OK...stop teasing! You can give me my summer back now!
Wow! I can't believe 2002 is nearly over! But as they say, time flies when
you're having fun. And although TechTrax is a lot of work, it's also a lot of
fun publishing and reading all the great emails of appreciation from our readers.
I'm sure my anticipation of each month's issue has a lot to do with these months
zipping by. What can I say...I'm a techno geek! <smile>
TechTrax hit cyberspace in May, 2002. This November issue is our seventh issue.
Seeing that we've made it through our six-month probationary period, it's time
for you, our readers, to give us a review. But more than just a review of how
we're doing so far, we'd also like you to tell us about the technologies you
use. Why? Because we want to make sure our articles are on target with your
needs.
But fear not! As usual, we're willing to bribe you for your time and information!
We have a pile of cool Microsoft hardware and software and we're going to give
it away to two lucky drawing winners. How do you get in on this drawing?
Fill out our survey.
You'll notice that we have a survey under the Assessment department this month.
Please be sure to check it out and fill out our survey for your chance
to win two great prizes from TechTrax—just for providing us with
a little information so we can make TechTrax an even better source of information
for you!
And speaking of making TechTrax better, be sure to check out our new Library.
It's a great place to go to keep up-to-speed each month. So far, we have four
categories in our Library. One will list any code files you can download. This
month, Greg Chapman has another great Windows scripting article for you. To
save you time and frustration from writing it yourself, he's zipped his file
up and you can quickly download it from our Library. And Jonathan West has promised
his API code module as a download next month, when his wonderful controlling
the printer series is finished. We'll also be going back through previous articles
to pull code together for you, which will be added to our code Library.
You'll also find a category for general downloads. Another that will list special
series of articles to make sure you don't miss anything. And most importantly, we've added an update category. Here we will tell you about any new information that has come
to light since we last chatted. If you read Beth Melton's antivirus
article, you'll want to check back to see the new, updated information in that article. To make sure you don't miss any updates, check the
Library each month to see what articles have new information.
And speaking of Beth...(is this segue heaven or what?<smirk>), big kudos
to Beth for alerting Woody Leonard to a problem in one of his files. Just like
the time when we were mentioned in Lockergnome for Greg's wonderful File
Cataloger freeware program, I was recently getting hit with a pile of new
subscriber notices. I knew someone must have mentioned TechTrax out there in
Cyberspace. Turns out Woody mentioned Beth's merge
changes article in his newsletter. So to all you new subscribers...WELCOME!
We're happy you're here and we hope you enjoy what we have to offer.
An important issue I'd like to mention here. Be sure to read Paul's article
about PDF files and the blind PC user. I teach online classes and have an eBook
out on Word's AutoForms and Beginning VBA. But it was only recently that a blind
user enlightened me to the fact that adding Help information to AutoForms is
important, because that's what their screen reader reads. I knew it was important
to help users, but didn't even think about the blind user! Paul's article wakes
us all up to the fact that, in many cases, the popular PDF format is a barricade
to information for the blind user, unless the designer takes the time to add
more information to the file. Everyday, more and more blind, deaf and disabled
users are hitting the net to make their life easier by accessing information
via web sites. If your web site isn't properly set up to welcome them, you'll
be missing out on a wide range of users!
And speaking of my classes <there she goes again>...know that the November
semester of Eclectic
Academy has just started. So if you hurry, you can still get in as a late
registration to these incredibly affordable, high quality courses. See the Training
Course above for details. However, if you're not into structured classes,
know that I've recently added my Word Advanced Techniques course to my eBook
listing. See my eBook
page for details.
Dian D. Chapman
Editor, TechTrax Ezine
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