Kokomo PC Users Group

Volume 15 Issue 8...August 2001

Volume 15 Issue 8 August 2001

President's Message:

I would like to begin by apologizing to anyone who showed up for the July meeting and found that we didn't have one. We had planned to delay the meeting one week to allow me to return from vacation, but due to all the confusion with new officers and my vacation we didn't get a notice out.

I am also sad to report the passing of Richard Coop, our Treasurer. Richard was a dedicated member and a fine human being. He is largely responsible for my return to the leadership of this organization. He has held the Group together through the difficult time we have had the past year.'

On a brighter note, the Kokomo IBM PC Users Group is under new management. Well maybe 'new' is too strong a word. I have returned from hibernation to take another turn at the helm of the finest PC Users Group in Mid-Indiana. Many of you are aware that I served a President of the Group for several years in the previous millennium.

My focus as President of the Group will be on friendship, knowledge and skill (just like our logo). I will rely on the K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) principle to help me do this. More than anything I would like to see us enjoy our time together every month and see new faces from time to time. I have always had a weakness for community service activities, so I will probably try to encourage some activity that benefits our community as well.

We have decided to simplify the operation of the group to ease the search for Officers. We will now have two Vice Presidents for Programs. We will also reduce the number of major presentations by half. This will require each VP to provide only three speakers per year, for a total of six. On months that we do not have a speaker we will have a panel discussion on some of topic of interest. The August meeting will be a presentation on MP3 files from Mr. Kling of Kling's computers.

I know it is always unsettling to have a going out of business sale in the Group. We have had several in the past and will probably have more in the future. The Internet can now provide many of the services we provided in the past. I believe that this is a good time to take stock and assess where we should be going. We can only be successful by listening to our members and tailoring our activities to meet their needs. I am looking forward to hearing from each of you about things

you would like to get from the Group.

Our new slate of Officers is

President- Mark Pendergast

VP (Feb, June, Oct) - Gene Surdevant

VP (Apr, Aug, Dec) - Richard Ingles

Treasurer- TBD

Newsletter- Ben Sturm

Distribution - Jane Ober

Membership Services - Rodney Malkoff

Please support them as they take on the challenges of running the Group in the coming year.

Mark Pendergast

Da Prez

mmpender@prodigy, net

New Meeting Schedule

The new meeting presentation schedule will take some getting used to, but it should minimize the burden on the officers of the Group as well as provide time for some more relaxed presentations of computer basics that allow plenty of time for questions to be answered.

The new schedule is as follows

January- Panel discussion

February- Formal presentation (Gene) March - Panel discussion April- Formal presentation (Richard') May- Panel discussion

June - Formal presentation (Gene)

July- Panel discussion

August- Formal presentation (Richard) September- Panel discussion

October- Formal presentation (Gene) November- Panel discussion

December- Formal presentation (Richard)

The formal presentations will be provided by Group members or outside presenters and cover new and exciting topics of interest.

The panel discussions will be more loosely structured discussions about basic computer topics. Some topics could be Windows, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Internet browsing, E-mail, Drawing, or Hardware Buyers Guide.

We might even throw in a swap meet or Christmas party.

I hope the new format will provide something for everyone. We will also try to provide a Question and Answer period each month.

If you have any topics you feel we should cover please let one of the officers know.

Mark Pendergast

Windows Tips and Tricks - Fancy key combinations.

Over the years I have accumulated a number of tricks that use different key combinations to make Windows do some tricks. I will share some of them here. These work in most windows applications.

<CTRL>-Z

Control Z will back up in most windows applications. If you did something you didn't want to have happen just hold down the <CTRL> button and press Z. The action should be undone. Some windows programs allow for multiple control Zs to step back many levels.

<CTRL>-C and <CTRL>-V

Control C will copy selected text of graphics to the clipboard. Control V will paste the clipboard back into a document. These shortcuts are usually much faster than mousing around. Use these with the page up and down and the arrow keys and you can do some serious editing right from the keyboard.

<CTRL>-A

Control A will select all of a document.

<ALT>-<Print Screen>

Alternate Print Screen will send a copy of the current window to the clipboard. This image is good for reporting problems or making guide books to show how to do a certain task.

<ALT>-<TAB>

On the main Windows desktop it is easy to loose track of applications when you get too many of them open. To switch between them quickly use Alternate Tab. Hold down the <ALT> key and press <TAB>. A small window of all your active programs will be displayed in the center of the screen. Continue to hold down <ALT> and press <TAB> repeatedly and the display will cycle through all the icons for active programs. When you are on the program you want to see, let go of the keys and the selected program will pop into view.

<ALT>-<SPACE>-M-<ARROW> and <ENTER>

This one is especially good when a program window gets stuck off the screen. <ALT>-<SPACE> opens the window control menu in the upper left side of the window. Pressing M selects the move command. While in move mode the arrow keys will move the window around the screen. Pressing <ENTER> completes the move and exits move mode.

Hope you enjoy using these tips as much as I do. If you have any cool tips for using the PC, please write them up for the next newsletter. I would love to see them.

Mark Pendergast

Netscape 4.7

I use Netscape Navigator 4.7 for e-mail. The messenger part of the browser has a neat feature for filing e-mail messages. You can set up an "in" box and an "out" box. Each box can hold individual folders for all the people you correspond with. As your primary incoming and sent screens get full, any of your messages can easily be either deleted or filed for future references.

After a few years' worth of messages, it gets to the point of taking a lot of space on the hard drive. I have a CDRW drive and CD's are a dream for backing up and saving data that has no business riding of the hard drive any longer. I can back these messages up on a CD, but a problem occurs when I want to access a message after it has been backed up.

Netscape seems to be unable to access the indices of the messages. I can find the messages received from a particular individual, but that are not indexed as they are on the "incoming" screen when first received. All of the messages are

presented one right after another. In order to find the one I wish to call up, I would have to scroll through hundreds of feet of messages to find the one I want.

On the hard disk when I open a person's incoming messages, for example, all messages are listed as an index, with details listed, such as dates and times they were received. They can even be sorted by dates if desired. This makes finding the one I am searching for an easy task. Double click on the one you wish in the index and Viola, it's on the screen.

Can anyone tell me how to make Netscape Messenger go to the CD and bring up an index? Maybe somehow I have to also back up an index?

Chet Hanna

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