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Tips of the Trade ;-) by Jerry Davis © 1997
Volume 1, Issue 7 03/17/97
Last Update: 12/17/03
Creating folders for
messages
If you haven't done this already, it is time to start creating folders for your messages.
Create several new folders organized by content. Examples: Personal
Items folder for personal messages, Business Items folder for business messages,
Jokes folder, Tips of the Trade folder.
To create a new folder, follow these steps:
1. From Internet Mail's main window, choose FileÞFolderÞCreate.
The Create New Folder dialog box appears.
2. Type a name for the new folder.
3. Click OK.
Moving messages
to another folder
After you have created folders for your messages then:
1. From the Inbox, select the message you want to save.
2. Choose MailÞMove To.
3. Click the folder to which you want to move the message.
The
message will be moved to that folder and removed from the Inbox folder.
If you don't want to move the message, but want
to make a copy of it, choose MailÞCopy
instead of the
MailÞMove To.
Saving Pictures
from web sites
You can save pictures from
a Web site as a graphic file on your hard disk. Follow these steps:
1. Right-click the picture to be saved.
2. Choose the Save Picture As command from the pop-up menu.
3. Find the folder in which you want to save the file.
4. Type a filename for the file or use the one that is suggested.
5. Click the Save button.
6. Don't use the image for publishing unless you have owner's written permission.
Using a picture
from the web as desktop wallpaper
Well, it's legal to copy a picture from a web site and use it as your desktop
wallpaper on Windows 95 and many, many sites have pictures worth using for this purpose.
There are so many good pictures, that you may want to change your wallpaper often.
The way you can tell if a picture is going to allow you to save it to your
computer is by pointing your arrow cursor to the picture. If the arrow changes
to a pointing finger then it will be possible to save it to your hard drive or to a floppy
disk. The pictures do take up considerable drive space so be aware of how much drive
space you have available.
Saving a
picture from a web site
To save a picture from a web site, just right-click the mouse button while the cursor is
pointing to the picture. You can then select Set As Wallpaper. That's
OK if you don't mind losing the picture later when you chose another one as wallpaper. Did
you intend to also keep that picture and use it again. I'm sorry, if you set other
wallpaper over it you lose it. Do you have to lose it? No. When
you save it, choose .bmp file and save to Windows folder on drive C. Then, point to
the picture once again and choose to set the picture as wallpaper. Next
time you decide to use the picture again you can find it as you browse for wallpaper even
though it was replaced by another picture as you changed wallpaper.
A picture saved as a .bmp file can also be altered by your paint brush program, saved
again as a .bmp picture file and then set as desktop wallpaper after changes have been
made. This is a good place to put your business name, whatever you like, just don't
publish it and call it yours. It does not belong to you, it is only yours to use on
your computer. Remember to ask the owner for written permission if you would
like to use the photo in something you plan to publish.
Keeping abreast
of problems with the hard drive
If you have made it this far then
you have many other things to consider being the responsible, competent, interested,
resourceful computer user that you are. Such as, the routine, almost daily
maintenance of your computer's hard drive. If you are using your computer a lot you
are probably saving files, erasing files, moving files, sending e-mail, deleting e-mail,
moving e-mail or just accessing a lot of places on the web.
Can you just keep this up
and never have to do any maintenance on your computer? Well, you can but&hellip.. you could also drive
your old pickup until the engine oil turns to burned up metal-impregnated sludge too.
But you don't treat your pickup that way and you are not going to treat your
computer that way for very long without something going wrong. No, I didn't say you
had to oil your computer! So don't go looking for the W-D 40! This is
not the situation that requires that kind of maintenance.
Computers do require some
technical adjustments to
the storage medium of the hard drive. The analogy this reminds of is my
workroom, where in the midst of rushing from one project to another all tools,
books, etc. get removed from their storage places and scattered about the room.
It's not long before this becomes a serious problem. If I need to find
something in a hurry, I can't. The method has to be to go slowly, take
my time, and eventually I may find it. The only way to improve the access time
or the time it takes to find what I am looking for is to reorganize the room put every
thing back where it belongs. You say, "Well I don't operate in such
a 'hap-scattered' fashion". Listen, if you are deleting
files, saving files, etc. and never running maintenance routines, never checking how
much hard drive space is left your computer, never checking for viruses on your computer,
never backing up your documents you write daily, you may have to visit a computer technician before too long because you are using your computer with
the assumption that it is a perfect tool and should be taking care of its own problems.
The computer software can be set to check your computer
automatically for problems but some of the software tools take a lot of time to
check your system and reorganize your files. It's a good idea to make yourself
familiar with the following tools that are designed to help with the maintenance of your
computer: anti-virus, backup, disk defragmenter, scan disk. These tools are found by
selecting Start, select programs, system tools. The list has the main computer tools
required for regular maintenance of your drive.
Maintenance
operations on my computer? Are you crazy, I don't have time for that. Only
computer nerds do that anyway!
Where do I start if I want to
do maintenance operations on my computer? Start with anti-virus, then consider some type of
backup scheme (either one using Win95, or get Bryan's Computers to set up a backup system
for you.) Next you need to run Scan Disk on each drive and occasionally
run Disk Defragmenter. After you have successfully run these maintenance
routines, then back up the whole drive.
I just got
through backing up my drive, man!
What? We just backed up
the drive and now we have to do it again? That's right. You have
just optimized the drive to run the best it can, so why not back it up at its best
performance. Amen and amen, brother tell it again. If you don't know how
to do all of this technical stuff and you don't care to learn, then you need to hire a
technical consultant to come and do this for you. If you don't know anybody like
that give me a call. I have someone in mind that you might hire to do it on a
regular basis. Remember it's technical and it doesn't come free. Hey dude!
Technical computer knowledge requires a lot of time and study and usually a
lot of money spent on hardware and software. "Well, I just want someone to show
me how." Yeah, right!
Hey Dude!
Sign up for tutoring at www.eastland.net/tutor.htm
Some interesting sites
Comets
If you haven't seen the Hale-Bopp Comet yet, then look to the Northeast about one fist
high at 5:30am any clear morning.
http://www.comet-track.com
Plenty of comet photos for
wallpaper:
http://guide-p.infoseek.com/Titles?sv=A2&qt=Comet&col=WW&Get+it%21.x=17&Get+it%21.y=12
Weather Map
http://www.intellicast.com/weather/usa/fcstmap24/
Religious Humor
http://www.ecunet.org/ecunet/eculaugh/laugh
It's OK a clean joke won't hurt much..
WYOMING WALK ABOUT
Wyoming Walk About is a collection of humorous short stories, unique recipes
and western wit. (sample clips from book)