Computers 101

Q:
I would like to use different colors to highlight my email, but I seem limited to the 16 colors listed. Is there a way to get more colors?

A:
If you are using Outlook Express in "Rich Text (HTML)" mode, then you can change the font color by clicking the "A" in the message toolbar and choosing one of the sixteen colors listed, BUT... you can easily expand your palette with this little trick.

Highlight the text you want to color, right-click and choose "Font". In the drop-down Color menu, select "Custom", then click the "A" to bring up more options.

You will see 32 more colors along with the original 16.

If that isn't enough, click the button marked "Define Custom Colors>>" for unlimited possibilities.

Hold down your left mouse button and move the cursor to select a color. Next, adjust the sliding arrow on the side to make it darker or lighter.

Click "Add to Custom Colors" to put it on your palette. You can add up to 16 custom colors.

With Netscape Mail, when you are composing a new message, just highlight the text you want to change the color of and click the little box in the message toolbar (the box will be the current color of your text).

You will find 70 colors to choose from. Just click the one you want. If you know the HTML code for a color not shown, you can type it into the box instead.

When writing an email with AOL, it works pretty much like OE—just highlight your text and click the "A" in the toolbar or right-click the text and choose "Font color". You are, however, limited to the 48 colors shown.

One thing to keep in mind though: the recipient of your email may not see all the colors, but at least you can have fun being creative.

~ David

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Tip of the Day

Frolicking in the Recycle Bin

Here are a few things you can do to make your recycling experience more enjoyable:

No Confirmations

Ever notice how every time you delete something, Windows asks you if you would really like to do it? If you find yourself shouting "YES, I wouldn't have hit delete if I didn't want to delete the stupid thing," then you may want to disable the deletion confirmation.

To do so, just right-click the Recycle bin, Properties, and deselect the checkbox for "Display delete confirmation dialog box."

Recycle Size

By default, the Recycle Bin sucks up 10% of your hard drive. If you have a ten gig hard drive, Windows is setting aside 1 gig just for digital garbage. I have mine set at only 5% (500 meg on a 10 gig hard drive). If you have a hard drive larger than say, 5 gig, I would free up some space by right-clicking your Recycle Bin and moving the little slider to the left. I would set aside 300-500 meg for recycling.

Skip the Bin

You'll notice that you can also set the computer to bypass the recycle bin and just permanently delete files. I WOULD NOT do this. I've accidentally deleted more than my fair share of files, and I'm embarrassed to admit how often that the Recycle Bin has come to my rescue.

Next time your 100% sure, without a doubt, for certain, that you want to delete a file, hold your Shift key down while you delete. The file will be deleted—skipping the Recycle Bin completely!

~ Steve

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Amanda's Cool Site of the Day

Hypography

"Sci-Tech: Science and Technology for everyone." is the slogan of this site. They throw a lot of sections at you right away with their navigation bar so I wanted to get to the heart of this site and find out what it was all about. So I chose the "About" section and found their mission statement:

"Hypography Sci-Tech is a privately owned web site which aims to provide popular science and technology content to a general, world-wide audience on a daily basis. By content, we think of reviewed science links, images, book reviews, articles, press releases, research tools, software, and otherwise whatever fits the general genre of 'sci-tech'."

I highly suggest starting your journey in the "About" section. You may also want to check out the "Quizzes" section on the site—very nifty. I just found out how very little I know about Roman Numerals. The quizzes test a variety of topics.

You can chat in the forums with other people, read up on technology in their news section, read review on books and topics, and I definitely recommend their "Hypographies" section where you will find Mars Exploration, Anthrax, Missing Matter, and Wormholes, just to mention a few topics. Best of all, it's written in everyday English and probably won't confuse you like some science magazines/sites do.

Lots of food for thought here. Enjoy!

http://www.hypography.com/

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