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The best in books for back to school
Is Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer good enough to take on Adobe Illustrator? Illustrator CS Killer Tips author Matthew David says that although Microsoft's new beta illustration tool, Expression Graphic Designer, is being promoted as a serious professional tool that will compete against current tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks -- does it really stand up against these power tools? ... see the full story...
Terry White, all time user group favorite Adobe presenter has teamed up with Scott Kelby to bring you this not to be missed book ... InDesign CS / CS2 Killer Tips
Scott Kelby shares these tidbits of wisdom...
It sounds crazy, but Preview actually has some pretty decent image-editing controls (very much like iPhoto's new image-editing controls, except believe it or not, Preview lets you set custom White and Black Points, whereas iPhoto doesn't). To unlock the photo-editing power of Preview, just go under Preview's Tools menu and choose Image Correction, which brings up a floating palette. Here are a couple of tips on correcting your images: The Gamma slider controls the midtones, and dragging it to the left brightens the midtones. To make a black-and-white image, drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left, then drag the Contrast slider to the right.
Excerpted from Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips by Scott Kelby
Mac Users Bonus: For Those About to Dock!: docking miracles made easy -- from Scott Kelby, about twenty good tips for using the OS X Dock ... find these and many more of Scott's books and online articles at our Scott Kelby page...
One of the pitfalls of Adobe's InDesign is getting files imported from other applications. In this article by Cate Brosseau Indiano you'll learn some of the tricks of the trade.
Cate also brings us the wonderful Adobe InDesign CS2 @work: Projects You Can Use on the Job book. This book provides step-by-step coverage of how to complete 10 projects that a panel of users has verified as common projects those using the application are asked to complete. Tips, tricks, and notes provide readers with the information they need to carry over what they learn on these projects to others they'll undoubtedly be asked to create. Read more...
Your digital camera likely came with software for downloading, organizing, and printing your photos (as discussed in Project 2, "Create Your Image Albums"). That software probably has a few other tricks up its sleeve -- features that enable you to make important changes to your photos. Read this article: by well known digital photography expert Peter Bauer Taking the Next Step: Improving Your Pics
Peter's new book Create Your Own Digital Photography: Using What You Already Know shows you how to make digital photography come together. Learn five projects that every digital camera owner should know and benefit from numerous other tricks, tips, and other cool information like how to publish photobooks, order prints online, how to get the right resolution for an 8x10 print, remove red eye, and more! ... see the full story...
iWork and Pages is Apple's new wordprocessing/dtp killer app that is making big waves in computer publishing circles. David Morris' new Visual QuickProject Guide is here to help take readers from standing start to stellar finish, no matter what project they're tackling. Rather than cover every last option Pages offers, this book steps readers through several sample Pages projects, showing them the quickest, most effective way to communicate their ideas. Each short lesson builds a component of a basic Pages document, from choosing a template, deciding on a layout, formatting charts and tables, incorporating graphics and color, and adding a bit of polish to a final document. Friendly, step-by-step instructions and large, full-color screen shots make the information instantly accessible. See: Pages with iWork
Charles Wyke-Smith is the author of Stylin' with CSS: A Designer's Guide a new book that will educate you to rapidly create web designs that can be shared by hundreds of web pages. CSS helps the developer by accelerating development times and centralizing text and layout information for easy editing and updates. Stylin' with CSS teaches you everything you need to know start using CSS in your web development work, from the basics of markup of your content and styling text, through to creating multi-column page layouts without the use of tables.
* Read: Introduction to CSS- a good introduction Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and its use in applying style characteristics to the elements of a Web document. Author Scott Loban shows some examples of how you can use CSS to simplify formatting.
* Read: Transitional CSS and JavaScript Strategies by Makiko Itoh, and explore some ways of creating web sites that take advantage of the CSS and JavaScript capabilities of modern browsers, while still accommodating older browsers. Read more...
"The Big Moo - Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable" -- Guy Kawasaki, has written to tell us about this new book. It is written by thirty three authors, including Tom Peters, Malcom Gladwell, Mark Cuban, Robyn Waters, Dave Balter, Red Maxwell, Randall Rothenberg and of course Guy... who says:
"The Big Moo is a simple book that tells stories that stick to your ribs and lights your fire. It will help you to create a culture that consistently delivers remarkable innovations."
Additionally this is a work for charity with the authors turning over royalties to three organizations: acumenfund.org helping solve global hunger; www.jdrf.org: juvenile diabetes; and www.roomtoread.org: global literacy. You can read more details and purchase the book at: amazon.com
Read this article by Derrik Story Combined with a hefty 1GB of online storage, Backup 3 provides .Mac subscribers with a robust, easy-to-use workflow for protecting their most valuable data. In this tutorial, Derrick Story shows you how to get the most out of version 3, using both your iDisk and DVDs for preserving your work. How to Set Up Backup 3... if you use a Mac Powerbook, you'll want to get Derrick's PowerBook Fan Book
When you listen to a great podcast, it feels like magic. A great podcast grabs the listener by the collar and doesn't let go until it's finished. The challenge of creating that kind of magic might seem daunting but it's a lot like the old joke about eating an elephant: It's a lot easier if you approach it one bite at a time. Read this excerpt The Components of Your Podcast from the Book Absolute Beginner's Guide to Podcasting
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