DV for Teachers

UK site Photo-i posts this guide to the Photoshop CS toolbar, including this very clear explanation of the Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools, with a good before and after example.

My several-times-weekly search for new Photoshop tutorials, this one on Selection tips, revealed Trevor Morris’s GFX^TM, with lots of tutorials and downloadable scripts.

Thanks, Trevor.

Lifehacker posts a Screenshot Tour: The keyboard shortcut goodness of Microsoft Office 2007. This isn’t news to me, but it’s worth noting:

Now every conceivable action is available through the Alt navigation. Whether the item is found in the little Office button (which contains the same actions as the traditional File menu) or anywhere on one of the toolbars, you can get there with your keyboard. The first time you press the Alt key, you see the first tier of menu options highlighted with overlaid letters. Hit one of those letters and you drill down to the next level within the first, continuing until you find the command you want. If you find you’ve hit an errant key, you can always go back up a level by hitting the escape key.

Every menu command should be easily available like this on Mac OS too. On Windows, Alt+ a key has long been available – that’s what the little underlined letters are in all the menus. Why not on Mac?

This article is partly about using an expensive Mac-only app for experimenting with making your photos monochrome, but almost all image-editing tools will have the same capability and it’s a good exercise.

I particularly like the idea of setting the monitor to grayscale (black and white) and then reviewing lots of photos to see how they might look in monochrome. Flag them, turn the color back on, and work on converting.

A dear friend sent this:

To celebrate I translated your post into Chinese at Babel Fish and then translated it back into English:

“My blogging about multimedia is the educationalist six years. Each blog progresses the work, with therefore me never will complete this, or will cause it to consummate. But I will continue to try to discover and to post teacher and the study which the idea and the resources will help any type makes the digital medium each their life effective part. Thank studies!”

I love the web.

I’ve been blogging about multimedia for educators for six years. Every blog is a work in progress, and so I’ll never finish this, or make it perfect. But I’ll keep trying to find and post good ideas and resources to help teachers and learners of any kind make digital media an effective part of their lives.

Thanks for reading!

After the jump, a bunch of links I’ve collected for a PowerPoint workshop.

Update: Here’s my favorite single PowerPoint reference page: the PowerPoint FAQ. It’s a comprehensive site with tips and guidelines on every version of PowerPoint, including for Macs, and important information on security as well. Highly recommended.

If you’re in the market for a digital SLR or the bug to buy a new lens comes over you, read this thought-provoking list of exercises to do first from the forums at Digital Photography Review.

In Macworld’s January 3rd Creative Notes column, James Dempsey of Creative Guy gives his Good sites for creative professionals. I sugget you read why he likes them, but for your and my benefit should that page go away:

• Designorati
• CreativeBits
• CreativeTechs, especially its QuickTips section
• InDesignSecrets
• Real World Illustrator

• GFX-TM

A quick morning post and then off the web for most of the day: Useful resources for creating a Wordpress theme | cre8d design: blog design, Wordpress themes, Drupal, Web 2.0. This site and my other blog are both WordPress-based. It’s a great system. I changed the theme on my other site a few weeks ago, and I might re-do this one before its 6th anniversary in a few weeks. It would be nice, but it’s not a priority.

Now, off to other work.