Ron Steers, President
916-566-9656
rsteers@slip.net
www.geocities.com/
SiliconValley/Hub/3950

Auburn Chapter
Davis Chapter
Nevada County Chapter
Roseville Chapter
Yuba-Sutter Chapter
Beginners SIG
WordPerfect SIG

Our chapter's May 27 meeting got off to a prompt start with a round of appreciation for Rich Davis, who has authored our chapter's new Web page. Rich has been an SPCUG member since the early '80s and is an active member of our chapter. Several months ago, he volunteered to find a site and get the page up and running. Rich has now added pictures of the chapter's officers along with their e-mail addresses should someone wish to contact one of them. All members are invited to submit ideas and content to enhance the page and a number of interesting ideas were discussed. Rich has agreed to continue serving as the official chapter Webmaster, at least for now. The page can be accessed by following links from the SPCUG home page or by going directly to www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hub/3950/.
    The May meeting featured a presentation on Microsoft PowerPoint by member Karen Bullington. PowerPoint is a slide show presentation program which has a rich, user-friendly feature set. Several of our presenters this year have used PowerPoint to present their topics and Karen volunteered to show the rest of us how to do it. Karen explained that she and her co-workers at her office have become very dependent on using this program to develop their sales presentations and, she noted, they have even gotten into friendly competing among themselves to see who can come up with the slickest new shows.
    For this evening's session, Karen was set up to use Dennis Richardson's 266-MHz notebook computer with our projector. Her lack of familiarity with the mouse stick controls proved taxing at first. After she got the hang of it, though, Karen demonstrated the program by taking us step by step through the process of putting together a simple set of slides. The content she chose was, naturally, the making of the show. She started by illustrating how to select and use the program's built-in templates and schemes for backgrounds and text, noting the importance of ensuring compatibility and contrast so the text is easily read and ideas are communicated clearly.

    Next, she began adding new slides and playing with different layout and presentation features. In a very few minutes she had four slides completed and was ready to run the show. In the course of its development, Karen showed how to save and sort the slides, and how to rearrange and even skip certain ones so that a single set could be customized for different audiences. She showed how to insert graphics and sound and how to use text art and other program features. And throughout, she entertained a steady stream of lively how-to questions from the audience, her easy answers confirming her expertise with the program.
    It's apparent that Microsoft has a winner with this program in both power and ease of use. If you need to make presentations, you should take a look at this program. You'll be amazed at how easy it is to produce very professional slide shows. Incidentally, the program allows printing thumbnails in various layouts which can serve as handouts to allow audiences to follow along with the presenter.
    The Orangevale/Folsom Chapter meets on the fourth Thursday of each month at the Church of Religious Science in Orangevale, 6035 Main Avenue, between Greenback Lane and Madison Avenue, from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. Our next meeting will be July 22 and will feature a presentation by Axel Larson on Microsoft Office 2000. Everyone's welcome to join us. See you there!

—Mike Evans

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