writing

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More to Say, More to Write

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          Ah, technology!  Ah, new developments!  Ug, new acronyms and new terminology! 
         Off hand, do you remember what JPEG stands for?  What about DSLR?  What about …..?
        Mac to the rescue.  When you click on the Dictionary icon in the Dock here’s what comes up.  
        I expected Apple to provide answers to my growing list of acronyms, but did find some help by clicking on Wikipedia.  The Dictionary didn’t know, neither did the Thesaurus. 
        Click on Dictionary, look at the top menu. Click on Services and see some unexpected categories you can view.  (Remember to click on the little screen shots here to enlarge the size.  Then click on it again to shrink it back and come back to this page.)

        Add to iTunes as a Spoken Track.  Make New Sticky Note.  Summarize. 

        Check out Preferences.  Drag reference sources into the order you prefer.  You can even choose the type of pronunciation you wish to see. 

        I did find www.acronymslist.com  and a list of medical acronyms http://www.medindia.net/acronym/index.asp 
        Heard of Slovoed Dictionaries?  It offers a FREE dictionary of the month.  and can be viewed in Mac App Store.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slovoed-dictionaries/id524941905?mt=12  

More to Say, More to Write!
       So, you wrote something nice TO your mom for Mother’s Day, or you wrote something nice ABOUT your mom for your kids and grandkids. It’s so nice to write with Mac.  And you can print out the size of type that makes it easy to read.  But now, here comes Father’s Day.  Time to turn on your remembrances and your creativity again.
       Looking at an old photograph might stir up some memories.  Nifty to have so many pictures on your computer. Jot down your first ideas for your first draft.  (It’s not done yet!) 
        Writing about a hunting trip sounded promising.  But the first draft on the computer had too many “said” and “asked” words.  Go to Dictionary, and Thesaurus. Look at all the words to choose.  
      Go back to that draft of your writing and click somewhere on it. 

       Then do Command + F  to bring up Find and Replace.  I entered “said” and my happy computer put a nice yellow box around each instance of this word, one at a time.  I could choose which to delete and replace with a suitable synonym.  
        Another time, I wanted to write a fictional piece for some young cousins.  Going to Google, I typed in puzzle and then images.  I scrolled through a lot of clip art and photos until I found one to use.

  I’ve mentioned before, I use bluesquirrel’s program ClickBook for Mac to make booklets.  It shrinks down the type size and picture size to fit the page.  You have over 100 layouts to choose from.  www.bluesquirrel.com  
       You’ll have fun writing with Pages.
       Check our newsblog regularly to see all the info that’s being added.
       Keep up the good work.  See you next time.  Bring a friend!  
* * * 
                          This is today's handout, 5-17-14 at PMUG meeting, by Elaine Hardt 
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Short & Simple, Of Course, Mac Helps You!

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        Using your Mac is easy to do.  Here are some shortcuts.  How many are you already using?  Which ones will you try later today?  

        To write anything:  click to open Pages.  Up comes a blank document, ready for your report, a birthday blessing for one of your 45 closest relatives, an anniversary poem to send to some family member, or the first chapter of your fiction piece that’s been brewing in your head. 
        Jot down some key ideas.  Do Command + S to save it, giving it a short title. 
        Off the page where you’re writing do a click with the right side of the mouse which brings up a short list.  Choose New Folder and drag this latest writing into it.  Type a name for the folder.
        When you’re ready to add to that first version of the new writing do Command + D to duplicate what you have and add to it.  Keep Version 1 as is; work on Version 2.  As you think of other bright ideas during the day you make a new version and keep it in the same folder.  
        Your busy brain has thought of some important details to add, or some colorful adjectives, or . . . .   That first idea may present possibilities.  A “I remember when…” piece may have poetic notions.  Now you’ve got a document of prose and a document of delightful rhyme.  Keep these in the same folder.  
        As the deadline approaches you put the finishing touches on the one that fills the bill.  Name the final version  “June handout BEST.”  Those other ideas may lend themselves to some other use, so hold on to them for now.  
        With cursor in the background screen do Command + I to bring up Get Info on the left hand side, a nifty box for you to add info.  Keywords you put in can help you find this new writing later.  
        Command + R  when looking at a list from the Inspector you view a tiny picture of the various files.  Put your cursor on the one you want to find.  Command + R then brings it up in the files so you can see where it’s located. (When you see the one you want in Inspector you can just click on the title you want and it will open, but you won’t know what folder it’s in.)  
        To cut, highlight what you want to remove and do  Command + X.  Paste what you’ve then highlighted with Command + V.  To copy, highlight what you want and do Command + C.
        Find it on your desktop or a file list: On the Menu at top of page that lists Finder first, go to File > Label and choose a color.  Your folder will show up in a list with that color bar around the title. 
        Want to enlarge the type under the folders on the desktop? On the main menu bar on the top go to View > Show View Options.  Experiment with enlarging icon size, spacing, text. 
        On the Internet, Command + D  at the URL line of the website lets you add that site to a folder in Bookmarks. Scroll through the little box to find the suitable home for that URL. 
        Command + Shift + 4 brings up the screen shot that you stretch around the picture or text that you want to copy and saves the screen shot as a file on desktop. 
        Command + B makes what you’ve highlighted turn into a bold font.  Do it again over the bold and it toggles to go back to not-bold. 
        Command and + on a highlighted word lets you enlarge it by repeatedly tapping the +.  The opposite, Command and the - will shrink the highlighted word. 
        On Mountain Lion you can do some of this an easier way.  Highlight the word or paragraphs, etc. Then right click with your mouse on that document.  It lists choices, such as spelling, speech, etc.  Look under Writing Tools and it brings up look up in dictionary, thesaurus, search in Spotlight, Google, Wikipedia, and show statistics. 
        If you’ve set Pages to show word count at the bottom of the page:  click on Words and it gives the total number of pages, lines, paragraphs, characters and characters not counting spaces.  
        If you accidentally delete something -- and before you type in something else -- go to Edit on the menu across the top of Pages and click to Undo Typing.  It will replace what you took out. 
        Here’s 8 pages of shortcuts if you’re REALLY into shortcut info for every possible idea: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1343  Keyboard by category
        Let’s Take a Look at Mail: When you’ve clicked to open a New Message and have written a first draft, then you can click on the last tiny icon on the top right.  Your Mac gives you choices of how to make your email more attention-getting with choices of colorful templates such as Birthday, Announcements, Photos, Stationery, and Sentiments.  You can drag in some photo to make this email personalized. 
        Shop on Amazon:  Go to amazon.com and click on Sign in to set up Your Account.  Must allow cookies! Command + ,  (the comma) then choose Privacy > Block cookies from 3rd parties.   Go to Your account to see history, using gift cards,  settings,  etc.  Your balance never expires. (I go back afterwards and change Cookies setting to Never.) 
        Start your own FREE blog:  https://accounts.google.com/  Must allow cookies first.  Then sign in with email address and a password.  Set up your account.  Go to view Dashboard where you have choices to make about web albums, YouTube profile, etc.  Go to www.blogger.com to look at available templates.  Here’s links to info: https://support.google.com/blogger/ 
        Keep up to date:  If you subscribe to NetNewsWire you can be notified when there’s a new entry to the PMUG newsblog  http://pmugnews.blogspot.com and also to the PMUG website:  http://pmug.us/    Take a look here http://netnewswireapp.com/mac           
        (That’s all for now!)       This is the PMUG meeting handout for June 15, 2013
from Elaine Hardt 
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January is the Time to Get Organized

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         Getting organized is a chore, but it’s so logical that you feel like you’ve accomplished something good.  January brought the end of the month of December, the end of the fourth quarter of 2012 and the end of the year.  Lots of practical things to do.  No doubt, you’re well on your way to achieving that goal.  
Do you have all of the 2013 birthday and anniversary greetings figured out for your extended family?  I do, and I’ve ordered them up already for the whole year. I’d like to tell you a good website to check out.  
Last fall I discovered jacquielawson.com  and for a mere $12.00 I’m paid up for the year of unlimited e-cards from her collection.  They’re amusing, entertaining, musical, and even serious.  
You can choose, designate the dates and the emails for a year!  They notify you when an e-card is sent, and another notification when the person has opened that email.  Your Cards History lists the last 30 cards they’ve sent for you.  Under Cards Pending you can view a card again, edit, or cancel it. 
There is a real Jacquie Lawson, an English artist in Southern England who started this in 2000.  She and her friends have created a total of 235 e-cards, ready for your preview.  Birthday cards, Congratulations, Get Well, Christmas cards, Thank you cards, Invitations, Valentine, etc. You can choose such features as dogs, cats, birds, teddy bears, flowers and many other subjects.  
When you click to preview a card you view the animation, and hear the music. The listings tell you about the orchestration.  One I’m looking at here has “Golliwog’s Cakewalk” from “Children’s Corner” by Claude Debussy, orchestrated by Mike Hughes-Chamberlain. You can choose from 15 different headings for your greetings.
        “An Eloquent Arrangement” is a floral bouquet e-card, and you can rollover to show the meanings of the flowers.  Someone of any age would enjoy these clever cards. 
After going through my list of 62 nearest relatives now I’ve covered the whole year in advance.  I sign in with my password and can look at my account.  It lists the name of the e-cards I’ve chosen, the names and emails of the recipients, and the dates I want it sent.  How simple is that!
        But wait, you say, I want to add a personal greeting.  Yes!  You can choose a Write Your Own Message or a Note Card.  I’ve sent personalized poems this way, and signed it whichever way suits the occasion.  
More than 50 of the most popular e-cards have been made into screensavers for you to download from this site.  Directions tell you how for PC or for Mac. 
After looking through their site I had a few questions and emailed Help@jacquielawson.com  Gary’s reply: “As long as the sender does not delete the card you should be able to save it on your computer.  
“Note: We do not permit the commercial sending of our cards to large lists.  If it’s a small group of recipients that the sender knows it is permitted.  If you’d like to post on a forum that has thousands of members that you do not know personally, feel free to link to our site, using instructions found on http://www.jacquielawson.com/linkpage.asp  
“Please note that since our cards are animated and most of the time the entire message will not show up at the end of a card without having to scroll down, printing them usually doesn’t work out.  Unfortunately, there is no way around this. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.”
        Speaking of writing, a poem can convey a thoughtful message without all the bother of regular sentence structure and punctuation.  It doesn’t have to rhyme, it doesn’t need to follow any pattern at all.  
I just wrote a page-long birthday poem for Granddaughter Joy.  I wanted to mention some highlights of her life and compliment her on her travels, her volunteering, and her service now as an R.N.  Navy nurse. 
The first draft is just a quickie, then let the writing rest.  Go back the next day and start to add more and polish it up. What you write to that person will be treasured more than a simple card from the store with only your name on the card.  You can convey encouragement, appreciation, happy memories,  plans for the future, and other personal notions that come to mind. 

        Now you can see what a help Mac is.  Pages shows you words that may be misspelled,  you can view your writing larger on your screen if you want to (mine is set for 150% viewing on my 27” Thunderbolt Display), you save it as you go, and then you can save the finished writing in a folder with that person’s name in your family file.  
You may want to make a printed copy for posterity.  Pretty stationery paper is waiting for you at Staples and Office Max.  (You do know that postage goes up to 46 cents for the first ounce on January 27, but the second ounce stays the same at 20 cents.) 
        You could send a pretty email to the birthday person, or the person you want to treat to a nice card.  You know where to find the panel to bring up Stationery on Mail.  But you can also subscribe to other colorful backgrounds for an email.  
        Creative Thinkers: this is fun to do.  I’ve created some family “holidays” for my relatives.  Pick a day, make a nice name for it, send out clever emails or e-cards, or even print something up on certificate-looking paper.  Be sure your printer will print on metallic-decorated paper before using that kind.
Mac has some “official-looking” fonts that make your homemade certificates look really nice. 
                  Here’s a few celebrations I’ve established in the family.  
The Brain Award =  sent to any relative graduating from high school or college.  
The Admirable Brother Award (I only have one brother and he’s a really great guy).  
Happy HARDT-Day = to my sons, their wives, and our grandchildren.  
Darlings-in-law Day =  for my daughters-in-law.  
Happy Everyday = an all purpose, any day of the year greeting to my relatives.  
Happy Sons’ Day = a poem for our sons telling how proud of them we are  
A Certificate of Near Perfection = in recognition of some kind of superior achievement.                             
A more original document was the “Congratulations on Your Medical Achievements” which noted the new title of “Lambpa” for our son Peter who assisted his ewe at the birth of her lamb.
    “Winner of the A to Z Award” was personalized by listing alphabetical characteristics of my brother.  
    For our 52nd wedding anniversary back in 2006 I wrote a poem to Don, and I calculated we’d had 18,980 days, or 455,520 hours, or 27,331,200 minutes of marriage.
    For Don’s birthday one year I wrote, “Have yourself a duct tape birthday.  It’s flexible, useful, strong, practical, helpful: just like you.”
Another birthday, I described other characteristics that the letter “P” of Don’s middle name could stand for, instead of “Paul.” -- persistent, practical,  prudent, providing, pleasant, positive. 
        Of course, a PowerPoint slide show takes the cake.  Our son Peter used beautiful photos taken by his wife Carlene and put in nice words to wish Don a happy birthday one year.  
You can experiment with making slideshows with iPhoto, too.  Do a Google search for “Mac: how to make slideshow DVD” and then under Search Tools designate any date within the last year so that the results will match the latest OS you’re running on your Mac.  
         So start that list of “To Do” and be thankful Mac will be your helper.  Of course, check your Calendar, subscribe to PMUG listings for the meetings for 2013.  Then subscribe to be notified of new postings to www.pmug.us and www.pmugnews.blogspot.com/       
         Plan on having a great 2013, and congratulate yourself on keeping up with the latest and the best.   
       

This was today's handout by Elaine Hardt at PMUG. 
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Your Surprise for Your Family

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With your handy Mac computer you can easily make a nice surprise present for your family.  Here’s three things that only YOU can do for your kids, grandkids, even the old folks!  

  1. Make an “Old Time Favorites” cookbook from recipes handed down to you -- probably handwritten! Collect enough for 24 pages, some from each category.  Write something about who originally made that yummy stuff.
  2. Make an “Shortcut Recipe” cookbook.  This is where you’ve updated and simplified your own favorites.  Instead of feeding 10, maybe change to feeding 2 or 4.  Use modern ingredients, the microwave, convection oven. 
  3. Make a “I Remember When” booklet.  This is not your entire lifetime on 24 pages! Just some interesting highlights that you do recall.  Describe what makes those events significant in your memory. 
Jot down the first ideas that come to mind.  Let it rest a few days.  Reread and then rewrite. 
        Can you picture this as a 5 ½ x 8 ½ booklet which you’d staple?  Would it work better on full size pages, 3-hole punched, in a notebook? Or, a spiral-bound booklet? 
        In Pages go to File > New from Template Chooser.  See if you get any bright ideas after looking at these examples.  
That’s the screen shot pasted here to the left side. 
        With Microsoft Word: Mac 2011 you can go to File >  New from Templates and click to view Online Templates.  There are a lot from which to choose.  
        If you use the Blue Squirrel program, Click Book will do the layouts for various kinds of booklets.  http://www.bluesquirrel.com    Here’s the link for Mac ClickBook: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/products/cbmac/  It’s $49.95 for OS X, compatible with Lion and Mountain Lion.  Note special pricing on Print to iPad, iPhone, Android, or Kindle. They have more than 70 custom layout styles.
        You might even scan and paste in some photos.  Be creative! Picture the compliments!
        Help us spread the PMUG info,  www.pmugnews.blogspot.com   And write and tell us what you’re learning and doing:  edpr@commspeed.net   We want our PMUG to be helpful and friendly. It’s a time to enjoy and participate. 
 
Words, More Words, and Lots-a Words!
Yes, you use the Mac Dictionary.  How handy to have it on the dock, and easily look up definitions, the Thesaurus, Apple dictionary and Wikipedia.  But what about specialized dictionaries?  There’s a bunch!  
YourDictionary  http://www.yourdictionary.com/  lists most misspelled words,  how to do wild card search, brain training games, etc.
http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml  know the idea you want to convey but are fishing for that certain word?  Describe the concept and up comes pages of suggested terms.  Good for generating a list of words in some category.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/  extra features make this a helpful site to check on. 
Going to Apple’s webpage brings up www.Dictionary.com/ , a free app for your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.  
http://www.freebyte.com/dictionary/#specialized_dictionaries   lists some specialized dictionaries, free thesauri, translation tools, spellcheckers, games, images, reference desk. 
       Here’s fun with the Mac’s Apple dictionary.  Open it and type in “a” and up comes a list of every entry beginning with that letter.  You’ll find things you didn’t know! Explore and learn. 
       Today, smile at that person sitting next to you and introduce yourself.  Maybe they just moved here from  Last Chance, Iowa or Beanville, Vermont or Fort Necessity, Louisiana.   (Yes, I found those listed in http://www.accuracyproject.org/towns.html  Your birthplace listed there?)  
        See you next time? 
(This is the handout for 11-17-12 from Elaine) 
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Mac Will Help YOU Write!

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If you put your memories in writing they’ll last longer,
    Your life experiences may help someone else grow stronger;
Consider the challenges, troubles, decisions, success, too,
    You can pass along helpfulness by writing how you got through.
Have you written something about yourself for posterity? Not yet?  Will it be one exciting chapter of your own life story?  Will it be a very short overview of the important events of your life?  Will it be an update of something you wrote earlier as a personal remembrance? Could it be a creative piece, telling about your view of life since you turned 29 — again? 
 Let’s take a look at some of the helpful ways Mac will make it easy for you to write something for family and friends.  
  1. Jot down any ideas you have on Mac.  Don’t fuss with spelling, just write those words that pop into your head right now.  
  2. Save that document.  No, it’s not done!  But give it a name and add “v. 1” on that name so you’ll recognize it as the first version of your brainstorm.
  3. Make a folder, give it a good name.  I keep my most recent working-on folder on the desktop.
  4. You’re going to put all the versions into this same folder.  Let it rest.  Go do something else and let your clever brain do some silent push-ups.
  5. Go back to Mac and now see what you want to add to the v. 1 page.  After that do Command + D  to duplicate the previous page, and make additions and corrections to that new page.  Name it v. 2.  Save both versions. 
  6. You are having fun.  It’s creative.  Picture in your mind the person or persons you’re writing this for, and this helps you formulate the vocabulary you’ll use.
  7. Soon you’ll figure out your target date.  When does this have to be finished?  How long or short do you want it to be? 
  8. Quoting someone?  Be careful.  If quoting a friend or family member consider asking permission if you’re giving the finished piece to others.  I like to get written permission.
  9. Stating facts?  Check and see that you’ve got the info down correctly.  
  10.   Could this make a nice booklet? With BlueSquirrel’s ClickBook for Mac www.bluesquirrel.com I’ve made booklets of up to 32 pages.  The program takes your normal-size page writing and automatically shrinks it down to various sizes.  I prefer the size that’s a regular sheet of paper folded in half.  There are nice envelopes just this size for mailing the finished booklet.
  11.   Do you have photos to drag into the writing?  You’re probably looking at v. 4 by now?  Each new experimentation of layout I do as a separate version and keep all the previous versions in that master folder. With iPhoto you can fix your photos.  Click on Edit to see the tools. 
  12.   When you look at the list of what’s on your desktop click once on the title of that folder.  Do   Command + “i” and you can enter key words in Spotlight Comments on the left side at the top.   This will help you find the folder later when you put it in some other location on Mac!  
  13.   Time to play with fonts.  Do you have Font Book listed in your applications?  You’ve got LOTS of fonts there. Scroll down the list of fonts and experiment.  You might like the look of Helvetica, or might think Comic Sans MS looks nice.  If you are using ClickBook you’ll enlarge the size of the font one or two sizes larger because it will be automatically sized smaller to fit the layout you choose.  
  14. Using Pages I like to click on the Inspector and scroll over the name of the story, or the poem, or the chapter’s title.  Then I enlarge the font size and also do Text, and enlarge the character spacing.  Sometimes I also like to add more space to the line, such as 1.1 or more.  
  15.   Also, if you’ll be using ClickBook you will want to go to Graphic Inspector to see if you want a shadow or offset, opacity, or blur on the photo. Click on Metrics and unclick Constrain proportions.  If you don’t do this the people will be shrunk down to look skinny.  I stretch the photos sideways to compensate for the automatic ClickBook sizing.  
  16.   Back on Pages settings: if I’m making a booklet I may resize the left & right margins smaller and also the top and bottom settings to make them smaller.   Experiment.
  17.   All along, you save the piece as you play with it. Give each version a new v. # and put it in that same master folder.
  18. One nifty thing that you will do before that final version is printed out =  do Command + F for find, and Mac searches for any word you specify.  Did you spell Cousin Frederika’s name correctly?  Do a Find to find out.  You can also make sure that any --  got fixed it to be —.
  19. How about some clever little pasted in image?  Go to the Internet and do Google Images.  Click to bring it up.  You can scroll through lots of photos, clip art, etc.  Find something and drag it off to your desktop.  Make it larger or smaller.  Drag sideways a little to compensate for ClickBook. 
  20. Maybe your printer does color.  Mine is b&w so I find pretty paper from OfficeMax or Staples and turn the page sideways for a booklet cover.  If your writing is going to be full-page size you’ll find a lot of pretty paper. 
  21. Staple the booklet with this useful stapler,  www.bluesquirrel.com/products/staplers/ , or do 3-hole punch for a notebook, or get it spiral bound. 
Let’s have fun making word clouds. You can order t-shirts, coffee cups, posters, using a word cloud that you create. I made one for the cover of a booklet I wrote a few weeks ago. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_clouds  history, types described, 
http://www.wordle.net/  try theirs
http://tagcrowd.com/    another to try
http://worditout.com/    make personalized gifts  FREE
Use Mac to write:  keep your fingers and your brain nimble! 

This is today's PMUG handout by Elaine Hardt.  See you next time? 
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Appreciating Others

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        If you missed yesterday's PMUG meeting here's my handout:

               Appreciating Others

        Well, Mac users, what better use for your skills than to write something on the computer -- writing that can be in different fonts, different sizes, different layouts -- and today I want you to consider writing that expresses your appreciation for someone.
        Your skills, abilities, and experiences can put you in a position to show appreciation to others. You can find words and even punctuation to assemble a writing that someone will be surprised to receive!
        Birthdays, promotions, graduations, heading into new territory, going into the hospital, the university, the armed forces, etc. these are but a few opportunities for you to gather up words in a picturesque way. Got a color printer? Add photos or illustrations. Got only black ink? Buy some pretty paper at Staples or OfficeMax. You can find a variety of certificate paper, too. Consider: your printer might not handle metallic paper.
        Here are some suggestions. Write something. Let it rest until tomorrow. Go at it again and see what improvements your clever brain has thought of over night.

Certificates
A poem, rhyming or not
Parodies
Old songs with new words
ABC list of the person’s great qualities
Achievements
75 reasons why you deserve a special birthday celebration. (I wrote 16 and repeated them!)
Bragging on your kids to your siblings
Bragging on your siblings to your kids
Encouragement that’s descriptive
Acrostic poems don’t have to rhyme, just start with a letter of the alphabet that spells something going down from the top line.
An acrostic from the middle of words lined up to describe this special person’s qualities
Declare an imaginary holiday to celebrate any special occasion

        My niece argued a case before the court in Boston, and the video was put out by her college there. Yes, I could have just emailed, “good job, Teresa!” But why not make my compliment clear. Besides emailing her we sent CC to her mom and dad: “Don and I watched the Flip4Mac program that brought up the video from Teresa in court.  We brought the picture up to full size on our big screen. Ed and Deb, you must be proud of Teresa and Andy for both going into law.  You did a good job raising those two cute little kids. Teresa looks confident and well-prepared.  She speaks clearly and carefully, making her points understandable.  We enjoyed watching her.”
        The emails went first, of course, but then a nice printed-out piece of paper went to brother Ed and his wife Deb —and Teresa— via the post office.
        Pages makes it easy. Fonts make it fun. Here’s a couple of examples to nudge you into action.  Click to enlarge this screen shot:

        Explore what you can do with all those words you’re accumulating! Surprise someone!
        Of course, save a copy on Mac. Make a folder for this writing and associated correspondence. You can drag an email to the folder. Do Command + “i” when you highlight the title of this new document. Put some key words at Spotlight Comments which will make this new writing easier to find next time.
        So, 2, 4, 6, 8 who do you appreciate? Have you told this person recently?   This is a good time to let Mac help you do a nice job of giving compliments!

PRACTICAL. INTERESTING. MACINTOSH! 

How Do You Use Your Mac?

Do you blog? Do research? Take iTunes classes? Write to family and friends? Write to be published? If you have experiences to share, questions to ask, or tips and tricks to pass along send it to Elaine at this PMUG newsblog. (If you do write you might enjoy the friendly group I teach: Writers’ Networking group of Prescott Valley, meeting the 4th Thursday of each month, upstairs in the community room of Stepping Stones, 3343 N. Windsong, PV.  More info?  775-2706)

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Making Booklets is Easy to Do

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Going to the valley for Auntie's 90th birthday inspires me to tell you how bluesquirrel's ClickBook made a nice surprise for her and family and friends.  She gave me handwritten pages of remembrances of growing up with Mama, and I made booklets.  It's so easy to design and print them myself.

ClickBook works with PDF Workflow and automatically rotates, reduces and realigns pages into the correct order to create double-sided booklets.  I've used this program for 5 years, and besides family memories booklets I've compiled 33 booklets of my own inspirational writing, poetry, articles, and stories.  Adding photos are a cinch.

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Pictures Show How

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Here's a mind-boggling (to me) site recommended by David Passell. He writes this "might be of interest to anyone that wants to read. write, publish, edit, or comment on free-source software manuals. See the site for Floss Manuals Foundation of the Netherlands here.

"Those who are interested in Video might like to peruse the Theora Cookbook. I haven't done it thoroughly yet; not that much time on my hands. I am registered with them (as you or anyone else with something to offer can. I got into it through wanting to find out more about my One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO computers. They do much of the documentation (a lot is incomplete) on it."

David closes with, "I might warn you that the site, links, and such seem rather complex. Once you get registered though it kind of falls into place."

Elaine's comment: "I scrolled through, enjoyed all the photos , but this photo from the Floss Manuals site is what I liked best!"

Mac Helps Elaine Write & Speak

Since her first Mac in 1984 Elaine Hardt has appreciated her computer. Starting off with writing for her class of third graders, then writing for parents, her college students, and teachers the Mac has been a great help. That first ImageWriter printer is long gone, a HP LaserJet 4050N sits on the desk. Her Mac is now a G5 with a 23” Cinema Display. With eight published books and 949 published articles, stories, and poems Elaine encourages others to write, too. Her blog is http://encouragingU.blogspot.com She heads the Prescott Valley Writers’ Networking which has met weekly for five years, currently meeting in the Parlor of the Windsong Villas. It’s open to both men and women.

Don has picked up computer skills, using his G4 PowerBook. Dan Simpson recently added more memory to both busy computers. Mac does help the Hardts.