October 2000
Newsletter
Message from the president:
There were 18 members and 2 guests present to hear and watch the well-done Power-Point presentation by our own Marcy Young. She told us about Viruses, how to spot them, prevent them and check for them. The two guests were impressed enough to join our group. They are Linda and Jim Cole and we welcome them to our meetings.
I told about a program that I received by E-Mail from a Mac user. It is called Stress-Relax and it allows you to do all those things you’d love to do to your computer, especially when it acts up. The first weapon is a hammer. When you click the left mouse button, it knocks an imaginary hole in your monitor screen. The sound effects are great with several different breaking glass noises and even follows the left and right movement of the hammer with sounds
from the left and/or right speakers. Right clicking gives you a choice of seven more weapons with which you may attack your computer: a machine gun, a chain-saw, a phaser, paint blobs, a flame thrower, a large stamper and you may even infest your screen with termites, most with appropriate stereo sounds. The last weapon is like a garden hose that allows you to wash the
screen of all the destruction you have caused and start over. They only lack of perfection in this program is the sound of the termites, they sound like crickets. You know what a termite sounds like, don’t you? A couple of ESC clicks gets you out of the program and cleans the screen. What a stress reliever!!!
As soon as I got the program and tried it, I sent it to three E-Mail addresses with no problem. The reaction was great but when I tried to send it to others, an error message appeared on my monitor telling me that the program had performed an illegal function and would shut down. This happened four more times and I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. If you can figure out how I can send it, I’d be willing to share it with anyone interested.
Our October 12th meeting probably will feature Peg Harmon of the Kokomo-Howard County Public Library. She will tell us about how the newer technologies are affecting the Library, the new stuff coming up at the Library and how we may utilize it for our own uses.
Check your mailing label and if it is Hi-Lighted, you are either due or overdue.
I don’t know which meeting room we’ll be in but if you’ll check the lobby for a sign, it will
point to the meeting. Follow the subsequent signs to the room.
I hope to see many of you then.
Larry L Thompson
1998-2000 President
WEATHER BUG
A couple of months ago I was very concerned about a weather bulletin I had heard. My wife was working at home via Pcanywhere and thus online all day. Since we have one phone line, there was no way I could notify her of weather conditions.
This little program solves the problem. It operates about like weather radio. You end up with the current temperature residing on your toolbar next to the time. If there is a weather bulletin, this temperature flashes and demands to be opened.
Imagine my surprise when the temperature started flashing during installation. My first reaction was "Well what have I done wrong now." Then I clicked on it and was rewarded with a weather update. The url is as follows:
http://www.weatherbug.com/AWS/default. asp?cid=9
Jerry Henry
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MODEM
Marcy mentioned at the last meeting that there were a couple of sites that would identify your modem and provide an updated driver for the same. Here is one of those sites:
http://www.56k.com/ http://www.808hi.com/56k/whomadeit.htm
Marcy Young
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Defragmenting your hard drive is one of the best and easiest ways to keep your computer running at peak performance, but who has the time? Defragmenting, after all, takes a while, especially in these days of multi-gig hard drives. And while the Defragmenter can run in the background while you're working, this slows performance. Your best bet for defragmenting your hard drive is to perform the action automatically on a weekly basis using Microsoft's Task Scheduler.
To set up a weekly defrag session, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and choose Scheduled Tasks (if you have Task Scheduler running in your System Tray, you can just double-click that). Double-click Add Scheduled Task and click Next. Choose Disk Defragmenter from the list of programs, and click Next. Select the frequency with which you want to run the program, click Next, and then choose the day and time. As long as you leave your computer on all the time, set the Defragmenter to operate during the night, while you're sleeping.
Ed Danley
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READING WORD DOCUMENTS WITHOUT WORD
"I don't use Microsoft Office, but a friend forwarded a few tips to me and I am hoping you can help. If you can only respond with a tip (rather than direct e-mail), my friend will send me the tip.
I am surprised at the number of documents I run across that require me to have Word to read them properly. I have heard of a freeware Word file reader, but I don't know where to find it. I'm sure it isn't something Microsoft is giving away. If such a program exists, could you point me to it?"
You're wrong about Microsoft--that's exactly who does offer the free Word reader. Go to
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadDetails/wd97vwr32.htm
and download Word Viewer (wd97vwr32.exe). This program will let you do almost anything but edit files.
Ed Danley
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SIZE CAP ON OUTGOING MESSAGES A reader asks: "I use Netscape Messenger to write our weekly e-mail newsletter. It seems to have a 44K limit per text e-mail (although I've seen it vary from 33K to 57K). When Messenger reaches this limit, it will not allow me to add any more text. Are you aware of any way around this?" Not directly. Netscape apparently limits the size of the text portion of an e-mail message in an effort to avoid dragging down the entire system with bulky files loaded into memory. (Other programs do so as well. Try opening a file larger than 32K in Windows' Notepad!) However, there is a possible solution. Edit your newsletter using another editor such as a word processor, if you have one (for example, Corel WordPerfect or Microsoft Word, Works, or Write). Make sure to save the finished product as a simple text file. Or you can use any of the numerous freeware and shareware text editors available for download. Then attach the text file to your outgoing mail. To do this, begin a new message (Ctrl-M) and address it as you normally would. Select View, Attachments. Netscape will present you with a large, empty box near the Subject portion of your outgoing message. Click anywhere in the box, and Netscape will ask you to locate the file you wish to attach--in this case your previously written newsletter. Locate the file and double-click it. This adds the file to your message as an attachment. Netscape does not limit the size of files attached to e-mail messages. Click Send, and you're home-free! For a list of several freeware and shareware text editors, browse to http://winfiles.cnet.com/apps/98/text-editors.html The site breaks down this exhaustive list alphabetically. We write the Netscape tips you are reading using EditPad Classic, a simple yet powerful Notepad replacement available for download from
LOADING BOOKMARKS FROM A FLOPPY Technically, you can load bookmarks directly off a floppy. However, you would have to put the floppy disk in the drive every time you started Netscape. Here's a simpler way--just copy the bookmark.htm file into your user folder under Netscape. Insert the floppy disk into the drive. Using Windows Explorer, locate your Netscape User folder. By default, it is located in the following path: c:\program files\Netscape\users\(your name) However, its location may be different on your computer. Using your mouse, drag bookmark.htm from the floppy to this folder. Windows will most likely ask if you wish to replace the existing bookmark.htm. Click Yes to finish.
Jerry Henry
BACK UP MY BOOKMARKS Today's tip will show you how to create a simple batch file to back up your bookmark.htm file. A batch file contains a set of commands that run in order, like a small program--but one any user can easily write. Although you may not need to know how to do this, you might find the process useful, especially if you have a computer prone to crashes and/or data loss. In Windows Explorer, create a new folder on your hard drive and call it Backup. (In Explorer, single-click drive C:, then click File, New, Folder.) Start Windows Notepad from your Start Menu (or start your favorite text editor) and enter the following commands: @ECHO OFF COPY "c:\program files\netscape\users\(your profile name)\bookmark.htm" "c:\backup\" Include all the punctuation shown and replace (your profile name) with the folder name exactly as it appears in your Netscape\Users folder. Save your work as c:\bookback.bat or something similar. You have several options for running this batch. You can add a line to autoexec.bat. (Every Windows computer has this file; it is the very first set of commands that run when you power on your computer, just before Windows loads.) The batch program will back up your bookmarks each time you start your computer. To do so, simply use your text editor to edit c:\autoexec.bat. Add the following to the end of the file (or substitute whatever file name you gave your newly created batch file): bookback.bat Restart your computer to make the changes take affect. You can also create a shortcut to this batch file so you can run it at your discretion by clicking the shortcut. Right-click your desktop anywhere and select New, Shortcut. The command line is bookback.bat (or whatever name you gave the batch file). Click Next, give the shortcut a descriptive name of your choosing, then click Next and select an icon for the shortcut. Click Finish, and the shortcut appears on your desktop. To run it, simply double-click the icon. By default, Windows leaves the DOS window open after the batch has finished its job. You can change this by editing the shortcut's properties. Right-click the shortcut and select Properties. Under the Program tab in the Properties window, put a check in the box next to Close On Exit. Click OK to apply the changes.
Jerry Henry
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ADDRESS BOOK AND BOOKMARK HARD COPIES A reader asks: "How can I print out copies of my bookmarks and my address book?" If you simply want a list of your bookmarks without their corresponding URLs, you can open the bookmark.htm file in Netscape and print it as you would any other Web page. Click File, Open Page. Select Choose File. The bookmark.htm file for your profile is usually located in c:\program files\netscape\users\(your profile name) Find it and double-click it. Click Open, and your bookmarks will appear in their categorized hierarchy. You can then print the list by clicking the Print button on your toolbar, pressing Ctrl-P, or clicking File, Print. Printing bookmarks with their corresponding URLs is a little trickier. You'll have to open bookmark.htm in a text editor such as Windows Notepad and print it from there. Again, you'll find the file in the folder described above. You'll end up with a lot of HTML code this way, since it is an HTML document, so it may be a little difficult to read. If you wish, you can edit out all but the vital information. It is VERY IMPORTANT, however that you do NOT overwrite bookmark.htm. If you must save the edited version, choose Save As and give it a new name. Overwriting bookmark.htm will cause Netscape to lose access to your bookmarks. For printing address books, you'll have to use a similar method. First, you must export your address book information to a readable file. Start Netscape and select Communicator, Address Books (or press Ctrl-Shift-2). In the Address Book window, select File, Export. Locate the folder in which you wish to save the file, then give the file a name. Before you click Save, change Save As Type to the most suitable option. We've found that Comma Separated (*.csv) is most useful for our purposes. However, Tab Delimited (*.txt, *.tab) may work for you. Once you've exported the file, open it in your favorite text editor, edit out whatever you don't want, and print to your heart's content.
Jerry Henry
SHORTCUT KEYS TO ALL APPLICATIONS There are shortcut keys to access all the parts of Communicator quickly. These easy-to-use shortcuts can reduce your online time, but many people ignore them. So here they are, in all their convenient splendor: - Navigator: Ctrl-1 - Messenger: Ctrl-2 - Composer: Ctrl-4 - AOL Instant Messenger: Ctrl-9 Many users find it convenient to use a combination of mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts for their everyday Netscape needs.
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Larry Thompson, 457-5622
Treasurer Richard Coop Sr., 459-8731
Member Services Rodney Malkoff, 453-1159
Newsletter Editor Jerry Henry 453-4144
Newsletter Distribution Marcy Young
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Ed Danley $1
Marcy Young $1
Jerry Henry $1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Newsletter editor Jerry Henry
jhenry@netusa1.net 453-4144
Keep those articles coming in WordPerfect, plain text, or Word
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