NVMUG eNews 06/40/2008
Last updated 06/19/2008
Midge Creating Kiwanis Newsletter
Midge Lubot talked about how she uses Pages to create the Kiwanis newsletter.
Howard Turner bought several raffle tickets because he really wanted to win the Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps book from Peachpit Press, and he won.
Ron Lay-Sleeper told us what he thought about Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual from O'Reilly.
I wrote about xperiments in preparing images for email and Web pages, and reported in the meeting aboutExploring Pages '08 with Pages '08 which is available here.
1. Midge Lubot on Creating the Kiwanis Newsletter
2. Robert Turner Won Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps
3. Ron Lay-Sleeper Talked about Photshop Elements The Missing Manual
1. Midge Lubot on Creating the Kiwanis Newsletter
Midge showed the Kiwanis Kinks newsletters on the screen as she described how she produced them. She wrote her first Kiwanis Kinks report in October, 2000 using AppleWorks. It was very plain in text with no pictures. Later she learned how to use colored text to add some interest. It was all on one sheet which she folded, labelled and mailed. In the newsletter she asked any people who were receiving it in the mail who had email to let her know so they could save money.
She learned how to put text into colors to add some interest, but they still had now pictures.
When she started using Pages, she selected one of the Pages templates and filled things in. She also added the Kiwanis logos.
The first Kiwanis Newsletter Midge created in Pages.
She emails 2 or 3 page reports to about 65 people. She sends text only copies to three people because they only have dial up and do not want pictures.
Midge takes pictures at every Kiwanis meeting. She puts them into iPhoto, and then brings them into Pages using the smallest iPhoto size and uses the Pages Metrics Inspector to add them in a uniform size to her documents.
Her May 26 Kiwanis Kinks had pictures of the Kiwanis working on the pool including four rows of with three pictures in each row. She tries to keep its file size under 600 KB. She said that using the Media tool to bring the pictures in from iPhoto makes them humongous. She uses iPhoto to make them for smaller email, then drags them into Pages.
Midge relaxing at the end of her presentation with her dog on her screen saver
Someone asked Midge why she uses Pages. MIdge said it is easy to use. Geof Gonter said it is integrated with other Mac features such as the iPhoto Library. Stephen Farber said Pages gives greater layout and typographic control. Jane Fuller asked where she could change the leading. Stephen directed Midge to the Text Inspector where the line height control under Spacing can make this adjustment.
2. Robert Turner Won Robin William's Cool Mac Apps
Robert Turner new about Robin Williams Cool Mac Apps
. He bought five tickets in the raffle and he won. The book was described in our meeting announcement.
Peachpit Press lets us request these books each month without requiring a review. Other Peachpit Books are available for review by user group members. Ask me if you are interested.
Peachpit Press now offers a 35% discount to user group members when you enter the user group coupon code UE-23AA-PEUF (case-sensitive). This coupon code is an exclusive offer that may not be used in conjunction with any other coupon codes.
Peachpit also provides free articles, information, and mailings with tips of interest to Macintosh Users, digital photographers, Photoshop users, and Web designers. For more information or to buy a book go to.
After discussion at the meeting, we have requestedMac OS X Leopard Killer Tips
from Peachpit Press for next month's raffle book
3. Ron Lay-Sleeper Talked About Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual
Ron Lay-Sleeper said he had wanted to review Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
because Adobe has finally released a new version of Photoshop Elements and I wanted to see if I really wanted to buy the program. He believed that he would buy the program.
When he received Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
, he learned the Adobe has made many improvements in Photoshop Elements, and that it is a lot more powerful than iPhoto. Photoshop Elements 6 probably has most of the tools in Photoshop that most people would ever want to use. He would really like to buy Photoshop Elements 6.
However, he also learned that Photoshop Elements 6 requires the Macintosh OS X 10.4 operating system or higher. He only has Mac OS X 10.3. He cannot afford to buy a new computer to be able to upgrade to the current Mac OS X 10.5. So he cannot afford to buy the program.
He said that Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
is really a great book. It is very comprehensive. It is well organized and has an excellent index to help you find what you need.
However, he does not feel that he can really write a review without being able to run the program.
He said the only thing he found wrong with the book is that the little black screen shots in the book are difficult to see and read under the lighting he has in his house.
I looked up resize an image for the viewing on a monitor in Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
and found an excellent discussion and illustrations of using pixel size on different monitors and using Image > Resize > Pixel size. There are instructions for sending photos by email as attachments or in PhotoMail which includes the image within the HTML email. There was an illustration of the conversion of three photos to JPEGs at one time using a maximum photo size setting of Small(640 x 480) and a Quality setting of 9-high. It said this gives an estimated size of 225 KB for a 78 second download at the highest modem speed of 56 bps. This illustration is printed with a black background and white text which makes the small print difficult to read.
I agree that this book appears is most comprehensive and complete, but I do not believe the friendliness of the writing and the appearance of the illustrations is quite up to the high standards of the other Missing Manual books. Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual NVMUG members can get a 35% discount from O'Reilly by using the user group password DSUG. To learn more about Geof Gonter said that Ron could by the Mac OS 10.4 upgrade from MegaMax or LA Computing for about $40. I found LA Computing at
www.AT.LA.com I searched for OS X 10.4 and found several I upgrades available including one for the Mac Mini for $40 and an original boxed version for $89. Looking up resizing images in I reduced an image of a flower from 3000 x 2250 pixels to 300 x 225 pixels. Use pixels to measure document sizes for viewing on a monitor because a pixel is a pixel on a monitor but an inch contains different numbers of pixels depending upon the monitor size and settings. I measured the file size of a Pages document containing the image. Then I reduced the image size by adjusting it within Pages and measured it again. The two documents were the same file size. Making an image smaller once it is in Pages does not reduce the file size or the download time. In Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard you can resize and condense JPEG images using Preview. I used Tools > Adjust Size in Preview to adjust the number of pixels, then use Save As to adjust the image quality. The 300 x 225 pixel JPEG image was an 80 KB file as measured by Get Info. I used PreviewÕs 9th quality mark to reduce the image to 40 KB, 4 to reduce it to 16 KB, and 2 to reduce it to 12 KB - all as measured by Get Info. Reply to this email to ask me if you want me to email the resulting image comparison. You can see the difference, but they are all usable. I imported the 80 KB image and the 12 KB image, both 300 x 225 pixels, into Pages and then ÒprintedÓ them into separate pdf documents. The pdf with the 80 KB image was just a 48 KB file size. The pdf with the same pixel dimensions compressed to 12 KB produced a 24 KB pdf document file size. You have to experiment with compressions because a the scales used in different programs do not produce the same degree of compression. I tried Preview 9 with a 40 KB result, 4 with a 16 KB result, and 2 with a 12 KB result. The differences in the appearance of this flower were there, but I think the 12 KB image still looked pretty. You have to experiment with different images because how much they appear to degrade with the same settings is not the same. Use the Contects button and send me an email asking for it, and I will email a pdf of the resulting comparisons.
Here is the image reduced to 160 x 120 and saved from Photoshop with an image quality of 10 for a Photoshop 4 KB file size and estimated download time of 2 seconds at 56 KBs modem speed. Get Info says it is an 8 KB file size. The "least" image with the same pixel dimensions is rated as 6.1 KB in Preview, but is the same 8 KB file in Get Info. There is some difference in the appearance which may be due to different color adjustments. Experimenting like this is fun. I did a lot of it in writing Exploring Pages '08. At the meeting I reported receiving thank you letters from the several states, the UK, Australia, and Belgium for
Author: Barbara Brandage
Publisher: Pogue Press/O'Reilly
554 pages É $44.99
(Save a tree - digital copy $30.99)
ISBN 13: 9780596519360Photoshop Elements 6: The Missing Manual
, to buy the book, to learn about other ways that O'Reilly supports advances in computing, or to get other free information from O'Reilly go to
4. Experimenting and Exploring
Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual
started me on some experiments in resizing images for email and for publications and in PDF documents intended for viewing on monitors.
Exploring Pages '08 with Pages '08
since Chuck Joiner posted the book for downloading on The MUG Center.
