Almost every computer sold comes with a "browser," such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. That’s the special software that looks at web documents and figures out how to display them.

The book "Choosing and Using Digital Cameras" was created in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and is structured exactly the same as a large, detailed web site. Because the reader is accessing it from a CD drive rather than over an Internet connection, we don’t have to worry about slow loading times. Large graphics pop up right away.

The biggest difference between hypertext and ordinary text is the ability to link from one spot to another, so when the user clicks his mouse on a link he is transported to another page. We use a lot of links to get from one point to another. For example, the Table of Contents is all links. Each chapter has a link to the next chapter and a link to return to the index. Product pages include a "how to order" button so that customers in other towns can place mail/phone/internet orders. We get a few…

· Microsoft FrontPage 2000 for the layout and design of the web pages and the linking-together of the project.

· Adobe PhotoShop 6.0 to size images and create graphics.

· Adobe PageMaker 6.5 to design and print the coupons.

· Roxio CD-Creator to burn the CDs (comes with most CD writers)

· Starterfile.exe is a special program that makes a CD Rom file work in the autostart mode of Windows 95 or later. The Windows autostart feature only works with files ending in the extension .exe. The software can be downloaded from the British firm http://www.trah.co.uk/starterfile/

· CD-Stomper Pro creates the labels for CDs and has a press to apply them.

The first step is deciding what you want to say. Gather the specifications on the products you want to sell from many sources. That includes manufacturers’ web pages, review sites such as steves-digicams.com and imagingresource.com, catalogs and brochures, and the CD-Roms that so many manufacturers now provide in place of ad slicks.

Make a uniform page design. Mine looks like a page in a spiral notebook. Each page has navigational links at the bottom to send a user to the next chapter, back to the table of contents, or to buying info.

"How-to" and informational articles are the added value that makes your book worth money.

I already had much of the content on hand from my store web site www.chriscamera.com and from the web site I run for the photo industry, www.photoimagenews.com. To create other chapters, I dug through materials I’d created for speeches to Rotary and to computer clubs, training materials for the store, and classes I’d taught over the years.

How do you know what technical information you should have in such a book? Think about the questions that shoppers always ask - and then answer them!

If you don’t know the answers to all those questions, research your subject thoroughly. Read the "Dummies" books. Get PMA’s Digital Quick Start. Research at www.imaging-resource.com

• Using the book (explains how to set larger type sizes, how to navigate)
• Can a digital camera replace my film camera?
• What is a digital camera?
• Digital film for digital cameras
• How big are digital pictures? (shows sample photos from 480x640 to 3.34 megapixel)
• How much computer do you need?
• Choosing a camera
• Cameras that Chris’ Camera Center Sells (There is a detailed chapter for each camera, printer or other item that we sell.)
• The accessories that you want/need (Would you like fries with that?)
• Batteries
• Taking your first digital photos
• Getting digital pictures into the computer
• HELP! Our most frequently asked questions
• Organizing your digital pictures
• Making prints from your digital pictures
• We can probably make better prints than you can...
• Attaching photos to e-mail
• Preparing digital photos for e-mail & the web
• Improving your digital photos
• PhotoShop Tips: get rid of red eye, improve colors, make a Kaleidoscopic image
• Traveling with your digital camera (pushes accessories, digital wallets etc)
• Close-up and Macro Photography with digital cameras
• Flash photography with digital cameras
• Dental photography with digital cameras
• Ordering from Chris’ Camera Center