Announcements

Follow up to last week's tips

3/25/03-Special Characters: Many readers did not find their Character Map to insert special characters into email, documents, etc. Try searching for this file "charmap.exe". If you don't find it, then maybe the Character Map is not installed. To install it, just click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then Add/Remove Programs. Choose the Windows Setup tab, then System Tools (click the words, not the check box), and then Details. Check the Character Map box, click OK and then OK again.

3/26/03-Registering Software: "I PRINT the registration form, send if necessary, otherwise, throw it away. This shuts up the irritating registration "deamon"! If I see that online registration is needed, I go back in and do it. Some programs give free stuff if you do!" ~Nelda P.

3/27/03-Computer Details: If you have Norton System Doctor (part of Norton System Works) then you can easily find out info on your system.

Many of you recommended Belarc Advisor for getting a detailed profile of installed hardware and software. Be sure to read the instructions carefully before installation and use. This free download can be found at..
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html.

3/28/03- Window Key Shortcuts: "Windows Key + L will give the fastest 'Switch User' available in Windows XP. All open programs will remain running as you switch from one user to another." ~Bill V.

3/28/03- Selective Printing: "I LOVE your PC tips, but I must say that I take exception to what appears to me to be your pro MS and anti-Netscape comments. I have used Netscape since the early versions and I still use it. I just tried the selective printing function and it works just fine thank you!" ~K.J.

We did not intend to upset the handful of readers using Netscape and we danced with joy upon hearing that the selective printing tip worked. It does NOT, however, work with Netscape Mail. ~David

Computers 101

Q:
How do I leave my email on the mail server so I can check them at work and still get them at home? BTW: I use Outlook and Netscape.

A:
One of the boasts made by web-based email such as AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail is that you can check it anywhere. This is truly an advantage, but some of us only check our mail at home and work, so today I'll tell you how to leave your pop3 mail on the server to check using more than one computer. This would also come in handy if you and your spouse share an account, but not a computer.

For Outlook Express, just go to the Tools menu and click Accounts. Choose the e-mail account you want, then click Properties. Click the Advanced tab and a menu will come up.

Select "Leave a copy of messages on server" then OK. Now when you check your mail, all the messages will stay and can be checked by your other computer.

What if you want messages removed from the server when you delete them? Just select "Remove from server when deleted..." from the same menu. Pretty easy, isn't it?

Now, let's do this in Netscape Mail. Open "Mail & Newsgroup Account Settings". Choose the e-mail account you want, then click Server Settings and a menu will appear.

Select "Leave messages on server" then OK and you are all set. Netscape also allows you to remove messages when you delete them. Just choose "Delete messages on server when they are deleted locally".

Pretty cool, huh?

~ David

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

Tip of the Day

Spruce Up Your Email (Outlook Express)

Ever notice those emails that come with graphics, colors, cool fonts, and other formatting? Okay, most of the time those emails are from spammers, and you just delete it and silently (or otherwise!) curse the two-edged blessing of cheap email.

But with not too much trouble at all, you too can send emails that stand out from the crowd! There’s a little feature in Microsoft Outlook called “stationery,” and it lets you import pre-defined templates for your email that will help format your text sizes and colors, and give your email a nice background.

Selecting Your Stationery

The first step is really easy: from the “format” menu, select “Apply Stationery” and pick one of the options that come up. When you installed Outlook, a set of nice templates was installed with it. If you have downloaded other templates (we’ll get to that in a bit), select “More Stationery” and browse to where you saved it.

Creating Your Email

You’ll see that the template you selected has placed a background graphic in the space where you write your email. Go ahead and type your message as you would normally. Once you’ve got some headlines and other text in, we get to do the other cool part of this whole deal.

Select your greeting, or some other part of the email that you’d like to highlight. Then from the “Format” menu, select “Style” and assign it a type – Heading 1, for a large headline, or bulleted list for a bulleted list. (Yeah, that was kind of obvious, okay.) Notice how each style has a certain font, color, and size associated with it.

Here's what should happen...

Installing New Templates

A lot of people have found this to be a pretty nifty way to add some excitement to their emails – enough so that if you run a Google search on “outlook stationery” you’ll turn up a whole bunch of sites with new templates you can download. Most of these seem to be stored as .EXE files, so when you download them they’ll just run and install right into your “stationery” directory. (Always be careful when downloading and running exe files, though! You should really have a virus protection program, and don’t ever download an exe from a site you don’t trust.)

Pretty Fun Stuff!

That’s all there is to it. If your friends are using a really old email system, or if they have set their systems to process text mail only, then your letter will show up with some HTML tags. Most people, however, have no problem reading HTML email and the new look could gain you newfound respect in the eyes of your friends and family.

And isn’t that why we’re all learning about computers anyway? :o)

~ Tom Dalton

Note: To learn the Netscape Mail way to do this, be sure to read tomorrow's newsletter!

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

World War I—Trenches on the Web

“These pages contain information on the people, places, and events that comprised one of the worst calamities of modern history. Entire kingdoms were to vanish in the clash. The map makers of the world would be busy indeed!” What is this site owner talking about, why World War I, of course.

This site is fabulous, I particularly enjoyed the Willy-Nicky telegrams. You can view the entire set of telegrams between the Kaiser and the Tsar. I read through them all and found myself awed by the two rulers pleas to each other.

You’ll also enjoy the World War 1 Document archive where you can read more about the war from other viewpoints and gather your own perspective. This is one to bookmark, I think.

http://www.worldwar1.com/

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