I'm happy to announce that we have made some significant enhancements to 
some of the larger software packages that are resident in the Waterman 
Computer lab.


*** Adobe Photoshop 3.0.5

We have been using the older version 2.5.1 for quite a while now with 
great success.  The magnates at Adobe(tm), bless their hearts(tm), 
decided that the next version would be a killer.  It is.  Thus, we now 
have no less than 23 copies of Adobe Photoshop online in Waterman.  At 
present, the T lab is set up to have the two 10 packs (which must be run 
from the local drives, not the server!) and the remaining 3 are on the 
ARF machines.  None are in the main lab, nor are any in BH lab.  While 
this may seem a tad harsh, there is one primary reason for this: memory.

In version 2.5.1, one could get away with as little as 6 Megabytes of RAM,
something that most of the Macs in either lab had.  Version 3.0.5,
offering a slew of new features, gobbles up as much as 13.8 Megabytes -
and the partition on the T machines is set for 12 MB!  The main lab
machines, while having 16 MB RAM, would present significant problems for
the use of the software in a teaching setting - something that is fully
resolved with the use of the 2 Classroom in a box sets of 10.  The older
Mac LCIII's and the Centris units in BH have too little memory to even run
the software, and none are Power PC Processors.  After the initial
"wringing out" of this software, and the time needed by Faculty to
acclimatize both themselves and their students to it, it is likely that
we'll be able to make something available in the Main lab. 

Some useful additions include the presence of online help libraries and 
the availability of 20 Classroom-in-a-book packages.  These are complete 
lessons in Photoshop and include a CDROM.  If you'd like to check them 
out for possible inclusion in a class, or would like to have the students 
use the materials, let me know.



*** Adobe Pagemaker 6.0

At last version 6.0 of Pagemaker is here!  Sporting the famous 
(infamous?) inclusion of HTML tagging, a full 10 pack - Classroom in a box 
- set is on the Lab machines in both T and the Main lab as well as the 
ARF.  A single copy has been added to the BH lab, hopefully avoiding some 
of the contention problems that have sprung up for this popular program.

This too has a lot of online documentation and 10 of the Classroom in a 
book packages.  Let me know if you'd like to preview these for student use.



*** Clarisworks 4.0

We've been lucky enough to upgrade the Waterman Macintoshes with a LOT of 
bundled software, including Clarisworks 2.1, a multi-purpose software 
package.

The arrival of the version 4.0 updates a number of features in the 
package, including enhancements to the graphics engine for Painting and 
Drawing.  It's being actively used in several basic computer graphics 
classes.

The addition of an HTML extension to the software is another welcome 
feature.


* * * * * * * * * * *

I've made every effort to ensure that these all run smoothly and you 
should experience no startup problems at all.  Software and installations 
being what they are, though, you never know!  Should you discover some 
gremlin, or perhaps an "undocumented feature" :), please feel free to let 
me know right away.

	David Houston
	Client Services Coordinator