Computers

   PC Base Software

   Macintosh software

   Multimedia Workstations

   ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) station

   Frog Pods

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 Pentium workstations running Windows XP and equipped with base PC software described below. Hardware includes 17" monitors, 1GB RAM, minimum 10GB hard disk space, all with CD-R/RW drives.
• 4 PC multimedia workstations equipped with additional peripheral hardware and software, as described below.
• 10 iMac and 2 G4 Macintosh computers running OS X, with software packages described below
• 4 workstations on height-adustable tables to accomodate 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 8.0
• AutoCAD 2005
• MDL CrossFire Commander v7
• 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
• SPSS v16.0
• SAS 9.1
• Net Beans 5.5.1
• SciFinder Scholar
• MDL ISIS Draw 2.5
• Write-N-Cite

Macintosh software   

• Adobe Creative Suite 3 (includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and ImageReady)
• Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Dreamweaver 8
• Fetch 5.3.1
• CuteFTP 3.0.5
• Mac OS 10.5.4
• Microsoft Office 2008
• Safari 3.1.2
• Stuffit Expander 11
• Adobe Acrobat Professional 8
• iLife 6.0.6

PC multi-media workstations

• Iomega 250 zip drives
• 17" monitors
• 256 MB 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 3, a collection of software by Adobe including:
• Acrobat 8.0 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 CS3
  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 CS3
  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 CS3
  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 CS3
  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 CS3
  Bridge provides centralized access to project files, applications, and settings, as well as XMP metadata tagging and searching capabilities.
• DreamWeaver CS3
  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.
• Macromedia Fireworks 8.0
  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.
• Macromedia Flash 8.0
  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.)
• Macromedia Contribute 3
  enables content authors to quickly and easily update existing websites and blogs while maintaining site integrity — with no technical expertise required.

• FrontPage 2003
• Info Path 2003
• One Note 2003
• Publisher 2003
• Visio 2003
• Word 2003
• Excel 2003
• Access 2003
• Power Point 2003

• 256 MB RAM
• CD R/RW drive
• HP Scanjet 5590 color scanner. Includes slide scanning attachment, and 50-page sheet feeder for long documents.
• Hands free headset and microphone with Parrot translator for voice recognition
• Dragon NaturallySpeaking
  Allows users the ability to convert dictated words into text. It works with most Windows applications like Word.
• OpenBook 5.0
  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
• Two of the pods contain Apple computers

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.