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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, February 19, 2006
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Filenames
Tips & Tricks: The Scroll Wheel and Internet Explorer
This Week's Topic: Icon Text Background
Question: Organizing Icons
Websites of Interest: Presidents' Day; Health Information; Bozo Criminals; Product Reviews; Headline News
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Special Feature: Filenames
In windows, filenames consist of two parts: a main filename and a file extension.
The filename is created by the user to identify a file stored on a computer. The file extension is assigned by the program that the file is being created in.
Since Windows 95, Windows supports filenames up to 255 characters in length. All files have must have a name in order to be stored on a disk. Within a single folder, filenames must be unique. However, two files in different folders may have the same name.
The file extension identifies the type of file and the program that created it. It consists of up to three characters that are automatically assigned by the creating program. Usually, these file extensions aren't displayed in the lists of filenames that you see.
On most operating systems a filename may not contain some characters because they have special meanings in the system. For a list and explanation of filename characters to avoid, take a look at our newsletter archives:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/020506.html
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Tips & Tricks: The Scroll Wheel and Internet Explorer
When you are looking at a website, roll the scroll wheel on the mouse (that’s the wheel between the left and right buttons), and you will quickly scroll up or down on the page.
If you hold the Shift key down, roll the scroll wheel to go back to the previous website you viewed. Roll it to go forward again.
Hold down the CTRL key, roll the scroll wheel and the text will get larger or smaller.
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Today's Topic: Icon Text Background
Question: I put a picture on my desktop, thanks to the help I got from your website. But now my Icon text is in a highlighted colored box. Can I remove the colored box so that you just see the letters only?
Answer:
If you are using Windows XP, you can. You have to make the icon text transparent. Here is how you do that:
Click the Start button. Open Control Panel. Open the System icon (if you do not see the System icon, click Performance and Maintenance).
Click the Advanced tab. In the Performance area, click the Settings button. Click the Visual Effects tab.
Click the circle next to Custom. In the box below, scroll down and click the checkbox next to Use Drop Shadows for Icon Labels.
Click OK to close all windows.
Note: if text is still highlighted, follow these steps:
Right click on the desktop. In the resulting menu, point to Arrange Icons By. If Lock Web Items on Desktop is checked, click on it to remove the check mark.
Visit our website for graphical instructions on how to put a picture on your desktop:
http://stsico.com/html/wallpaper.html
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Question: Organizing Icons
Question: I am not very good at using the mouse and my icons are scrambled all over the desktop. How can I keep them neatly lined up?
Answer:
You can auto align your icons, which will keep them in nice rows. Right click on the desktop. In the resulting menu, point to Arrange Icons By and then click Auto Arrange. All the icons will shift over to the left side of the screen. If you would like the icons lined up in neat columns and rows, try this:
Right click on the desktop. In the resulting menu, point to Arrange Icons By and then click Align to Grid.
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Websites of Interest:
Presidents' Day
Please visit our website for many interesting and informative links about this holiday.
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/presidents.html
Health Information
MEDLINE Plus contains current and accurate health care information from U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), presented in a very user-friendly manner.
http://medlineplus.adam.com/
Bozo Criminals
Just for fun, this site features stories about crooks that aren’t the brightest around and some of their pretty stupid attempts to steal.
http://www.wallerbroadcasting.com/bozo/
Product Reviews
According to PC World magazine, Consumer Search is the best expert product review site. This is a great starting place for researching potential purchases.
http://www.consumersearch.com/
Headline News
This site makes it easy to search headlines and access current news stories from over150 top US and International newspapers, as well as broadcast and online news sources.
http://www.1stheadlines.com/ |
