Computer Info – February 21, 2001

This Week’s Program

        John Watkins will be hosting the meeting again this week. He will be starting the meeting this week with that old subject – How do I get rid of all of those names and the chevrons when I forward an email?

Volunteer at the Library

        The Deltona Library is looking for volunteers to help solve problems for patrons who are using the library’s computers and run into a software problem using Word and other programs. They thought that our group might be able to help with this.
        They need volunteers for
                    Monday (10 am to 1 pm)
                    Wednesday (10 am to 1 pm)
                    Saturday (10 am to 1 pm)
        Volunteer even if it is on a temporary basis. If you would like to help – please call Karen Dell (at the reference desk) at 789-7207.
Stamps (or Stickers)
        Last Wednesday, John Watkins showed us how to make Easter stamps – but he said that they could be used for any holiday or event. They are made in Word.
        The first step is to choose your subject --- are these stamps for a special person, a holiday, a hobby, a place of interest, etc. Then decide if you are going to use a photograph or a watermark.
        While in Word, choose TOOLS – ENVELOPES AND LABELS. Choose the tab for LABELS. Click on the button labeled OPTIONS, and this is where you choose the size of the stamps or stickers that you are going to use. This choice is determined by your purpose and by the stickers or labels that you have or are going to purchase. For our example, we are choosing AVERY 3112 which is a sticker 1.5 inches by 1.5 inches (a square sticker). If you don’t see that one listed, you will have to create a new label and give it the dimensions. I noticed that the AVERY 3112 (and other stickers) was listed in John’s program (he is running Word 2000) but they were not listed in my version of Word 97. The dimensions to enter for the AVERY 3112 would be Top Margin (.75) – Bottom Margin (.5) – Vertical Pitch (2) – Horizontal Pitch (2) – Label Height (1.5) – Label Width (1.5) – Number Across (4) – Number Down (5).
        Next, see that there is a checkmark in front of FULL PAGE OF SAME LABEL – then click on NEW DOCUMENT. This will place the template of stickers on a page in Word. To help you work , you can turn the borders of the stickers on – use EDIT – SELECT ALL (this will choose all of the label on the page) – and then use the down arrow on the OUTSIDE BORDER icon and select the one that will place the border around the outside and the inside of the selected area.
        Start your designing in the second sticker by placing your cursor in that box. Now choose INSERT – PICTURE – FROM FILE. Locate a picture that you would like to use – and click on INSERT. The picture will be resized to fit the label box. If you click on the picture, this will display your PICTURE toolbar which will help you adjust the Contrast, Brightness, Size, Crop the picture, etc. If your Picture toolbar is not displayed, then choose VIEW – TOOLBARS – PICTURE. Once you have a picture inserted and you wish to add text, you must choose TEXT WRAPPING from the PICTURE toolbar and in Word 2000 (choose BEHIND TEXT) and in Word 97 (choose NONE). This will allow your text to flow over the picture.
        The rest of the designing is up to you. You can make your picture into a watermark by using the IMAGE CONTROL on the PICTURE toolbar. You can adjust the color of your font – the font size – use clipart, etc.
        Imagine the surprise that your granddaughter or grandson will have when they see their picture on a sticker on the front of the envelope when you send them a birthday card.

Printing the Active Window

        The window that is the ACTIVE window will have a Blue top to it while the INACTIVE windows will have a Gray top to them. If you wish to print the information which is in the ACTIVE window only (like when you receive an error message), hold down the ALT key and then press the PRINT SCRN key. This is one of those times when the information goes to the clipboard (or memory) and you do not see anything happen. You need one more step.
        Open WORDPAD – right click and choose PASTE. A picture of your screen will appear and can now be printed.

Terms

        MIME which stands for Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of data files on the Internet. Servers insert the MIME header at the beginning of any Web transmission. Clients use this header to select an appropriate "player" application for the type of data the header indicates. Some of these players are built into the Web client or browser (for example, all browser come with GIF and JPEG image players as well as the ability to handle HTML files).
Free Anti-Virus Program
Comments from an article on Feb. 14, 2001 – The Syracuse Newspapers
        InoculateIT PE is a no-strings-attached program, entirely free. If it were merely a good antivirus program that happened to be free, I'd tell you to check it out. But it's much more than that. InoculateIT PE is an outstanding antivirus program. The fact that it's free simply means you're crazy if you don't grab it now and install it immediately.
        The place to get it is http://antivirus.cai.com/. (There's no "www" in the address.) InoculateIT PE works with all modern versions of Windows, including Windows Me and Windows 2000.
        Computer Associates does not keep track of people who use InoculateIT PE unless they register by giving Computer Associates their names and e-mail addresses. Free updates are available only if your register.
        This seems like a fair tradeoff. You get great antivirus software and Computer Associates gets another customer, at almost no cost for either party. Add the fact that InoculateIT is a contender for the best antivirus software you can find for Windows and you get a deal you can't refuse.

**** This was an article a member of the computer group sent us, so we have never used it ---- but it does sound like a good program and Computer Associates is a very reputable company.

Problems with Netscape and McAfee
        We have been getting more and more "Illegal function" messages when closing down Netscape – and finally it got so bad that we could not close the error message….. We found out that if we turned McAfee anti-virus off (or disabled it) before we opened Netscape, we would never have a problem. Tried a few searches on the internet to see if there was a solution to the problem – and did find that other people were having the same or similar problems – the comments were that with each upgrade to McAfee or Netscape, the problems got worse.
        We have now purchased Norton AntiVirus 2001 and are not having ANY problems with Netscape.
Default Font in Word
        To set the default font in Word, from the FORMAT menu, choose FONT. Choose the font that you would like - choose the size that you would like – and then press the DEFAULT button at the bottom. Word will ask if you want all your new documents to use that font. Click Yes.