PC World Articles

Video Downloading Tools

15 Great Free Utilities you've never heard of

Top Anti-Virus Programs
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,130869-page,1/article.html

Videos on PCWorld.com
http://www.pcworld.com/video.html

Top 5 external hard drives
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123728-page,1/article.html

Top 10 Black and White Laser Printers
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123860-page,1/article.html

Top 5 20-inch Monitors
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,126075-page,1/article.html

top 10 Value Desktop PC's
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123848-page,1/article.html

Top 5 All-Purpose Laptops
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,123678-page,1/article.html

JPEG Photo Format on Its Way Out?

JPEG Photo Format on Its Way Out?
Microsoft's new HD Photo format offers higher-quality images half the size of JPEGs, company says.
PC Magazine Article from 03/08/2007

Digital Books (ebooks)

Apple Pro Training Series - Final Cut Pro 5

Apple Pro Training Series - DVD Studio Pro 4

Advanced Editing and Finishing Techniques in Final Cut Pro HD (2nd Edition)

ISBN: 9780321256089

Advanced Editing Techniques in Final Cut Pro 5

Premiere Pro 2.0 Studio Techniques

Photoshop CS2 Studio Techniques

Word 2007: The Missing Manual

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Essential Photoshop Editing Techniques

501 Web Site Secrets: Unleash the Power of Google, Amazon, eBay and More

Photoshop CS2: Image Editing for New Users and Professionals

Shoot Like a Pro! Digital Photography Techniques (PDF)

PSP Hacks (O'Reilly, 2006)

Creating Photomontages with Photoshop (PDF)

Powerpoint Advanced Presentation Techniques

Enhancing CAD Drawings with Photoshop

Photoshop Tips

From Outdoor Photographer:
Using Layer Masks

Use the X key when painting Layer Masks

Mistakes are reversible by switching from white to black or black to white and repainting the area. When painting in a Layer Mask, keep your free index finger hovering over the X key on the keyboard.

When you make a mistake, hit X and the painting color will switch to the opposite color. You can quickly paint out your mistake, hit X and go back to painting the Layer Mask.

Watch your progress on the Layer Mask in the working image on the screen. Look at the Layer Mask itself to examine whether certain areas are filled. Thumbnails in the Layers Palette are too small to judge critical areas. Use Alt-Click or Option-Click on the Layer Mask thumbnail in the Layers Palette to see the Layer Mask on the screen. Return to the image by clicking on the image thumbnail in the Layers Palette.

Layer Masks and Split Neutral Density Filters
Article from Outdoor Photographer

The Gradient tool shares the space with the Paint Bucket tool in the Tools Palette (ND 1).

The Gradient tool can be used in a Layer Mask to simulate several Split Neutral Density filters. Combined with the Brush and other tools, a Layer Mask can be adapted to enhance any image. The Linear Gradient and the Radial Gradient are the most useful Gradient modes for a Layer Mask.

Here’s a simplified start from the many modes and choices available. Click on the Linear Gradient and the Gradient Preset Picker and choose Foreground to Background (ND 2). In the Layer Mask, this means black to white or white to black.

To use the Linear Gradient, click somewhere in the image and drag the “rubber band” to some other point in the image. The space between the beginning and ending click points will be shaded from black to white. Outside of the click points will be solid colors. If you click at the very top and drag to the very bottom the whole area is shaded in a long, soft blend simulating a soft neutral density filter (ND 3).

If you click and drag a short distance, the blended area is small and there are large areas of solid color simulating a hard neutral density filter (ND 4).

The Linear Gradient can be used high or low in an image or at an angle. Combined with a Brush, a very accurate Layer Mask can be made for any image.

A Radial Gradient in a Layer Mask is used to spotlight a subject or vignette an image.

How to convert DVDs to AVI or MPEG video files

WikiHow page on steps for converting a DVD to an AVI file or MPEG file.

AutoGK or DVDx can be used.

AutoGK (Official) Tutorial

For Macs

Handbrake, there's also Instant Handbrake.
Handbrake gives a good interface and multiple format/compression options.

Installing Windows

Tips for Reinstalling Windows:

Download all your drivers and save them to a flash drive or burn them to a CD before you reinstall windows, that way you they'll be handy, and you won't have to go looking for them to have the correct resolution on your screen or to allow your DVD-Burner to function.

Before you install windows and the option appears to create a partition, create an extra partition for your data, so if you ever need to recover data, you'll be able to. This should help speed up the process of reinstalling windows later, since essential drivers and software can be saved to the separate partition.

From my experience, you can create this extra partition now, however you have to wait until windows is installed to format it. Double click on the partition in My Computer and it should prompt you to format it. It's best to format it FAT32, because it's readable by more OSes. A 26 GB partition took about 20 min. to format in FAT32 without the "quick option" on my laptop.

After reinstalling Windows. . . . .
here are some settings you may want to change:

• Show file extensions
• Set automatic updates to download automatically, but select "let me choose when to install them"
• Disable error reporting
  (WindowsKey + Pause), click on Advanced at the bottom and disable the error reporting
• Add the volume icon to the system tray
  
• Remove Windows Media Player from music/video files associations
• Adjust the your scheduled anti-virus scans
• Change the location of the My Documents folder
  (Right-click the My Documents folder, choose Properties, select the Target tab, and click Move to transfer your current My Documents folder and its contents to another location (see Figure 5). To make My Documents point to an existing folder, click Find Target instead of Move.)