Volume 14 Issue 11 November 2000

In Memoriam: Richard Grover passed away since our last meeting. We extend our sympathy to his family and friends.

There were 14 members and guests present to hear Peg Harmon tell us about the Kokomo-Howard County Library and its upcoming improvements. She had an outstanding presentation that she had done with Power Point. It was great! We thank her for sharing her knowledge with us.

My E-Mail is messed up. I always get an error message when I try to reply or send a new message. I like it that way and don’t have any immediate plans to change things. I can receive E-Mail, I just can’t send it.

Check your mailing label. If it is highlighted, you are either due or overdue. Our dues are $10 per year and can be mailed to Richard Coop at 2645 North Apperson Way, 46901.

Larry Boucher of H. H. Gregg’s will be our speaker for the November 9, 2000 meeting. He will tell us about DVD and MP3. If you have questions on these subjects, ask him.

As usual, we don’t know in advance which room we’ll be in, but if you’ll check the sign in the lobby, it will point to the meeting place.

We are coming to the end of the year 2000 and my Presidency. Someone needs to help keep this group going. It won’t be me.

I recently counted all my phonograph records and CDs and came up with 9026. I’m currently making my own CDs called "Larry’s Favorites Volume XX" I have completed 46 volumes and they run about 79 minutes each. That’s over 1200 songs, so far, with only a few duplicates. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m enjoying it very much.

I hope you are utilizing your computer as much as I am and getting as big a kick out of it as I do.

I hope to see most of you at the November meeting.

Larry L. Thompson

1997-2000 Group President

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Many applications are indiscriminate about where they put files on your computer. Even more distressing is when part of a program loads into RAM without your knowledge during a Windows 98 launch. This waste of memory could continue even after you thought you uninstalled the application. A handy Windows system utility gives you a look at the programs that start up whenever you launch Windows. Go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. Then go to Tools, System Configuration Utility and click the Startup tab. From here, you can uncheck any program you do not want to launch at startup. Click OK, and the changes will take effect the next time you launch Windows. As you can probably guess, it's not a good idea to disable a startup program if you aren't sure what it does.

Ed Danley

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OFFICE: SETTING MARGINS

Here's the first thing to remember about printing: Don't set the document margins smaller than what the printer can handle. Check your printer's documentation for the minimum margins allowed and don't use lower settings in your programs.

In Word, choose File, Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Most printers can handle margins of one-quarter inch. If your margins are set to less, you'll have problems. In most cases, the Word margins are set to one inch or greater. This should pose no problem for any printer.

Many Office users have a problem when they try to squeeze every last millimeter of page space out of Excel. Just keep that printer spec in mind when you set margins. If the printer calls for a quarter-inch, set your margins a bit larger just to be safe. We've used 0.30 successfully on a LaserJet.

Ed Danley

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PROBLEM SOLVED A reader writes: "After I upgraded to 4.71, just highlighting a message would cause my computer to download much of it. I really did not like that, because it meant I couldn't scroll through message headers without having my machine try to download each highlighted letter. Then one day the problem stopped! Now when I highlight a message, it does not download until I open it. What do you suppose was going on?" Sounds like somewhere along the way, you changed the setting in Messenger that would require clicking a message to open it. Or have you closed the message-display pane? (By clicking in the middle of the dividing line between your folder and message lists and your message display, you can close off the message-display pane of the window, thereby reducing the risk of opening a potentially virus-laden e-mail.) If so, good--it's better to have to request display of a particular message by double-clicking, rather than letting Netscape do it for you and incurring a great deal of risk.

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DELETING ATTACHMENTS A reader asks: "Is there any way to delete an attachment when you're either forwarding or replying to an e-mail?" Yes. When you're forwarding, make sure to forward the message inline. In doing so, you ensure that your forwarded message includes the original message inside its main text window, not as a separate attachment. You can then use your mouse and the Delete key to remove anything you don't want to forward. To forward inline, right-click the message and select Forward Inline. Or you can click and hold the Forward button on your toolbar until a drop-down menu appears; select Inline from there. Netscape does not include attachments when replying to a message. (An indication that the original message had an attachment may appear when you reply, but you can easily delete this by highlighting it with your mouse and pressing Delete.) If you do not want your replies to quote the original message, while you're in Messenger, click Edit, Preferences. Select Messages under the Mail & Newsgroups options. Uncheck the box labeled Automatically Quote The Original Message When Replying.

Beyond that explanation, it could just indicate an improvement in your network connection. An overall increase in bandwidth could cause faster loading of a message across a network.

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START WITH THE INBOX "Can I set up a Windows shortcut for my desktop to take me directly to my Inbox without having to start up Navigator?" Yes, this is available through one of several command line switches for Netscape. Create a new shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking and selecting New, Shortcut. The command line for starting Netscape with your inbox is as follows: "c:\program files\netscape\communicator\program\netscape.exe" -P"profile name" -inbox Make sure you include the correct path to netscape.exe (the one above is the default). Also include all punctuation, and input the correct profile name.

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ANNOYING POP-UP ADS A reader writes: "How do I stop those infuriating ad panels from popping up while I'm working the Net? Either they go, or I go to Internet Explorer as my default." Unfortunately, pop-up ads will appear in Explorer as well. They are not browser-specific. They are a widespread and (in my opinion) sleazy way of advertising a product or service on a Web site. The HTML code for a pop-up ad is embedded in the Web page you are visiting. The nastiest trick is when a Web site includes a command to recognize when you leave a site or close your browser and then triggers a new window hawking some other product. ("Leaving so soon, my pretty?") You can get some relief. Most of the ads use JavaScript to control their size and position on your screen, and you can disable JavaScript in your Netscape preferences. Click Edit, Preferences and select Advanced. Uncheck Enable JavaScript and click OK. Alas, this procedure disables JavaScript entirely, and you will not see its more useful effects. Ad-blocking programs are available. Norton Internet Security, for example, can block certain types of ads and provide a personal firewall to protect your computer from hackers while you are online.

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MODIFYING THE PERSONAL TOOLBAR A reader asks: "Some time ago, I dragged and dropped a few links to sites I frequent onto the bottom-most toolbar. But for the life of me, I cannot remember how I did it. Nor do I know how to delete them or other unused ones from that toolbar. Can you help?" The toolbar of which you speak is known as the Personal toolbar, a short list of frequently visited links; it's almost like a list of your absolute favorite bookmarks. It provides you with quick, single-click access to your most frequently visited sites in the form of a toolbar button. To use it, first determine that it's visible onscreen. Click View, Show, and make sure a check appears next to Personal Toolbar. To add to it, go to a link you visit often. Now, next to the Location box near the top of the screen you'll see a Bookmark icon. You can drag this icon to the Bookmarks button to add a bookmark, or drag it to the Personal toolbar to create a quick-launch button. Only the width of your screen limits the number of buttons you can have. To modify or delete the links these buttons provide, click Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks. In the list of bookmarks in the Edit Bookmarks window, you'll see a new section called Personal Toolbar Folder, which provides all the links on the Personal toolbar as though they were bookmarks. In essence, they ARE bookmarks; you've just made them into buttons on your shiny new Personal toolbar.

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RENAMING BOOKMARKS "I cannot figure out how to rename my Bookmarks. When I click one to rename, it instead takes me to the site!" To rename Bookmarks in Navigator, first open the Bookmark Edit window by clicking Bookmarks, Edit Bookmarks. Locate and right-click the Bookmark in question. A pop-up menu will appear. Select Bookmark Properties at the bottom of the menu. A Properties window will open and you can change the name, URL, and even give it a description. This window also offers information on when you last visited the site and when you first added it to your list.

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Is it possible to copy a Netscape address book between two users or between two computers. The answer is yes--you can do both, but copying between two computers requires a few more steps than copying between users. To copy between users, start Netscape and load the User Profile to which you wish to copy. Open Messenger (Ctrl-2) and click File, Import. Select Communicator Address Book as the type you wish to import and click Next. You will get a prompt to locate the address book file you want to import. Netscape Communicator address book files have the extension .nab or .na2, and you'll usually find them in the Users folder under Netscape. Each user folder has that user's address book file. Once you've located the file, double-click it and Netscape takes care of the rest. To copy address books between computers, you must first locate the .nab or .na2 address book file you wish to import. Use the Find, Files Or Folders utility in your Start menu. Search for *.nab or *.na2. If multiple instances of these files appear, use the one in the user folder from which you wish to copy. Copy the file to a floppy disk or other removable media and transfer it to the second computer. Then follow the instructions above to import it into your User Profile, taking care to use the floppy as the location of the file to import.

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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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T I P O F T H E D A Y

It's hard to find an icon on a Desktop that's cluttered with dozens of them. Here's a quick way to locate the one you're looking for-all you need to know is the name under the icon. Click anywhere on the Windows desktop and press the first letter of the icon's label. Windows will highlight the first icon it comes to beginning with the letter-if that's not the one you're looking for, keep pressing the letter and watch the highlight as it cycles through the matching icons.

Howard Ogle

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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

Howard Ogle $1

jhenry@netusa1.net 453-4144

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