Kevin Slimp Offers InDesign Webinar Friday! Kevin Slimp, Director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology, will lead a webinar for experienced InDesign users Friday, at 12:00 noon (Eastern).

Kevin Reviews Photoshop Elements, Drive Genius 2 and Publisher Miracle Worker Help! My desk used to be under this pile of software somewhere. I keep stacking software boxes on my desk as they arrive from vendors and putting them off any longer is not an option. (by Kevin Slimp, May 2008)

Institute of Newspaper Technology Class Schedule Posted The October 2008 session of the Institute of Newspaper Technology Class Schedule has just been posted at newspaperinstitute.com. An incredible lineup of instructors includes Jay Nelson (Design Tools Monthly), Lynn Grillo (Adobe), Kevin Slimp, Lisa Griffin, Rob Heller, Cathy Bandeko (MultiAd) and Karl Kuntz. Classes include Dreamweaver, Flash, InDesign, QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Slideshow, Creator and lots more! Get additional information at newspaperinstitute.com

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Kevin Answers Questions About Old & New Software There seems to be a recurring theme in my e-mail lately. Problems related to outdated and just released applications seem to abound. Fortunately, my e-mail includes enough variety to keep things interesting. Let me share a few of the calls for help I have received over the past few weeks. (by Kevin Slimp, April 2008)

Kevin offers online training at BrainCast.BIZ Join Kevin for live, interactive webinars available to newspapers throughout the world. BrainCast.BIZ is now online.

Stop The Press! The Kindle e-book reader from Amazon could have a huge impact on the newspaper business. Read what Kevin has to say about his two months using this device. (by Kevin Slimp)

Newspapers flip over pocket size camcorder I asked a couple of buddies - one at a large metro paper, the other at a mid-size daily - what camcorder they were sending with their reporters these days. I got the same answer from both, which led me to shell out a few dollars (yes, out of my own pocket!) for a Flip Ultra. (by Kevin Slimp, February 2008)

Association membership has its benefits I hope newspapers never forget the value of their associations. Instead of spending $650 to attend a class that’s not even structured with newspapers in mind, association members find training through various regional and national associations for less than they’d spend taking the family to the movies (with some popcorn and drinks). (by Kevin Slimp, February 2008)

Similar skills, but not schedules, differentiates newspaper design from agency work Each year, December offers me the opportunity to do something a little different. Because the convention and training world slows so much between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, December allows me to take on projects I normally wouldn’t be able to fit in. (by Kevin Slimp, January 2008)

You'll Need to Sit Down For This One: Open Microsoft Publisher Files in InDesign! Are you sitting? Don’t read any further unless you’re sitting. The news I’m about to share requires that you be in a seated position before reading any further. (by Kevin Slimp, December 2007)

Familiar Problem With Photoshop Leads To Embarrassment In my business, nothing is more embarrassing than having a computer glitch in front of an audience. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened to me in a long time. Well, not until recently. (by Kevin Slimp, October 2007)

Photoshop, Acrobat and InDesign Questions dominate e-mail this month Trying to answer the dozens of questions I get each day can become overwhelming, but I try. With this in mind, it seems like a good time to answer a few questions that come up the most. (by Kevin Slimp, October 2007)

Create Pagination Workflow With Remote Users Utilizing InCopy CS3 If you’ve been paying close attention, you’ve probably heard me mention InDesign’s companion application, InCopy. Paginators know InDesign as one of the tools of choice for creating newspaper pages. For others, like editors and reporters, InDesign can be overkill. This is where InCopy comes in.

Metro Creative Graphics Debuts ADS on Demand I run across quite a few software vendors as I travel from one convention to another. Every now and then, I’ll see a new product that looks like it has potential for our industry. I found something by Metro Creative Graphics that just might be of interest. (by Kevin Slimp, July 2007)

Institute of Newspaper Technology Announces Fall Class Lineup Each year, the industry's premier training event takes place on campus at The University of Tennessee. This year's session includes the top trainers in graphic & design technology. Karl Kuntz, Lisa Griffin, Lynn Grillo, Jay Nelson, Rob Heller, and Cathy Bandeko will join Kevin to offer classes in Dreamweaver, Flash, InDesign, Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Acrobat, InCopy, Web Development and much more. Don't miss this opportunity to be part of this incredible event.

Photoshop CS3: Worth the Price of an Upgrade? It’s hard to remain objective when most of the software released for our industry seems to come from one company. I can’t put it off any longer. Photoshop CS3 deserves its own review. (by Kevin Slimp, June 2007)

What Have They Done To My InDesign? Holy Moly! I’m speechless. And if you know me, that’s a rare happening. I just installed the prerelease of Creative Suite 3 and I’m blown away by the speed, special effects and added features available in the latest rendition of Adobe’s masterpiece. (by Kevin Slimp, April 2007)

Adobe Sheds Light on Photo Editing with Photoshop Lightroom I guess I’m an insider. Many of the larger software companies send me their products to try out before releasing them to the public. In February, Adobe sent me a copy of Lightroom 1.0. I had tried the free beta available from Adobe’s Web site, but I couldn’t wait to take the real thing for a spin. (by Kevin Slimp, March 2007)

Cameras, Hardware & Software For Newspapers In the past five days, I’ve found myself at press association conventions stretching across the map from Calgary, Alberta to Louisville, Kentucky. The topic of choice has been “New Technology for Newspapers.” (by Kevin Slimp, February 2006)

Two Alternatives for Editing Photos for Newspapers GIMP and Photoshop CS3 offer different angles on editing photos. While not as powerful as Photoshop, GIMP includes many functions used by newspapers. Users of Photoshop, however, won't want to miss the free download of Photoshop CS3. (by Kevin Slimp, January 2007)

Movement to New Workflow Systems Leads to Major Spending at Newspapers Newspapers will be investing heavily in technology in coming months. Let me tell you how I know. (by Kevin Slimp, January 2007)

Acrobat Unveils New Tools With 8 Professional Can I actually be that old? Can Adobe Acrobat really be up to version 8? Let's see, Adobe releases a new version of Acrobat every 18 months. That would be 8 times 1.5 years. Where did those twelve years go? It seems like only yesterday I reviewed version 7. (by Kevin Slimp, December 2006)

Kevin Slimp Online Column

Kevin Announces Additional '08 Speaking Dates I've booked several new speaking dates for summer and fall '08. Included are stops in Nashville, Montreal, Charleston SC, Bismarck, Saskatchewan, Portland and St. Paul.

Another Software Product Joins the "Essential" List There are a few software applications that are essential for people who design and print pages for a living. Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop would fit into this category. So would page layout programs such as QuarkXPress or InDesign. With its latest upgrade, I’ve added another title to my list of essentials. (by Kevin Slimp, September 2006)

Making Photos Larger ... It Can Be Done Clothing fashions aren’t the only styles that have gone retro. Lately, I’ve noticed it’s become fashionable to offer Photoshop training for newspapers again. I’m noticing more e-mails requesting Photoshop training than just about anything else. Recently I found another tool to help Newspapers deal with a common problem, enlarging photos. (by Kevin Slimp, August 2006)

Need Custom Art? I've Found a Place to Get It When I take a break between sessions at a convention, it’s not unusual for a software representative to attack ... I mean approach me to share information about a product or upgrade. You might not believe what I recently learned during a break about custom artwork for newspapers. (by Kevin Slimp, July 2006)

Converting Quark Files to InDesign Just Got Easier Q2ID is a plug-in for Adobe InDesign that allows InDesign to open QuarkXPress files. OK. I can hear you saying, “I thought InDesign already opened Quark files without a plug-in.” (Kevin Slimp, June 2006)

Designing Newspaper Ads Doesn’t Have to Be Dull I’m in a familiar predicament. There are at least a dozen new software applications on my desk, all waiting to be reviewed. I decided to go with the most unique looking box. Comic Life, by Freeverse Software, fit the bill. (by Kevin Slimp, April 2006)

Prosoft Comes to the Rescue of Photographers with Picture Rescue 1.1 I was searching through a stack of software products from Prosoft Engineering, looking for Data Rescue II, an emergency hard drive recovery utility, when I noticed a box with the title Picture Rescue across the top. A quick look at the back of the box led me to believe I held the secret to restoring formatted digital camera drives in my hands. (by Kevin Slimp, May 2006)

ToDo List: 1) Fix Fonts 2) Fix Photos My desk has been piling up with products I’ve been meaning to review. The past few months have been overwhelming with several new and updated software titles. Let me tell you about a couple of them. (by Kevin Slimp, March 2006)

Kevin Answers Many Common Questions From Publishers In the past few days, I’ve spoken at four press association conferences in four states. Speaking on the topic, “New Technology for Newspapers,” I noticed that the same questions were asked repeatedly during the Q&A portion of these presentations. (by Kevin Slimp, February 2006)

Kevin answers questions from AZ to NY I get a lot of email from readers wanting to know how to handle problems with hardware and software at their papers. This month, I'm answering questions from publishers and designers in New York, Arizona, Tennessee and Arkansas. (by Kevin Slimp, November 2006)

Tackling Those Pesky PDF Problems Just four months ago, I wrote a column about creating the perfect PDF file. I failed, however, to mention what to do with those pesky PDF files that you receive from other, good-natured, sources. Allow me to share some of the messages from my inbox, along with suggestions for curing these PDF woes. (by Kevin Slimp, January 2006)

Creating Good PDF Files: It's All A Matter of Settings An issue of concern to many newspapers is the ability to create PDF files that actually print as intended. (by Kevin Slimp, August 2005)

Small Town Paper Tackles Big Time Workflow In my work, I have the opportunity to visit and train a lot of larger newspapers. But the aspect of my work that gives me the most pleasure is working with staffs in places like Carthage, Granbury, Mattituck and dozens of other small towns and watching them create newspapers that rival their big city brethren in page layout and composition. (by Kevin Slimp, February 2006)