Online Edition May 2000 VOLUME 19 • NUMBER 5 Of Interest In This Issue... Articles and Announcements: Special Items: Published monthly by members of President’s Message . 2 - 4 North Texas Personal Computer Users Vendor Presentations . 1 Group for their use. Send all editorial Timothy Carmichael correspondence to: Editor, North Texas !!!Mark Your Calendar!!! . 4 PC NEWS at: [email protected] SIG Meetings . 1 Connie Andrews Rooms & Times Send address changes to: Membership Entering SIG Notes Through the Web 5 - 6 Director,NTPCUG, P.O. Box 703449, Bill Parker SIG Reports . 11-20 Dallas, TX 75370-3449. The Variety Store . 7 - 10 Reagan Andrews Managing Editor Reagan Andrews Officers & People You (214) 828-0699 should know . 21 Copy Editor Connie Andrews (214) 828-0699 Newsletter Exchange Lewis Graber The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not neces- sarily reflect those of the Group or its members. Copyright ©2000 by North Texas PC NEWS. (Articles without spe- cific copyright notices may be repro- duced unchanged by other not-for- profit User Groups if credit is given to Submit Newsletter articles to: [email protected] the author and the publication.) Visit the North Texas PC Users Group Web page: http://www.ntpcug.org Circulation: Member distribution was 835 Submitting Articles and Stories to the Newsletter The editors of North Texas PC NEWS use Microsoft Word for Windows 97. The North Texas PC NEWS is going particularly if the editors have This issue of North Texas PC NEWS online—and it’s more important questions or suggestions about the was composed using Corel Ventura 8.0, than ever that the NTPCUG news- story. letter contain timely and informative Corel Draw 9.0, Arts & Letters Express Please don’t submit the article or 6.01, Adobe Photoshop 4.01, Microsoft content of interest to our members. We will welcome pertinent “How to story in HTM or .PDF format. It Publisher 2000 and Adobe Acrobat 4.01 can make editing and formatting Principal typefaces include: Times, do it” articles, book reviews, soft- ware reviews and other materials quite time consuming and difficult. Palatino, Helvetica, A&L Cafe, French that would be helpful and interest- Vogue, and Lithos. We can accept MS Word 97, most ing to NTPCUG members. WordPerfect files and ASCII .TXT D E A D L I N E For prospective authors, there are a files. The absolutely latest version Copy deadline for June few, but very important, “Do’s and of any word processor may not Don’ts” involved in article submis- convert gracefully to our format North Texas PC NEWS: and may have to be rejected as a re- June, 2, 2000 sion to the newsletter, first of which is accuracy. Be sure of your facts sult. Meeting Dates: (unless you report them as “ru- Graphics should be submitted in mors”) and always remember to re- one of the “standard” formats, i.e., port the source(s) as well. .TIF, .EPS, .GIF, .PCX or .JPG files. May 20 - 3rd Saturday Please don’t submit articles that are While “native” CorelDraw (CDR) July 15 – 3rd Saturday taken from another source without files are also OK, other graphics August 19 – 3rd Saturday crediting the source in your article, editor native formats may not be i.e., if you excerpt something from convertible. the Microsoft (or other) Web site, Again, we want your articles and please state that in the article. thank you in advance for your in- Remember to “sign” your article/ put and cooperation. story at the bottom. A simple “by Your Name” will be quite helpful, Reagan Andrews May 2000 North Texas PC NEWS Auditorium Presentations for May 20 10:00 A.M. Macromedia Dreamweaver & Fireworks Macromedia Our main presentation for May will be Macromedia. They are the makers of the Dreamweaver and Fireworks software that Mary told us about in April at Big town. Both of these software packages are well known to Web site developers, now we the curious and uninitiated will get to see what all the excitement is about. Come join us for an informative session on the software that makes some web sites look sooo cool! 12:00 P.M. NTPCUG Main Business Meeting 12:30 P.M. NTPCUG New Member Orientation Time SIG 11:00 Internet - Advanced SIG meetings are listed by time for the 8:00 Microsoft Networking AppleCorps May 20 meeting. Times may change, AppleCorps Professional MIDI & Audio and members are advised to check the Hardware Solutions (continued) NTPCUG Web site for latest listings. Lotus Notes & Domino Introduction to the PC Room locations will be posted at LHFC Excel/Spreadsheets Quicken on the day of the meeting. 9:00 Communications Macromedia Flash The following SIGs are meeting at AppleCorps 12:00 NTPCUG Business separate locations, and are not in- DOS/Disk Operating Systems Meeting cluded in the schedule above. Check Introduction to the PC AppleCorps/FileMaker the SIG notes for time and location. Alpha Five Investors Dallas Corel JAVA Programming Meets on 5-13 10:00 Internet - Beginning ACT! AppleCorps WordPerfect for Windows Access Professional MIDI & Audio 12:30 Visitors Orientation Application Developers Issues Main Presentation - Macromedia 1:00 FrontPage Visual BASIC - Advanced Introduction to the PC AppleCorps/ClarisWorks Visual BASIC - Beginning Word for Windows Web Content Committee Dallas Corel (continued) AppleCorps/Beginners Meets on 5-27 Games Genealogy - The Master WordPerfect for Windows Genealogist (continued) 1 North Texas PC NEWS May 2000 Come Visit Our New Meeting Location! On May 20, we will meet for the first time at the Lake Highlands Freshman Center, part of the Richardson Independent School District (RISD), where we have contracted to meet on the third Saturday of each month for the rest of this year (and prob- ably for years to come). This building is new and stylish, is conveniently located for a majority of our members, and gives us room to grow as a community service re- aways for everyone attending, and special source. free drawing prizes will be given away at the Main Meetings. Come join us to share I encourage all members to attend this meet- our knowledge and greet the newcomers. ing and see the facilities. Since we expect new visitors (and new members) from the NTPCUG Web Site school students, parents, and faculty, we The NTPCUG Web Site at is rapidly becom- want to make this a fun and rewarding ex- ing an essential resource of timely news and perience for all. There will be free give- communication for all our members. Our Webmaster, Mary McWilliams Johnson, is working conscientiously to improve the site in conjunction with our Web Content Team. Soon we will add Web-based discussion groups for general member discussions and specific topic areas, including the SIGs. We are seeking ideas and volunteers for expand- ing this valuable online resource, and your contributions will be an important part of the development process. Check the Web site often and give us your feedback, sugges- tions, and contributions so we can better ad- dress your needs. Volunteers Rewarded The NTPCUG members who volunteered to help us with the Microsoft eXtreme event on April 8 received a special bonus from Mi- crosoft. They will be awarded one free Mi- crosoft product of their choice at the Busi- ness Meeting on May 20. The products in- clude FrontPage 2000, Windows 2000, Office 2000 Professional, and Office 2000 Develop- ers. Some of the volunteers graciously do- nated their prizes for use by the User Group. This is only one example of the 2 May 2000 North Texas PC NEWS to use it for your business? If you have Prez Sez... Continued some accounting experience and can spare a couple hours a week, we need your help. benefits of being an active NTPCUG mem- Our current Treasurer, Eb Foerster, has ber volunteer! given us several years of commendable as- sistance in managing NTPCUG finances, Those of you who can donate some time but the long drive from his home to Dallas to help out with the NTPCUG are needed has become impractical. As Treasurer, you more than ever. We are in the process of will manage our checking and savings ac- assessing and improving services for our counts, write a few checks and make a de- members, and your suggestions are an in- posit each month, provide Quicken-gener- tegral part of this process. Making those ated monthly financial reports, and partici- suggestions actually result in improve- pate in the officer meeting (with a free ments also requires additional volunteer meal) on the Tuesday evening following time and effort. Your contribution of only each monthly User Group meeting. Your ac- one or more hours a month will help all counting experience could help our group members, and you can benefit from being grow and improve, so call me if you can an active part of NTPCUG. Additional help fill this important position. help is needed for projects that are on hold until we have the manpower to start Anyone willing to participate as a monthly them. volunteer should contact Claude McClure Seeking A New Treasurer... (Volunteer Coordinator) or myself. Claude has diligently manned our NTPCUG Infor- Do you have experience with Quicken? mation Booth and coordinated volunteers at Would you like to learn more about how our meetings for many years, and volun- 3 North Texas PC NEWS May 2000 !!! Mark Your Calendar !!! Future Newsletter Deadlines and Meeting Dates Our main meeting [presentation(s) and most SIGs] will be at Lake Highlands Fresh- man Center on the third Saturday of each month for the rest of this year. The newsletter deadline each month will be fifteen days before the main meeting.