y CS 25 Banquet March 9 Details inside Next …December Meeting Review Digital Devices are for...

January/February 2016 Volume 26, Issue 1/2 $2.00

Next Event: February 2Office 2016: Business Apps for the

Next Generation

The DACS 25

Gala anniversry

Banquet March 9

Details inside

2 • Feb 2016 http://www.dacs.org

DACS, its officers and directors as-sume no liability for damages arisingout of the publication or non-publica-tion of any article, advertisement, orother item in this newsletter. The editors welcome submissionsfrom DACS members. Contact RichardTeasdale ([email protected]). Ad-vertisers, contact Charles Bovaird at(203) 792-7881 ([email protected])

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dacs.doc, ISSN 1084-6573, is publishedmonthly by the Danbury Area ComputerSociety, 65 Legion Rd, New Milford, CT06776. Annual subscription rates: $60to regular members, $40 electronic ac-cess (included in dues).

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Editorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeEditorial CommitteeManaging Editor: Richard TeasdaleProduction Editor: Allan Ostergren

Dick Gingras APCUG [email protected]

CopyrightCopyrightCopyrightCopyrightCopyright

ContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsCharles Bovaird Richard CorzoDrew Kwashnak Lisa LeifelsDave Mawdsley Bruce PrestonJim Scheef Annette van Ommeren Andy Woodruff

IN THIS ISSUEDIRECTORS’ NOTES 2

HELPLINE 3

REVIEW: DIGITAL DEVICES FOR EVERYONE 4

PREVIEW: OFFICE 2016 5

REVIEW: WI-FI SECURITY 6

BOOK REVIEW: STEVE JOBS 7

WORKSHOP NEWS & NOTES 8

FEBRUARY CALENDAR 9

ACRONIS DISK DIRECTOR REVIEW 10

DACS 25TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER 11

BUCKY MILAM CARTOONS 11, 13

BROKESTUF MOUNTAIN 12

STYLE THEMES IN WORD AND EXCEL 14

FUTURE EVENTS 16

Directors’ Notes

Editor’s Note: The president’s file was un-available at presstime. The file willl beposted on the DACS website at a laterdate.

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Danbury AreaComputer Society (DACS)

Minutes of the Annual MeetingTuesday, December 1, 2015

The meeting was called to order at 7:40 pm.Andy Woodruff, a director of DACS,chaired the meeting.

Election of DirectorsAndy gave a brief outline of the struc-

ture of DACS, including a description ofthe two alternating slates of directors, whoeach serve for two years.

The terms of the three-member slate ofdirectors (Bert Goff, Lisa Leifels, TomZarecki) expired in December 2015.

Candidates for election to a new three-member slate of directors were nominatedby the board: Bert Goff, Dave Green, andTom Zarecki. (Biographical informationabout each candidate was published in theDecember edition of DACS.doc.)

No candidates were nominated by themeeting.

Jim Scheef proposed a motion that “theBoard Of Directors enter a single vote toelect the slate as presented, essentially byacclamation”. This motion was ruled outof order because the bye-laws require avote by the membership.

Cathy Quaranta proposed a motion thatthe slate, as recommended by the Board,be voted on by a single vote. The motionwas seconded by Jim Scheef.

A voice vote of the membershipwas taken, and the three candidateswere elected unanimously.

There being no other business toconduct, the meeting was adjournedat 7:45pm.

–Richard Teasdale

Danbury AreaComputer Society (DACS)

Board Meeting MinutesWednesday, December 2, 2015

The meeting was called to order at7:10pm. Andy Woodruff chaired the meet-ing in place of President Dick Gingras, whowas absent due to illness.

In attendance were Richard Corzo, BertGoff (Treasurer & Secretary), Dave Green,Cathy Quaranta, Andy Woodruff, and TomZarecki. DACS members Steve Harknessand Sean Henderson were present asguests for parts of the meeting; alsoMichael Ross, a Personal and ProfessionalDevelopment coach. The minutes weretaken by Richard Teasdale.

The Minutes of the 11/4/2015 BoardMeeting were approved.

RRRRReeeeeporporporporportststststsThe Treasurer’s report for November

was reviewed and discussed. It now ap-pears that the loss for the year will approxi-mate that of 2014. Bert to work with Annetteon the possibility of using free Staplesprint services for more brochures.

Membership committee:. Bert: Total membership: 112 (includingmembers up to 6 months lapsed).. December general meeting attendance:38, including 25 DACS members.. Richard: CiviCRM is running okay.Newsletter was sent out via e-mail.. Bert: Jim Scheef is close to automatingthe sending of dues reminder e-mails.. Richard to schedule a CiviCRM trainingsession for people who need access.

• Program committee:

http://www.dacs.org Feb 2016 • 3

DACS GENERAL NUMBER: (203) 744-9198PRESIDENT: Richard Gingras [email protected]

VICE PRESIDENT PROGRAMS: [email protected]: Bert Goff • TREASURER: Bert Goff

Officers

HelpLineHelpLineHelpLineHelpLineHelpLine

[email protected]

Richard Corzo (203) 797-1518 [email protected]

Richard Gingras (203) 426-1780 [email protected]

Bert Goff (860) 355-8895 [email protected]

Dave Green (203) 797-8682 [email protected]

Cathy Quaranta [email protected]

Andy Woodruff (203) 744-9588 [email protected]

Tom Zarecki [email protected]

CommitteesNEWSLETTER: Richard Teasdale: [email protected],

PROGRAM: [email protected]

WEB MASTERS: Richard Corzo ([email protected]), (203) 797-1518

Annette van Ommeren ([email protected]), (914) 232-0149

PRESS RELEASES: Tom Zarecki ([email protected])

APCUG LIAISON: Dick Gingras ([email protected])

MARKETING: Cathy Quaranta ([email protected])

MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR: Charles Bovaird: [email protected]

RESOURCE CENTER: (203) 748-4330 • WEB SITE: http://www.dacs.org

Our former telephone HelpLine has been replaced by our web-based DACSCommunity Forum at http://forum.dacs.org. We have topic-specific forums whereDACS members can post questions. Questions may be answered by Workshopleaders or other DACS members. If none of the categories fit your question, just postit to the Ask DACS forum.

Topic Forum

.NET Programming ASP.Net and C#VB.Net Workshop

Digital cameras/scanners/image processing Digital Imaging Workshop

Content Management Systems Drupal Workshop

Linux Linux Workshop

Mac and iPhone/iPad/iPod touch Apple Workshop

PC maintenance PC Maintenance Workshop

Smartphones & Tablets Mobile Devices Workshop

Virtual machine software Virtual Computing Workshop

Desktop publishing and website design Web Site Design Workshop

Windows Windows Workshop

.

o December general meeting - Tom revieweda list of follow-up suggestions sent byLinda Bourie. It was agreed that a plan isneeded to respond to these.

o The board’s consensus about the Decembermeeting presentation was that it was well-presented but too basic for the audience.

o Tom is writing the review article for theDecember meeting.

• Marketing committee:o Cathy: Good event at the Hackerspace in

October. Follow-ups have not been donewith the people who filled out raffle cards.

o Steve visited the Naugatuck Valley Commu-nity College, which holds computer classesand is moving into the Main St office vacatedby CityCenter Danbury. He plans to meetwith Antonio Santiago, the Associate Deanfor the Danbury campus, to discuss how tointerest students in DACS.

Press Coverage:o Tom: A press release was sent 2-3 weeks

ago, via CiviCRM.o Tom & Linda are working on confirming

contact names and getting feedback aboutpublication.

• Website:o Consensus: the website is working well.o Bert: bill from Bluehost for domain regis-

tration. No corresponding credit, as re-ceived in other years. Bert to follow upwith Jim Scheef.

• Internship:o Tom: Linda Bourie has been very busy

but her internship will end soon. Tom isworking on getting a replacement for Lindain the January - May semester.

Old Business• 25th Anniversary Dinner:o Several ideas and possibilities were dis-

cussed. There was consensus that a boardmeeting evening would not be a good date,but dinner in lieu of a general meeting is apossibility. It was agreed that a fixed pricedinner with at least two choices of entreewould be suitable. Cathy to continue mak-ing preparations.

• Goals and Staffing Predicament:An extended discussion of the challenges

faced by DACS was held. Most com-ments and suggestions pertained to a fewbasic issues (shown bolded below).

o The reduced number of members of DACSis a major issue. DACS’ success as an or-ganization should be measured by itsmembership count.

§There have been several major peoplelosses over past year. The burden on re-maining active members is getting heavier.§ Roles and responsibilities have to bewell-defined and finite.

Directors’ Notes, Cont. on page 15


December Meeting Review

Digital Devices are for Everyone -Guest Speaker Abby Stokes

By Tom Zarecki

ABBY STOKES HAD A LITTLEsomething for everyone during her90-minute talk at the December,

2015 general meeting of DACS. Somethingfor the experienced, something for the nov-ice, and something for the many millions inbetween.

A Guide for theKicking and Screaming:Abby spoke to an interested crowd on

December 1st and found an audience of ex-

perienced computer users who are sur-rounded by inexperienced users nearlyevery day. That’s why we at DACS askedher to talk with us. Abby’s book is nowin its third printing, the latest versioncame out this year so we knew it wouldhave plenty of updated material. Herbook with the long title, “Is This ThingOn? A Friendly Guide to Everything Digi-

tal for Newbies, Technophobes, andthe Kicking & Screaming” is right upthe proverbial alley of DACS memberswho have to deal with those less com-fortable with computer technologythan themselves.

Prehistoric Googling:Her presentation, “Navigate Our

Digital World”, opened with a parodyof the classic “Evolution of Man” chartwe all had in junior high biology class,with an arc of progress from apes toman, but on her chart, the hump-backedapes became human, then reverted overtime to hump-backed humans bent overa computer. (see photo 1, below)

Another chart showed how a normalhuman head weighs 10-12 pounds whenstanding or sitting. However, that samechart showed that while using their mobiledevices, most people bend their necks at a60-degree angle, which makes the samehead the equivalent of 60 pounds, strain-ing to be held up by the person’s spine.“Better to keep your head up as much aspossible when looking at a phone or sit-ting at a desk,” suggested Abby, “for thosehovering over a computer screen all day”.(see photo 2 at right)

She even showed a photo cap-tioned, “Prehistoric Googling” wherepeople were using the old-fashionedcard catalogs, long extinct in most mod-ern ibraries.

Tons of Tech TipsRather than explain the technology

behind wi-fi, the internet, mobile phonesor routers, the entertaining Ms. Stokessimply provided plenty of tips and ev-eryday advice for those in the audience,suitable for anyone. She explained Wi-Fi’s benefits and issues.

Narrow Your Search:Abby also noted that on average, most

people visit 10 websites total each week,and that to grow, you should visit at least 1new website per week. One way is tosearch websites for info important to you.To find only the sites you want, rather thanjust typing words in a Google search win-dow, try using quotation marks around aphrase, then a minus or plus sign after thephrase to greatly narrow a search, depend-ing on what you want or don’t want in yourresults.

Here’s how that would work: Googlingthe phrase “gardening ideas” followed bya minus sign and the word “roses” woulddeliver results about any article where theword “gardening” was immediately fol-lowed by the word “ideas”, but ZERO ar-ticles containing the word “roses”. Con-versely, the phrase “gardening ideas” fol-lowed by a PLUS sign and the word roseswould provide links to articles where allthe gardening ideas were ONLY ones thatmentioned roses.

Consider “aJazzed-up” Desktop:

While providing the three factors toconsider in purchasing a device these days,she says three words still ring true, the“cost, look, and feel” of the device. Makesure to consider all three aspects beforebuying.

Abby explained that although the worldof technology is going mobile, there arestill many desktops available with plentyof great features: lots of memory, hard drivestorage, and fast speeds, at very low prices(since most people are buying smaller de-vices).

Or, she says, consider buying a“Netbook” instead of a laptop because, asshe pointed out, a netbook is essentially alaptop without a disc drive, with all theother features and more, nearly always com-parable (or better) than a laptop with a diskdrive…and a significant savings on price.


Improve your Stylewith a Stylus:

For those who have difficulty navi-gating small keyboards on today’sphones, she suggests using a stylus,which makes “a night and day differ-ence” turning someone who couldbarely type on a small keyboard into auser who can type quickly and confi-dently with far fewer errors.

Facebook Drama -Not at all

When the topic turned to social me-dia, Abby mentioned that everyoneshould be able to have their ownFacebook page if they want, with verylittle time spent setting one up. She saidFacebook has become more mass-appealthan ever before, because it’s very user-friendly and valuable for following,friending, and “liking” people, compa-nies, and organizations. They all haveFacebook pages these days.

Take the Front-Door TestOne of the largest concerns about

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other so-cial media, Abby pointed out, is when

people go too far and post far more per-sonal or other internal family informationthan they would ever consider doing backbefore the internet.

If you’re unsure whether or not topost, tweet or blog something, ask your-self this: “would I print this info out on asheet of paper and stick it on the frontdoor of my home, so anyone could see itat anytime?” If the answer is no, then don’tpost it. Otherwise, it’s ok.

Free Video TutorialsOnline Right Now

Abby handed out a number of valu-able reference sheets for the averagecomputer user, including: Over 200 Rec-ommended Websites, Homework As-signments for Newbies, and 100 FreeRecommended Apps. She also is makingavailable links to her 14 videos, eachfeaturing Abby discussing a specificsubject, including:

• How To Protect Your Mobile Device WithA Password

• Tips And Tricks For Deleting E-Mails• Taming Apple’s Mouse• Searching Using A Tablet

There’s even more valuable insight

on the use of Instagram, Dropbox, andmany more apps, on Abby’s website. Plus,the site has plenty of information foryou to follow-up with, regardless ofyour level with technology. Her websiteis www.AskAbbyStokes.com. You canalso follow her on Facebook,www.facebook.com/AskAbbyStokes or emailher directly at [email protected].

Abby took numerous questions dur-ing her presentation as well as afterwards,when interested DACS members and visi-tors kept her talking, asking additionalquestions. She was happy to answerthem all.

… But we heard her exclaim ’ere shedrove out of sight: While Abby was pack-ing up to leave and putting on her heavycoat (it was cold outside), a DACS audiencemember complimented her on her jacket andshe said, “hey, this isn’t just a jacket, it’s aTECH jacket!”

She then showed those who were stillaround the DOZENS of zippered andsnapped pockets both inside and outside ofthe jacket, which could hold various techdevices! The pockets could barely be seenand it had a stylish look. The brand name is“Scott E Vest” and Abby said, “Google it,you’ll like it!.” With that, she was off.

OFFICE 2016 IS THE latest versionof Microsoft Office for Windowsand Mac computers, replacing

Office 2013 on Windows and Office 2011on the Mac. Although there are still stand-alone versions of Office 2016: Home & Stu-dent, Home & Business, and Professional,these are limited to one PC or Mac com-puter. For multiple computers, pricing ismore advantageous with an Office 365

subscription, available in various Homeand Business plans.

Office Home & Student 2016 includesWord, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.The Office 365 subscriptions add Outlookfor e-mail, calendar, and contacts, and (onWindows) Publisher, and Access databaseapplications. The subscriptions also comewith 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage.You’ll need to be running at leastWindows 7 or Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite).

Microsoft Office is now available on awide variety of mobile devices: Windowstablets, Windows phone, iPhone, iPad, andAndroid tablets and phones. The core editingand viewing features are free on devices withscreens of 10.1 inches or less. Otherwise, theyrequire an Office 365 subscription.

The new Office is “built for teamwork”so you can collaborate with others ondocuments. If you have or plan to upgradeto Windows 10, Office 2016 has beenspecifically optimized for Windows 10,whether on a desktop, tablet, or Windows10 Mobile phone.

Microsoft will also bring their latesthardware to show us, the MicrosoftSurface Pro 4 tablet which has an optionalkeyboard cover, and something called aSurface Book, which includes a realkeyboard, but it can detach from thedisplay. You’ll get a chance to see thesein person and decide if they might be rightfor your needs.

DACS General Meetings are free andopen to the public. Members and prior at-tendees are encouraged to extend invitationsto anyone interested in this topic.

DACS general meetings are usually heldat Danbury Hospital, and again in Februarywill be in the Robilotti Conference Centeracross the hall from the hospital auditorium.There is plenty of free parking in the guestparking garage adjacent to the auditorium.(Go to www.dacs.org to find directions andparking information).

Office 2016 – Danbury Microsoft StoreBy Richard Corzo

Meeting Preview

Tuesday, February 2, 2016 , 7:30 PMDanbury Hospital Robilotti

Conference CenterPresenters: Danbury Microsoft Store


COMPUTER SECURITY awarenessis imperative to any end user; WiFisecurity is no exception. John

Adams, the speaker for the DACS GeneralMeeting in January, presented an excellentset of information which was invaluable tounderstanding wireless devices and secur-ing them from malicious attacks.

John kicked off the meeting by explor-ing the concepts of the 2.4GHz and 5GHzWiFi bands. Currently, most modern de-vices are “dual-band”, meaning that theysupport both the legacy 2.4GHz band andthe modern 5GHz band. Most wireless rout-ers which are “dual band” provide back-wards compatibility to support devices thatare not compatible with the 5GHz band.However, although the 5GHz is the latestWiFi band, John explained how the newband may not be better. For example, the2.4GHz band is able to provide a signalwhich has a greater range and greater abil-ity to penetrate solid objects than the 5GHzband. However, the 5GHz band will pro-vide a significantly greater speed if youcan accept a shorter operating distance.Additionally, the 5GHz band provides upto 23 consumer channels compared to the11 available on the 2.4GHz band. The ex-panded number of channels on the 5GHzband is a significant improvement for ar-eas where WiFi congestion is common, al-lowing devices to have a higher probabil-ity of using a dedicated channel. In the end,the user must make the ultimate decisionof which band to use, based on their envi-ronment and device requirements.

WiFi performance can be directly af-fected by a number of variables related towhich WiFi channel is used. Interferencefrom other devices, for example, can greatlyreduce the performance of your WiFi. Ad-ditionally, cross-talk between channels(when radio frequencies overlap) cancause serious performance hits. Thisbrings up a fairly controversial question:which channel is the best? Several peopleargue that channels 1, 6, and 11 of the2.4GHz band are the best channels, giventhat they are well spread apart, causing littleto no crosstalk. However, John felt that thismay not always be the case. Going back toissues with interference, it is next to im-possible to guarantee that any one chan-nel will always be the best. At any givenpoint in time, a device can unexpectedly

interfere with a channel which you havestatically chosen. Therefore, the routershould be set to automatically determinethe best channel.

While the channel which is chosen mayhave no effect on WiFi performance, thenumber of devices connected will do so.This is due to the fact that devices thatutilize the same access point will share thesame channel. Therefore, if all other chan-nels are not being used by another device,the channel used by the wireless router willhave no effect on performance. In this case,the number of devices connected at anygiven point in time will affect the perfor-mance of the WiFi network. This is becauseeach device must wait for its turn to com-municate with the router, effectively shar-ing the same channel.

John brought to our attention a majorsecurity flaw in the WiFi Protected Setup(WPS) standard. The WPS standard allowsend users to easily and seamlessly con-

nect their wireless devices to an accesspoint or wireless router. Generally, the userinvokes the WPS service by requesting iton their device and pressing the WPS but-ton on their wireless router. In addition topressing the setup button, many routershave the capability to require a PersonalIdentification Number (PIN) as part of theWPS service. Of course this seems like agood idea. However, John made the impor-tant point that introduction of this PIN com-pletely undermines the security authenti-cation of even WiFi Protected Access II(WPA2) security provided by a wirelessrouter. An attacker can easily utilize a bruteforce attack method to guess the PIN ofthe WPS service and gain access to thenetwork. In particular, the PIN is flawed inthat only the first four digits must beguessed while the last four are calculated,significantly reducing the possible num-ber of PIN numbers. Not to mention thatmany routers do not timeout if an incor-rect PIN is provided, allowing the PIN tobe guessed quickly. John recommendedthat this vulnerability can be eliminatedby disabling the PIN option of a routerwhich supports WPS.

Finally, users should be aware of thesecurity implications of utilizing public net-works. Commonly, people take advantage

January Meeting Review

WiFi SecurityGuest Speaker John Adams

By William Callahan

WPS Pin Setting in AT&T/Frontier Wireless Router Network Settings


of free WiFi available at places like coffeeshops. Therein lies an issue; any unpro-tected network which end users connectto provides attackers with a unique oppor-tunity to steal data. The user should beaware of their environment and choose theappropriate firewall settings. MicrosoftWindows, for example, will ask the user toprovide what type of network they are con-nected to: Home, Work, or Public, Publicbeing the most secure of all the settings. Inaddition, users should be self-aware of what

data they access through the network theyare connected to. For example, if a websitecontains sensitive information, the usershould only utilize that service over a secureconnection such as Hyper-Text Transfer Pro-tocol Secure (HTTPS) with a trusted SecureSockets Layer (SSL) Certificate. Otherwise,hackers could use packet sniffing tools oreven eavesdrop on the WiFi channel youare using to take data being transmitted.

In my personal opinion, John’s presen-tation was clear but also comprehensive. I

am surprised that I learned so much about atopic in which I felt I was already knowl-edgeable. John was able to keep the audi-ence engaged by providing opportunitiesfor discussion across each topic he explainedin detail. The one concept to take home fromJohn’s presentation was to realize that any-one and everyone is a target of malicioushackers. While you may believe that youhave nothing to hide, this is the exact frameof mind which hackers tend to target; pro-tect your data to protect yourself.

MOST OF THE BOOKS aboutSteve Jobs and Apple Computer,indeed most biographies, tend

to be sequential, moving linearly throughtime telling thestory, one anecdoteafter another. Whilethis book more or lessflows through time,Isaacson makes apoint of followingsome of Steve’smore notable char-acter traits andusing them to illus-trate what madeSteve the personhe was – both ge-nius and asshole all

at the same time.Don’t get me wrong, this is the best

of the Steve Jobs biographies. It is thelongest, most thorough, and presumablythe most accurate of all. Jobs always hada sense of history and that he had a spe-cial place in history, so he wanted thathistory portrayed accurately. During thedevelopment of the original Macintosh,Jobs hired Michael Moritz to be Apple’s“official historian”. Moritz had extraor-dinary access until he was fired just be-fore the launch when Jobs didn’t likesomething Moritz had written. Isaacsoncovers the “authorization” of his bookin the Introduction, stating that he wasfirst approached about such a book in2004. Isaacson had recently finished abook about Benjamin Franklin and wasworking on one about Einstein. It wasnot until 2009 that Isaacson agreed towrite the book on Jobs. Jobs promisedas much access as needed and promisedhe would not interfere with the book. In

fact he promised not to read the bookprior to its being published. For Jobs,this was an unprecedented release ofcontrol over a project that meant a lot tohim.

One of the best features of this bookand something I wish all biographerswould include is a list of Characters.Over three pages long, the list includesa sentence describing how each personfits into the story of Steve Jobs. For in-stance, who is Lee Clow? The list ex-plains: “Advertising wizard who createdApple’s “1984” ad and worked with Jobsfor three decades.” This is incrediblyhelpful when someone like Clow disap-pears from the narrative for a few chap-ters and then suddenly pops up again.This happens with many names far moreobscure than Clow.

If there is a theme that flows through-out the book, it is Steve’s insistence onseeing everything in black and white.There is never a middle ground and overthe years Jobs utterly crushes manypeople when they can swing from heroto shithead and back again, often all inone day. Burrell Smith may be the ulti-mate example. Burrell was the hardwaredesigner who took over for SteveWozniak after Woz had crashed his air-plane. Burrell worshiped Woz’s geniusand often worked multi-day stretches tomeet Jobs’ demands. By the mid-90’sBurrell was incapacitated with schizo-phrenia. Burrell is often credited withcoining the term “reality distortion field”in reference to Jobs’ ability to persuadepeople to his point of view, even whenthey know that what he wants is impos-sible. The few who survived workingwith Jobs for any real length of time werethose who learned to control the effectsof the zone.

Another thing I like about this bookis that it covers Steve’s relationships withthe people in his personal life. Many

other books, whether about Steve spe-cifically or more generally about the his-tory of Apple as a company, cover onlysmall slivers of time in Jobs’ life outsideApple. Isaacson has a chapter forChrisann Brennan, his girlfriend fromhigh school, and Lisa, the daughter hewould deny for years. Lisa would laterchange her name to Lisa Brennan-Jobswhen Steve accepted her into his family.Another chapter covers other relation-ships during the early Apple days whenhe dated Joan Baez, and later when hefound his half-sister, Mona Simpson,and his birth mother, Joanne Simpson.These chapters are quite telling of the for-mation of his character or, as some wouldput it, his lack of character. Steve’s wife,Lauren Powell, is woven throughout thelast chapters of the book, particularly thechapters dealing with his cancer.

At the start of this review I said thatthis book is the most thorough of theSteve Jobs biographies. Most people donot realize that Apple computer is notwhere Jobs built his fortune. That hap-pened almost by accident, through hispurchase of Pixar, the animation film com-pany, from George Lucas. For severalyears Jobs split his time between NextComputer and Pixar. By pouring moneyinto Pixar, Steve kept the company afloatwhile gradually buying out the companymanagement. After the success of ToyStory and the following movies, Jobssold Pixar to Disney, becoming a billion-aire and one of Disney’s largest stockholders in the process.

The book is 627 pages, includingacknowledgements, sources, and notes.Most of the book is a real page-turnerand drags only when it pushes to getthrough the stories about the iPod,iPhone and iPad. Steve was already sickfor much of that time and the story thenmoves into his leaves of absence fromApple, and how his family and friendshelped him through the final stages. Thebook is always well-written and if youread only one biography of Jobs andApple, this is the one to read.

Book Review

SteveJobsby Walter Isaacson2011 Simon & SchusterBook Review by Jim Scheef


Workshops

WWWWWorororororkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOkshop NOTES:TES:TES:TES:TES: F F F F Feeeeebrbrbrbrbruaruaruaruaruary 2016y 2016y 2016y 2016y 2016

Workshops News & Events

Apple. Focuses on all aspects of the Mac and iPhoneoperating systems.Contact: Richard Corzo ([email protected]).Meets 2nd Tuesday, 7 p.m. at DACS Resource Center.Next Meeting: Feb 9

Drupal. Covers all things on Drupal, the open sourcecontent management system (CMS) .Contact: Jim Scheef ([email protected]).Go to the DACS Community Forum - (http://www.dacs.org/forum/) within the Members only area.Next meeting: Look for future announcements.

Jobs. Networking and jobs searchContact: Charles Bovaird, 203-792-7881 (aam@ mags.net).Go to DACS Community Forum (http://forum.dacs.org for joblistings.

Linux. Helps in installing and maintaining the Linux operatingsystem. Also of interest to Apple owners using OS X.Contact: Dave Mawdsley, [email protected] 3rd Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at the DACS Resource Center.Next Meeting: Feb 17

PC Maintenance. Review of PC hardware and OpSysmaintenance and use.Contact: Charles Bovaird, 203-792-7881 (aam@ mags.net).Go to DACS Community Forum (http://forum.dacs.org).

Online Business Workshop. Informal gathering of memberssharing ideas on creating an online source of income.Contact: Steve Harkness (http://forum. dacs.org/forum-38.html).

Meets second Monday in nearby Brookfield, or by WebinarNext Meeting: Feb 8

Single Board Computers Workshop. Explores small cheapcomputers like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Netduino, Beaglebone,and more. Meets 3rd Thursday at the DACS Resource Center.Contact: Jim Scheef ([email protected]), or go to theDACS Community Forum: http://www.dacs.org/forum/,within the Members-only areaNext Meeting: Feb 18Social Media: Master the basics of Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and Instagram.Contact: Tom Zarecki 914-548-4948; email [email protected] on the 4th Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm, usually atthe DACS Resource Center, but check the monthly schedule.Next Meeting: Feb 24Video Production. Explores all aspects of video capture andproduction including how to create good video using smartphonesand tablets as well as using professional cameras and equipment.Meets on the 4th Tuesday or 4th Thursday of the month at 6:30pm, typically at Charter Communications in Newtown.Contact: Andy Woodruff ([email protected])Next meeting: Check dacs.orgWeb Design and DTP. The website design Workshop willbe on hiatus starting November 2015 until April 2016. Nomeeting in November, and hope to start up again in April.Please check dacs.org or design.annagraphics.com for an-nouncements early spring. Contact: Annette van Ommeren([email protected]) for information

Apple. This month we discussed some video streaming de-vices that connect to your TV: the Apple TV and the Roku. Manypeople have smart TVs that connect to their home network, viaeither Wi-Fi or Ethernet cable. Typically this provides access toNetflix, YouTube, and some other services that stream videofrom the Internet. The selection is usually rather limited.

Video streaming boxes that connect to your home networkand TV are much more versatile, providing access to a growinglist of services that is updated periodically. Apple from time totime updated the services on the 3rd generation Apple TV, butthis past fall came out with a new 4th generation Apple TV boxthat has an App Store. In addition to video services, the App Storecan now offer other types of apps, particularly games. Gameslike you might see on an iPhone or iPad are now possible on thenew Apple TV in part because of the new Siri remote that comeswith it. In addition to a microphone, it has a touch screen area atthe top of the remote, and an accelerometer that detects theorientation of the remote. Both Apple TVs support AirPlay forplaying content from an iPhone, iPad, or recent Mac.

Roku has a Roku 2, Roku 3, and now even a Roku 4 model.The Roku 2 is around the same $69 price as the 3rd generationApple TV. It has a conventional remote but access to the RokuChannel Store with as many as 2000 channels. So the content

available is much greater. Compared to the Apple TV it wouldonly be missing content (movies, TV shows, and music) fromthe iTunes Store. If you are an Amazon customer, it has AmazonInstant Video and Amazon Music, which are missing from theApple TV 3rd generation box. I have read reportsthat the Amazon services may be coming to the4th generation Apple TV box.

The Roku 3 has a more advanced remotewith voice input and a headphone jack for pri-vate listening. I have a minor issue with the Roku3 remote that caused me to buy the Roku 2 in-stead. The OK or select button that on most

Workshops,, Cont. on page 11

.


Linux7:30 -9:30 PMDave Mawdsley

[email protected]

Apple 7:00 PMRichard Corzo

[email protected]

MembershipCommittee

7:00 PMJim Scheef

860-355-0034

Single BoardComputers Workshop

7:00 PMJim Scheef

860-355-0034

General Meeting6:30 PM

PR & MarketingCommittee

6:30 - 8:30 PM

Online BusinessWorkshop

7:00 - 8:30 [email protected]

Board ofDirectors7:00 PM

DACS.DOCDeadline

On Hiatus untilApril 2016

February 2016Danbury Area Computer Society

Web Design

Annettevan Ommeren7:00 - 9:00 PM

[email protected]


PAST VERSIONS OF ACRONIS DiskDirector (ADD) that I had usedwere programs to create and manage

disk partitions of basic Windows harddrives. I was pleasantly surprised to seethat ADD has been expanded in scope tothe point that it has become a powerfulset of tools to optimize your disk data andprotect it. Added functionality includesmanaging and storing different types offile systems and operating systems onone disk; recovering lost or deleteddata; and diagnostic tools to help improveperformance.

After installing ADD, it wastime to take the pro-

gram for a spin.On my Win-dows 7 64-bitlaptop theADD screenshowed myhard drive as abasic MBRdrive (see ex-planation be-low), size931GB with ap r i m a r y

C operating sys-tem partition (volume in

ADD) of 517GB, a primary recovery parti-tion, size13.81GB, and a logical E partition,size 400GB. Right clicking on any partitionbrings up an extensive list of operationsthat may be performed on that partition (vol-ume). Volume operations are resize, move,copy, merge, split, change label or letter,convert to primary, change partition type,format, delete volume, change cluster size,hide, browse files, check, defragment andedit volume.

I selected partition E, split volume. Apopup box showed the 400GB partitionwould be split into 209GB and 191GB parti-tions. This may be changed in the box pro-vided. I selected continue and was shownthe result. I then again selected continueand was asked if it was OK to reboot thecomputer to perform the operation. Afteraccepting the reboot, ADD did all the rest.It took a few minutes to complete. After thereboot, I checked my computer, and every-thing was as expected. My E partition wasnow 209GB, and I had a new F partition of191GB. It is highly recommended that be-fore you run any operations using ADD

you do a complete image backup of all yourdrives and partitions. I already had an im-age backup of my entire computer so Iskipped this step.

I then merged partitions E and F, andnow I was back where I began. I couldhave easily resized partition C from517GB to a smaller size and then addedthe space removed from C to my E parti-tion. I have used ADD to perform theseoperations in earlier versions. ADD issimple to use. However, before you be-gin changing things you must have anunderstanding of the underlying opera-tions and the terminology used or youcan make a mess of your computer. ADDhas an excellent 64-page manual that Idownloaded. It explains the basicconcepts, each operation and has a com-plete glossary of terms at the end. Theprogram also has a manual in the Helpsection.

Before you use this program, it is nec-essary that you have a basic understand-ing of disk structure. Therefore, I will coverthe most important concepts here. Eachhard drive may be either a basic or dynamicdisk. A basic disk (the one that most com-puters have) can store one or more vol-umes (partitions) and cannot occupy morethan one disk. A basic disk can store twotypes of volumes: primary and logical. Abasic disk may use either an MBR (MasterBoot Record) or GPT (Guid Partition Table)disk partitioning scheme. On each basicMBR disk, you can create either up to fourprimary volumes, or up to three primary vol-umes plus an unlimited number of logicalvolumes. The maximum volume size on anMBR disk is 2 terabytes. On each basicGPT disk, you can create up to 128 primaryvolumes. The maximum volume size on aGPT disk is 16 exabytes.

A dynamic disk can be used to create alarge volume that occupies more than onedisk. It may also be used to mirror one diskto another providing safety in the eventone of the disks mirrored fails. A dynamicdisk may be a simple volume that consistsof disk space from a single dynamic disk; aspanned volume that consists of diskspace from two or more dynamic disks, inportions that do not need to be equallysized. A spanned volume can reside on upto 32 disks; a stripped volume that resideson two or more dynamic disks and whosedata is evenly distributed across equally

sized portions of disk space (called stripes)on those disks; or a mirrored fault-tolerantvolume whose data is duplicated on twophysical disks. Each of the two parts of amirrored volume is called a mirror. All of thedata on one disk is copied to another diskto provide data redundancy. If one of thehard disks fails, the data can still be ac-cessed from the remaining hard disks.

Volumes may also be active, systemor boot volumes. An active volume usu-ally contains one of the following pro-grams: the operating system; a programthat enables you to choose which oper-ating system to run (if more than one isinstalled); a diagnostic or recovery toolthat runs before the operating system.The system volume is one from whichthe operating system starts. The bootvolume is the volume on which the filesof a particular Windows operating sys-tem are stored.

Now that you understand somethingabout disk structure, you will appreciatesome of the many powerful features ofAcronis Disk Director. You may createbasic and dynamic volumes; copy ormove a volume of one type to a volumeof another type; convert primary vol-umes to logical and vice versa; convertbasic disks to dynamic and vice versa;convert GPT disks to MBR and viceversa; add, remove, or break mirrored vol-umes; convert GPT disks to MBR andvice versa; and much more.

Additional toolsAcronis Disk Director allows you to

create a bootable media disk, which will runADD without use of an operating system.Acronis Recovery Expert lets you recovervolumes on a basic MBR disk that wereaccidentally deleted or damaged due a hard-ware or software failure. The Acronis DiskCloning wizard lets you replace your oldbasic MBR disk with a new one withoutreinstalling operating systems and appli-cations. It transfers the source disk data toa target disk. The source disk volumes canbe cloned to the target disk "as is" orresized automatically with respect to thetarget disk size. Acronis Disk Editor canrestore boot records, repair files and folderstructure, find lost clusters, and removecomputer virus code from a disk and more.

After reading the above, you can seethat Acronis Disk Director is not for thenovice or the faint of heart. An intermedi-ate user may use this program for simpleDisk Management like resizing, splitting orcombining volumes. However, I suggestyou thoroughly read the manual and un-derstand how to use this program beforeyou proceed. This is a great, easy to use

Acronis Disk Director has many new toolsReview by Bart Koslow

Backup Utilities


program that simplifies disk management. Ihighly recommend this program for ad-vanced users and paraprofessionals.

In briefAcronis Disk Director 12 may be pur-

chased from Gene Barlow, UGR, for $25(www.ugr.com).

System Requirements: Boot firmware,BIOS-based or UEFI-based, CPU 800mhzor faster. Memory 256 MB or more. Instal-lation space 150MB, CD/DVD or flashdrive,

Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.1.

Acronis Disk Director supports the fol-lowing file systems for performing opera-tions: FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Ext2, Ext3,Reiser3 and Linux SWAP

The operations resulting in a changeof volume size are not available for the XFS,Reiser4, and HPFS file systems

BART KOSLOW is review chair, Channel IslandsPCUG, CA. www.cpcug.org; review (at)verizon.net

This article appeared in the August2015 issue, The Outer Edge and is repro-duced by permission for APCUG membergroups.

remotes is centered inside of the up/down/left/right directional pad, ispositioned below the D-pad on the Roku 3 remote. I don’t like having toreach to hit the OK button.

The latest Roku 4 adds support for the latest (and high priced) 4KTVs, which have a higher resolution (double in both width and height) thanthe full HD 1080p resolution that most TVs have. There is very little 4Kcontent on services like Netflix or YouTube, so Apple hasn’t found it neces-sary to come out with an Apple TV with 4K support at this time.

Roku has a nice chart (https://www.roku.com/roku-vs-appletv-vs-firetv) com-paring its models to the competition, which includes the two Apple TV models.

—Richard Corzo

Single Board Computer Workshop. A single report will cover the last twomonths.

In December Will Callahan presented his microcontroller project us-ing the PIC16F1938 microcontroller along with the same distance sensorI’m using in the oil tank. His application senses the water level in a sumppump well and alarms if the level is too high. Using a battery backup, healso detects an AC power failure. Will also showed us how he calibratedhis sensors using an empirical measurement. Clever!

At the November meeting I demonstrated the code a circuitry neededto use the ultrasonic distance sensor that is key to the fuel oil tank gauge.This past week (January) I finally tested the sensor in my fuel oil tank. Mydesign was a total failure. I’ll cover what happened at the January meetingbut I will say that a couple of members had speculated on the problemwhen I first proposed the design. For those just tuning in, this project usesan Arduino with an HC-SR04T “waterproof” ultrasonic distance sensor tomeasure the amount of fuel oil in the storage tank in my house. At leastthat was the plan.

In January, we’ll discuss my failed design. While I recoup and moveon to temperature and humidity measurement, we’ll look at one or twoRaspberry Pi projects that I would like to implement – a media centerplayer and a network monitor. Unfortunately the January meeting occursbetween newsletter deadline and publication.

— Jim Scheef

`Workshops, Continued from Page 8

DACS 25th

Anniversary Banquetand Gala

ExtravaganzaHelp celebrate 25 years of fabulous

meetings, great presentations, award-winning websites and newsletters plusmany super-duper SIGs, all rolled upinto 25 years of learning, sharing andjust plain fun.

What: Banquet buffet dinner withcash bar

When: Wednesday, March 9th start-ing at 5:30 pm

Where: Two Steps DowntownGrill, Danbury

Cost: DACS Member: $28.29Non-member Guest: $32.49(Prices include taxes, gratuity and

Eventbrite fees)Tickets via Eventbrite (http://

dacs25.eventbrite.com)


ONE OF MY GREATEST fears is broken stuff. As an engineer, my workdays are filled with problem solv-

ing, which often involves trying to figureout why something does not work as ex-pected. At home, I'm looked upon as thebuilder and fixer of the family. My experiencewith electronics, electrical items and mechani-cal things won't allow me to plead ignorancewhen someone in my family has a computerproblem or a malfunctioning device. It seemsall I do is solve problems and fix brokenthings. If heaven and hell are personalized,then I know what mine would be like. Heavenwould be a place where everything worksperfectly for eternity, while hell would be aplace where everything is always broken.

This month I've been confronted with amountainous pile of broken stuff. Some prob-lems I've solved, others appear to be con-tinuing, and some are fixed for now, but thecan may only be kicked down the road ashort ways.

Windows 8,Lay Them Straight

My daughter started graduate schoolthis fall and sought my advice on getting anew computer. The old Windows Vistalaptop I bought her for college carried herthrough to a bachelor's degree, but it hasgotten filled up with junk over the years andshe wants a fresh, new start. I paid for herfirst degree, so she realizes this new en-deavor is on her own dime. She bought her-self an iPad tablet after graduating, but evenshe does not think it sufficient for collegework. She would have liked a MacBook Pro,a small, light Apple notebook computer, butshe is on a budget, and so fo r tuna t e lychose an Asus Q301LAtough screen laptop in-stead. It is a lot like theMacBook; small, thin andlight, with no optical driveor removable battery. Itdoes have a powerfulIntel i5 processor, a 13.3"touch screen displayand a 500G hard drive.She got a gooddeal by

purchasing a factory refurbished unit fromAmazon for a third of the MacBook's price.

She brought it down with her on a visitwith us a few weeks ago, so I got to spenda few evenings with a Windows 8.1 touchscreen laptop. My assignment was to getit set up for her to use at school. It took mea little while just to figure out how to getaround in Windows 8.1. The touch screengives Windows 8.1 a tabletly feel; one ofthe ways to get to Control Panel was toswipe the screen from right to left.

My first order of business was to backup the existing system as delivered, so Icould recover from any mistakes I mightmake. I knew the Acronis True Image 2015backup program I use can support Windows8 touch screen PCs, but without a CD drive,it was going to be difficult to install or bootfrom the program CD. Fortunately, I have aSamsung external USB CD/DVD drive (I alsohave external USB 3.5" floppy and Blu-raydrives). I use an external USB3 hard drive tostore my back-up files; it took me a little timeto insure both external drives were being rec-ognized when connected. I decided to runTrue Image from the bootable CD, but it againtook a while to figure out how to change theboot options. I didn't see any apparent BIOSscreen when booting the laptop, so finallyhad to search for the manual on-line to findout which function key allows you to enterthe BIOS screens. Once I got it booting fromthe CD, the backup went smoothly.

My daughter wanted me to install Win-dows 10 and Microsoft Office (I have anunused 3-user copy of Office Home andStudent 2010), but I was running out oftime and there was no Windows 10 up-grade icon in the system tray. I finally fig-ured out that there were over a hundred

updates yet to be installed forWindows 8.1. Once thatwas done (an all-evening process), theWin10 upgrade icon waspresent, but mydaughter's visit was al-most over. I just barely hadenough time to install Of-fice 2010 (once again usingthe external USB CD/DVDdrive) and make a finalbackup before she left. I fig-ured she could live without

Windows 10 for a while.My daughter called me yes-

terday to tell me she had decided to installWindows 10 herself, but had run into afew problems. Something had happenedto her cursor, but she was able to searchonline and find a fix for it. She also asked ifI had installed Office, because now shecouldn't find it. I don't know what settingsshe used to install Windows 10, but I hopeit did not wipe out my installation of Of-fice 2010. Why am I suspicious thatMicrosoft might do something like that,so she would be enticed to subscribe toOffice 360? I guess this problem lives on.

Assault and BatteryOne nice thing about laptops is that they

come with a built-in UPS (uninterruptablepower supply). When running off of acpower, they will automatically switch to bat-tery should line power fail. This is not a stan-dard feature of desktop computers, so un-less you want to risk losing valuable data oreven messing up your system, an externalUPS is a necessity.

I have an external UPS for each ofthe desktop PCs in the house, plus asmaller one to run my network drive. AUPS uses ac power to charge an inter-nal battery; battery power is used tocreate 110 VAC to run your computer. Iuse a 350 VA (200 W) UPS for each desk-top computer; the APC model BE350Gis one I have several of. It has three out-lets that provide uninterruptable powerand three that are only surge protectedfrom the switched input power. Whenthe ac power goes out, you can have upto 15 minutes to shut down your com-puter gracefully. These UPS units workvery well, but the internal batteries typi-cally lasts only a few years, and are

pretty expensive. I

c a nsometimes buythe whole UPS on saleat a price that is the same asa replacement battery, so I have a fewUPS units I've bought on sale in reserve.

This particular model, which I usewith my wife's desktop, puts out a loud,high-pitched tone when the battery ison its way out. This is unfortunatelysomething you cannot ignore - it is soannoying. I came home recently to my

In the Workshop

Brokestuff MountainBy Greg Skalka


wife's almost equally loud complainingthat she could not use her computer atall that day because the UPS had startedputting out the low battery tone.

I had no spare UPS batteries, but I didhave a couple of new, spare UPS units. Iswapped out the UPS on my wife's com-puter for a power strip, so I could get herrunning again. I then opened up the newUPS units, hooked up the batteries andplugged them in to charge overnight. A newUPS is shipped with the battery discon-nected and uncharged.

The next day, I turned on the two UPSunits. One appeared to work, but theother put out the screeching low batterytone. Perhaps I'd had that one in the boxfor too long. I could have used the goodUPS for my wife's computer, but thoughit was the same model number, it had adifferent mounting hole pattern (I mount

the UPS to my wife's

computer desk soshe can use the UPS switch as a systempower switch). I found the good UPS unitused the same battery as my wife's unit, soI swapped batteries and hooked her UPSback up. Now I need to start looking forreplacement batteries or UPS units for thenext time the battery goes bad.

Wi Fi Fo FumWhile I was working out the UPS bat-

tery problem, my wife also complained thatshe could no longer get onto our home Wi-Fi, and was using up too much data on heriPhone data plan. I have installed a Wi-Fiaccess point near the center of my house, asmy wireless router is located at a corner ofthe house for better routing of wiredEthernet, and does not provide good cover-age throughout all of the house from thatlocation. I also have the access point pow-ered through a power strip, so I can turn iton and off easily.

I logged into the wireless access pointthrough its wired connection and turnedoff encryption on the wireless link. Eventhen, though my iPad Mini could see theSSID and connect, I could not get any datathrough the access point. This access pointwas bad - time for a new one.

I had fortunately bought a few low-cost Wi-Fi access points on sale, think-ing I might use them for travel. I openedup a TP-LINK TL-WR700N mini pocketrouter I had bought and set it up per themanual. It had the advantage of beingcapable of more secure Wi-Fi encryptionthan my old access point, so I set it upfor stronger encryption and installed itin the same location in the house. Nowmy wife is happy again - until the nextthing breaks.

GREG SKALKA is president, Under the ComputerHOOD USER GROUP, CA (WWW.UCHUG.ORG;PRESIDENT (AT) UCHUG.ORG).

This article appeared in the September 2015issue, Drive Light, and is reprinted by permis-sion for APCUG member groups.

An easy way to join DACS is to at-tend one of the monthly general meet-ings. General meetings are normally heldon the first Tuesday of each month atDanbury Hospital. Or join right on ourWebsite via the PayPal link, where youmay also pay by credit card without aPayPal account.

General meetings are always free tothe public, but only members benefitfully from DACS’ many other events,activities, and publications. As amember you become part of a dynamiccomputer group in the Greater DanburyArea.

You will receive a subscription todacs.doc, our award-winning monthlynewsletter, packed with news andinformation pertinent to computerusers of all levels. In addition to inter-esting feature stories, the newslettercontains a monthly calendar of eventsand a recap of the the previous generalmeeting and last month’s workshops.Members may also post questions tothe DACS Community Forum.

Members may also attend themonthly workshops, where topicsrelating to computers, peripherals,software, and operating systems arediscussed. Workshops meet through-out the month at our Resource Centerin downtown Danbury unless men-tioned otherwise in the calendar. Occa-sionally, special topic sessions are alsooffered to members.

Individual/Family MembershipsAnnual membership dues are $40.00

for individuals or for each family livingat the same address. Annual member-ships which include a printed newslet-ter are available for $60.00 a year.

There are Many Waysto Join DACS


My Custom Theme in Word

IF YOU OFTEN FIND yourself creatingdocuments in Word or spreadsheets inExcel, you probably use the same font

and layouts most of the time. You wouldbe surprised how lively and stylish thesefiles could be if you applied a theme tothem. Themes in Word and Excel are Stylesets that coordinate the color scheme,fonts, line and paragraph spacing, andeffects. The Themes gallery is locatedon the Design tab in Word and the PageLayout tab in Excel. I will use Word 2013as an example of how you can apply andcustomize themes in your documents.

Choose and Apply a Theme

The default theme in Word and otherOffice programs is appropriately named“Office,” but you can apply a differenttheme to a document either during itscreation or after. For example, I opened ablank document, clicked the Design tab,then Themes (left side of the ribbon), toopen the Themes gallery. I chose the“Ion” theme, although I could havebrowsed for more online. A group ofStyles that coordinate with this themeappeared in the ribbon. I chose a color-ful one called “Lines (Simple)” and be-gan to create my document.

First, I typed the title and highlightedit to display the Font toolbox just belowit. I clicked Styles (bottom right) and se-lected the Title style, which changed mytitle to a maroon color and 40-point text.The title seemed too large, so I reducedthe font size to 24 points. All these fontchanges can also be made on the Hometab – Font group.

Enliven Documents with ThemesBy Nancy DeMarte

Web Media

Next, I typed an introduction and myfirst heading, highlighted it, chose Stylesfrom the font toolbox again, and pickedHeading 1. It also was a maroon color, 18points, and included a line below it. Ichanged the size to 14 points to be consis-tent with the new title size.

Then I typed the body of the document.After I had typed the first line of text, Iclicked inside a word and learned that thetheme’s body text was Century Gothic, 10.5point, Normal style.

Just for fun, I added a couple of shapesfrom the Shapes gallery (Insert tab –Shapes) Sure enough; they too were a ma-roon color, keeping with the theme.

Customize andSave a Theme

Next, it was time to experiment with

changing a few of the elements of the theme.With my document open, I clicked the De-sign tab and then Colors, which revealed amenu of color schemes, each which in-cluded several coordinated colors. I clicked“Blue” and immediately found that all mymaroon-colored features had turned a me-dium blue. Then I clicked Fonts and chose“Times New Roman – Arial.” The title and allthe headings became the Times New Romanfont, while the body text changed to Arial.

With my cursor still in the document, Iclicked Paragraph Spacing, which dis-

Theme Customization Tools

played a list of preset distances betweenlines and paragraphs. Hovering my mouseover Default showed my theme’s spacing.I hovered my mouse over each of thechoices to preview how it would affect mydocument. I decided on the Open spacingset, which added a little more spacebetween lines and paragraphs. Because Ihad only a few objects or shapes in thisdocument, I did not change the Effects, butclicking that icon showed me what changeswere possible.

Now it was timeto save this customtheme. I clicked theDesign tab, Themesbutton, and se-lected “Save Cur-rent Theme” at thebottom of the gal-lery. I typed a name,“My Ion,” in thedialog box andclicked Save. Thisput my modifiedtheme into the Custom area above theTheme gallery. The theme was also storedas MyIon.thmx in a special DocumentThemes folder.

TTTTTwwwwwo Imporo Imporo Imporo Imporo Important Cautionstant Cautionstant Cautionstant Cautionstant Cautions1. Don’t confuse saving a theme with

setting it as the default. If you save yourcustom themes, you have the choice ofwhen to use them. If you set a customtheme as the default, it will affect all fu-ture documents and may give you someunexpected results.

2. The Office theme is different fromthe rest in the theme gallery in that it af-fects all of the Office applications. If youmake a change to the Office theme, such aschanging the background from white togray, and set it as the default, it will affectall programs in your Microsoft account, in-cluding those on other computers. How-ever, saving your own custom themes inWord or Excel can be a handy way to giveyour documents some style and avoid re-

creating a favorite themeeach time you need it.

NANCY DEMARTE, is 1stvice president, SarasotaTechnology User Group, FL

Her article appearedin the October 2015 issue,Sarasota TechnologyMonitor (www.thestug.org; ndemarte (at) Verizon.net, and is reprinted bypermission.


Directors’ Notes, Cont. from page 3

§ Need for fun & satisfaction.§ How appeal to everyone and stopmembership erosion?§ What is our mission?§ We need to prioritize efforts and tasks.

o We need to attract more attendees to meetings.§ General meetings don’t get people tocome back.

§ More effective to target computer us-ers, i.e. people working in the field, ratherthan students.

§ Bring back AskDACS in a shorter ver-sion (like Trumbull group)?

§ Socialization sells. Break in middle ofmeeting, to allow for networking?

§ A smaller meeting room (i.e. theRobilotti room or the DACS ResourceCenter) may work better than the audi-torium.

§ Could we serve food/snacks (in the Robilottiroom or outside)? Dave to contact hospitalre food in the conference center.

§ FUD - security - help people protectthemselves? But we have had manysecurity-related meetings. In general, thegeneral meeting topics have been good.

§ Maybe two small presentations in thesame meeting?

§ Issue of whether meetings can beskipped, e.g. have 6/year instead of 12.

§ If we have to cut back our offerings,general meetings are not the right place tostart.

§ Radio station analogy: every 20 min-utes has to be a microcosm of the entirestation. Many companies and non-prof-its do the same thing.

§ Consider other computer clubs’ idease.g. Westchester PCUG.

o Conjunction with other organizations. Weshould do more with them.

§ Invite vendors to meetings?§ Would it be preferable to merge with another org rather than go out of business?

§ Strategic relationships with otherorganizations, e.g. computer support pro-viders (Network Support Co. was men-tioned), the Danbury Hackerspace, etc.

§ Danbury High School - computer labs.

New Business· General meetingso January - Cloud Computing update (Ama-

zon Web Services) - Anand Tirumani. Ri-chard is contact person but will ask JimScheef about making contact and writingthe preview article.

o February - Office 2016.o Sean has a contact who could present

about Configuration Management.· Bert will chair the January meeting of the

Board of Directors.

· The board will advertise for DACS Presi-dential candidates. Sean to compose a firstdraft of the ad.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50pm.

–Richard Teasdale

Danbury AreaComputer Society (DACS)Board Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm. Bert Goff chaired the meeting in placeof President Dick Gingras, who was absentdue to illness.

In attendance were board members Ri-chard Corzo, Bert Goff (Treasurer & Secre-tary), Dave Green, Cathy Quaranta, AndyWoodruff, and Tom Zarecki. DACS mem-bers Linda Bourie, Charlie Bovaird, and JimScheef were also present. The minutes weretaken by Richard Teasdale.

• The Minutes of the 12/2/2015 BoardMeeting were approved.

Reports• The Treasurer's report for December was

reviewed and discussed. The loss for theyear 2015, at $94.12, was much less thanthe yearly losses experienced in recentyears, due to many member renewals inDecember and non-publication of theJanuary 2016 newsletter.

• Membership committee:o Jim reported that there are 100 cur-rent members + 12 in-grace, making a to-tal membership of 112. 48 newsletters arebeing distributed, of which 19 are for pro-motional purposes.o Andy asked that something be doneabout the high number of erroneous ex-pired membership reminder e-mails beingsent out from CiviCRM. Bert explainedthat update responsibility is to be trans-ferred to the Treasurer so that CiviCRMcan be kept more up-to-date. Jim agreedto remove various people who don't needto know from the distribution list for ex-pired membership e-mails.

• Marketing committee:o Wednesday, March 9 was chosen asthe target date for the 25th Anniversarydinner event. Restaurants to be investigatedare Outback Steakhouse (Cathy), TwoSteps (Jim), and Chuck's Steakhouse(Andy).

• Press Coverage:o Tom: No press release was sent out forthe January general meeting. A release will bedistributed for the February meeting.

• Website:

o Richard: Wordpress has been up-graded to the latest version and a newtheme has been implemented.

• Internship:o Tom: There are currently twoWestConn intern candidates for market-ing.

• Andy + Tom: Ridley-Lowell is interestedin supplying interns to work with DACS.Tom will investigate further.

Old Business• Staffing Predicament

o Richard will chair the February meet-ing of the Board of Directors.o Versions of the "need President" pub-licity piece drafted by Sean Henderson willbe published to the DACS membership(Jim), on the website (Andy), on Craig'sList (Andy), on Meetup (Jim), in theNews-Times (Tom), and on all social me-dia sites where DACS has a membership.Andy will write a job description of DACSPresident for use in the publicity.o "End Planning" for DACS was de-ferred. A copy of the DACS Charter isrequired.

• Programso February: MS Office 2016, Preview- Richard, Review - Andy.o Andy will contact Mike Kaltschnee respeaker candidate(s) to present about wear-able computing devices.

• Discussion of DACS goals was deferred.• Implementation of Ask-DACS and snacks

o The board agreed to institute at gen-eral meetings a quick Q&A session and abreak for snacks (with a donation bucket).o Dave volunteered to bring the snacksand Bert to assist.

• Renovation of Resource Centero The idea of asking for store donationsof materials was discussed. Bert and Andywill approach stores (Home Depot,Lowe's, etc.).

New Business• Newsletter

o It was agreed that no considerationwill be given for non-publication of theJanuary newsletter.

• Forum softwareo The board approved implementationof the new forum software developed byJeff Setaro.

• John Adams' invitation to pitch DACS tohis class - Tom and Linda will follow up.

• Member Directory - discussed. Actiondeferred.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20pm.

–Richard Teasdale

Future Events:

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DACS 25th AnniversaryBanquet and Gala Extravaganza

Help celebrate 25 years of fabulous meetings, great presentations, award-winning websites and newsletters plus many super-duper SIGs, all rolled upinto 25 years of learning, sharing and just plain fun.

What: Banquet buffet dinner with cash barWhen: Wednesday, March 9th starting at 5:30 pmWhere: Two Steps Downtown Grill, DanburyCost: DACS Member: $28.29Non-member Guest: $32.49(Prices include taxes, gratuity and Eventbrite fees)Tickets via Eventbrite (http://dacs25.eventbrite.com)

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y CS 25 Banquet March 9 Details inside Next …December Meeting Review Digital Devices are for...

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