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Jul 14
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This book is a practical introduction to dynamic Web applications. It provides the code and information needed to build several of the most popular applications on the Web. The applications in this book allow you to:
- Restrict your Web site or part of your Web site to authorized users
- Sell products on your Web site
- Provide a place where users can communicate with each other online
- Allow users to publish and edit their documents on a Web site
- Manage mailing lists
You can use these applications as is, modify them for use on your Web site, or build your own application by using techniques that I show you in these applications.
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TaGs: Applications, Dummies, Everyday, MySQL, PHP, Web Development
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What was once a consumer-grade, low-level program for beginning image editors and a junior cousin to the powerful Adobe Photoshop program has evolved and matured to stand on its own merits now in version 4.0. You won’t find much comparison between Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Photoshop in this book, nor will you see any suggestions that you should consider using Photoshop for one thing or another. We don’t make suggestions simply because Photoshop Elements is a powerful tool that satisfies many needs of amateurs and professionals alike. Who should buy Elements (and ultimately this book)? The range of people who can benefit from using Elements is wide and includes a vast audience. From beginning image editors to intermediate users to more advanced amateurs and professionals, Elements has something for everyone. We’ll even stick our necks out a little and suggest that many Photoshop users can benefit greatly by adding Elements to their software tool cabinet. Why? Because Elements offers you some wonderful creation tools that Photoshop hasn’t yet dreamed of supporting. For example, you can create postcards, greeting cards, calendars, and photo albums with just a few mouse clicks. You can place orders with online service centers that professionally print your photo creations. All these opportunities are available in Elements, and we cover these and many more creation ideas in Chapters 15 and 16. We have to make one exception here and say that Elements is not for everyone. The down side to the program is that version 4 is supported only on Windows. Adobe is no longer releasing a Macintosh version, so the poor Mac users can’t explore all the power available in this new release. Our suggestion to the Mac users: buy a second computer. None of the Mac programs gives you the power that you find in Elements when it comes to image editing and packaging creations. To set your frame of mind to thinking in Photoshop Elements terms, don’t think of Elements as a scaled-down version of Adobe Photoshop. Those days are past. If you’re a digital photographer and you shoot your pictures in JPEG and/or camera RAW, Elements has the tools for you to open, edit, and massage your pictures into professional images. If you worry about color-profile embedding, forget it; Elements can handle the task, as we explain in Chapter 4 (where we talk about Camera Raw format) and Chapter 14 (where we talk about color profiling and printing). For the professional, Photoshop Elements has just about everything you need to create final images for color printing and commercial printing. For the beginning and intermediate users, you’ll find some of Photoshop Elements’ quick fix operations a breeze to use to help you enhance your images, as we explain in Chapters 9 and 10. And when it comes time to print some homemade greeting cards, calendars, and photo albums, Elements provides beginners, intermediate users, and professionals easy-to-follow steps to package your creations, as we cover in Chapters 15 and 16.
Adobe Photoshop is one of the most important computer programs of our age. It’s made photo editing a commonplace thing, something for the everyperson. Still, Photoshop can be a scary thing (especially that first purchase price!), comprising a jungle of menus and palettes and tools and options and shortcuts as well as a bewildering array of add-ons and plug-ins. And that’s why you’re holding this book in your hands. And why I wrote it. And why Wiley published it. You want to make sense of Photoshop — or, at the very least, be able to work competently and efficiently in the program, accomplishing those tasks that need to get done. You want a reference that discusses how things work and what things do, not in a techno-geek or encyclopedic manner, but rather as an experienced friend might explain something to you. Although step-by-step explanations are okay if they show how something works, you don’t need rote recipes that don’t apply to the work you do. You don’t mind discovering tricks, as long as they can be applied to your images and artwork in a productive, meaningful manner. You’re in the right place!
This book is written for the person who has a good grasp of using a computer and navigating the operating system and at least a cursory knowledge of Photoshop. It is intended to be a comprehensive reference book that you can read cover to cover or reach for when you’re looking for specific information about a particular task. Wherever I can, I sneak in a useful tip or an interesting technique to help you put Photoshop to work for your project needs. Sometimes, knowing how to use a tool doesn’t necessarily mean that you know what to do with it. That’s why this book contains several Putting It Together exercises that help you make a connection between the multiple Photoshop tools at your disposal and the very specific task you need to accomplish. Want to get the red out of a subject’s eyes or create a collage? Just check out the Putting-It-Together sections in Books III through IX. These sections present info in easy-to-follow numbered steps, in a hands-on style, building on what’s presented in the chapter so that you can go to the next level, put concepts to work, and move on to the next task. You can find images that appear within the Putting It Together sections on this book’s companion Web site (www.dummies.com/go/photoshopcs2), so you can follow along precisely with the steps.
In the 1960s, you could stun guests in your home with a color television set, but they would experience apoplexy at the sight of a computer there. Even in the 1980s, the appearance of a home computer was often met with a head-shaking “Whatever” by anyone you tried to impress. Yes, at one time, it was easy to pluck the PC out of the big picture. It was unusual. It was unexpected. Today, the PC is as much a part of the big picture as a paper shredder in a law office. Yet, despite its ubiquity, the PC maintains an air of mystery and the scent of fear. In this part, I pull together the pieces parts of a PC and give you a visual tour, some basic understanding, and some examples of what a computer can do. It’s your preview of coming attractions to a device that’s useful, fun, and even (dare I say?) friendly.
Things change quickly in the computer industry, so it’s time for another revision and update to this classic book, now in its 10th edition. I’ve done some major work here, shuffled things around, and tidied up all the text so that PCs For Dummies can give you the answer to the ever-burning question “How does a computer turn a smart person like you into a dummy?” You don’t have to love a computer. Some folks do, most don’t. The reason is simple: Computers are not easy to use. True, a computer is easier to use now than it was 10 years ago, but some things remain cryptic. The help files are mystifying. Technical support isn’t even in English any more! So, you’re left feeling numb and cold and wondering why no one bothers to sit down and explain things to you in plain human terms. Well, wonder no more! This book explains the basics of your computer, the PC — how it works, what does what, and all that stuff you want to know or maybe didn’t realize you wanted to know. Honestly, computers really aren’t that difficult to use or understand. It’s just that it has taken an author like me and a book like this one a while to get the word out. Between this book’s yellow and black covers you’ll find friendly, helpful information about using your PC. This book uses friendly and human — and often irreverent — terms. Nothing is sacred here. Electronics can be praised by others. This book focuses on you and your needs. In this book, you’ll discover everything you need to know about your computer without painful jargon or the prerequisite master’s degree in engineering. And, you’ll have fun.
What’s the definition of a reference book? Well, I like to think of this book as a snapshot. Sure, it’s a very heavy photograph, weighing in at over 700 pages — but nevertheless, it captures the current state of today’s PCs, including hardware, the most popular applications, and of course, the latest and greatest incarnation of the Windows operating system that we all cherish (in this case, Windows XP Home and Professional). That covers a lot of ground, especially when you consider how the PC has branched out into all sorts of new directions in the last few years. What used to be primarily a simple word processing platform in the early days of DOS has now become a hub for digital video and CD-quality audio, an optical recording center, an Internet communications system, a digital darkroom, a 3-D gaming console, an office productivity center . . . the list goes on and on. Therefore, fitting the features and functionality of today’s PCs into a single volume was a challenge for me — and it proved singularly rewarding as well because PCs are both my career and my favorite hobby! With that comprehensive approach in mind, this book still holds true to the For Dummies format: step-by-step instructions on each major feature within Windows XP, Microsoft Office, and other popular PC applications, with a little personal opinion, my recommendations, and my attempts at humor mixed in to add spice. I take the time to explain each topic for those who have just entered the PC universe, but you’ll uncover plenty of advanced information as well. With this book in hand, you can set up a wireless network, navigate an Excel spreadsheet, diagnose hardware problems, and even work magic with your digital camera. I sincerely hope that you enjoy this book and that it will help open up the countless possibilities offered by your PC. Thanks to the efforts of all those software developers, engineers, and hardware manufacturers, you and I get to play!
As computers have gotten more powerful, they’ve become the standard tools for recording, editing, and mixing audio. More and more professional studios are using them because of their power — and more and more amateurs are using them because they’re also relatively inexpensive and easy to use. For many people — especially any technophobic musicians out there (you know who you are) — the thought of recording on a computer is daunting. You have to deal with hardware issue (what kind of computer do I get?) and software issue (how do I work this #@*% thing?). Add to this the sometimescomplicated workings of the non-audio computer software and you get a deer-in-the-headlights look from otherwise intelligent, articulate people. Well, I hear ya. I don’t consider myself a techy (although I fear I might be turning into one), and getting up-to-speed when it came to recording into a computer left me scratching my head a few times. Luckily for you, I’ve stopped scratching my head and have managed to make some semblance of sense out of the whole thing.
Congratulations! Brilliant person that you are, you use Paint Shop Pro! Thousands of other brilliant people also use Paint Shop Pro, and for one intelligent reason: It does darned near anything you could want it to do, from fixing photographs to animating Web graphics, and — unlike certain more famous programs — it doesn’t set you back a week’s salary. Guided by that same intelligence, you’re probably asking yourself, “Is a book available that gives me what I want, quickly, without dragging me through a tutorial? One with an attractive yellow-and-black cover so that it doesn’t get lost in the clutter on my desk? Preferably cheap?” Welcome to Paint Shop Pro 8 For Dummies, the attractive, inexpensive, yellow-and-black book that lets you get great graphics out of Paint Shop Pro without making you feel like you’re going back to school in an attractive, yellow-and-black school bus.
As though you hadn’t guessed, OpenOffice.org For Dummies covers the OpenOffice.org office suite of programs, including Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), and Impress (presentation program). We also explain how to use the HTML editor and Draw, the drawing program. We comprehensively explain OpenOffice.org’s features, including
