[Isotrope]

If ever your motherboard has SATA ports, you might want to look into eSATA enclosures. They usually have a USB 2.0 port as well if ever you need to bring somewhere else.

The NexStar seems to come up a lot: https://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-332-1.htm

[Isotrope]

Not a solution per se, but you should check out Card Wipe.
It might be a quick and easy solution to what you’re looking for (under Effect->Transition->Card Wipe).

As for the Grid, maybe Effect->Generate->Grid could be what you’re looking for.

Hope this helps,
iso

[Isotrope]

Feather applies to selections.

You can CTRL+Click the mask in the layers palette. That will create a selection that you can feather. Afterwards, you simply need to fill the selection.
However, I’m having trouble explaining how to affect your mask properly.

A quick and dirty way would be to duplicate your layer+mask. Delete the mask from the original, CTRL+Click the copy’s mask, Feather the selection, return to your original layer, create a mask from the selection and delete the copy (since you don’t need it anymore).
Once again, there are certainly cleaner ways to do this but this is what comes to mind right now.

[Isotrope]

Try it again, but select the Text tool and click on your canvas first.

As side a note, it’s not going to copy your formatting.
Also, if you have a lot of text, you might want to create a text box (sorry, not sure about the correct term). Instead of just clicking on the canvas with the Text tool, click and drag as if you were create a selection.

Hope this helps,
iso

[Isotrope]

I might be competely wrong here, but if you’re using PageMaker, you’re creating a document that’s going out for print.
72dpi is really too small a resolution for print. If I remember correctly, print is usually more along the lines of 300dpi (depending on the medium, of course.)

Also, why not just save as TIFF with compression on? It’s often used in print, you get an alpha channel if you need it and you get lossless compression to boot.

Hope this helps,
iso

[Isotrope]

If you’re trying to create a panorama try this before free transforming your pictures:
Open up PS.
File->Automate->Photomerge…
Follow the prompts.

It’s not always perfect, but 60% of the time, it works eeevery time

If you haven’t used a tripod, chances are that your top and bottom edges won’t really match. You will have to lose a bit of each picture vertically once you crop the whole composition.

Hope this helps,
iso

[Isotrope]

You could add a bit of Feather to your mask.
*If your mask is already created, CTRL-click it in the Layers. Then Select menu->Feather. Set an amount, hit Enter. Shift+Backspace, select White. You’ll need to experiment with the feather amount to get what you want.

If you create your masks by painting them, use a softer brush for the contours.
If you drag your layer from the original image (with the mask) to your new image, it will be easier to fine tune everything since you will have instant feedback.

Hope this helps,
iso

[Isotrope]

In Firefox, it works fine. It seems to be an Internet Explorer specific bug.

[Isotrope]

The code between the curly brackets are CSS Styles. You define them in the Head and then call them in the Body.
They’re a great way to position/layout a web page. They’re clean and work with most browsers.
You’re defining the attributes in the styles and then you’re placing your swf in a container.

I’ve removed the file from my FTP.

Good luck and don’t hesitate to ask more questions.
iso

[Isotrope]

BTW, I hope I didn’t make a big mistake or break a rule in the CreativeCow usage guidelines by posting the code on my site.
If there’s a better way to post code, please let me know.