I apologize for this newsletter being so late.  It was a busy summer, always something going on, the sun was in my eyes, the dog ate my rough draft.....  OK, enough excuses, on with the tips!

I hope this newsletter helps you stay on top of some of the vast new
information that is out there, as well as get you through some of those
pesky tasks.  I will try to provide tips for all of us, since we all have
unique operating systems, preferences and levels of experience.

Please keep the feedback coming, I have received some great e-mails from a
variety of people.  Don't forget, this is your newsletter, so if you would like to see some tips on specific subjects let me know by sending me an e-mail at tips@wazdisdo.com  - Scott
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AOL: Restoring a Screen Name

You deleted a favorite screen name by mistake, and five minutes
later you decide you want it back. Not so long ago, you were out
of luck. AOL now provides a way to reactivate those hasty (or
erroneous) screen name deletions:

1.   Sign on to AOL with the master screen name.

2.   Use Keyword: Screen Names to open the Create or Delete
     Screen Names window.

3.   Click the Restore a Screen Name button.

4.   Highlight the screen name you want to recover, and
     click Recover.

5.   The system reinstates your screen name and updates your
     screen name list.

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AOL: Speed Up Your Surfing

If you're really into surfing the Web, you can get faster Web
response by running Internet Explorer outside of AOL. Just follow
these steps:

1.   Sign on to AOL.

2.   Minimize the AOL Window.

3.   Find the Internet Explorer icon on your system
     (wherever it is) and double-click it. After a moment,
     Internet Explorer starts up.

4.   Type the Web address you want to use into the browser's
     URL box and enjoy surfing the web with no AOL "junk" around!

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AOL: My AOL

As part of an ongoing effort to make life easier, the America
Online programmers created the My AOL area. This area ties
several customizable areas together into a single dialog box.

My AOL is organized around five main areas:

*    Daily: Explores My News, My Calendar, My Portfolios,
     Favorite Places, and My Places.

*    Interests: Looks at News Profiles, Interest Profiles,
     the Reminder Service, Portfolio Direct, and
     Newsletters.

*    Controls: Set your Preferences and alter Screen Names,
     Passwords, Mail Controls, and Parental Controls.

*    People: Try out features such as My Pictures, Member
     Profile, My Home Page, Buddy Lists, and the Address
     Book.

*    Services: Access to Billing Center, Quick Checkout,
     Banking Center, Brokerage Center, and Phone Services.

To get into My AOL, click the My AOL toolbar button. Of course,
the keyword My AOL works just fine, too.

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AOL:  Protecting Your Address Book in 5.0

With America Online 5.0, the Address Book tools work on a manual
basis; it's up to you to protect your Address Book. Here's your
path to Address Book defense:

1.   With the America Online software running (but not
     signed on), select the screen name for the Address Book
     you want to restore.

2.   Choose Mail, Address Book from the toolbar.

3.   Click the Save/Replace button near the bottom of the
     window.

4.   Depending on your goal (to save or replace the
     addresses), follow these instructions:

     -    Saving your Address Book: Select the Save the
          Address Book radio button and then click OK. The
          Save Folder dialog box appears. Pick the directory
          to store your addresses and type a name for the
          saved file (I recommend using your screen name as
          the filename, because Address Books are unique to
          each screen name). Click Save to finish the
          process.

     -    Restoring your Address Book: Select the Replace
          the Address Book radio button and then click OK.
          The Select File to Restore dialog box jumps into
          action. Select the directory containing the
          Address Book you want to restore and then click
          the Address Book's filename. Click Open to restore
          the Address Book entries.

America Online notes that it made a backup copy of that screen
name's current address book, so if something goes horribly wrong
(like if you accidentally picked the wrong screen name back in
Step 1), you can get those addresses back

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AOL:  Protecting Your Address Book in 6.0

In regards to AOL 6.0 however, the steps given above are no longer applicable since the address book for AOL 6.0 is a whole new ballgame for AOL.  As a part of the AOL Anywhere strategy, AOL 6.0 is the first version of AOL that stores the Address Book online. The 6.0 Address Book is now host based, meaning it is kept on AOL's server rather than on your computer.

Your AOL Address Book now goes wherever you go. View and edit contact information for people you know even when you are not signed on. And, when you sign on as a Guest your AOL Address Book is right there where you need it. Just click on Mail on the AOL menu bar, then select Address Book to get started

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Hot Shareware: The Right Resume

Bag that dream job. This job-hunting package helps you create
chronological, functional, or targeted resumes. It stores information
for up to ten employers and incorporates a fully functional WYSIWYG
word processor. It also includes a 50,000-word spelling checker, a
contact manager, a calendar, mail-merge functionality, and a "power
words" list that allows copying and pasting of selected words into
your resume to give it the impact you desire.
http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description.asp?fid=1459

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Internet Explorer: Change IE 5.X Font Size With The Scroll Wheel

For those of you who have a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can easily change the font size in Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x without taking your hand off of the mouse. All you have to do is hold down the Ctrl key and scroll the wheel to increase or decrease the font size!
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Internet Explorer: Checking On Your Security

How secure is your system? If you're running on cable or DSL, this is an important question since you're connected to the Internet any time your computer is active. Even if you're using a modem, you're susceptible to intrusion while you're connected to the Internet.

There are two sites that are great to evaluate our system security. One is DSL Reports -- a site that will scan your ports and then provide you with a report. The other site is - Steve Gibson's Shields Up! site. You can elect to test your shields, or you can do a port scan on the ports most often accessed by intruders. Or, you can run both tests.  Interesting stuff!

DSL Reports: http://www.dslreports.com/scan

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Internet Explorer: Cleaning Up The Microsoft Internet Explorer Toolbar

You may well not need all the icons in the Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbar. Why not remove the ones you never use? To do this, run Microsoft Internet Explorer and choose View|Toolbars|Customize. When the Customize Toolbar dialog box opens, click any object in the right pane that you don't need and then click Remove.

On the other hand, if you'd like to add some buttons to the toolbar, you can click on the desired button in the left pane of the dialog box and then click Add.

When finished, click Close.
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Outlook Express: Displaying Attachments in Outlook Express

If the attachment on an e-mail you receive is a graphic image,
Outlook Express displays the image directly in the message when
you open the message. As a result, you don't have to do anything
special to view images your friends send to you via e-mail. (For
all other kinds of attachments, just double-click the icon to
open the attachment and the program that can read it
simultaneously.)
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Outlook Express: Outlook Express Email Store Root

This is one of my favorites.  All your mail, news, folders, etc. are stored in a single folder called the Store Root. Its usual location is C:\Windows\Application Data\Outlook Express\{GUID} where {GUID} is a Global Unique IDentifier that is used to specify an Identity.

Now, here's the good part -- you can change the Store Root folder. A great idea is to place this folder in a folder that is automatically set up for backup, such as the My Documents folder. To change your folder, first create the new folder on your hard drive. Now run Outlook Express and choose Tools|Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Maintenance tab. Click Store Folder and then click Change. Select your new mail folder and click OK. Back in the Options dialog box, click OK.

All your mail will now appear in the new folder.

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Outlook Express:  Changing Your Name

Maybe your ISP set up your account with your legal name and you
want to use a nickname. To change the name that appears on your
outgoing e-mail, choose Tools, Accounts. Click the Mail tab,
highlight the account you want to change (if you have more than
one in the box), and then click the Properties button. Change
your name here.

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Windows 98/ME:  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.

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Windows 95/98/ME: Clean It Up!!!

Want to get more speed from your computer? Here are a couple of things you can do to help speed things up:

1) Clean off any unneeded files, fonts, programs and any other junk taking up hard drive space. Also, remember to defrag the hard drive once you do this.

2) Buy more memory! The slowest part of your computer (despite common thinking) is not the CPU. You can have a Googolplex 9000 processor but if your memory is maxed out, you might as well have a Slugpull 1. Reading your hard drive is one of the most draining tasks your computer undertakes. If you can add more memory, this gives Windows more room to play while caching and speeds up your processing as well.

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Cool Website of the Month:  Free Translations.com
Ceci est fantastique!

If you don't speak French--and I don't do it very well--then you may not understand what the above message means. But if you go to this site, you can type it in the Text Translator and get a quick translation. The above message, by the way, translates into something like "This is fantastic"--and this site is! Though the translations (available in several languages) aren't exact in all cases and they don't pick up specific terminology or jargon, they do give you the gist of text and certain Web pages. Type a site's address into the Web Page Translator and your favorite site may just pop up in another language--or a foreign site into something you can understand.

http://www.freetranslations.com/
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Cool Website of the Month: IFILM.com

http://www.ifilm.com

IFILM is an Internet movie guide and a great site to visit for what's new in theaters, good to watch on video and DVD, Hollywood gossip and headlines, and to just learn about movies in general (users can read and submit their own reviews). But IFILM is also a movie-on-demand site, where visitors can watch shorts and movies online. Check out the All Online Movies or Latest Shorts sections to search for the film of your choice. There's a synopsis of the movie and a link to where you can register and view the movie. And you can even submit your own script or film. All you need is a computer and some popcorn.
 
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Web Design tip of the month:  Gammy Gamma

PC monitors have a higher gamma than Mac monitors. This means that an image created on a Mac will look darker when viewed on a PC. If you're using a Mac to prepare images in PhotoShop for the Web, check to see how your image will appear on a PC before you save it. To do this, on the Mac, open the file in Image Ready and choose View, Preview, Standard Windows Color.
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Web Design tip of the month:  Photoshop: Resizing Your Canvas

Starting with Photoshop 5.5, the Crop tool has a new trick. Now you can create a crop selection larger than the size of the canvas. Why would you want to do this? Using the new Crop tool, you can decrease or increase the current image's canvas without accessing the Canvas dialog box.

For example, to increase the canvas size of a 640 x 480 image, choose the Crop tool and select the entire image. Now, select one of the resize handles and drag it beyond the bounds of the image canvas. Then, press Enter to crop the image. As you'll see, the image's canvas size will increase to match your crop selection size.