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Welcome to this week's edition of the Computer Kindergarten Newsletter.
Today is Sunday, November 9, 2003
In this Issue:
Special Feature: Alphabetize Favorites in Internet Explorer
Tips & Tricks: Keyboard Shortcuts
Special Feature: Weather Report
Featured Computer Term: Drafts
This Week's Topic: Increase Text Size
Websites of Interest: Rulers; How Everyday Things Are Made; Veteran’s Day
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Important: All Email Users
Internet Service Providers are trying very hard to reduce the amount of spam that their subscribers receive. Many email providers are looking at emails that you receive and deciding which are junk mail and which are not. And, in many cases, they are not letting you get emails that they determine to be spam. This means that you may not receive an important email if your ISP thinks it is junk.
Optimum Online and America Online are two examples of Internet Service Providers who have been working hard at keeping you from getting all your email. Let them know that you appreciate their efforts to keep the amount of spam down but that you want to receive all email intended for you and will make the decision yourself as to what is junk and what is important email.
Since we no longer can rely on America Online to get all of our email, if you would like to email us with any problems or questions, please make sure to use our help email address, info@stsico.com. Do not use our AOL address, because we might not get the email you send.
We are currently hard at work creating a new manual that will explain how you can block junk email and will cover all the popular Internet Service Providers. We will notify you as soon as this manual is available.
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Attention American Online Users
AOL tries hard to protect you from spam (junk email). And they mean well. However, their means of protecting you usually means loss of services and more inconvenience to you. They have now disabled Internet links that get sent to you in emails.
In the past, we have placed links in this newsletter for AOL users that you could just click on and be taken directly to the website. Since these links are now disabled (can not be used) we will no longer put them in the newsletter.
If you would like to visit any of the websites that we feature, you will have to copy and paste the link into the address bar on your browser.
To do so, highlight the link with your mouse, click Edit on the menu bar, and then click Copy from the menu that you just opened up. 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.
We are very sorry for this inconvenience.
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IMPORTANT:
We've changed our website address. It is now:
http://www.stsico.com
We hope that this shorter address is more convenient to use. Please update
your Favorites and Bookmarks.
Need more information on Bookmarks and Favorites? Visit our website:
http://stsico.com/html/bookmarks.html
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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: Alphabetize Favorites in Internet Explorer
Question: Is there a way to alphabetize favorites in Internet Explorer?
Answer:
Yes, there is. And it is very easy to do so.
Open Internet Explorer. Click on Favorites in the menu bar. Important: This will NOT work if you use Favorites in the toolbar (the list of Favorites that appears in a pane on the left side of the window)
When your list of favorites drops down from the menu bar, right click on any one of the shortcuts in the menu and then click Sort by Name.
Your Favorites will then be alphabetized in both the menu and the Favorites pane on the left side of the window.
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Please tell your neighbors, friends and family about our classes and our
email newsletter.
If you would like us to send this newsletter to a friend, please send your
name and their email address to info@computerkindergarten.com with the words
Subscribe to Newsletter in the subject line of the email.
If you think a friend or family member would like to attend our classes,
we'll send them a printed list of upcoming classes. Send a stamped,
self-addressed envelope to: STSI - Class Schedule, 50 Lee Avenue, Babylon NY 11702.
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Tips & Tricks: Keyboard Shortcuts
Question: I am still pretty new to using a computer and, because of that and my arthritis, am having some trouble using the mouse. My granddaughter told me that I can use the keyboard in place of the mouse. What does she mean by this? By the way, I just love the informative emails that you send. Between that and the classes you give at my library, I am learning so much about my computer.
Answer:
She’s referring to what are called Keyboard Shortcuts. Here’s an example: to open the Start menu, you can click on the Start button, bottom left. If you would prefer to use your keyboard instead, find the Windows button. It’s usually on the bottom row of the keyboard, over to the left side, and has that little Windows logo on it. Press it, and you will see that it opens up the Start menu for you.
We have done many newsletter articles on keyboard shortcuts and have compiled a long list of different ones on our website, which you can visit with the following link:
http://stsico.com/html/kbshortcuts.html
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If you are reading this newsletter because someone forwarded it to you, there are directions for subscribing at the end of this newsletter. Or you can go to our website at http://stsico.com/html/newsletter.html where you can subscribe and view our newsletter archives.
http://stsico.com/html/newsletter.html
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Special Feature: Weather Report
WOW. It got cold, fast. Check the temperature, humidity, wind chill and forecast at our website. Click on your town, or a town nearby, for your weather report.
http://stsico.com/html/weather.html
Your town is not listed? Send us an email with the name of your town and your zip code, and we will add it to the site.
Visit this website every time you want an accurate weather forecast. Learn how to bookmark websites at this address:
http://stsico.com/html/bookmarks.html
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Featured Computer Term: Drafts
Question: I use Outlook. What is Drafts?
Answer:
The drafts folder is where Outlook keeps e-mail messages that you have started, but not yet finished or sent.
If you have not completed an email but want to finish it at another time, close Outlook; it will ask if you want to save a copy of the email that you are working on. Click Yes; the unfinished email will be kept in the Drafts folder.
To pick up where you left off, click on the drafts folder to open it; you will see the unfinished email on the right in the contents window. Double click your email to open it. Make any changes or additions that you want and then send the email like you usually do.
Once you send the e-mail, the message will no longer be in the drafts folder.
Is there a computer term or phrase that you'd like to see an explanation of?
Email it to info@computerkindergarten.com and we'll put the term and its
definition in an upcoming newsletter.
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Brand New Manual
Computer Cleanup and Safety
Protect yourself and your computer from Spyware, programs that covertly gather information about you through your Internet connection. Learn how to avoid viruses and hoaxes, minimize the amount of junk email you receive and get rid of cookies. Reduce the clutter of unnecessary files, folders and programs that slow your computer down.
For a list of the contents of this manual and ordering information, please visit our website at this link:
http://stsico.com/html/cleanupcontents.html
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Today's Topic: Increase Text Size
Question: In your newsletter, could you please tell us how we can increase the size of text? Sometimes it is so small that I practically need to use a magnifying glass. Thank you for sending the newsletter, I learn so much from it.
Answer:
In most programs that you use, you can increase the size of text in emails for the purpose of viewing it on the screen (the following text will NOT increase the size of the printed text).
In Outlook to view your email, or Internet Explorer to view a website, you can increase text size by clicking View on the menu, then Text Size, then Largest.
In America Online, go into Preferences or Settings (depending on your version of AOL). Maneuver to Email and change the font size to a larger number.
Here is a very fast way of accomplishing this: If you have a Scroll Mouse, which is a mouse with a wheel on it, you can easily increase, or decrease the size of the text. Hold down the CTRL on your keyboard and roll the scroll wheel on your mouse at the same time. Roll it up (away from you – towards the wire) to make the text bigger; towards you to make the text smaller.
We have found this tip to work in all programs.
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Do you have friends who aren't as computer literate as you but would like to
be? Tell them to attend our Computer Kindergarten for Grownups class at the
library. To send them our schedule, send a stamp, self-addressed envelope to:
STSI, Class Schedule, 50 Lee Avenue, Babylon NY 11702.
Or, visit our website and print our schedule:
http://stsico.com/html/classes.html
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If you are enjoying this newsletter and find the information useful, please
feel free to forward it to your friends and family members. If you would like
us to subscribe a friend, please send your name and their email address to
info@computerkindergarten.com with the words Subscribe to Newsletter in the
subject line of the email.
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Websites of Interest:
Rulers
Here is an extremely informative website for those interested in history. At rulers.org, they claim to list every President, Emperor, Prime Minister, Queen, King, Governor and de facto leader of all nations or territories in the past 300 years. Searches can be done by country or by ruler. Each entry has a comprehensive timeline that includes a list of government leaders as well as relevant geographical and political events.
http://www.rulers.org
How Everyday Things Are Made
Here is an informative and educational website created at Stanford University. Learn about the processes that go into the manufacturing of everyday things like candy, cars, soda packaging, clothes and much more. You can spend hours at this website!
http://manufacturing.stanford.edu/
Veteran’s Day
Tuesday, November 11, is Veteran’s Day. Read about the origins of this day at the VFW website.
http://www.vfw.org/amesm/origins.shtml
November 11, is the anniversary of the Armistice. 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
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