A message from the President:
The Y2K bug must have been a dog with a lot of bark and very little bite.
Riddle: Does a barking dog bite ?
Answer: Not while he’s barking !
In December of 1999, eight members watched a great presentation by Leo McDermott on the subject of the Bible on-line. It was a very fitting subject for our Christmas Meeting. Thank you Leo. (www.onlinebible.org) He didn’t use the Internet because he had the whole thing on a CD-Rom.
For our January 13, 2000 meeting, Greg Ogle will give us his 5000 year history of computing.
We haven’t actually found a member who is willing to volunteer to be the Vice-President, in charge of finding speakers. Until we do, the job will fall onto the rest of us as this is not an option. Without programs and speakers, we don’t need to exist. I don’t want to see the club fold, when we have such a solid core of attendees, a stable treasury and such a great place to meet. Give us your comments and suggestions and hopefully we can keep this group a-float for another year at least, maybe more.
We have a couple of subjects and speakers in mind for February and March, but nothing has been finalized yet.
Since most members have E-Mail, let’s compile a list of those addresses. I’ll include it in my data base of the group’s roster. Please bring me your E-Mail address, in writing, to the next meeting you attend, and let that meeting be January of 2000.
If your mailing label is hi-lighted, your dues are due. Either bring them to a meeting or mail $10 to: Richard Coop, 2645 North Apperson Way. 46901
We will probably meet in Lab 104, but check the lobby for directions to our meeting room. Let’s start the year off with high attendance and then go up from there. Hey I’m serious, I’ll be there, so come join in the knowledge exchange and bring a friend or acquaintance.
This newsletter is being sent to a group of Senior Citizens, who are interested in learning more about computers. If you are in this group, feel free to attend our January and February meetings with no cost or obligation.
Larry L. Thompson
User Group President-2000
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Free Stuff:
Here is a free phone site. Go to http://www.dialpad.com ...
To use this system you will have to come up with a user ID and a Password and answer a few questions. There is no software to download but a small Java applet will have to be download. This Java applet works with your browser, Internet Explorer or Netscape. After you have logged on there is room for creating a personal Phone Directory or you can type phone number directly into the phone program. I like this program because you can phone people for free by using PC to PHONE or PC to PC. The cost of a PC to PHONE call is paid for by advertising. Phone calls can be made to any one in the United States, International calls are not yet available.
Rodney Malkoff
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WHAT TO DO WITH DOWNLOADED WALLPAPER AND SCREEN SAVERS
In our last tip, we pointed you to some Web sites for downloading holiday-related desktop elements such as screen savers, desktop themes, and clipart. One way to find these files is to search for the keyword "Christmas" at
http://www.pcworld.com/fileworld/0.1392.00.html
Once you’ve downloaded what you want, you’ll need to know what to do with it. Assuming you end up with a *.zip file (and you will, in most cases), use an unzipping utility to open the resulting ZIP file. If it’s an *.exe file, double-click it to extract its files. Then follow these steps:
For wallpaper: Extract or move any *.bmp files to your Windows folder.
From now on, you can apply any of the new
wallpapers using the Display
Properties dialog box: Right-click the desktop, select Properties, select a wallpaper on the Background tab, and click OK.
For screen savers: Extract or move the *.scr file(s) inside your Windows folder. From now on, you can apply the screen saver(s) using the Display Properties dialog box: Right-click the desktop, select Properties, and click the Screen Saver tab. Select the screen saver you’d like to use (and adjust the delay, if necessary), then click OK.
(Note: The above instructions apply to the majority of downloads; however, there will be exceptions. For example, some downloads include a setup program to install the item for you. When in doubt, look for a readme.txt file.)
In our next tip, we’ll show you the techniques for using files for startup/shutdown screens and desktop themes.
Ed Danley
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WORD: SHRINK-TO-FIT TEXT
Versions 4.x, 95
Have you ever finished a Word document only to find that the last few sentences land on a separate page? If so, you might like to try to eliminate that last page for cosmetic effect. Don’t start deleting words; all you have to do is choose File, Print Preview. In the Print Preview toolbar, click the Shrink To Fit button, which is located below the Tools menu. This will reduce your document by one page.
Ed Danley
SAVING WORDPERFECT DOCUMENTS IN WORD FOR WINDOWS
"I just started using Word 97, and my daughter uses WordPerfect 6.0. I can read her files, but I can’t find a way to save my files in WordPerfect 6.0 format. I was under the impression that Word would save in any of the standard formats. Do you have any suggestions?"
Word does offer a wide variety of file formats, but WordPerfect 6.0 isn’t one of them. As you have pointed out, you can read the files in Word, but you can’t save them.
We suggest that you consider saving all your files in RTF (Rich Text Format). This will allow your daughter to read them. If possible, she could also save her files in RTF to save you both a bit of time and trouble.
To save a Word file in RTF format, choose File, Save As. When the Save As dialog box opens, enter a name and then click the arrow at the right side of the Save As Type list box. When the list expands, select Rich Text Format (*.rtf) and click Save.
Ed Danley
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USING MS-DOS WITH MICROSOFT OFFICE FILES
"I recently needed to use MS-DOS and discovered that some of my Microsoft Office file names don’t work correctly. Am I doing something wrong, or does MS-DOS (even the Windows 98 version) have a problem with very long file names? If this is the case, how could I copy such files in MS-DOS without losing the file names?"
The file names in MS_DOS are limited to 127 characters by default. If you have names longer than this, you may need to change the setting.
Open the MS-DOS window and type:
shell=c:\windows\command.com /u:255
Then press Enter. This will tell MS-DOS to allow names up to 255 characters long.
By the way, when you enter long file names that contain spaces in the MS-DOS window, you need to enclose them in quotes. For example,
c:\data\This is my very long file name with many spaces.doc won’t work, but "c:\data\This is my very long file name with many spaces.doc" will work.
Ed Danley
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BOOKMARK COMPOSER
Want to edit one of your bookmarked sites? Open the bookmarks file and select the bookmark, then right-click. From the context menu, choose Open Link In Composer. The site opens in Composer (Communicator's HTML editor). Of course, you won't be able to make changes to a site you don't own, but you can get ideas of how the site works.
Jerry Henry
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LOOK FOR THE BOOKMARK Most bookmark files get so large that you lose track of what they contain. To find a long-lost or misplaced bookmark, open the bookmarks file and press Ctrl-F to bring up the Find Bookmark box. Enter the word, phrase, or URL to search for in the Find field, then select the search criteria. As you see, you can search for name, location, or description (choose any or all) and match the case or the whole word (you don't have to select either). Click OK--Communicator highlights the first bookmark that matches your search or tells you that it didn't find any file.
Jerry Henry
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A CHANGE IS COMING What's the point of opening a site if it's the same as last time you visited? Communicator allows you to see if any of your bookmarked sites contain new information before you open them. To find out the update story, open your bookmarks file and select View, Update Bookmarks, which opens the What's New box. Either select All Bookmarks or Selected Bookmarks (highlight these before opening the What's New box), then click Start Checking. Communicator searches the sites and indicates any that have changed since the last time you visited.
Jerry Henry
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COPY THE BOOKMARK Sometimes you want to let someone else in on one of your cool bookmarks. If so, open your bookmarks file and highlight the bookmark. Right-click, then select Copy Link Location from the context menu. Now open a new message in the Composition window and select Edit, Paste. The live link pastes into the message.
Jerry Henry
COLOR CODES
Communicator allows you to get pretty colorful with the Web page display color settings. Web pages usually have their own background and text colors, but Communicator allows you to change these. To recolorize your pages, choose Edit, Preferences from the Communicator menu to open the Preferences box, then select Appearance, Colors. In the Colors option box, unselect the option Use Windows Colors. To change the background or text colors, click the color icon beside each option (the defaults are gray), which opens the Color dialog box.
Select a standard color from the palette, then click OK. If you want to keep these colors no matter what, check the option Always Use My Colors, Overriding Document. Click OK to save your color choices and close the Preferences box.
Jerry Henry
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START WITH MY BOOKMARKS
Most people rely solely on their bookmarks to have quick, easy access to their favorite sites. Your bookmarks are formatted and stored in a file called bookmark.htm in your Netscape/Program/User folder. In Navigator, you can specify that bookmark.htm be your Home page for each time you open a Navigator window. Just go to Edit, Preferences. Highlight Navigator on the left of the Preferences window. Under Home Page, click Browse to locate your bookmark.htm file. It can usually be found in Program Files/Netscape/Users/your name. (If you have different people using different profiles in Netscape, they each have their own set of bookmarks. Make sure you find the bookmark.htm in your own profile folder.) Now click OK. To test the changes you have made, click on the Home Page button on your toolbar. You'll see your bookmarks perfectly and clearly formatted before your very eyes.
Jerry Henry
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I-DRIVE
It's 9:30 p.m., you're about done with the PowerPoint presentation you have to give at 8:00 a.m. the next day, but when you go to transfer it to your notebook, you realize the file size is too big for a floppy, and you don't have access to a Zip drive. What to do? Used to be, panic. Now, however, you can simply upload the file onto I-Drive, a site that offers users 25MB of free secure storage, so you can access your files anywhere there's an Internet hookup.
Jerry Henry
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OFFLINE WORK
Why spend any more time online than you need to? Composer allows you to save entire Web pages, including text and graphics, on your computer to view anytime you want.
To do this, find the page you want, then choose File, Edit Page from the Communicator main menu. Composer opens with the page in the window. Choose File, Save As from the Composer menu, then select where you want to save the page and click Save. The whole page goes into the directory you specified. When you want to view the page later, open Composer and choose File, Open Page, and the Open Page dialog box appears. Click Choose File and select the saved file. Double-click Open and the page opens in the Composer window.
Jerry Henry
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Larry Thompson, 457-5622
Vice-President Ross Jordan 457-4894
Treasurer Richard Coop Sr., 459-8731
Member Services Rodney Malkoff, 453-1159
Director Paul Mays, 219-626-2689
Newsletter Editor Jerry Henry 453-4144
Newsletter Distribution Ed Danley, 453-7004
Group WWW site http://www.iquest.net/kokopc
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This Month’s User Bucks
Ed Danley $1
Jerry Henry $1
Rodney Malkoff $1
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Newsletter editor Jerry Henry
jhenry@netusa1.net 453-4144
Keep those articles coming in Word
Perfect, plain text, or Word.
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