Christopher Grover is a veteran of the San Francisco Bay Area advertising and design community, having worked for over 25 years in print, video, and electronic media. During that stint, he’s had freelance articles published in a variety of magazines from Fine Homebuilding to CD-ROM World. Chris is owner of Bolinas Road Creative (www.BolinasRoad.com), an agency that helps small businesses promote their products and services. He’s also the author of Word 2007: The Missing Manual and co-author of Digital Photography: The Missing Manual.
E.A. Vander Veer (previous editions) started out in the software trenches, lexing and yaccing and writing shell scripts with the best of them. She remained busy and happy for years writing C++ programs and wresting data from recalcitrant databases. After a stint as an Object Technology Evangelist (yes, that’s an actual job title), she found a way to unite all of her passions: writing about cool computer stuff in prose any human being can understand. Books followed—over a dozen so far—including Facebook: The Missing Manual, PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual, JavaScript for Dummies, and XML Blueprints. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Email: emilyamoore@rgv.rr.com.
Nan Barber (editor) is associate editor for the Missing Manual series. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and G4 Macintosh. Email: nanbarber@oreilly.com.
Dawn Frausto (editor) is assistant editor for the Missing Manual series. When not working, she likes rock climbing, playing soccer, and causing trouble. Email: dawn@oreilly.com.
Nellie McKesson (production editor) lives in Jamaica Plain, Mass., where she makes t-shirts for her friends (http://mattsaundersbynellie.etsy.com) and plays music with her band Dr. & Mrs. Van Der Trampp (myspace.com/drmrsvandertrampp). Email: nellie@oreilly.com.
Dianne Russell (production manager) of Octal Publishing, Inc. When not frantically making book deadlines she enjoys gourmet cooking, jogging, taking care of 3 kids, 2 bunnies, 1 dog, 1 hampster, and a husband. Email: dianne@octalpub.com
Josh Buhler (technical reviewer) In 2001, Josh realized that his wife’s homework was more fun that his was, so he signed up for the same Flash class she was taking. Since then, he has used Flash for everything from designing custom snowboards and displaying sheet music to sharing the Declaration of Independence. When not writing code, you can usually find him playing video games or talking like a pirate with his daughter Brooklynn. Josh is currently a Senior Flash Developer at RAIN. Web: www.ghostRadio.net.
Matthew Woodruff (technical reviewer) is a Web designer for O’Reilly Media and has enjoyed using Flash for the last six years. He has a degree in Interactive Media Design from the Art Institute of California-San Francisco. Email: mattheww@oreilly.com.
Alison O’Byrne (copy editor) has been a professional freelance editor for over six years. She lives with her family in Dublin, Ireland. Email: alison@alhaus.com. Web: www.alhaus.com.
It never ceases to amaze me how many talented pros it takes to turn some words on a page into a Missing Manual. A special thanks to Nan Barber, my editor, who has helped me through the process quite a few times now. (Where does she find the patience?) Many thanks to Josh Buhler and Matthew Woodruff, two great Flash and ActionScript experts, who checked and double-checked the technical details. Between my manuscript and all the new features in Flash CS4, they had their work cut out for them. My sincere appreciation to Alison O’Byrne and Lucie Haskins, who whipped through the copy editing and indexing in record time. Thanks to all the other Missing Manual folks who put in long weekends to get this book on the shelves. And, once again, thanks to Peter Meyers who gave me a crack at my first Missing Manual. Work really shouldn’t be this much fun!
As always, thanks to my beautiful wife Joyce, my collaborator in that other project—life. And hugs for Mary and Amy who help me approach everything I do with fresh enthusiasm and a bundle of questions.
—Chris Grover
Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don’t come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index; cross-references to specific pages (not just chapters); and RepKover, a detached-spine binding that lets the book lie perfectly flat without the assistance of weights or cinder blocks.
Recent and upcoming titles include:
Access 2007: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
AppleScript: The Missing Manual by Adam Goldstein
AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual by Jim Elferdink and David Reynolds
CSS: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
David Pogue’s Digital Photography: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
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FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual by Geoff Coffey and Susan Prosser
Flash 8: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander Veer
Flash CS3: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander Veer and Chris Grover
FrontPage 2003: The Missing Manual by Jessica Mantaro
Google Apps: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
The Internet: The Missing Manual by David Pogue and J.D. Biersdorfer
iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
iMovie ’08 & iDVD: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
iPhone: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
iPhoto ’08: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
iPod: The Missing Manual, 6th Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer
JavaScript: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition by David Pogue
Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Office 2004 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by Mark H. Walker and Franklin Tessler
Office 2007: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover, Matthew MacDonald, and E.A. Vander Veer
Office 2008 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by Jim Elferdink
PCs: The Missing Manual by Andy Rathbone
Photoshop Elements 7: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage
Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage
PowerPoint 2007: The Missing Manual by E.A. Vander Veer
QuickBase: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner
QuickBooks 2008: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
QuickBooks 2009: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
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Quicken 2009: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue and Adam Goldstein
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition by David Pogue
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Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition by David Pogue
Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, 2nd Edition by David Pogue, Craig Zacker, and Linda Zacker
Windows Vista: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Windows Vista for Starters: The Missing Manual by David Pogue
Word 2007: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover
Your Brain: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald
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