After a solid four-year run of interesting and varied bi-monthly issues of MetroMacExpress, you may have noticed that we've stumbled.

The last issue, No. 20, had only two articles, and was late. This issue features four articles, but is a full month late. What happened?

What happened is we're a volunteer organization, and one of our volunteers stop volunteering.

When we changed from PDF to HTML format in 2003 we were fortunate to have member Rob Yasharian volunteer as graphic and layout designer. An expert in HTML coding, Rob has been turning out clean, visually exciting designs issue after issue. He performed so reliably and generously that we never thought to provide a backup.

A Crisis Looms

So when professional obligations required him to lighten his load, we suddenly had a flat and no spare. Rob gave us a four-month notice, but our search for a replacement—or even two semi-replacements— came up empty. What to do? Abandon our prize-winning newsletter? Unthinkable! Downgrade it to another MetroMac forum, with articles appearing from time to time, randomly and unformatted? O.K.—but only if we had to.

Then Marc Silverman, our Webmaster, worked out a solution. He set up a program —a sort of template—that would create all the familiar design features of the Newsletter for each issue. Then, using Editize—a simple "text field" replacement app—anyone on the editing staff, even if unskilled in Web design, could plug in the title, text graphics and illustrations for the articles as they came in. This totally automated the creation, revision and publishing of MetroMac ExPress in the form you've come to know and love. Problem solved.

Or almost. It's taken some time to get us (the editing staff) to overcome our discomfort with the unfamiliar and give it a try. It took more time to learn the ropes and work out the kinks. Now the result lies before you: No 21: a little scrawny and delivered late, but alive and well.

Coming Next

Next issue will feature a piece by Eden Maxwell on Disk Warrior, or—if that title doesn't grab you—Hard-Drive Housekeeping: How to Avoid Directory Damage the Easy Way. Very thorough, very useful.

Beyond that, how would these subjects grab you?

• How a retouching pro uses Photoshop Curves and Levels
• "Save As": do you really know which file format is best?
• Freeware and Shareware I couldn't do without

If you'd like to see any or all of these, or have any suggestions, let us know at <[email protected]>

Copyright © 2006
Metropolitan New York Macintosh Alliance