Computer Info – January 22, 2003
This Week’s Meeting
Let’s discuss internet providers – problems with changes – likes and dislikes, etc. Also Mitch suggested that we discuss purchasing a new computer. Any other questions are accepted also. Cropping in Picture-It Publishing -- it can be done by object or page – we will demonstrate that.
Lake Applets
What is a lake applet? I imagine all of you have seen them while browsing the internet – the pictures that look like they are being reflected in the water (or a lake). A lake applet consists of three elements – a file called lake.class , a few lines of html , and a picture.
Let’s start with the lake.class file. You can download it from the internet at many web sites. Use your search engines to locate it – or use one of the websites listed below. These websites are also very good for teaching you how to create your own lake applet.
http://www.fuller759.freeserve.co.uk/quicklakeapplet.html
http://rivalpro.net/~lakeapplets/tutorials/lake/tutorial_lake.shtml
http://unclgus.com/tutorialindex2.htm
Next copy the following HTML code and paste it into NOTEPAD.
<html>
<body>
<applet code="lake.class" width="304" height="285">
<param name="image" value="desertsunrise.jpg">
</applet>
</body>
</html>
Go to FILE – SAVE AS. Be sure to change the SAVE AS TYPE to ALL FILES rather than TEXT FILES. Save it to your hard drive and give it the name LAKETEMPLATE.HTML.
1. Create a special folder to put your files in. Maybe you would like to create a folder named Lake
Applets in your MY DOCUMENTS folder.
2. Place the lake.class file in your Lake Applets folder.
3. Place the html file that you created ( Laketemplate.html ) in your Lake Applets folder.
4. Place a picture that you would like to use (preferably a jpg) in your Lake Applets folder.
Now it is time to work with the picture. You will have to open your picture in some type of program that will tell you the pixel size of the picture and if it is too large, you will have to resize the picture. In PhotoShop, once your picture is opened, you choose IMAGE – IMAGE SIZE. This will tell you the pixel size and allow you to resize it. It is a good idea to set the width to 300 – 350 pixels. Changing the width, should automatically change the height. Be sure to write down what these values are. Now save your picture back to your Lake Applets folder.
Next, open NOTEPAD (START – PROGRAMS – ACCESSORIES – NOTEPAD). Now from the FILE menu, choose OPEN the Laketemplate.html file that you created earlier. We are going to change the width value to the actual value that we wrote down for our picture. For the height value – you want to change it to reflect the height of the picture doubled minus about 20 pixels. This seems to be the standard way of calculating the height for a lake applet. Now for the image value – change that to reflect the name of the picture that you are going to use. Now remember to save your new file using the above rules about changing the type of file to ALL FILES and saving in the same folder as your lake.class file is. Give it a name that describes what you will be viewing.
Everything should be in place now to try out your lake applet. Open your browser, from the FILE menu, choose OPEN – BROWSE – locate your Lake Applets folder and chose the html file that you just created. Choose OPEN – then OK. And your picture should appear.
Tip: If you should see a gray area below your picture, this indicates that the height of your picture in the HMTL file is too large. Edit the HTML file and reduce the height – then resave it.
Tip: If you are using Netscape and you cannot see the picture – but it says DONE at the bottom of the page – then you do not have JAVA turned on. To turn it on, from the EDIT menu, choose PREFERENCES. Check under ADVANCED to see if you have JAVA ENABLED.
Printing and Viewing Handouts
Hopefully I have corrected the problems that everyone has been having with viewing the handout (where it would run a long ways off the screen) and printing it.
This is what I found ---- I do create the handouts in Word 2002 – and everything has always looked great. We have had numerous complaints about what the handout looked like and how it printed – I would test it out and everything would be fine here. That makes it tough to troubleshoot. I made a great effect after the last meeting to try to discover why it was happening – especially since it happened to me when I first put last week’s handout online – It ran several miles off the screen. I then forced a carriage return at the end of each line – it then looked much better online and printed even better. But that solution did not fix it for everyone. So I looked some more.
Here is what I have now done --- and it might be beneficial to you sometime. Hopefully this has solved our problem. When in Word and when my document was open, I choose FORMAT – REVEAL FORMATTING. As I clicked on various parts of my handout, I noticed that some of it said HTML PREFORMATTED. To get rid of this, I selected all of my handout and then went to FORMAT – STYLES AND FORMATTING. The top choice was CLEAR FORMATTING. That removed ALL the formatting to my document – I therefore had to go back to the title lines and re-center them and increase the font.
So please let me know if I have solved the problems.
Internet Provider
We have a member who went with a local internet provider named USS Internet Services – mailing address was 2918 Arrendonda Dr Deltona, FL and the web address was http://www.uss-Internet.com
He paid by check for a year of service ($9.95 per month for unlimited access). They did come out and help him get setup – he had service for a few days – then nothing --- and emails to the company keep coming back ( support@uss-internet.com ) . We don’t really want to make any other comments about the company or recommendations. This is just to advise you as to what happened to one of our members.
Railroad Related Websites
Live Steam and Diesel Modem Railroading
Durango & Silverton Railroad
http://www.durangotrain.com/index-new.asp
Railroad Search Engine
Photos of trains
http://www.trainweb.com/cgi-bin/top/tw_do.cgi?photos/index.htm