[abcomputers] ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers,Volume 5: Bobby Tests ABC For Accessibility...and LOTS MORE!
- From: Linda Johnson <linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ABCfreelists <abcomputers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 21:58:58 -0400
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
Volume 5; October, 2001 - mailed to 1344 subscribers
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://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/ABC.htm
(frames) http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm (no frames)
or, scroll down to the Contents where you can click on over to any
individual article
For definitions of any terms you do not understand, visit the GeekSpeak
Translator: http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/capn3.htm
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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
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ANNOUNCENT!!!!!
NEW SERVICE FOR SUBSCRIBERS!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!
Do you have a website? If you do, I would like to help you....and you
can help me. Don't ya just love the way we can scratch each other's
backs on the Internet?
I have a webpage where I post links to all subscribers' sites. If you
put a link for this newsletter at YOUR site, I will put a link to your
site on this page. Just link to this newsletter using either of these
links:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/ABC.htm
or
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABComputers
and send an email to ABComputers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the url where you put the link and I will link back to you!
Pleasure doing bizness wit ya .... and my back is a lot less itchy! LOL
to see this new page, click here:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/sublinks.htm
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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 are viewed better
online)
1. Important How-To Message From Linda
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm#HowTo
2. What's In This Issue
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm#Current
3. Linda's Thought of the Month (and animated gif!)
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm#thought
4. Linda's Soapbox ~ Disaster Strikes in Both the Real and the Cyber
Worlds http://personal-computer-tutor.com/linda5.htm
5. What's New at Linda's Computer Stop
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/newabc5.htm
6. Subscribers' Exclusive Tip ~ Getting Rid of That EZPhoto Button in
Word. http://personal-computer-tutor.com/newabc5.htm#tip
7. GeekSpeak Translation from the Cap'n
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/capn3.htm
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8. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE
Kathleen's Spider Web ~ DON'T MISS THIS!
Kathleen used Bobby to test the accessibility of the ABC newsletter
(Vol. 4) ... and we kinda flunked!
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/kath5.htm
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9. Chas' Word World ~ Making Dates In Word ***
~~Charles Kyle Kenyon, J.D. http://personal-computer-tutor.com/chas5.htm
10. Tina's FrontPage News ~ Graphically Speaking
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/tina5.htm
11. Hal's Hardware Haven ~ System Requirements: How To
Tell If That Hardware or Software Is Compatible With Your Machine ***
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/hal5.htm
12. Jack's Internet Connection ~ A Little Internet History
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/jack5.htm
13. James's Database ~ Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Access
Forms *** http://personal-computer-tutor.com/james5.htm
14. Parker's Mailbox ~ Delegating Permissions with Outlook on the
Exchange Server *** http://personal-computer-tutor.com/parker5.htm
15. Chad's Macro Mania ~ Checking Conditions in VBA
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/chad5.htm
16. Corey's Network Corner ~ Configuring Your Home
Network Server *** http://personal-computer-tutor.com/corey5.htm
17. Vic's Registry RoundUp ~ Backing Up and Restoring the Windows
Registry http://personal-computer-tutor.com/vic5.htm
18. Anna's Safety Belt ~ SCAMS: Don't Be the Next Victim
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/anna5.htm
19. Outlook Express Tip from PCTechTalk's G Man ~ Backing
Up Your Email Account Info http://personal-computer-tutor.com/gman.htm
20. NightSneak's Snoop Scoop ~ Links For Finding Missing Persons ~
from Master Links 4 Master Investigators
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/ns5.htm
21. Subscription Management
22. Contact Information
*** includes pictures in the online version
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If you find this newsletter and/or my website at all helpful and would
like to give me a hand here, I am now accepting donations through
PayPal. To make a donation, go to Linda's Computer Stop and look for
the PayPal link in the left sidebar.
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com
Thanks in advance to all who do this!!
(NOTE: no one receiving this should feel obligated in any way to do
this.....this is a FREE newsletter!) Linda, editor
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(1.) IMPORTANT HOW-TO MESSAGE
If you decide to go to the Online "Web-azine" version, go here first for
navigation instructions:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm#HowTo
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(2.) WHAT'S IN THIS ISSUE
Well, my friends, I must say I am VERY impressed with the
Fleet this month. Even with all the real and cyber horrors we have been
through this month, they managed to deliver some WONDERFUL articles for
you.
First, let me give a BIG WELCOME TO THE MEMBERS OF
WINTIPS & TRICKS, Vic Ferri's tech help group that now
includes a free subscription to this newsletter with your membership.
Thank You, Vic, for introducing ABC to your new members!
Two of our articles this month are in reference to the repercussions of
the attack of 9/11. ANNA MORVEE tells how to avoid the Internet scams
that have resulted from this and NIGHTSNEAK gives us some links to
places where we can search for missing loved ones.
Our feature this month is by KATHLEEN ANDERSON. She
has run the online version of this newsletter through Bobby to test its
compatibility/accessibility and it seems I need to do some work if I
want that Bobby seal of approval.
I don't even think I have a favorite article this month. They are all
AMAZING.
HAL CARDONA walks us through all the steps needed to
understand those system requirements on our hardware and software
packages. COREY SEATON's article on Network Servers is really full of
great info to get that home network of yours up and running. And, VIC
FERRI finally lets us all know exactly what we need to do when we see
that dreaded "BACK UP YOUR REGISTRY FIRST" warning.
Lotsa good stuff regarding MICROSOFT OFFICE this month
too. JAMES LABORDE continues his great Access series
and tells us all about forms and how to create and use them. CHAD WELCH
really gets into the VBA meat this month with his article on checking
conditions. PARKER RENAUD clearly explains how to setup and manage
delegate permissions in Outlook. TINA CLARKE's article on using graphics
in FrontPage is a definite winner. And, don't miss CHAS KENYON's
indepth look into how dates work in Word.
JACK TEEMS gives us an interesting look at the history of the Internet
by letting us play "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?" And, of course,
CAP'N PATT has added lots of new terms to his popular GeekSpeak
Translator. And, please don't miss GUITARMAN's Outlook Express Tip this
month which tells you how to backup your email account information.
Most of all, I hope you enjoy this issue and learn as much
from it as I did. And, as usual, if there is anything you do not
understand, please drop me a line and let me know.
Happy Computing!
Linda
TO SEE THE ARCHIVES OF PAST ISSUES:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/abcomputersarchives.htm
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(3.) LINDA'S THOUGHT OF THE MONTH
Make a computer resolution this month.
Try to help others less experienced than you
and show your appreciation to the ones who help you.
CLICK HERE FOR THIS MONTH'S ANIMATED GIF:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/vol5.htm#thought
(just rightclick on the gif and choose "Save Picture As...")
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(4.) LINDA'S SOAPBOX
~~Linda F. Johnson, Editor
DISASTER SRIKES IN BOTH THE REAL AND THE CYBER
WORLDS
I'm not going to say much more about the tragedy of September 11th
because I'm sure most of you have already read everything that I could
possibly include here. I'm also not going to dwell on the atrocious
Nimda virus that took down many large websites and servers just a week
later (and I consider this a tragedy also, though certainly not of the
caliber of 9/11).
What I am going to ponder is the few observations I have
made at this time.
The main thing I see is how these tragedies show the very
worst in people, along with the very best in people. People who cause
these horrors are the devil's own, but from these times I see many
angels emerge.
I have always believed that all things happen for a reason,
but at times like this I certainly do question the reason. If the
reason is that we were all supposed to learn something from this, I only
hope we did. Because, if we didn't, it will only happen again.
My best wishes and hopes for continued healing go out to all who
suffered losses in both tragedies.
Bless us all.
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Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office
Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop, Windows, and TeleCommunications.
She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local
businesses 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://newbieclub.com/wordmagic/?buntah
Part II: Table Wizardry http://newbieclub.com/wordmagic2/?buntah
AND, HER NEWEST EBOOK:
How To Get Started As a Software Trainer
http://dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0036.html?10456
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LINDA HAS ANOTHER EBOOK!!
Yes, LINDA JOHNSON has published another eBook and
this one is called HOW TO GET STARTED AS A
SOFTWARE TRAINER http://dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0036.html?10456
DO YOU LOVE PLAYING WITH SOFTWARE AND WANT
TO TRY MAKING A CAREER OF IT?
That's just how Linda started out and this book she tells you exactly
how she did it and how YOU CAN DO IT TOO.
No need for a college education!
No need for professional certifications!
No need for expensive classes!
READ THIS BOOK TO LEARN HOW TO TRAIN AND
PROMOTE YOURSELF. http://dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0036.html?10456
Or, MAYBE HARDWARE IS MORE YOUR BAG?
Check out HOW TO BREAK INTO COMPUTER REPAIR
By Richard S. Harris http://dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0019.html?10456
Or if you have ANY DREAM JOB in mind, check out
DREAMS JOB TO GO
http://dreamjobstogo.com?10456
All eBooks are written by been-there/done-that authors
and sell for only $9.95, with a full money back guarantee.
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Free Tutorials, Free eBooks, Free Courses, Free Guestbooks, Free
Autoresponders, Free Newsletter, Free Affiliate program and FREE
MEMBERSHIP. Wow! Did I mention it was Free? Newbies and Oldbies alike
are buzzing about the NEW Newbie Club. It's the most exciting Newbie
Site ever to hit the Web.
Join now - it's FREE!
http://newbieclub.com/?buntah
editor's recommendation:
They also have an online PC Clinic now where you can receive Computer
and Internet Technical problem solving advice 24/7 for only $29.80 a
year! I tested the service for them with some pretty tough questions
and they found the answers every time.....some took 3 or 4 emails back
and forth, but they DID solve it and they DID respond to each of my
mails within 6 hours.
I recommend this one!
http://newbieclub.com/clinic/?buntah
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(5.) WHAT'S NEW at Linda's Computer Stop
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/
Well, this was a bad month for all. Not only the horror of 9/11, but
the Nimda virus hit some of the Fleet and others in the Fleet spent a
lot of time helping others battle it. But, between tragedies, I managed
to get some new stuff on my website:
1. First, we have a new Fleet member, Anna Morvee, who is going to
teach us all about Internet security and safety. I'd say this is indeed
timely and something we all need to pay attention to, so please drop a
line to ABC at ABComputer-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and let Anna know how
much you appreciate her being here for us.
To learn more about Anna Morvee, click here:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/anna_morvee.htm
2. My site won an award and I am so proud! Check it out!
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/frontpage.htm
3. I've added some important new links at my site:
*Fun Stuff To Do In Windows
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/windows.htm
+A banner for a good company that sells sample tests for all kinds
of certifications; Microsoft, Oracle, Unix, Linux, and more.
+A great DOS manual, written by our own Vic Ferri.
+A good article to help you determine which version of Windows is
best for you.
*Fun Stuff To Do In MS Office
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/office.htm
+An ad for a great online service where you can have an inexpensive
alternative to MS Office that you can use from the web at any location
on any computer.
+Another ad for a Moonlighting company that offers FREE part-time
helpers to get you through any office job that is bogging you down.
Join for free and submit your project and they DO help you.
+Excel:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/excel.htm
=A free Excel viewer from MS so you can view Excel files even
if you don't have Excel installed on your machine. (I already had links
to the PowerPoint and Word viewers on their
pages.)
=Lost a password to a spreadsheet? Here's a handy little FREE
add-in that could save your butt.
*Hardware:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/hardware.htm
+A great little ebook to get you started in a career in Computer
Repair.
*Fun Stuff To Do On The Web:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/internet.htm
+Look for the revolving N's.
4. I've written a NEW eBOOK! It's called How To Get Started As a
Software Trainer and I am very proud of it.
http://dreamjobstogo.com/titles/djtg0036.html?10456
It's full of all the tricks I learned while I was struggling to get my
career going. It tells you how to learn the software as well as how to
promote yourself and get jobs. I think it could make the process a lot
easier for others than it was for me and hope you enjoy it.
Linda
http://personal-computer-tutor.com
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(6.) And HERE'S A TIP, presented FIRST to you subscribers
EZPHOTO BUTTON DRIVING YOU NUTS IN WORD?
This is a problem I see a lot. Some digital cameras or even some photos
you receive from friends add a macro to Word that adds an EZPhoto button
to your toolbar. And this button multiplies every time you click on it
til you have many and they seem impossible to get rid of. NO MORE. I
got the fix from Adobe and here it is: http://www.adobe.com/
You must disable two files -
To disable the Ezpwll32.wll and Normal.dot files:
1. Exit from Word.
2. Choose Start > Find > Files or Folders.
3. In the Named text field, type "ezpwll32.wll" (without the quotation
marks). 4. Choose the hard drive on which Word is installed (e.g., C:)
from the Look in pop-up menu. 5. Select Include Subfolders, and then
click Find Now. 6. Select the Ezpwll32.wll file that appears in the Find
dialog box. 7. Choose File > Rename. 8. Rename the file to
"ezpwll32.old" and then press Enter. 9. In the Named text field, type
"normal.dot" (without the quotation marks). 10. Click Find Now. 11.
Select the Normal.dot file that appears in the Find dialog box. 12.
Choose File > Rename. 13. Rename the file to "normal.old" and then press
Enter. 14. Close the Find dialog box. 15. Restart Word.
That's all there is to it!!
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(7.) THE GEEKSPEAK TRANSLATOR
~~Cap'n Patt Meara
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Visit the Cap'n's Official GeekSpeak Database at
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/capn3.htm
If the word you need defined is not there, just write to me at
ABComputers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I will pass it on to the Cap'n.
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ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A RELIABLE DOMAIN HOST
FOR YOUR WEBSITE?
Hands down, I think the one I use is the very best (Hal Cardona's been
using them for over 3 years and he turned me onto them over a year ago).
*My site has NEVER been down for more than 3 minutes!
(except once late on a Saturday nite when it was being
worked on and they warned we well in advance).
*Their tech support are the greatest and I have never had
to wait more than an hour for a good answer to any question
or problem I had!
*If you use FrontPage for your webcrafting, they are excellent with
those pesky FP extensions!
*And, the email server is non-failing!
Obviously, I am a big fan of theirs.
Their name is HOSTWAY and I believe if you try them, you will never
regret it. http://hostway.onweb.cx/
And, if you sign up, tell them you were referred by
linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx That will help fund this newsletter
because they give me a free month of service for everyone I send to them
:-)
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FEATURED ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
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(8.) KATHLEEN'S SPIDER WEB
~~Kathleen Anderson, Spider Web Woman Designs
AN INTRODUCTION TO BOBBY AND HIS FRIENDS
**starred comments inserted by Linda**
Last month, I wrote about Web Site accessibility and why you may be
hearing so much about it these days. Hopefully, you had a few minutes to
visit some web sites (maybe your own?) using the techniques we discussed
and see how accessible the sites are.
This month, we are going to run Bobby at http://www.cast.org/bobby/
against the September 2001 online issue of this newsletter, and see
what Bobby has to say. You can use this link to see the results
yourself.
http://bobby.cast.org/bobby?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.personal-computer-tutor
.com
%2Fvol4.htm&output=Submit
Unfortunately, this page does not yet meet the requirements for Bobby
Approved status. But it's not going to take much to fix it!
**OK, I'm ready!**
Under the heading Priority 1 Accessibility, there are instances of
images with no alternative text. You can use the link in the error
message to read more about why this is a problem. What Linda needs to do
is for every instance in the page where she uses an image; she needs to
add the alt attribute to the img tag. Bobby also tells her the line
numbers where she needs to make the changes, so it should be fairly easy
to make the changes.
The part that can be tricky, however, is to ensure that the alt text she
adds to the img tag is meaningful to someone using a screen reader or
surfing with images turned off. This is where Bobby needs to be
supplemented with some manual checks. For example, the graphic used for
the McAfee.com clinic has alt text, but the alt text is actually the
filename of the image, SickPC120x90.gif. Bobby can't tell the difference
between a filename and meaningful alt text. I would suggest that Linda
change this to "Sick PC? We recommend McAfee.Com Clinic - Get it now -
click here""
**Actually I wish I was rich and didn't need to depend on these
advertisers in the first place...but I will fix McAfee's bad alt tag...
no problem at all....as well as all the other alt tags I have that Bobby
sees as insufficient, not to mention the many I missed. I thought I was
actually pretty good with alt tags. This is certainly revealing.**
Making these changes will allow Linda to put the Bobby
Approved logo on her page (appropriately alt tagged, of course!).
However, there are some other things she may want to check out as well.
Take a look at Priority Level 1, User Check #6, "if you use color to
convey information, make sure the information is also represented
another way." There are two issues here - people who can't see the color
at all, because they are blind, or, people who are color blind. The
classic example of a page that depends on the use of color is a form
that says: "Fields marked in red are required." Someone who has the
red/green deficit form of colorblindness will see those fields as brown,
not red.
**So, what if I use color simply to make the page look more attractive?
Will Bobby flag this as a problem every time I do this? Note that in
the online version of this article,
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/kath5.htm , I am using purple to
make my comments stand out, but I also used the stars. Is this
sufficient for Bobby?**
There's a wonderful online tool called Vischeck at
http://www.vischeck.com/vischeckURL.php3. This tool will show you how
your page will look to someone who is colorblind. Just as with the
online version of Bobby, all you need to do is type in the URL of the
page you want to test, you don't have to download anything to your
computer.
**OK.....I ran that tool and I think the color looks fine....The
American Flag looks a little sick, but the text is still fine. The
colored hyperlinks still show. So, how do I convince Bobby that this is
NOT a problem?**
I ran the Vischeck tool against the newsletter page; for the most part,
it looks OK, although not all that attractive. The only problem I could
see that the text in the Linda's Computer Stop logo (the one that looks
like a computer screen), originally green on black, is unreadable in the
Vischeck output. Linda may want to experiment with perhaps changing the
text to white, or trying a different set of contrasting colors.
**hmmmm.....I could read it. It's white on a black background. Can't
you read it, Kathleen? Actually, if there's a problem with that logo,
I'll have to talk to our own Hal Cardona cuz he made it for me. LOL **
Getting back to the Bobby report, there's another feature that
webmasters will find useful, even if they are not checking for
accessibility. Scroll all the way down to bottom of the report, to the
Download Time section of the report. Here you will find the download
time statistics for the images, applets, and objects on the page for
someone using a 28.8K connection to the Internet. Using the information
in this report will point you to images that may need to be compressed
to make your pages load faster.
**Well, I finally got to the bottom of their page after scrolling
through miles of error messages about my tables which are only there for
layout and most of these errors do not apply. How do I let Bobby know
this? And, the only graphic I see at the bottom that is rather large
and loads a little slowly is my waving American flag and that ain't
going nowhere!**
This article is by no means all there is to making your web site
accessible. There are many web sites you can visit for more information,
and many other tools you can use. I would recommend visiting the Web
Accessibility Initiative web site at the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
at http://www.w3.org/WAI/ . You can also visit the Tools section of the
web site of the State of Connecticut Web Site Accessibility Committee at
http://www.cmac.state.ct.us/access/tools.html. And you can always send
me an email with your questions: kathleen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I'll be
happy to answer.
**Thanks Kathleen. I haven't implemented any of these
changes yet because I want the readers to see this as it stands now, so
they can compare it with how the site looks for the next issue. Though
I'm not sure I can get though ALL those errors without some help from
you! And, it seems my slangy dialog poses some problems also. I sure
hope Bobby doesn't expect me to write like a stuffed shirt, cuz that
just ain't my nature. LOL**
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Kathleen Anderson is a webmaster at the State of Connecticut and chairs
their committee on web site accessibility for persons with disabilities
http://www.cmac.state.ct.us/access/
She also has her own web design company,
Spider Web Woman Designs, at
http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/
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EDITOR'S NOTE: It is recommended that you read the online version of
the following article which includes tables and might make this clearer
for you. http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/chas5.htm
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(9.) Chas' Word World
~~Charles Kyle Kenyon, J.D.
HOW DO I INSERT A DATE IN WORD?
Why does it (not) change when I re-open the document?
New this month! - Word Shortcuts. Although I was a Mac user
for years, I still have a strong preference for keyboard shortcuts and
function keys. You can't use them, though, if you don't know them. I
will try to give you a few each month. This month's are associated with
today's topic; in the future they may be unrelated. First, though, let's
look at how to make a date with Word.
The easy (but probably wrong) way to put a date in your document is
Alt-Shift-D or
Insert => Date.
If you don't check "Update Automatically" this is the same as typing the
date yourself (except harder). If you do check "Update Automatically" it
will update when you print (if you have the setting under printer
options as "Update Fields" which is the default). Alt-Shift-D just
inserts this DATE field for you. Unfortunately, it is the wrong field,
at least for me. The field inserted on my computer with Alt-Shift-D is:
{ DATE \@ "MM/dd/yyyy" }
which looks like 09/11/2001 in a document. The exact layout of this
default will depend on your language settings in Word as well as on your
keyboard and international settings in Windows or on the Mac. I use it
so seldom that I'm not even sure where to go to change it. (The "\@
'MM/dd/yyyy'" is a formatting picture and we'll look at what it means
later.) When I said that it is the wrong field, I was talking about the
DATE part. You see, that field is sort of like a clock, when updated, it
tells you what the date is, now. I prefer to use a calendar for that
purpose, thank you.
If you want to see this field press Alt-Shift-D and then put your
insertion point inside of the date. Press the Shift-F9 key combination
and the field will show up in place of the date.
You can manually force an update by putting your insertion point in the
date and pressing the [F9] key. I dislike this "today" date so much that
I removed the Insert ==> Date from my Insert Menu altogether!
If you want to put a date in a template that updates to the current date
when a document is created based on the template, or want to change the
format or do other things with the date field, you want to use Insert
--> Field --> Date and Time instead. Using the options here, you can
either pick a format or type your own characters (called a picture) for
the format. The options for the type of date include:
{ DATE } - The date you are looking at the document. Always today
(although it may not show on screen as today until you update the
field).
{ CREATEDATE } - The date the document was created (or
saved using Save As).
{ PRINTDATE } - The date the document was last printed.
{ SAVEDATE } - The date the document was last saved.
The above are the field codes that will be inserted for you using Insert
Field Date and Time without using any options. If you choose options,
they can include the following pictures:
(see online version of this table if this is not clear to you)
\@ "MMMM d, yyyy"
August 1, 2001
\@ "MMM dd, yyyy"
Aug 01, 2001
\@ "MM/dd/yy"
08/01/01
\@ "dddd, MMMM d"
Tuesday, August 1
\@ "ddd, MMM. d, yyyy"
Tue., Aug. 1, 2001
\@ "MM/dd/yy hh:mm:ss am/pm"
08/01/01 10:36:12 PM
\@ "d" \* ordinal
1st
example: { CREATEDATE \@ "MMM dd, yyyy" } = Aug 01, 2001
If you don't like the pictures you are offered, pick the one that is
closest to what you want and then modify it in the Insert Field dialog
box (or in the codes themselves using Toggle Field Codes). Remember,
though, that these particular codes can be Case-Sensitive. With "MM" you
will get a two-digit month, with "mm" you will get two-digit minutes.
You can also break a date into multiple fields. This can be done to use
special formatting or if you use the F11 key (next field) for manually
editing. Example of the former reason:
{ CREATEDATE \@ "dddd" }, the { CREATEDATE \@ "d" \*
ordinal } day of { CREATEDATE \@ "MMMM" } in the year
{ CREATEDATE \@ "yyyy" } = Tuesday, the 1st day of
August in the year 2001.
Remember that fields in headers and footers don't get updated quite as
predictably. They work fine with CREATEDATE but can have the same
problem as page numbers (see that topic at
http://www.addbalance.com/word/pagexofy.htm ) with DATE.
For more on "pictures" and formatting dates see: Fields Switches at
http://support.microsoft.com/support/word/usage/fields/GeneralSwitches.a
sp.
For more on fields, follow the links on my Word Web Resources page at
http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordwebresources.htm#Fields
If you want a menu that gives you different kinds of date fields that
can be inserted into documents, download the LegalToolbars from
http://www.addbalance.com/word/download/.
This is a self-documenting global template and includes the following
fields in different formats on a menu that can be used without the rest
of the legal toolbar:
*Create Date (probably the one you will want to use in most forms)
*Saved / Modified Date *Date Printed *Always today (changes whenever
document is opened / printed)
It is also possible to use VBA or complex field codes to have date
fields that give you a date two weeks from now. That is way beyond the
scope of this column, though. If you have a need for such, please take a
look at Calculated Dates in Word at
http://www.addbalance.com/word/datefields2.htm
(See the online version of this article for a table of Windows and Mac
shortcut key combos relating to fields.)
For more about fields, see the links list on my Word Web Resources Page
under fields at
http://www.addbalance.com/word/wordwebresources.htm#Fields
If you want to try getting the keyboard shortcuts all at once, you can
take a look at the Microsoft Knowledge Base for Word 97:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q157/9/35.asp
Word 98:
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q177184
or Word 2000:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q211/9/82.ASP
You can also print the keyboard shortcuts on your computer (including
your custom keyboard shortcuts) by picking keyboard commands on the
Print dialog box under Print What? (instead of document).
That's it for this issue. If there is something you would like to see
addressed in this column, please send me an email at
wordfaq@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to let me know.
**********************************************************
Chas Kenyon is a trial lawyer concentrating in criminal defense with a
long interest (obsession?) with making word processing work well in the
law office. His websites are: http://www.addbalance.com/index.htm
http://members.aol.com/~marspd/index.html
**********************************************************
******************STATION BREAK********************
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(10.) TINA'S FRONTPAGE NEWS
~~Tina Clarke, AccessFP - Frontpage Resource Centre
GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING
Adding graphics to your web pages can enhance the effect
they present, however they need to be controlled and managed.
This is because graphics can spiral your web size, so quality, type, and
the number of graphics are important to maintain order. Not to mention
checking for orphan files periodically.
There are a number of methods you can use to do this.
*Resize
*Resample
*Use a low resolution graphic
*Use interlaced gifs
*Define the size and weight of a graphic
*Insert Alt tags
To Edit a picture in FrontPage click it once to select it and the
Picture toolbar will appear. If you do not select an image the Picture
toolbar will remain greyed out.
The Picture Toolbar has lots of useful features but it's still not as
good as a real photo-editing program, like the one that comes with
FrontPage (Photo Editor).
To edit a picture in a separate program, double click it. If FrontPage
tells you that it has no Picture Editor assigned, click ok, then select
Tools | Options, click the Configure Editors tab, click the Add button,
and then in the 'Add Editor Association' dialog box, enter the file
extension, the name of the editor, and the location of the program.
Which should be: C:\Program Files\ Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PhotoEd
To put graphics on your web page the best way to do this without running
into trouble is:
Lets say you want to insert an affiliate logo. You right click the image
in the browser and click 'Save Image As' in the pop up box navigate to
the images folder of your web and save it there.
Next go to FrontPage and Press the insert icon or go to
Insert | Picture | From File if the file name does not appear in the
listing click the icon on the far right 'Select a file on your computer'
navigate to your web's image folder and select the image you just saved
press ok and your image will appear on the page.
Resize
Resizing a picture by dragging one of the side handles will change the
aspect ration of the image, making it appear stretched unless this is
intentional resize the picture by dragging one of the corner handles.
To resize a picture to some precise height or width, right-click on it
and choose properties from the pop up menu, then select the Appearance
tab and check 'Specify Size, enter the height of width of the image in
pixels or as a percentage of the original size. You can also increase
the horizontal or vertical spacing around a picture if you find your
text or other content is lying too close to the picture.
Resample
Make sure that after you have resized a picture you resample it, this is
because in doing so you change the file size of the image file itself,
plus it can sharpen up the picture. If a picture is too small or has not
been resized then this feature will be greyed out.
In Page view, click the picture that you have resized. On the Pictures
toolbar, click the Resample icon.
Use a low-resolution graphic
Making your site 'seem' faster might be the next best thing to actually
making it download faster.
You can display a low-resolution version of a graphic while the site
visitor's Web browser is downloading the final version. This feature is
useful when you have a large or high-resolution picture. If the picture
is an image map, site visitors with slow Internet connections can
proceed to click hotspots based on the low-resolution picture, without
having to wait for the entire high-resolution picture to finish
downloading.
One trick is to use a black and white version.
First you must create a low-resolution version of your picture. Open
your picture in a graphics program, such as Microsoft Image Composer,
and reduce the colour depth (number of
colours) in the picture. The fewer colours you specify for the
low-resolution version of the picture, the faster it will be displayed
in a Web browser. Because the low- resolution picture is intended as a
placeholder for the high-resolution picture, you should not change the
height or width of the picture.
Note: Some Web browsers do not support this feature.
In Page view, right-click the picture, click Picture Properties on the
pop up menu, and then click the General tab. In the Low-Res box, type
the file name for the alternate low-resolution picture, or click Browse
to locate it.
This method isn't actually making your pages any faster. In fact, it
increases overall download time by adding an extra image. However if
done in the right way the page will seem more responsive because users
will get something to look at sooner.
Use interlaced gifs
If you want to change the format of a picture or overrule FrontPage's
rule of converting 256-colour (and less) images to Gifs and greater to
Jpegs, right click the picture to select it and choose Picture
Properties from the popup menu. Go to the General tab.
To convert to Gif format, click the gif radio button and check
Transparent if you want the gif to have a transparent colour, and
interlaced if you want the gif to load more quickly. There can be only
one transparent colour in any picture.
To convert to jpeg format, click the jpeg radio button, and choose the
percentage of the original file size to which you would like to compress
the image.
Note: The lower the number the lower the quality, the default optimal
setting is 75.
Increase the number of 'Progressive Passes' box if you want
the jpeg to seem to appear more quickly--which will be at the cost of
more downloading overall. The default is four passes.
Interlacing paints the image on the screen as a series of interleaved
horizontal lines that are gradually filled in, like Venetian blinds
opening. This gives users a sneak preview of the image so they can
decide whether they want to keep waiting for the full image to appear.
Define the size and weight of a graphic
A image's height, width and weight properties should be
defined because of the way browsers load pages, when the browser reads a
page of html, it generates a list of images for the entire page, and
then it builds the page but it has to wait for each image to download
before it can display each piece of text. However if you specify an
images height and width, the browser can then allocate screen space for
that image so that the text can be displayed but leave a correctly sized
space for each web graphic, which of course cuts down the amount of time
it takes for visitors to start reading your page.
Alt tags
Some people especially on slow connections may use a
text-only browser, or they may browse with their images turned off,
others may be vision impaired. To make sure your site is 'viewable' by
everyone help these users, so set alternate text for each of your
images. Doing so lets them know what they're missing.
FrontPage by default will set the alternate text (alt tag) by displaying
the name of the image file and the download size, but by inserting an
alt tag of your own your not only helping others your helping yourself,
because search engines take note of alt tags within your html, and they
can help increase your position within SE's. Especially if you use
keywords that appear on the page the image is on.
To help you figure out the bytes and the height and width of a graphic
and to make sure you have remembered to insert alt tags on all your
graphics I recommend the FREE FrontPage Add-on TP_ErrOmi, which you can
obtain from: http://solution-shelf.com/ Read the help files before
running it as you need to set your own options to suit yourself.
FrontPage Image Tips:
To keep a check on weather graphics you have saved in your
web are actually in use, Implement the following method.
Go to 'Hyperlink View' make sure 'Folder List' is active as well. View |
Folder List.
Click the Images folder where you store all your graphics and click on
the first graphic.
In the right hand pane you can see the icon representing the graphic. If
the graphic is in use there will be lines radiating off it to the
page(s) concerned, if not there will be none present.
You might think using the unlinked files report will do the job just as
well but that is not so. When I check through my graphics some are
linked some are unlinked, by clicking on a graphic in the unlinked files
and then switching to the 'Hyperlinks View' the graphic remains selected
and is highlighted in the 'Folders List' you can then check on it's
linked or unlinked status in the right hand pane.
Note: If your web contains files located in hidden folders, those files
will not be included in the report feature. To include files in hidden
folders in your reports, click Tools | Web Settings | Click 'Advanced'
tab, and then select the 'Show documents in hidden directories' check
box.
If the graphic is no longer in use you can either delete it or save to a
spare web for future use. To delete right click the graphic in 'Folder
List' while still in 'Hyperlinks View' and choose delete.
To save it It's best to have another copy of FrontPage open in the spare
web where your going to store it and drag the image across to the other
web. To bring up the other instance of FrontPage simply hover over the
icon in the start bar without letting go of the graphic your dragging
and it will pop up you can then release the graphic into the images
folder of the Spare web.
Always store your images in a separate directory. FrontPage
automatically creates an images folder for this purpose.
It's also important on how you name your images, naming
them so they make sense, they will appear in alphabetical
order so you want to make related images show up next to
one another. For instance your navigational images could be named
hnhome.gif hnsearch.giv hntoc.gif hnabout.gif (hn stands for Home
Navigation). This way the hn's will show up alphabetically together in
the directory if they were to have rollovers they could be names
hnohome.gif (hno standing for Home Navigation On ) You could continue
this throughout the entire site by using names such as sn for Sub
Navigation or pi for Product Images.
Create your own standards, but the keep the names short and
to the point but still make sure you can figure out what they are. While
you are naming graphic files it's a good idea to always use lower case
and if possible no spaces if you need a space use a under score _ for a
space. This helps if you move servers, Notably Unix servers have trouble
with upper case text and spaces, not to mention Netscape.
If you get the dreaded red "X" Instead of Images, here are a number of
possibilities why this may be so.
1 The url address or path for your image is incorrect within your html.
2 You might be using a picture format that will not display for example
a bitmap.
3 Does the name of your image or the directory it's in contain capital
letters, spaces or invalid characters? Unix servers won't tolerate this.
4 Your gif and jpeg files are not associated with your browser through
Windows.
One other thing you should be aware of if all the above have no effect
is to check the properties of the folder containing the images. You do
this by right-clicking the image in the folder list. The 'Files can be
Browsed' and 'Scripts can be Run' check boxes should be checked.
Happy editing.
**********************************************************
Tina Clarke is the Webmaster of AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
http://accessfp.net/ and an editor of "AnyFrontPage Bytes Ezine".
Subscribe to the FrontPage ezine and get FREE FrontPage E-Books upon
joining. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes
**********************************************************
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Do you want to know the latest on FrontPage? Do you want Tips, news,
articles, links and ebooks on FrontPage? Well the AnyFrontPage Bytes
Ezine is the best place for your FrontPage and web crafting needs, join
up at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes
Are you looking for resources for FrontPage? Want to know where all
the best FP links are? The hosts, the lists, the forums? Use AccessFP -
FrontPage Resources Centre as the start site for your FrontPage
Information facts. http://accessfp.net/
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: It is recommended that you read the online version of
the following article which includes pictures and might make this
clearer for you. http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/hal5.htm
**********************************************************
(11.) HAL'S HARDWARE HAVEN
~~Hal Cardon, PC Sleuth
System Requirements
Hello again! Judging from your comments, it seems that last months
column seems to have been a little too geeky for many of you. I'll try
not to do that to you again. As always if you have any comments, please
e-mail me at abcomputers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
This month's column is about those cryptic boxes on the side
or bottom of software and hardware boxes. System requirements are the
minimum recommendations for Hardware or Software.
For software they often include
* CPU type and/or speed
* Amount of RAM installed
* Free Hard Drive space needed
* Video and Sound capabilities
* Operating System
For hardware they often include the above plus:
* Type of Expansion slot needed
* Type of free External Port
* Type of free Internal Port
* Free IRQ(s)
Why should I care about System Requirements?
System Requirements are important to you because they let
you know whether or not your purchase will work with your computer. If
you have ever purchased something for your PC that didn't work, chances
are your PC didn't meet the minimum system requirements for the item.
This can be especially frustrating with software because many vendors
will not let you return an opened box for a refund.
What do I need to know?
* Processor type and speed
* Amount of RAM installed
* Operating system
* Free Hard Drive Space
* CD or DVD Drive
* Video Card
* Sound Card
* Available Slots and their type (ISA, PCI or AGP)
* Available IRQ
* Internal drive bays available
* Internal connectors available
* External connectors available
How can I check My System?
To accurately check System Requirements, you need to know
your systems capabilities. There are several different ways to
check:
* Check your system's documentation
* Check with your hardware vendor
* Use a third party utility
* Check your system manually
Checking your system's documentation
Often your system vendor will include the details of your system on an
invoice or bill of sale. You may also find your system's details on a
sticker that came on the front of the system.
Checking with your hardware vendor
Some major brands also offer a way to find out what hardware was
included in your system via the internet. I do this for people that buy
PCs from me; you can see an example here.
http://www.pcsleuth.com/clients/sample.htm
You may need to call your system vendor to find out what hardware came
with your system.
Third party utilities
There are quite a few software utilities that can help you identify your
system components. Here are some examples:
* One of my favorites is Belarc Advisor; it is a free download and is
available here. http://www.belarc.com
* Another free one is SiSoft's Sandra. Sandra does a good job of
identifying your hardware components, and it also includes tips to help
you optimize your system. Sandra is available here.
http://www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra
* If you have Norton Utilities installed (it is part of Norton
SystemWorks) then you can use their system information
utility, just right click on my computer and choose System information.
Checking your System manually
Checking your system manually can be easy to do if things go right.
* First reboot your computer and read the boot-up screens
from the BIOS. If things go too fast you can press the Pause/Break key
on the keyboard (press Enter or Escape to continue booting). From the
first boot-up screen you should be able to read the processor type and
speed and the amount of memory installed. Unfortunately a lot of major
manufactures hide this information with a custom logo boot-up screen.
* After your computer boots, Right Click on My Computer and select
Properties, this screen will let you know the amount of installed RAM,
Processor type and Operating System.
* Now click on the tab for Device Manager (in Windows 2000
or XP click on the Hardware Tab and then the Device Manager button).
The device manager is Windows' repository for the hardware installed in
your system. You can find out the details for a specific device by
clicking on the plus sign next to each category.
* How you check for IRQ usage varies by Operating System.
o To check your IRQ usage in Windows 9.X highlight Computer
at the top of the Device Manager and then click on Properties. On the
View Resources tab, make sure the radio button for Interrupt Request
(IRQ) is pushed.
o To check you IRQ usage in Windows 2000 or XP drop down
the view menu in the Device Manager and select Resources by Type, click
on the plus sign next to Interrupt Request (IRQ).
* IRQs are important for hardware devices; they are how the
CPU contacts a device on the PCI, ISA or AGP bus. Often
Video and Sound cards require their own IRQ. In most
Windows systems you are limited to a total of 16 IRQs (0 - 15). Some
Windows 2000 and XP systems that are PCI 2.2 compliant allow the use of
additional virtual IRQs. Well behaved PCI devices can share an IRQ, ISA
devices can not share IRQs.
* Close the Device Manager and Double Click on My Computer.
Now right click on each Hard Drive and choose properties, the Free Space
number is the amount of space available on your hard drive.
* To check on your Video and Sound card capabilities, Press Start then
Run and type in dxdiag and then Press Enter, starting the DirectX
Diagnostics tool. From DirectX Diagnostic tool, you can learn about
your video and sound cards by clicking on the appropriate tabs.
* To check for free slots, you will have to remove the cover from your
PC and look inside. The long black slots are ISA slots (newer PCs may
not have any). The shorter white slots are PCI slots. The Brown slots
that are the same length as the PCI slots and usually at the top of the
motherboard are AGP slots.
* To check for free internal connectors again you need to have your PC
open. If you need an IDE or EIDE connector, those are the fat gray
ribbon cables that connect to your hard drive and CD drive. Just look
at the cables for an empty connector. Each cable can handle a maximum of
2 devices. Make sure that you aren't looking at the floppy cable, the
connectors and ribbon types are different. Floppy drive cables and
connectors are smaller than those for hard drives
* To check for a free drive bay, again the cover needs to be off your
computer. Look inside and you will see your CD or DVD ROM drive, it is
in a 5 1/4 "bay, look around and find your Floppy drive, it is in a 3
1/2" bay. Now take look around for empty drive bays, those are
available for expansion. It is possible to use a 3 1/2" device in a 5
1/4" bay with an adapter kit. If the device you want to add needs to
accessed from outside the system (like a Zip or CD drive) then the bay
you want to use must have a removable cover.
* External ports are very easy to check for. Just look at the back of
your computer for the appropriate port. Some external port types are:
o Serial Port - Male D shaped connectors with 9 or 25 pins.
o Parallel Port - Female D Shaped connector with 25 Pins.
o VGA - Female D Shaped connector with 15 Pins.
o PS/2 - Round 6 wire connectors, they are specific to either Keyboard
or Mouse.
o AT Keyboard connector - Round port about the size of a cigar
o USB - Rectangular Jack
o Firewire - Elongated D shaped 6 wire jack
o RJ11 - Standard 4 wire telephone jack
o RJ45 or Ethernet - Looks like a fat (8 wire) modular telephone jack.
Caveats
If you are considering an Operating System change or
upgrade, like moving to Linux or upgrading to Windows XP,
you need to compare your hardware with the HCL (Hardware Compatibility
List) for that OS. The best place to find this list is on the vendor's
website. Microsoft has even created an Upgrade Advisor for Windows XP
which is available here.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/howtobuy/upgrading/advisor.asp
In general an OS upgrade or switch requires that you check every piece
of Hardware and Software on your system.
Summary
Hopefully you found this useful. I know there is a lot of information
here (I even left out SCSI!) but there are quite a few things to
consider when you are going to buy an upgrade for your computer. I
recommend that you create a list of what your computer has from the list
above at "What do I need to know?", and take it with you when go
shopping.
Let me know what you think, e-mail me at abcomputer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hal Cardona
PC Sleuth
***********************************************************
Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth, 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.
http://www.pcsleuth.com
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E-Living is your New Zealand owned and operated Internet portal! We
offer web design, a monthly technology e-zine, and 11 e-mail mailing
lists E-Mail Address: jeremy.naylor@xxxxxxxxxxx Web Site URL:
http://e-living.8m.com
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(12.) JACK'S INTERNET CONNECTION
~~Jack Teems, Neat Net Tricks
I THOUGHT YOU'D NEVER ASK
Just in case you need a little practice before you get on
that show with Regis, here's a "Fastest Finger" exercise
for you:
Arrange the following in the order in which they occurred,
with the earliest event first:
*The Beatles play for the Queen of England.
*Dr. Strangelove introduces theatergoers to nuclear holocaust. *U.S.
Survey probe lands safely on the moon. *Marc Andreesen is born. *The
Internet is conceived.
Everything in this list is in the proper sequence except one. Conception
of the Internet preceded all the other events and occurred in 1962 when
the RAND Corporation began work into setting up communication networks
for military command and control. Soon after, a Department of Defense
agency developed a small network known as ARPANET to share data among
researchers within the United States. In 1969, 4 universities were
connected on ARPANET, Stanford Research Institute, UCLA, UC Santa
Barbara, and the University of Utah. Although the networking was
intended to share data for research, email quickly became the most
popular application and continues as the leading use of the Internet
today.
As early as 1973, ARPANET, then with 23 hosts, had gone international by
connecting to the University College in London and the Royal Radar
Establishment in Norway. The first commercial version of ARPANET opened
in 1974 and as the decade wound down, the Internet began to move away
from military and research applications, eventually winding up in nearly
everyone's home.
Now, if you need some trivia for the next cocktail party, remember these
tidbits:
Queen Elizabeth sent her first email message in 1976.
Although the backbone of the Internet was created much
earlier, the actual term "Internet" was not used for the first time
until 1982. The term "cyberspace" was coined in William
Gibson's novel "Neuromancer" in 1984 when there were just
over 1,000 hosts on the Internet. That number climbed to 10,000 in
1987, one million in 1992, and, in 1996, 10 million in 150 countries
around the world.
The first Internet worm was unleashed in 1988 and in that
same year new words such as "hacker," "cracker," and "electronic
break-in" became a part of our language.
The World Wide Web was born in 1991 but did not really
become available to us until 1993 with Mosaic, the first graphics-based
Web browser. That one single development accounted for a 341,634%
growth rate in traffic that year.
In 1994, Pizza Hut made history by accepting orders for a mushroom,
pepperoni pie with extra cheese over the Net.
Oh, and who is Marc Andreesen? He and a group of student programmers at
the University of Illinois drew up the plans for that first browser,
Mosaic.
Likely without even consulting Al Gore.
**********************************************************
NOTE FROM JACK: I'm afraid that I will be unable to
regularly write for ABC through the next few months. I will be on the
road by mid-October through Iowa, Indiana, then through the Gulf states
and back through Houston, Dallas, and finally wintering in Mesa,
Arizona. If things lighten up a bit after November, I might be able to
dash something off to you, but I'm afraid to commit at this point
because my plate will be rather full.
NOTE FROM LINDA: Have a great trip Jack...we sure hope
to see you again when you return!!
**********************************************************
Jack Teems has been publishing an ezine on the Internet for more than
five years. Now with a circulation closing in on 100,000, "Neat Net
Tricks" is read in more than 145 countries. You can subscribe FREE at
the Web site, http://www.NeatNetTricks.com .
**********************************************************
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(13.) JAMES' DATABASE
~~James La Borde
FORMS
Forms are the easiest way for the end user to enter data into your
database. There are three ways of creating a form. Each will be
discussed in some detail. The three methods are Auto-Form, the Form
Wizard and custom creation. Following the discussion of creation
methods several properties of the forms and their controls will be
discussed.
Auto-Form - The Easy Way Out
Auto Form is the simplest option in creating a form. It automatically
creates a form using all fields in your table. This can be very useful
to someone who has little experience at creating forms. There are
advantages and disadvantages to this method. The primary advantage is
speed. It only takes a few seconds for Access to create the form for
you. It is still modifiable so can be a useful step in creating more
complex forms. As far as disadvantages go, you are giving up control.
It automatically adds all fields rather you want them or not and does
not allow for some more complex form features. Auto-Form is a great tool
to learn to build your forms as you can use it and then view the
properties and all of the design behind it.
Form Wizard - Gaining a Little Control
The Form Wizard is a wonderful, step-by-step guide through creating a
form. It is another great tool for learning to build your own custom
forms. The Form Wizard gives the designer a greater amount of control
over how his/her form will be created. To use the form wizard simply
click the new button on the Forms tab. Next select the table or query
you choose to build a form on in the pull-down box at the bottom of the
resulting screen, then click on Form Wizard. The next paragraph or two
will cover each step in the Wizard, if you are more advanced and choose
to skip the remainder of this, skip ahead to "Custom Creation -Total
Control".
The first window that pops up in the wizard is the selection of fields.
You can either select all or any number of the fields in the given
table/query. This allows you to leave out fields such as auto-number,
which are useful to the designer but mean absolutely nothing to the end
user. After you have selected all of the fields you want, click next.
The next window to appear is the Layout Option. This is nice because as
you click on the different options a simple image of the layout will
appear on the screen. Try clicking through each of these to see what
your form's layout will look like. When you have decided which one you
like best, make sure it is selected and click 'Next'. Now the Style
option appears. There are several styles included with Access. Click
through each of them and as with the Layout option you will see a sample
of what it will look like. If you end up creating your own style after
you start creating your own forms, those too will show up in this screen
if you save them. After you have made your selection, click 'Next'. We
now arrive at our final page. You get to select the title for your form
(this will also be the name of it). You also get to select how the form
will first be displayed to you. Do you wish to see what has been
created? Then opt for the Open the Form option. If you would like to
do some customization on the form first, then select the Modify the
Form's Design option. Click Finish and you have a new form. We will
discuss some of the customization options in more detail a little later
in this article.
Now you have created your own form using the form wizard.
It gives the designer a great deal more control then the Auto-Form
option and again is a great tool to learn what you can do to create your
own form. For the most part, the Form wizard is an expedient way to get
the basics of your form set even if you choose to build your own custom
form.
Custom Creation - Total Control
Creating your own custom form is the best option to keep total control
in the design of your form. While it gives you total control; it is
also the most time consuming option as well. To take advantage of this
option, click on the 'New' button and select your table/query and then
click on Design View. This will give you a blank form with a default
size of 2" high by 5" wide. This is of course easily customizable as
you can change the dimension simply by grabbing an edge and dragging it.
By using this option, you open many new types of fields to your use in
the form. All of these new field types are available on a toolbar that
is called the toolbox.
The toolbox is a fantastic tool for placing almost any kind of field on
your form. Every item has a wizard available to walk you through the
details involved with that field type available. To utilize the wizard
for a field type, simply make sure that the wand on the toolbar is
depressed. Now, let's move on to the field types.
Label
A label is a simple filed type that allows the designer to label a field
or to put a message that will not change across instances of the form.
The form's user can not change this field.
Text Box
This is a field where data from the table/query will be displayed and/or
entered. This is the most commonly used field in most forms.
Option Group
This is a bound set of options that limit the user's ability to enter
data into the selected field. This can be useful in a 'Ship by' field
where you only want to give the end user a few options.
Toggle Button
This can be linked to a Yes/No field. It is depressed to identify yes.
If you are tracking your Beanie Baby collection, you can use this button
to identify whether or not the particular beanie is retired.
Option Button
This is a small circle that is either filled in, or empty. It is the
used to display which option is selected in an option group.
Check Box
Similar to a Toggle Button, this field is used to identify a yes
(checked) or a no (unchecked).
Combo Box
This is a list of valid entries that can be entered in a field, the list
can be viewed by clicking on the pull-down box in the field or the user
can simply start typing and the option will appear once a unique
character is entered. This field is similar to the next type, the list
box but takes up less room as the items are only displayed when the box
is clicked. This field type also allows the designer to decide whether
the end user can add unlisted options or not.
List Box
Similar to a combo box with a couple small differences.
The available entries are listed in a displayed box. This box is there
whether the user selects it or not. The user is not allowed to enter
unlisted items, however, the designer can allow for multiple selections.
Image
This one is fairly obvious folks, you can insert an image into your
form.
Unbound Object Frame
This would be used if you wished to place an image on a form that you
may wish to update frequently or link to a portion of an Excel
spreadsheet.
Bound Object Frame
This option is where you would put a static picture or image. Microsoft
uses the example of an employee picture or a linked resume in word that
appears as an icon. The main difference between unbound and bound is
the frequency of change in the object.
Page Break
Another obvious one.
Tab Control This allows you to set up tabs on your form, you may wish to
have users enter data broken down into categories and each tab can be a
different category.
Sub-form/sub-report
This field type allows you to insert an entire other form or report as a
part of the current form. This will allow you to allow the user to
update linked tables at the same time as the main
table. This option also works quite well when combined with
the Tab Control option. You can insert various linked tables on to each
tab using a sub-form.
Line
A simple image of a line.
Rectangle
This is another basic drawing tool.
Now that we have discussed the main types of fields available lets look
at one final tool. There is a Field Box icon located on the main
toolbar that brings up a box listing every field in your table/query.
By dragging any of these to your form, you will end up with a basic
label and text box that are linked together. Move one and the other
moves with it.
Now that we have our tools, let's build our own form. Let us assume we
are creating an employee form.
In our example we will have the following Employees table:
FirstName - Text
LastName - Text
Department - Long Integer
HireDate - Date
Manager - Text
Benefits - Yes/No
Picture - OLE object
And a Departments table that includes:
DeptNum - Long Integer or AutoNumber
DepartmentName - Text
To build a form for the Employees table we will follow these steps:
We will drag the firstname and lastname fields onto our form from the
Field List. This will give us our labels and text boxes for them and we
will place them appropriately.
Next you will notice that we have a department field that has an integer
data type. That is going to allow us to use the Departments table as a
source for our Combo Box.
We will select a combo box for this field type. After we have selected
this option we will go into the properties tab for the box. Click on the
All tab and find the row labeled Row Source Type, this will be table
query.
Next is the Row Source - simply click the down arrow and
select the Departments table. Enter 2 for Column count, and enter 0,2
for the Column Widths Option.
Finally enter a 1 in the bound columns field. What this just
accomplished is that the user will now see the department name from the
Departments table, however, the deptnum is the field that our table will
store. This saves space in the database as each employee gets a simple
number in the table but the appropriate data is displayed.
Next we will use another label and text box combination for the HireDate
field. For Manager we can either use the label and text box combination
or we can use a list box, just to see an example. You would simply
create an additional table similar to Departments for Managers and set
the fields appropriately. This will show all the managers in a box that
stays open. For Benefits lets use the Check Box, this is the simplest
way to view a yes/no field.
Last but not least is our picture and we will opt for a Bound Image
Frame.
If you followed along you should now be able to save your
form and view it.
Now that we have seen what we can do with our own custom
form, let's move on to what we can do to make that form even more
powerful.
Form Properties - Strengthening Control
The Form Properties give the designer the ability to add a greater
degree of control to the form itself. This section will be a basic
overview of what the various form properties are and how they can be
used. If you would like to follow along, open your form in design view
and open the property box, then click on the All tab. This will not be
an all-inclusive list but will cover the key properties:
Record Source
This is the most important part of any form.
This is where we tell the form what table we are pulling the data from
and storing the data in. This field can be left blank!
Filter
This can allow only certain records to appear in your form.
Order By
This allows you to set in what order the records will be seen.
Caption
This is the title that displays at the top of your form.
Allow Edits
This is one of the most powerful properties in the form Properties. By
setting this appropriately you can allow a user to only enter new data
and not edit old data.
Allow Deletions
Another powerful tool. You can prevent the user from
deleting records.
Allow Additions
The third of the Power trio, this tool allows you to prevent users from
adding records.
Data Entry
Similar to the Power Trio. This option allows you to force the users
into entering only new data and not only prevents them from editing or
deleting old data but from even viewing it.
Close Button
This allows you to remove the close button at the top corner of your
form. This forces the user to use your designed way out if you so
choose.
There are obviously many other properties for each form, but these are
the basic ones that allow you the greatest control over the form itself.
Field Properties - Refining Your Control
As you have now found, the designer has a great deal of
control in what he/she allows their user to do. By using the Field
Properties in conjunction with the form properties you
can refine that control even further. We are now going to take
a look at some of the refined control that we can gain by using the
field properties. We will concentrate on two tabs on the field
properties.
Data Tab:
Input Mask
An input mask restrict the data that can be entered and sets how the
entered data will be displayed.
Validation Rule
This allows you to set parameters for what data can be
entered. For example, you can set a validation rule that would prevent
the user from entering an expired credit card.
Validation Text
This allows you to set the text of the message that displays when the
user enters a value outside of your specifications.
Enabled
This tells Access whether the field can have the focus set on it.
Locked
This is the partner of Enabled. It determines whether not data in this
particular field can be edited.
Other Tab:
Tab Stop
This tells the form whether or not you want a tab to enter through this
field.
Tab Index
This allows the designer to specify what order the fields are tabbed
through. This can be very useful if you want them entered in a
non-linear fashion. One important tip: The tab index starts with 0.
By utilizing these properties you can refine the control you have over
all aspects of a form's usage. The features on the Data tab are among
some of the most powerful safeguards that Access gives the developer in
protecting the integrity of the data once it is turned over to the end
user. Still further control can be gained by using the Event tab but
that is far beyond the basics we are covering here.
Switchboards - Another Use for Forms
If you noticed that I mentioned that the Data Source could be left blank
for a form and wondered in what event that could ever take place, here
is your answer - Switchboards! A switchboard is a navigational tool.
This is how the developer can get the user from one part of their
database to another. They have no data source, as they are merely a
collection of buttons with either code or macros behind them to move the
user as seamlessly as possible from one for to another.
Final Word on Forms
As we have now learned Forms are an integral part of our database.
Without them the end user is free to wander aimlessly through our
database and to pretty much do whatever they wish with it. Using forms
we can not only control what they view and/or enter but also how they
get there. Yes, creating a good form with all of the properties set to
levels appropriate to the user's needs may be tedious. However, it is
vital if you are to protect the data once it is out of your control. As
an experienced Access user, I can assure you that the form wizards are
great tools to get you started. They will teach you the basics and even
after you have the experience, they will get the basic stuff into your
form much more quickly than you can.
Thank you for your time and patience,
James
**********************************************************
James La Borde works in the computer department at a Credit Union, where
he uses Access, SQL Server, VBA, and ODBC daily.
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: It is recommended that you read the online version of
the following article which includes pictures and might make this
clearer for you. http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/parker5.htm
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
(14.) PARKER'S MAILBOX
~~Parker Renaud, IT Manager, Colliers Keenan, Inc.
DELEGATING FOLDER ACCES IN OUTLOOK
In the last two issues of the newsletter, I have shown you two ways to
share information with others on your network. Today we will talk about
the third way - "Delegating". The difference between delegating and just
giving someone permission to access to your folders is that delegating
is the only way to give someone "Send-on-behalf-of privileges" or
permission to respond in your name.
What can a delegate do?
A delegate has the same authority as someone to whom
you have given permissions, plus the added authority to
respond in your name. A delegate can be given access
to the same six folders to which you can give permissions.
To name a delegate, go to Tools>Options and select the delegates tab.
Once you select a delegate, a window will appear.
In this window you can select the permission the delegate has in
different areas of Outlook. You can set one of four levels of authority
for each area.
None - meaning your delegate has no access to this function.
Reviewer - gives the authority to Read items.
Author - can read and create items.
Editor - Can read, create, and modify items.
Check the box "Automatically send a message to delegate summarizing
these permissions" to give your delegate written confirmation. If you
have Private items in one of these folders, you can check "Delegate can
see my private items" if you wish to share them.
How does your delegate access your folders? It is very easy
in Outlook 2000:
*Click on File>Open>Other Users Folder.
*Select the name of the "other person" and the folder to which you have
access. *The folder will then open in a new window.
To send a message on behalf of the individual who made you their
delegate:
*In Outlook, running under your own profile, display a new mail message.
*Click View>From Field. This will add the "From" field to the header at
the top of the message template. *Click on the From field and select the
name of the person on whose behalf you are sending the message. *Type
the body of the message, fill in the Subject and Recipient's address,
and click Send.
The recipient will only see the name of the person on whose behalf the
message was sent in their Inbox Information Viewer. However, when the
message is opened, in the message header itself, the recipient will see
something such as "Terry Smith on behalf of Parker Renaud". The
recipient is not misled as to the identity of the sender.
If you attempt send a message from a user who has not made
you a delegate, you will get an error message which says "You do not
have the permission tp send the message on behalf of the specified
user."
If you travel frequently, do not have reliable access to your corporate
e-mail on the road, and have a trusted assistant, it is good business
practice to make that assistant your delegate.
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
Parker Renaud is the one-man IT department at Colliers Keenan where he
manages 90 PCs on 5 servers.
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
(15.) CHAD'S MACRO MANIA
Chad K. Welch
If you want to check conditions, then read this article
END IF
____________________
May I take this moment to briefly step off topic and express
my sympathy and condolences to the many people who have
given so much for freedom's sake since the last issue of ABC. My hat
goes off to all the men and women heroes who are striving daily for the
well being of all humanity world-wide. As I'm finishing up this edition
I have the TV tuned to
"America: A Tribute to Heroes"" Who would have ever thought that Willy
Nelson would bring tears to my eyes. God bless the USA and those who
serve her!
Chad
____________________
Well, we are finally going to start delving deeper into VBA. The last
couple of issues have addressed the Macro Recorder. It is a wonderful
tool, but let's face it, the recorder cannot record all of the things
available in VBA. What if you only want to execute a piece of code if
certain conditions are met? How do you repeat a piece of code more than
once? Trust me, there are better ways than just running the macro over
and over.
Let's examine what is known as the If statement. The
examples used this month are written in VBA for Word, but keep in mind
that the same structures work in any VBA application. The structure of
the If statement (for what it's worth) is:
If condition Then
[statements]
[ElseIf condition-n Then
[else if statements]...
[Else
[else statements]]
End If
The condition represents any statement that returns a True or False. If
the condition is true then all statements between the first line and the
first ElseIf, Else or End If are executed. If the condition is false,
the program will skip over all statements in the True part of the
structure. If there is an ElseIf statement another condition will be
tested. If that condition is True, the statements between that ElseIf
and the next ElseIf, Else or End If is executed. If none of the
conditions are met then the statements between the Else and the End If
(if the Else exists) are executed.
Wow, that was a big confusing paragraph. Let's look at some examples to
see how an If statement really works. Here is a very basic If
statement. It contains only the bare minimum: If, condition, Then,
statement and End If.
If x = 1 Then
x = 2
End If
That seems pretty simple, right? If x equals 1 then set x equal to 2.
If x does not equal 1 then nothing happens. Now let's look at a little
bigger If statement and work through it:
Sub IfStructure()
If Selection.Font.ColorIndex = wdBlue Then
MsgBox "This text is Blue"
ElseIf Selection.Font.ColorIndex = wdBrightGreen Then
MsgBox "This text is Bright Green"
ElseIf Selection.Font.ColorIndex = wdDarkBlue Then
MsgBox "This text is Dark Blue"
ElseIf Selection.Font.ColorIndex = wdDarkRed Then
MsgBox "This text is Dark Red"
Else
MsgBox "This text is not blue, bright green, dark blue or dark
red"
End If
End Sub
This If statement contains four conditions using three ElseIf parts.
Remember if the first condition isn't met it will skip to the first
ElseIf. If that condition isn't met, it skips to the second ElseIf, and
so on. If none of the conditions are met, the Else part of the
structure is executed.
As you can imagine, this structure can quickly get big. An easier way
to manage multiple conditions is with the Case structure. The Case
structure is laid out as follows:
Select Case test expression
[Case expression list-n
[statements-n]].
[Case Else
[else statements]]
End Select
We can rewrite the if structure above to:
Sub CaseStructure()
Select Case Selection.Font.ColorIndex
Case Is = wdBlue
MsgBox "This text is Blue"
Case Is = wdBrightGreen
MsgBox "This text is Bright Green"
Case Is = wdDarkBlue
MsgBox "This text is Dark Blue"
Case Is = wdDarkRed
MsgBox "This text is Dark Red"
Case Else
MsgBox "This text is not blue, bright green, dark blue or
dark red"
End Select
End Sub
You'll notice in the If statement all of the conditions compare the font
color. The first line of the Case structure also checks the font color.
Then each possible Case checks the other half of the conditions in the
If statement. The lines between the Cases are executed if the
particular Case is True. If none of the Cases are True then the
statements following the Case Else are executed.
If and Case structures have many uses. Put one or two of
those in your macros that you record (or write from scratch), and you
are beginning to program like a pro!
Good Luck and Happy Coding!
Chad
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
Chad K. Welch works as a technician/enabler in Utah. He is available
for consulting or application programming with Microsoft Office and VBA.
Contact him directly for more information at chad@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: It is recommended that you read the online version of
the following article which includes pictures and might make this
clearer for you. http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/corey5.htm
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
(16.) COREY'S NETWORK CORNER
Corey Seaton
CONFIGURING YOUR HOME NETWORK
SERVER
Go into the Windows Control Panel and choose "Network".
You'll see 3 tabs - Configuration, Identification and Access Control.
This may be slightly different in different versions of Windows (I'm
using Win98), but should be essentially the same.
We'll do the Identification tab first. For computer name, enter anything
you want (eg "Phil" if the owner of the computer is Phil). For
workgroup, put whatever you like, but each computer should be the same.
I use "WORKGROUP"! For computer description, put whatever you like.
Under "Access Control", make sure you've selected
"Share-level access control".
Now for the configuration tab. The first thing to do is add Microsoft
Family Logon. This isn't required for internet connection sharing, but
if you don't install it, every time Windows starts you'll get asked to
enter your networking password even if you haven't got one! Therefore I
highly recommend it. Installation of Microsoft Family Logon is achieved
by clicking "Add", choosing "Client" then clicking "Add", choosing
"Microsoft" on the left and "Microsoft Family Logon" on the right and
clicking "OK". After this is completed (you'll need your Windows CD
here) you'll be back to the basic network control panel screen. Now
change your Primary Network Logon to "Microsoft Family Logon".
Next you'll want to enable file and printer sharing. This also isn't
required for internet connection sharing, but is really useful and it'd
be a strange home network that didn't have this set up. To do this,
click on "File and Print Sharing", check the boxes to enable these
services, then click "OK".
Now you need to add the TCP/IP network protocol - "the" internet
protocol. It's probably already there since you already have the cable
modem connected to this computer, but you'll need to add it again so
that it works with the second network card in the server. Click "Add",
choose "Protocol" then click "Add", then choose "Microsoft" on the left
and "TCP/IP" on the right and click "OK".
At this point you'll have lots of stuff in the little box that says "The
following network components are installed:" The box will be a little
cluttered and should look like this: Client for Microsoft Networks;
Microsoft Family Login; [name of network card that you installed]; [name
of network card from cable modem provider, probably something like "SMC
EZ Card 10/100 (SMC1211TX"]; TCP/IP -> [name of network card]; TCP/IP ->
[name of other network card]; File and printer sharing for Microsoft
Networks.
If there are any other network components present, they can
and generally should be removed by clicking on each
component and then clicking "Remove"; however if you have
any dial-up adapters installed (they'll say "Dial-Up Adaptor") then you
may want to keep "Dial-Up Adapter" and "TCP/IP -> Dial-Up Adapter" so
that you can still use your modem to dial in to the internet. If you
just want to send faxes you only need "Dial-Up Adapter".
You should also set this to be the "default protocol", that is, the
default method for the server to connect to the internet. This is done
by clicking on the "Advanced" tab and making sure the "Set this protocol
to be the default protocol" box is checked.
You're done configuring "TCP/IP -> [name of network card
from cable modem provider]", so click "OK".
Now configure "TCP/IP -> [name of network card you bought]"
for the server. Click on it and then click "Properties". In the "IP
Address" tab, select "Specify an IP address" and enter 192.168.0.1 as
the IP address and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask. In "WINS
Configuration" click "Disable WINS Resolution". Make sure "Gateway" is
all blank. In "DNS Configuration", click "Disable DNS". In "Bindings",
make sure "Client for Microsoft Networks", "File and Printer Sharing for
Microsoft Networks" and "Microsoft Family Login" are all checked. Don't
change anything in "NetBIOS" unless you know what you're doing.
Lastly, click on the "Advanced" tab. You may want to enable full duplex
mode on the network card. This makes the card transfer data a little
faster. You can do this if the computers are connected directly or via a
switch (ie a hub with switching capabilities), but not if the computers
are connected to a non-switching hub, or via coaxial cables. To enable
full duplex, change the appropriate setting in this section - I know
this sounds a bit vague, but the exact way to do it is different for
different cards. It's generally pretty self-explanatory.
You've now finished configuring the server computer! Click
"OK" to exit the TCP/IP section, "OK" again to exit the
Network Control Panel, and restart your computer when
Windows asks you to.
And that's about it. You've just completed another step in the process
of setting your up your own network.
Until next time,
Happy Networking!
Corey
**********************************************************
Corey Seaton is a Systems Support Officer with Queensland Health. He
also moderates an email group on Home Networking. Why don't you join and
talk to others who are networking their home PCs?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/networkinghelp
**********************************************************
******************STATION BREAK********************
**********************************************************
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**********************************************************
(17.) VIC'S REGISTRY ROUNDUP
~~ Vic Ferri, Windows Tips & Tricks
BACKING UP & RESTORING THE WINDOWS REGISTRY
It is always wise to back up your registry before making any changes to
it. This applies, especially, to the novice or to anyone who isn't
certain of the effects the changes being made will have on the operating
system. One little mistake with reg editing can take down Windows to
the point of not being able to boot. Backing up the registry before
editing makes any errors you make repairable and thus registry editing
becomes safe, rather than risky.
There are several ways to backup the registry. However in this article,
I will focus on the auto and manual methods built into Windows.
Windows 95
Auto Backup
The Windows 95 registry is made up of two files, SYSTEM.DAT
and USER.DAT , located in your Windows folder. These
registry files are backed up automatically after every successful start
of Windows. The backed up files are named SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 and
are also located in your Windows directory. Should Windows fail to start
due to a registry error, you will be prompted to restart your computer
to restore your registry. During the reboot, the backed up da0 files are
used to restore your registry to the previous state it was before the
error. This method, however, is by no means fail proof.
It is quite common to end up with corrupted dat and da0 files. This can
easily happen when restarting after a bad regedit. Therefore, it is wise
to manually back up the registry before making any system changes.
Windows 95 also contains an additional system.dat backup file called
System.1st located in your root drive (usually c:) This represents your
registry as it was when you first installed Windows. If your registry
becomes so corrupted that you can not recover it, you can always try
replacing c:\windows\system.dat with c:\system.1st and then renaming
system1st, system.dat. In my experience, however, this rarely works and
it's usually easier to just do a reinstall. The reason is that System1st
is very bare bones; it doesn't include all the many programs you may
have installed after installing Windows.
Manual Backup
In Windows 95, manually backing up the Registry is a simple matter of
copying system.dat and user.dat and saving them to a safe location
(personally, I back up my registry files to a Windows folder named Reg).
Note, that by default, dat files are hidden, so you must have Show All
Files enabled to find these files. To do that: In any folder, click
View>Options>View and then check Show All Files.
Restoring
Should the registry become corrupt, you can use your backed
up files to restore it. To that, you would restart your computer in
native DOS and at the C:\> prompt, type the following commands, pressing
Enter after each one (in this example, it is assumed your backed up reg
files are in C:\Windows\Reg)
attrib -h -s -r c:\windows\system.dat
attrib -h -s -r c:\windows\user.dat
attrib -h -s -r c:\windows\regbak\*.dat
copy c:\windows\regbak\system.dat c:\windows\system.dat /v /y copy
c:\windows\regbak\user.dat c:\windows\user.dat /v /y
Once the files are copied, reboot.
Scanreg in Windows 95
Scanreg from Windows 98\98se can also be used to back
up\ restore the registry in Windows 95.
Simply copy the 98 files, scanregw.exe and scanreg.exe to
your 95 hardrive. Both are self executing files. Double click
scanregw.exe and your registry will be scanned and then you will be
given the option to back it up.
The first backup you make will be placed in c:\windows\sysbckup in a cab
file named rb000.cab. See the details for scanreg in the Windows 98
section for more details.
Windows 98\98se
Registry Checker - Auto Backup & Restore
The Registry Checker (aka ScanReg) is a built-in Registry backup and
restore tool and comes in two versions - scanregw.exe which runs only in
Windows and scanreg.exe which runs only in DOS.
SCANREGW.EXE
The Windows Registry checker (scanregw.exe) scans your
Windows 98 Registry for errors once a day. If there are no errors, the
Registry Checker automatically backs up the Registry. If an error is
found, the Registry Checker automatically restores the most recent copy
of the Registry. The Registry Checker keeps, by default, five backup
copies of the Registry and stores them as .CAB files in
C:\Windows\Sysbckup. The first backup is called RB000.CAB, the second
RB001.CAB and so on. You can increase the number of backups created by
editing scanreg.ini and changing the MaxBackupCopies entry.
SCANREG
To back up your registry in DOS using scanreg, restart your computer in
DOS mode and at the DOS prompt type: scanreg /backup and press Enter.
Scanreg will back up your registry and then return a DOS prompt.
Restoring
In most cases, you will be restoring the Registry in DOS
mode using scanreg.exe.
Start Windows in native DOS mode - the easy way to do this
is to simply choose Restart in MS-DOS Mode from the
Shutdown menu or if you can't get into Windows, reboot.
Press F8 at the startup screen and then choose Command
Prompt Only from the 98 Boot Menu.
At the prompt, type scanreg / restore and follow the prompts.
You'll see a box listing each backup, the date each was created, as
well as information that tells you whether the backup has been used to
successfully start the operating system. All you need to do is select a
backup and press Enter.
To see all your scanreg options, type scanreg /? at the DOS prompt.
Manual Backup & Restore
You can also use the Registry Checker to backup the registry whenever
you choose. Click Start>Run and type in scanregw.exe to start the
Registry Checker. After scanning the Registry for errors, you will be
asked if you would like to make another backup of the Registry. Click
Yes.
As well you can manually backup the 98 Registry by copying system.dat
and user.dat which are in your Windows folder, to a safe place (same way
as in Windows 95) This is actually the easiest way to backup the
registry. It's just a matter of copying and pasting the two files to a
new folder. Note that these files are hidden by default. If you can't
find them, open any folder and click View>Folder Options>View tab and
choose Show All Files.
To restore the registry from your own backed up system.dat
and user.dat, follow the instructions presented for Windows 95.
Automating the Manual Backup & Restore of the Win9x Registry
The entire manual backup and restore of the Windows
95\98\98se Registry can be simplified with a couple of bat files that
when clicked will automatically backup or restore your Registry. Go
here for full instructions.
http://www.angelfire.com/on3/vxdoin2/RegBak.html
Windows 2000
Backup
Windows 2000 has the Windows 2000 Backup utility for
backing up the Registry. It's located in the the System Tools menu. When
you start it, you'll see an item called System State, under My Computer.
The System State is a collection of system specific data and as you will
see includes the Registry. Simply select Registry and click the Start
Backup button.
Another method of backing up the Registry in Windows 2000
is by rebooting your system and when you see the Please
Select the Operating System to Start message, press F8 and
then use arrow keys to select the Last Known Good
Configuration option and press Enter. This instantly restores the most
recent copy of the Registry. You can also use this method in Windows
NT.
Restore
To restore the Win2K Registry, start the Backup utility, select the
Restore tab, choose the backup media, and then select the System State
check box. Note that this not only restores the Registry, but all of the
System State data.
Windows Me
Scanreg is also part of Windows Me but the main restore
feature of Me is System Restore which automatically monitors and records
changes made to the essential Windows system files including the
registry. If your system becomes corrupt, System Restore allows you to
undo (or "roll back") a change that caused instability in your system.
To use, Click Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools,
and then click System Restore.
Click Restore my computer to an earlier time and click Next.
In the calendar that appears choose which Restore Point to
roll your system back to and click Next.
You will then be prompted to close all programs and reboot.
On restart, a confirmation screen appears. Click OK to
continue using your computer.
The next time you start System Restore, you will see a third option,
Undo my last restoration. This is available in the event that the
Restore Point you rolled back to does not correct the original problem
that you were having and so you can easily get back to the point in time
that you started troubleshooting. For more info on System Restore, click
here. http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q267/9/51.ASP
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**********************************************************
Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks email group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
and his website which accompanies it.
http://www.angelfire.com/on3/vxdoin2/windows.html
He is also in charge of the Printing Tips page at Linda's Computer Stop.
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/printing.htm
And, of course, now that you know how to backup the registry, don't miss
his great Registry Tips. http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/vic4.htm
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(18.) ANNA'S SAFETY BELT
~~ Anna Morvee
SCAMS:
Don't Be the Next Victim
Whenever there is a disaster, natural or manmade, it brings
out all the ugliness. The tragedies on September 11, 2001 brought out
some of the worst.
As you've read in the paper or seen on TV, the security experts are
warning of scams and cyber attacks. Many of the scams involve sending
emails to potential victims asking for donations for disaster relief and
victim's funds. They may take on a name that sounds official and
resembles a well-known organization such as the Salvation Army or the
Red Cross. They may ask you to donate money in the email and tell you
where to send it or they may have a web page set up that looks
professional where you fill out information, including your credit card.
There are a few things to look out for that will red flag a scam:
1. No contact information. If there is, it's bogus.
2. Asking for your credit card number, birthday or social security
number.
Any email or web site that asks that without you initiating the
transaction is a clear sign that it is a scam. Never give that
information out without knowing who you are dealing with.
3. Pleading and begging. Helping organizations don't beg or plead, nor
do they act on weaknesses and vulnerable times.
What can you do if you get a scam email?
It is a federal offence and should be reported to the FBI.
http://www.fbi.gov/interagency/ifcc/ifccoverview.htm
On September 10th, 2001, the FBI issued a statement before
the Senate about fraud against the elderly and those that are ill. They
mentioned several tactics that scammers use, including the computer as
ways to victimize. You can read that information here.
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress01/lormel0910.htm
There is also a Parents Guide for Internet Safety for Children you can
read or download here.
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm
The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) is a government
department that alerts and takes incident reports about cyber attacks
and other threatening actions that can or have been aimed at critical
points in the United States. I bring this up because it is a great
resource to check when you hear about a warning through email or through
the media. http://www.nipc.gov/
There are also other sites on the web that can offer a great deal of
information on how to protect yourself.
ScamBusters is a clearinghouse of information on all known scams and the
offer a free newsletter to keep you updated. There is also a great deal
of information on "emergency relief funds." http://scambusters.com/
If you DO want to help, there are many resources available
to you.
Helping.org is a clearinghouse for information on what you can do to
help. http://www.helping.org
So before you dig into your pocket and donate to an organization, make
sure you know who you are donating to and make sure they are legitimate.
**********************************************************
**********************************************************
Anna Morvee has been researching computer viruses and other Internet
safety issues for over five years. She now spends most of her time
educating the public about these things. She is also the Co-Founder and
Managing Editor of A Peace of Life, a site devoted to helping those that
have suffered any kind of abuse. http://www.apeaceoflife.com
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******************STATION BREAK********************
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NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: On my Windows page at Linda's
Computer Stop, I list many email groups that deal with Windows and other
related PC issues.....one of my favorites is PCTechTalk, a great group
for newbies and techies alike. It's run by a guy named Guitar Man and
he does a fantastic job.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PCTechTalk
You might be interested in subscribing to this free, 24-hour-a-day email
tech list where you can submit any questions you may have about computer
hardware & software. You can request fixes for specific problems you're
having with your system or just sit back and learn from the
conversations of the other members. This list is one of the only PC
Groups I've found that truly caters to newbies and nerds alike so you
can be assured that your questions will be taken seriously. Here's just
one of the tips you'll learn.
@@@@@@@
(19.) OUTLOOK EXPRESS TIP
~~PCTechTalk's Guitar Man
BACKING UP YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT INFO
Last time we talked about the best way to back up your
Address Book. This month, let's take a look at backing up
your email account information.
This is especially handy if you have more than one account
set up within OE.
With Outlook Express open, go to Tools/Accounts and then
click on the Mail tab at the top of the window (in most cases, this will
already be selected).
Click on one of your accounts to highlight it and then click on the
Export button on the right side. This will open up the "Export Internet
Settings" box which works just like a normal "Save As" box.
I highly recommend that you create a new folder to hold these account
settings files (I called mine "OE Email Accounts" to make it easy to
remember what's in there).
Once you make the folder (or decide on what existing folder
you want to use for this) and then enter it by double clicking on the
folder's name, click on the "Save" button to create a file that contains
that account's info.
This will also take you right back to the main window where
you can repeat the process for each of your email accounts. @@@@@@@
EDITOR'S NOTE: ABC is building an archive of G Man's OE Tips
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/gman.htm
@@@@@@@
The group's motto of "The only dumb questions are the ones that are
never asked." reflects their philosophy that ALL questions are important
and they sure do treat them that way. Also, if you've ever been a
member of an email list, you'll appreciate that this list's moderators
do not allow Spamming, flaming, cursing, etc.. To sign up, just send a
blank email message to
PCTechTalk-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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**********************************************************
(20). NIGHTSNEAK'S SNOOP SCOOP
~~Links For Finding Missing People ~
from "Master Links 4 Master Investigators"
With all the happenings of late, and the quest by people to find missing
relatives, friends, etc. from the tragedies, I thought I would make you
aware of some sites that are always around to locate lost loved ones,
missing children, homeless people, birth parents, even for genealogy
projects.
The Open Directory Project always has a massive list of resources for
almost any subject that you are searching. The Open Directory Project is
the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is
constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer
editors.
Open Directory Project's Missing People Resources
http://dmoz.org/Society/People/Missing_People/
NMCO is a publicly supported nonprofit organization founded
to educate the public in an effort to prevent future abductions and to
provide assistance to the families of abduction victims. NMCO works with
cases of endangered missing persons, unsolved homicides and unidentified
persons.
The Nation's Missing Children Organization and Center for Missing Adults
Useful Links http://www.nmco.org/links/
The Homeless-Missing Persons Project: A Two-Fold Mission --Improving
Services For People Who Are Homeless, Reuniting Missing Persons With
Their Families.
Homeless and Missing Person's Project
http://www.inca.net/hmpp
Although each of 4 different departments has their own function, "our
missing children" operates as one unit as Canada's National
Clearinghouse for missing children. In this capacity, the unit is linked
to all Canadian police and related agencies through the Canadian Police
Information Centre (CPIC), U.S. police agencies through the National
Crime Information Centre (NCIC), and most foreign police agencies
through Interpol.
Official Canadian Our Missing Kids Page
http://www.ourmissingchildren.ca/
Although geared more toward Adoptee and Genealogy
Resources, this is an excellent list of resources to check for missing
people.
Missing Persons, Adoptee, Adoption, Support Services,
Adoption Books and Genealogy Links
http://detectiveagents.com/missing.htm
Although not as resourceful as some of the other sites, the Missing
Persons Throughout the World site may just have that one person that you
need listed.
Missing Persons Throughout the World-Post or Find Missing People
http://www.mispers.com/
This Oracle Reverse site is a staple of any Investigator's Toolbox.
Reverse phone, address, e-mail, business searches, people searches, and
more.
Reverse Phonebooks, Email and Other Lookup Tools--- XXX-CELL-ANT
http://www.freeality.com/finde.htm
Not to take away from the seriousness of the missing person issue, but
here is a site to check your powers of observation.
Find The Missing People--Illusion
http://www.grand-illusions.com/missing.htm
**********************************************************
Find these and more links at our easily-searchable site of over 15,000
links. Subscribers to this newslist will be given a free trial period.
E-mail me at the below address for access.
nightsneak
Master Links 4 Master Investigators
http://www.ml4mi.com/
info@xxxxxxxxx
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**********************************************************
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 at ABComputers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 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://www.personal-computer-tutor.com
ABComputers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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READ THIS CAREFULLY!
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(21.) SUBSCRIPTION MANAGEMENT
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This FREE publication is sent ONLY to people who have requested it.
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(22.) CONTACT INFORMATION
-------------------------------------
Routine Disclaimer: Although I make an effort to check out every
advertisement and link, I cannot assume responsibility for the actions
of my advertisers, or the availability of links. You use the information
provided at your own risk, it is always wise to back up your data before
editing.All advice given in this newsletter/ezine or at Linda's Computer
Stop is given with the best of intentions and should only be taken as a
suggestion and not a definite fix to a problem. ABC ~ All 'Bout
Computers and Linda's Computer Stop are the property of Linda F.
Johnson. The views expressed by readers or contributors are not
necessarily those of Linda F. Johnson and, as editor, she reserves the
right to deny inclusion of any contributions if she feels they could be
harmful to someone's computer. However, just because she allows it to be
included, does not mean she is responsible if it causes problems. ALL
READERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN COMPUTERS! Please help promote
ABComputers by linking to my sites.
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or, click on these links to become an affiliate under me and you will
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Thank you for reading "ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers".
(Copyright) 2001 - ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers, Linda F. Johnson, MA. ABC
may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission from
the editor must be obtained to reprint or cite the information contained
within this newsletter. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to
any of your associates who might benefit from this information. If you
are receiving this issue as a forward, and would like to get your own
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Thank you and I hope to continue to bring you a newsletter that you will
actually want to read.
Linda Johnson
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com
ABComputers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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