1 INTRODUCTION

2 DATA
2.1 STARLIGHT fits
2.2 Emission lines
2.3 Definition of the Star Forming Sample
2.4 Nebular Metallicity Estimate
2.5 Extinctions

3 CORRELATIONS WITH NEBULAR METALLICITY

4 METHODS TO INVESTIGATE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES
4.1 Compression methods
4.2 Star Formation Rate as a Function of Time
4.3 Mass Assembly Histories

5 THE CURRENT SFR
5.1 Current SFR from Hα luminosity
5.2 Current SFR from the spectral synthesis
5.3 Synthesis versus Hα-based current SFRs

6 THE STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF SF GALAXIES
6.1 Distributions of Star Formation Histories
6.2 Trends along the SF-wing
6.3 Star Formation Histories and Chemical Evolution in Mass and Surface-Density bins

7 SELECTION EFFECTS AND MODELING CAVEATS
7.1 Selection effects
7.2 Experiments with different models
7.3 Experiments with differential extinction

8 SUMMARY