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Wanna Build Your Own Computer?

It's actually not all that hard. I remember my first time. I built a 150Mhz "monster" machine with 32 meg of RAM and a 2Gig (wow) hard drive. Took me about three hours to put together.

And it was a ton of fun!

Well, if you would like to learn how to do the same, or maybe just learn to upgrade your computer yourself, you're in luck.

When I did my first one, there wasn't too much in the way of guidelines out there. Now, there's an awesome CD ROM that makes it easy for anyone with basic computer knowledge to put their own PC together!

It's called, appropriately enough, "How To Build Your Own PC 2003" and we have it for only $14.97 (and US Shipping is FREE!).

Jonathon does the bulk of our tech support and says he wishes he would have had this at his disposal when he was going to school. Just a few hours with this would have replaced a ton of classroom time. I'm with him - I wish I would have had this when I was learning the basics and putting my first computer together.

It takes you step by step through the process using video and multimedia to make it easy to understand. Just click and watch, it couldn't be easier. This is also an excellent way to see how to do hardware upgrades - and that's something we all need to do at one time or another.

Sections include installing the motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, sound card, modem, hard drive, CD / DVD drive, floppy drive, and more. Of course, it shows you how to put all of it together (you know, making sure the right wires are in the right place). It even shows you how to format your hard drive and install an operating system (like Windows 95/98/me/2000/XP).

In addition, it has a (printable) checklist of parts you'll need. There's a lot that goes into a computer, and with this you'll know exactly what you need - and what you don't.

We featured the previous version of this software last summer and it was an incredible seller (we set a record with it). This new version is even better, and covers all the current computer parts and install procedures.

If you're ready to take this next step in computing, this will be a tremendous help. Besides, it's really cool when your friends ask where you got such an awesome computer and you reply, "Oh, that's a custom job I threw together myself."

Of course, you may end up building them a computer too!

Anyhow, here's the link with more info:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/build-your-own-pc.htm

PS - Don't miss out. Even if you don't want to build your own computer, the hardware upgrade "how tos" in this program make it a must have! Besides, we still have a few months of bad weather, so it's the perfect time to put together a new machine.

Computers 101

Q:
Help! I created a document in MS Word, but now Word doesn't "see" it anymore. I can go to My Computer, look in the My Documents folder, and it's there. However, when I try to open it in Word, I can't seem to find it - or any other word document for that matter. What's going on?

A:
My guess? It's a filter problem.

No, not the kind of filter you use for e-mail or to keep your fish tank clean. This is a file filter.

When you select "Open" and that little dialog box comes up, check the drop box called "Files of type" (toward the bottom). It's my guess that you have something other than Word documents selected. To remedy the situation, just select "Word Documents (*.doc)" from the drop down menu.

You should now see all your Word documents, including the missing file.

OK, so why have all the filter stuff in the first place? Why not just show all the files in a folder?

The primary reason for filters in most programs is so you're not trying to open unsupported formats. Good thing too, I remember one time when I forced a jpeg to open in Notepad. Whew, not a pretty site. I still shudder when I think about it.

Anyhow, the really cool thing about filters is you can use them to select only the type of file you're looking for.

For example, let's say I have 300 files in the My Documents folder and they're an equal mix of word documents, text files, pictures, and html files. Now, if I know that the file I want to open is a text file, I can set the filter in MS Word (or any other word processor) to show me only text files. Now, instead of searching through 300 files, I only have to search through 75.

See? Filters aren't just for fish tanks anymore.

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

Tip of the Day

Are you one of the many people who forward our Computer Tips newsletter to friends and family? Do you receive email from a particular sender at work that you always forward to your personal account? If you are an Outlook/Outlook Express user you can have this done automatically! Here's how:

Go to Tools / Message Rules then Mail. Choose New.

Select "Where the From line contains people" and "forward it to people". Click OK.

Click on the underlined "contains people" link to enter email addresses that you would like to forward messages from. Click Add.

You can choose as many senders as you want here, and even choose from your address book.

Next click the underlined "people" link and enter the email addresses that you want to forward messages to.

Here again you can choose from your address book.

Click OK and your rule is saved. Click on the rule title box to give the rule a name.

You will notice that the rule description appears in the lower part of the box. You can modify the link in the future if you need to and even add recipients.

That's it. Now, whenever you receive mail from a particular sender it will automatically forward, saving you some time.

NOTE: If you are forwarding our newsletter, make sure your friends aren't already subscribed, we wouldn't want to receive a flood of people asking why they keep receiving two!

~ David

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

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

License Plate Internet Gallery

Ah license plates, lovely little things really, you can personalize them and make them witty. Well here is a whole gallery of them for your enjoyment.

This gallery is of license plates that are web/computer orientated. So for you cyber geeks like me, you'll scroll through them all. Some of them are really witty and some of them are just nerdy. But the really neat thing is it tells you who these vanity plates are registered to and the person's computer background.

Definitely a site you’ll enjoy!

http://webreference.com/outlook/license/gallery.html

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