Desk to press

Articles, reviews, manuals, links and references for desktop publishers and web designers.

Blue Mountains

1. Annual events in the Blue Mountains
   There's plenty to see and do in the Blue Mountains and surrounds all year round, from arts, food, wine and music festivals to marathons and climbing events.
2. Blue Mountains crafts, tours and gardens
   There is plenty to see and do in the Blue Mountains and surrounds all year round, from arts, food, wine and music festivals to marathons and climbing events.
3. Blue Mountains' markets
   There is plenty to see and do in the Blue Mountains and surrounds all year round, from arts, food, wine and music festivals to marathons and climbing events.
4. Katoomba in context
   Following is information about the Blue Mountains from the earliest days of the NSW colony to just before World War II.

Articles

1. Acrobat Reader
   Acrobat Reader is a multiplatform application for viewing and printing PDF files. The Reader has no tools for manipulating the content of a file, although there is a preference selection for altering the standard display font for documents that do not have embedded fonts.
2. Computer-to-Plate...we'll do it again
   We promised you a warts-and-all report on our last issue, the first Australian magazine entirely printed direct to plate. If we didn't have to share the present issue with Macworld (the luddites!) just because AMW wanted to offer Publish as a "bonus," we would have been repeating the excercise. So, you can assume the experience wasn't too bad. In fact, it was enjoyable
3. Paper basics
   Paper is manufactured in hundreds of sizes, from huge rolls used by newspapers to small pre-cut pages used by laser printers and photocopiers.
4. Piglet the lister
   Piglet, one of the characters in Winnie The Pooh, was forever making lists of things. Poor Piglet probably wouldn't have coped well with the Web, getting tangled in the tags and wondering where on earth he was. You see there are three types of list in HTML and while they are not difficult to use, they can be a little confusing at first, since they perform different functions.
5. Send in the troops
   Computers crash and the Macintosh is no exception. But before calling in the National Guard, you can follow these relatively simple steps, and save time and money, and maybe learn something at the same time.
6. Web images
   The Louvre in Paris contains some of the worlds most beautiful paintings. So does the National Art Gallery in Canberra; the difference between the two is that the Louvre displays a collection on the World Wide Web.

Reviews

1. Apache Server Bible
   For me this book was a little too much spoon feeding and jumped a bit too much back to the total novice level. On the other hand, a colleague whose judgement I trust told me he used just this book to totally install and reconfigure his copy of Apache and found it perfect. So if you like a book that never seems to send you scurrying back to the manual or other documents and don't mind that it can take a while to get to the point this one may be what you are looking for.
2. Apache Server for Dummies
   The cheapest book on the Apache server and not bad, but I preferred the Nutshell guide as it was more comprehensive. It is quite simplistic but if you know nothing and like the 'Dummies' style rather than my preferred method of just playing around and searching the documentation then this might be the one for you.
3. Apache Server: Administrator's Handbook
   Now this is starting to get somewhere! Here is a book that will come in very handy once you know what you are doing (or are happy doing the learning on the job). The title describes the book perfectly, it is a good handbook once you can describe yourself as an administrator.
4. Apache: The Definitive Guide
   Another book with a grandiose title. This is a better book, not only cheaper but endorsed by the Apache people. It answers most questions and helps with the important topics like security. Not quite the best of the bunch.
5. Appledesign:
   If there is one thing that is almost universally acknowledged about Apple it is that they know how to make a product look good. Apple is probably the only computer company that deserves a picture book for its design work and here it is. Mac lovers will appreciate this book.
6. Building A Linux Internet Server
   Once you understand Linux, this book is a good guide to all the issues involved in getting your server connected to the Internet. You don't need this book as all of the info you need can be gleaned from the Network Administrator's Guide and the various HOW-TOs, man pages and Apache documentation but it might make life easier if you are in a hurry and don't want deep understanding of everything involved.
7. Default Folder
   When you have information scattered all over your multi-gigabyte hard disk getting through the folder tree can be time consuming. Default Folder allows you to establish a list of favourite folders that is accessible in the open and save dialogs, the control strip and "Favourites" in the Apple menu. Another shareware gem I couldn't live without.
8. FileMaker Pro
   Organising information before you pour it out into HTML pages and onto your site can often be the hardest part. A good database is essential, and good doesn't just mean "powerful", it means easy to use. If it takes too long to set up or change the database you aren't going to use it (we know from experience) and here is where FileMaker Pro shines. This might be the most expensive tool in your kit but it can save you a lot of heartache.
9. Graphic Converter
   When it comes to converting images from one format to another Graphic Converter is a star. You would be selling it short if that is all you used it for. It can also produce impeccable thumbnails (all the thumbnails on our site were made using its Batch convert facility) and the image "Browser" is a great way to sort a collection and find duplicates. Then I use the slideshow to check image quality, anything below par and a quick Command-Delete and it heads for the trash.
10. Horses for courses
    If you were going to build a house, you'd consult an architect rather than a marketer. If you were going to market a product, you consult a marketer rather than an architect.
11. Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything
    I enjoyed his earlier book, Hackers, which is about the early days of computers and microcomputers.
12. Learning Perl
    If you have little experience programming, buy this book now. If you expect to do anything powerful with a web server you will need to know Perl and you will need this book. The only people who won't need this book are those learning Perl as their fourth (or more) programming language who are prepared to jump in the deep end and make a lot of mistakes as they learn from a more advanced book. If they bring out a new edition with fewer typos the earth will be a better place to live.
13. Linux In A Nutshell
    OReilly usually do a wonderful job in their 'Nutshell' series but it should be said that this is not the best of them. It does however provide a pretty good memory jogger at a low price and there is certainly no better alternative, the 'Dummies' desktop guide is much too simple. This would be a good second book if you weren't happy using tools such as 'apropos' and 'man' to find your own help.
14. MacPerl
    MacPerl is just so useful that a copy is almost a must. Unless you intend to run MPW it is the best way to get a powerful scripting language on your Mac, with the added benefit that all your learning on Mac Perl is useful running Perl on your server, or vice versa; with a little care you can even run the same scripts on Linux and the Mac, the major difference is that you don't pass arguments on a command line and the directory separator is different. MacPerl also comes with a neat little tool called "Shuck" for reading the Perl documentation. I find Shuck so good at flicking between the various pages that I use it even when I'm writing for Perl online.
15. Maximum RPM
    Once you have Red Hat Linux installed and you want to upgrade part of your system you'll come across a software package called the Red Hat Package Manager. It's a powerful way of controlling the software installed on your machine and I've started creating RPM packages from the parts of our system that I've built just so I have a way of bundling all the parts scattered across different directories. This book was invaluable for both controlling the existing software and creating my own packages.
16. Perl Cookbook
    Ok, so you have read the other books and written some fairly good Perl code, you might even be a good programmer in other languages. Now is the time to buy this book. There are better tutorials out there and better references (hey, Christiansen and Wall worked on both) but this book provides a plethora of tasks and the solution in an easy to read manner with exceptionally well written code examples.
17. Programming Perl
    Written by the man who designed Perl and the demigods in the Perl universe this is the essential, definitive book on the language. You won't write good Perl and understand its power until you've read this one. It's not for the raw beginner but it was my first Perl book and now stays very close to the computer when I'm writing.
18. Running A Perfect Web Site With Apache
    With a title like that you might think this book is heading for a fall and you wouldn't be too wrong. It also has lots of good tips but wastes some space on designing pages and such like. Not the best book but some may prefer it, particularly if you are an absolutely raw beginner.
19. The C Programming Language
    This is THE book for anyone contemplating programming in C. Written by the people who developed this language it starts easy and introduces all the key concepts of the language with good examples.
20. The CGI/Perl Cookbook
    The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is the way you interface software to HTML and your web server. This book is a very good introduction to those wanting to use Perl for the task. One of the authors, Matt Wright, is famous for his archive of free scripts written in Perl and the book builds on this material. It includes a CD-ROM with over 10,000 lines of Perl code that give you a large number of complete scripts and some useful subroutines with line by line explanations of each.
21. The Elements Of Programming Style
    This and Software Tools are two books that easily introduce you to the subject of writing good code rather than just code that works. An easy read once you get past the obscure (but English like) language used in the examples. It is getting a little dated now.
22. The Little Mac Book
    Robin Williams is a goddess when it comes for useful books for beginners, this book and The Mac Is Not A Typewriter are the two books I tell all new Mac owners to buy. Apple should just bundle the two of them in the box and hire Robin to write all their documentation.
23. The Macintosh Bible
    I have owned at least four editions of this book and loved them all. It has to be the single best source for tips and techniques about the Macintosh and if you have owned a Mac for less than a few years you need this book. As a Mac owner of more than ten years I still find something useful in each new edition.
24. The Non-Designer's Design Book
    The Non-Designers Design Book: Design and Typographic Principles for the Visual Novice to give it the full title is another gem from Robin Williams keyboard.