----- Original Message ----- From: "Spring" ~*~ SELECTIVE PRINTING. Sometimes we want to print a selected passage from a Web page, and that's easy with MS Internet Explorer. Just highlight the desired text, use CTRL + P, and in the Print window, click on Selection from the Print Range selection, then OK. The same capability doesn't exist with Netscape Communicator where the Selection option is grayed out in the Print window. ~*~ Here's a cool little trick MS Internet Explorer users will like. If you're like me, you have WAY too many favorites. You click your Favorites folder and down drop hundreds of web sites. Well, here's a little trick that'll help: Click the "Favorites" menu then hit the first letter of the favorite you're looking for. The first item with that letter will be highlighted. If that isn't the right favorite, tap the letter again. The next favorite beginning with that letter will be highlighted. Once you land on the favorite you're trying to find, hit the Enter key. And, no, this doesn't work with Netscape ~*~ Q: Why does my monitor go black after about 15 minutes of not using the computer? A: Windows has a Power Management setting that will shut your monitor off after a specified amount of time. If you don't like when it's shutting the monitor off, you can change it by doing the following: 1. Hit the Start button, Settings, Control Panel. Then open the Power Management icon. 2. Look for the "Turn off monitor" drop box (it's towards the bottom). Select the amount of time you want the computer to wait before shutting off the monitor, or tell it not to shut the monitor off at all. ~*~ Have you ever copied a hunk of text that was overly-formatted? You know, italic, underlined, and written in some really strange looking font that's next to impossible to read. When you paste it into your word processor, chances are that it retains all those properties. Now, you could go and try to re-format the text back into something normal, but that can sometimes prove problematic. A better way is to copy the text into Notepad and let it remove the formatting automatically. After you paste the text in, all you're left with is plain text than can be pasted into any word processing application. ~*~ This tip applies to Windows 98. There's a quick way to add a program to the Start menu, but it's not very versatile. The more-involved way lets you add a program's icon anyplace on the menu. But if you simply want the program's icon on the menu now, and you don't care about location, try this: Open the My Computer or Explorer program and find the folder containing your program. Then drag the program's icon over to the Start button and let go. Point at the program and, while holding down the mouse button, point at the Start button. When the icon hovers over the Start button, let go of the mouse button. Now, when you click the Start button, you see your newly installed program's icon at the very top. ~*~ Notepad Word Wrap Notepad has an option in it that allows you to have words wrap to the next line if you begin typing too far over. One little quirk is that when you're printing, regardless of the word wrap setting, Windows and the printer will automatically wrap printed text for you based on the margins of the printer. You can change these margins, if necessary, from the Page Setup menu located within the File menu of Notepad. ~*~ If you're moving files or folders around on your desktop, you can always stop a drag-and-drop operation by pressing the Esc key before you drop the file or folder. This is useful if you're moving a folder and you suddenly realize you didn't mean to. Pressing Esc leaves the file exactly where it started, without you having to put it back in exactly the right place. ~*~ The Recycle bin holds files that you delete, in case you need to resurrect them from the great digital beyond. It only holds a limited amount, so even if you never empty it, you won't end up with a hard drive full of old, deleted files. By the way, if you would like to restore a deleted file, just double-click the recycle bin and right-click the file you would like to restore. A small menu will materialize and give you a restore option. To completely empty the recycle bin, right-click and select "Empty Recycle Bin" from the resulting menu. All those little files will be gone forever. ~*~ So, you have unwanted programs leeching off your hard drive, huh? You usually have two program expulsion options. The first, and usually best, is to click your Start button, Programs, and select the program folder (group) in question. Usually, in addition to the program shortcut, there's also an uninstall program you can run. If there's not, try the Add & Remove Programs option. Hit Start, Settings, Control Panel and open the "Add / Remove Programs" icon. Most 32 bit programs should be listed there (older 16 bit dos & win 3.1 programs usually aren't). Just select the one you want taken off and click the Add/Remove button. ~*~ INDENTING PARAGRAPHS ON THE LEFT AND RIGHT If you need to quote someone directly on your term paper or need a paragraph to stand out on your report, try double-indenting (or indenting your paragraph on both sides). Block or select your paragraph. Choose Format, Paragraph. Enter the amount of left indentation, say .5 for a half inch. Enter the amount of right indentation, say .5 for a half inch. Click OK. ~*~ If you want to close a window, but can't see the "X" in the upper right hand corner, there are a few things you can do. 1. If you can see any part of the blue title bar, point to it and drag the window by holding down the left mouse button. It may be as simple as moving the window to the left a bit so you can see the "X". 2. If you can't see any part of the blue title bar, but you can see the menu bar, click "File" and then "Close" or "Exit". 3. In Internet Explorer, if you can't see the menu bar, click once in the window to make sure it is the active window, then press the "Alt" key followed by the "F" key and the "C" key. 4. In any window, click once on the window to make sure it is active, then hold down the "Alt" key and press the "F4" key (way up in the top row of your keyboard). The window will automatically close. ~*~ Selecting Items: To select an object (icon), you simply "click it" once with your left mouse button. But what if you want to select more than one object at a time? Try left-clicking & dragging your cursor (starting in a blank area)... you should then be in control of a resizable rectangle. At that point, you can highlight any given set of icons so that they become selected (on your Desktop or in the Windows Explorer). Once you've selected a series of objects, you can manipulate them by right-clicking or dragging & dropping one of the icons. Let's say you've got a series of objects (icons) selected in the Windows Explorer. However, you're wanting to deselect a few individual icons. Instead of continually left-clicking & dragging, hover your cursor over a selected icon, hold down the CTRL key, and left-click the object. It will immediately become "unselected." Conversely, if you wish to select an icon, you can use the same method (use the CTRL key when left-clicking upon an unselected object). Your selection (or deselection) will be cumulative. In a similar vein, depressing the SHIFT key while selecting an object will allow you to select every item in between that one and the next one you left-click upon (while still depressing the SHIFT key). ~*~ WHAT IS A WORKGROUP A "workgroup" is a collection of Windows computers that are grouped together because they're all doing the same kind of work or they're all in the same department. Within the workgroup, all the computers are "peers," and the users themselves decide what is shared with the other members of the group. Workgroups can be part of an actual client/server network. If you're assigned to a workgroup, you either log onto the workgroup or you log onto the domain (a collection of computers on a network) you're part of. ~*~ This tip applies to Windows 98 and Windows Me. You can run the start menus with your keyboard. The most important keyboard combination is Ctrl+Esc (press Ctrl and then press Esc), which displays the main Start menu. The Windows key on the Windows keyboard also displays the Start menu. ~*~ Need several copies of the same disk? Here's a shortcut to create all those duplicate copies: I) Right-click on your desktop, select New | Shortcut II) In the Create Shortcut dialog box, key DISKCOPY A: A: then click the Next button. III) Key a name for your shortcut, Next; and then select an icon and Finish. To make your copies, double-click your new shortcut. A DOS window will open and you'll be prompted to insert your source disk. After the source is read, you'll be prompted to remove the original disk and put in a blank. The contents of the source disk will be copied to the blank, and then you'll be asked if you want to make another copy of the same disk. Answer "Y" and continue to feed diskettes until you've made all the copies you need. ~*~ Safe Shutdowns When your computer stops responding to your actions and you're stuck (i.e., clicking a button yields no response, your mouse pointer won't move, or a program stubbornly refuses to close), suppress the impulse to reach for the reset button on your PC. The ongoing health of your Windows installation depends in part on clean shutdowns (where you choose Start, Shutdown, Shutdown -- and wait for the "It's now safe to turn off your computer" message) at the end of each Windows session. Too many incomplete shutdowns and abrupt reboots can damage system files and adversely impact the performance of Windows. Try this instead: press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Close Program dialog box opens, listing all of the programs running on your PC at the moment. Look for the program with "(not responding)" at the end of its listing. Select it and click End Task. If it can, Windows will close this wayward program, freeing you up to save the work in your other programs, so you can then do a proper shutdown or reboot. ~*~ Do I have to shut down all my software before I shut my computer down? A: Not really. Windows will shut things down for you, which can be a real time saver if you have a dozen open programs. However, note that if you have stuff pending (like unsaved documents) Windows will ask if you want to save this stuff before it shuts down. Also note that if you have an open folder, you'll find that it gets re-opened when Windows starts the next time. ~*~ This tip applies to Windows 98 and Windows Me. Some toolbars -- such as the Links bar for the My Computer window -- have handle controls. These vertical lines at the ends of the toolbar can be dragged to change the bar size. You can also double-click on the handle controls to expand the toolbar so it takes up most of the width of the window, pushing aside any other toolbars on its shared line. ~*~ Do you ever find yourself on a web page that has a list of links and you want to check them all out? To make my browsing faster, I right click on a link and click on "Open in New Window". This will open the next page in it's own window, and while it is waiting to load, I can be scrolling thru my list of links to see what else I want to check out. If your computer has enough memory, you can have four or more web pages open at once, and switch between them by clicking on their buttons on the task bar.