Sessions Online School of Design provides fee-based courses in Graphic Design, Web Design, Multimedia, and Digital Art. However, they offer 18 well produced Free Course Video Modules in The Art & Design Video Tutorial Library. These will help you develop your skills and techniques in digital arts and design using Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Graphic Design, Painting, and Drawing. Free registration is required.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Sessions School of Design offers six well written Website Design Guides in their POP! Library of Visual Design Guides. By using these web design guides you will obtain real world training on improving your design skills in these areas: web site design, layouts, digital photography, branding, and animation. These downloadable full-color training documents were written by 15 professional designers. Free registration is required.

Contents of the The POP! Library of Visual Design Guides:

     Make Your Portfolio POP
     Find out how do good designers make their work compelling and attractive.

     Make Your Photographs POP
     Get the details on lighting, perspective, framing, settings, editing, and your “eye”.

     Make Your Web Sites POP
     Learn how emotion, consistency, balance and color can come together for
     a great web design.

     Make Your Branding POP
     Discover the secrets of how to visually communicate a brand on the web.

     Make Your Animations POP
     This explains how to make greate animations for the web.

     Make Your Layouts POP
     This describes how to make print layouts look appealling on your website.

Popularity: 18% [?]

The University of Newcastle offers this free 12-page guide, titled Getting Started with Excel. This will assist you with getting started Excel. It provides an excellent example of a spreadsheet that you can use to learn several important Excel features. Using Excel, you can manage and create many types of information, from lists of similar data to complex financial calculations, along with drawing and displaying charts and graphs. (126kb, pdf format)

The Excel Guide is divided into two parts:
  – Part 1 is a hands-on spreadsheet tutorial
  – Part 2 presents additional topics and areas to increase your Excel knowledge

Contents:

Part 1: Practical tutorial
  – The Basics
  - Creating a worksheet
  – Altering layouts
  - Making a chart
  – Leaving Excel

Part 2: Building on the basics
  – The different forms of online help
  – Printing a worksheet
  - Other useful things to know
  – How to make copies of files
  – Learning more
  - Using Google
  – The Helpline

Popularity: 17% [?]

CreativePro hosts and links to 613 Photoshop Tutorials and Articles that teach and explain virtually all of the many features and functions of Photoshop. These include tutorials for several Photoshop version, including Photoshop CS, Photoshop 8, and Photoshop 7. Here are some of their Photshop tutorials.


Photoshop How-To: Using Adjustment Layers
Learn how to use adjustment layers with layers and curves when editing images in Photoshop without degrading the image data.

Photoshop How-To: Aging Metal Textures
How to transform a plain gray background into a textured, rusty surface.

Photoshop How-To: Creating Contact Sheets, Picture Packages, and Online Galleries
Discover Photoshop’s features that allow you to create contact sheets, picture packages, and online galleries.

Photoshop How-To: Seeing the Big Pixel
This Photoshop tutorial teaches you how to add pixelated masks to an image for a very modern effect.

Photoshop How-To: Making Painted-Paper Illustrations
In this Photoshop tutorial, Luanne Seymour Cohen instructs how to create collages out of digital rather than paper.

Retouching Images Using Photoshop with Bert Monroy, Part 1
Photoshop craftsman Bert Monroy teaches you how to retouch an image using Photoshop.

The Photoshop CS Camera Raw Dialog Box
This Photoshop tutorial shows you how to manipulate the additional data contained in RAW image files to give your photos more detail.

Take Advantage of Photoshop Actions
Find out how Photoshop actions let you automate just about any task.

Photoshop How-To: Weaving Layer Contents
Learn how to weave layered elements together in Photoshop so they do not appear as a simple stack.

Miracle Tools: Photoshop’s Healing Brush and Patch
In Photoshop 7.0, learn how to use the Healing Brush and Patch tools to retouch images.

Creating Rollovers In Photoshop CS and ImageReady CS
Tanya Staples show you how to create rollover images in ImageReady CS and Photoshop CS using templates, palletes, layers, and by hand.

Photoshop How-To: Adding Bleeds and Crop Marks
This Photoshop how to shows you two ways to add print marks, such as crop marks and bleeds to your Photoshop file.

Photoshop How-To: Making a DVD Menu
Find out how to make a DVD menu to be used in Encore DVD using Photoshop.

The Shadow/Highlight Tool In Photoshop CS: Breathing New Life Into Your Images
This PhotoshopCS tutorials explains how to use the Shadow/Highlight (S/H) tool so you have more control over the dark (shadow) and light (highlight) areas of your images.

Design How-To: Adding Photographic Texture to Type
Using Photoshop and a photograph, learn how to create textures for display text.

Out of Gamut: Calibrating Camera Raw in Photoshop CS
Learn how to use Photoshop’s Camera Raw plug-in to create custom color profiles for digital cameras.

Photoshop How-To: Compositing Images with Color and Shadow
Photoshop master John Lund shows how to combine multiple images and photos into single scenes and images.

Photoshop How-To: Going from Brunette to Blond
Learn how to use adjustment layers in Photoshop to lighted hair color.

Photoshop How-To: Restoring Damaged Photos
Discover these Photoshop digital techniques for repairing creased, torn, and damaged photos.

Photoshop How-To: Super-Smooth Skin
Here’s a Photoshop technique using the Healing Brush to create perfectly flawless, smooth skin.

Creating Color-Consistent Panoramas with Photoshop CS
Photoshop guru Russell Brown shows you how to use PhotoMerge in Photoshop CS to merge photos in the same scene.

Using Layer Comps to Create Variations in Photoshop CS
Use Layer Comps in Adobe Photoshop CS…a simple click in the palette to Save New Layer Comp, lets you name and save your current view of layer visibility and editing state as a Layer Comp.

Photoshop CS How-To: Placing Type on a Path
This Photoshop CS tutorial teaches you the ability to place type along a path using the new type-on-a-path feature. You can create a path with the Pen tool, a shape tool, even add text along a path created from type.

Color Replacement in Photoshop CS
Learn how to use the Color Replacement tool in Adobe Photoshop CS to perform color replacement on your image in a single step.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The University of Newcastle offers the following two Word help and tutorial documents, in pdf format. The first one is a 2-page Word Hints and Tips sheet, and the second one is an 18-page tutorial on managing Pictures in Word, including aquiring, choosing, and inserting them into Word.


Hints and Tips for using MS Word
96kb, 2 pages


Pictures in Word Documents
389kb, 18 pages
File size is the most common cause of problems when working with pictures in Microsoft Office. The average computer user needs to know a few things about using graphics: this Guide explains them.

Contents:
What’s the problem?
About this Guide
Scanners and software Graphical conversion software Printers

Part 1: Graphics for the Amateur
  – Normal amateur usage, and the biggest pitfall
  – Why do you want a picture here?
  – Theory versus reality: testing and printing
  - Producing pictures: graphical formats, etc.
  - Saving images
  – Screen captures (PC, Mac, Unix)

Part 2: Choosing a graphic file format
  – Bitmap (raster) types
     – jpeg, gif, tiff, png, bmp, pcx, pict
  – Vector types
     – eps/epsf, wmf

Part 3: Inserting pictures into Word documents
  – Why do it?
  - Hints and Help
  – Recommended procedure
  - Size adjustment, and others
  – Inserting a chart from Excel Beware of PowerPoint

Appendix A: More tips and recommendations
  – Your own computer?
  - Safe working
  – PostScript
  - Color images
  – Word-specific tips
  - Web documents
  – Links to more information

Appendix B: Some pictures

Popularity: 20% [?]

Here are 17 freely available Flash ebooks, in pdf format, available from salaam.cs.buap.mx/EBOOKS/FLASH/. These cover many areas and features of Flash, including making Flash movies, ActionScript, building a Flash web site, and more.


17 Flash eBooks

 - Macromedia Flash MX Techniques
 - Flash 4 Manual
 - Flash MX 2004 ActionScript eBook
 - Flash MX Actionscript eBook
 - Flash MX Tutorials
 - How to Make Flash & PHP Talk
 - Learning Flash
 - Macromedia Flash  Making movies
 - Macromedia Flash MX Building a 100% Flash Site
 - Macromedia Flash MX Actionscript eBook
 - Macromedia Flash MX eBook
 - Macromedia Flash MX Tutorials
 - Macromedia Flash MX  Manual
 - Play Piano In A Flash
 - Using Flash
 - Learning Flash MX 2004
 - Flash MX Level 1

Popularity: 23% [?]

Here are 66 PowerPoint Tutorials and Techniques, hosted by onppt.com. These cover many areas and features of using PowerPoint to its fullest extent. Areas covered by these PowerPoint tutorials include: playing sound and music with your slides, running your presentation in a look, showing your slides on 2 projectors at once, creating attractive animations, keeping your files from getting corrupted, making a summary slide, using colors effectively, replacing fonts, using shapes and autoshapes, finding and using templates, and advice on public speaking.
 

PowerPoint Tricks

A Sound Solution: Playing Music on HTML Presentations
Shows how to play music across slides after they are converted to HTML

Creating Depth within a Slide Presentation
Discover some new tricks to add extra punch to your presentations

Creating & Running an Opening Loop
Learn how to add impact to your presentations by running an open loop.

Using PowerPoint in Dual Monitor/Projector
Discover how to display your presentations on multiple screens in two different views.


PowerPoint Features and Basics

Boom - Blowing things up in PowerPoint
Learn how to blow things up and apart using PowerPoint animations.

Black and White Printing Solution in PowerPoint
Learn how to pick choose which objects on a slide to print or not to print when using black and white or grayscale.

PowerPoint Animations: Starting Things Going
Find out the basics of animation timing in PPT 2002 and 2003 with this tutorial.

Quick PowerPoint Trigger Tips
This tutorial gives you great information on avoiding problems with triggers.

Making and Preserving a Second Master in PowerPoint
Read here for steps to create and keep the all the masters in your presentation.

Find fabulous fonts to dress up your PowerPoint deck
Learn how to set the tone of your presentations by using the right font at the right time.

Ten PowerPoint FAQ Entries You Don’t Know You Need to Read
Check out this list for the top10 FAQs that everyone should know about  PowerPoint.

PowerPoint Presentations for Multiple Machines
Discover 7 great tips for building a presentation that will run on more than one machine.

PowerPoint 2003 – the Other Changes
This PowerPoint 2003 article teaches you about Smart Tags, inking, and font handling.

PowerPoint 2003: The Other Changes
Stay up-to-date on research tools and template changes made to PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint Custom Show Extras
This tutorial discusses how to customize your presentation by adding extras such as repeating slides, action settings and more.

Trigger Happy Animations in PowerPoint
This tutorial shows you how to use animation triggers with PowerPoint 2002 and 2003.

Great News for PowerPoint Users
Learn how to use the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer and Package for CD.

Preventing and Fixing PowerPoint File Corruption
Find out how to keep your PowerPoint files from getting corrupted and what to do if they do.

Four Quick PowerPoint Hints
How to: 1) Animate your masters, 2) Use outline toolbar, 3) Create a summary slide, and 4) Turn your slide into desktop wallpaper.

One Object – Two Animations: A Quick PowerPoint How-To
Discover how to automate an object more than once within the same slide in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003.

Some Quick PowerPoint Sound Reminders
Here are tips on getting sound to work on your PowerPoint presentations

OLE Links vs. Servers for PowerPoint
Learn the difference between OLE objects and OLE Servers, in relation to PowerPoint

Places to Get PowerPoint Help
Here are 10 places to find more help with your PowerPoint questions.

Creating a Complete PowerPoint Template – Part 1
This is the first part of a two part PowerPoint Template tutorial which takes you through the steps to create a fully enabled template from a blank presentation.

Creating a Complete PowerPoint Template – Part 2
This is the second part of a two part PowerPoint Template tutorial showing you how to create a new template from a blank presentation.

Wide-Screen Presentations in PowerPoint
Learn how to make your PowerPoint slide presentations fit the 16×9 widescreen format.

New Photo Album Feature in PowerPoint 2002 is a Huge Time Saver
Here is a short tip for using the Photo Album, which is one of PowerPoint 2002’s great features.

Animating Text in Your PowerPoint Presentation
Add style and flash to your text entrances using animated text in your PowerPoint presentations.

Information Hiding with PowerPoint
Learn how to use PowerPoint’s hidden slides feature to create FAQ slides for your presentations.

Need a PowerPoint Loop Show? Here’s How!
This tutorial provides some great tips on creating a looping PowerPoint slide show.

Building the Content of Your PowerPoint Presentation
This tutorial helps you get started on creating a PowerPoint Presentation.

Font Fixing: Using Replace Fonts in PowerPoint
This will show you how to use the replace fonts feature in PowerPoint.

Color Scheming in PowerPoint
Learn how to use and coordinate colors in your PowerPoint presentations.

Back to Basics with PowerPoint: Starting From Scratch, Part 1
This is part 1 of 2 on how to the basics of PowerPoint presentations.

Back to Basics with PowerPoint: Starting From Scratch, Part 2
This is part 2 of 2 on how to the basics of PowerPoint presentations.

How to create Multiple PowerPoint Shows from One file
Learn how to create multiple PowerPoint slide shows using one presentation file.

10 Common PowerPoint Problems and Their Solutions
Here are quick answers to 10 common PowerPoint questions.

Shaping Up Your PowerPoint Presentations
Find out how to insert a fairly basic shape into a PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint Autoshapes From A to Z
Here are some great tips and techniques to use when working with PowerPoint’s Autoshapes.


PowerPoint Issues and Opinions

Linda’s Soapbox: People Who Think the World Owes Them Everything
Here are tips on how to ask for computer and PowerPoint help. By following the ideas presented here, you will more likely to get help for free.

PowerPoint 2002 Anti-Alias Problems? Where?
This is an article about anti-aliasing problems that some users are having with PowerPoint 2002 animated text on some backgrounds.

PowerPoint 2002 “Upgrade”
This will inform you on how to get PowerPoint 2002 on your “Small Business Edition” of Office 2002.

An Opinion: Why You Need PowerPoint XP/2002
This articles offers several reasons why you need and should buy PowerPoint XP/2002


PowerPoint Reviews

The Best PowerPoint Shows on the Web
This artilce links to the best free PowerPoint slide show samples.

Website Review: BrainyBetty.com

PowerPoint & Internet Explorer: A Shift In Thought?

Should I get PowerPoint 2002?  

How the Cavemen and Cavewomen Developed PowerPoint
This will give you some history on how PowerPoint was developed.


PowerPoint Templates

Help - I need to find a PowerPoint Template
Here is where to look for finding the best PowerPoint templates.

PowerFinish: Templates and Backgrounds for Every Use
This is a review of an excellent PowerPoint template source: PowerFinish. 

Awesome - Powerpoint Backgrounds
Here is an updated article that gives you information about TAJ Simmon’s free PowerPoint templates.


Missing PowerPoint Features

What you think PowerPoint is Missing
Here are your choices for the Missing PowerPoint Features.

Top Ten Missing PowerPoint Features
This article describes ten features that PowerPoint needs to have for more powerful and ease of use.

A PowerPoint Sound Solution: Playing Music on HTML Presentations
This tutorials will help you get sound to play after converting your slides to an HTML presentation.


Sharing PowerPoint Presentations

7 PowerPoint Tips to Cleanly Creating Presentations to Share
Here are seven tips that explain how to make your PowerPoint presentations easy and ready to share with others.

Sharing PowerPoint Presentations
This PowerPoint tutorials shows you how to create a presentation to share.


Tips on Public Speaking

PowerPoint Presentation Disasters: Conference Style
How to avoid presentation disasters when using PowerPoint for large audiences

How to Merge Presentations From Multiple PowerPoint Versions
This tutorial provides steps on how to not get trapped by mistakes when merging multiple PowerPoint presentations.

How Attention Works for Audiences when doing a PowerPoint Presentation
Here are some great hints for getting and keeping an audience’s attention when doing a Powerpoint presentation.

The “Big Show” – On-Site Checklist for your PowerPoint Presentation
This is a checklist of things and items you need to remember to do and get ready for a large PowerPoint presentation.

Writers Block with PowerPoint Presentations
Learn new ways to write content for your PowerPoint presentations.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of document(s) written in a markup language, such as HTML and XHTML, for web sites. Web site authors use CSS to define the page layout, along with specifying colors, fonts, other aspects of the web page presentation. Using CSS enables web developers to separate document content (written in HTML or XHTML) from document presentation (written in CSS).

This CSS tutorial, titled Ten CSS Tricks You May Not Know, by Trenton Moss of Webcredible, describes ten of his best CSS tips. These will assist you with obtaining the most from your CSS coding

10 CSS Tricks:

   1. CSS font shorthand rule
   2. Two classes together
   3. CSS border default value
   4. CSS document for printing
   5. Image replacement technique
   6. CSS box model hack alternative
   7. Center aligning a block element
   8. Vertically aligning with CSS
   9. CSS positioning within a container
   10. Background colour running to the screen bottom

Popularity: 18% [?]

Mozilla Firefox is gaining in web browser popularity partly because of its extensibility, giving users the option of adding any of the thousands of Firefox extensions that are freely available. Extension make Firefox configurable the way you, the user, would like it to be. For example, you can change Firefox’s appearance, add a mulitude of features, and even modify how web pages are displayed. 

This Firefox Exension tutorial, Make Your Own Firefox Extensions, teaches you in six illustrated steps how to create your own. Developing your own extension is not difficult to do, as a typical Firefox extension is nothing more than an XUL (XML User-interface Language) file that you edit with a text editor. (In contrast, Internet Explorer extensions must be compiled into DLLs and then installed into the operating system.)

Contents of Firefox Extensions Tutorial:

   1. Customize the Interface
   2. Add Some Action
   3. Take Stock
   4. Update the Install Script
   5. Put It Back Together
   6. Check Your Work

Popularity: 18% [?]

Here is a Access Tutorial that takes you through the the steps to create a database application using Microsoft Access 2000. It uses easy to following instructions along with screenshots to help you see how the tasks are performed. The tutorial introduces the features of Access and prepares you for learning and doing more with this database application. The database concepts taught here can be applied to any database managment system (DBMS) which you may use to create your application. This tutorial can also be used with Access XP and Access 2003. Click here to download the database created in this exercise (zip format, use 7-zip to uncompress it).

Requirements for this Access Tutorial:

Imagine you have been called in by the special assistant to a Fortune-500 company CEO. She feels overwhelmed by the volume of correspondence coming in that has to be handled, and wants a way to keep track of it. As letters and email arrive, it is usually assigned to an assistant for handling, who may further assign the matter to a division or department. The special assistant wants an automated method to keep on top of this correspondence, so that none of it gets misplaced, mishandled, or improperly ignored.

Access Tutorial Contents:

   1. Introduction - Table Design and Starting Access
   2. Create the Table
   3. Create a Data-entry Form
   4. Create a Query
   5. Create a Report

Popularity: 20% [?]