Announcements

Everyone's Grabbin' It!

The response to our Norton Anti-virus 2002 deal was amazing yesterday. We were expecting a huge response, but WOW!

Anyhow, we had a lot of people comment that they thrilled with our price because the updates to their current version of Norton AV were about to expire and Norton wanted $19.95 for a renewal! So, for only $14.97, they get the 2002 version plus have another year of updates!

Again, this is always a top rated program by all the major magazines and it really does a fantastic job. It protects you from viruses in your e-mail, in downloads, web-based, and more. Oh, it also protects your friends from viruses! How?

It checks your outgoing e-mail so if you are infected, you’re not sending out viruses to everyone in your addresses book. Is that cool or what? Alright, enough talk, here’s the link with all the info:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/nortonav2002-RCS.htm

We Have Mice!

They’re back!

Last week we featured an optical wheel mouse for only $12.97. Well, we sold out of our initial stock by early afternoon. Since then, we’ve gotten over 100 calls and e-mails from people asking when we're getting more. Well, we just received another shipment, so here’s the info again :

Isn't that cool? Want one too? Well, we made a special purchase and have 'em in stock!

How much? Well, as you know, a good optical mouse will normally cost you anywhere from $25.00- $50.00. Well, how about an optical mouse for only $12.97?! And yes, US shipping is still FREE!

Now, don't go thinking this is some junky little rodent. This is just as good as any Logitech or MS mouse I've played with. In fact, I was using a Logitech mouse, but found that I liked the feel of this one better.

Oh, and yes, in addition to being an optical mouse, it's also a wheel mouse. If you're still using a wheel-less mouse, now's your chance to upgrade. Trust me, once you have one of those wheels, you'll never (ever) want to go back.

Since it's optical, it tracks along your screen very smoothly - no more bouncing around or getting stuck. Oh, and since it doesn't have a ball, you don't have to worry about cleaning out dirt and grim from its nasty little innards!

So, if you're still using an outdated non-optical mouse - or worse, one without a (gasp) scroll wheel - this is an offer you should jump on. Trust me - you'll enjoy your computing experience a whole lot more with a quality mouse :-) Here's the link:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/optical-mouse.htm

And don't worry - this still has our 30 day satisfaction guarantee - if you're not happy with it, send it back for a fast, courteous refund! Nothing to lose, but for $12.95 these are not going to last!

Computers 101

Q:
I was working on a document the other day and made a big mistake. I messed up just about the whole thing and it took forever to get it back to the way it was. Is there a better way?

A:
Yes.

First, if you make a mistake, hit CTRL-Z. In most programs, that will undo whatever it was that you just did. Bad thing is that many programs only give you one or two of these undos. Then you're stuck - or are you?

One clever way to make sure you can always go back is to save your file frequently - especially if you're about to make some big changes. Then if you really mess up good, just close the file and DON'T SAVE IT.

When you open it back up, you'll be back to the way it was when you last saved. This is really handy if you're playing around with image manipulation and are "testing" different effects.

If you want to take this to the next level, you may want to save your file under a different name each time. After all, when it comes to computers, you just can't be too paranoid :-)

I know, this all may seem incredibly obvious, but I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people waste a half an hour trying to get a document back to the way it was originally when they could have just used this tip.

-- Steve

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

Tip of the Day

Search Engine Tricks

Having a hard time finding something online? Does it seem like you type in your search term but don't get anywhere near what you're looking for?

Well, here's a couple tricks that seem (almost) universal between search engines.

Let's say you're looking for "sports cars" and all you're getting is information on baseball and football (sports). What can you do? Try some of the following:

1. Try entering:

+sports +cars

Most search engines will interpret this as meaning you only want results that have both the word "sports" and "cars" in them. Some search engines let you us the word "and" to do this as well (i.e. sports and cars).

2. You can also try to exclude terms. Let's say you still aren't getting what you want with sports cars (you still keep getting baseball info). Try something like:

+sports +cars -baseball

The "-" sign tells most search engines to exclude results that have whatever word it is that has the "-" in front of it.

3. If the above seems too confusing, most search engines have an "advanced search" option that gives you a web-style way to help you accomplish the same thing. Instead of using "+ / -" they use drop down boxes and option buttons. It is usually easier to search this way, although it's probably faster to use steps 1 & 2.

4. The next thing you might try is being more specific. Instead of just sports cars, maybe use exotic sports cars. Try different combinations of search terms until you get what you're after. (Careful with that word "exotic" though :-)

5. Also, you may want to try using quotes. If you type in:

"sports cars"

You should only get results that match that exact phrase in that exact order. Sometimes that can narrow things down considerably.

6. If all else fails, try a different search engine. We have a selection of what we feel are the best search engines on our homepage:

http://www.worldstart.com

My favorite? Google.com

There are thousands of search engines out there and not all of them support the tips I have shown you today. If you're having trouble, look for a link for search tips, search help, advanced search, or how to search. Most search engines have lots of information on how to use them successfully.

--Steve

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/writers-guidelines/index.htm

Cool Site of the Day

Better Grammar

Is it your or you're? Its or it's? Bare or bear?

If you've ever wondered about proper word usage, here's a site that can help. They have an excellent collection of common grammatical errors that you can browse through. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to write one of these newsletters without making all the English teachers
out there cringe.

Maybe not :-)

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

-- Steve

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