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Welcome to today's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, February 10, 2002
Two very special events are taking place this week: Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. We're taking a look at both of these in our Featured Website section below. You'll find links to many informative and fun websites. Enjoy!
In this Issue:
Special Feature: A Digital Camera Tip
Featured Computer Term: Write Protect
This Week's Topic: Avoiding Internet Disconnects
Question: Copy and Paste a Link to a Website
Learning Series: The Difference Between Save and Save As
Featured Website: Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day
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Special Feature: A Digital Camera Tip
Thanks to newsletter subscriber Cliff for the following tip:
I took your How to Buy a Scanner and Digital Camera workshop and enjoyed it very much. The class was great and your manual is fantastic! I bought myself a digital camera and am having a lot of fun with it. Here's something that I've tried and thought that you might want to pass on in your workshops and newsletter.
You can upload photos to the Wal-Mart Photo Shop at: https://www.walmart.com/photo/how_it_works.gsp
Each 4 x 6 photo printed out is only 26 cents. An 8 x 10 is $2.86. Photos can be mailed directly to your home, but if sent to your local Wal-Mart store, the shipping is free of charge. The pictures will arrive in a couple of days to the store nearest your house. This is a convenient, and inexpensive way to get camera-shop quality prints from a digital camera.
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Today's Computer Term: Write Protect
The following is a question from a newsletter subscriber:
I received a file that I wanted to make some changes to and save. When I try to do so, I get a message that this file is write-protected. I lost all the changes that I made. What is this about?
Answer:
To write protect a file or disk means that it is marked so that its contents cannot be modified or deleted. When you want to make sure that neither you nor another user can destroy data, you can write-protect it.
Most operating systems (i.e. Windows) include a command to write-protect files. You can also write-protect floppy disks. Three and a half inch floppy diskettes have a small switch that you can set to turn on write-protection.
Write-protected files and media can only be read; you cannot write to them (save a file), edit them, append data to them, or delete them.
To remove a write protect mark, find the files in your My Documents folder (look for either the Icon on the Desktop, or find the folder in Windows Explorer). Find the file and right click on it. In the resulting menu, left click on Properties. Somewhere in the dialog box (depending on your Windows version), you’ll see Write Protect with a check mark to the left of it. Click on the check mark to remove it; the file with no longer be marked Write Protect.
An alternative to removing Write Protect is to make changes to the write protected file, then save it under a new file name. That will keep the original write protected file intact and create a second file.
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Today's Topic: Avoiding Internet Disconnects
The following is a question from a newsletter subscriber:
When I’m on the Internet, I got disconnected when a phone call comes in. Taking my phone off the hook doesn’t help. Why does this happen and can I do anything about it?
Answer:
If you have call waiting on your phone service and you get a call while you're online, the call-waiting signal will interrupt your modem connection. This means that it will usually knock you offline (disconnect you from your Internet Service Provider).
You can disable your call waiting with a special code.
You'll need to check with your phone company to find your particular code, but it's usually something that starts with either an * or # followed by two numbers. Try #70 or *70, which is frequently what is used.
To disable call waiting, have your Internet dialup begin with #70 then the phone number: #70,555-1234. You’ll have to go to your dialup setup, which varies by Internet Service Provider. Within your sign in window, look for a place to change the phone number; that’s where you’ll enter the extra digits in the number.
Here’s the instructions using America Online as an example:
1. On the Sign On screen, click Setup. (The Sign On screen is the screen where you log on to AOL by typing in your screen name and password.)
2. On the AOL Setup screen, click Expert Setup.
3. On the Locations tab in the Connection Setup window, click the number (Connection) you want to edit, once, to select it.
4. Click Edit.
5. In the Edit Number (Connection) window, select the Dial [*70,] to disable call-waiting check box.
6. Edit the default prefix, if it is something other than [*70,] and make sure there is a comma after it. Note: You will have to edit each number in the location and make this change.
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This Week's Featured Question: Copy and Paste a Link to a Website
The following is a question from a newsletter subscriber:
I received an email message with instructions to, "Copy and Paste this link into your browser so that I could visit the Website. How do I do this?
Answer:
You’ll see that frequently, or perhaps you'll run across a paragraph on the Web or in an email message that you'd like to save in a word processing document, or send in an email message, but don't know how to transfer the text. Once you learn the Copy and Paste technique, you'll easily be able to transfer any text or graphic to another program.
Here's how:
You just received an email with a link to a Web site that a friend suggests you visit. When you click on the link, nothing happens, or, in other words, it's not taking you to the Website. This doesn’t mean that there’s anything
wrong with the link, the Website, or you. It just means that you'll need to copy and paste the link into your browser's Web address bar.
Click your mouse directly in front of the Web address you'd like to copy, and hold the mouse button down. While holding the button down, slide your mouse across the text until you've highlighted the entire Web address. Let go of the mouse button. At this point, you’ll see that the text is white on a dark background.
Click on Edit up on the menu bar, then on Copy. You've now instructed your computer to copy the text that you've just highlighted.
Open up your browser program, so that you can paste this address in and go to the Website.
Once you are in your browser, you'll need to delete the address of the current Web page so that you can insert the one you just copied. To do this, click your mouse in the little white area towards the top where it says, Address, Location, Web Addresses or URL (depending on which browser you’re using) and then press your "Backspace" key. This will clear that area and you ‘ll be able to then paste your Web site address into the browser's Address bar.
To do this, click on Edit on the menu bar and then Paste. The Web site address that you copied from your email message is now placed correctly in your browser. Press the Enter button on your keyboard and your browser will take you to that Website.
This same technique can be used to copy and paste text from a Website into an email or word processing document. Just highlight and copy the text that you wish using the exact same instructions above, and then open up your email or word processing program and paste the text there, again using the same instructions.
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Progressive Learning Series: The Difference Between Save and Save As
Thanks to a newsletter subscriber for the following question:
What's the difference between Save and Save As?
Let's use Microsoft Word 2000 for this example. When you create a brand new document and click on File on the menu and then Save, you will be presented with the "Save As" dialog box because Word wants to know two things:
1. Where do you want to save it? 2. What do you want to name it?
In a typical Save, you’ll usually just answer the second question; that’s the file name. If you want to save the file to, say, a floppy disk, you’ll change the answer to the first question. Click the Save button and you’re done.
After you have saved your file once, clicking on that same series of commands no longer gives you these choices. Why? Because Word assumes you do not want to change the choices you made. Word assumes you simply want to update the original copy by overwriting it with this new version of the same file. If you click File, Save again, your program will not even show you the Save dialog box after the first save.
Here’s where Save As comes in. If, in fact, you DO want to either put a copy in a new location, or create a new copy with a new name, you must go to the File menu and choose Save As. That will then display the Save dialog box, which you need to change the file name or location information.
Windows will not allow you to have two files with the exact same name in the same folder, so when you save a file to a location where that file already exists, Windows will replace the existing file with your new one. So, if you do not want to overwrite the existing file, but instead want to create another copy with a different name or in a different location or as a different file type, you must go to the File menu and choose Save As.
When you choose File then Save As, you can use the dropdown box at the top of the Save As dialog box, which says Save In, to select the location where you want to put your new copy. You can also change the name of your new copy in the File name box and save it either in a new location or in the same location as the original (because this new copy now has a different name).
In conclusion, the main thing to remember is that "Save" will overwrite your existing file with this new copy, whereas "Save As" will give you the options discussed above.
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Today's Featured Website:
Chinese New Year
Chinese year 4700 begins on February 12. It is the Year of the Horse. People born in a Horse Year are believed to be strong-willed and independent.
For a look at the fifteen-day celebration and its traditional foods, decorations, taboos and superstitions. http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html
For calendar and zodiac information.
http://www.chinapage.com/newyear.html
For photographs of the traditional Lunar New Year celebration from New York City's Chinatown.
http://photoarts.com/cooper/index2.html
For Chinese New Year events in the New York area,
http://aolsvc.digitalcity.com/newyork/entertainment/article.adp?aid=2422
For Chinese New Year events outside of the New York area,
http://aolsvc.digitalcity.com/chinesenewyear/main.adp
Valentine's Day
From the History Channel, this website takes a look at the origins of the most romantic holiday, including the real St. Valentine.
http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine/
For Valentine's Day Sonnet by William Shakespeare.
http://albionmich.com/valentine.html
For history, trivia, poetry, children's craft ideas, candy recipes, and a romantic dinner menu, take a look at Abigail's Valentine's Day Page.
http://www.acplace.com/holiday/valentine.htm
This website offers arts and crafts, games, songs, and more for young children, parents, and teachers.
http://www.123child.com/val/ |
