Computers

   PC Base Software

   Macintosh software

   Multimedia Workstations

   ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) station

   Frog Pods

   Specialized Software

Software availability may change at any time. The Library is constantly upgrading the network and software available in its computing facilities. Call the computer lab at (817) 257-7664 for questions concerning software availability.

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Computers  
The Information Commons computer lab has computers available for use by TCU students, faculty, and staff.

• 100 workstations running Windows XP and equipped with base PC software described below. Hardware includes 17" monitors, 1GB RAM, all with CD-R/RW drives.
• 4 PC multimedia workstations equipped with additional peripheral hardware and software, as described below.
• 10 iMac computers running OS X, with software packages described below
• 5 of the iMac computers are equipped with HP Scanjet N6310 scanners
• 4 workstations on height-adjustable tables to accommodate wheel-chair access
• 1 ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) station on a height adjustable table, equipped with software for use by the visually impaired
  

• Adobe Acrobat Reader 9.0
• AutoCAD 2008
• GraphCalc
• MDL CrossFire Commander v7 with MDL ISIS Draw 2.5
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Front Page 2003
• Microsoft Office 2007 (includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access)
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional
• Minitab 15
• Mozilla Firefox
• Roxio Easy CD Creator
• Statistics 176.0 - SPSS v17.0
• SAS 9.1
• Net Beans 6.5
• SciFinder Scholar
• Write-N-Cite

Macintosh software   

• Adobe Creative Suite 4 (includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and ImageReady)
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 (includes Acrobat Reader)
• Dreamweaver 8
• Fetch 5.3.1
• CuteFTP 3.0.5
• Mac OS 10.5.6
• Microsoft Office 2008
• Safari 3.2.1
• Stuffit Expander 11
• iLife 6.0.6

PC multi-media workstations

• 17" monitors
• 1 GB RAM
• CD R/RW drive
• DVD drive
• Canon DR-1210C color scanners.

Multi-media PC software (available on four multimedia workstations and ADA station, these also include the base PC software)   

• I.R.I.S. OCR ("Optical Character Recognition") Software
  This software is available whenever you scan a document. It will try to convert words in the image you scanned from bitmaps to text, so that you can later edit the text in a word processor or desktop publishing program. If you plan to save a scanned document as a PDF file (using Acrobat 5.0 below), first doing OCR on it will make the PDF file smaller (faster to download), but it may also introduce errors that you may want to edit first.
• Adobe Creative Suite 4, a collection of software by Adobe including:
• Acrobat 9.0 Professional
  This is the full version of Acrobat that allows you to produce PDF versions of files you have created in other software, such as Microsoft Word. PDF's are typically used for distributing documents that you plan for people to print out, or that you need to distribute both in print and online. If you are producing a document for people to read and use online, you may want to consider producing it as a web site instead of a PDF file.
• Adobe Photoshop CS4
  Software for editing bitmapped image files, such as scanned photographs. Files can be saved in formats used for printed documents or for web graphics.
• Adobe Illustrator CS4
  Software for drawing line art and creating sophisticated text effects, either for printed documents or web graphics. Uses vector graphics. These images can be used by themselves, or imported into Adobe Photoshop/Freehand and combined with bitmapped images.
• Adobe GoLive CS4
  Prebuilt CSS objects that you can drag and drop to build sophisticated sites. Jump-start your designs by easily converting Adobe InDesign® CS2 layouts into Web pages. Or design Web content in an advanced standards-based coding environment.
• Adobe InDesign CS4
  InDesign integrates smoothly with Adobe Photoshop®, Illustrator®, Acrobat®, InCopy®, and Dreamweaver® software; offers powerful features for creating richer, more complex documents; and reliably outputs pages to multiple media.
• Adobe Bridge CS4
  Bridge provides centralized access to project files, applications, and settings, as well as XMP metadata tagging and searching capabilities.
• DreamWeaver CS4
  Web page editing and web site management tool. (If you need instructions for how to create a personal student web page on the TCU network, see: Web Account at TCU.) If you are using Fireworks or Flash to create graphics/animation effects, it will be easier to to incorporate these into your complete pages with DreamWeaver than with other editing software.
• Adobe Fireworks CS4
  Software for creating/editing graphics for web sites and creating script effects such as roll-over images. If you are editing graphics for a web site instead of a printed document, you may wish to use Fireworks as an alternative to Photoshop.
• Adobe Flash CS4
  Software for creating complex animation and sound effects for web pages. (People viewing the page must have downloaded and installed a compatible version of the free Flash viewer browser plugin.)

• Info Path 2007
• One Note 2007
• Publisher 2007
• Word 2007
• Excel 2007
• Access 2007
• Power Point 2007

• CD R/RW/DVD drive
• Canon color scanner.
• Hands free headset and microphone with Parrot translator for voice recognition
• OpenBook 8.0
  This software can be used to scan and read text to the user.
  
  

Thanks to a gift from the Student Government Association (SGA), the Information Commons added the Frog Pods, six collaborative computing areas, in the fall of 2005. Each Frog Pod is equipped with:

• Movable tables
• One wall mounted 52" monitor or two 20" LCD monitors on maneuverable arms
• One PC
• White board
• Wireless keyboards and mice

Since there are a limited number of Frog Pods, please only reserve one for the time you will actually be using it.  Please do not plan to take dinner breaks or leave the pod vacant for other reasons during your reservation.  If a pod is vacant for more than 15 minutes when there are other groups requesting one, your reservation will be canceled and the pod will be assigned to a new group.

Reserving Frog Pods for group study:

• Call 817-257-7117
• The group must have at least 3 persons to reserve a pod.
• The pods can be reserved for no more than 3 hours.
• No reservations can be made more than 24 hours in advance.
  
  

Specialized Software

• Adobe Professional 9 software is available on the PCs labeled LBL1087 through LBL1096, closest to the IC Desk.