Rochester InDesign User Group

Meeting Summary

Summer Rochester IDUG Meeting
Tue, Jul 8th, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Rochester Institute of Technology

Event Details

For the first time I’m happy to report warm weather AND sunny skies for our meeting night. Although I should be used to some tense moments in preparation for the Rochester meetings (such as late flights due to inclement weather and stranded speakers arriving with minutes to spare), my heart skipped a few beats when I discovered that I could not make an outgoing call from the auditorium phone—meaning no audio for the evening’s Adobe Connect session. Digital wizard that he is, our remote speaker Michael Murphy quickly remedied the situation by switching to the latest version of the application, which allowed us to stream the audio via our internet connection. No need for the paddles!

Technological issues resolved, Mr. Murphy launched right into the topic of the night. The beginning of the presentation included standard Find/Change features available in many applications, including older versions of InDesign. Then we held onto our seats as Find/Change gave way to GREP (General Regular Expression Parser). For certain, GREP is no everyday Find/Change tool. Using several real-world applications of GREP, including formatting directories and catalogs and a special set of GREP patterns that allowed for quick reordering to alphabetize a series of products, Michael Murphy certainly captivated the crowd in RIT’s Carlson Auditorium. Although since he was presenting remotely and could not hear the cheers and applause from the group, they were plentiful.

Aside from Michael Murphy, the other star of the night was Adobe Connect. Our evening was a true test of this tool. As I mentioned, we were without the ability to call out from the auditorium and were able to switch gears and stream the audio along with the visual portion of the presentation. With the exception of a few brief pauses and one half chorus from what sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks, the system worked flawlessly.

Of course there was pizza, socializing, and the raffles too. As always, Rochester Institute of Technology generously donated the meeting space. Adobe and Peachpit provided InDesign and InCopy books and other goodies for the raffles. The raffle culminated with the presentation of a copy of Adobe InDesign CS3 provided by Adobe. Michael Murphy has provided a handout for attendees who are anxious to put GREP to great use in their own workflows. You can download this file using the link near the bottom of this page.

Thank You

Thanks again to Michael Murphy, RIT, Adobe, and Peachpit for their participation and thanks especially to the faithful who give up dinner with the family to eat pizza on paper plates and drink soda out of paper cups to keep the local InDesign community environment active.

Comments from the evaluation sheets

“Cool presenter, very entertaining and informative”

“I enjoyed the virtual presentation…. Mike Murphy made it very enjoyable”

“The speaker was awesome. I will subscribe to the podcast. I really like the venue and have invited many people to join the Rochester group.”

“Michael Murphy was an excellent presenter…Becky Shick rocks for organizing the meetings.”

“GREP may be a little dry, but very useful for me…I work with database files that are poorly formatted.”

Next Meeting

Save the date!!! Great feedback on the night has us all charged up for our next meeting, which will be on Tuesday, September 16. We're still working out the details—I’m researching three topics, but really hope that we’ll get a good look at Adobe Acrobat 9, so watch for more information in August. On September 16 we will shift the venue slightly to the left. RIT will still be our host, but we will be in the Webb Auditorium in building 7 this time. Just one building over so you’ll park in the same lot. As the song says, “See you in September…”

Best Regards,
Becky Shick
Chapter Representative
Rochester InDesign User Group