Mac, running Safari munication, from the center the bullet on the cap, or a bit lower so it in Rosetta can also aesthetic to the tech- balances with the negative resolve some plug-in nical. Ilene conducts spaces created by the low- ♦ Safety pins issues. First, quit the app Gourmet Typography ercase. If your items Things in a first aid kit: ✒ Ω cotton gauze bandages if it’s open, and then, Training internation- all begin with lower- • Cotton gauze bandages ✟ regular bandages ally. For more infor- in your Applications case characters, center the • Regular bandages ✔ first aid tape mation, visit www. folder, select Safari bullets on the X-height. • First aid tape needle & thread thetypestudio.com. ☛ and press Command- Insert some space after the • Cotton gauze pads . cotton gauze pads • Safety pins l. In the General area bullet to avoid crowding. ✽ safety pins of the Safari Info The preferred way to dialog that appears Things in a first aid kit: Don’t make bullets too large or align bullets is with the left (Continues on Page 6) cotton gauze bandages too small. margin. You can also have • • regular bandages For variety, try other symbols as LIMac’s Privacy the bullets overhang the bullets such as ITC Zapf Dingbats. • first aid tape Policy: margin, and keep all your Just not all at once! • cotton gauze pads General Information text aligned with the left • safety pins Collection: LIMac margin. Whichever style you acquires mailing and Bullets should be centered on either e-mail addresses choose, your listing will look the cap height or the x-height. best if items that run more from our members than one line are indented so and no other outside sources in order to communicate with our membership. We The winner of the iPod at Let ’em know you’re a LIMac member! use this information the May meeting was Roseanne Our Famous LIMac logo is now available to be to send out the LIMac Santini. embroidered on any wearable item. Forum and to send Tip: You can choose to hear High-quality embroidery is done by ACU occasional notices. playback at random (shuffle Plus Custom Embroidery, located at 3700 Disclosure to Third songs)or play in order, but Hempstead Turnpike, Levittown,N Y 11756; Parties We do not did you know that you can (516) 520-1039. disclose mailing switch back and forth at any www.acuplusembroidery.com/index.html. 0 addresses, e-mail addresses or any time from Shuffle to play in other confdential order. information to third Use shuffle to locate something at parties. random, then play in order and you can then Questions If you hear the rest of an album or song group that have any questions you put on your shuffle. Pay your outstanding dues now! It’s 2007!! concerning LIMac’s (We thank Designscapes for donating the 1 GB Send your $36 check to: Long Island Privacy Policy, please iPod Shuffle.) 0 Macintosh Users Group, Post Office Box 2048, e-mail them to about- –Donald Hennessy Seaford, New York 11783-0180 0 [email protected]. 0
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007 (Illustrator C3 continued from Page 5) ating organic, painterly objects easy – you use a create a clipping mask in order to crop an image. mode lets you easily isolate a single group or drawing tools are very powerful and refined. simple painting interface, and you don’t have to If you need to quickly output PDFs and other sublayer; all other objects in your document Adobe has made a few significant additions to think about paths and anchor points. documents that are cropped to a specific size, are faded, and you can edit only the isolated longstanding tools in the program’s toolbox. While Illustrator has long allowed you to align the Crop Area tool is a great addition. element. Unfortunately, you can’t isolate an A new Eraser tool lets you modify existing objects, the new version also lets you align indi- In previous versions of Illustrator, working on individual object; you can isolate only groups of parts of your illustration just as you would in vidual points, a great way to align just one side of a single object in a complex document required objects or sublayers. a paint program. Pass the Eraser tool over an a group of objects, for example. that you perform lots of locking and hiding to iso- All of these additions are great, but I was object, and the tool will automatically alter and The new Crop Area tool makes it easy to crop late the path that you wanted to edit. Illustrator hoping to see an overhaul of some of Illustrator’s reshape it so that it looks partially erased. Like down to a specific rectangular part of an image. CS3’s new Isolation mode provides a good alter- other features, most noticeably its 3-D tools, the Paintbrush tool, the Eraser tool makes cre- In the past, you had to draw a rectangle and native to this type of housekeeping. The Isolation (Illustrator C3 continues on Page 7)
(Continues from P. 5) More of Mac User Groups News (click the disclosure Refining a Web 6 triangle if this (User Group News continues from Page 4) off AccountEdge. (www.myob.com/us/) search – Getting area is not already Macintosh authors. Titles are delivered in PDF Actoris Software’s Xpress Schedule is the relevant results expanded), select layout with active links, and are optimized for Macintosh tool for preparing employee work on Google, Yahoo Open Using Rosetta, or other search and then close the viewing and printing. The user group code to schedules. Create better schedules in less time, engines: Safari Info Dialog. take advantage of this generous offer is print schedules and even send them to your staff Learn a few key Relaunch Safari. CPN31208MUG. (www.takecontrolbooks.com) by email or text message. Food Cost Manager is words and tricks –Mac|Life Magazine Do you own or work in a Mac-based small a complete back office solution for food service – standard across business that has grown out of it’s computer- businesses. Manage your inventory, calculate most major search ized checkbook? Have you grown tired of cre- recipe and menu costs, and prepare nutritional engines – that will ating invoices using InDesign or Word? If you information for your customers. narrow your search think you are ready to move beyond your Xpress Schedule, regularly $99, is available from the start. shoebox, MYOB has the right tool for you at a for a special Apple User Group price of $74, and You can limit your Use Photoshop’s search to a par- great MUG discount. MYOB US, Inc., the leader Food Cost Manager, regularly $249 is available at Background Eraser ticular Web site by tool: in Mac small business management, has just $185, that’s a 25% discount. Get the user group typing site: followed If you find yourself released MYOB FirstEdge, a new Mac-only order form at www.actorissoftware.com/mug by the domaine needing to quickly product that will help you run your business and then e-mail your order to sales@actorissoft- name of the site remove the back- quickly and easily. MUG members get $25 off ware.com. 0 into your search ground from an image the regular price of $99 on First Edge or $100 field before you type in Photoshop, take the desired word or a moment to play phrase. with the Background About Our Satellite Meetings… For example, if Eraser tool. (Click- Brian Revere, our Photoshop SIG leader, shows to hold these meetings and their staff go the you type site:apple. and-hold on the an attentive group a few tips and tricks to help extra mile to make sure these meetings run com iPod you will find eraser in Photoshop’s references to the tool pallet to choose enhance the details and correct the color of smoothly. The best way to thank them for their devices that appear this tool). some less-than-perfect photographs. As you generosity would be to stop by and attend one on official Apple Web The Background can see, this is not our regular Photoshop SIG. of these meetings. The Satellite SIGs are held pages. Eraser samples the This was at our most recent SatelliteSIG every month on the Tuesday following our The process works color in the center of meeting, held at the Apple Store at the Walt monthly general meeting. The meetings are similarly for file-type the brush. It deletes Whitman Mall. free to all comers and start at 7:30 p.m. and run which limits by file that color and softens Please join us every month for an extra to approximately 9:30p.m. The subject of the typr like PDF and the edges so that helping of Photoshop or Multimedia training SIGs alternate each month between Photoshop allintitle which limits color halos are not and tutoring at our Satellite SIGs. The Apple and Multimedia. Show your support for LIMac the search to words visible if the fore- only in the title of the Store has been gracious and accommodating by by sitting in on a Satellite SIG. You might even ground object is later Web page. giving us a nice piece of their store forLIM ac leave with a few valuable new tricks up your pasted into another 0 You can exclude image. sleeve! –George Cannellis words from a search –Creative Techs by adding the hyphen before them. If you’re searching for, say Hawaii but don’t want hotels, type Hawaii-hotels. You can also click on the “advanced search” feature, allowing you to fill in specifics like “all of these words’ and “none of these words.” Using thi feature, you can also select a domain extension, Continues on Page 7)
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007 (Illustrator C3 continued from Page 6) nious color schemes; you can choose comple- you can interactively try out entirely new color Upgrading to Adobe Illustrator CS3 is a which have hardly progressed since the old days mentary, analogous, monochromatic, or triad schemes and perform color reductions. no-brainer for longtime Illustrator users. I was of Adobe Streamline. And as I say about every colors, all based on the currently selected color. Illustrator’s basic color picker is still a bit hoping that some of the older tools would get version, the inability to create multiple-page There’s nothing better than the Color Guide of a hassle; picking basic fill and stroke colors some tweaks – especially the 3-D tools and the documents is a tremendous oversight. for quickly creating a color scheme for an requires more clicks than it should. But Live Color Picker, and I’d love to see the ability to Live color illustration. The new, radically advanced Live Color is one of the most significant additions to create multiple-page documents. But the Live The most significant additions to Illustrator are Color dialog box allows you to quickly apply color Illustrator in years, and it will appeal to all types Color feature alone is worth the price of admis- new color features. The new Color Guide can schemes to selected groups of objects. The live of designers and illustrators, as well as to motion- sion, and the interface improvements and better automatically create entire palettes of harmo- part of Live Color refers to the ease with which graphics specialists and Flash animators. performance will make all users very happy. 0
(Q &A continues from Page 3) ries and fles and defragmenting, perhaps with php. This is in addition to the Apple Web site DiskWarrior 4 around for good measure opti- 7 Cont. from Page 6) pointed to by the Widget Manager’s More mizing my directories. In major trouble, I’ve such as .com or.edu, Widgets… button: www.apple.com/downloads/ used Data Rescue II. I’ve tried iDefrag as well. Speeding up work that you would like to by avoiding slow search within. dashboard/. I also use Norton AntiVirus 10.1.2 to be sure I | previews in Adobe –Jessica E. Vascellaro I have a folder in the Dock, but when I don’t pass on any viruses. I use Extensis’s Illustrator CS3: right-click on it, it only shows up to the Suitcase Fusion 12.1.3 for font management, but Because the oper- letter “T.” I’ve played with the free Linotype Font ating performance Any folder in the dock is limited to 222 items, Explorer X. In the shareware/freeware catego- of Illustrator CS3 plus a divider line, Remove from Dock, Open at ries, I use Cocktail, Mac Pilot, OnyX and is vastly improved, Login, Show In Finder, another divider and TinkerTool, Tiger Cache Cleaner, FontNuke, this may be more Open. I have several larger folders in my Dock, and Printer Setup Repair. I’ve also used A of a CS2 tip. When working on complex Undoing beyond my Internet Downloads folder only gets up to Better Finder Rename and File Buddy 9, effects such as 3D your last save in ABG in the Dock. Perhaps creating some sub- Pacifist, Print Window 3, Super Get Info. In Revolve or Blends Adobe InDesign folders which become hierarchical menu items other categories, I’ve used Carbon Copy that contain multiple CS2: can help. The Dock pop-up menu supports sev- Cloner, DejaVu, Silverkeeper, SuperDuper! and effects, you may find Multiple Undo’s (Edit eral layers of folders. the old standard ofEMC /Dantz Retrospect for redraw performance > Undo) may be a | What utilities are you recommending now backup. For conversions of various sorts, there grinding to a halt. new feature in other for Mac OS X? is Cinematize and DVDxDVPro for grabbing One way to speed layout programs, Drive Genius DVD EasyWMA things up is when but it has been Currently, I’m recommending video snippets off a , for con- applying or altering around for a while in 1.5.3 and TechTool Pro 4.5.2 for repairing directo- verting Windows .wma fles into Mac .aiff files. a complicated effect, InDesign. Depending GraphicConverter is good for batch image con- turn off Preview on how much RAM versions. MacLinkPlus Deluxe for other format in the dialog until you have, you can conversions. I use MacPAR Deluxe 3.7 for you input all the literally Undo or Redo Give to LIMac by searching the Internet. working with .par and .par2 fles from the specifications and hundreds of steps in LIMac has just been registered on GoodSearch, Usenet Newsgroups and Split & Concat 2.5 to are ready to press your layout process. as seen in Oprah magazine, ABC News, The join segments. I use Stuffit Deluxe 11.0.2 for OK. In this way, I recently discovered New York Times, Wall Street Journal, unstuffing/extracting most kinds of archive/ Illustrator will not that if you make a USA Today, and Fortune. compressed fles. TransType Pro 3.0.2 for con- update the effect really big mistake Goodsearch. VisualHub 1.23 with each change to and save afterwards, There is a search engine called verting fonts. is good for video the specs. it’s no big deal. You com that donates 50% of its revenue to charities conversions, particularly the xvid format you can actually turn and schools designated by its users. LIMac is might fnd on the Internet. Not a comprehen- Preview a layout back the clock now a member – and Goodsearch will donate to sive list of the programs I use, but these are the before opening it beyond your save us about one cent for every search our members ones I’d classify as utilities. 0 in Adobe InDesign with multiple Undo’s make via GoodSearch. CS3: and save at a point A penny does not sound like a lot, but the How to better visually enjoy the Forum: One of the features before the mistake site is all about numbers. How much money is Your Editor prefers you to use Preview (with that I love about took place. This raised will depend on how well we can spread OS X) or PostView (www. Bridge is that you can be an amazing the word to our members – the more LIMac metaobject.com/Products. can get an idea of lifesaver. Goodsearch html#PostView) what’s in an InDesign –Jeff Witchel members use for their Internet for searches, the more money we will raise. 200 of reading the Forum PDF document before you us searching four times a day will raise about – excellent programs that open it. Bridge pre- $2,433 in a year without spending a dime! handle.pdf files with views the front page Think of all the money that could be raised more visual accuracy of the various layouts while you and your friends and family are than Adobe Reader ! in a folder so you can get a better idea of surfng the Web at www.goodsearch.com! (Also read their Help files to discover the many which one is which. Come to the April meeting and fnd out tools and techniques they have available.) But this nice feature more about GoodSearch. 0 You’ll be happily surprised! 0 will only work if you save your InDesign document with a Send your $36 check to: preview – File>Save Long Island Macintosh Users Group, P.O. Box 2048, As, and check Always Seaford, NY 11783-0180 Save Preview. –Jeff Witchel
The LIMac On-Line Forum/JUNE 2007