Learning Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

We are pleased to announce our fourth book -- Picture Yourself Learning Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac -- is now published by Cengage Learning!

Picture Yourself Learning Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac offers you a quick and simple way to learn a complex and complicated software suite.

On each page we provide easy steps for learning Office for Mac using full-color images and lots of tips, hints and secrets!

After reading our book, you will be a Mac Office 2008 expert as you master Word 2008, PowerPoint 2008 and Excel 2008 along with Messenger for Mac and Entourage!

Picture Yourself Learning Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac is now available for purchase everywhere excellent books are sold.

Here are our other recent Thomson/Cengage books:

We are certain you will learn a lot from each book!

Google Apps Adds Google Sites

If you are a Google Apps user and a loyal fan of my book -- "Google Apps Administrator Guide" -- I have some good news!

I have uploaded "Bonus Chapter 13: Google Sites" for that seminal book to the Boles Books Writing and Publishing website.

Google Sites is the latest addition to the Google Apps suite of programs.

Using Google Sites, you can now add interactive communication workflows so you may more easily share files, create tasks and set announcements.

I walk you through the Google Apps Dashboard setup and your first template design.

Enjoy!

The Equalization Effect of Digital Publishing

Established mainstream authors like John Updike are furious with Google for scanning books into the public domain and they're angry with publishers that choose to sell electronic editions of books -- any book.

We argue authors like Updike are angry because their specialness in publication is being ravaged by the equanimity and the equality of the digital publishing, print-on-demand, business model creeping into the book world.

Where once these "Big Name" authors were King Makers with power and influence -- everyone can now play on the same ground as them as the playing field is leveled and leavened in favor of the everyday and the accessible.

You create power and wield it when you can narrow access to minds and to the control of thoughts.

If everyone in the room with you -- and even those out in the world at large -- can go toe-to-toe with you to compete for the hearts and ideas of an ever-widening readership, your star shines less, your book advances dwindle, and your awards and certificates are diminished as the power is equalized.

Be wary of anyone claiming electronic publishing is bad for reading -- and when you see that sort of strange protest -- look for the threat to the backend profit the protestor is making behind your back.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Book

It is a great delight to share with you the news that David W. Boles' newest book -- Picture Yourself Learning Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard -- is now available for purchase!

You may buy the book from any online bookseller or you might even find the book on the shelf of your local bookstore.

Every page of Picture Yourself Learning Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard teaches you how to use Apple's newest Operating System code-named: "Leopard."

Each page is filled with instruction and full-color, high quality, images to help step you through the learning process and the book is published by Thomson/Cengage Learning.

We know you'll not only just enjoy -- but you will love the book as well -- as its teaching style and learning memes wash over your fresh understanding of a great computer Operating System.

Writing Four New Boles Books

It is a great honor and pleasure to announce we are writing the following four books for Thomson/Cengage Learning:

Picture Yourself Learning Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Picture Yourself Learning Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac

Picture Yourself Learning American Sign Language, Level 1 (includes Bonus DVD!)

Google Apps Administrator Guide

The writing schedule is hectic but we will get it done.

Three of the four books will be published before the end of 2007.

We will keep you updated on the status of our onward progress in bringing these semiotic books to life. We love and honor the power of the image on the page and these full-color books will prove that devotion in spades.

Research with Google Custom Search Business Edition

Searching for information on a blog can be confusing and confounding.

To provide better meaning in our world -- we have purchased a Business Edition Google Custom Search Engine for Boles University so you can quickly do a search for topics that interest you.

You can start using the search engine here or by using the new Search Box in our sidebar:

http://bolesuniversity.com

You can also search Boles Books Writing and Publishing and Urban Semiotic via that same search box.

If you're looking to search Boles Dot Com and Hardcore ASL and Go Inside Magazine instead -- Google Custom Search Business Editions cost $100.00 USD each but they only work by indexing three domains at a time! -- then try out this additional Google Custom Search Engine Business Edition we purchased just for that purpose!

http://boles.com

Let us know if you have any joys or troubles searching your wants with us!

When Tech Editors Go Bad

If you write a book that deals with computers or the Internet you will likely have an important cog in your editorial process in the form of a Technical Editor.

Your Tech Editor watches your back and checks your steps, facts and work process.

A Tech Editor is your guarantee of excellence -- but if that editor drops the ball in the review process and begins missing deadlines -- the entire book project is plunged into jeopardy.

Delays of even a few days in replacing a misbegotten Tech Editor quickly translates into thousands of lost dollars because the book is late to the marketplace.

The lesson is this: Pick your Tech Editors wisely and those you know may not be any better than those you have yet to meet.

Money, deadlines and responsibility can wound even the best informal relationship so choose wisely and carry a big blue pencil.

Publishing Kills the Weak and Weakens the Strong

Writing is hard work. Hurtful work. Deadly work.

Putting together a book is a long and painful process of recognition, writing and ongoing negotiation.

Binding a book on deadline kills the weak and weakens the strong because the book waits for no one and when crunch time hits you better be prepared to give and take some harsh strikes.

Because the publishing process is so brutal, few companies or people are able to do it on a regular basis. You're dealing with geographic constraints, human aesthetic, and a changing target audience.

Bringing a book to readers is the process of a miracle realized.

Boles Books Writing and Publishing

It is a great delight for us to tell you about a new book from Boles Books Writing and Publishing -- one of our premier content partners.

Google Apps for Your Domain is a new book in process written by David W. Boles and published by Thomson under their Course PTR imprint.

You may read this blog entry for more information and also visit the official website for the book.

Boles Books GIS

We are pleased to share with you the great good news that Boles Books Writing & Publishing and Dramatic Medicine -- our official bookstore partner and our program in Public Health -- sealed a deal this week to provide GIS (Geographic Information Systems) material to Glencoe/McGraw-Hill for use in three new textbooks due out in 2008.

You can read more about the project here and be sure to keep an eye out for the books:

World Geography and Cultures
Glencoe World History
The American Vision

Boles Books is Our Bookstore!

We are pleased to announce Boles Books Writing and Publishing are our new one-stop online Bookstore!

We will be creating course texts for purchase and instant download in addition to the outstanding material already available for purchase.

If you are taking American Sign Language, we will continue to use Hand Jive: American Sign Language for Real Life as our main textbook until the interactive online courses come online.