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Software Tools
GEN 230 Creative Expression: Literary Arts - Fall 2007
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from old syllabus page:
Several tools and techniques
are required for this course. All four software programs below should
be on the PCs in the Huber classrooms. Windows MovieMaker should be on
your
personal laptop or PC. You may well have a basic image editor that came
with a camera. The image editors below and the audio editor are
available for free download. I have provided links to them in case you
need to download them to your
personal computer. If you already have software that performs these
functions -- and you know how to use it -- check with me to make sure.
Software
tools
Windows Movie Maker - video
editor
Audacity -
audio editor
GIMP - image
editor (PSP on server: image.exe)
Because we do not have computers in our classroom, you are going to have to learn this software on your own. While you are writing your scripts at the end of September, I will demonstrate these software tools in class. Friday, September 26, Monday, September 29, Wednesday, October 1, and Friday, October 3. You are welcome to bring a laptop so that you can follow along.
Also, on three Saturdays, I will be in the Huber computer lab from 10 AM until noon to work with you individually on learning this software. Saturday, September 27, October 4, and October 18. I will schedule additional Saturdays if enough of you need them. I will also be availalbe for individual tutoring sessions, which you should schedule with me via email.
Finally, I am going to devote three class sessions in the middle of November to applying those tools to some of the work you have done to that point.
During this course, you will
have occasion
to get one or several relatively small files to me. The best way to do
that is by attaching it to an email. If you have more than one file to
attach, put all the files in a folder, compress (or zip) the folder,
and then attach the zipped file to an email.
The next best way to get a large file to me is with a small storage drive that goes by many names: thumb drive, jump drive, etc. The common denominator is the USB connection to the laptop or desktop. I will call it a USB drive.
Get the largest one that you can afford. A gigabyte or two would be a good idea, and you should probably be able to find them for around $10 per gigabyte.
Do not use the USB drive for storage. Use it only for transport. Think: is the copy of this document on the USB drive the only copy? If so, STOP and re-organize your file naming and file management so that if you should ever lose the USB dive, you will always have at least one other copy of every file on it.
This is a complex topic that I can't fully address in this course. By file management, I mean how you name files and where you keep them.
The biggest impediment to efficient file management is confusing your tool and your job.
I recommend that you put everything for this course -- your jobs -- in one folder either on your personal
PC's desktop or My Documents. Keep another copy on the College's
network, which you can access as My Documents on the classroom and
computer lab PCs. Use the USB drive as a way to sync the two, often.
By sync, I mean work on the course project at home or in your room. Save it to the GEN230 folder on your desktop. Copy the folder to your USB drive. When you come to class, first thing, move the GEN230 folder to the classroom PC's My Documents folder. Open it to work from during class.
Important!
Never work directly from the USB drive.
Use the USB drive only for transport.
How will you organize the sub-folders and files in the GEN230 folder?
That's up to you and there will be as many ways of doing that as there are students, but I suggest that you have a the kind of subfolder structure shown in the image on the right.
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Because the video
editors and the web pages depend on a stable file structure, this course will
test your file management skills.
My best advice to you is to set up a structure very much like this one and then freeze it for the duration of the semester.
Harvest media into the half dozen sub-folders in the media folder. Leave them there unless you want to further divide the sub-folders, for example into different kinds of video clips or different still photo sets.
In the "mash1" folder, put the instructions files (.mswmm, .psp, .aup files) and the various drafts or versions of your edited pieces as well as the final .wmv files.
What are instruction files?
It is important that the video, image, and audio editors that you use not destroy the original media assets. Thus, even though you use Movie Maker to "cut" a video clip into two pieces, all you have done is add to the instructions file (.mswmm file). The .mswmm file is a small text file that contains the instructions for how to treat the media when you finally render (aka compile or save) it as a movie that can be played in a video player.
The rendering can take a while, depending on how complicated the instructions are. Fancy transitions and special effects can take a longer time to render. At no point is the original media file actually "cut" into two pieces.
However, to work the next time you return to edit some more, the instructions file that you saved needs to be able to find the media in the same place. You will thus save yourself a lot of tedium by 1) creating a file structure, 2) putting all your assets into it, and 3) leaving them there so that the instructions files can always find them.
It follows that giving someone the .mswmm file is pointless unless you also give them all the media asset files in the file structure where the .mswmm file expects to find them.
Tools are in the Program Files folder. Jobs are in the My Documents folder. Don't confuse them.
instruction files
Movie Maker .MSWMM
PaintShop Pro .psp
Audacity .aud
Using Windows Explorer, explore the folders and subfolders in your C:\Program Files folder. (See mine above.) With a couple of exceptions, all your applications are stored here. If you use Netscape's browser, its cache is here also.
When you load a program, aka a software application, from a CD or download one from the Internet, this is the default folder where Windows will save it to unless you specify otherwise.
If you want to get rid of a program, don't delete it from this folder. Go to the Control Panel and use the Add/Remove Programs tool.
I recommend that you develop your own file management system. Trying to be helpful, the geniuses at Microsoft have started you off with a default system that you are welcome to adapt. If you don't specify otherwise, files get saved into these folders.
Depending on which version of Windows you have, your folders may look like mine in the screen shots below. Note the word "My" over and over again.
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If you ever wonder where is file went or where it is so you can open it again, here's where to look.
Microsoft makes it very easy for you to do this. The jobs are yours and the tools are theirs. If they can make you bring the job to the tool, then you'll think you can't do your job without their tool.
It is very important that you take the tool to the job. Then you can use whatever tool you need for the job. Keep them separate.
If you think that all your documents are "in Word", then you're falling into the Microsoft trap. You're bringing the job to the tool. AOL does the same thing. Less, uh, sophisticated users tend to think of AOL as the Web. Or they are using a local ISP but they use only Netscape's browser. They tend to think of Netscape as the Web. They don't realize that the web page can be saved to their desktop. They don't see the web page as a document that can be opened with other browsers or other software.
If you take the tool to the job, you can then create a file management system or "job" management system that is independent from the programs or "tools" you use. Don't save a document "into Word". Save it into your file management system after you finish using Word to edit it.
file types
file conversions
We're going to discuss the arts and their parts. The best way for you to understand this is to make a concept map. A concept map is a way for you to organize relationship graphically.
We could use paper and pencil or even post-it notes on a board, but we're going to use some software. Microsoft's Word and Excel come with a drawing toolbar that has the shapes and lines we need. Word limits you to a printable space, but Excel gives a map plenty of room to grow. So open Excel and look for the drawing toolbar, probably at the bottom. If you don't see it, pull down the View menu, select Toolbars, and make sure Drawing is checked.
You will note AutoShapes and lines, expanded below. You're going to need a couple of different shapes in a couple of different colors. The line, the one-way arrow, and the two-way arrow will all be useful, and you can make them different colors, too.
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You're going to make a box for each of the words below and type the word into the box. You can use different colors to communicate relationships. For example, all the text-related words could be one color, the image-related words another color. You can use different shapes for the same purpose. The arts could be one shape, and the arts parts could be another shape.
You're going to arrange all these boxes on the spreadsheet and then put lines between them. Again, different types of lines/arrows and different colors can help you to communicate.
Feel free to add more terms to your concept map. Your map does not have to include all the terms here. Just grapple with what you can manage.
text editor
You use a text editor to write the text that will be displayed in other media, such as images and videos.
Notepad is on every Windows computer (Start | Programs | Accessories)
I recommend NoteTab Light (free).
To format text for
printing, use a word processor or desktop publisher. Microsoft Word is a
common word processor and low-end desktop publisher. I recommend
OpenOffice (free).
To format text for the web, use a web page editor and site manager. Microsoft's FrontPage is on the school Windows computers. Dreamweaver is a similar product, and is similarly expensive. I recommend Nvu (n-view) (free).
See the webmaking section.
media: where to get texts and lyrics
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