Hello Old Friends!

[dexter]

I've been in DTP for many years now, and I have always been a user and advocate of online forums for help and guidance. However I was unaware of this forum until a few days ago. And yet it also feels like an old friend.

I was a member of this community starting back with the old Aldus Forum on Compuserve, as it transitioned to the Adobe Forum and then the DTP Forum. At that time I was new to DTP and had begun a new job as operator/manager/only-person-in-the-department of a traditional prepress shop that had just dropped a lump of money on an entirely new computer/scanner/film imagesetter so as to be able to move its business into the next century. As the lone "expert" there, I relied on the Compuserve forums for knowledge, troubleshooting, and to give me the confidence that I would be able to do my job day after day without running the shop into a brick wall or really deep pothole.

My use of Compuserve waned as their service changed, web forums grew, and the value offered there declined, so eventually I ended my account. I found the free Compuserve access over the web very inconvenient and so moved on to other web forums for support.

One of those other forums recently posted a link here at the request of someone looking for general DTP info. I am so happy to see this place, full of familiar names! And scanning the messages I see the same friendly, knowledgeable atmosphere that I remember from my days at Compuserve.

I just wanted to say hi and thank you to everyone who has helped me become an infamous "expert" in my field locally, and to the continued and ongoing support of old and new members helping each other in this interesting field.

I don't think I ever posted anything "memorable" in the old forums, other than that I was (and still am) a rather rabid "Star Wars" geek involved in charity events for the premieres of Episodes 1, 2 and 3, and maybe if anyone remembers me for writing a small booklet for my local customers on the do's and don'ts of setting up files that are to be reproduced at a service bureau or print shop.

I am still working in electronic prepress (not at the same shop) and recently I began teaching a "continuing education" course at a local community college titled "Preparing Design for Press" where I get to influence designers on creating files that will run properly when sent for professional printing.