[abcomputers] ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers, Vol. 32: Happy New Year

  • From: "Linda F. Johnson" <linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "ABCfreelists" <abcomputers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2004 15:48:04 -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
______________________________________________________
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
Volume 32; December, 2004 - mailed to 4927 subscribers

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ANOTHER ABC SPECIAL:
Exclusive Offer ONLY for ABC Visitors
$10 off any FrontLook Product over $25!
Sale good until Jan 31st 2004 
Discounts applied on checkout page
See below for details or click here:
http://www.frontlook.com/?ref=abc&promoid=P10QJANAFF
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Please rate this Ezine at the Cumuli Ezine Finder
http://snurl.com/6si

ABC is also listed at FreeTechMail. Please rate it there too:
http://snipurl.com/3egc

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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/abc4/v32/vol32.htm
(no frames)

or, scroll down to the Contents where you can click on 
over to any individual article 

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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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You are receiving this newsletter because you (or 
someone using your email address) subscribed to it 
voluntarily.  If you would like to remove yourself from 
ABC, please see SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT at the 
bottom of this newsletter. 

Using the "Reply" function will not unsubscribe you!

My subscriber list is NOT made available to other 
companies or individuals. I value every subscriber and 
respect your privacy.

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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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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
*********************************************
FLASH!!  CLASSES BEGAN THIS WEEK, BUT YOU CAN 
STILL ENROLL UP UNTIL SUNDAY NIGHT, 
JAN. 10 AT MIDNIGHT
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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THIS MONTHS' FEATURED SPONSOR:
*********************************************
     @@@@@@@@@@
      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/abc4/v32/vol32.htm#HowTo

2.  GeekSpeak Translation from the Cap'n 
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
 ~ by Patt Meara

3.   Stuff from Linda 
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/linda32.htm

<><><>ABC HUMOR CONTEST ... Win a FREE Keyboard!!

<><><>Important Info On Norton AV and Recent 
                  Computer/Word/Excel Problems

<><><>Making Online Photo Albums ***
             ... with a little help from my friends
             ... and a FREE screensaver I made for you!
 
<><><>Special FrontLook Sale ONLY for ABC Readers!

<><><>A Tip For Those Who Used the FrontPage 2003 
Beta or Any Other Version of FrontPage Before the Final 
2003 Version
 
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE:

4.  Hey Dude, Where's My Productivity Gain?
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/ray32a.htm
How the PC has failed to revolutionise business in a way 
our parents might have hoped

~ by Ray Blake

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TIPS & TUTORIALS
 
5.  Trigger Happy Animations in PowerPoint ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/kath32a.htm
~ by Kathryn Jacobs

6.  Points of View in FrontPage - Reports, PART TWO
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/tina32.htm
~ by Tina Clarke

7. Set "Search Hidden Files and Folders" As Default in 
Windows XP
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/vic32.htm
~ by Vic Ferri

8.  Finding the Last Cell In an Excel Range ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/ray32b.htm
~ by Ray Blake

9.   Why Should I Scan My Outgoing Mail for Viruses?
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/mike32.htm
~ by Mike Baynes

10. Resolving To Get Organized in 2004? Let OneNote Help ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/kath32b.htm
 ~ by Kathryn Jacobs

11. DLLs, Explained
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/jas32.htm
~ by Jasmine

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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/abc4/v32/ask32.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/abc4/v32/vol32.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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Computer Help Central Presents...
A BRAND NEW RESOURCE: 

Does your computer "scare you" at times? 
Are you tired of not getting answers to your computer 
questions? 

Don't worry, Mad Mick can teach you 
"How to Solve All Your Computer Problems...
Fast & Forever...Even if You're Brand New to Computers
And Think You'll Never Learn Them" 

He'll Answer Every Single Computer Question You'll Ever 
Have - BEFORE You Even Ask!
(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).  STUFF FROM LINDA 
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ABC IS HAVING ANOTHER CONTEST!  

And this one doesn't require any skill.  This one is fun!!

I'm a collector of funny computer stuff ... web pages, 
cartoons, jokes, etc.  And some ABC members have 
contributed some of their favorite computer humor to 
us over the years.  You can see some of it here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/chillin_out.htm 

My friend Oren Kramer at Ideazon Keyboards graciously 
offered us a free Internet keyboard as a prize, so I 
figured I'd kill two birds with one stone ... give my 
readers a chance to get a free keyboard, and increase 
the contents of our humor collection :-)

So, here's the instructions and rules:

* Use the link in the online version of this article to send 
me your favorite computer-related humor.  You must 
send it by clicking on this link. 
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/linda32.htm

* Your contribution can be a URL to a funny computer 
page, a cartoon or picture attached to the email (please 
do NOT embed the picture inside the email, you MUST 
send it as an attachment), or simply a joke ... but it 
MUST be computer-related and it MUST be something 
I can post on my website, so nothing adult-rated, please.  
If you send me a cartoon or joke from a website, you 
MUST include the URL where you got it, so I can credit 
the site. 

* You must send it to me from the email address you 
used to subscribe to ABC.  Anything received from 
addresses not subscribed to ABC will not be eligible 
to win. 

* I will accept entries until midnight on Wednesday, 
February 4th ... however, in the case of duplicate 
entries, the winner will be determined by the one 
I receive first, so I'd recommend you send it SOON 

* You can send me as many as you want.  But please, 
only send me one copy of each, and if you make 
multiple submissions, each one must be in a separate 
email. 

* The winner will be the one who makes me laugh the 
hardest ... so make it funny and look for something you 
think I may not have seen before. 

* Once I've chosen the winner, I will send that person 
an email telling them they have won.  They MUST reply 
to me within 24 hours in order to get the prize.  If I 
don't hear from them in 24 hours, I will send an email 
to the next person in line.  I will continue to do this 
until I get a reply.  So, check your email regularly from 
February 4th on, so you don't miss my email (and check 
them spam filters too, in case my email gets caught 
there). 

* Once I get a reply, I will send the winner an email, 
with a copy to Oren Kramer at Ideazon and he will mail 
the winner their keyboard. 

* And here's the prize you will win:
Zboard (custom keyboard) starter system 
http://webstore.ideazon.com/banner_img/?click-1067228903-1062717434

(Unfortunately that link may wrap. SnipURL is down for 
maintenance this weekend to improve their server speed, 
so I could not snip any new links in this newsletter.  If 
you can't get this link to work, go to the online version 
of this article and click from there)

Don't miss out on this one.  What have you got to lose?

NOTE:  Whether you win or not, I will be including many 
of the submissions on ABC's humor page, with credit 
given to the submitter.
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Info for Norton AV users:

All of a sudden yesterday, my computer started slowing 
down drastically.  My right-click menus took FOREVER to 
appear, Word and Excel were launching VERY slowly, web 
surfing was at a crawl, I couldn't publish from FrontPage 
AT ALL cuz it kept timing out on me, and my computer 
was just generally running very sluggishly.  I did all the 
regular troubleshooting on this - ran Ad-aware and 
Spybot to remove spyware, did a defrag of all my drives, 
scanned for viruses and trojans, deleted temp files, and 
rebooted about six times - but nothing helped.  And this 
was happening on ALL of my computers!  I was at a loss.  
Then I started seeing posts from people in a few tech 
groups that were having similar problems.  I also saw 
posts from people who said if they opened Word while 
they were connected to the Internet, Word kept trying to 
run virus scans ... and that's when I realized the common 
thread here in all the posts I saw was that we were all 
using Norton AV, so I went off to the Symantec website 
searching for a clue and, sure enough, I found it.  It 
seems there's a problem with the AV definition files we 
all downloaded on Jan. 7th.  Norton is aware of the 
problem and the solution is to update the Verisign 
certificate in your computer or go into Internet Explorer 
and click on the Tools menu and click on Internet Options.  
From there, go to the Advanced tab and scroll down to 
the Security section and remove the check from the box 
that says "Check for publisher's certification revocation".  
I figured what the heck, I'd try it and BINGO...my 
computer was running perfectly again.  So, I posted the 
link to the others who were having similar problems 
and every one of them replied that this fixed their 
problems too; even one poster who was having a 
different problem (Word templates wouldn't open) said 
this fixed her problem too.  So, I would recommend, if 
you have seen any weird changes in your system or 
Office performance in the last couple days, that you 
try this too.

Here's the full instructions from Norton:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2004010810205113

(Unfortunately that link may wrap. SnipURL is down for 
maintenance this weekend to improve their server speed, 
so I could not snip any new links in this newsletter.  If 
you can't get this link to work, go to the online version 
of this article and click from there)
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OK.. this time the friends that helped me aren't human.  
I decided to crawl the net and find pictures of pets to use 
for my latest review.  What I'm reviewing this month is a 
great little program from SWISH called SWISHpix.  If you 
are like me and have lots of photos on your computer 
that you want to share with friends via the net, this is 
a handy program that makes photo albums that you can 
save as a webpage flash/html file, or as an exe file and 
a CD rom, or even as a screen saver.  It's really easy to 
use and lets you add little callout bubbles to the pictures, 
select a background theme (or make your own), and add 
music.  I had a lot of fun creating this one with various 
pet pictures.  It supports most image file types and 
sound types.  If you want to see what I did with it, with 
a little help from "my friends",  you can go here:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/swpx/pets.html

(Unfortunately that link may wrap. SnipURL is down for 
maintenance this weekend to improve their server speed, 
so I could not snip any new links in this newsletter.  If 
you can't get this link to work, go to the online version 
of this article and click from there)

It may load a little slowly for some, cuz I just HAD to 
include music from my favorite singer, Joe Cocker.  But, 
let it load, then click on the "View Album" button, and 
sit back and enjoy Joe and the "kids".  There are buttons 
to move from slide to slide, but it's not necessary ... 
you can just watch it and let it advance automatically.

I also used SWISHpix to make a screensaver from this 
file that you can download for free here.  Just download 
the zip file and extract the ABCpets scr file to the location 
in your operating system where screensavers are stored 
(search your hard drive for *.scr and you will see where 
that is).  Then go into your display properties>Screensaver 
tab and choose ABC Pets from the dropdown choices.  Enjoy!
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/dl/ABCpets.zip 

SWISH has this software on sale for the month of January, 
so you can get it for just $19.95, so I'd recommend you go 
check it out now.  I think you will have as much fun with it 
as I am. There's a free 15-day trial download too:
http://www.swishzone.com/index.php?area=products&product=pix
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SPECIAL FOR ABC READERS:

**********
NOTE FROM LINDA: I am a real fan of FrontLook's products.  
See my reviews here:

FrontLook Addins:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/flrev/

FrontLook Screen Capture:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/scrncap.htm
**********

Exclusive Offer for ABC Visitors
$10 off any FrontLook Product over $25!

Have you been thinking about buying a FrontLook 
product to enhance your FrontPage web site? 
Well now is the time! 

During the month of January, you can click on the link 
below to save $10 off any FrontLook Product over $25! 
This is an exclusive offer for ABC site patrons, so you 
won't find this offer on the FrontLook.com web site.

Click below to buy your favorite FrontLook product for 
$10 Off:
http://www.frontlook.com/?ref=abc&promoid=P10QJANAFF

*Sale good until Jan 31st 2004 
- Discounts applied on checkout page.
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Here's a tip I got from FrontLook's newsletter...

In the final release of FrontPage 2003, Microsoft moved 
the "Themes", "Pages" and "Webs" folders to the 
"Themes11", "Pages11" and "Webs11" folders, 
respectively.  If you installed any third party themes, 
page templates or web templates while using the beta 
or an earlier version of FrontPage, you may not see them.  
However, you still have them and can make them 
available by doing this: 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Go to the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft 
Shared\Themes folder.  Then copy all the theme folders 
into the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft 
Shared\Themes11 folder.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Now the Web Folders: Go to the C:\Program Files\
Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Webs folder.Then 
copy all the theme folders into the C:\Program Files\
Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Webs11 folder.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Now the Pages Folders: Go to the C:\Program Files\
Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Pages folder.  Then 
copy all the theme folders into the C:\Program Files\
Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Pages11 folder.
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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
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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!!
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             *****THIS MONTH'S FEATURE*****
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(4.)  HEY DUDE, WHERE'S MY PRODUCTIVITY GAIN?
How the PC has failed to revolutionise business in a way 
our parents might have hoped

~ by Ray Blake, GR Business Process Solutions

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NOTE FROM LINDA:  I'm sure you readers have been 
enjoying Ray's regular contributions to ABC.  Well, I 
finally got around to inviting him to be a member of 
the Fleet and now you can learn more about him by 
clicking here.  
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/ray_blake.htm

Please join me in welcoming him to our regular staff!
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This is the computer age. With a PC on every desk and 
immense computing power available to all, we are more 
productive than ever before. We can accomplish in a 
few hours more than the last generation were able to 
in a month. Can't we?

Well, actually, no. Repeated research shows the 
uncomfortable fact that we are no more productive now 
than we were in the 1950s, when the average desk was 
graced not by a PC, but often by a blotter and inkwell. 
How can this be? We are so used to the boon of 
personal computing power, many of us would feel 
powerless without a PC; in a very real sense, many 
jobs are just not possible any more without use of a 
computer. This dependence is a price worth paying 
provided the payoff is more productivity, more profit, 
more leisure time or less stress, but it seems that 
none of these have typically arisen from 
computerisation over the last 50 years.

Why not? Here's my take on the issue: we're all 
spending more time and effort on presentation. Just 
think about how a 1950s manager would have written 
a report. He (because it would always have been a he) 
would have written it out longhand or dictated it, and 
his secretary would have quickly and efficiently typed it. 
She (because it would always have been a she) would 
have typed at an extremely fast rate, certainly 80 wpm 
or more, and would have had no choice over fonts, text 
size and the like. The options would have been confined 
almost solely to use of the shift key. Layout would be 
automatic, of course. Assuming there were no typing 
errors, the job would be finished once the last word 
was typed. There would be no repagination, no 
tweaking of styles, no endless changing of heading 
levels. Furthermore, the manager would have used 
all this typing time doing something else. 

Compare that experience to today's manager's approach; 
equipped with Microsoft Word, but probably not with a 
secretary, he or she types himself or herself, probably 
at considerably less than 80 wpm and then spends the 
same time again, or possibly more, on tinkering with 
the formatting. A more enlightened outlook on sexual 
equality is widespread, but business efficiently 
certainly isn?t.

And here's another example. There was a time when 
budgets and accounts were only handled by specialists 
with paper ledgers and poor social skills. But now that 
every manager has Microsoft Excel, he or she takes on 
these tasks him or herself. Not only could a specialist 
accountant do the work in a fraction of the time, but 
Excel also has extensive formatting and layout tools, 
the great 21st century thief of time!

And we haven't even touched on programming yet. 
If it were a crime to spend 8 hours writing a program 
which over the course of a decade might save 30 
minutes or so, then I would inevitably be labelled a 
serial offender, as would most of my social circle.

What will define our progress this century ? if we?re l
ucky ? is the definition of a new working relationship 
with the PC and a return to specialism in business. 
Maybe then we'll finally start enjoying the long-
awaited computer productivity boom.
**********************************************
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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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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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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TIPS AND TUTORIALS
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(5.)  TRIGGER HAPPY ANIMATIONS IN POWERPOINT
~~Kathryn Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains pictures and is 
clearer if read online here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/kath32a.htm
**********************************************

Need to make content appear, change or disappear out 
of order? Need to control the order that things appear 
while in front of your audience? Playing games? You 
need to play with PowerPoint?s Triggers option for 
custom animations. Added with PowerPoint 2002, 
this option allows you to control animations via 
mouse clicks as well as along a time line. 

What can be triggered?

Any animation or effect can be triggered. This includes 
the activation of a sound or a movie as well as the 
appearance, disappearance, and change of any slide 
element.

Trigger example

For our example, we are going to create a slide with a 
series of photos that appear when text boxes are clicked. 
We know that some of the users know what the items 
are already, but we want to make sure they have a 
chance to see each item anyway.

When we click a box to reveal a picture, we want the 
picture to appear. We then want the picture to 
disappear when the next text box is clicked. The 
basic steps we are going to do are:

* Add the pictures. 
* Animate each picture to appear on mouse click and 
disappear on the next mouse click. 
* Add the text boxes with the name of each pictured 
item. 
* Change the entrance animation for each picture to 
be triggered. 

Add pictures

The first step is to add 6 pictures to the slide, using 
Insert> Pictures> From file. Multi-select three of  
the pictures and move them to the right side of the 
slide. Multi-select the other three and move them to 
the left. Once they are in the correct area of the slide, 
stack them one on top of each other. Once all the 
pictures were inserted, you can see in the online 
version of this article, how my slide looked. 

Animate each picture

To animate the pictures, select all the pictures and 
bring up the custom animation pane (Right click, Custom 
Animation or Slide Show>Custom Animation). From the 
Add Effect Menu, do an Entrance> Appear. This adds the 
?Appear? animation to all of the pictures. While the 
pictures are still selected, do Add Effect> Exit> 
Disappear. Your animation pane should look somewhat 
like the one I show in the online version of this article.

Notice that all of the entrance effects (the green stars) 
are set up to happen on the same mouse click and all 
of the exit animations (the red stars) also set for the 
same mouse click. What?s more, all of the entrances 
will happen at once and all of the exits will happen at 
once. We don?t want this, so we need to rearrange the 
animations so that the order is Entrance, Exit, Entrance, 
Exit, etc. To do this, click on the first exit animation 
and use the re-order buttons on the bottom of the 
Custom Animation pane to move it up the list until it 
is just under the matching entrance animation. (You 
can also click and drag the animation if you find that 
easier.) Repeat this for each exit animation and your 
list will now look like mine, in the online version of 
this article.

We are getting there, but we still have a problem: 
The pairs need to enter and exit on consecutive mouse 
clicks, not all on the same mouse click. To do this, click 
the third animation and change the ?Start? drop down 
to ?On Click.? (You can also do this from the right click 
menu.) Once you have done this for each animation, 
your list will look like mine, in the online version of 
this article.

Add Text Boxes

You are now ready to add the text boxes which, when 
clicked, will cause the pictures to appear. Add one box 
for each picture, and add text to each that contains the 
name of the item in the picture.) When you are done, 
arrange the boxes around the slide. Your slide should 
look something like mine, in the online version of this 
article.

In case you are wondering, the blue boxes with the 
numbers in them match items in the animation list. 
They show which animations are going to happen to 
which pictures. 

Set up the triggers

We are now ready to change the entrance effect for 
each picture to happen on a trigger instead of on a 
general mouse click. To start the process, select the 
first pair of animations.  Right click on the first entrance 
animation and bring up the timing options. (Find it by 
right clicking the animation and selecting ?Timing?.) 
When the tab is visible, click the ?Triggers? button to 
show the options for your trigger.  

Change the radio button from ?Animate as part of click 
sequence? to ?Start effect on click of:?  Clicking the drop 
down list will show a series of shape names. The first 
ones will be your pictures, then will come your title. 
Then, finally will come a series of rectangles named 
Rectangle #:Text, where # is the number of the 
rectangle and ?Text? is the text on the rectangle. 

Select the drop down item that matches the picture 
you have selected and click Okay. Notice that your 
animation has moved to the bottom of your list.

Move the animation entry for the picture?s exit 
animation to just after the entrance animation. 
Your whole list should now look like mine, in the 
online version of this article.

Notice that you now have two animations that have 
the number one and two more that are numbered two. 
Each time the numbering starts over, you have started 
a new timeline, triggered by a new event. 

Now that your first trigger is set up use the same steps 
to set up the triggers for the remaining pictures.  

When you have set up each trigger, the blue boxes for 
the picture have changed from holding numbers to 
holding pointing hands. This shows you that the picture 
is animated by the click of another object instead of 
during the main time line. 

Running the triggered slide

To activate each trigger, you must be showing (not 
editing) the presentation. Start the show. Notice that 
all you see are the master slide elements, the title and 
the boxes. Click a box and a picture should appear. 
Click the box again and the picture will disappear. Click 
off the box and your presentation will advance to the 
next slide. 

Notice a slight problem? If you followed my directions 
exactly, all of the pictures come up behind the boxes on 
the right side. To fix this, multi-select the six boxes and 
do a send to back. Run the slide again and everything 
should be right. 

If you are setting this up as a stand-alone presentation, 
you will need to tell your viewers what to do to make the 
pictures appear. Add a simple text box at the bottom 
of your slide that reads ?Click a box to see a picture? 
and you are all set. 
**********************************************
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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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(6.)  POINTS OF VIEW IN FRONTPAGE - REPORTS
PART TWO
~~Tina Clarke, AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

Part One of this article can be seen here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v31/tina31.htm 

Printing Reports (in FrontPage 2002)

In FrontPage 2000, you cannot print reports. See this 
tutorial to learn how to get around that.  
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc1/v2/vol2.htm#tina 

After generating a report, you can save or copy and 
paste the data into other Office programs. This feature 
does not work with ?Site summary? Reports nor with 
?Usage Summary? Reports. ?  See Part One of this 
article for an add-on that will print the site summary. 

First, select the report you want to run (i.e.:  you have 
to enter that section - for example, click on ?Broken 
Hyperlinks?) then go to File | Save and choose the 
location where you want to save the file. You can 
accept the default names for the file name and page 
title, or select new ones. 

 To change the file name, type a new name in the File 
name box. 
 
 To change the page title, click Change title and type 
the new page title. 
 
 Click Save. 

NOTE: The report is saved in Microsoft Excel HTML format. 
To view the report in Excel, double-click the file in any 
view except Tasks view. (You must have Excel installed 
or there is a free reader available at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4EB83149-91DA-4110-
8595-4A960D3E1C7C&displaylang=EN

(Unfortunately that link may wrap. SnipURL is down for 
maintenance this weekend to improve their server speed, 
so I could not snip any new links in this newsletter.  If 
you can't get this link to work, go to the online version 
of this article and click from there)

The Microsoft Excel 97/2000 Viewer is recommended for 
use with a stand-alone computer that does not have 
Microsoft Excel installed. This product allows the user to 
open and view Excel 97 and Excel 2000 spreadsheet files. 
The viewer is not suitable for use on a server.

NOTE:  While this viewer is called the Microsoft Excel 97 
Viewer, it is important to understand that you are not 
limited to only viewing Excel 97 spreadsheets.

Or 

After making your report selection as outlined above, 
right-click anywhere in the report and then click ?Copy 
Report? on the context menu. You can then copy the 
report to any program including a FrontPage Page file 
and the results appear in a table.

However, the files are not clickable, but there is a FREE 
FrontPage add-on that can produce a printable report 
with clickable links to the graphic and htm files.

FrontFX PrintWeb, by XZAKT Media
http://www.xzmedia.com/frontfx/fpapweb.asp 

You can produce a customised printable report of all 
the files, folders and sub webs within the current web.  

 Scan and report on Subwebs  
 List only certain file types  
 Select only the information you want to know. 
(Filesize, title, name, last modified date, author etc)  

Broken Graphics Report

Have you ever wanted to check all the images in your 
FrontPage web to ensure that there are no broken 
images? FrontPage can?t do this but the FREE FrontPage 
addin FrontFX ET Image Reporter (created through 
ideas, thanks to Ernie Taylor and AnyFrontPage Bytes 
EZine) will do just that! 
http://www.xzmedia.com/frontfx/fpaimreport.asp 

 Easy to Use!  

Just click the report and let the software start 
processing all the pages in your web for you.

 Save Headaches! 

With a simple to read report with affected pages and 
images listed, there will be no more headaches having 
to check each and every page manually for missing 
images.

 Add To "ToDo" Tasks!   

For disk based webs, the FrontFX ET Image Reporter 
can add all affected pages/images to your Task list of 
things to do!

Customise views in reports

 To sort reports by a specific column, click the column 
heading. 
 To move columns around, click and hold the column 
heading, and then drag it to where you want. 
 To change the width of a column, place the cursor 
between the column headings until the cursor changes 
to a double arrow, then click and drag the column to 
the width you want. 
 Show or hide gridlines in reports, on the ?Tools? menu, 
click ?Options?, and then click the ?Reports View? tab.  
Select or clear the ?Display gridlines when viewing 
reports? check box. 

Troubleshoot reports

Why are some images or other files in my web site 
not represented in my web site reports?

The Site Summary report displays the size, in kilobytes, 
of all the files in your web site. If your web site contains 
files located in hidden folders, those files will not be 
included in this report.  To include files in hidden folders 
in your reports: 

 On the Tools menu, click Web Settings, then click the 
Advanced tab. 
 
 Select the Show hidden files and folders check box. 

Use AutoFilter with Web Site Reports

AutoFilter is the way you view a subset of data in 
Reports view. A filtered list displays only the report data 
that meets the criteria you specify for a column. It is 
available for all reports except the ?Site Summary? report.

 On the View menu, point to Reports, and then select 
the report you want to run.
 
 Do one or more of the following:

 Filter a list by choosing an item from the drop-down 
list
 
 Click the arrow in the column that contains the item 
you want, and select it. 

NOTE: You can use multiple filters in one report by 
choosing values in different columns. For example, you 
can choose htm in the Type column, and 5KB in the size 
column to show all HTML files of 5KB. 

Filter a list for rows that contain customised information 

This procedure enables you to filter a list for the 
following customised information: 

 Rows that contain specific text  
 Items greater than or less than another item  
 Items containing or not containing specific data  
 The beginning or end of a text string  

Click the arrow in the column that contains the text, 
and click (Custom). In the box on the left, click equals, 
or does not equal, contains, or does not contain, begins 
with, or does not begin with, and so on.  In the box on 
the right, enter the text you want. To add another 
criteria, click And or Or, and repeat the previous step. 

 Filter for blank or nonblank cells 

Click the arrow in the column that contains the data 
then click (Blanks) or (NonBlanks).

NOTE: The (Blanks) and (NonBlanks) options are 
available only if the column you want to filter contains 
a blank cell

Remove filters

 To clear filters from a single column, click the arrow 
in the column that contains the filter you want to remove, 
and click (All).  
 To clear filters for the entire report, right-click anywhere 
on the report, and click Remove Filters on the shortcut 
menu.  

NOTE: The filter settings are saved when you close the 
Web site, or when you close FrontPage.

This article gives a more in-depth discussion on the AutoFilter:
http://www.solution-shelf.com/FrontPage/Tips/ReportTips.htm 
********************************************
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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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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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

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(7.)  SET "SEARCH HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS" AS 
DEFAULT IN WINDOWS XP
~~Vic Ferri, WinTips and Tricks
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

Normally, in Windows XP Pro, if you use the Search and 
set the Advanced Options to search for hidden files and 
folders, Windows will remember the setting and keep it 
as your default until you change it again. However, this 
may not always work. If you find that XP does not 
remember your search preferences, here is a simple reg 
edit that will allow you to set your preferences to default. 

1. Click Start>Run and type regedit.  This will open up 
the Registry Editor.
2. Use the plus signs to make your way to this key 
(keys are those yellow folder looking icons in the left 
pane):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer

3. Double click the Explorer key and look in the right 
hand pane for the following values:

 CaseSensitive 
 IncludeSubFolders 
 SearchHidden 
 SearchSlowFiles 
 SearchSystemDirs 

The above values are the advanced search options you 
set when you click "More Advanced Options" in Windows 
XP Search (Start>Search>For Files Or Folders>All Files 
and Folders>More Advanced Options) The options 
represented by the values are obvious by their names 
except maybe for "SearchSlowFiles" which represents 
the "Search tape backup" option.

You will notice that each value has a setting of 0 or 1. 
1 selects the option, 0 deselects it.  To make any value 
the default, simply double click it and enter a value of 
1.  Therefore, to make Search for Hidden files and 
folders the default, you would set a value of 1 to 
SearchHidden and SearchSystemDirs. You'll probably 
also want to make IncludeSubFolders the default if 
you find Windows doesn't remember that option either.

If the above values do not exist, you may try creating 
them.  To create any value, right click an empty area in 
the right hand pane, choose New>DWORD Value and 
name it with the value you wish to add. Then double 
click your new value and enter 1 as the Data Value.

Reboot or log off and log in again for the changes to 
take effect.

If you find that the default values you set do not stick 
- that Windows reverts back to the preset values each 
time you reboot - then here's a workaround to ensure 
the values do stick. Create a reg file with the values 
set to your preferences and place it in your Start Up 
folder. This way, each time you reboot the search 
values will be reset to your preferences.To help make 
it easier for the novice, here is a reg file you can 
create by copying and pasting the following lines into 
a new Notepad document and saving it with a .reg 
extension, i.e.: search.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"SearchSystemDirs"=dword:00000001
"SearchHidden"=dword:00000001
"IncludeSubFolders"=dword:00000001
"CaseSensitive"=dword:00000000
"SearchSlowFiles"=dword:00000000

Notice that to set your preferred values, all you need to 
do is change the last digit of the dword entry to 1 or 0.  
Again, 1 to enable, 0 to disable. Example 
dword:00000001 enables. dword:00000000 disables.  
Once you have the settings set to what you want, 
then save the file to a reg file and place it in your 
Startup Folder.  The above sample reg code, if you 
notice, is set to search system and hidden folders 
including subfolders.  Case sensitive and search tape 
drives are deselected.
********************************************
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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**************STATION BREAK*****************
^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

Are you like me and unable to remember all the keyboard 
shortcuts in every program?  Now that I'm becoming a 
better typist, I prefer to use my keyboard more and my 
mouse less, but my memory stinks so I'm always 
forgetting which keyboard shortcuts do what.  My solution 
was to buy the custom keyboard sets from Ideazon.  
Now, I'm no longer lost when I switch from program to 
program and need to use different keys.  And it only 
takes seconds to switch from one keyset to another.  

If this interests you, read my review of the Excel 
Keyboard here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v30/zboard.htm

And check out all the other cool keyboards available for 
other programs, games, the Internet, etc.  This is 
something that gets two thumbs up from ABC!!

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(8.)  FINDING THE LAST CELL IN AN EXCEL RANGE
~~Ray Blake, GR Business Process Solutions
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains pictures and 
tables, as well as a long formula which will wrap in 
email, and is clearer if read online here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/ray32b.htm
**********************************************

Using built in Excel functions to locate the last cell 
containing data in a range of cells.  

There are all sorts of times in Excel when you will need 
to find the last cell in a range. For instance, in using a 
dynamic range name, it is vital to be able to detect 
which cells actually contain data. This article will 
explain and evaluate the different approaches.

Let?s use the data shown in the online version of this 
article as our starting point. 

The first approach is based on the COUNTA function. 
This simply returns the number of cells in a given 
range containing alphanumeric information. You might 
find it useful to recreate this table on a worksheet of 
your own.

Over to the right (i.e. NOT in columns A, B or C), find 
an empty cell, and enter the following formula:

=COUNTA(A:A)

This will return the number 5, because there are five 
cells in column A containing alphanumeric data. 
Because this data starts at Row 1, it ends at Row 5.

In the same way, you can use this on numerical 
information. In a differnect cell, enter:

=COUNTA(B:B)

This will return 10, representing the text header in 
column B plus the nine numerical values which are 
also in that column. Note that one of them is a zero, 
but this is still caught by COUNTA. Only a blank cell 
will not be caught. So the last data here is in Row 10.

But when we try to do the same with column C, we run 
into a problem. Try this formula:

=COUNTA(C:C)

This formula returns 7, although the data continues down 
to Row 8. The problem is, of course, that blank cell in C5. 
And here we find the limitation of the COUNTA method. 
If you suspect your list of values might contain blanks, 
you should avoid it, because it will tell you how many 
cells contain data, but not necessarily the location of 
the last one that does.

Let?s instead look at a different approach, based on 
the MATCH function. MATCH is used normally to find 
the position of a value within a given range.

To try this out, in an empty cell on your sheet, type in:

=MATCH("Drew",A:A)

This returns the number 4, because the 4th cell in the 
range contains the value ?Drew?. Change the formula 
now, though, to this:

=MATCH("Charlie",A:A)

I?ll bet you were expecting this formula to return 5, 
because Charlie is in the 5th cell in the range. But it 
actually returns 3. What?s going on?

The answer is because the MATCH function has an 
optional third argument. In full, the format for this 
command is:

MATCH(lookup_value,lookup_array,match_type)

Of course, ?lookup_value? is what we want to find, 
and ?lookup_array? is the range in which we want to 
look. Both these arguments are needed in any MATCH 
formula. But what of the third argument? Here?s what 
Office Help has to say:

Match_type is the number -1, 0, or 1. Match_type 
specifies how Microsoft Excel matches lookup_value 
with values in lookup_array. 

  If match_type is 1, MATCH finds the largest value that 
is less than or equal to lookup_value. Lookup_array must 
be placed in ascending order: ...-2, -1, 0, 1, 2, ..., A-Z, 
FALSE, TRUE. 
  If match_type is 0, MATCH finds the first value that is 
exactly equal to lookup_value. Lookup_array can be in 
any order. 
  If match_type is -1, MATCH finds the smallest value 
that is greater than or equal to lookup_value. 
Lookup_array must be placed in descending order: 
TRUE, FALSE, Z-A,...2, 1, 0, -1, -2,..., and so on. 
  If match_type is omitted, it is assumed to be 1.  

Now this takes a minute to get your head around. Let?s 
relate it to our problem, and you can see what happened. 
Because we omitted the third argument, MATCH worked 
on a Match_type 1 basis, which meant it thought the 
values were in ascending order and looked for the 
?largest? value less than or equal to Charlie. In this 
context of course, think of ?largest? as meaning the 
latest in alphabetical order. Let?s step one value at a 
time through the range and follow the logic.

Step 1: the function arrives at A1. It knows that this is 
likely to be a column heading, so if it?s not an exact 
match for ?Charlie?, it passes straight by.

Step 2: it gets to A2, which contains the string ?Andy?. 
This isn?t a match, and it?s not alphabetically later than 
the search string either, so the function moves on.

Step 3: now it comes to A3, which contains the string 
?Bill?. Again, no match, and it comes alphabetically 
before the search string, so let?s move on.

Step 4: it reaches A4, which contains the string ?Drew?. 
Now, this doesn?t match the search string, but it?s 
alphabetically later than the search string. Remember 
that with this Match_type set, the MATCH formula 
assumes the range is sorted in alphabetical order, so 
it thinks there?s no point in looking any further. It 
needs to go back one step to find the ?largest? value 
that isn?t greater than the search string.

So the formula reports ?Bill? as the best match, which 
equates to a value of 3, because it?s the third value in 
the range.

Don?t type this in yet, but think about the value you 
think the formula below would return:

=MATCH(99,B1:B10)

Now type it in an empty cell, and see if you were right. 
The result you got should be equal to the total number 
of letters in the name of the author of this article.

How weird is that? The best match for ?99? is zero? Only, 
of course, because the next value in the list is greater 
than 99, thus forcing the formula to stop and pick the 
immediately preceding value. 

And here is the key to understanding how this use of 
MATCH to find the last cell with data actually works. If 
I tried to MATCH to an absolutely enormous number, 
the MATCH formula should always get to the last 
number in any range without a match. When this 
happens, the MATCH formula simply reports the position 
in the range of the last cell containing number data. So 
if there are 100 cells in the range, the formula will 
return the value 100, if there are 3,000, it will return 
the value 3,000, and so on, even if in the middle of the 
range there are blank cells. But, usefully for us, it will 
discount any blank cells at the end of the range. So if 
I specify an entire column, it will return the row number 
of the last cell in the column with a number in it.

Sounds good, but how big is ?enormous?. Well, the 
biggest positive number Excel can cope with is 1 x 
10307 ? 1. This is number with 307 digits, all of which 
are 9s. We can get pretty close to it with the following 
in Excel:

9.999999E306

That?s the number ?9999999?? followed by 300 zeros.

Let?s put it all together. In an empty cell, type this:

=MATCH(9.999999E+306,B:B)

This time, the formula returns the value 10, because it 
is the 10th cell in the range which contains the last 
number value.

Now let?s try it with a text column, though. Type this 
formula in:

=MATCH(9.999999E+306,A:A)

This returns an error, because the formula expects 
numbers and you?ve given it text to match against. 
Remember that MATCH always lets you get away with 
text in the first cell, because it assumes this is a 
heading, but beyond that cell, you need all numbers 
or blanks for this to work.

Fortunately, though, there is a different form of 
MATCH which will work for us with text. Type in this 
formula:

=MATCH("*",$A:$A,-1)

You?ll notice it returns the value 5, the row of the last 
text entry in column A. You might want to think about 
how this works. Of course, the ?*? is a text wildcard, 
which means ?any text string? and by setting the 
Match_type as -1, we?re asking MATCH to find the 
?lowest? value which meets the condition, assuming 
the list is in descending numerical order. Got it? Well, 
you?re either there or you aren?t. Either way, it works!

You might think that this form of the command could 
replace the numeric MATCH we tried first, with all those 
9s. To see why it can?t, type any number into cell A6. 
You see what happens? Your text MATCH formula still 
returns 5 rather than 6, because it?s looking only for 
text strings, not numerical values.

On the other hand, leave the number there in A6 and 
try this formula again:

=MATCH(9.999999E+306,A:A)

A minute ago, this gave us an error, but now it?s 
returning 6, the position of the last (and only) number 
in column A.

To put the final nail in this particular coffin, type the 
name ?Edgar? into cell A7. Now it?s the text form of 
MATCH that gives us the right answer (7), while the 
numeric MATCH insists the last cell is in row 6.

What we really need is a formula which will return the 
last non-blank cell in a range, irrespective of whether 
this contains text data or numeric data. I call it the 
?Combination MATCH? formula. Here it is:

=IF(ISERROR(MATCH(9.999999E+306,A:A)),MATCH("*",A:A,-1),IF(ISERROR(MATCH("*"
,A:A,-1)),MATCH(9.999999E+306,A:A),MAX(MATCH(9.999999E+306,A:A),MATCH("*",A:
A,-1))))

Let?s deconstruct it. It says:

Try and get a result from the numeric MATCH formula 
first 
If this produces an error, then there are no numbers in 
the range, so just use the text MATCH formula and go 
no further 
Otherwise, try and use the text MATCH formula alone 
If this produces an error, then there are no text strings 
in the range, so just use the numeric MATCH formula 
and go no further 
If you get this far, it means there are numbers and 
text strings in the range, so calculate both versions of 
the MATCH formula and return whichever produces the 
highest value. 

So there we are. By way of summary, see the online 
version of this article for a chart showing the different 
results of each match type.

As you will see, only the ?Combination MATCH? formula 
returns the actual last row in all situations.

So, we?ve built an approach to find the last cell 
containing data in a given range. We started by using 
the COUNTA formula, and found that this worked well 
provided that there were no blanks in the range. We 
moved on to the MATCH formula, and saw how in its 
numeric form and its text form it produced a reliable 
answer provided the range contained only the correct 
kind of data: either numbers or text strings. Finally, 
we built the Combination MATCH formula, to produce 
the right answer in all conditions. 
**********************************************
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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^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-
**************STATION BREAK*****************
^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-
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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!  
http://snurl.com/6t1

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 
video editing software. No obligation, no cost.

NOTE - the free CD is for US only. Other countries, free trial 
issue only. 

More info and instructions from Vic here: 
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/expert_guides/videomaker.html

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(9.)  WHY SHOULD I SCAN MY OUTGOING EMAIL FOR 
VIRUSES?
~~Mike Baynes, MikesWhatsNews
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

This is a question I'm often asked.  It is frequently 
followed by the comments, "I have an AV program so 
I know I'm not infected" and "well, they should have AV 
protection".

We cannot afford to think as individuals. We must think 
of the internet/www as a global community in which we 
are all active members. Sort of an internet United Nations.

Virus and Trojans are written to take advantage of 
unprotected computers. Some programs are more 
effective than others at blocking virus/worms/Trojans.  
Often computers are infected when the computer 
connects to the internet for the first time and, for this 
reason, it is wise to install an AV program before going 
online for the first time. Don't be afraid to ask for some 
advice from one of your more experienced friends.

The purpose of scanning the email during the send 
process is to ensure that we do not accidentally spread 
a virus or worm which has infected our computer without 
our knowledge. These infections can come form hidden 
scripts in programs we have downloaded and neglected 
to scan with our AV program. Sometimes, unfortunately, 
they may even come embedded in commercial programs 
that we have purchased. I recommend scanning all 
program files and attachments every time.

Frequently, new virus/worms/Trojans may be discovered 
overnight and the resulting infections may be waiting in 
your email.  The patch for your AV program may also be 
issued the same day, so don't forget to check for AV 
updates often.
**********************************************
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.
********************************************** 

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(10.) RESOLVING TO GET ORGANIZED IN 2004?  
LET ONENOTE HELP
~~Kathryn Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article contains pictures and is 
clearer if read online here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc4/v32/kath32b.htm
**********************************************

I am a note jotter. My house has always had a ton of 
pieces of scrap paper with little notes jotted on them. 
Everything from ?Refill this presctiption? to ?555-123-
4567?. Problem was, I seldom remembered which 
paper had what notes, which ones I had taken care of, 
or what the note was talking about.  

Years ago, I started using an electronic organizer to 
keep my notes. Great tool, but not very easy to use 
unless your fingers are small enough to work with tiny 
keyboards. Handwriting based machines weren?t much 
better, since my handwriting is terrible.  

Last fall, with the release of Office System 2003 came 
my solution: OneNote. OneNote is a new product sold 
as an addition to Office. It allows you to enter and 
organize notes of all types, search them, organize 
them, and share them with team members. 

OneNote is designed to work like your average notebook. 
You take notes on pages, which combine to make 
sections. Multiple sections make up notebooks. 
Notebooks are saved as files with an extension of ?one?. 
You open and close notebooks just as you would any 
other file.  You can have multiple notebooks open at a 
time. 

While OneNote is easy to learn and use, you will find 
it a very powerful tool for organizing your notes.  But 
first, you need to conquer the basics of its use. 

Basic Use

Opening OneNote the first time gives you a blank page 
to write in. By default, this page is the first page in 
your General Notebook.  

To enter notes, you either type or draw on the area of 
the screen that looks like notepaper. If your piece of 
note paper doesn?t have lines, you can turn them on by 
clicking the icon that looks like a piece of paper. (This is 
the ?Show/Hide Lines? button.)   

The tabs at the top of the pages show which sections 
you currently have open. The three that are shown will 
always be available, you can add more by right clicking 
a tab and selecting ?New Section?. When you create a 
new section, it is called ?Untitled?. To change the 
name, just select the title and type your new name.

Down the right side of the pages are indicators of 
which pages are in this section. By default they are 
numbered, starting at one. If you want to give your 
page a name, click in the area above the word ?Title? 
and type your title.  The page will still show on the list 
as a number, but titling your page makes it easier to 
find things later. 

The page tab that looks like a piece of paper is a special 
tab. It allows you to add new pages at the click of a 
mouse. New pages always go at the end of the existing 
section. Want to move a page? Click the page tab and 
drag it to where you want it. 

Put a page in the wrong section? Use Edit>Move Page 
to> Another Section. Don?t want a page after all? Click 
the tab to select the page and use your delete key. 
Need to rename it? Just change the title text. 

So, what can go on pages?

Short answer: Anything! You can type text from your 
keyboard. You can draw diagrams using your mouse or 
other input device. You can paste information from other 
applications. You can even add sound to your notes.

 To type text, click anywhere on the page and start 
typing. One of the nice things about OneNote is that 
text doesn?t have to be contiguous in order to be on
the same page. You can click anywhere and start typing. 

 To add diagrams, click and drag or draw with your 
mouse. If you have a tablet, you can draw with the pen 
as well. 

 To add items from other sources, select the 
information, copy it, change to OneNote and paste it. 
One really nice feature of OneNote is that if you add 
information from a web page, it will automatically be 
annotated with the URL for the page that you copied 
it from. 

 You can also add items from other sources by selecting 
the content and dragging it to the OneNote page. Again, 
if the information comes from the web, you will get the 
source URL. (This is a great feature for creating reports. 
Once you have all your notes, you can create your 
bibliography by copying the URLs from OneNote to 
your bibliography.) 

 To add sound, go to ToolsàAudio RecordingàRecord. 
Any sounds picked up by your microphone will be 
recorded and saved with your notes. Even better, the 
sound will be coordinated with your typed and drawn 
notes. This allows you to record a lecture or meeting, 
take notes, and later hear what was being said when 
you were taking your notes. 

As you add information to a note page, you will see 
that chunks of information have a bar across the top. 
Clicking this bar allows you to move the element 
around on the page. If you bring two pieces of 
information so that they are one above the other on the 
page, OneNote will assume that you want them 
combined into one piece and stick them together for 
you. To take elements apart, either select the item 
and drag it to somewhere else or click to the left of 
the element where you see a four directional arrow. 
That arrow will select anything in its line and allow 
you to move it. 

So far so good ? What else can I do?

One of the most powerful features of OneNote is the 
ability to use stationery to organize information. Many 
stationery sets are included with OneNote. To see 
what stationery you have available, do a Fileà New and 
bring up the ?New? pane. At the bottom of the pane, 
you will see an area of stationery categories. To expand 
the categories, click the plus sign to its left. To use a 
piece of stationery, double click the name. A new page 
will be created in your current section that has the 
stationery as its basis. 

Some of the ones I find most useful are:

 The ToDo lists ? Found under the Planners category, 
these pages give you easy ways to enter and track the 
items on your to do list. 

 The Meeting Minutes pages ? Found under Business, 
these pages are pre-structured to help you get through 
your meetings in a less painful manner. They even make 
minute taking something I might actually volunteer to do! 

 Lecture 3 ? Found under the Academic category, this 
page lets you easily track what is going on in a session. 
Students will use these pages as intended. I use them in 
my training design to make sure that I know what I need 
to cover during a particular session before I start the 
actual creation of the class. 

In addition, you can create pages that have elements 
on them already. These pages are called stationery. Just 
like paper stationery, they come with information already 
on them. You add your specific content to the page, or 
copy elements from the stationery page to your current 
note page. 

For example, I have a series of stationery pages that 
I have created which contain a wide variety of my most 
used AutoShapes. Since I can?t draw well, I copy these 
AutoShapes to my note page for emphasis during a 
design or note taking session. I can even add text 
boxes over top of the shapes by entering the text 
elsewhere on the page, selecting the text and dragging 
it over the shape. 

Next steps

Now that you have been introduced to OneNote, go play 
with it. I?ll be offering more articles on this product as 
time goes on. If there are topics you want covered in 
detail, send them to ABC.
**********************************************
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.
************************************************

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(11.)  DLLs, EXPLAINED
~~ Jasmine, 
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

Unfortunately, with Windows Operating Systems (OSs) 
you may sometimes experience the "dropping of," or 
"corruption of," or "loss of" DLL (Dynamic Link Library) 
files. This can cause a rather great variety of Windows 
error messages and the loss of functionality of inter-
related software programs which "share" a DLL or set of 
DLLs.  Needless to say, this, in turn, can cause a great 
deal of frustration on your part.

Since hardware "devices," such as a printer, etc., are 
supported by a category of DLLs known as "device drivers," 
when a device-driver DLL file goes bad, the device itself 
goes "on the fritz." The device won't work properly or work 
at all. 

While Windows DLLs (.dlls) can often be restored from 
the original Windows OS installation CDs, or Device 
Driver Installation CDs (such as your Printer Installation 
CD,) and via other methods, it can often be helpful to 
understand, in simplified terms and as an "overview," 
what DLLs are in the first place.

The following edited extract is a relatively easy-to-
understand explanation of what DLLs are all about.

I've placed explanatory notes within brackets [ ]s in the 
text below.

In computers, a dynamic link library (DLL) is a collection 
of small programs, any of which can be called [upon] [or 
used] when needed by a larger program that is running 
in the computer. The small program that lets the larger 
program communicate with a specific device such as a 
printer or scanner is often packaged as a DLL program 
(usually referred to as a DLL file).  DLL files that 
support specific device operation are known as "device 
drivers."

The advantage of DLL files is that, because they don't 
get loaded into random access memory (RAM) together 
with the main program, space is saved in RAM. When 
and if a DLL file is needed, then it is loaded and run. 
For example, as long as a user of Microsoft Word is 
editing a document, the printer DLL file does not need 
to be loaded into RAM. If the user decides to print the 
document, then the Word application causes the 
printer DLL file to be loaded and run.

A DLL file is often given a ".dll" file-name suffix [or 
"extension."] DLL files are dynamically linked with the 
program that uses them during program execution, 
rather than being compiled with the main program. 
The set of such files (or the DLL) is somewhat 
comparable to the library routines provided with 
programming languages such as C and C++.

Source: 
http://searchwin2000.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid1_gci213902,00.html 

(Unfortunately that link may wrap. SnipURL is down for 
maintenance this weekend to improve their server speed, 
so I could not snip any new links in this newsletter.  If 
you can't get this link to work, go to the online version 
of this article and click from there)
**********************************************
Jasmine is founder/group moderator of 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pro_tech and 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/computersupport_2
She is also the co-founder of 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/What_Error_Messages_Really_Mean 
and the OneWorldTechAlliance, as well as a moderator of
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mycomputerheadaches 
************************************************

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**************STATION BREAK*****************
^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-.,.-^-
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

DREAM JOBS TO GO

Check out OVER 80 INSTANT GUIDES to your DREAM JOB or 
LIFESTYLE, by real world been-there, done-that authors. 
Click here to get YOUR REAL LIFE moving NOW: 
http://snurl.com/6sd

Including Linda Johnson's 
"How to Get Started as a Software Trainer"

AND LOTS MORE!
**********************************************

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(12.) ASK THE FLEET
 ~ Questions submitted by readers and answered by
 ABC's Fleet of Writers
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>

QUESTION submitted by Jim C:

Spam Inspector, Ver 4.0 operates quite differently than 
Ver 3., and not as well. It does not clean the Incoming 
mail very well.  Frequently I get a PROGRAM ERROR 
siSpamFilterEng.exe has generated errors and will be 
closed by Windows.  You will need to restart. An error 
log is being created.  Have others reported this kind 
of problem?  How do I find and view the error log?

ANSWER from Spam Inspector Support representative, 
Andrew
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/spami.htm :

Hi Jim.  Thank you Linda for putting Jim in touch with 
support so we can resolve this issue he is experiencing.  
Jim, I apologize for any issues you are experiencing 
with this version. Can you please send us the following 
items so we can investigate these issues you are 
having?  1) Your error log file. You can find this in the 
Spam Inspector installation path, the file name is 
errors.log. (C:\Program Files\GIANT Company Software\
Spam Inspector\)  2) Your diagnostics. To get the 
diagnostics go to About Spam Inspector. In the about 
window, select the Diagnostics button. A window will 
open. Copy the contents of this window into a reply 
to this email so we can analyze them.  Also, if you 
have any further details on the issues you are 
experiencing, that would be very helpful as well.  I look 
forward to receiving these items so that we can get 
resolve your issue as soon as possible. I do apologize 
for the issues you are experiencing.  Once again, 
thank you for your help and we will work through 
these reported issues immediately. If you have any 
questions, comments or requests at all, please feel 
free to contact us at anytime.

NOTE FROM LINDA:  This is just one reason why I 
recommend Spam Inspector so highly.  This immediate 
and helpful tech support is rare in the software game 
these days.  And, I must add that I am running Spam 
Inspector 4.0 and don't agree with Jim that it doesn't 
work as well as 3.0.  My experience has been just the 
opposite.  I absolutely love 4.0.
**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Dennis at starband.net:

In using the Label Function under tools, Word 2000 
defaults to the Business Address when selecting a 
name from the Address Book.  How do I set the default 
to be the Home address?

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

The addresses in the address book come from Outlook 
and what Word uses when you choose the address book 
in Word email labels is the FIRST address in the address 
book, which, in your case, is the business address. If you 
want Word to use the the Home address as the default 
instead of the business address, you have to set the 
Home address up as the first one when you enter 
addresses in your Outlook Contacts. When you enter new 
contacts, notice that the business address is a dropdown 
and you can choose Home address instead as the first 
one. However, there is no easy way to reverse these 
fields if you are trying to change ones that already exist. 
The only way I know to do this would be to export your 
Outlook contacts to an Excel file, then put the columns 
in the order you want, then delete the contacts currently 
in Outlook and import the new ones.  Good luck.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Rosemary Schmid:

Hi Linda,  First, Merry Christmas. Thanks for the holiday 
touches in the latest newsletter, especially the red and 
green scroll bar. Made me smile at the detail. You're 
doing a great job with things. Labor of love! and it 
shows.  I know you're busy, but I've an important 
question. I've been searching online for specific 
information that I haven't been able to find. My 
question is: With the dangers of flu and colds, is there 
an easy, VERY convenient, and frequent-without-
damage method for disinfecting the keyboard? I'm 
thinking that isopropyl alcohol on a cloth or wipe, 
swished across the keys might be OK. (Spraying directly 
on the keys doesn't seem like a good idea, right? I've 
also wondered about some of the spray surface 
disinfectants, like Lysol, or the professional stuff they 
use at hospitals. ) All I can find are more detailed, 
once-a-week or after-a-disaster kinds of things, and I 
want something to do that will work for me every day 
at home, and that I can suggest to our tech people at 
the university to use in the computer commons. They've 
already gotten signs from the health center about 
handwashing and not touching eyes, nose, and mouth, 
and some of that hand cleaner stuff, but I'd like to have 
something I can do besides that. (I'm not usually so 
paranoid about "a little dirt", but my husband has an 
auto-immune disorder and I sure don't want him to get 
the flu or a cold from me!)   Do you or any of your team 
have any idea what to do?

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

Hi Rosemary....thanks for the compliments about my 
holiday decorations on ABC...yes, it is indeed a labor 
of love.  I'm glad to see it's appreciated :-)  At the 
college where I teach, the flu thing is an issue also, 
and I can tell you we DO use Lysol.  We don't spray it 
directly on the keyboards tho...instead we either spray 
it on a cloth and wipe the keyboard down or, better yet, 
put it in a bowl and dip q-tips into it and use the q-tips 
to clean the keyboard.  I'm not a clean freak either, but 
I agree the keyboard is DEFINITELY a source of 
spreading the flu...and Lysol will not hurt it as long as 
you don't saturate it and let too much liquid run down 
under the keys...too much fluid can short out a 
keyboard, so do it carefully.  I've found that if I spray 
a cloth with Lysol, then let it air dry until it's just damp 
and not dripping, I can quickly wipe it over a keyboard 
before I use it.  Knock on wood...but so far this year, 
I've avoided the flu...and many others at the college 
where I work have not, so maybe I am doing 
something right.  Hang in there...and have a wonderful 
holiday.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by "confused but happy":

Hi ABC.  Just a quick compliment and question please. 
First, I truly enjoy your site and have a great deal of 
trust in it. At least a quarter of my software is 
downloaded because of the recommendations of your 
site. Since I am recently retired I have been learning all 
this new comp. stuff. My wife gave me as a gift 
Photoshop 7 to play with. However I think I am way 
over my head with this. Even after I purchased 4 books 
(PS 7 for dummies to Teach yourself PS 7 in 24 hours) 
I still get that glazed look after trying to figure this out. 
BUT!!!!! on your site I found an article from Mr. Vic Ferri 
on how to make pictures look like a coloring book. It was 
clear, concise and a heck of a lot of fun!  Thanks to you 
and Mr. Ferri.  Now for the Question part. Where do I 
find more articles just like this.  Articles like this are 
the meat and potatoes of learning PS 7.Getting down 
and dirty, not having to figure out a hundred small 
things just to do something simple.( I made 10 
different pictures for my 6 & 8 year olds and they 
loved it! I proudly exhibit their finished works on my 
wall.)  Again , cheers to you and yours on this holiday 
season and thank you in advance for any leads you 
can give.

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

The best suggestion I can give you for good free 
step-by-step tutorials is this yahoo group called Inside 
Graphics. If you join (it's free), the owner of the group 
sends you one Photoshop lesson a week. So, that's all 
the mail it generates .. it's not high impact at all.  
Also, if you join, you can go to the "messages" section 
and see an archive of all of the other lessons he has 
sent out. They really are pretty good and I think they 
will give you just what you want.  And, thanks for the 
nice words about Vic's article ... I forwarded it on to 
him.  Here's the Inside Graphics sign up page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InsideGraphics

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Karen:

I've used a short .avi file of a US flag fluttering in the 
wind for school news shows. I never had a problem 
with this file in the Office 2000 version of PowerPoint, 
but when I try to place this file into PP XP, I get a 
message saying it's not the right kind of file. It's not 
a corrupted file; I've tested it and it still works in other 
programs. The best I can do to use this file in PP XP is 
place it as an object/windows media and "hope" it will 
play automatically. I've uninstalled and reinstalled PP 
but that didn't help. Any ideas as to why this won't 
work. I've followed the instructions to the letter (I 
think) and have done this seemingly simple thing many 
times before. Before Office XP, that is.

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.):

My guess is that the needed codec is not on your 
system. Two things to check:  First, read the Myers 
Multimedia FAQ. It is available on the PPT FAQ or 
Sonia Coleman's site:
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/multimedia.htm 
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00099.htm 

As a part of that, you will want to check that the avi 
plays in the MCI player. To do that, do a "Run" command 
from your Start menu and type in mplay32.exe - Use 
that player to attempt to play your avi. Does it work? 
If it does, it is likely that your movie extensions have 
been hijacked. The FAQ will help you with that.  Next, 
check the pathname for your avi. It needs to be less 
than 128 characters (some will say 120 characters).  
Third, check which version of Direct X you have 
installed. Should be the most recent. If it isn't, get 
the most recent one and see if that helps.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Dotty:

Can text be "wrapped" around graphics in PowerPoint 
as it is in Word?

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.):

Simple answer: No, it can't. However, you can do what 
you need to do in Word (remembering to set the font, 
etc. the way you will want it in PowerPoint), select the 
graphic and the text, copy it, and paste it as a picture 
or metafile on your slide.

REPLY from Dotty:

Thanks, worked like a charm.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Jim:

http://www.dot.state.il.us/blr/lrbull.pdf  When I try to 
load this page, I keep getting "Microsoft Internet 
Explorer" Error "This page provides potentially unsafe 
information to an ActiveX control. Your current security 
settings prohibit running controls in this manner. As 
a result, this page may not display correctly."  This 
is despite every setting on security being set low.  
Do you know how I can correct this problem so that 
I can load this page??

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

It's opening fine here. It's a pdf file, which is an Adobe 
Acrobat file. Do you have the Adobe Acrobat reader 
installed? You need that to view pdf files. And, are 
you SURE you've changed all of the ActiveX settings 
in Internet Explorer's Tools>Internet Options>
Security to "enable"? (There are a lot of them in 
there so make sure you get them all...look for the 
ones that say ActiveX, since that's what the error 
message is telling you that you have set too high).  
If none of that fixes it, then I would suspect it could 
be a firewall, popup blocker, or your AntiVirus 
program blocking it .. so check all of those, if you 
are running them.  Good luck.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by louellen_c_2000:

I want to know how to upgrade Explorer to version 5.1!  
I was trying to download screen saver and get message 
that I need explorer 5.1 or higher!  How do I find out 
what version I am running and how do I upgrade? 

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

Open Internet Explorer and go to the Help menu and 
click on "About Internet Explorer"...in there, you will 
see which version you have. If you want version 5.01, 
you can get it here, along with the later versions (5.5 
and 6.0): http://cws.internet.com/ie.html  But, be 
careful with that screen saver...screensavers that 
require a later version of Internet Explorer, usually 
want to use "Active Desktop" and using that will hog 
up a lot of your system resources. If you have an older 
version of Internet Explorer, I'm assuming you are 
running an older machine, with an older version of 
Windows .... so ask yourself this ... Is running a cute 
screensaver really that important? Is it worth slowing 
down my computer and possibly causing other video 
problems?  If I were you, I'd pass on the screensaver.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Arben Hajrizi:

I want to create a BAT file in Windows 2000 Pro so I 
can delete following Folders: History, Cookies, Temp, 
Temporary Internet File. The reason why I want to 
create a Bat file is because I'm not at home all the 
time so my younger brother don't know how to delete 
them via internet explorer. 

ANSWER from Vic Ferri (Vic Ferri owns the very popular 
WinTips and Tricks email group 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
He 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.): 

You can use the RD command in Windows 2000 (or XP) 
for this job.  Here's an example bat file - all you need to 
do is substitute the paths with your own paths to the 
directories you wish to delete. 
 
@echo off
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Cookies"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\Temp"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\History"
cls
 
Note that the quotes around the paths are essential.  
You can place the file in your startup folder if you wish 
or just double click whenever you wish to delete the 
directories listed in the bat file.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by carl at hotmail:

How do I create a formula to generate random numbers 
in Excel between 1 and 35 with no repeats? Drawing 3 
or 4 numbers at a time.   Do I use RANDBETWEEN? 

ANSWER from Ray Blake (Ray Blake lives in England 
and spent 15 years training people in the financial 
services industry there. He and his business partner 
set up GR Business Process Solutions ( www.grbps.com ) 
which specializes in innovative IT to support 
knowledge testing and skills assessment): 

A tough one, this. At first glance, it should be easy 
enough, but there are a couple of nasty traps.First of 
all, I dislike using RANDBETWEEN (see my article 
'Throwing Dice in Excel' in ABC 30 to learn why and 
what else to use instead.)  But the real stinger here 
is the need not to have duplicated values. Random is 
random, and without using circular references and 
some smart cut and paste-special macro operations, 
you'll struggle to get non-volatile, non duplicating 
values using any of the worksheet functions.  Instead, 
I turned to VBA to achieve what you need. The code 
below has been built so as to be reusable for a wide 
range of needs - simply change the constants as 
indicated.

----------------CODE STARTS HERE--------------
Sub GetRandomNumbers()

Const intLowest As Integer = 1 'Lowest number required
Const intHighest As Integer = 35 'Highest number required
Const intHowMany As Integer = 4 'Number of different values to return

Dim booFlag As Boolean 'Used to record if duplicate values generated

'Check to prevent infinite loop
If intHowMany > (intHighest - intLowest + 1) Then
MsgBox "Too many numbers or too small a range."
Exit Sub
End If

'Set up array to hold the random values
Dim arrRandom(1 To intHowMany) As Integer

Randomize 'resets random seed

'Generate the first random value
arrRandom(1) = Int((intHighest * Rnd) + intLowest)

'Generate subsequent random values and ensure no dupes
For i = 2 To intHowMany
Do
booFlag = False
arrRandom(i) = Int((intHighest * Rnd) + intLowest)
For j = 1 To i - 1
If arrRandom(j) = arrRandom(i) Then booFlag = True
Next j
Loop Until booFlag = False 'ensures value not kept if it is a dupe
Next i

'Write the values to the worksheet - Change "B1" reference as required
For i = 1 To intHowMany
Range("B1").Offset(i, 0).Value = arrRandom(i)
Next i

End Sub
----------------CODE ENDS HERE--------------

REPLY from carl at hotmail:

Thanks, I really appreciate your help.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Martha:

How does one access the clipboard in XP Home edition??

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

you mean the clipboard viewer? go to Start>Run and 
type clipbrd.exe

REPLY from Martha:

I get a message that says "Windows cannot find 
clipboard.exe." Did you type the name correctly etc??  
Why does it not come up & how can I restore it if it 
isn't there???

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

I did NOT type clipboard.exe ... I typed clipbrd.exe

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Sara E. hsrtulieres at 
zianet.com:

I am having trouble inserting pictures into the Word 
document. I am new to Word but know Photoshop and 
Illustrator, and fear I hit the wrong button. I go to 
insert picture from insert, find the picture from my 
pictures folder, click on the picture I want, click on 
insert and in the document I get the edges of a graphic 
box but no picture. Yet when I go to Print Preview the 
picture is visible. I cannot view the picture in print 
layout or in normal full page view but in preview there 
it is. I have looked to see if for some reason I have 
sent the picture to the back but I cannot find this 
anywhere and when I am inserting there is no text 
in front of it.  I hope the solution is a simple one 
and right before my eyes! 

ANSWER from Linda Johnson:

Hi Sara .... in Word, go to the Tools menu and click 
on Options. Click on the View tab and in the top 
section, remove the check where it says "Picture 
Placeholders". That should solve your problem.

**********************************************

QUESTION submitted by Ed H:

How can I eliminate having to click on user name on 
boot up?

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.):

Start --> Run control userpasswords2 
and remove check mark that forces users to log on 
or use tweakUI.

<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
 
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
*********************************************
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http://personal-computer-tutor.com
linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


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