KCDesignCore - an Adobe visual design community > Blog

Please join us at our new Meetup.com web site if you haven't already!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:23:09 +0000

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Hello gang,

We've tried very hard to convert you all into using the Adobe Groups site. "Get your Adobe ID," we said. "Make sure you RSVP there," we cautioned. "You have to go to our new site in order to survive."

Despite our best efforts to work with the Groups site, we have to admit it's like Willy Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers: it's "not quite ready yet." And although you could go ahead and eat the Gobstopper -- and it would taste pretty good -- you might, like Violet Boregarde, start turning purple and become a blueberry.

So we'd like to beg your forgiveness, and ask you to go to our new Meetup.com site and create your account there. We've pointed our domain there: http://www.kcdesigncore.org will get you there immediately.

While our site on Adobe Groups won't go away, we have found that the Meetup site gives us the features we need to communicate effectively with you through email and discussions. RSVPs are simple. You'll be automatically reminded of meetings, even via text message on your cell phone if you like.

In essence, Meetup gives us the missing functionality we need to grow our group and move forward.

So you'll want to keep your Adobe ID in case you win a prize, but the other site is where we'll conduct day-to-day, easily-updated business.

See you there! We're on a six-month paid-up test with Meetup to see how it works. Thanks for bearing with us!

Buck Sommerkamp
www.kcdesigncore.org

Keywords

kc designcore meetup new site

Reminder: Camera RAW with Scott Valentine...tonight!

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:43:22 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Don't forget, our Camera RAW demo with Scott Valentine tonight begins at 6:00pm. See you there -- JCCC Regnier Center, check the monitors when you get there for our room location.

PLEASE RSVP on www.kcdesigncore.org so we know you're coming and can plan for you!

Thanks,

Buck

Adobe AIR apps for designers - check these out!

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:37:50 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Entry

Our Aussie friends at Sitepoint have published a list of 18 Adobe AIR apps you will find useful as a designer...everything from color pickers to on-screen pixel-measuring devices and instant thumbnail-creators and screenshot-takers.

Check out this awesome article!

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/08/03/adobe-air-apps-for-designers/

Keywords

air apps designers sitepoint

CONGRATS: Peter Wydeven wins CS4 Design Premium (3 Comments)

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:56:49 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Congratulations to Peter Wydeven of Graphics Four who just won a full copy of Adobe Design Premium CS4 at last week's KCDesignCore Photo Walk at Cosentino's Downtown Market.

Peter was the lucky winner of the "big raffle" this time around; we'll have the next one near the end of the year (December). Those of you that are new to the group, we are fortunate to get permission from Adobe to give away up to $2,100 worth of Adobe software twice a year (plus some cool things in between).

I'm currently working through the almost 1,600 photos taken at Cosentino's Downtown Market -- they are looking GREAT! We'll have a contest once the photos are posted.

Thanks to everyone who attended last week. Last night's big raffle winner at the KCWebCore meeting was Shawn Gallagher. We'll have another winner at the KCVideoCore meeting next Tuesday, June 16th.

Don't forget! Kansas City BBQ Feast featuring the Adobe ColdFusion/Flex/Flash Catalyst User Group Tour, presented by KCDevCore is next Wednesday, June 17th at the Sprint Campus.

KCDesignCore is taking the month of July "off" due to the July 4th holiday being so close to our meeting night.

See you next week, maybe even twice!

Photo Walk: One week away!

Wed, 27 May 2009 20:31:20 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Just a reminder: Our KCDesignCore Photo Walk is Thursday, June 4 at Cosentino's Downtown Market in the Power & Light District of Kansas City.

PLEASE RSVP through our web site -- www.kcdesigncore.org

Also, I've just posted a new job opportunity at a Topeka TV station for a web site administrator (thanks Dustin!). Look under the "Job Board" for details.

We'll see you next Thursday at 6pm. Bring your camera of course -- and a little money to eat something delicious at Cosentino's. You can "shoot it and eat it" if you want :)

20 percent Adobe User Group Discount expires at the end of the month! (1 Comment)

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:06:55 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

A quick reminder:

Adobe User Groups were given a special 20% discount code to use for any purchase from the Adobe Store, and that discount expires on May 31, 2009. You have three weeks left.

Although we may see other UG discounts from Adobe in future months, I doubt they will be this good!

If you've been considering an upgrade or new purchase, a training book or fonts, even the support and partner offers from the Adobe store, be sure to take advantage of this 20% discount.

The code is only valid for actual User Group members in our area and will not be shared publicly. If you didn't get it from one of our meetings, please contact me and I'll get it to you.

Happy shopping! See you in June at the PhotoWalk, and remember, there's no monthly meeting in July due to the holiday falling so close our first Thursday of the month.

See you soon,

Buck Sommerkamp
Manager, KCDesignCore

Contract web position open with TEKSystems

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:13:25 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Dear KCDesignCore members:

Our primary group sponsor -- TEK Systems -- has a position they'd like us to pass along to the group. Please contact Jennifer Dempsie directly if you are interested in this position or feel free to pass it along to any friends you know who are looking for this type of work; her contact information is listed at the bottom of this message.

TEK Systems' client is looking for a web designer to fill in for about 3 months while one of their Full Time Employees is out on leave. This is a junior- to mid-level position; they don’t want a senior type person...the work this person will be doing is production work. They will not be involved in the look and feel, but instead will be more of an "order taker" type person who can jump in and get the job done.

The client is looking for people with wire framing experience, visual design experience, page flow experience, site mapping, information architect experience, and someone who is good with InDesign or the Adobe Creative Suite.

The candidate will need to be able to take a business requirement and turn it into a functional requirement.

Jennifer Dempsie Professional Recruiter
7285 W. 132nd Street Overland Park, KS 66213
800.318-2074 T 913-664-0104
F 913-338-2435 M 913-207-4537

Pearson Education User Group Program Newsletter

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:36:16 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

Issue 11December 2008

Pearson Education User Group Program Newsletter

News & Announcements

Special Holiday ContestWin a Bundle of Books!
Enter by December 31, 2008 for your chance to win a bundle of free books of your choice from the InformIT catalog! Select the appropriate link below, choose your User Group's operating state, and click Submit to reach the entry form.
InformIT User Group Contest
Cisco Press User Group Contest

Social Media SurveyHere's What You Said
Thanks again to all participants! We received a total of 647 responses. Look for another set of interesting data points in the next UG newsletter.

   Do you use social media? Why?
    89% use some form of social media on a
     weekly basis
    59% use social media to gather information on
     new technologies

   Most popular sites?
    71% use Google/Yahoo Groups at least once
     a month
    84% use Wikipedia at least once a month
    41% use Facebook at least once a month

Least popular sites?
83% never use Second Life or Friendster

New Podcasts on InformIT

PDC Podcast Round-Up
Miss out on this year's Microsoft Professional Developers Conference? We've captured videocasts with Anders Hejlsberg and the C# team, the Oslo team, Paul Vick, Brad Abrams, the Concurrency team, and many others! All are published in our OnMicrosoft podcast channel: www.informit.com/onmicrosoft.

"Oslo"Microsoft's Modeling Platform
Paul Vick provides an overview of "Oslo"the tool, the language, and the relational repository. Learn what it is, how it works, and why it matters.

Windows Communication Foundation 3.5 Unleashed
Matt Winkle presents concepts from Windows Communication Foundation 3.5 Unleashed, the essential resource for software developers and architects working with WCF. Learn best practices or programming with WCF.

Building and Maintaining Frameworks
.NET Team Program Manager Krzysztof Cwalina discusses his work building frameworks and offers valuable insights for developers building framework libraries.

Visual Basic 10: New Features
Paul Vick and Lisa Feigenbaum discuss the features in the latest release of Visual Basic 10 announced at PDC 2008.

Thank you for reading the Pearson Education User Group Program monthly newsletter for official group members. Please pass this along to your colleagues and share our news and offers.

In the Store

	Adobe Illustrator CS4 On Demand By Steve Johnson/Perspection, Inc.
	Creating Visual Experiences with Flex 3.0 By Juan Sanchez, Andy McIntosh
	Cyber Crime Fighters: Tales from the Trenches By Felicia Donavan, Kristyn Bernier
	Framework Design Guidelines By Krzysztof Cwalina, Brad Abrams
	Programming in Python 3: A Complete Introduction to the Python Language By Mark Summerfield
	Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ By Bjarne Stroustrup
	SQL Server Forensic Analysis By Kevvie Fowler
	The "Oslo" Modeling Language By David Langworthy, Brad Lovering, Don Box
	The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2009 Edition By Daryl Cagle, Brian Fairrington
	The Power of IP Video By Jennifer C. Baker
	Windows Small Business Server By Eriq Neale
	Xcelsius 2008 Dashboard Best Practices By Loren Abdulezer

Be sure you're logged in when shopping and have entered your membership code to receive your 35% discount! See all titles

User Groups of the Month

Michigan: West Michigan Cisco Users Group (WMCUG) is a non-profit, independent users group which is dedicated to the open exchange of information in the fields of internetworking and the advanced technologies that support the business goals of an organization. WMCUG focuses primarily, but not exclusively on Cisco products and solutions. Within this framework, WMCUG hopes to build a community to share best practices and provide a forum for members to grow as individual contributors in the technology arena. For more information, visit wmcug.org.

Florida: The Mount Dora Macintosh Users Group(MDMUG) aims to help, educate, inform, discuss and just plain revel in the experience of owning a Macintosh computer. MDMUG provides support and advice to anyone currently using or who is considering using the Macintosh OS. Discussions cover Macintosh computer hardware and software problems and solutions, as well as advice for the future purchase of systems and accessories. Everyone from the Mac novice to the Mac professional is invited to participate. For more information, visit www.mdmug.com.

Authors and Events: December

December 10MSDN Events Unleashed: The Best of PDC
The Southeast Valley .NET User Group (SEVNUG) is presenting highlights of this year's Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Phoenix, Arizona. Discussions include overviews of new technologies like Windows Azure, C#4.0 and ASP.NET 4.0. They will also focus on recent releases that you can take advantage of now, including the WCF REST Start Kit and the Silverlight Toolkit. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/66k3bt.

December 11Harvard Club of Washington, D.C.
Harry Lewis, co-author of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty and Happiness after the Digital Explosion, will speak at the Harvard Club of Washington, DC.

Happy Holidays from the Pearson User Group Program Team!
Jamie Adams, Andrea Bledsoe, Heather Fox, Lisa Jacobson-Brown, and Emily Nave

Have a User Group event in your area? Let us know!
E-mail details to usergroups@informit.com for consideration in next month's newsletter. Please include "User Group Event" in the subject line.

User Group Offers
www.informit.com/usergroupwelcome

Get a $10 rebate on Que titles!
It's easy buy any two books from the list below and get a $10 rebate.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 On Demand
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Office 2008 for the Mac On Demand
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 CS4 On Demand

Official form and address information is included inside each book. This rebate is good on eligible purchases made between 12/01/09 and 01/31/09, and all submissions must be postmarked no later than 02/28/09. Visit participating retailers, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders, Follets, Fry's or InformIT to purchase your books.

Affiliate Program gives back
Visit the Affiliate Program FAQ page today to learn more about an easy and effective way to put money back in your group's pocket by earning a referral fee on every purchase on InformIT.

Are you on Facebook? Do you Twitter?
See a complete list of links to Pearson pages. Join and follow us today!

Questions?
Please contact usergroups@informit.com and include your user group name, relevant topic area, and type of inquiry in the subject line (for example: "Southern California Cisco Users Group – Networking").

Save 40% on Select Microsoft titles
Use discount code DecDiscount when shopping on informit.com* to receive 40% off the following books during the month of December:

Microsoft Access 2007 LiveLessons
Microsoft Office 2007 LiveLessons
Microsoft Windows Vista LiveLessons

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Safari Books Online offers a special 15% discount to InformIT User Group members on annual Safari Books Online subscriptions purchased before December 31, 2008. You must be a registered InformIT User Group Member to receive the discount. Subscriptions must be purchased at http://safari.informit.com/subscribe. Enter coupon LVEBQWA at the time of checkout to redeem your discount.

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Did someone forward this to you? E-mail usergroups@informit.com
with your name, group name, group topic area, and e-mail address to subscribe.

Heather Krause: A Review of "Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 On Demand"

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:20:15 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

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Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 on Demand

By Steve Johnson with Andy Anderson, Perspection, Inc.

I’m in the process of learning the various applications within Adobe CS3, so I was happy to find Steve Johnson’s book on Dreamweaver. This was my first experience with a book from the “On Demand” series, but I’ll certainly look for others, since I found the format to be very useful and easy to follow.

I’ve been using Dreamweaver since version 4. I’ve taken classes and read other books on the software, but found this book to be extremely helpful for everything from the basics to very advanced topics. It presents the material in a tutorial style and is designed to walk a new user through learning the software, step-by-step. However, since each topic is presented as a concise lesson on a particular feature or function, the book is also well suited to intermediate and advanced users needing a reference on how to perform specific tasks. Each mini-tutorial is 1 to 2 pages with full color illustrations and a brief, to-the-point example of how to complete the task. The instructions are easy to understand and don’t force the reader to wade through extensive amounts of text to find out how to do something. A detailed Table of Contents lists each task, making it easy to locate information when needed for reference or as a refresher. Items that are new to this version of the program are highlighted in the Contents to make it easy for previous users to update their skills.

Tutorials begin with the very basic tasks of defining and planning a website, even before opening Dreamweaver. Chapter 1 is only 11 pages, but it shows how to use creative and organizational skills to make sure the site you create in Dreamweaver is engaging, functional and useful to your visitors. Without these baby steps, creating a website would lack the necessary foundation to make learning Dreamweaver useful.

The next chapters show users how to handle the mechanics of Dreamweaver, such as installing and launching the software, finding your way around the interface, creating and working with basic web pages and sites, setting program preferences, customizing the work environment, and how to get help when needed.

After the reader is settled into the software, the rest of the book progresses through increasingly complex topics such as working with files and folders, defining properties of pages throughout a website, working with web page text and images, using links, creating tables, using CSS for styles and positioning, handling frames, incorporating multimedia elements such as Flash, video and sound, and working with forms. For those wanting more control of their content, the next chapters delve into working with HTML code, behaviors, Spry components, code snippets and libraries, and using templates for a cohesive site. Even though I’ve used Dreamweaver for some time as a hobbyist and student, I’d never ventured much beyond the basics. The clear and non-intimidating coverage of more advanced topics made it easy to understand how to transition into using these features.

Once a site has been created, there is still work to be done. Starting with Chapter 19, the author shows how to test and manage a web site to insure it’s functional, clean, compatible with various browsers, and easy to deal with as it grows. Users learn how to upload a site to the Internet for use by other visitors, although it seems this topic might have been better placed earlier in the book as a more basic function.

The last two chapters are icing on the cake. Although you could get by without them, they complete the package and make the software easier to work with. Chapter 22 is all about automating Dreamweaver to simplify repetitive and common tasks. It seems that anyone who works frequently with the software would minimize their efforts by using features detailed here. If you’re an advanced user and aren’t already using the History Panel, recorded commands, or text/tag search and replace, be sure to read through this section! The last chapter covers interaction between Dreamweaver and other Adobe programs like Bridge, Adobe Stock Photos, Version Cue, and Device Central. It doesn’t really go into using other CS3 apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and Fireworks, although there are new and improved ties between these programs in the latest Creative Suite. This is understandable since that could be an entire book in itself. Coverage of Adobe Bridge was especially appreciated, however, as I can see many uses for this media friendly file management system that ties directly into the various CS3 programs. Device Central will be invaluable if I ever start creating web material to be used on portable devices like PDAs or cell phones.

In addition to the main content of the book, there are other nice features that will be appreciated by those wanting to use it for reference. There’s a comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts for people who would rather type than click. Each chapter has color-coded tabs to make them easy to locate. Anyone who wants to become an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) in Dreamweaver CS3 will find that necessary material is covered in the book, with ACE objective numbers cross referenced for convenience. An appendix at the back explains how to use the book to study for certification. A companion website provides free download of companion files for the book, including example files, a list of keyboard shortcuts, workshop files, page fixes and new content. At the time I wrote this review (February 2008), however, there was nothing available for download under the workshop, page fixes or new content sections. Although I’d never heard of this before, the book is “Safari Enabled,” which is a nifty feature that makes the entire book contents available online over the Internet.

I was very impressed by this book and the format used for teaching and reference. Personally, I hate having to read through pages and pages of text about theory and the reason for doing something before being shown how to actually perform a function or use a feature. The well organized Table of Contents, concise task instructions and detailed illustrations in this book make it easy to find what you need and get it done in minimal time. The friendly format also makes sure that beginners will be able to hit the ground running without being put to sleep by boring lectures. Highly recommended!

-- Heather Krause

Image

Marc Dorsett: A review of Jennifer Tidwell's "Designing Interfaces"

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:44:58 +0000

Entry by Buck Sommerkamp

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Interfaces and Other Tasty Morsels

I have to admit... winning a book from my Kansas City Adobe User's Group meeting is not everyone's idea of a great night out. But for me, this little journey into the printed world has turned into one of my favorite "at arm's length" reference.

Jenifer Tidwell's 'Designing Interfaces' puts a new realm of web design into focus that I found to be, otherwise, a maze of indiscernible buttons and clicks. So you know where this endorsements leads, find the book here:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596008031/index.html and get ready for a good read.

As a graphic designer, I am fine-arts orientated and took up the web and ColdFusion programming as a way to make my own studio (www.marcdorsett.com) truly marketable to more of the masses. Jenifer's obvious experience unfolds on every page, making an interface design more understandable and reachable to people like me - people who knew what to do but needed better ways to do it.

The book has a wide scope of matter but still gives a generous supply of examples, both written and visual, to make the point clear and simple. When it comes to interfaces, the bookstore is littered with 'web design' but very little in interface reference. Ms. Tidwell doesn't just provide a book, she writes and explains as though she has a thousand competitors in the field and she is going to be the best. I appreciate that aggressive approach to research.

The real clincher for me in a 'learn to' book is being able to jump right to areas where I need assistance. Good reference doesn't make me read the whole thing to find what I am needing right now. 'Designing Interfaces' does just that - lets me have what I can use this moment and I will fill up on the rest as time permits - which is happening pretty quickly!

All told, this is a superb resource, one which has earned a front-row seat in my limited-space bookshelf. I am certain it will be in yours, too.