• Intro
  
• Article - The Value of Communication Expressway
  
• The Office Corner
  
• Grammar Question of the Month - It's or Its?
  
• Tech Tips by Terence Kierans - Word and Excel
  
• Tech Corner
  
• Writing Corner
  
• Word of the Month - Onomatopoeia Redux
  
• Recommendations
  
• Judy's Corner
  

What a delight to read so many responses to my question about continuing publication. I had no idea so many of you placed such a value on Communication Expressway. I have placed the responses in the article section. (Next month we're back to publishing an article.) A number of the responses were brief and expressed the same opinion: "I like it as it is, and please keep publishing."

Thanks, subscribers. You honor me. It will be a pleasure to continue publishing.

Shall I continue publishing? If so, what parts of the ezine give you the most value? I asked subscribers in my September ezine.

Those responding comprise a wide expanse of occupations: people working in schools, colleges, universities, governments at all levels, and libraries; educators; people working for a variety of businesses: nonprofits, small to large companies, institutes, organizations, and home-based. Many Webmasters.

In addition to many responses from people in the U.S., I heard from subscribers in England, Jamaica, France, Canada, Australia, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.

I Love Communication Expressway: All of It! Keep It Coming! I gravitate to Tech Tips/Tech Corner and I also enjoy and benefit from your feature article. In the current issue, your comments on how we (and the Media) view public figures' shortcomings is especially insightful. Thank you for that. Also, your article about Alt Tags is helpful, however, we should be very cautious about using them, because Google is now placing LESS importance on them than before and may even be penalizing sites (in page ranking) which have a lot of them. Alt Tags have been so over- used by search engine optimization firms as to now be viewed as a "spamming" technique for raising a web page's Google page rank.

Hi Judy, I used to enjoy your emails, lost you because of a change in ISPs and have found you again. In this my first newsletter from you I am appalled that you are even thinking of quitting! Everything in this latest issue is a gem, starting with your so-intelligent editorial on learning problems, which I have too. I can't tell you what part I like best, I like them all and you always manage to open up a new avenue which I didn't know existed.

Yours is one of the best of the writers' letters I receive for inspiration and information.

I value your articles/input more than ever now since I'm required to write/coordinate for 2 company newsletters. I need all the help I can get ;-)

I love the newsletter. Everything about it is absolutely perfect: the text format, the coming straight to my inbox, the frequency. I look forward to each and every issue.

Please continue. I always get at least one major benefit from each issue, often more. I have more bookmarks from your recommendations than from almost any other source.

So often after I've read them, I print them out and look back on them. They are always of value.

I am a freelance business writing and communications trainer in Central Illinois. Since I develop my own materials, my goal is to "keep current" on trends, facts, ideas, and techniques. So I find your newsletter (along with several others) most helpful. Thank you for the time and energy. I appreciate the text version, the links, and the variety of topics (especially grammar and technology).

I also love TK's technical goodies. I'm always referring back to them for various projects....you asked why you should continue: Because you give us a dialogue: words of wisdom and thought that are a rare pleasure to sit back, read, think about and so enjoy. Thank you.

I use your articles to go to some sites I never knew existed. Also, the comments you make in your articles give me food for thought from a person who likes her work and produces excellent work. I'm new to the internet and word processing, and have yet to learn how to maneuver among the trillions of websites.

Your publication is a highlight of my month. I enjoy each of your sections, especially the grammar and word of the month. The web sites that you have included over the time I have been receiving your publication have not only proven very helpful, but have saved me precious time that it would have taken me to look.

I find your newsletter one of the more interesting and rewarding ones I get. In fact I've unsubscribed from a couple because they are too vigorously dedicated promoting their authors' business and the content is increasingly trite. Yours delivers interesting, useful information, usually of a sort that I, for one, haven't given much thought to but which is immediately applicable. My favorite section is Writers' Corner.

I cannot tell you how often I have used your information and references. It is a joy to receive.

It's one of the few really useful and interesting newsletters I receive. As a webmaster, I especially appreciate the grammar and usage tips (that's how I discovered your site and newsletter to begin with: searching for the answer to some grammar question). My wife is a beginning realtor, and I've gotten her to subscribe as well, as she begins to put together newsletters herself, and looking for additional ways to promote herself and her business.

I LOVE GETTING YOUR EZINE. I PRINT THEM OUT AND BIND THEM. I READ THEM ON MY COMMUTE. (I'll stop screaming now...). . .I bookmark links into my Favorites. I use some of the information in the classes (college level writing) I teach. I share tips with my colleagues...

Your style and attitude are inspiring. I get hundreds of emails and always review yours before the others. We are in the business of describing conditions accurately and clearly. I love language and realize how poorly I was trained as a youth. The craft of producing proper and effective speech has always been a challenge. Your web sites are an inspiration and I hope you have sufficient staff persons to provide good leverage for earnings greater than your advertised fees.

I usually DO read ALL of the content ... even though I am not a great fan of the emphasis on Microsoft Office tools ... ( I prefer OpenOffice.Org ) and I also manage to learn something useful ... if not for myself, at least a tip to share with others.

I *always* have a look at this emagazine. All sections are useful.

I enjoy and read your entire publication. Not all items interest me every time but I always find something neat to know.

As long as you have something you feel is valuable to write about and you have subscribers, write on. Our life is such that often one never knows how or when we will touch another life. And touching even one life for one moment has infinite value. I like receiving your newsletters because it gives me an occasional glimpse into what you are thinking about and doing.

I do not find something of value in every one of your newsletters, but you have enough useful bits of information over any given period that I plan to continue reading your publication as long as you print it.

Dear Sweet, Wonderful, Helpful, Resourceful, Thoughtful, Informed, and With-It Judy: Thank you for asking, but P L E A S E continue your Communication Expressway newsletter. I do so much look forward to it. Every issue is a welcome spark of light! My wish list includes:

• I'd like to see the newsletter every 3-4 weeks.
• I'd like to see more focus on writing and less on tech topics.
• My eyes would be more relieved to see html than plain text.
• Your helpful hints are fantastic: never an issue I don't learn from, or get some brainstorm about!
• I like the resource links you offer because I know you've pre- screened them.
• I won't make the time to read long interviews or "how-to's" and so, particularly like your brevity.
• I enjoy the little stuff: word usage info, keyboard use tidbits, etc.

1. FAQ ON COMPUTER VISION SYNDROME AND COMPUTER GLASSES
http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/faqs.htm

2. FOUR WORD TIPS: by Allen Wyatt
http://wordtips.vitalnews.com/ci.html

3. ANSWERS.COM: No-fuss fact-checker recently chosen by Google as their dictionary service. (Thanks, Terence Kierans!)
http://answers.com

Have you noticed how many times people place apostrophes in the wrong place? Especially when using the word "it." The best way to approach this issue is to remember that "its" (without the apostrophe) is POSSESSIVE, while "it's" is a contraction of two words: "it is." In this case, the apostrophe takes the place of a missing letter. To recap:

POSSESSIVE: its (The tree dropped its leaves.)
CONTRACTION: it's (It's time to read the ezine.)

Read more on this exciting subject at: http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html

WORD

Want to make your Word documents stand out? Try designing big, bold headers or footers. Here are two ways to create user-friendly header and footer text.

• Click View / Toolbars. Activate the Drawing toolbar.
• Click View / Header and Footer.
• Click the Drawing toolbar's Text Box tool.
• Click inside the header and drag to draw a text box extending from margin to margin.
• Use the Drawing toolbar's "Fill Color" tool to fill your text box. Light gray for monochrome printers, any other shade for colour printers.
• Click the "Header and Footer" toolbar's "Insert AutoText" button.
• Select Header/Footer. You can now begin to customize your header with standard options; for example Page X of Y.

• Click the Drawing toolbar's "Insert WordArt" tool to display WordArt options.
• Select a pattern, type your text, and click OK.
• Size the WordArt drawing so that it fits in the default space allocated for your header.

EXCEL

Often, when pasting text into an Excel sheet, you find that it contains "garbage" characters. They appear as small, hollow squares mixed with alphanumeric characters. You see those most often when you pasting content from a Web page into your spreadsheet.

You could edit each cell and delete them manually, but that takes time. You can't copy and paste one of those characters into the Replace dialog box's "Find What" field, either.

The answer is to use the "Clean" function, which removes unprintable characters from text strings. To use it:

• Insert a new column A next to the column that contains the dirty text.
• Assuming your text starts in cell B2, enter the formula =CLEAN(B2) in cell A2.
• Copy that formula down column A. The formula will return a copy of the text without the garbage characters.
• Overwrite the bad text with the clean text by copying column B into column A. Be sure to use Edit / Paste Special / Values. You can then discard column B.

Terence Kierans
Cyberspace Virtual Services
tkierans@virtualservices.com.au
http://www.virtualservices.com.au/
We keep your project on the boil, while you sleep

1. WEB DEVELOPER'S HANDBOOK:
http://www.alvit.de/handbook/

2. TECH TALK TRANSLATED
http://www.office-futures.com/tech_talk.htm

1. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON WRITING CENTER: Contains material on how best to cite references and avoiding common grammar and punctuation mistakes.
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/

2. INDEXING AS A PROFESSION:
http://www.asindexing.org/site/index.html

3. ONLINE COURSES BY EDITORIAL FREELANCERS ASSOCIATION These online courses include: Online Marketing, Copyediting with Microsoft Word, Copyediting Basics, and Introduction to Substantive and Developmental Editing.
http://www.the-efa.org/Benefits/education.htm

A bit of fun with words, relating to your onomatopoeia mini-feature An ex-colleague of mine at the university I used to lecture at is quite an expert in onomastics (names study). One of his areas of expertise within that field is the names given to birds based on the sounds they make (e.g. the go-away bird, so called because it always sounds as though it's shouting "go away-y-y-y-y, go away-y-y-y-y!").

I suggested that he call that (sub-) area of study ornimatopoeia - which he did, in at least one published paper on the subject!

Nicky Grieshaber, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

1. COLOUR LOVERS: a place to view, rate, and review some lovely colors & palettes. The idea is to create a place of color inspiration where a designer of any sort can see new and lovely colors--find out what colors are hot, what work well in other uses--and simply make some love with color.
http://www.colourlovers.com/

2. ALL THINGS FRUGAL: Home of The Pennypincher E-zine Tightwad Tidbits Daily and The General Store.
http://allthingsfrugal.com/

3. TIME GOES BY: What it's really like to get older, by Ronni Bennett, who says, "I don't believe getting older could possibly be as bad as our culture makes it out to be. To the contrary, I find aging to be fascinating and even mysterious. I've never been this old before and I want to know a lot more about it.

"Since no one else is writing in any genuine, real-world way about the later years of life, I have taken on the challenge, and if the many thoughtful comments posted here in response are any indication we are, over time, lifting the veil on this mystery together, creating a remarkable record."

She's a remarkable woman. I salute her.
http://www.timegoesby.net/

Next month the Crook/Boynton families congregate in Bellingham, Washington to celebrate my mother's 95th birthday. She is an amazing woman. I've been going through a number of her pictures to find one that I can use on a thank-you card. Difficult chore: she had so many loves: horseback riding, dogs, enjoying the outdoors, tennis, family, but most of all music.

I'm amazed that she survived raising four active, creative, and busy kids. Sometimes the creativity was, um, kind of silly. We could be little rascals. Our brother was the best at being a rascal. While he was the youngest, he taught his sisters plenty about creating situations filled with laughter. He still does.

Wait! It just occurred to me that I have proof that Mom and her generation were silly as well! Here are the photos, including the one we used for the 95th birthday invitation postcard. You can find the photos immediately below.

Christmas 1920. The Boynton kids behaving. Reason:
they were promised that if they'd pose nicely for the camera,
they could then have a photo of each of them
making the funniest face possible. They promised to behave.

Christmas 1920. The Boynton kids making the funniest
faces possible. All photos by Sandison Studio,
which did all portrait work for the Boynton family
for many years in Bellingham, Washington.

1920s. Ethel Crook and her beloved violin.
This photo was reproduced on postcards that were created as
invitations to her 95th birthday celebration in November 2005.

Ethel Crook 2005

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