Announcements

Follow-up to Last Week's Tips:

7/15/03 Fake Pay Pal scam: We received gigs of email about various email scams similar to the Pay pal one that Steve mentioned. Also making the rounds are scams disguised as eBay, Best Buy, Earthlink, and Bank of America to name a few. Our best advice is to try a fake user name and password first, then if it accepts it, you know it is a fake. Owen J. had this good advice to add, "NO online service except your bank or an investment company should have your SS number. And your bank already has it. So if anyone asks for it, it's 99% sure it's an identity theft scam, like the one you described."

7/17/03 Shutdown Trick: XP users had a tough time getting this one to work. I found that when I put a short-cut down in the task bar and removed the one on the desktop that the taskbar one would not work. If you don't want the shutdown icon on the desktop, then create the shortcut in a folder (like the system folder) where it is out of the way, then your taskbar icon will have somewhere to look.

~ David

Font Fun

Wow, the response to the My Type Artist program was amazing! We knew it was a good program, but ended up selling over twice what we had expected.

As such, it's almost sold out (this would be the 5th sellout in a row). We're looking for more Inventory, so if you try to buy and get an "Out of stock" notification, try again in a few hours. No promises, but we may be able to find more.

Again, this software allows you to take a word or sentence and turn it into a cool graphical font. Check it out:

Once you create your "text art" you can save it in a variety of formats and use it in just about any graphics program ever created. It includes 1,000 different type styles that can be arranged in 90,000 combinations. Plus it's so easy to use you'll master the basics in only 5 minutes!

Again, this is only $9.97 and US shipping is free. Give it a try, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.worldstart.com/store/my-typeartist.htm

Don't miss out!!

~ Steve

Computers 101

Q:
How do I save pictures from my email when they don't show as attachments?

A:
I'm sure you all know how to save pictures from web pages. You just right click the image and choose "Save Picture As..."

Did you know that you can do the same with pictures in your email? Just right click and choose "Save Picture As..." (Outlook Express 6.0) or "Save image as..." (Netscape Mail 7.0)

Give it a name and location where you can find it easily.

Note: If the picture is located on a server, like ours are, you might need to be online when you try to save it.

~ David

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

Tip of the Day

How To Download

So, you've found a piece of software you want to download but aren't sure how to go about the whole process. Well, here's a step by step guide:

#1 - Click the download link.

# 2 - Choose to save to disk and hit the OK button.

# 3 - Choose where you would like the file downloaded to. I normally use the desktop because after the download I can find it without hunting around my hard drive for a half an hour.

You may choose a location other than the desktop of course. You can create a folder on the C: drive named "Downloads". Then you can keep all your downloaded software in that location.

If you wish to place a download folder on your C: drive as mention above do the following:

First, double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop. Next, double-click the "C" drive. Select File, New>>, Folder. A folder icon will appear with the words New Folder highlighted. Type in the name you would like for the folder (i.e. "Downloads"). That's it, you now have your very own download folder!

Anyhow, once you decide on a good location, press the "Save" button.

NOTE:
Possibly the best way of doing this is to download the software to your desktop and transfer it to a download folder after you have installed the software.

The reason being is sometimes the downloaded file name isn't very descriptive. If you have 40 different files in a folder named "downloads" it may be a little difficult to determine what file you just downloaded.

On the other hand, if you download it to your desktop you can easily figure out where the file is and then later transfer it to a "downloads Folder".

If you want to take this a step further, you could even re-name the file in the little Save As dialog box. That's what I normally do. In fact, I've even been known to re-name the file and add a couple comments to the name so I knew what was what later on.

For example, if I was downloading a program called "Cool Clock", I may name the file:

Cool Clock - keeps computers time right

Sure, it's long, but I would know what it the file was when I went to install it.

The sample picture below shows just the original name of the file. Not very descriptive huh?



# 4 - Watch the file download (it's really exciting). When the downloading finishes, a message box will pop up telling you that the download is complete (or you may just hear a little "ding"). The file will reside wherever you told the computer to put it in the step above.

# 5 - Finally, double-click the file you just downloaded. If it's an "exe" type file, the setup program will run and you can install the software.

Zip Files

If it's a "zip" file, that's not too bad either. If you're using a program like WinZip, it can automatically extract the compressed files and start the install for you.

Personally, I like to right-click the file and select an "extract to" option from the resulting menu (yeah this is the hard way, but I'm stubborn). Now, the availability of this option depends on your "unzipping" software, but most zip-type programs will add an option to that menu when you install them.

Normally, you can choose not only to extract, but to extract to a specific location (some programs will even create a folder for you). Once the files are extracted, just double-click the setup program to install.

XP users, if you right-click a zip file, you'll get an option to Extract that will create a new folder in the same location as your zip file (i.e. if your zip file is on your desktop, you'll get a new folder on your desktop with the extracted files).

No Setup Program?

OK, you've unzipped and don't see any program called Setup.exe (or similar). What happened? Did your unzipping program miss something? Is Bill Gates out to get you for using that pirated copy of Windows?

Ahh, don't worry. Some software is very basic and doesn't require any setup program. You can just double-click the program to run it. No support files, no documentation, just the program itself is zipped.

The bad thing with this situation is that you don't get a shortcut and need to go to the folder where the file is each time you want to run it. Or do you?

So, here's the last trick of the day:

If you need a shortcut, just right-click and drag the program to your desktop. When you release, you'll get an option for creating a shortcut from a little menu. Actually, by default, you should get a shortcut with a left-click drag and drop, but you know how Windows can be :-)

~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 Rodeo Network

Welcome to the Rodeo Network, a site that is very helpful to those of you who enjoy rodeo. This here site is working to network and unite the rodeo. You'll find heaps of resources about stuff like foaling horses, and even a job search section.

But best of all, y'all can find a rodeo coming to place near you by heading over to the rodeo listings. Choose your state and it will give you a full listing of local rodeo events in your neck of the woods. The listing has very in-depth information, you can even find out what events are being spotlighted and at which rodeo.

Gallup on over!

http://www.rodeonetwork.com/

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