"How did you do that?" is something I've often heard asked with hopeful expectation that the magic sequence of commands and clicks will be shared. Forget the details of "how" for a moment. Think theory first, then zoom into details.

I think the kindest thing we can do for folks new to computers or applications is to help them understand the nuances associated with each general tool set, then let them learn the details of a given software program.

In addition to understanding major tool categories and the right time/manner to use them, it is also critical to know about file formats, and why we choose the ones we do. My advice on file formats is simple, stick with the ones that preserve the greatest amount of digital information and are the most accessible to the broadest range of programs.

For instance, Photoshop is one of my favored photo manipulation packages. It's been a beast of a learning curve, but one I now can't do without. Photoshop's native file format is *.psd. A *.psd file contains the most amount of digital information for Photoshop, meaning that nothing has been lost to compression. But *.tif files are also very similar to *.psd and have much more flexibility in being read/understood by other software applications (e.g., word processors, page layout programs, etc.).

Big deal, right? Well, *.jpg (pronounced jay-peg) are common among today's digital cameras. Even when I get a CD-ROM back with my developed 35mm photos, the images are stored as *.jpg. These *.jpg files are compressed graphic files. While on screen they might look just as good as a *.tif or *.psd, they have lost a tremendous amount of digital information during compression, and continue to do so with each subsequent "File-Save." Kind of like making copies of a cassette tape, which is a copy of an album. The information we hear in the copy of the copy of the copy is never as good as what the original musical engineers had when working in the recording studio. My point is this: With file formats, get as close as possible to the original, beefy rich digital files, since it's often a degenerative process that rarely gets better.

Having said this, there is a time and a place for compressed files. A *.tif file generally won't work on the Web (unless you have a Quicktime plug-in installed in your browser). Web browsers like to see *.gif, *.jpg, and/or *.png file formats. In my case, I do all my work in *.tif's, and when I've got it, the last thing I do is kick it down to *.jpg format. Once we go down stream in file info it's not easy, or even possible to go back up.

Same thing with music. Get a *.wav file and we can go down to *.mp3, but it's very difficult to try to go back up stream.

We would think that software within an application set would respect like-minded software, but this is not the case. Consider word processing, best used for text editing. Each word processor has its own way of bolding, underlining, etc. So, something you author in Lotus Word Pro, for instance, might not be readable by another word processing package or version. When we save a file to ASCII, we are stripping away all the formatting commands leaving us with simple, raw text. ASCII can be read by every word processor. The next step above ASCII is rich text formats, which retain some of our formats. Rich text formats are also very good for universal sharing.

While the traditional lines between software applications are blurry, here is an oversimplified list of general tools:

• Browsers are for surfing Internet sites (e.g., Netscape Navigator)
  
  
• Databases store, sort and retrieve tables, much like phone books (e.g., Access, Approach)
  
  
• Diagramming packages, like Visio, help us draw complicated informational representations (e.g., organization charts, data flows)
  
  
• E-mail clients are for composing, receiving, sending, storing e-mails (e.g., Eudora Pro)
  
  
• FTP packages, like Cutftp32, allow us to efficiently transfer files from computer to server, or vice versa
  
  
• HTML editing packages allow us to create/modify Web pages (e.g., text-based editors like HomeSite, visual editors like NetObjects Fusion)
  
  
• Illustration packages are good for creating art (e.g, CorelDraw, Illustrator)
  
  
• Page layout programs are great for fine-tuning elements (text and graphics) to appear on pages (e.g., Pagemaker, Quark Express)
  
  
• PIM's are personal information managers which allow us to store phone numbers, addresses, dates, notes (e.g., Lotus Organizer)
  
  
• Photo manipulation packages are for tweaking images (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Ulead's PhotoImpact)
  
  
• Presentation software allows us to create charts and slides for overhead projections (e.g., Freelance Graphics, Powerpoint)
  
  
• Sequencing software is for arranging/composing music (e.g., Cakewalk)
  
  
• Spreadsheets usually go with number crunching (e.g., Excel, Lotus 123)
  
  
• Utilities are for housekeeping like managing hard disk fragmentation, or preventing viruses
  
  
• Video editing can be handled via turnkey systems that bundle hardware for signal capture, as well as software for editing, like Canopus, or can be just software, like Adobe Premier
  
  
• Wordprocessors are today's efficient typewriters (e.g., Lotus WordPro)
  
  
• And the list goes on and on
  
  

Lastly, if you don't know how to cut 'n' paste, find out. Perhaps this is the most important skill I know of that transcends applications. Remember what I said about understanding the big picture-theory first, then zero in on details. While I was writing this chapter, I attended a seminar in New York where the speaker was showing how to cut 'n' paste. One of the women in the audience asked him to back up several times to explain the technique again. I felt for her as she desperately tried to write down the sequence of commands. The workshop speaker did her a huge disservice by only saying, "click this, tab here, click that," and not giving her the foundation knowledge. Anyhow, PC machines have an invisible bucket called a "clipboard." It can store one thing at a time in the bucket (e.g., something copied or cut). Then we empty the contents of the bucket into another program or page section by "pasting." Even at the industrial level, I've heard online firms affectionately point to a floor or room and say "That's our cut 'n' paste department."

Okay that's it for foundations for this document. However, I encourage all to embark on a path of becoming digitally fluent.   top