GREATER BOSTON SENIOR COMPUTER GROUP NEWSLETTER
Issue No. 61, February 9, 2005
CHAIRPERSON:: Arline Ekman, AVE@alumni.unh.edu
EDITOR: Harriet Mandell, harrietd@rcn.com
WEB PAGE: Garry Ziffer, http://users.rcn.com/gbscg
LIAISON: Eve Welts, ewelts@rcn.com
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A COMMON PROBLEM...when you want to replace or install a version of a popular software program go to http://www.oldversion.com a site that houses a free library of the older, simpler, smaller versions of many popular programs. Here you can download and install the version of your choice. Although some newer versions of software may not work well with older viewers, try this site, the programs there may work just fine.
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LARGE WINDOW…SMALL WINDOW….To make any window grow as big as it gets, double-click on its title bar, that topmost bar along the top of the window and the window will fill the screen, covering up all the other opened windows. . Please note: When a window fills the entire screen, it loses its borders and you can no longer change its size by tugging on its title bar or dragging its borders. Just return to the normal size… double-click on its title bar again and you can see everything that it was covering up and move it around by its borders. Of course, you can expand it or reduce it another way: Click on the window's middlemost of the three little boxes in its top-right corner.
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FUN WEB SITE .. www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/mindread/psychicSparkle.swf sent in by Garry Ziffer It will amaze and mystify you. How is this done? Want to give up, try http://adrian.ziemkowski.com/livejournal/psychic_numbers.php
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WINDOWS PROGRAMS...can stop responding because there is a conflict of software or hardware resources between two programs; lack of system resources; or a bug in the software or drivers. To recover from a program that has stopped responding you can press the CTRL + ALT + DEL keys on the keyboard which will open the "Close Program" window or open the "Task Manager" window and click the "End Task" button to end the program. If another window opens, click the "End Task" button again to confirm stopping that program. However, sorry to say, when a program stops responding any work that has not been saved will probably be lost when "end tasking" a program. Should this problem continue to happen, review trouble shooting page at http://www.computerhope.com/basic.htm#01 help.
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PHOTO STORY 3 FOR WINDOWS…free download to bring photos to life with special effects, soundtracks and your own voice narration. Small file sizes help to e-mail your photo stories. Create slideshows, touch-up, crop or rotate images www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx
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TAXING TIMES …lead to budget control. find a Personal budget template in Excel format. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC062062791033.aspx
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WHAT’S AN APPLET? ... A small code written in JAVA programming language that can be embedded in an HTML page and run in a web browser. Applets differ from full-fledged Java applications in that they are not allowed to access certain resources on the local computer, such as files and serial devices (modems, printers, etc.), and are prohibited from communicating with most other computers across a network. The common rule is that an applet can only make an Internet connection to the computer from which the applet was sent.
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SCROLL WEB PAGES…quickly one page at a time when using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox by pressing the spacebar .
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USING THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON ON A WEB PAGE … Right-click on a blank area of the page. A pop up menu opens and the top choice is back and second choice is forward. You can use this instead of using the back or forward button. Right-click on the URL (page address), it will highlight it and a menu will open with cut, copy, paste and delete. Handy tool for copying that URL to the email you are going to send to your friend Right-click on a link (a clickable) in a web page and it will give you an option to open that link in a New Window. A very useful tool when checking a lot of links on a page. Right-click on any highlighted text to give you cut, copy, paste and delete. When you want to paste whatever you copied into your email or word-processing program, just right-click where you want it and you will get the paste option. Right-click on a picture or a graphic on a web page and you get a Save Picture as option. Pick the directory of your choice and save picture.
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PRESSING MATTER…F11 key will make your Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox full screen without all the toolbars. To restore the window press F11 again!
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MICROSOFT OFFICE - REPEAT ACTION Using the F4 key in Microsoft Office 2000 and above allows the user to repeat the last used action. For example if you have changed the font of a selected text and wish to change another portion of text to the same font, pressing F4 will do this for you automatically.
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CREATE …an underlined space in the majority of Microsoft Office applications. by pressing CTRL + U to start the underline, then press SHIFT + Space for each underlined space you wish to create. An example of how this could be used is for printable forms, for example: Name: ________.
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WINDOWS SYSTRAY is a section of Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows ME, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating system that allows small icons to be shown representing what is currently loaded in the computers memory. The Systray is located at the bottom right of the screen next to the current time.
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WANTED: URL's of web sites; Helpful hints for Mac users, Win 95/98/ME/XP. Software reviews, desired topics for future meetings. Send these items via email to the editor. Please sign your email with your name. We will publish your email address, but not your name, phone number or address without your permission