Tips, Tricks, & Shortcuts -- April 26, 2006

This month’s program will demonstrate how to use the many built-in functions of various standard software programs to do things the “fast & easy” way. Programs featured will focus primarily on word processing & graphics, but will also touch on Internet, digital photography, QuickTime, etc. If you count yourself amoung the average user, you are often NOT taking advantage of these functions and shortcuts> Our presenter will show us how to do things more efficiently and avoid the “slow & more difficult” way.

Podcasting 101 -- March 29, 2006

Adam Christianson from the MacCast (http://www.maccast.com), one of the most popular Macintosh podcasts, will be presenting “Podcasting 101: Entertainment to Production”. Podcasting 101 will cover the entire spectrum of Podcasting beginning with demystifying the technology behind acronyms like RSS and XML. You will learn exactly what a Podcast is and discover how to find, subscribe and listen to Podcasts. We will also take a look at the new technology in Apple’s iLife ‘06 that can help you produce, create and publish your very own Podcast. Throw in a healthily discussion of audio gear and gadgets and you have Podcasting 101. Podcasts are the next revolution in audio content, so come join us and discover why.

iLife 06 -- February 22, 2006

Brandon Hart, from Apple Store Fashion Valley, San Diego, will present iPhoto Features. New features in iPhoto 6 include: up to 250,000 photos, photocasting, greeting cards, calendars, and full-screen editing. A copy of iLife 06, which includes iPhoto, will be one of our Raffle prizes this month.

MacWorld -- January 25, 2006

MacWorld is back again at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, and we all wait with anticipation to see what miracles Steve Jobs will unveil this month. Several OMUG members will be attending the MacWorld Expo as well as the User Group University. User Group University is the premier user group leadership event produced by the Apple User Group Advisory Board and Planning Teams. http://www.mugcenter.com/macworld/sf2006/ugu.html OMUG members will share their experiences and impressions of the 2006 MacWorld Expo at January’s General Meeting. Don’t be left out of the breaking news from this major Mac Event.

Video Tricks with Final Cut Express & Photoshop -- November 30, 2005

by Bert Kersey My experience with Apple computers goes back to the summer of 1979 when I bought my first Apple II, then gradually made the switch to Macs ten years later. In the 1980’s my company, BEAGLE BROS, was a leading publisher of Apple II software - mostly programming utilities and a few games. Back in the early 80’s it seemed like everyone with a computer was a programmer of some sort, and we catered to that market. In 1987 I sold Beagle Bros and moved from San Diego to Fallbrook. ----- FYI, one of my former customers, who was a teen-ager back when I was publishing software, put together a little “Beagle Bros Museum” at: http://www.panic.com/~stevenf/beagle/ ----- I used to love making 8mm movies in the 60’s when editing was done with scissors and tape. When non-linear computer editing came along I was quickly hooked - first using early versions of iMovie and now Final Cut Express. I enjoy making video shorts on a variety of subjects and have collected a few awards for my efforts. In 2003 I produced a half hour nature video, “Backyard Barn Owls,” that is described at: www.barnowls.com I do all of my video editing on a PowerBook G4 with an external LaCie drive and an auxiliary 22-inch monitor. My presentation will feature video of my home work station setup and editing techniques, and should appeal to beginners and more advanced users alike. I am looking forward to November 30. Cheers - Bert Kersey

Astronomy Overview -- October 26, 2005

This month Bill Colburn will take us on a quick visit through the night sky...via software. We’ll look at 3 applications: Night Sky Interactive, Starry Night Backyard, and Starry Night Deluxe. Along the way, we’ll view several constellations that can be seen in darker areas of San Diego county this time of year. We’ll explore our own solar system, and learn how (within software limits) we can be observers of virtually any object from any place within our galaxy. Time permitting, a special feature may be presented, giving us glimpses of the vastness of our universe. Come along for the ride!

OMUGfest -- Steptember 18, 2005

Friends — Food — Fun Music — Mac Jeopardy 1:00 to 4:00 P.M. Bar-B-Que Pork Ribs & ChickenEveryone is encourage to bring an Apple DessertCost per person is $10.00. Family & Friends welcome. Reservations and money must be received by September 10th. No walk-ins. Heritage Park Address: Peyri Rd (behind San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside) Date: Sunday, September18th Time: 1:00 to 4:00 PM

Googling Around -- August 31, 2005

Everything you didn’t know you could do with Google. Make the most of your use of Google.

Notebook by Circus Ponies -- July 27, 2005

Circus Ponies NoteBook is an award-winning outliner, organizer, and free-form database program that lets OS X users clip, organize, and share unstructured notes and ideas from any source or application in any way they like. The program uses an easy-to-understand notebook interface to provide MORE-style outlining, note-taking, annotation, direct media capture from digital cameras, powerful image handling, multi-dimensional indexing, and inter-application clipping services. Once you’ve created a Notebook, you can publish to the web in one step — even publish in one step to Apple’s .Mac service! Jayson Adams is the chief architect and vice president of technology for Circus Ponies Software. Known throughout the Mac OS X and Java communities for his elegant architectures and implementations, he provides technical direction for all product development. Circus Ponies Software was founded in 2003 as an artisan software house to create best of breed productivity apps that showcase the richness of the Mac OS X platform. The company’s mission is to make software that surprises and delights users with its beauty and usefulness.

iLife '05 -- June 29, 2005

iLife ‘05 Tiger on the Loose The suite of tightly integrated applications that continues to lead the digital media revolution — iLife ‘05 offers significant new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand and the latest version of iTunes. Mike Kurtz from Apple will be our presenter for June. Mike has been with Apple for the past 3 years and works at the Apple Store in Fashion Valley. Mike will be on hand to show us the ins and outs of the new iLife Applications and hopefully have enough time to also demonstrate some of the new features of Tiger. With iLife ‘05, the must-have upgrade for everyone who uses a Mac, you can easily create stunning softcover books; import, organize, and edit RAW photos; and stun them with fully customizable slideshows using iPhoto 5. Edit high-definition 16:9 video from the newest camcorders and create movies automatically with iMovie HD’s new Magic iMovie feature. Drag and drop video clips, pictures, and music into the new animated drop zones found in iDVD 5 templates. Or create multi-track recordings in GarageBand 2. Of course, iTunes seamlessly integrates with iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand and syncs with every member of the iPod family. You won’t find a better or easier-to-use set of creative tools than iLife ’05.

Processing Digital Images Using PhotoShop Elements -- May 25, 2005

A presentation showing the utility of using Adobe Photoshop Elements for the processing of digital photos and scanned old photos will be shown. The demonstration will start with taking a digital photo, downloading onto the PowerBook G4 using a card reader and processing the color photo using Photoshop Elements. This popular software is very useful to photographers for quickly removing red eye, straighten, crop and adjusting image brightness, contrast, color and focus. This software has many editing tools and features including painting pictures, creating a digital collage, and creating images for web pages. Due to the limited time for the presentation, the program will focus chiefly on retouching both scanned old B&W family photos and color digital photos.

Reunion -- April 27, 2005

The April program will be on Reunion, the Mac specific genealogy program. For those who have any interest at all in their family’s history, this is the only program for you on a Mac. There will be a detailed demonstration of the many facets of Reunion including examples of some of the many charts and graphs that it can produce. The presentation will include a demonstration of how to start from person one, you of course. Reunion is not a data source, however it does do an excellent job of organizing the data you already have or will find in the future. There is literally no reasonable limit to how many persons you can enter or the amount of information you have on each. One person has reported a data base of over 25,000 names!