I find it very strange that only a single name appears on the cover of any book, but especially a book like this. In reality, many people contribute to the creation of a For Dummies book. From the beginning, editorial directors Mary Corder and Katie Feltman and my agent, Claudette Moore, were involved in guiding and molding the book's content. During the development of the six editions of this book, I found myself hip-deep in edits, corrections, and suggestions from a group of project editors, copyeditors, and technical reviewers—this book would have been a poorer work but for their involvement. And nothing would have made it into print without the aid of Suzanne Thomas, who coordinated the first and second editions of the project, Susan Pink, who worked on the third and sixth editions, and Danny Kavel, who did the technical review of this edition. Nevertheless, one name does appear on the cover and that name must take responsibility for any inaccuracies in the text.
Finally, a summary of the animal activity around my house. For those of you who have not read any of my other books, I should warn you that this has become a regular feature of my For Dummies books.
My two dogs, Scooter and Trude, have been gone for almost five years now. We moved to the "big city" about three years ago, which meant giving away our dogs Chester and Sadie (both are doing quite well with other families). We tried to keep the two Great Danes, Monty and Bonnie, but they were just too much for the backyard. We were forced to give them away as well.
No sooner did I give away the two Danes than my son showed up with his two smallish Catahoula-mix mutts from the pound, Lolli and Bodie. At least they're housebroken. I am pleased to report that they are doing fine and waiting for their nightly walk even as I type.
If you are having problems getting started, I maintain a FAQ of common problems at www.stephendavis.com. You can e-mail me questions from there if you don't see your problem. I can't write your program (you don't know how often I get asked to do people's homework assignments), but I try to answer most questions.