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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, November 7, 2004
In this Issue:
Special Feature: More About Phishing
Tips and Tricks: Maximize or Restore
Featured Webpage: Get Rid of Pop Up Ads
Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows
Featured Webpage: The Holidays
This Week's Topic: Dress Up Your Email
Question: Adjust Mouse Speed
Question: Reinstall Windows
Question: Missing Icons
Websites of Interest: Veteran’s Day; Health
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Using Links
A Link is a reference to a website. In this newsletter you will see links to
many worthwhile, informative and fun websites. Here are the instructions on
how to use links:
A link will be used one of two ways, depending on your email program.
If you see the link in blue, underlined text, all you have to do is click on
it and a window with the Website in it will automatically appear on your
screen.
If you see the link in plain text, you can copy and paste it into the address
bar on your browser. Highlight the link with your mouse, click Edit up on
the menu bar, and then click Copy from the menu that you just opened up. Open
your browser (click the Start Button, point to Programs, click on Internet
Explorer); click on the address bar. Click Edit up on the menu bar, and then
click Paste from the menu that you just opened up. Press the Enter key on the
keyboard and this will take you to the Website.
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Special Feature: More About Phishing
In last week’s edition of this newsletter, we did an article on phishing,
MailFrontier estimates that 28% of email recipients are fooled by fake mail supposedly from eBay. Citibank, PayPal, and other legitimate organizations. They’ve put together a quiz with both real and fraudulent emails. Take the test to see if you can detect which are phish attempts and which are legitimate.
http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html
To review the article on phishing in last week’s edition of this newsletter, visit our website:
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/103104.html
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Tips and Tricks: Maximize or Restore
Double-click a Window’s title bar to maximize or restore the window.
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Featured Webpage: Get Rid of Pop Up Ads
Question: how do I get rid of all the pop up ads? They are driving me crazy.
Answer:
Take a look at our website for an article on pop up blockers.
http://www.stsico.com/html/noads.html
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Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows
The tips in this section apply to Windows XP and may differ in earlier versions of Windows.
ALT+SPACEBAR Display the System menu for the active window
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu
F10 key Activate the menu bar in the active program
RIGHT ARROW Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu
LEFT ARROW Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu
ESC Cancel the current task
F1 Display Help
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Featured Webpage: The Holidays
To give you a step up on preparing for the holidays, we are in the process of putting helpful and informative sites on our website. Check back often for new additions. And, if you have any sites you think we should add, please send us an email with the link
http://computerkindergarten.com/html/thanksgiving.html
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Today's Topic: Dress Up Your Email
Question: a friend sends me email with colorful backgrounds and fancy text. Can I do this too? Thank you for this great email. I am always looking for new tips and get so many good ones from you.
Answer:
In Some email programs you can work with fonts and use stationery or specialty backgrounds.
Outlook Express
Click Tools on the menu, then Options. Click the Send tab at the top. In the Mail Sending Format area, click HTML. Click the OK button.
Outlook Express has a choice of backgrounds that can be used in an email. To create an email with one of these backgrounds, click Message on the menu, then click New Message Using. Select one of the stationerys, or click Select Stationery to see more choices. If you do not like the choice you made, close the email and try again.
To change the font, style, size or color, open a new email and click in the message area. Click Format on the menu and then font. Make any changes you want and then click the OK button.
If you would like to permanently change the font, style, size or color, click Tools on the menu, then Options. Click the Compose tab at the top. In the Compose Font area, click the Font Settings button for Mail. Select the font, style, size and color you want, and then click the OK button.
America Online
Note: the following applies to AOL 9.0 Optimized and may differ in earlier versions of AOL.
To use available stationery, open a new email and click on the Extras button on the toolbar. Click to choose a stationery. If you do not like your choice, click Extras again and choose a different stationery.
For more choices, click the Stationery button on the toolbar, found to the immediate right of the Extras button. Select a category and subcategory, and choose a background. Click the Apply button. If you see one that you think you would like to use again, click the Add to List button; this will add that stationery design to the list available in the Extras button.
To change the font, style, size or color, open a new email and click in the message area. The font will be the first choice on the toolbar; click the down arrow to the right of the currently selected font to display a list containing all the available fonts. Click one to select it. The next button is the font size; click the down arrow to the right and select a size. Click B, I or U to bold, italicize or underline the text. Click the text color or background color buttons to open the color window. When all choices are made, input your text.
To permanently change the font, style, size or color, click Settings on the toolbar. Click the A-Z tab. Scroll down and click Font and Text. Make your font, style, size or color changes in here.
Yahoo
Open a new email. Click the Font Face button for font choices. To the right is the Font Size button; click to choose from the sizes available. Click the Text Color button for choices. Yahoo requires an upgrade to Mail Plus (not free) to use stationery.
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Question: Adjust Mouse Speed
My mouse moves too fast for me to control. Can I slow it down?
Answer:
Yes you can. Here’s how:
Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel. If you are using Windows XP, click Appearance and Themes and then Mouse Points. In older versions of Windows, click Mouse.
Click the Pointer Options tab. in the Motion area, drag the slider left to make the pointer move slower, or right to make the pointer move faster. click the OK button.
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Question: Reinstall Windows
My computer is a mess. It is so slow and I am almost constantly getting error messages. Most of the time I have to turn it off and on again and that hardly ever helps anymore. It is less than two years old. Can this be fixed or do I need a new computer.
Answer:
No, you probably do not need a new computer. Computers can become unstable, no matter how old or what version of Windows you use. If you install and uninstall programs or add new hardware, this can add to the instability. The more you use your computer, the greater the chance that some important files have become corrupt. Occasionally it will be necessary to reinstall Windows – this can solve many error message and slowdown problems.
PC World has an excellent article on reinstalling Windows. Take a look at it for hints and important steps to follow.
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,105866,00.asp
Note: You must back up all your work before reinstalling Windows. After the reinstallation, you will have to install all programs that you added to your computer.
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Question: Missing Icons
Help! I lost all of my icons. Where did they go? Thank you. Since finding your site and subscribing about a month ago I cant wait to receive the newsletter.
Answer:
Right click on a blank area on the desktop. In the resulting menu, point to Arrange Icons by. Click on Show Desktop Icons. That should restore all of your missing icons.
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Websites of Interest:
Veteran’s Day
Thursday is Veteran’s Day. Learn the history of this day and this event at this website:
http://www.patriotism.org/veterans_day/
Get the history of Veteran’s day, statistics and information on America’s wars from the American Revolution to the Iraq war.
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/veteransday1.html
Health
This website provides information on every licensed physician in the United States.
http://tinyurl.com/6fmno
Directory of disease and disorder related information available on the Internet.
http://www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/index.html
Medical news for medical professionals and patients.
http://tinyurl.com/6yaqf
This site offers an introduction to fitness, healthy diet and exercise suggestions, and much more.
http://tms.ecol.net/fitness/
The National Women's Health Information Center
http://www.4woman.gov/
Men's Health
http://tinyurl.com/3t224 |
