Most of the regulars to the forum know that my career has not been in landscape design, nor do I aspire to that end. But my life has been filled with design duties out of necessity; mechanical apparatus, building additions, civil projects, computer software applications, and complex digital electronic devices, for a few. There are similarities to the design process for all of these, especially at the start. The design process for all things generally begins with three things .... 1. An assessment of the current situation. 2. A defining of what would be a successful conclusion. 3. An assessment of the resources available Though the design process may not always involve a graphic, the majority do. Consider the schematics of electronic design or the flow charts of software design. In landscape design, the traditional graphic is a scaled plan view drawing, for good reason. Landscape design is all about the utilization of space. A photo does not define space, but a plan does. A scaled base map carries one through the assessment of the current situation. Those who skip this step short change themselves in the design process. The next error that many amateurs make is that of focusing on a perceived solution to a problem rather than the broader study of what would be a successful conclusion.. An example of this is one seeking to keep mulch on a slope when the rain is continuing to wash it away. This is a wrong statement of the problem. The problem is that the landscape is unstable and requires constant maintenance. The successful conclusion is a landscape that is stable, however that might be accomplished. For landscape design, an assessment of the resources available cannot be completed without quantifying the the available space. And there is no better tool for this than the scaled plan drawing. So why don't more people do scaled drawings. Perhaps it's like the person who doesn't dance that looks to those on the dance floor and says "I could never do that. And if I tried, I'd look clumsy and foolish." The hardest part of learning to dance are those first steps. The hardest part of drafting is drawing the first lines. Let me say that I am not a fan of mspaint. Out of all the paint, drawing, and photo editing software, it would be hard to find an application that would not be a better tool than mspaint. The only good thing about it is that it's already on many computers and it can do the job. It can draw lines and add text to any jpeg graphic. You don't need to go to the store for paper and pens, or download software. You can draw those first lines now. Of course if you already have graph paper or a better software, then use that. There are some advantages to doing the drawing on the computer. You can backup from mistakes. Even mspaint allows you to hold the control key down, press the 'Z' key and undo the last three operations. And it's easy to save copies of the drawing at many stages as you go along. It's in a file form that can be shown here for help and suggestions. Let's look at the first lines. Note that a grid is a pattern of perpendicular lines. In order to relate what is in the real garden to what is on the plan one needs to identify an element common to both. Since the grid is made up of perpendicular lines, one should choose two perpendicular lines that occur on the ground. The most common available element of this nature is a building corner. Where no building is near the project, another straight line element can be used, such as a fence, walk, or property line. A perpendicular line must then be manufactured to the straight line object to mimic the grid of the drawing. Here's a real example. Note that the project area is a part of the backyard. I select the upper back house corner with its well defined perpendicular lines as the primary reference point for both the real and the plan. From this corner I measure the distance along the back of the house to be 33 ft to a jog corner. Starting mspaint, I then open the blank grid graphic. Considering the area for the project I want to locate the primary reference point(house corner) in the lower right of the grid. Note that the grid has a heavier line every fifth square. This helps one to count the distance across the grid by jumping in unit multiples of 5. Since the project will span around 50ft in width, I will think of each square as 2 ft, making the distance between bold grid lines of 10ft. The principle point is placed on an intersection of bold lines to take advantage of this feature. Selecting the straight line tool of mspaint I click the house corner point at a suitable point on the plan. Holding the mouse button down, I shift left counting the distance measured of the house to the correct point on the grid and release. Repeating the process from that point I draw the 2ft jog in the house and repeat again to continue 17ft to the far house corner. The first lines are drawn, the house is on the plan. Scaled drawings are not rocket science.

there are many really good useful screen capture free programs out there, bobs link to those at gizmo provides several of the top choices. Many have the editing stuff all built in to them. On my linux I have one called ksnapshot which is so easy to use wish they had just that item for windows. On windows I have used a few including the gadwin program and I have used this one Screenpresso logo and the picpick one mentioned at the gizmo site. I had no idea the pdf select tool would not work on some items. That is strange. on the ones y'all tried it on had you actually saved the pdf file to your pc or were you viewing the pdf file from the online site? just wondering if that would make any difference. I have never encountered that problem.

Golddust, Too fun-nay! I have my very 1st Mac - an SE30 (this is an all in one with a black and white, 9-inch display, for those who need to brush up on their Mac history ;-) - sitting right next to my Mac G5 (earlier version of the Mac Pro, the current mama of all Macs), that I'm typing this on. I have no doubt I could fire that 21 year old baby up tomorrow and it would run like a top - S-L-O-W - but it would run ;-) Got the original keyboard, mouse and cable, and I bet if I looked hard enough I could find the software somewhere around here, not sure about the manuals ;-) I'm terribly interested in your BIL's baby - do you know how old and what size his monitor is? Mine is the largest sold at the time (approx. 8 years ago - yep, I'm using an EIGHT YEAR OLD, albeit top-of-the-line, Macintosh and it runs better than any PC I've ever used, period, the end), a first generation 30" Cinema Display and I use it as a TV/DVD/DVR too - is he planning on using it this way or has he already got it set up? If already set, I would really enjoy hearing the specifics or, if not, I can make recommendations based on my experience (and would provide an email addy if you want to take this off-forum, JLMK, I don't work for any software or hardware company, just so you know). BTW, all of the software I use, even the ancient OS 9 apps mostly fill my 30-inch Cinema Display. I suspect there is a display settings change needed. I'm running (an older) OS10.4.11, aka "Tiger" (so I can keep my OS 9 apps, even though most are laughable crutches at this point), but I've been using this Mac since "Jaguar" and the software has always mostly filled the screen. The current Mac OS, for those trying to keep up, is Snow Leopard, LOL! If I could justify or luxuriously afford an iPad, I'd probably get one, but I've got an iPhone, and it's very efficient for how small it is, so I'd probably opt for the Macbook Pro instead, if I could afford/needed it, even! As I said above, my 8 yr. old G5 leaves nothing to be desired except an Intel chip to run newer apps and mobility. But it won't be long now... ;-) Oh, wait, my car will be 10 yrs old next year, LOL! natal, Glad you got what was best for you - it really depends on your usage and comfort when choosing a computer, even for PC users *roll eyes* *snicker* J/K

Let's see if I can explain in the limited time I have; if I don't finish, I'll come back later or tomorrow. Have hubby's last chemo & radiation today. In my office I have a dual boot Windows machine - running XP (pro I think) and Vista. I also have the Mac. I have not tried to put Windows of any flavor on the Mac; it was on my list of things to do. I was going to buy the program verses what's on the Mac. My pain management Dr did it; he had some issues with drivers. Not sure if he did XP or Vista. The Mac worked fine at 1st. I was able to Network; I was able to access the Windows machine both sides. When on the Windows PC; I was able to access the Mac from both. I'm not sure what changed and when but eventually I wasn't able to access either puter - I made user accounts on Windows (both sides) and now am able to access Windows (both sides) from the Mac. The problem is accessing the Mac from Windows. Granted, it very well may be me; because I haven't been as "heavy" into building & using the computer since we moved. The most I do is work with pictures; for that I use Windows because the Mac photo program confuses me. I like Windows much better all the way around because of ease of use; software works & I can do things without reading a manual. With the Mac, I feel so stupid some days. I haven't installed anything except firefox.. forgot how. lol It's so simple too from what I remember but I have to get the dummy book to do it again. lol One thing that will not work on the Mac is my Microsoft Works. All of my medical databases are made with works. I looked for a Mac plug in (reader) but they don't have one. I also don't want to have to replace my full Office suite.