Announcements

Are You Secure?

We had a tremendous response to our Norton Internet Security 2001 offer On Friday. Orders started coming in within 5 minutes of sending the newsletter!

Again, this suite normally retails for $69.95, we have it for only $18.97 with FREE US Shipping!

This suite includes Norton Anti-virus, Norton Personal Firewall, Norton Parental Control, and Norton Privacy Control.

Basically, it keeps you safe from viruses, hackers, porn, and keeps an eye out for your privacy online!

Oh, and a lot of people think that their anti-virus software keeps hackers out - it does NOT! You need to have both to be safe. After all a hacker can do as much, or even more damage than a virus!

In my opinion, this is a must have product if you're online. We ran out of our initial supply late Saturday, but we were able to find a few more. So, I wanted to mention this one more time to give those who may have missed out a chance to grab it. Here's the link for more information:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/nortonis2002.htm

PS - This has been selling really fast, so order while you still have time. Once this is gone, it may be awhile before I can get more in!

Computers 101

Q:
I can't seem to find this one font. Is there an easier way to search for it without sampling every font I have?

A:
Yes! Here's how to look for fonts that are similar to the one that's *almost* right.

1. Click the Start button, Settings, Control Panel. Open the Fonts folder. Win ME users may need to click the "View all control panel options" link that's on the left side of the control panel.

2. From the View menu, select "List fonts by similarity."

That's it. Now, just use the "list fonts by similarity to" drop down box to select the font that almost made the cut. You'll get a list in descending order of similarity. Double-click a font to see a sample.

--Steve

Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm

Tip of the Day

Embedded Fonts: Keep your Documents Looking Good!

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “He who creates a beautiful Word document is wise, but he who enables others to see that beautiful Word document is wiser still.”

Okay, it’s not really an ancient proverb. But it is true!

Have you’ve ever found a cool font on the web and used it in a document? Chances are if you sent the document to somebody else, your cool font didn’t show up the same on their computer. Word will substitute missing fonts with whatever it deems the closest match – and Word is not always very good at finding close matches.

So wouldn’t it be great if you could just include the font with the document?

(Okay, this is a tips column. You know where I’m going with this.)

HOW TO DO IT

Embedding fonts in your documents is a simple process. From the Tools menu, select Options to bring up the Options dialog box.

Click the Save tab and click the box on the option Embed TrueType fonts.

You also have the option of embedding just the characters that are in use in your document. This is useful if you are using a very complex or flowery font and wish to keep the file size down. If you’ve used a special font for a headline or title, Word will save just the information it needs to reproduce only those characters used in the document.

However, if you embed only the characters in use, and then the person who gets the file wants to correct a spelling mistake or make some other change to that title, they are limited to only the letters you have already used. So it’s a trade-off between file-size and convenience. And since this whole thing is about convenience, I’d recommend going with the whole font. The choice, as always, is yours.

WHAT ABOUT MY MAC-USING FRIEND?

“Dear Tips Column, I have this friend who uses a Macintosh…”

Wait, he uses a Mac, and you’re still friends with him?

No, ha ha, I use Macs sometimes, too. But when you send Word documents to a Mac, even if you’ve embedded the fonts, they won’t show up properly unless the receiver has the Mac equivalents of those same fonts installed. Only other Windows users will be able to see your font-embedded document in all its glory.

But then, Windows users make up something like 95 percent of the world, so it’s okay.

THE FINAL WORD

This is mostly my personal opinion, but as a writer and designer, I have one suggestion for the world: Please, refrain from using Arial or Times New Roman for anything you’re going to print. Both of those fonts were specially designed to look good on a computer monitor – not on paper. There’s a whole world of subtlety in fonts that just cannot be expressed in the 72 dots per inch of a monitor.

Use something like Verdana, Georgia, or anything with the word ‘book’ in it. Print them out, and compare them with the overused Arial and Times New Roman.

Try it! You’ll impress your boss! Amaze your friends! Win the love and admiration of complete strangers! Well, you’ll at least produce more professional-looking documents.

--Tom Dalton

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Loch Ness Monster, or is it?

A very well documented site on the existence (or lack there of ?) of the Loch Ness monster.

Have you ever wondered if Nessie really exists? I was intrigued by this site and wandered around it for the better part of an hour. The site includes a list of sightings by date, pictures, and links to other Loch Ness Monster sites.

Some of the photographs are really unbelievable: one looks like a rock, another is like a part of a ship or a smiling snake - not my idea of a "monster" at all. The site does have a lot of interesting facts though. So, decide for yourself - is the Nessie fact or fiction?

http://www.nessie.co.uk/

Do you have a cool, non-commercial site that you want to share?
Send it to Amanda at amanda@worldstart.com