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On the second Thursday of each month, PT SLUG holds its general meeting. Each meeting features a guest speaker, who offers interesting information on Macintosh or related topics. Following the meeting, SLUG members will be available to answer questions. Meetings are at 7:00 p.m. at the Tri Area Community Center. Call Gary Estes 732-4523 for details.

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Mac Programs SIGIntermediate Mac SIG

The Intermediate Mac SIG covers certain programs that come with the Mac, the latest versions of iLife and iWork, plus other digital media programs available on the WSU lab computers. This SIG meets on the third Friday of the month in the new WSU computer room. For more information contact Gary Estes. slugprez@me.com

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Intro to Mac SIG Intro to Mac SIG

The Introduction to the Mac SIG covers basic Mac operations and programs. It is intended for new Mac users and those who need a refresher on the use of the Mac. Topics covered can be found in Robin Williams book series "The Little Mac Book", which is the recommended text. This SIG meets on the fourth Friday of the month in the new WSU computer room. For more information contact SIG Leader Bob Snow,

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Review: Final Cut Express 4 - Visual Quickstart Guide

 Books
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Aug 14 2008
Reviews >> Books

Final Cut Express 4 - Visual Quickstart Guide 

by Lisa Brenneis

Review by Gary Estes

Since Apple has changed their editing technique in the newest iMovie 08, it has been suggested by many that an alternative course of action for those who want more out of movie editing is to upgrade to Final Cut Express. I have done some work in FCE, and I was thinking of doing a SIG on Final Cut Express for those interested in upgrading. I was hoping to find a book that would be simple enough to follow that would be a good course text. This was not that book.

As I was reading this book, I kept turning over to recheck the title. “Yup, still says ‘Quickstart Guide’ “. This is a very informative book and a book filled with lots of illustrations that explains the author’s intentions. But it is, in a word, linear. A “Quickstart Guide”, to me, suggests giving you the bare boned tools to get one started quickly working with the program. This book took 118 pages just to explain terms and set preferences. It took another 109 pages to explain how the interface works. Someone trying to upgrade from iMovie would be lost and overwhelmed by the time they got to the basic editing portion in Chapter Nine. It goes from Point A to Point Z very methodically and seems to exclude nothing.

However, having said all that, I think this book would make an excellent reference guide to have by your computer after you have learned enough about FCE to really start working in it. Because it is linear and methodical, it should be easy to look up some procedure or trick you might want to use as you explore the program and want to learn it’s finer points and shortcuts.

Other than the book not being what I expected, I think that the only real criticism I have is that the illustrations could have used a little journey through a photo editing program before being published. Since these are black & white photos of color screenshots, they tend to be very low contrast and a bit dark. I found myself having to take extra time to really stare at a lot of the illustrations to discern what was being represented.

Final advice: I would buy this book as quite good reference material after I found a really good starter book.

Last changed: Apr 17 2010 at 1:11 PM

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