GreerMUG August 2007 Meeting Highlights

Pre-game Show
Tonight's pre-game show was created by Matt using the latest version of Keynote!
Our opening clip was "Medieval Help-desk" - good satire! If you couldn't read the sub-titles, or you just plain missed it, here's the link to it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ


Opening Moments
Mike opened the meeting by talking about chicken, buttered toast and cats. The chicken had to do with eating. Fortunately, the cat part did not. Strangely, the buttered toast part didn't have anything to do with eating either. Mike also mentioned a big thanks to iPlace for allowing us to meet there. Thanks, Patrick!


MemberDock
The MemberDock is missing!! In the meantime, check the website - we have a lot of the same material at greermug.com! Keep those cartridges and cell phones coming! A few recycle dollars help the group out!
iWork '08 is out!
iLife '08 is out!
Leopard will be out this fall!
Look for a format change in our monthly meetings. Also, next month, a new section to our meetings: Mat Chandler will show us each month a new piece of software that's free or affordably priced. Lots of great free software out there, Matt's gonna introduce us to some of it. Thanks, Matt! Looking forward to it!

Joan Wheatley shared with us a cool poster made up of her photos. Great poster.


Core Presentation
Tonight we answer the question, "Now that summer is almost over, what do we do with all those great photos we took?"

MyPublisher
One thing you can do is turn them into a book. One company that can do that for you is MyPublisher. Their software is free, the books are what you pay for when you order them. Mike gave us a quick look at MyPublisher. You can learn more about it by going to their website at http://www.mypublisher.com/

FotoMagico
The demo says it all! Visit the website at http://www.boinx.com/fotomagico.

Tim shows us a bit of the interface. FotoMagico asks what kind of display we are creating this slideshow for. Up comes the main window with a media browser. Choose your photos and drag them into the well. Smooth transitions AND FotoMagico can add text! (iPhoto can't do that - yet.) Tim shares that some effects are achieved by using multiple copies of the same image and then transitioning from one to the next. You can also drag audio down to the audio well.

Add photos first, then the audio.

Alignment guides help you position your photos. Tim shows us several effects and then how to add text. As is often the case, the good design of this software can't be captured by Show Notes. Moving text that seems to float, it fades in, fades out, wonderful control here, folks. Rotating images. And mix all these effects together!

Tim has a finished copy of what he's been demo'ing. He shows us a bit. Wow. That's beautiful. All of Tim's photos, by the way, were taken in our part of the country.

FotoMagico will export to any Quicktime format and to iDVD.
The Pro version will also create a screensaver or a stand-alone player.
How much is the Standard version? $49. That's all.


Web Gallery
New iPhoto '08 has a new feature called Web Gallery. Tim started playing with it and discovered that the cool factor was really high. It's quality is great - looks good on just about any machine.

Web Gallery gives you different ways of presenting the photos. Plus there's a download button. And the photos you download? They are so printable - with good quality.

Plus subscribe via RSS.

AND, not only that, you can turn on the option that allows others to contribute to YOUR web gallery! You just give them an email address! BUT WAIT! IT GETS EVEN COOLER!! (Tim reaches for his iPhone.) Takes a picture of Matt C. Chooses Send to Web Gallery. (It does.) Moments later, Matt's photo is now available on the web gallery! We can all see this on the big screen in iPlace, so it's really, really true.

Tim did this with a family photo. Emailed his dad who has a dial-up connection. Dad had it in less than two minutes.

CAN IT GET BETTER???? Tim says YES! Photos emailed to your web gallery SHOW UP on YOUR computer in YOUR iPhoto!! That's downright spooky. That's the bomb for Show Notes!!

You might be tempted to think that Web Gallery is part of iWeb, but really it's part of iPhoto.


Comic Life
You know, there's still more you can do with your photos. Comic Life now ships on some new Macs - you may already have a copy of it. Comic Life likes to include Audio with all your actions.

Comic Life gives you a neat way to take your photos and turn them into a comic book! Are you a bit of a writer? Tell the story of what you did this summer with Comic Life! (Or make up a story, that's fun, too.)

Matt shows us how. Add photos from the media browser. You can also take photos through iSight or your Firewire camera. Neat. Matt starts by choosing a template layout. You'll drop your photos into these boxes. (Smart Comic Life closes the Template window once you make your choice.) Matt chooses his photos for this comic page. OH NO! It's pictures of us! Show Notes heaves a sigh of relief. Show Notes has always been able to avoid the camera. Matt chooses the comic-looking background for the space between the photos.

Matt enjoys the sound effects that go with the Comic Life actions. They are kinda fun. Matt starts manipulating images. Wow, there's a lot you can do here. Neat photo effects.

Add "talking balloons" so you're characters have something to say.
Captions. Thought balloons. Shadows. Cool.

Export your comic masterpiece to many formats. Show Notes likes that.

There you have it. Four great ways to share your summer-time photos!


Questions and Answers
Our Question and Answer time was weaved into and throughout the Core Presentation. A very interactive group tonight.

Questions and Answers
Tonight's give-away was a Mac T-Shirt.
Congratulations goes to Grant Wickensimer!!


SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!
Check out Tim's blog at TimothyGodby.com. A cool Mac blog - it coolness begs for your interaction. Tim has done a great job pulling together lots of news and stories of interest to the Mac community. Check out the latest today!


Preview
For September - Our meeting next month will be on September 18, 2007.
The next meeting of the Digital Photo SIG is next Tuesday night, August 28th.