Announcements

 Thanks!

Just a quick "thank you" to everyone who participated in our survey yesterday. The info you provided will help us tremendously.

Here are a few pieces of info we discovered:

1. Most of you are running either Win 98 (41%) or XP (42%).

2. Most feel the newsletter is just right the way it is.

3. 74% use Internet Explorer for their main browser,14% use AOL, and only 5% use Netscape.

4. 55% use Outlook or Outlook Express for their e-mail

5. And the most exciting one (for us) was that 60% of you have purchased something from our online store, up from 28% last year. Since this newsletter would go belly up without sales from our software store, we appreciate your support.

Thanks!

Computers 101

Q:
Why don't you run more tips for us Web-based email users (AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.)?

A:
It seems that for every web-based email service there are different features and procedures. This makes it very difficult to write "universal" tips. Since Outlook Express is what we use around here, we are able to offer tips based on what we know. We try to include Netscape Mail when possible.

Your web-based email HELP screen is a great resource for specific tips. If we run a great tip that works on OE, you could go to your email help screen and search for the feature. For instance, if we run a tip on blocking senders, go to HELP and search for "block senders". Yahoo, AOL, or MSN all have their own ways of doing things that Outlook Express and Netscape Mail can do—you just need to look in the right place.

BTW: Out of the thousands of you who took our survey yesterday, 60% use Outlook/Express or Netscape Mail, while 20% use web-based. Thank you for helping us focus our content.

~ David

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

Tip of the Day

Improving the Quality of Graphics using AOL

Let's have an AOL browser tip (I love irony)! If you browse the web with AOL, you know that sometimes graphics just don't look so perty. Never fear! I'm here to show you how to turn off the built in image compression.

AOL says this image compression helps images download faster. Blah! This may be, but a typical human can't see any significant difference in speed between having compression on vs off. In fact, the only thing this Image Compression seems to be good at is converting nice looking graphics and photos into something that appears to have gotten messed up in Captain Kirk's transporter.

I'll walk you through how to turn this off, but note that I'm using AOL 7.0. If you use AOL 6 (or even 5), there shouldn't be any major differences in the way this works.

1) Log On to AOL.

2) Go to Keyword: Preferences

3) Under the Organization Menu, click the Internet Properties WWW link.

Your AOL Internet Properties Panel will pop up.

4) There are several tabs to choose from. Choose the Web Graphics Tab.

5) By default, Always Compress Graphics should be selected. If you enjoy crisp clear graphics, choose the Never Compress Graphics option.

6) Click "OK"

Congrats! Your graphics should be lookin' good from now on.

NOTE: Another benefit of choosing "Never Compress Graphics" is that you can save images from web pages as JPEG files rather than compressed AOL images (.art files) that few graphic programs can support.

~Steve

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

Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

The Urban Legends Reference Page

This site has been referred to me too many times to not post it anymore, this is the place you should go to check if a chain letter e-mail is true or not, but that’s just one of the many uses for this site.

Because Urban Legends cover so many different categories they have nicely divided it into sections for your easy viewing. I particularly enjoyed the Disney and Critter Country sections of this site. Hey check it out!

http://snopes2.com

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