This month, Deborah Bayley from Voice Perfect will discuss and demonstrate the capabilities of Dragon Naturally Speaking software.  This voice recognition software can "create documents and e-mail, write reports and fill out forms, without having to type at all." Speak to your PC and the typing is done for you! The software can "create documents over three times faster than typing, and provides protection against repetitive strain injuries." It is fully integrated in the Microsoft Office applications Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.  Simply dictate into a PC! There is also a text-to-speech option to read e-mail and documents aloud! This demonstration should be interesting because most people speak faster than 120 words a minute but type fewer than 40 words a minute.

In the second presentation for the evening, PCUG member Mike Boesen will present "Picasa2" a freeware application from Google which can be used for management and editing of digital pictures. It is described by Google at http://www.picasa.com/features/index.php . According to Google: "Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized. Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures - you can email, print photos at home, make gift CDs, instantly share via HelloT, and even post pictures on your own blog." Mike has been using Picasa2 since its release. He will demonstrate its main functions and in particular will explain how it can be used to embed and use IPTC-compliant keywords and captions within JPG picture files, show how it can make quick fixes to pictures, and demonstrate how it can be used to very easily assemble, resize and write a collection of pictures to a CD as a slide show. This is a follow-on presentation from the excellent June monthly meeting so be sure not to miss it!