Computer Book Reviews
Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content by Biz Stone
New Riders, September, 2002Trade Paperback, 309 pages
ISBN: 0735712999
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Blogging is a web publishing format that makes
it easy for website owners to keep readers
up-to-date on a topic or subject using short
journal-style entries. Blogs can
be updated easily using an online form, without
having to use an FTP client or an HTML editor.
Blogs have become so popular over the past couple
years that there are now hundreds of thousands
of weblogs online. In this book, author Biz Stone
gives an overview of Blogging and teaches readers
how to create their own blogs. He offers advice on
how to select blogging software or a blog hosting provider,
tips for making your blog popular, blog syndication, HTML
basics, theories on where blogging is headed and links
to additional blogging resources.
Writer and designer Biz Stone is the former creative director of the popular weblog community Xanga.com and a certifiable blog expert. Biz Stone also runs his own blog at bizstone.com. When he's not blogging, Biz writes articles about web development for various print and online publications, including New Architect, Digital Web Magazine, Creative Pro and others. Biz Stone also claims to be a genius, but don't let that shy you away from his blogging book. His instruction is clear and easy-to-follow and beginners will be creating their own blogs in no time. Blogging: Genius Strategies is a great introduction for anyone curious about blogging or interested in starting his own blog.
Inside Photoshop 7 by Gary David Bouton, Barbara Mancuso Bouton
New Riders, July, 2002Trade Paperback, 1000 pages.
ISBN: 0735712417
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
Photoshop 7.0 is the latest release of the powerful
graphics and photography software from Adobe. Inside Photoshop
7.0 helps users get the most out of this software with
complete details about each Photoshop function,
tips and hints about using Photoshop and reference
sections and materials. This 1,000 page reference
includes sections on Photoshop basics, advanced
Photoshop skills, working with photographs, tools
for artists, typography, using Photoshop with the
Web and numerous tips and tricks. Each concept covered in the book
includes step-by-step instructions and example screen-shots.
The accompanying CD-ROM includes chapter examples
from the book, a PDF eglossary, fonts, textures, graphics
and third-party shareware and demos.
The early chapters of the book
assume the reader has no knowledge of Photoshop 7.0
and the text covers both very basic and very advanced
concepts, so the book will appeal to both the Photoshop
novice and the expert. With tons of information, step-by-step
procedures, tables and charts, Inside Photoshop 7.0 is a
must-have book for any Photoshop user.
Photoshop Elements 2.0: 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures by Dave Huss
New Riders, November, 2002Trade Paperback, 276 pages.
ISBN: 0735713235
Ordering information:
Amazon.com
This books helps readers learn to work with
photographs in Photoshop Elements 2.0. The tips
in this book cover common procedures like cropping
photographs, red-eye removal and retouching photographs,
but also include more advanced tips such as rearranging
and replacing objects in photos and using multiple photos
to create panoramas. 50 Ways begins
with a Quick Start section which covers the very basics
such as simply getting your photographs
on your computer and resizing and saving photos.
The second part of the covers concepts in making
photographs look more professional such as correcting
color, distortion and lighting problems. The third part of
the book, called "Getting Fancy", covers more advanced topics
like adding cool text effects and removing objects and people
from photographs, such as an ex-girlfriend who is no longer
welcome.
The final sections in the book include useful advice on retouching
and repairing photographs, and a helpful section on
using photos on the Web and printing your photographs.
Author Dave Huss, a photographer and photo editing instructor, has done a superb job of making the book easy to read and understand. The book includes full-color photographs that illustrate each step of the process to the reader. As Dave Huss suggests the book acts very much like a cookbook, and "it shows the steps necessary to cook up some great photos and other things using Photoshop Elements 2.0." This instruction in 50 Ways to Create Cool Pictures is very straight-forward and beginners will have no trouble learning how to alter and edit their photographs. Readers will be amazed at all they can do with their favorite photographs, both old and new. Highly recommended.
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