Announcements

Follow-up to Last Weeks Tips:

4/29/03 Stop Windows Messenger: While Windows Messenger is an IM program that starts automatically and takes up resources in your system tray, there is another Messenger on Windows XP—this is the one that is being exploited to send pop-up advertising. See today's Tip to find out how to stop the OTHER Messenger.

4/30/03 Image File Types: Donn F. wondered, "When writing about image file formats, why do so many professionals ignore the PNG format which provides good compression, allows use of both layers and transparency, is frequently accepted by contemporary software, and is not proprietary (like the ART format is)? It also does not have the problem of damaging the image with each successive save, as the JPEG format does." Sorry for the exclusion, here ya go...

PNG (Portable Network Graphic) is a lossless image format, properly pronounced "ping". It was designed to replace the older and simpler GIF format. Like GIF you can make transparent images for buttons and icons, but it does not support animation. A PNG file can generally end up being twice the size of a JPG and three times larger than a GIF and some browsers, such as older versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape, incorrectly render them. Don't see it taking over any time soon. ~ David

5/1/03 Retrieve deleted OE email: "I don't try to drag items from Deleted Items. Instead I right click the item, then click 'Move to Folder' in the drop down menu. A list of all Folders then appears and I click which one I want to move the item to... usually it's back to my Inbox." ~ Judi H.

Steve wondered if there was a way to resend a message in Outlook Express with the press of a button. Although there is not a magic "Resend" button like in Outlook, many of you wrote to tell us easy ways to do it. "All I do is go into the 'Sent Items' folder, open it up, and forward it to the person I sent it to, being sure to delete the information at the top about the 'original sender' and date, etc... This also works if I sent an email to one person, and then decided another person should see it as well." ~ Carolyn

Another suggestion was to highlight (or Ctrl+A to select all), copy (Ctrl+C) the text from the original email in the "Sent items" folder and paste (Ctrl+V) into a new email.

5/1/03 Email Etiquette: In defense of all caps, Bruce K. wrote, "I TYPE EVERYTHING IN CAPS BECAUSE IT'S EASIER AND FASTER. BEFORE I RETIRED, I KEPT A DAILY LOG AT WORK OF ALL MY DAILY ACTIVITIES; AND I SOON LEARNED IT WAS EASIER AND FASTER TO DO EVERYTHING IN CAPS." Could you repeat that, I didn't hear you ;-)

Anna R. wrote, "Please add to your list: FILL in the Subject line, preferably with an appropriate topic. I will NOT open an email without a subject. And I HATE, opening an email with a subject that I am interested in then find it to be something else!"

"After reading item #7 in your list of suggestions, I wondered if you practice what you preach? Look at the spelling of the words 'cuasing' and 'managable.' The use of a good spell checker (rule #3) would have caught those errors. Suggestion #8 also would have likely revealed them." OK, I'm guilty of spell check neglect! Call me hypocrite of the year! Actually, in the ancient custom practiced by Japanese gardeners, Persian rug makers, and Byzantine iconographers (among others), I deliberately put at least one mistake in every newsletter as an act of humility and to remind y'all that I'm not perfect ;-) And if you believe that, I've got some swamp land that you may be interested in...

5/2/03 Error Reporting Off: Beth K. wondered, "Where exactly are we sending the reports to and who reads them?" I was curious too, so I found out where they go and what they do. Here's the link to Microsoft's Error Reporting data collection policy to answer all your questions...
http://watson.microsoft.com/dw/1033/dcp.asp

After reading the data collection statement, you might agree with Tom M., "Considering the overwhelming complexity of the PC universe it's clear that Microsoft needs all the information they can get to help them provide stable and fully functional operating systems. Those who don't send the error reports should be barred from complaining about Windows operating system problems."

Windows 98ers noticed that although the OS does not send error reports, Internet Explorer 5 or higher on their computer does offer to send them. IE Error Reporting can send portions of the document or web site you are viewing along with this debugging information. For IE5 just go to Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and remove "Internet Explorer Error Reporting". For IE6, however, you must change a registry script which is only recommended for advanced users.

Computers 101

Q:
I hate it when I visit a web site and it has dark text on a dark background. Is there an easy way to make these readable?

A:
It's happened to us all. Sometimes a background doesn't load right, or maybe it's just bad design, plain and simple. Either way, some pages are just hard to read.

Well, next time that happens to you, hit CTRL-A.

All the text on the website will be selected (highlighted). The selection color is normally blue with white text. Much easier to read than, say, a dark red on a black background. This works with email in OE too!

Before:

After:

Try reading the text below, then hit CTRL-A to see the difference:

Cool huh?

~ Steve

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

Tip of the Day

Stop Mysterious XP Pop-ups

Last week I told you how to disable Windows Messenger, thinking it was the same as the Messenger being used to send pop-up advertising. Turns out that they are two different animals. Windows (a/k/a MSN) Messenger is used for Instant Messaging, while this Messenger is used in networks to transmit and send Alerter service messages between clients and servers.

Even though you'll never use it unless you are on a network, by default it is turned on, causing an open hole in your XP firewall for pop-up advertising to get through. Here's what to do if you want to stop Messenger...

Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services (or Start / Run and type in "services.msc"). This will bring up a long list of Windows services that ar running or available on your system.

Find "Messenger" and double click to open the Properties box. In the "Startup Type" field, change the setting to "Manual". You could choose "Disable", but if any services depend on Messenger they will fail to start, so you're better off playing it safe.

Click OK to save changes.

Thanks Uncle Bill for yet another useless program to shut off.

~ David

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

Grimm Brothers

National Geographic brings you the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, from Folklore to Forever. This site is a treasure. Here you can find 12 of the Grimms Fairy Tales from an early 1914 translation, so expect them to be gruesome. Here’s a quote from the site:

"Once they saw how the tales bewitched young readers, the Grimms, and editors aplenty after them, started 'fixing' things. Tales gradually got softer, sweeter, and primly moral. Yet all the polishing never rubbed away the solid heart of the stories, now read and loved in more than 160 languages."

Click "tell me a story" to begin your journey. This will present you with three story choices, or you can click on the locked box and pull up a menu for your navigation delights. Choose a story to begin. You can also read up on the Grimm Brothers and how they got started. Enjoy!

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/

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