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Wanna Take Great Pictures?

This is AWESOME!

I came across a terrific program the other day. It's Canon's Photography Workshop and it's a must have if you enjoy taking pictures (digital or film). And no, you don't need a Canon camera in order to use it :-)

Now, before I get too far, I want you to know that I used to be a full time professional photographer and I taught a continuing education course in photography. So, when I say this is an awesome program for anyone who wants to take better photographs, you know you can trust the source!

This interactive CD ROM is probably the best way to learn photography I've ever seen. If I would have had this at my disposal, I could have passed it out when I was teaching photography and told everyone that was the end of the course - it's that good! (All I could say was "wow" and "That's so cool" during testing.)

It uses audio, video, and sample photos to teach you how to work all the controls on a camera. You simply pick what you want to learn. Oh, and it's also great for any skill level - beginner to advanced.

The best part of it is the way it's so "hands on". When you're in one of the many workshops you can actually try different ways of taking the picture and see the results! It shows you in a few clicks of a mouse what it took an hour for me to explain in class!

For example, it has an awesome workshop on film. You pick the film and condition and it shows you how the final photograph would look! And the coolest part is that most of the workshops are like this. (Wait till you try the exposure, focus, and lens workshops - they really make it fun!)

Speaking of workshops, check out a few that are included - The Art of Photography, How To Use Perspective, Composition, Capturing The Decisive Moment, How To Tell a Story, Thinking Visually, Lenses, Aperture, Focus, Shutter, Exposure Lighting, Film, The Magic of Light, and more!

No mater what kind of camera you use, this CD can improve the quality of pictures you're getting from it. I can't tell you how impressed I am with the quality of this title! It's absolutely fantastic!

This title is the brand new version and normally retails for $29.99. What's your price? You get it for half off - only $14.97 and US Shipping is FREE!

Think about it. You probably spent a chunk of change on your camera, doesn't it make sense to get the most out of it? Wouldn't it be nice to know the photo you just snapped was going to be a winner instead of just hoping it "turns out ok"?

Alright, enough talk - here's the link for more info:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/canon-photo-workshop.htm

PS - Remember, this carries our 30 day satisfaction guarantee - if you don't think it's as great as I say it is, we'll give you a prompt, courteous refund! The only way you lose on this deal is to pass it up!

MS Office 101

Have you ever been working in an MS Office application and realized that you kept accessing the same menu or palette of choices over and over and over again?

Ever wonder if there was a way to keep the choices open for a while (or maybe permanently)?

One quick way to tell is by taking a good look at the menu or palette when you open it.

If you open something that has a colored bar across the top then it's a "tear off" menu or palette. (I find these most often with palettes such as font color from the Font Color button.)

"Tear off"? What could that possibly mean?

Well, just what it says, you can "tear" it off and place it on the screen so you don't have to keep going back to open it repeatedly.

To actually complete the "tear off" you should click and hold in the bar across the top of the menu or palette. Then simply drag the box into the screen. When you release the mouse button you will have a floating toolbar of the choices. This allows for easy access multiple times. Click on the X in the upper right corner to close the toolbar when you're done.

Cool tidbit about this little wonder of wonders: if you leave the toolbar open when you close the program then you should still have the toolbar when you restart the program later.

Why is that so cool - well let's face it - if you're going to need the toolbar over and over why bother to close?

And I must add that it's so nice that MS Word (or whatever program) has the consideration to leave your stuff where you put it. If only other people could figure that out about my stuff…. in a perfect world….

Office Tip of the Day

Brrrr… It's Cold in the Freeze Pane Zone.

OK, so it's not really cold here, but the real question is, "What's Freeze Pane?"

Well, to answer a question with questions, have you ever been frustrated while working in an MS Excel worksheet because you were so far down the columns that you no longer could see the column titles? Did you find yourself constantly scrolling up to make sure you were still entering data in the right place? Frustrating, time-consuming pain, isn't it?

Freeze Pane is a very useful aspect of MS Excel and the answer to this particular problem.

What Freeze Pane does keep designated rows and/or columns on the screen so that they're always visible. You can choose to freeze whatever information you need for easy data entry or editing.

I can hear the burning question from here "How is this useful? ". Well, remember those column headings you were continually scrolling up to read? These rows can be continually displayed using Freeze Pane no matter how far down the worksheet you are working.

Now that you know why it's useful, let's figure out how to make the "magic" happen. (Not really magic but if it saves you time and energy it sure feels like it!)

The beginning is with a decision. (Isn't it always?)

You need to decide which rows and/or columns you want continually displayed. Usually it's row or column headings that you want to keep displayed. (You know - the information that tells you what data you should be entering in each cell.)

Once the decision is made you need to select the cell to the right of the last and just below the last row to be frozen.

Confusing? I know - so let's see if we can clear it up.

If you want to continually display rows 1 through 3 then you would select a cell in row 4.

If you want to continually display column A then you would select a cell in column B.

When you want a combination you need to select a cell to the right of and below all rows and columns to be frozen.

For example: If I want rows 1 through 3 and columns A and B frozen then I will select cell C4. (C because it's to the right of column B and 4 because it's below row 3.)

Get it? Maybe not. I know it's confusing but just continue along with me for a second or two here and you'll see it's not too bad. Once you know the whole process and give it a couple of tries you'll get the hang of it.

A quick hint - if you want only rows frozen then select a cell in column A. If you want only columns frozen then select the cell in row 1.

Now that you've selected the cell the rest is easy. Go to the Window menu, Freeze Panes choice.

That's it - you should now see solid lines running through your sheet showing where the panes are frozen. You should be able to scroll anywhere in the sheet and still see the selected columns and/or rows.

To reverse the process you need to go to the Window menu, Unfreeze Panes choice. (It's in the same place as Freeze Panes, they switch out as needed.) Unfreeze can be done from anywhere in the worksheet so don't worry about going to a particular cell.

Now the solid lines should be removed and the scrolling should be back to normal!

For those of you who are wondering - no this doesn't affect the printed version of the worksheet - just what you're seeing on the screen. Repeating rows and columns on printed versions is another tip entirely…so I guess we'll be visiting that idea soon….