Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

New Article: Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 and iDVD

Peachpit.com has posted an article I wrote about iMovie and iDVD: Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 and iDVD.

And remember: You can download the iDVD portion of my book for free here (PDF).

My Seattle Times Review of the iPhone 3GS

My review of the iPhone 3GS is now live on the Seattle Times Web site, a day ahead of when it's scheduled to appear in print. I like the new iPhone quite a bit; Apple sent me a review unit, but I had also ordered one the day it was announced.

I skipped the iPhone 3G last year because the iPhone OS 2.0 software provided all the improvement I needed; I did buy one for my wife (see my TidBITS article "iPhone 3G: On the Line in Seattle"). But partially due to the fact that I write about Apple and technology for a living, and due to new features like the compass (which many people will tell you I need) and the improved speed overall, I decided it was time to move up.

Here's a link to some of the photos and videos I took to demonstrate the camera: iPhone 3GS Review Seattle Times. (I also discovered a bug: when uploading a photo or video to MobileMe, the first album it lists can't be deselected; so in my case, anything I upload goes into a password-protected album I set up for a photo client, which I then have to move to the album I want using the MobileMe Gallery interface on my computer.)

How Not to Write Article Leads

Macworld Editor Jason Snell (@jsnell) posted a quick series of "Editor's laments" today on Twitter that are a great reference for how not to start articles. If you've had any journalistic training, you should know these and avoid them, but I still see them all the time. (And as Jason posted them, I tried to think if I'd broken any of them. I'm sure have at one point or another, especially #3.)

I have more trouble writing leads (or "ledes" if you prefer that spelling) than any other part of an article; I trip up on writing conclusions, too. I'll typically run through a dozen or more leads when I write, sometimes rewriting the same ones over just to get my brain into gear. This always frustrating process is part of what inspired me to come up with TextRedactor for this year's TidBITS April Fools issue (see "FrownOnMyMac Fills New Mac Niches," 2009-04-01).

So, as you're struggling to compose that first paragraph of your next article, keep these "don'ts" in mind:

Editor's Lament #1: The dictionary definition lede. "Webster's defines baseball as a sport played with four bases and a ball..."

Editor's Lament #2: The "under a rock" lede. "Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that the French Open final is Sunday."

Editor's Lament #3: The ol' if-then. "If you're a fan of pencils, then you'll love Virtual Pencil from the app store!"

Editor's Lament #4: The common thing that isn't. "We all know that when you're trapped in a bathysphere, you'll need to kill some time!"

Recover Erased Photos from a Memory Card

Have you done the bone-headed thing I did recently? I erased a memory card in my camera, and then realized I hadn't transferred the latest photos to my computer. Fortunately, they're easy to recover as I write about in an article at TidBITS: Recover Erased Photos from a Memory Card (2009-06-03).

I look at four programs that can get the job done, each with their pluses and minuses: Data Rescue II, Klix, Photo Recovery for Mac, and Image Rescue.

My Photoshop Elements 7 Book On Sale

I just received word from Peachpit that my Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide is part of a new VQS promotion that Barnes & Noble is running this month. It's available for 30 percent off ($20.99) in physical bookstores (look for a "stepladder" display), or $18.89 online if you're a Barnes & Noble member. In the meantime, I'm hard at work on my iMovie '09 book!

Metaphor for My Brain

Walking home from the bus stop tonight, I came up with a metaphor for my brain.

You see, I'm often frustrated by the way I work. I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and mulling, rewriting article leads, figuring out in what order things should appear, trying to determine which things are more important than others. But most of that happens upstairs, so to an outside observer, I haven't really done much. I can be quite advanced in the progress of an article without much more than a few notes or even a blank page to show for it.

I got home, ate dinner, put Ellie to bed, and was sitting with Kim on the couch when I said out of the blue, "I've come up with a metaphor for my brain. It's a deep closet."

Without skipping a beat she said, "Things get lost in the back and there are dust mites?"

Obviously, she knows me too well. But that wasn't the part I was focusing on.

Rather, most of the time I have all (or most of) the information I need in my head. For example, I'm currently updating my book on iMovie. I've been using iMovie '09 heavily the last week since its release while writing the review for Macworld and an article for TidBITS. I have a pretty good idea of what sections of the book will change, and how to change them. But I've only started on the formal outline that breaks out the changes.

So my job often feels like I'm in that mental closet, pushing things aside to extract the right ideas and words and sections that belong in the book.

It will come as no surprise that the real closets in my house, as well as my home office (in fact, especially my office) resembles that situation physically.

Maybe if I cleaned up the real clutter it would help with the mental clutter. That's the idea behind the Getting Things Done system of organization (I started reading the book but never finished; does that tell you anything?): you write down all the junk in your head so that you can free yourself from the burden of it.

My problem - or maybe it's just my approach - is that sorting through the mental closet is when I do better work. That's my "zone," even if I'm not picturing it in such concrete terms.

Ellie in the Seattle Times

I wrote a review of the Nikon D90 camera for the Seattle Times (see Nikon, Canon push digital still cameras to a new level, Nov. 15, 2008), and included an image of Ellie to demonstrate the camera's low-light capabilities.

Five Hot New Features in Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows

Adobe announced Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows this week, and since I'm deep into working on the update to my Photoshop Elements Visual QuickStart Guide, I wrote an article for the Peachpit Web site about what's new in Elements 7: Five Hot New Features in Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows. I talk about the integration with Photoshop.com (adding a level to Photoshop Express) and the great offshoot of that pairing: automatic online photo backups. I also cover the new Smart Brush tool; Photomerge Scene Cleaner, which lets you remove people and objects from photos; and the improved text searching capabilities.

The software will ship in late September, and the book should be available shortly after.

New Books!

As you can imagine, I've been pretty focused on becoming a dad lately, but that doesn't mean it's occupied all of my attention (just most of it).

Just prior to my daughter's birth, I wrapped up Photoshop Elements 6: Visual QuickStart Guide, my book that covers the latest version of Adobe's consumer image organizing and editing software. (You can read an excerpt here.) In addition to providing step-by-step explanations of how to use the program and its new features (including the incredibly cool Photomerge Groups module that lets you combine the best parts of multiple photos with very little work on your part), the book is now full color. For a book that talks about color-correction and photo retouching, full color is really the only way to go.

Due to the timing, the book is all about the Windows version of Photoshop Elements 6; the Mac version (returning to the platform after a several-year hiatus) hadn't yet been released in time to incorporate its details into this edition. However, great news: The Windows and Mac versions of Elements 6 are almost identical. I'd say about 95 percent of the program is indistinguishable on either operating system. The primary difference is that the Windows version uses a related application, the Organizer, to manage your photo library, assign tags, create albums, and the like. On the Mac, the Organizer is replaced by Bridge CS3, the asset-management program used by Adobe Creative Suite 3.

So, if you own the Mac version of the software, you can buy the print book and learn almost everything you need to know. (I'm talking with Peachpit about options for covering the Mac-specific information. Marketing says it can't justify a separate print title, so perhaps we'll put out an electronic version. We'll see what we can work out!)

In related news, Peachpit approached me a few weeks ago about writing a brand new book about Adobe's just-announced Photoshop Express, which gives you the capability to upload and edit your photos via a Web browser. The new service, which is open now as a public beta, is ideal for those who want to share digital photos online with family and friends, and also be able to apply essential adjustments like color correction and minor touchups.

I was able to use Photoshop Express for a week before it was announced, which gave me enough time to write the first chapter of The Photoshop Express Beta Pocket Guide. I'm working on the book now, but you can download that chapter for free from Peachpit's site now as a PDF. As I finish chapters, they'll be made available for downloading via the Rough Cuts program at Safari Books online. When the book is complete, it will also be available as a print edition.

There's more to come (including one book that is just coming off the presses), but I'll stop for now.

Hectic, but Calming

Belly, 37 Weeks
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

Where to begin? My life has been dual-focused lately: either working on getting a book done, or preparing for baby. I want to take a month off from work when the baby arrives, but to do that I need to throw myself into this book project so it's not hanging over my head when I'm dealing with (more) sleep deprivation, diapers, and the Whole Thing.

I've been fortunate in the past that if a project slips behind schedule, it's possible to renegotiate the deadline. (The lesson I've learned over the years: you can work around slippage, but make sure you tell your editor/publisher/boss/whomever early. Communication goes a long way.) With Roo (our temporary name for the baby), the deadline is going to be whenever the baby decides it's time to arrive. Baby's not going to wait just because I need to wrap up a chapter.

We're in the stage where labor could start at any time, so I'm simultaneously freaked-out, waiting on pins and needles, busy as hell, and yet starting to get oddly calm. The notion of being an active father, versus a theoretical father, is seeping through my brain. Am I completely ready? Hell no. But that seems to be the default mode from here on out anyway.

This could be my last blog-surface until I have a chance to report on baby news. Until then, I've got work to do!