Nominees are: Dennis Richardson as President; T.R. McKee as Vice President; Mike Evans as recording secretary; and Don Carlson as Treasurer. Additional nominations will be taken throughout the month and immediately prior to the vote at the September meeting.

A short Q&A period was followed by a couple of announcements: a request for volunteers to teach computer skills to a group of seniors and an offering for sale of two 256-MB DDR SDRAM chips made by Kingston by a member who has upgraded his computer's memory. Anyone interested in either should contact one of the chapter's officers who will be happy to put you in touch with the principals.

With the business portion of the meeting out of the way, the evening's main presenter was introduced. Member Roy Korb volunteered to put Excel through its paces. This was the second in a series of presentations on productivity software put on by different members of our group (Penne McKey showed off MS Word last month— see below.)

Roy began by starting up Excel and describing the spreadsheet's components. He took us on a tour through the menu items, the toolbars, the worksheets, and the cell structure. He showed us how to develop and alter the format codes for individual cells and for blocks of cells and how to set up the print format, for either landscape or portrait printing.

He described each of the individual items on the standard and format toolbars, and demonstrated the AutoSum function button to automatically add a column of numbers.

Roy then showed how to record and use macros in spreadsheet development. Using macros, a series of mouse clicks and/or keyboard strokes can be recorded into an automated script. While this process sometimes seems a little formidable to new users, Roy's presentation demystified the process by showing how easily simple macros could be recorded and then used to complete repetitive tasks.

After construction, he finished by adding headers and footers and save names, and showed how to dress up the spreadsheet with borders, inserted lines, and colored text. In the process, we discovered that we couldn't color text in headers or footers.

From Roy's descriptions, it's apparent that simple spreadsheets are powerful tools that can have a variety of useful applications for the home user. Roy, for example, used a sample sheet tracking credit card usage in his presentation; another member uses it to track his automobile expenses.

We were all impressed at how Excel allows the user great flexibility in managing both arithmetical and non-arithmetical tasks. The arithmetic functions, which we didn't have time to explore much this evening, are added bonuses. This presentation was a good introduction for those of us who tend to shy away from Excel thinking it's only for bookkeepers, bankers, and university scientists.

The meeting came to order and Penne's presentation followed a brief question and answer period. Aided by Don Carlson at the computer's controls, Penne began her presentation.

She took us through a great introduction to the basic components of MS Word. She identified and pointed out the Title Bar, the Menu Bar, the Standard and Formatting toolbars and their functions, the Ruler, the Status Bar and the Vertical Scroll Bar. As she went, she explained many of the tiny icons and symbols that we all see but rarely stop to examine. For example, the double up and double down symbols, grouped together with the Browse By button at the bottom of the Vertical Scroll Bar, were new to many of us.

Next, she took us on an exploration of Word's document formatting capabilities. The tour included Borders and Shading, Drop Caps, Change Case, and Background. She quickly showed us how Word can sort items in a Table and showed off its Envelopes and Label making ability.

As we finished, she showed us how to change margins and tab stops by dragging and dropping the tab and indent buttons on the ruler bar. This was a very well-thought-out, illustrated presentation and it was well appreciated by all in attendance.

Penne has agreed to place it on our Web site for review by any who may be interested. Our next meeting will continue the productivity software theme with a presentation on Excel by member Roy Korb. The meeting is open to all; please accept our invitation and bring a friend.

The Orangevale/Folsom Chapter of the SPCUG meets on the 4th Thursday of each month except in November and December, when the two meetings are normally combined and moved to the first Thursday of December due to the holiday season. Our meetings are open to anyone; please come to learn and share but most of all come to have a good time.

7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church, AMC Room 1, 11427 Fair Oaks Blvd., Fair Oaks, CA 95628