[abcomputers] ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers, Vol. 30: PowerPoint 2003 and reviews of fun stuff!
- From: "Linda F. Johnson" <linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ABCfreelists" <abcomputers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003 17:56:44 -0500
______________________________________________________
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers. The ezine YOU subscribed to. If you want to change
your subscription options or unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email for full
instructions. Thank you.
Linda
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/abc
______________________________________________________
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
PLEASE NOTE: I have had SERIOUS problems with my
website today. If any links don't work for you or you
see anything that looks out of sync, just hang on.
I am fixing it as fast as I can.
#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#*#
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
Volume 30; November, 2003 - mailed to 4731 subscribers
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Please rate this Ezine at the Cumuli Ezine Finder
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ABC is also listed at FreeTechMail. Please visit their site
and rate it there too:
http://snurl.com/6sj
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If you would prefer to read the online Web-azine, which
includes pictures and screenshots and is, basically, more
user-friendly, follow either of these links:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc
(frames)
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vol30.htm
(no frames)
or, scroll down to the Contents where you can click on
over to any individual article
NOTE: Unsighted readers or anyone who uses a screen
reader shoud probably go online and read that version if
my separator lines are making too much "noise".
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For definitions of any terms you do not understand, visit
the GeekSpeak Translator:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
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WATCH FOR LONG LINKS!
Most of these have been replaced with SnipURLs
http://www.snipurl.com
so you shouldn't have to copy/paste URLs anymore,
unless you have a reeeeaaallly tiny monitor ;-)
So...if the links are longer than a certain amount, I've
"snipped" them.
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To help prevent broken links, maximize your email
window to FULL screen.
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FLASH!!
ECLECTIC ACADEMY CLASSES BEGIN TOMORROW
Sunday, November 9, 2003
ECLECTIC ACADEMY ~ A Better Choice in Distance Learning
DO YOU WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL WITHOUT LEAVING
THE HOUSE?
It's the latest rage and it's called Distance Learning.
Most colleges now offer Distance Learning classes
because they know some people work hard and just
can't fit a classroom into their busy lives. But,
sometimes you don't want to enroll in a full program;
you just want to take one class.
ECLECTIC ACADEMY IS YOUR ANSWER!
http://eclecticacademy.com
Eclectic Academy offers a large range of classes to suit
many needs. Go there now and check out their
curriculum and roster. Classes are only $20 for 6 weeks.
HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT?
Here's a sampling of what they offer:
*Art Courses, both digital and traditional
*Business Courses, including all of the MS Office
Programs (many taught by none other than Linda
Johnson herself)
*Graphics Courses - Flash, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro
& more
*Website Development Courses - FrontPage,
Dreamweaver, ASP, DHTML, Website Promotion, and
on and on and on
*Eclectic Classes - Computer Maintenance, Writing
Workshops, Feng Shui, Eating Safely - just about
anything you can think of
Go to Eclectic Academy now and sign up to be notified
when classes are added or ENROLL NOW in the class of
your choice. Go there now to enroll in the next set of
classes.
ONLY $20 FOR A SIX-WEEK CLASS!
http://eclecticacademy.com
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FLASH!! NEXT CLASSES BEGIN Nov. 9, 2003
DON'T DELAY -- SIGN UP NOW!!
LATE ENROLLMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR ONE WEEK
*********************************************
Also, don't forget that Eclectic Academy offers classes
on many different programs and techniques. As a matter
of fact, some of the EA staff have put together forums
on their areas of expertise that you might want to check
out here:
http://www.pixelparity.org/
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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THIS MONTHS' FEATURED SPONSOR:
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@@@@@@@@@@
SPAM INSPECTOR
@@@@@@@@@@
Here's another product I have added to my computer.
Because I own a website and my email address is readily
available to every spammer on the net, I get over 300
garbage spam mails a day! The subject lines in my inbox
would impress even sailors. I get advertisements,
pornography, and "business" proposals from all over the
world. I've tried filtering this out with my mail rules,
blocked senders lists, and even freeware programs like
Mail Washer and found that none of these methods were
as effective as I needed.
But, this one DEFINITELY works.
And, it's so easy to setup and monitor.
READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE AND DOWNLOAD A DEMO:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/spami.htm
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ADVERTISE in ABC:
ABC offers inexpensive advertising in this email version.
Full details on how to do this are explained here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/abcad.htm
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Do you love ABC? Click here to donate any amount.
http://snurl.com/pks
Heck! If half the subscribers donated 25 cents each,
I would be in business. LOL
All contributions are greatly appreciated!
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CONTENTS
(all links below these items take you to the non-frames
online versions)
(items with *** behind them include pictures and/or are
better if viewed online)
1. Important How-To Message for Reading This Ezine
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vol30.htm#HowTo
2. GeekSpeak Translation from the Cap'n
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
~ by Patt Meara
3. Reviews from Linda
~~ Customized Keyboards ... very cool indeed ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm
~~ FrontLook Addins for FrontPage ... see them in action ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/flrev
~~ FrontLook's Screen Capture ... the best I've found so far
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/scrncap.htm
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE ~
4. PowerPoint 2003: The Other Changes
~ by Kathryn Jacobs
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/kath30.htm
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TIPS & TUTORIALS
5. Points of View in FrontPage - Folders ***
~ by Tina Clarke
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/tina30.htm
6. The Hard Drive Size Discrepancy:
When a Byte Isn't a Byte ***
~~ And a handy conversion tool
~ by Vic Ferri
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vic30.htm
7. Throwing Dice with Excel:
~~ Generating random numbers in Excel using only
built-in functions and eliminating the volatility issues to
produce a more controllable randomness
~ by Ray Blake
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/ray30.htm
8. Throw-Away Email Addresses
~ by Mike Baynes
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/mike30.htm
9. Photo Retouching and Restoration, Using Photoshop
Elements ***
~~ Twinkle in your eye gone?
~ by Sara Froehlich
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/sara30.htm
10. My Adventures in Home Computing
~ by John Warner
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/john30.htm
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11. Assorted Goodies from Linda
~~ with a little help from her friends
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/linda30.htm
@ More Excel IF Statement Lessons
@ Lotsa Online Games
@ A Funny URL Tweak
@ Font Optimizing in Windows XP
@ Crazy Cursors for Win 2k/XP
@ A Belated Happy Halloween
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12. ASK THE FLEET
~ Questions submitted by readers and answered by
ABC's Fleet of Writers
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/ask30.htm
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Miscellaneous:
13. Subscription Management
14. Contact Information
15. Advertise in ABC
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/abcad.htm
*** means the article includes pictures in the online version
or is better viewed online
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(1.) IMPORTANT HOW-TO MESSAGE
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If you decide to go to the Online "Web-azine" version,
go here first for navigation instructions:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vol30.htm#HowTo
If you are reading this plain text issue, maximize your
email window for best viewing.
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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USING WINDOWS XP AND CONFUSED?
Here are two great resources for you and buying either one
of them will help keep ABC alive!
SHOW ME WINDOWS XP
A Video Tutorial on CD that walks you through it all
http://showmewindows.com/c.cgi/windowstutorial
WINDOWS XP FOR NEWBIES
An E-Book full of simple, easy-to-follow instructions
http://newbieclub.com/wfncopy/?buntah
Both are still available for Windows 95/98/ME users
More info on them available on my Windows webpage:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/windows.htm
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(2.) Cap'n Patt's
GEEKSPEAK TRANSLATOR
~ by Patt Meara
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Visit the Cap'n's Official GeekSpeak Database at
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
If the word you need defined is not there, or the
definition is not clear, too geeky, or just plain confusing
to you, email the Cap'n. He would love to hear from
you at CapnPatt@xxxxxxx
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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(And if he doesn't, you'll have a chance to personally
ASK HIM!)
Download Mad Mick's 200 Computer Questions & Answers
in pdf format
**includes 30 days of FREE email support**
http://hop.clickbank.net/?buntah/likeapro
**SUPPORT ABC BY ORDERING THIS PRODUCT**
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(3). REVIEWS FROM LINDA
More and more people are sending me products to review
in ABC and I'm having a ball. However, I do not write
negative reviews since these folks are nice enough to send
me their product for free. If I don't like it, I let them know
that privately. I only review products that I like and use
myself.
The following are three that I REALLY like and recommend.
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~~ CUSTOMIZED KEYBOARDS
... very cool indeed
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This review includes pictures and is
clearer if read online. You can see the online version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm
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@ Do you get frustrated because every program has
different keyboard shortcuts and you can never remember
them all?
@ Are there programs or websites that you use a lot and
you would like one button keyboard shortcuts that take
you there instantly?
@ Are you using cardboard or plastic overlays on your
keyboard that show you which key does what in a
particular program and those overlays keep sliding all
over the place?
Well, if your answer to ANY of these questions is
"yes" have I found a treat for YOU!!
About a month ago, a very nice man named Oren Kramer
sent me an email and asked if I would like to try out his
Excel Keyboard. Well, I had actually been looking at my
beatup keyboard with the faded keys and was thinking it
was time to replace it, so I figured "why not?" So, Oren
sent me this REALLY cool keyboard. It is basically a plain
black base which has changeable keyboards that easily
snap into place on top of it. Oren sent me the base and
the Excel snap-on, but there are many more for different
programs and games. If you have the Flash viewer
installed on your computer, click below to see a little
movie that shows how they snap on:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm
Besides Excel, there are keyboard snap-ons for programs
like Word, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash, as well
as keyboards for many popular games like Age of
Mythology and Neverwinter Nights, and even a Crossfire
keyboard that works with just about any action/shooting
game.
When you buy the base, it comes with the Windows/
Internet Explorer snap-on, so you can use it as-is, or
order snap-ons for the particular programs you use most.
I've found that I can use the Excel snap-on even when
I'm not in Excel. As a matter of fact, I'm using it to type
this article right now. When using the snap-on within the
program it was made for, every key on the keyboard is
clearly labelled to tell you what it does. When Excel is
not the active window, the keyboard just works like a
regular keyboard.
Along with all the special keys built into the snap-ons
that are linked to keyboard shortcuts within that program,
you can use the options to customize all the F keys
across the top of your keyboard, and there are pre-
programmed multimedia keys for easy access to Windows
media player ... and 10 special keys on the base keyboard
that you can program to open any file, folder, program,
or web page of your choice. I can turn on my computer
and have Outlook, my website inside FrontPage, media
player playing my favorite music, and my internet home
page opened in about five seconds.
And, I am so sick of having to replace my keyboard every
time one or two keys go bad. Now, if that should happen,
I won't EVER have to replace my keyboard ... I can simply
get a new snap-on, if needed. And the snap-on is so easy
to clean...just remove it from the base and shake all the
dirt out of it.
I love my new Excel Keyboard. And, I'm patiently waiting
for my new Crossfire keyboard, which I purchased, since
I can never remember which keys I have to use to shoot,
duck, jump, etc. when I'm playing action games, and
therefore, I always die :-(
Want more info? Go to the Ideazon Web Store and see
what they have to offer.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm
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WOW ... READ THIS!!!
I just got an email from Oren Kramer who said he wanted
to express his gratitude for my review and has made a
special offer for ABC readers. From November 11-15,
if you click on the special Excel keyboard banner on my
page, you will get a GREAT deal.
He's going to give you the Zboard base for just $19.99
and include the Excel snap-on for FREE!! So, mark your
calendars and bookmark this page and click on the banner
between November 11 and 15. You will NOT get this offer
from Zboard's site ...you have to click on the special banner
he is putting on my page for this five day period.
This is a GREAT deal!! Don't miss it!
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm
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~~ FRONTLOOK ADDINS FOR FRONTPAGE
... see them in action
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Instead of writing a typical review, I
figured in order to show you what FrontLook can do, I
would just use it to create this little mini-website and
you can see for yourself. So, I HIGHLY recommend you
go here and read this review online.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/flrev
NOTE: Many of the effects used here require that Java
be installed. Because of Microsoft's legal dispute with
Sun Java, they are no longer allowed to include it with
Windows, so if you have a new installation of Windows
and don't see the effects, you will have to download
Sun Java for free from here:
http://java.com/en/index.jsp
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First off, if you've gone to the page above, you can listen
to the rain!! That's part of the java applet you see on
the left of the screen. You don't have to include sounds
with it, but I did, just so you could hear what it can do.
You can put any text you want in the applet, and also
include hyperlinks that will connect to other pages or
other sites. You can also add status bar text to the
applet. Hover your mouse over the word "HERE" in the
applet and see the text at the bottom of the screen.
And, click on the word "HERE" to go to my website,
but don't worry, the applet allowed me to make the
hyperlink open a new window, so you can just close
that window and you will be to the review.
Everything in the FrontLook Addins is easy to use.
No need to understand complex html and java coding.
FrontLook does it all for you.
Notice the pretty chrome borders and graphics and
the nice textured brown background. This is all part
of one of FrontLook's Super Themes. There are
LOTS of them. Also, see how I added my name as
a logo in the upper left corner. All graphics in the
themes are totally customizable.
And, you can use FrontLook's Chameleons to adjust
your theme and graphics to your liking. Click on this
link to see the rest of this review, since it's impossible
to do this program justice using plain text :-)
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/flrev
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~~ FRONTLOOK'S SCREEN CAPTURE
... the best I've found so far
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As I said, in the review I did of FrontLook's addins for
FrontPage, this is by far my favorite FrontLook software.
I give this one two thumbs up for sure.
It's a standalone program that requires no other software.
Because I write many tutorials about how to use software,
I am constantly taking screen shots so I can show people
how something will look on their computer screen. Many
companies offer screen capture programs that are very
inexpensive or free and I've tried a lot of them, but most
of them don't offer much more than you get by hitting
the Print Screen key on your keyboard.
For those who don't know how to do screen captures the
traditional way, here's the down and dirty:
@ Hit the Print Screen key on your keyboard to capture
what's on your screen (or hold down the alt key and hit
Print Screen to capture just the active window). This
saves the image to your Windows clipboard.
@ Open some program like Microsoft Paint and go to the
Edit menu and choose Paste to put the capture into that
program.
@ Save the file with whatever extension you like
(remember that the Print Screen key produces a bmp file,
which is not an acceptable format for Web pages and
generally produces a large file size, so you must choose
the proper format when you save it)
OK, so how do these Print Screen programs make this better?
Well, most of the ones I've tried just eliminate the steps
of having to open Microsoft Paint and paste, then change
the format. What these programs do is automatically
create the bmp or jpg for you and place it in a folder.
So, if you don't care about the size of the picture, the
file type, or what's included in the picture, then these
other programs will work fine for you. But, in my case,
whenever I used these programs, I then had to go to the
folder where the pictures were saved and open the
pictures in Photoshop so I could resize them and crop
them. (I have not yet found any software that makes
better quality pics at the lowest size [kb wise] than
Photoshop's Save for Web feature, so I always want to
save my pics using Photoshop to optimize them.) So,
in my case this actually added steps for me. I was better
off just hitting the Print Screen key and pasting them
directly into Photoshop.
But, that's where FrontLook's Screen Capture program
surpasses the rest!
FrontLook's Screen Capture gives you many options.
@ You can CHOOSE the file format you want as your
default
@ You can CHOOSE the folder where you want the pics
stored
@ You can assign different hot keys for different types
of captures. By default, you have these:
* Print Screen key captures the whole screen
* Alt+Print Screen captures just the active window
* And, here's a great feature...Hold down the Windows
key and hit Print Screen and you can drag your mouse
pointer to select just the area of the screen you want
to capture. So, NO FURTHER CROPPING IS NECESSARY!
@ You also have options to send the capture right to
the printer
@ You also have an option to include your mouse pointer
in the screen capture
@ And, you can right click any picture you've captured
and choose to send it in email and a blank email launches
with the picture attached.
So, that eliminates a couple steps for me, but I still want
to open all my captures in Photoshop so I can use the
Save for Web feature to optimize them.
And, THAT is why I love this FrontLook Screen Capture.
It has an option where I can choose to automatically
launch Photoshop with this screen capture already inside
it. How is THAT for cool? Of course, if you prefer using
another program other than Photoshop, you can choose
any program you want.
So, now, screen capturing is so easy and quick for me.
I just hit Windowskey+Print Screen, drag a box around
the part of the screen I want in my picture, release my
mouse button and Photoshop launches and there's my
picture and all I have to do is hit Save for Web and
I'm done.
Yep, I've been reviewing a lot of software lately and
NONE has pleased me as much as this little program.
For those of you who want a functional, user friendly
screen capturing program that costs HALF of what some
more cumbersome programs like Snagit cost, I highly
recommend it!!
Click here to buy Screen Capture or download a
free trial version
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/scrncap.htm#fl
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*****THIS MONTH'S FEATURE*****
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(4.) POWERPOINT 2003: THE OTHER CHANGES
~~Kathryn Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
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Last month, we talked about the new Viewer and Package
for CD.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v29/kath29.htm
These were not the only changes made to PowerPoint for
the new version. Over the next few months, we are going
to take a quick look at the changes:
@ Better research tools
@ New order to templates
@ Font embedding changes
@ Smart Tags
@ Inking support
This month, we are going to focus in on the research
tools and the template changes. I'll cover the other
changes in future articles.
Better research tools
With PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft has added two tools that
will make content development a little easier: the research
pane and the thesaurus.
The Research pane
All of the Office System 2003 products have "improved"
access to research tools. For PowerPoint, this means that
with a few quick clicks, you can access a wide variety of
resources for content expansion, verification and targeting.
The resources available are limited, but growing.
The research tools are accessed via the research pane. If
another pane is already showing, click the dropdown arrow
in the title of the pane and select "Research". If no pane
is showing, you can bring the research pane up by either
alt-clicking on a word on your slide or by using the
Tools > Research menu item.
The resources available are pretty basic. You have a
dictionary, some thesauruses, several research sites,
and some business and financial information sites.
Expect this list to grow as Office 2003 grows into the
market place.
(By the way, if you click "Research options" at the bottom
of the pane, you will find other resources. Most of them
are international versions of the default resources.)
To do a search, type the words into the search box,
select the items you want to search from the drop down,
and off goes the search. For general research, you may
or may not find what you are looking for.
The reason this tool is worth using?.
One of my frustrations with PowerPoint for years is the
lack of a thesaurus. Words may not be the only thing in
a PowerPoint presentation, but they are a major part of
most presentations. I have long been frustrated by the
lack of a thesaurus in PowerPoint. Now, we have one.
Unfortunately, it isn't totally intuitive, but it is there.
@ The intended way to access the thesaurus is by selecting
the word you want to change and bringing up the
thesaurus. Either a Shift-F7 or the Tools' Thesaurus menu
will bring up the Research pane, with the thesaurus
pre-selected.
@ If you already have the Research pane visible, you can
just type in your word and select the appropriate
thesaurus from the drop down list.
@ Once you get your list of results, you can insert one
of those results into your presentation with a right click
of the new word. If your original word is still selected,
it will be replaced by the new word. If nothing is
selected, the new word will be inserted at the cursor
position.
Another useful research resource?
Do you do slides with new words? You can use the
dictionary resources to add the definintion of the word
to your presentation by looking the word up, selecting
the definition you are looking for, and copying and
pasting the definition onto your slide.
Work with many languages? Translate!
The third piece of the research I find most useful is the
ability to translate individual words or full sentences at
a mouse click. Select translation from the search list,
select the original language and the new language
and the translation appears.
The translation is split into two pieces: The bilingual
dictionary for individual words and WorldLingo machine
translation for sentences.
Template changes
Another of the big changes in PowerPoint 2003 is a
change to how PowerPoint shows the templates when
you list the available designs and how you access the
templates for a new presentation.
Display order
Instead of being listed in alphabetical order, the
templates are now listed in a rather unique order that
you will either love or hate. Templates are now listed
basically in color order. However, the first two templates
are not in this order. Confusing? Yeah, but useful once
you get used to it?.
The first template listed is always the blank template.
This is the template on your system which has the
name "Default Design.pot". In the past, this was the
template that was used for all new presentations. It
still is, until you change it. If you want to, you can
select a different template to be your default.
If you have a template that you use all the time, bring
that template up in a presentation and view the Slide
Design pane. Right click on your preferred template.
Notice that there is a new menu item: Use for All New
Presentations. Selecting this option for a template
moves it to the second spot in your template list. It
also tells PowerPoint that when you open a new
presentation, you want it to use this template.
Next on the list of templates are the most recently used,
non-Microsoft templates. These templates are listed in
order of use. Following these templates are the rest of
the templates loaded with PowerPoint. These templates
are grouped by color. The basic order for these templates
is blue backgrounds, green backgrounds, orange
backgrounds, red backgrounds, black backgrounds, and
white backgrounds.
Accessing templates
Besides changing the order of templates, PowerPoint
2003 now differentiates between templates delivered
with PowerPoint and those you add to your system.
If you go to the "New Presentation" task pane, you
will see three sections:
@ New
@ Templates
@ and Recently used templates
If you use any of the first three elements on the New
list, you will be selecting from the templates delivered
with PowerPoint. If you want to select from a template
you have added to your system, you need to click the
On my computer item under Templates.
Further, if you click Blank presentation after having
chosen a default template, you will not get a blank
presentation. You will instead get a presentation
whose background and masters are set up as defined
in your chosen default template.
One thing to keep in mind?
Just because a template is shown in one color doesn't
mean you can't use it in another color. Each of the
Microsoft templates still have various color schemes
associated with them. What you are really seeing in the
template list is the colors that Microsoft believes will be
used most often for that template.
Confusing? Yes. Useful? Yes.
While this change seems to be very confusing to the
new PowerPoint 2003 user, it is actually quite intuitive
once you play around with the new order and options.
If you have a template you use all the time, you can
set up your default and never change. If you need to
find a template, you look at the others of the same
colors and pick the one that you like best.
**********************************************
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with
http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever
else there is time for.
I believe life is meant to be lived. But, if we live without
making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived.
************************************************
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POWERPOINT TO EXE
We can convert your Powerpoint presentations into stand
alone exe files that will play on all the major Windows
platforms without the need for a Powerpoint viewer.
More info here:
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html
Email: pptexe@xxxxxxxxxx
**********************************************
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(5.) POINTS OF VIEW IN FRONTPAGE - FOLDERS
~~Tina Clarke, AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article includes pictures and is
clearer if read online. You can see the online version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/tina30.htm
**********************************************
**********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA: to see all of Tina's previous
FrontPage tips, click HERE:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/authors.htm#tina
**********************************************
Folders View - not to be confused with the Folder List
The 'Folders View' shows a directory level representation
of your website and a properties list for each folder or
file.
If all your folders are not showing it might be because
they are hidden, to enable them do the following:
@ Go to the Tools menu and select Web settings |
Advanced Tab.
@ Make sure the 'Show documents in hidden directories'
box is ticked.
@ Press ok. You will be asked to refresh the web.
The 'Folders View' in conjunction with the 'Folder List'
enables you to work more easily with the folders and
files and do sorting you can't do in the 'Navigation View'.
Click the top of the columns in the right hand pane, for
example 'Name' to sort the folders and files
alphabetically, or the 'Modified Date' to sort by date .
If you click 'Type' this will enable you sort the file
extensions into groups: a great boon, enabling an
easier search for a file.
When you click a folder it will open and the contents will
be displayed in the right hand pane. If you right click in
the pane you can select the option 'Up one level'.
If you wish to select a number of files that are not all
next to each other at once, hold down the 'Control' key
on the keyboard and make your selection one by one,
you can then right click and have a number of options
from the pop up box.
To select files next to each other hold down the 'Shift'
key on the keyboard and click the top one you want to
select and the bottom one you want to select, the files
in between will be automatically selected. Now you can
either right click for options or drag the files to a new
location, even to another open copy of FrontPage. To do
this, just hold down the left or right mouse key and
drag your selection and hover the mouse pointer over
the other FrontPage you have open in the Windows
taskbar and it will open up that FrontPage where you
can drop your files. Depending on whether you used
left or right click: with right click you can move or copy
the file; with left click the file will just be copied.
More on the other View Panes next issue.
********************************************
Tina Clarke is the Webmaster of AccessFP - FrontPage
Resource Centre http://accessfp.net/ and
http://addonfp.com She is also an editor of AnyFrontPage
Bytes Ezine. Subscribe to the ezine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes
and get FREE FrontPage E-Books upon joining.
Tina is also an artist and owner of
http://artdoodle.com
********************************************
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(6.) THE HARD DRIVE SIZE DISCREPANCY:
When a Byte Isn't a Byte
~~Vic Ferri, WinTips and Tricks
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**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: Vic has made us another handy conversion
tool that you can use to convert bytes to kilobytes,
megabytes, and gigabytes, and vice versa. It's included
in the online version of this article here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vic30.htm
**********************************************
A common marketing ploy by hard drive manufacturers
is to calculate the size of a hard disk by using the
decimal 10 system of 1000 bytes = one kilobyte, instead
of the binary system where 1024 bytes = one kilobyte
(your PC only knows binary). This rounding off practice
means you end up with a hard drive with a capacity
less than what is indicated on the label. For example,
a true 80 GB hard disk can hold 85,899,345,920 bytes,
but by using the base 10 formula, 80 GB comes out
to only 80,000,000,000 bytes Do the simple subtraction,
that's 5,899,345,920 bytes less than the true value.
Now calculate what 5,899,345,920 bytes converts to by
entering 5899345920 in the Byte box on this page.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/vic30.htm
You will find that it translates to a loss of 5.49419
GIGABYTES!
To perform the calculation manually:
True Size: 80 x 1024 X 1024 x 1024 = 85,899,345,920
bytes
False Size: 80 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000= 80,000,000,000
bytes
And there you have the reason for the size discrepancy
when you correctly install a hard drive in Windows and
its Properties report it to be smaller than what you
thought. A PC only understands binary, 0's and 1's, and
that's how Windows calculates your hard drive size.
This means that an 80 GB drive, figured using the
decimal 10 system, would only show as about 74.5GBs
in Windows. A 40 GB drive would only show as about
37.2 GB The difference works out to about 7% less.
If you want a simple way to confirm this for yourself, I'm
going to give you something to try. But before starting,
you must understand that the definition of ONE BYTE is
8 bits which equals a single plain text unformatted
character. Anytime you press a character with your
keyboard you are using one byte. So, with that in mind,
let's first begin by confirming that fact. We want to
confirm that when we add a byte, Windows will see it
as a byte and then we can see just how many more
bytes we need to add to make a kilobyte.
@ Open up a new notepad document and type the letter A
(or any other letter). Just a single character.
@ Save the file, and then right click it and go to Properties
to see the Size. It should indicate one byte (the size
indicated in brackets is always the the true size in
bytes). Go to the online version of this article to see
a picture of how your Properties box should look.
Ignore the "bytes used" size - it doesn't pertain to this
test - the bytes used just refers to the cluster size -
i.e., how much space the file actually uses up on your
hard drive.
Now close it, delete it, and open up another new text
document, full screen, with Word Wrap On. Enter 1,024
continuous characters to give you 1024 bytes.
Note - every key press takes up one byte of memory so
if you hit any other key like Enter, CTR or Shift, you will
be adding bytes and your count will be inaccurate.
To make it easier, below are 100 characters.
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
789012345678901234567890
********************************************
NOTE FROM EDITOR: If your email program wrapped
that line, it may have a space in it. If you copy that
line into notepad, remember to remove any spaces.
********************************************
First, copy and paste them into your new text document,
save it, close it, and look at the Properties to make
sure you pasted correctly. File size should read 100
bytes. Then reopen it, and continue pasting the 100
character line 9 more times without pressing any other
keys or leaving any spaces, so that you will have exactly
1000 bytes. Then type in 24 more characters to bring
the total up to 1024 bytes.
Once you've entered your 1024 characters, save and go
to Properties again to look at the size. As you can see,
1,024 bytes is equal to exactly 1.00 KB
Now open up your 1.00KB text document, highlight 24
characters and delete them to make it 1000 characters.
Save it and look at the size again in Properties.
Now you see that 1000 bytes is only .97KB and this
illustrates how using the decimal system to calculate
a kilobyte is inaccurate.
The 1000 bytes you used does not translate to a full
kilobyte.
If you were to market that 1000 byte file as 1 KB, your
customers would be getting ripped off by 24 bytes on
every 1 KB purchase.
I really don't know which hard drive makers - if any -
use the the binary system to calculate hard drive sizes,
but recently a lawsuit was launched against Dell,
Gateway, Apple, HP, and others over this matter.
See here for the story:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60505,00.html
Bits and Bytes for Newbies:
BIT - the smallest unit of information a computer can
use, either a 1 or 0, and all it knows how to use!
BYTE - consists of 8 bits which patterns one character
which can be a letter, number or symbol For example,
01000001 = A
Kilobyte - consists of 1024 bytes which equals 1024
characters which equals about a page of double spaced
text.
Megabyte - consists of 1,048,576 bytes which is enough
bytes to hold a book of maybe 500 pages or more or a
50 page book if it contains graphics. A floppy disk can
hold 1.44 Megabytes.
Gigabyte - consists of 1,073,741,824 bytes which is
enough bytes to hold a complete set of encyclopedia
including graphics, audio and video.
Terabyte - consists of one trillion bytes (1000 Gigabytes)
And if you think no one could ever need terabytes of
storage, then think again. Less than 4 hours or so of
digital video can eat up a whole terabyte. Over 4.5 GB
per minute is needed to achieve the DV quality standard
which is 720x480 resolution and a 5 to 1 compression.
NOTE: If you are new to all this and would like to learn
more about bits and binary, look for my article
"Just A Little Bit" in my TechTrax archives here:
http://snurl.com/wx9
********************************************
Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks
email group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
He is also in charge of the Printing Tips page at
Linda's Computer Stop.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/printing.htm
Vic has also created a program which allows you to
Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.
Read more and get the free demo here.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint
presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on
computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html
********************************************
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Are you into Video Computing?
VIDEOMAKER is the world's most popular monthly
consumer video production publication and covers the
use of digital video editing, camcorders, cameras, and
desktop video and audio production for novice and
expert enthusiasts alike. Its articles teach production
techniques, survey and review the latest equipment,
and explain the newest technological advances.
Published monthly, and is available on select newsstands
and to subscribers. In addition, you receive a password
giving you full access to Club VId, Videomaker's vast
online resource of information about making video.
And the best part is, it's CHEAP! Only $14.97 for 13 issues!
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And, our own multimedia expert, Vic Ferri wants to tell you
about the great offer being made by VideoMaker Magazine.
You can now get a free trial issue and free Ulead CD of
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NOTE - the free CD is for US only. Other countries, free trial
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More info and instructions from Vic here:
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(7.) THROWING DICE WITH EXCEL:
Generating random numbers in Excel using only built-in
functions and eliminating the volatility issues to produce
a more controllable randomness
~~Ray Blake, GR Business Process Solutions
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
There are times in Excel when you need to generate
random numbers. For instance, I had an Excel workbook
which ran a skills assessment centre, on which each
candidate had to be allocated a case study randomly
from a bank of 5 such cases. All I needed to do was
provide a random integer between 1 and 5 inclusive, and
then an INDEX function would read the appropriate case
study name or reference from a separate table.
Excel makes it quite easy to generate a random number,
and my first attempt at a function to produce what I
needed was quite straightforward:
=RANDBETWEEN(1,5)
Nothing too tricky here; this formula produces an integer
which is either 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. The two arguments define
the lowest and highest numbers you want to be returned.
As formulae go, it's pretty simple. But it has a problem.
If you've tried typing it into a worksheet, you may have
found the result appeared as:
#VALUE
This is an Excel error code, generated because Excel does
not recognise the RANDBETWEEN formula. This is because
it is not one of the standard, built-in functions of Excel;
rather, it is one of a set of extra functions wrapped up in
something called the 'Analysis ToolPak' which Microsoft
provides alongside Excel. Most installations of Excel will
have it available, but it may not be enabled in every
installation.
Here is how to enable it.
1. From the 'Tools' menu, select 'Add-Ins'
2. Find the reference to 'Analysis ToolPak' and put a tick
in the box
3. Select 'OK'
And now you're up and running.
But I still had a problem. I was writing my application to
be run by other people, on a number of different desktop
and laptop PCs. Some might not have the Analysis
ToolPak installed, and this was a complication the users
could probably do without.
I determined to find a way to achieve the same thing
without having to resort to the RANDBETWEEN function.
Fortunately, there is a way. One of Excel's built in
functions is RAND. It takes no arguments, and simply
produces a random number which is a fraction. That is
to say, it produces a number which is higher than 0 but
less than 1. It takes the form:
=RAND()
Here's the formula I used to turn this into an integer
from 1 to 5:
=ROUND(RAND()*(5-1)+1,0)
Here's how this formula works:
1. RAND() produces a random fraction between 0 and 1
2. It is then multiplied by 4 (i.e. 5-1)
3. To the result is added 1
4. It is rounded to the nearest integer, with no decimal
places.
Let's follow this through imagining some actual numbers.
At step 1, a number from - let's say 0.00001 to 0.99999
is generated. These aren't actually the extremes, but
they're near enough. Let's look at each of them over
the 4 steps of the calculation.
STEP 1. RAND() produces a random fraction between 0
and 1
MIN RESULT 0.00001
MAX RESULT 0.99999
STEP 2. It is then multiplied by 4 (i.e. 5-1)
MIN RESULT 0.00004
MAX RESULT 3.99996
STEP 3. To the result is added 1
MIN RESULT 1.00004
MAX RESULT 4.99996
STEP 4. It is rounded to the nearest integer, with no
decimal places.
MIN RESULT 1
MAX RESULT 5
The ROUND function will always round to the nearest
integer. For fractions of less than 0.5, this means it will
round down, whilst for 0.5 and above, it performs a
rounding up. Here lies the reason why the number we
need at step 2 is 4 rather than 5. I've kept it as 5-1 to
show the relationship with the maximum number (5)
that we want to generate.
This formula can be adapted to work just like
RANDBETWEEN on the following basis:
=ROUND(RAND()*([max number]-1)+[min number],0)
Note that the RAND formula, which at first, taking no
arguments, appears very limited, can produce far more
flexible results than RANDBETWEEN, which looked like
the best solution. However, as is often the case in real
life, the obvious choice of RANDBETWEEN came with a
sting in the tail, requiring an add-in to work.
Now I was there; I had a formula which would generate
my random number in all versions of Excel without
needing the Analysis ToolPak. But I still had a problem.
RAND is a volatile function. This means that it keeps
recalculating, at the drop of a hat. Every time I open,
save or close the worksheet, every time the worksheet
is recalculated, it gives a new random value. This may
be OK for some applications, but for mine this was
awkward. I wanted to keep a record of what case study
version was used, and with RAND being so volatile, that
simply wouldn't work.
What I needed was a way to get a random number
calculated on demand, which would then stay as it was
until I asked for a different one. In other words, I wanted
a dice that I could throw, but which would never be
thrown by accident.
Here's how I did it.
In cell B2, I had my formula:
= ROUND(RAND()*(5-1)+1,0)
I started the Macro Recorder, named my new Macro
"RandomiseNow" and recorded the following actions:
1. I selected cell B2
2. I copied it to the clipboard using CTRL+C
3. I selected cell B3
4. From the Edit menu, I chose 'Paste Special'
5. I selected the 'Values' option in the Paste dialogue
6. I clicked 'OK'
Cell B3 now contained a number, which was the number
created by the formula in Cell B2. But the B3 formula was
just a number, not a volatile formula. The worksheet
could update any number of times, and although the
value in B2 would change, that in B3 would not. (You
can test this by forcing a number of worksheet
recalculations. Just press F9 repeatedly, and see what
happens.)
This is perfect, because it is the figure in B3 which I
can then use to look up the case study reference or
name, knowing that it will not change when I'm not
looking! When a different assessment centre group
arrives, I can roll the dice again as it were simply by
running the "RandomiseNow" macro. In fact, I put a
button on the sheet to run the macro, which is much
easier than using the Macro dialogue, particularly for
the novice users who would be using my application.
So there we are. We have found how to generate random
numbers using the RANDBETWEEN function from the
Analysis ToolPak, how to recreate this functionality
using only Excel's built-in functions, and finally how to
work around the volatility of these functions and control
precisely when a random value is updated.
**********************************************
Ray Blake lives in England and spent 15 years training
people in the financial services industry there. He had
always used PCs in his work, and gradually realised he
might make a career out of them. He and his business
partner set up GR Business Process Solutions
( http://www.grbps.com ) which specializes in innovative
IT to support knowledge testing and skills assessment.
Although he spends a lot of time these days developing
in VB and Access, Excel remains his favourite development
tool, because, as he says, 'It can do everything; there's no
computer application you can think of that you couldn't
develop in Excel.'
********************************************
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Check out OVER 80 INSTANT GUIDES to your DREAM JOB or
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"How to Get Started as a Software Trainer"
AND LOTS MORE!
**********************************************
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(8.) THROW-AWAY EMAIL ADDRESSES
~~Mike Baynes, MikesWhatsNews
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Now why would you want a 'throw-away email address'?
Have you ever wondered how your email address ended
up a spammers list?
Often we buy a program or hardware for our computers.
Of course we register it and provide our email address,
but did you read the fine print? Did you consent to
receiving promotions from their 'partners'.
Despammed is the Internet's premiere Unsolicited
Commercial Email (UCE) filtering service.
http://www.despammed.com/index.html
" With a Despammed email alias, you can register at
Web sites, post on newsgroups and sign guestbooks
without worry. "
Frequently what they consider partners are what we
consider spam. This is where the throw away address
comes in handy. It is an address that you sign up for
from a site providing 'free email addresses'.
Free Email Address Directory -
http://www.emailaddresses.com/
"Welcome to the best email resource on the Web! You'll
find reviews of hundreds of free email services and
for-fee email services, advice on using email, a guide to
setting up your own email service and more."
There are also sites which provide time-limited addresses
which you use specifically to register for sites that you
suspect may not respect your rights to privacy.
Most email addresses @lte.gremlin.ca expire after a set
period of time (usually 7-14 days).
http://www.gremlin.ca/lte/
"If you have been directed to this page by an error
message in a returned email, it is likely that the email
address you sent your message to has expired."
There are also email forwarding services, which will allow
you to use a free address which will forward the email
to you.
Bigfoot Email Tools
http://www.bigfoot.com/ef/en/index.jsp
"Your permanent home on the web that provides a
comprehensive range of leading-edge email management
services for life."
You can use one of these, and have your regular email
program set up to automatically discard the messages
from that address. Actually you can set up your email
filters and rules to automatically discard any messages
sent to your 'throw away address'.
See Email Filters and Rules:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc2/v13/mike13.htm
Of course, there are robots that can scan web pages to
obtain email addresses, so use a graphic for your email
address, then the 'bots' can't see it.
Another method of obtaining email addresses is to take
your address out of posts to online lists and groups.
Be creative - use your Yahoo, Hotmail, or other throw-
away address.
**********************************************
Mike Baynes is the editor of MikesWhatsNews.
To subscribe, send a blank email to
mikeswhatsnews-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
"subscribe" in the subject line (without the quotes)
See Mike's Anti-Virus pages ~ http://virusinfo.hackfix.org
To subscribe, send a blank email to:
virusinfo-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with subscribe in the subject.
**********************************************
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LOCK&HIDE
from Vic Ferri
High level desktop folder security for
Windows 95/98/Me
Keep your personal and most valuable files locked
and hidden from prying eyes, viruses, and other users
of your computer. Easy to use and extremely secure.
Lock&Hide is an extremely easy to use program that
allows you to lock and hide any folder on your desktop.
Folders secured with Lock&Hide cannot be seen, found,
or accessed. Your folders remain totally invisible and
highly secured, yet can be accessed quckly and easily
at any time!
More Info here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
Screenshots and instructions here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/scrnshots.htm
Or download the free demo here
(the demo does not include the "Restore All" feature
or the password protection utility.)
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/demoinf.htm
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(9.) PHOTO RETOUCHING AND RESTORATION,
USING PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS
~~Sara Froehlich, Northlite Designs
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article includes pictures and is
clearer if read online. You can see the online version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/sara30.htm
**********************************************
This is an excerpt from one lesson of the next level in my
series of Photoshop Elements courses: Photoshop
Elements Retouching and Restoration. You can enroll in
Level 3 by going to the class description page here and
clicking on the Enroll Now link at the bottom of the
description.
http://www.eclecticacademy.com/graphics.htm#pselements3
Completion of previous levels is a requirement to take
this class. You may register for the other Elements
classes as well by following this link:
Photoshop Elements Courses at Eclectic Academy
http://www.eclecticacademy.com/graphics.htm#pselementsgroundup
The classes progress as follows:
@ Photoshop Elements From the Ground Up
@ Photoshop Elements Level 1
@ Photoshop Elements Level 2
@ Photoshop Elements Level 3: Photo Retouching and
Restoration
The next session starts November 9, 2003!
Twinkle in your eye gone?
Sometimes during correction or because of lighting, eyes
don't have that natural twinkle that makes a photo come
alive. Here's how to get it back. In the online version of
this article, there is a detail of a retouched portrait of
my daughter. Find a photo of your own where you want
to put the twinkle back in the eyes.
Step 1 Open the photo in Elements and duplicate the
layer by dragging it to the new layer icon at the bottom
of the layers palette.
Note: There always seems to be confusion in these
classes if your layers are not exactly like mine. This time,
please note that I started with a photo that had already
been retouched, and the photo did not have a background
layer, but a real layer, and is named Layer 1. Yours might
be called background; and in that case, your duplicate
layer will be called Background Copy. In this series of
classes you may not always have the same thing as I
do, because we will be working on different photos.
In the online version of this article, there is a close-up
of the eyes area, at about 50%. Since it was done for
print, it's too large to show here at 100%.
Step 2 Make your view 100% size. When sharpening, it's
often very important to be able to see the effects full
size. On the duplicate layer, run Filter > Sharpen >
Unsharp Mask at about amount 88%, Radius 1, threshold
4. These settings are common ones shared with us by
Scott Kelby in his book "Photoshop Elements for Digital
Photographers". Click OK to sharpen the whole photo.
Step 3 Cmd/ctrl+F two times to apply the unsharp mask
twice more. The photo will be very over-sharpened. In
fact it will probably look pretty bad overall, but don't worry
about that. You are on the duplicate layer.
Step 4 Hold the cmd/ctrl key and click one time on the
new layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. This
will create a new blank layer right under the selected
layer (the duplicate, sharpened layer).
Now click on the sharpened layer again (mine is layer
1 copy) in the layers palette to make it the active layer
and press cmd/ctrl+G to group the layers. The visible
sharpness disappears, but that's ok, that's what's
supposed to happen. Basically we have "faked" a layer
mask like Photoshop has.
Step 5 In the layers palette click on the blank layer to
make it active (it should be in the middle). We will be
painting on this layer.
Step 6 Press D to set the colors to default black and
white, switch to the brush tool and choose a soft edged
brush that is smaller than the person's eyes from the
options bar. "Paint" over just the irises and pupils of the
eyes to reveal the results of the eye sharpening, making
the eyes sparkle. Make sure you are painting on the
blank layer!
Step 7 Merge all layers. See how easy that was?
**********************************************
Sara Froehlich of Northlite Designs,
http://www.northlite.net is an instructor with Eclectic
Academy, where her online courses include Macromedia
Fireworks and FreeHand 10, Creathru House Expression
and 4 levels of classes in Adobe Photoshop Elements,
along with several classes in Photoshop filters. Coming
In January: Canvas 9!
Go to http://www.eclecticacademy.com enroll in one of
her classes.
She also is an instructor at LVS Online, where she teaches
intermediate Adobe Illustrator and intermediate
Macromedia Fireworks classes.
Go to http://www.lvsonline.com to enroll in one of her
classes there.
For more information on all of the classes Sara teaches,
go to http://www.northlite.net/classes.htm
Expression Tips and Tutorials:
http://northlite.50megs.com/expr
Illustrator Tips and Tutorials:
http://northlite.50megs,com/illus
**********************************************
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(10.) My Adventures in Home Computing
~~John Warner
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Keep in-mind that I wrote this essay in the early 90s.
Some of the opinions are a bit dated but, I think, the
events of the last 5 or 6 years serve to confirm my
premise.
My daughter was in dire need of a filing system to keep-
track of her customers. She needed to print labels for
mailings and log clients' visits to her store. She went
into Circuit City and walked-out with a laptop computer
she was sure would automate this tedious chore. She
didn't have the time to do it herself so she dropped the
thing in my lap. (No pun intended) I looked-up at her
with a classic "Who, me?" stare.
Where do I start? How do you turn this thing on? Where's
the instruction manual? "Boy, Do I Feel STUPID"! And so,
I was introduced to the "computer age."
Not really "Introduced", for you see, we had met before!
By the time I was finished this task, after many hours
spent staring at a blinking cursor, I would recall all my
earlier brushes with technology. I would come to realize
that I wasn't as stupid as I first thought. You see, I had
given-up in frustration in all those prior encounters
because I thought I was "thickheaded" or worse!
Unbeknownst to me, NOBODY knew anything about PC's!
It was the "late 70's" and I had just bought the neatest
piece of electronic gadgetry I had ever seen, "The
Commodore 64"! In order to make this "baby" do anything;
you had to learn how to give it commands. The "language"
that the thing understood was something called BASIC.
The person who invented BASIC wasn't a member of
some team of Ph.D. Electrical Engineers from a "think
tank" at MIT, but a 17 year old named Bill Gates, whose
only other accomplishment, up to this time, was scoring
high enough on the SAT's to get accepted at Harvard. He
was one of those "nerdy types" that no one wanted to
socialize with because he approached every parlor game
as if the fate-of-the-world depended on whether HE
WON or not! One of those "Dungeons and Dragons"
weirdoes on college campuses, that you used-to hear
so much about, back then.
After going back and re-reading this description, it
sounds a bit harsh. I would explain by saying that I was
quite annoyed that such a travesty of justice could take
place and I felt sorry for the true inventors of the point
-and-click operating system.
Gates started-out selling Basic to Ed Roberts, of MITS,
who is credited with inventing the first PC, The Altair
8800. Gates was 19 years old and he, and a high
school friend named Paul Allen, wrote the "code" that
was used to run Altair. The year was 1975, and Allen
and Gates needed a name for their two-man company,
so they could open a bank account to cash the checks
from MITS. They called their newborn enterprise,
Microsoft.
I learned BASIC well enough to write a simple program,
maybe that wasn't fun; can you say SYNTAX ERROR? I
got frustrated with the lack of memory on these early
computers, and the "snails-pace" retrieval rate of the
old "portable tape decks" that they used for storage.
These early computers had no "hard drive" (storage) at
all. When you shutdown the computer, RAM goes POOF!
Into thin air.
Some years later, the Freshman Class at Drexel
University was the beneficiary of a "promotion" being
run by Apple Computers. Each student would have their
own "personal" computer. It was a stroke of marketing
genius on the part of the computer manufacture's young
management team. There were three schools chosen for
the experiment: Drexel, Stanford, and another that slips
my mind. They were selling, at cost, their newest
creation, "Macintosh." A revolutionary, new Personal
Computer that had an "operating system" that even a
child could use. This system incorporated a device that
you "ran around" on your desktop called a "mouse."
The "mouse" was electrically connected to an arrow on
the monitor screen. You simply directed the arrow to
point at an "icon" on the screen and "clicked" the
mouse, and the computer would do something! No need
to type-in any "commands." The concept was not lost.
It put-into-practice, for the first time, the prospect of
each person having their own computer, instead of
sitting around a library waiting for a turn. Their bold
business plan worked like a charm...but not for them!
It was 1984, and I "fiddled" with the thing a few times
but never really had the time to get-into it.
The people behind the "Macintosh" (Apple Computers,
Inc., Macintosh Apples, does this all sound silly?)
weren't those MIT Ph.D.s that I spoke of earlier, or even
the name that is synonymous with the word "computer",
IBM, but rather, two college students named STEVE!
Not the "Dungeons&Dragons" types, Steve Jobs and
Steve Wozniak spent their leisure time engaged in
another pursuit, with a "touch of larceny" to add
excitement. Jobs had discovered, in a hidden-away
corner of the Library at Stanford, a small tech manual
issued by ATT. The manual described a "new" dialing
system that they were experimenting with that would
replace the old "clicking" system used by "rotary"
phones. The new system, a series of "tones", would
be much faster, as everyone now knows.
Sounds like "old news", however, also in the manual
was the formula for deciphering the entire system,
worldwide! Jobs asked Wozniak, the electronics wizard,
and Steven King look-a-like, to design a device that
would match the frequencies of tones listed in the
manual, and emit those tones. This was a relatively
simple task for Wozniak; knowing which tones to "play"
was gleaned from the manual, and soon they began
using what they had named, " the blue box." (because
it was in a blue box).
They didn't use the device for profit; it was mostly a
"prank". College kids calling home for free or asking an
Apothecary in Sussex, "If they had Prince Albert in a
can?" Once, Wozniak said, he called the Pope, using
the name Henry Kissinger. He didn't get to speak to
the Pope, but he was told that someone was going to
wake him up!
The lesson here, not wasted on Steve Jobs, was that
they could manipulate a billion dollar infrastructure like
ATT. So, when he asked Steve Wozniak if he could
miniaturize a computer, that Wozniak had been "toying
with" at hobbyist meetings, to a point where it could be
packaged and sold on-the-market, Apple, Inc. was born!
Apple I was nothing more than a circuit board, no case
or keyboard. They manufactured them in a garage. Fifty
units were sold to hobbyists for $600 each. Jobs could
see the possibilities. He went to Venture Capitalist,
Arthur Rock, and got backing for a new creation, Apple II.
They debuted the Apple II at the "1st Annual West
Coast Computer Faire." The II was an instant success,
it was the first "real" PC, and they turned-out 1000
units a month. He was 19 years old.
For all its success, the Apple II was still just a toy! It
needed an application that would make it DO SOMETHING
USEFUL. The PC was the product of the "flower-children"
of the West Coast. The "hippies" thought it was
"groovy", but the application that would launch it into
the billion-dollar business, that it was to become, was
on the blackboards of the Harvard Business School. An
MBA student named Dan Bricklin, who had some
programming experience, was working on a program
to automate the laborious calculations needed to "run
the numbers", using the accepted Harvard Business
School tables, to workout profits and expenses in
business. All the values in the tables are related to
each other, and so, changes in one year will "ripple"
through the table and affect the prices and profits in
subsequent years. Since all the values in the table are
related, one mistake could mean disaster!
He enlisted the aid of a friend, Bob Frankston, to write
the code. They called the program The Visible Calculator,
or VISICALC, and began to give VISICALC to anyone who
wanted a copy. The first copies went on sale at Marv
Goldschmitt's Computer Store in Bedford, Mass. in
October, 1979.
They were idealists, they said they were trying to
improve the lives of the "bean-counters" of the world,
and were not in it for the money. Bricklin tells a story
about a demonstration he was giving to some
accountants, when one fellow came up to him and, with
tears in his eyes, explained how he would labor for a
week, missing dinner with his wife and kids, to "run the
numbers" that VISICALC just ran in 5 minutes! They
NEVER COPYRIGHTED their invention, the FIRST
SPREADSHEET! (This would be the first in a series of
unbelievable circumstances that would create "openings"
for the opportunist Bill Gates that would catapult him
into notoriety as the richest and luckiest man in the
world!) He would later use the application as the
template for Excel.
It was the beginning of the Reagan Years and money
was everything. Greed was Good, and the Whiz Kids of
Wall St., fresh out of college, were making millions. The
spreadsheet was the big businessman's "Crystal Ball." It
answered all those, " What If ", questions. How will
future profits be affected by different business scenarios?
A 24 year old MBA running Visicalc on an Apple II
computer could use two pieces of dubious data to
convince his corporate managers to loot the company's
Pension Fund and do a leveraged buy-out! Apple, Inc.
went Public in 1980, and on his 23rd birthday Steve Jobs
was a Millionaire.
On his 24th he had $10 Million, and by his 25 birthday
he was worth 100 Million Dollars! And Apple was yet to
introduce the most revolutionary computer of all time,
Macintosh!
All this excitement was drawing the attention of the
"sleeping giant." The company known as "Big Blue" had,
heretofore, dismissed the PC as a "gadget" and ignored
the possible market. But IBM, the name that "means"
computer, was beginning to rethink its position. In the
boardrooms of IBM the unthinkable was being asked.
"Had one of the leaders in the corporate world made a
mistake?"
Perhaps, but they were about to make, what is described
by some as, the BIGGEST mistake in the history of the
business world! There are many lessons to be made of
this story, not the least of which is expressed in this
axiom: " In business, as in comedy, TIMING is of the
utmost importance."
IBM decided that they would get into the PC
marketplace, but there was one problem. The staid and
conservative leader of the computer industry knew full
well that the length of time it needed for research and
development, tooling, design and manufacture of it's
PC would be so great that the "market" for PCs would
be "saturated" by the time their version was released.
With that, IBM decided to buy, from electronics
manufacturer's stockpiles, all the components needed
to assemble their version of the Personal Computer thus
saving the time of designing their own. All they needed
to do now was "buy" an Operating System. A good idea,
except for one hitch: Since they were not inventing it, but
merely assembling it, they could not patent such a device!
When the IBM Execs showed-up on Bill Gates' doorstep
he almost "wet himself." They wanted to know if he had
an Operating System that they could buy and install in
their new PC. Perhaps they figured that he was an
electronics nerd who got high off the smoke of his
soldering iron and wouldn't be "tied-in" with any
existing computer companies, and they would be able
to dictate terms to him. Well, he "took the lump" and
sent them off to see someone that he thought was
better equipped to help them.
A fact that came to light years after I wrote this essay
was that Gates' mother sat on the board of United Way,
where she, a lawyer, was friendly with the CEO of IBM.
Does that sound like a coincidence of enormous
proportions? "Boy I guess!"
Luckily, the people he sent them to see were making
too many demands for IBM and, as hard as it may be
to believe, they came back to see him again. This was
all the break he needed and I guess he felt like a man
who had been raised from the dead! He knew he didn't
have the system they needed, but he told them he did!
"Flying by the seat of his pants", he signed a contract
with them making Microsoft the exclusive provider of the
Operating System for the PC in exchange for his
guarantee that he would not sell the system to anyone
else. He put his head together with a colleague, who
had been working on several different operating systems,
and they "threw together" QDOS, an acronym for "Quick
and Dirty Operating System." Their inside joke was the
forerunner of MS-DOS. The only "unique" component of
IBM's PC was the "brain" of the machine. That part which
connects the "hardware" to the "software", the Operating
System to the Central Processing Unit or CPU, known as
the "ROM BIOS."
Someone bought an IBM PC, took it home and took it
apart, and found that as long as they bought the
components from the companies that held the individual
patents on each component, anyone could assemble
and market IBM PCs under their own name. That
"someone" was COMPAQ COMPUTERS. The only obstacle
was: IBM's ROM BIOS.
Here's how they got around that obstacle: A patent
attorney assembled a team of Electrical Engineers. He
videotaped each interview in which he asks each one
if he or she has ever worked for IBM or Microsoft. He
then has them swear that they had never seen the
insides of IBM's PC nor did they ever see the operating s
ystem known as QDOS. 20 people are hired and put to
work "reinventing" IBM's ROM BIOS. They are given
complete documentation describing the hardware and
what it does when instructed by the operating system.
The team of E.E.s is able to "reinvent" IBM's ROM-BIOS
in 4 months time.
Now there are two companies that own patents on a
ROM-BIOS that "runs" IBM's PC. Compaq wants to start
selling their PC so they order Operating Systems from
Microsoft. Bill Gates' lawyers (probably his mom or dad)
tell him that if it was legal for Compaq to "clone" the
PC, then it is also legal for Microsoft to sell DOS to the
cloners. Perhaps, in a "last ditch" effort to have some
control over the PC Market, IBM begins selling THEIR
Rom Bios, thereby licensing anyone who wants to
"clone" their PC and the "blunder" is complete! The
company that proved they could "respond quickly" to
grab a share of the personal computer market by
"slapping together" a machine that would outsell the
Apple Home Computer succeeded in making money for
everyone but themselves!
Gates knew he needed a simpler Operating System
than DOS. It still required you to have the knowledge
of BASIC and the ability to write code. PCs would not
sell when the world got a look at the Macintosh OS. It
is said, (mostly in Gates' autobiography) that he knew
of the Mac OS and advised Jobs to patent it. When Jobs
procrastinated Gates stole it! He modified it into an
APPLICATION that ran within DOS, and began including
it WITH the operating system he installed into every PC.
For anyone (me included) who ever saw Macintosh
BEFORE they saw WINDOWS, the similarity was
astonishing! To a person, they asked themselves,
"How could he have gotten away with this?"
Bill Gates and Microsoft "set the world on its ear" when
they release the revolutionary operating system
WINDOWS. They took all those "inventions" from the
Macintosh Operating System: the Windows themselves,
the Mouse, the Icons, and the Menus., and just like
Chubby Checker stole "The Twist" from Hank Ballard, and
Liz Taylor stole Eddie Fisher from Debbie Reynolds,
Microsoft "blows Apple, Inc. out of the water." Not
because they had a "new message" but just because
they "said it louder." Gates capitalized on the name
IBM, who had no more to do with the development of
the PC than Gates did, but who gave it their famous
name, IBM Compatible! If you were going to, "plop-
down" your hard-earned dollars for a computer, and the
man in the store had one named IBM and one named
APPLE, which one would you buy? So did everyone else!
In the end, the hippies' contempt for convention, would
prove to be their un-doing! Every couple of days I read
an article about the trials and tribulations of Apple, Inc.
They are STILL at it, concentrating on the "high-dollar"
personal computer market, and their machine is STILL
better than the competition's! When I made the analogy
of a saturated market I never knew that the computer
manufacturers would "pace themselves" in releasing
faster and faster machines. Avid users buy a new
computer about every TWO years! It's an absolute
stroke of business genius combined with uncanny luck
and all the ruthlessness necessary to have stolen all
the major components for success!
**********************************************
John Warner is a frustrated, opinionated, blue-collar,
quinquagenarian, wannabe-wordsmith who has
managed, during some of his few-and-far-between
stretches of lucidity, to string together a few hundred
intelligible words suitable for publication in the Events
Business News Magazine (and for a fee, no less).
NOTE FROM LINDA:
These words come from John ... not me ;-)
**********************************************
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(11.) ASSORTED GOODIES FROM LINDA
~~ with a little help from her friends
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
First off, let me tell you I wrote a follow-up article about
Excel IF statements for TechTrax ezine, and you can see
them both here in my TechTrax Author Archives.
http://snurl.com/wxa
If you like what I wrote there, please send some
feedback to TechTrax and tell them you heard about
their ezine here.
**********************************************
And, the next goodies I want to share come from my pal
Mac Bagwell who owns a great website called Martha's
Web at http://www.keyboardpower.com
One Saturday nite, a few members of the
Computer Help and Discussion group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Computer_Help_and_Discussion
were kinda bored and sharing different sites we frequent
and Mac sent us a few free online games that are lots of
fun, so I thought I'd share them with you.
@ Letter Lasso
http://www.miniclip.com/wcrunch-102mc-005.swf?mode=yea
@ Online Yahtzee
http://www.eyegrid.com/yahtzee/yahtzee.htm
@ Butch Mushroom
http://www.orangegray.com/butch01.html
@ The Office Space
http://www.disarea.com/work/office_space/
@ And Mac's "personal favorite".... Marbles
http://www.netives.com/Games/Marbles/Play.shtml
Thanks to Mac for sharing these. I recommend you
all go to Mac's website for lots of other great stuff.
**********************************************
This next one is VERY funny, I think. Subscriber
Jeremy F. sent me this one:
******
Hi Linda. My friend just taught me a new trick and
I don't know if you know about this one or not. If you
add the text ".mirror.sytes.org" (without the quotes) to
the end of any URL, you sill see a mirror image of the
website. You know, backwards. Try it with your own
site:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com.mirror.sytes.org
******
Is that cool or what? And, I see that if you click on any
of the links on my home page, those pages come up
backwards too. LOL I also learned that you have to put
the ".mirror.sytes.org" immediately after the site's
extension (.com, .org, .edu, etc.) and NOT after
something like .htm.
For example...
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/library.htm.mirror.sytes.org
brings you to a "page not found"
but
http://personal-computer-tutor.com.mirror.sytes.org/library.htm
shows my Library page completely backwards. Notice
even the pictures are backwards...and the text in the
title bar too.
Lotsa fun, Jeremy. Thanks for sharing it with us!
**********************************************
This next one was something we discussed in Hal
Cardona's WinXPHelp group .
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinXPHelp
Someone was having problems with blurry fonts and I
sent them to this page. I was surprised to hear many
people don't know about this page. It's Microsoft's
Clear Type Fonts Optimizer It's made for LCD monitors
and it only works if you are using Windows XP, but I've
found it works with my regular CRT screen also. So, if
you are having problems seeing your fonts clearly
onscreen, give this a shot. What you got to lose?
**********************************************
This is one that ABC Fleet member, Mike Baynes
included in his great newsletter, MikesWhatsNews,
http://www.mwn.ca/
******
Stardock CursorXP free
http://www.stardock.com/products/cursorxp/
A program that lets you use and create incredibly cool
looking Windows mouse cursors. It does this by taking
advantage of the new visual effects features of
Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
******
This one is great, Mike. I downloaded the free version
and I'm having so much fun with it, I bought the pro
version. Right now my mouse pointer is a Heineken
bottle with bubble trails. LOL
I downloaded the Heineken bottle here:
http://snurl.com/2vcz
But you need the pro version for the bubbles.
**********************************************
And the last little goodie is a belated Halloween gift
from me. If you read my review of FrontLook's FrontPage
addins, you may have already seen this, but if not,
here's a little Halloween ditty I made:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/boo.htm
**********************************************
Thanks to all that send me stuff. If you have anything
fun to share with ABC's readers, just drop me an email
and I will check it out.
Linda
linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*********************************************
Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the
Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop
and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning
classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and
Word at Eclectic Academy.
http://www.eclecticacademy.com
She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at
Many local businesses and tech schools in her area.
Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's website
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com
and her ebook series, MS Word MAGIC!
Part I: Fonts, Fun & Formats
http://snurl.com/6sk
Part II: Table Wizardry
http://snurl.com/6sl
AND, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer:
http://snurl.com/6sd
*********************************************
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
AND DON'T MISS LINDA'S NEWEST EBOOK SERIES:
If you have been interested in taking any of Linda's
Online Classes but don't want to wait six weeks to
complete all the lessons or don't have the desire to be
part of an online classroom, why not
SKIP THE CLASS & BUY THE BOOK INSTEAD?
Check out the eBook .exe versions of all of Linda's
classes here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/library.htm
Only $15 each!! Where else can you master a software
Program for that price?
Separate eBook tutorials on Access, Excel, Outlook,
PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. Terrific value!!
OR BUY THEM ALL ON ONE CD Only $45.00!!
Order online or by regular mail
Details here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/cdtutorial.htm
Download the free Sample Version at CNET:
http://snurl.com/6sc
And PLEASE rate it there for me? Thanks!!
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(12.) ASK THE FLEET
~ Questions submitted by readers and answered by ABC's
Fleet of Writers
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
*********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA: First, let me apologize to anyone
who tried to submit a question this month and got a
"FrontPage Error". Evidently my FrontPage extensions on
my website had gotten corrupted and therefore my forms
were not working. I didn't realize this until someone
tried to send me the actual webpage and I replied asking
her why she was doing that. She replied and told me she
couldn't use the form becuz she got an error, so she just
sent me the whole page. Thanks to Cosma Ann Ballew
for bringing this to my attention. If anyone tried to send
a question and got this error, please try again. The
problem has been fixed. Thanks for your patience.
So, since we are a little light on questions this month,
I grabbed a few from my MSO support group and
included them here, along with the few I did receive
via ABC's form. :-)
*********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Mike:
I am not a computer programmer (though I have a little
knowledge, which I suppose makes me real dangerous),
but rather an intelligence analyst who works for U. S.
Marine Corps Forces, Atlantic. I have been teaching
myself Front Page using Front Page 2000 at work, and
FP 98 at home. For the most part I have been fairly
successful - and have built my organizations web page
(unfortunately it is not available in an unclassified
version - its on SIPRNET if you know the term). I have
ran into the preverbal brick wall (hurts when you do that)
with two problems. I have researched the help function
on both programs, and several books and papers I have,
but have not discovered an answer to these questions.
Problem 1: I want to use drop down menus to direct
users to other sites (URL's), and in doing so spawn a
newpage (_blank) for that site to appear on. Problem is
I cant seem to do it. I have no problem building the
drop down menu (I mean all you have to do is point and
click - cant get in any trouble there) Then using the F
orm Field Properties function, I set the hyperlinks - again
that doesn't represent much of a problem. However
when I enter target="_blank" A new page does not
spawn, and the user must use the back key to return
to the initial page.
I know that
<A HREF=http://www.example.htm target="_blank"
works, but not if you input it in Form Field Properties.
Question: How do I get a new page to spawn with a
given URL when I use the Form Field Properties function?
Problem 2: There are times when a given Site/URL is
down or the URL has been changed (and the web meister
hasn't redirected the URL.) When that happens - after
what seems to be an interminable time - the system
returns an error page (Cannot find server or DNS Error,
etc.).
Question: If it is determined (by the system) that the
site/url is not functional/available, is there a way to
redirect the resulting generation of a system error page
to one of my own design? Any help/direction you can
provide will be more than gratefully accepted.
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi Mike....you need to use specific javascript to get
dropdown links to open in a new window. Here's some
sample code to show you what you need...
<form method="post" action="" name=""> <select name="select15"
onChange="window.open(this.options[this.selectedIndex].value,'_blank')">
<option selected>Choose One</option>
<option>---------------------------------------------------</option>
<option value="http://www.yahoo.com";>Yahoo</option>
<option value="http://www.msn.com";>MSN</option>
</select>
</form>
I put it up on my test page so you can see it works...
go here:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/_test.htm
Now...as to your question about designing your own
error page... This only works for links that are bad
WITHIN your website ... You have no control over the
error that is generated when OTHER websites are down.
And, this can only be done IF your web host accepts
"custom 404 pages". If so, then you can design the page
any way you want and find out from your host, where you
need to put this page and what you need to name it...
in my case, my host, Hostway DOES support custom 404
pages and I just had to make my page and name it
"missing.html" becuz that's the one that Hostway
recognizes...and I had to put it in the root of my web and
EVERY subweb in order for it to work. The name and
location of the page may differ, depending on your
host's setup...and some hosts just don't allow this,
so you would have to check with them.
If you click on this, which points you to a page that does
not exist on my website, it will redirect you to the
custom 404 page I created, which is named missing.html
and located at the root of my web...try it:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/xxx.htm
Hope this helps you.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Beth Lee (in MSO):
I'm using Publisher 2002. I had found the Tools -->
Commercial Printing Tools --> Fonts path, but the Font
Substitution button is dimmed, even when I click on a
font to select it, and even when I've tried various
combinations of choices for embedding. Any ideas why
this is so?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
The Font Substitution button is only used when you want
to globally replace a font that is MISSING in your system
with one that you have...if the offending font you are
trying to get rid of is NOT missing, this won't work.
BUT...I discovered a little workaround (my specialty lol)
and it worked.
Here's what I did...I put some text in my Publisher
document and used a font called Felix Titling (yes, I
actually seem to have that font LOL) Then I went to my
Windows control panel and double clicked on my Fonts
folder...in there I grabbed my Felix Titling font with my
RIGHT mouse button and dragged it out of the Fonts
folder onto my desktop and chose "move here" (since the
fonts folder won't let you cut/paste like other folders)...
this moved it out of my fonts folder so Publisher now
saw it as a missing font....so, I went back into the
Publisher document and now the Font Substitution
button was lit up and I easily substituted it...then, when
I was done, I just dragged Felix Titling back into my fonts
folder. I know, I know .. it's weird...but it DID work.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Don (in MSO):
I was thinking that if my computer crashed at work I
would have to be put in an insane asylum. I have spent
a multitude of hours getting Excel as I want it. What files
should I back up. If you can lead me to a website that
explains such things that would be good also. I have a
personal.xls, which I assume I will be able to search out
on the hard drive. I have several custom toolbars and the
original toolbars are no longer "original". I would
appreciate information on any and all pertinent files that
are worth backing up for customization purposes,
including things like quick correct (if possible). If I lost
it, it would literally take months to reproduce.
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hmmm...let's see... If you have made templates, search
your hard drive for *.xlt and back up all of them And yes,
definitely back up personal.xls. Toolbar files have an xlb
extension, so search your hard drive for *.xlb and back
them up also. Autocorrect files have an acl extension so
search your hard drive for *.acl and back them up too.
And, if you have anything in your XLStart folder, you
might want to back that up also ... search your hard drive
for XLStart and back up the whole folder ... of course, if
you have shortcuts in there to launch addins when Excel
starts, you would also have to reinstall the addins if you
had to reinstall Excel. I *think* that about covers it.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Diane:
Please try and just bare with me, but what I am wanting
to do is learn how to Tag, and I am the type of person it
has to be Very Simple. Any Advice would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks alot
ANSWER from Cap'n Patt, our GeekSpeak Translator:
I was just sitting here reading the mail when your
question popped up and my first reaction was, Oh! Boy!
The reason being that I?d like to be able to tag too. I
can?t, probably never will. Let?s face it, I?m big on
definitions but not on what to do with the end result.
Since you say that you?d like to learn to ?TAG? you are
probably aware that a ?TAG? is a command inserted into
a document which dictates how a certain portion of that
document is to be formatted. The major obstacle seems
to be, first you must learn HTML (HyperText Markup
Language) which is used almost exclusively for laying out
web pages for the internet, or SGML (Standard
Generalized Markup Language) which lays down the rules
for tagging elements. It?s large and unwieldy and not
widely used on personal computers. In short, although
I may be wrong, and you?d be surprised how often I am,
it would appear that first you learn HTML and in the
process pick up the knowledge required to create and
insert a TAG in the document you are preparing. You
say it has to be ?Very Simple? it doesn?t sound that
way to me. Hope it does to you.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by dtrickman:
Tabs are not available in Word 2000. Will not allow tabs
to be selected and set. Question: How do you make
tabs availabe to set? When opening up the Word
program, this happens in all documents and when
opening a brand new blank document also. When I go
out of Word and reboot the computer they become
available temporarily. As I continue to work they start
this greying out again as I open different documents. It
seems as though there is a problem in the actual
toolbar or maybe the normal.dot template?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Yes..it sounds that way to me too, if it's happening in
all Word files....go here for my Word Troubleshooting
instructions and read the part about normal.dot.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/NNTWord.htm
However, if that doesn't fix it, then I would think your
Data key in your registry is corrupt, since the data key
is what controls everything in your toolbars and menus
...instructions for fixing that are here...
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/wordtoolbars.htm
Good luck
REPLY from dtrickman:
Thank you very much, I will try this. I appreciate your
website and have found many helpful tips! Keep up the
great work!
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Cosma Ann Ballew:
Can I freeze web pages that are open so they will stay
open all the time? When I open another webpage it
opens in "one" of my already open pages. I have several
that I want left alone and stay open, like when I am
doing an online virus scan.. Then I open something and
it chooses that page to use and I lose my scan.. kapish?
ANSWER from Renée Atkinson (Renée is a training
specialist for a hospital, training over 1500 people on
Microsoft Office and enterprise software. Renée's
philosophy for this job is "Staying in touch so you don't
have too..."):
When you hold down the shift key and click on the url,
it will open in a new window. Is this what you mean? Or
right click and choose "open in new window". I've not
tried it but I wonder if the options from any icon on your
desktop where it has windows open in different window
would work here? Not tried that!
ANSWER from Hal Cardona (Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth
http://pcsleuth.com serves as tech support and/or offsite
Sys Admin for over 200 clients around the US. He designs,
builds, and troubleshoots networks and builds custom
computer systems.):
To force Internet Explorer to use a new window when
clicking a link from outside Internet Explorer (like from
e-mail or your desktop): Go to Internet Options and on
the Advanced Tab uncheck "Reuse windows for launching
shortcuts". You can get to Internet Options by right
clicking on Internet Explorer in the Start Menu, From
the Control Panel or while inside Internet Explorer, drop
down Tools and select Internet Options. This won't work
for links inside Internet Explorer, for links inside Internet
Explorer right click on the link and select Open in New
Window.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Michael@AOL:
In Excel, I want to find the total # of hours between
Mon 9:00am and Wed 3:00pm. I cant find a way. Can
you explain how to get Excel to tell me the total # of
hours difference ?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi Michael. You need to use a combination of date/time
formats to do this and you must use dates, not days.
Here's a simple example:
Open a new blank sheet and try this, so you can see
how it works
Highlight cells A1 and B1 and go to the Format menu and
choose Cells. Click on the Number tab and choose Date
from the list on the left, then choose the format that
says 3/14/01 1:30 PM from the list on the right....
OK your way out
In A1, type this, EXACTLY as I show it here, using
correct spacing, etc.:
10/3 9:00 am
See that Excel changes it to 10/3/03 9:00 AM (if Excel
doesn't change it to that, you didn't type it correctly, so
type it again)
In B1, type this
10/05 3:00 pm
Excel changes it to 10/5/03 3:00 PM
In C1, type this:
=B1-A1
Excel will give you some incorrect time, so highlight C1
and go back to Format>Cells. This time choose Custom
from the list on the left. Then in the small white box at
the top right, type this
[hh]
Now you should get 54, which is the number of hours
between Monday at 9am and Wednesday at 3pm
If you want hours and minutes, use this custom format
instead:
[hh]:mm
If you also want seconds, use this one:
[hh]:mm:ss
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by dweiner:
In PowerPoint 97, can I animate the bullets so that each
bullet changes color after it animates. I know that I can
do this in 2000 if I choose custom animation, effects,
after animation and then choose a color. When I do the
very same thing in 97, nothing happens.
ANSWER from Kathy Jacobs (Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft
PowerPoint MVP. Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com Cook anything
outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com Kathy is a
trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever else
there is time for.):
In PowerPoint 97, the exact process is:
Slide Show --> Custom Animation
On the Effects tab, select an entry animation (I chose
"appear"). When this is selected, "After Animation"
becomes available. In that drop down, either select a
color from the 8 sample squares or click "More Colors"
and pick a more custom color. (The eight squares are
the colors for the color scheme.)
Next, on the left side of the Effects tab, make sure that
"Grouped by" is checked and that the paragraph level is
set. You can even set the reverse order and it works.
Finally, click OK to close the window.
Test it and it should work. No matter what I set for
entry animation, the color change works. I am not sure
what you might be doing wrong.
REPLY from dweiner:
Thanks for getting back to me. I figured out my problem.
I followed your directions and it worked as long as I did
not start animation automatically. Evidently, this type
of animation requires a mouse click. I can not seem to
find a way around this. Your help was greatly appreciated.
ANSWER from Kathy Jacobs:
You are right. The color changes in PPT 97 only work on
next mouse click, not with animated entrances. They
work the way you expect in 2000 and later. I did a quick
check of the MS site and found that there is a relevant
KB article (number 189554):
http://snurl.com/2w0d
I don't think there is a PowerPoint 97 fix for this. You
are going to have to live with it or upgrade.
REPLY from dweiner:
Thanks again. I have 2000 at home but 97 at work and
upgrading is not my decision but I will pass this along.
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Thanks to all who submitted questions this month. If you
submitted a question and did not get an answer, and the
problem still persists, try going here and submitting it again.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/ask.htm
Just remember that we cannot guarantee that we will answer
every question, though I think the Fleet did a bang-up job
this month! Thanks to all of the Fleet for your expert advice
and your valuable time :-)
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Well, gang.....that's about it for this edition of
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers. I sure hope you enjoyed it!
If any of it was over your head and you need some
clarification from one of the Fleet, just send me an
email to linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I will
pass it on to them. Remember that they do this in their
spare time on a voluntary basis, so you might have to
wait for an answer. To make all things work more
quickly, include as many details as you can in your
email and make your questions as specific as possible.
Also, feel free to write to me and let us know what you
want the Fleet to teach you. This is YOUR newsletter!
Happy computing, my friends!
Linda Johnson
http://personal-computer-tutor.com
*********************************************
READ THIS CAREFULLY!
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http://personal-computer-tutor.com
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Other related posts:
- » [abcomputers] ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers, Vol. 30: PowerPoint 2003 and reviews of fun stuff!
