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## Adding style to the Newsletter

An editorial view from Christian Hennecke, Editor in Chief and publisher of the VOICE Newsletter.

Three months ago I depicted the desolate situation of our team, which is working on the creation of this online magazine, in the editorial. Since then quite a few things have been going on. New volunteers have entered the team - even though we still could use more - and also the editorial staff hasn't been lazy.

Besides a slight improvement in the creation of the INF version and new measures against UCE (unsolicited commercial email, or SPAM) we have busied ourselves with adapting the Newsletter for the usage of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Meanwhile we have a working PPWizard environment available which almost manages to create the current layout almost identical to the layout from before automating the process.

But even more so we have taken the opportunity to experiment with other colors and small changes to the layout. In the following, you can find a few examples which display most the Newsletter's elements. By the way, most of them are using the very same HTML code, only two have been very slightly altered.

1. The traditional Newsletter design.
2. Maroon headers 1
3. Maroon headers 2
4. Maroon headers 3
5. Blueish headers 1
6. Blueish headers 2
7. Blueish headers 3

Have a look at these examples. Which one do you like best? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Or maybe an idea for a completely different design? Send it to editor@os2voice.org. Please note that we intend to use as few images as possible and that the HTML code should remain as simple as possible. We are looking forward to read your comments.

Unfortunately, I also have to announce some bad news. This will be the last issue with an OS/2 Tips page, unless someone else volunteers to take over collecting and assembling the tips. The work load is just too much for Mark Dodel.

VOICE Newsletter Update: If you have a few hours to spare a month, we could really use the help of an additional editor to write editorials and assist in running the Newsletter.

Our Newsletter translation team is still in need of backup. To be able to help you don't have to be a very good translator or HTML programmer. If you have profound knowledge of English or German spelling and grammar, you can also help with editing the articles. Some hints on translation activities are also available in the FAQ. If you can help please contact christian.henneckeDESPAM@os2voice.org

We are always interested in your thoughts and views on subjects related to OS/2, and would like to see opinion/editorial pieces as well as hardware/software reviews and HowTo articles. If you have an idea for an article, why not write one. It's one of the best ways, short of programming native OS/2 applications, that you can help the OS/2 Community. And anyone can do it. Few of our writers are professionals. They are just OS/2 users trying to help other OS/2 users. Please send me your ideas or better yet a draft of an article to editor@os2voice.org. Please note our guidelines for submissions to the VOICE Newsletter. There you will find suggestions for topics, hints on content, structure and formatting, as well as the legal stuff.

VOICE Online Update: This month the general member meetings are scheduled on Saturdays August 2 and 16 at 3PM EDT (19:00 GMT). Please note the change in time! Everyone interested in OS/2 or eComStation is invited to attend either or both of these sessions in #VOICE on the Webbnet IRC network. For more information on attending online VOICE IRC meetings please see the VOICE Meeting Information page - http://www.os2voice.org/meetinginfo.html.

If you have an idea for a Speakup event, please submit it to liaison@os2voice.org, and we will try to schedule something. As always, please be sure to check out the updated VOICE Future events Calendar in this newsletter or on the VOICE website at http://www.os2voice.org/calendar.html for more details on future VOICE events.

This month we start with an article on notebooks where most problems with the installation and operation of OS/2 have always occured. If you would like to know how well eComStation 1.1 does when being installed to an inexpensive supermarket notebook, read Dieter Zoomers' article Installing eComStation on a supermarket notebook.

It's a well-known fact that access to RAM is much faster than to hard disks. For this reason many users employ RAM disks to store data which needs to be accessed frequently. In Virtual disk drives, Frank Wochatz provides you with an overview of RAM disks solutions which are available for OS/2.

eComStation includes three components whose capabilities are not well-known: eCS Clock, eCS Scheduler, and eCS Task Planner. Niels Jensen is here to change that and answer the question What can eCS Clock, eCS Scheduler, and eCS Task Planner do for you?.

As part of our series about the new eComStation 1.1, Keith Merrington reports his experiences with migrating from OS/2 Warp 4 to eComStation, and installing and operating the latter in: From OS/2 Warp 4 to eComStation - a personal view.

Even in times of broadband internet connections there are people who choose ISDN. Be it because their home is located unsuitable for DSL, or because they don't need DSL's features, there are enough reasons. Are you looking for an ISDN card which is supported by OS/2? Eric Baerwaldt provides you with an overview in OS/2 and ISDN - loving couple or cold relationship.

Finally we have the VOICE Newsletter OS/2 Tips page and the Letters, Addenda, Errata page. If you have any OS/2 or eCS tips you've uncovered, please send them to tips@os2voice.org. If you have any comments or suggestions about the newsletter or articles in it, please send them to editor@os2voice.org.

That's it for this month. Upcoming articles include a look at the Workplace Shell Toolkit by Christian Langanke; "Using the HP PhotoSmart 1000 with OS/2", by Stuart Updike; "Creating Scripts to Automate Application Migration", by Chris Clayton; and the next articles in the series on DrDialog, by Thomas Klein.

Mark Dodel, Christian Hennecke, Marckus Kraft and Jason R. Stefanovich
VOICE Newsletter editors

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