C C C C N E W S L E T T E R
CENTRAL COAST COMPUTER CLUB
Santa Maria, California
VOLUME XVII: NUMBER 6 June, 2002
NEXT MEETING: June 18, 2002 7:00PM KNOLLWOOD VILLAGE 4012 S. BRADLEY
PRESENTATION: Sharon Allen presents using the CD Disc-Of-the-Year
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| CONTENTS |
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(1) Officers, Helplines, S.I.G.s
(2) President's Corner Charles Barney
(3) Editor's Comments Dick Trissel
(4) May Internet S.I.G. Dick Trissel
(5) May Windows S.I.G. Meeting Amy Malicki
(6) Web Wanderings Gil Smith
(7) REVIEW: Microsoft Office XP PRO Ray Isenson
(8) PUBLICATION LIBRARY Barbara Godwin
(9) MAINTAINING YOUR WINDOWS XP Ray Isenson
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OFFICERS HELPLINES
President Juno
Charles Barney 937-1240 Gilbert Smith 925-3743
cbarney@lightspeed.net Gs5081@aol.com
Vice President Windows 95/98/ME/XP & VoiceControl
Amy Malicki 925-5780 Amy Malicki 925-5780
amymal@juno.com amymal@juno.com
Secretary and Book Librarian Hardware & DOS
Barbara Godwin 934-9885 Ray Isenson 937-6938
yung.bag@verizon.net risenson@juno.com
Treasurer AOL
Gerry Miller 934-1396 Frank Maciel 922-2318
2741 Banyan Way frm8198@aol.com
Santa Maria CA 93455
Gmiller@pronet.net
Disk Librarian Help With Any Problem
Sharon Allen 928-2209 Dick Savage 928-4932
sallen4060@aol.com rsavage65@hotmail.com
Publicity Help With Any Problem
Bill Corning 934-0775 Fred Adams 934-1128
foster95@juno.com wd64acj@netzero.net
Newsletter Editor Visual Basic
Dick Trissel 937-7572 Gerald Miller 934-1396
rtrissel@juno.com Gmiller@pronet.net
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS (S.I.G.s)
Windows 95/98/ME/XP (6:00pm) Systems (5:45pm)
Amy Malicki Dick Trissel
amymal@juno.com rtrissel@juno.com
CCCC Membership is $15 for twelve months ($20 family). For this you
receive:
Monthly newsletter
EXTRA4C E-mail Messages
Access to the clubs software library
Disk of the month (usually for $1)
Helpline support
Monthly presentation
Valuable door prizes
Question and answer sessions
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CCCC Page 2 June 2002
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
by Charles Barney
Our May 21st meeting saw a turnout of 65 people, a nice cozy number for the
workable space at the club house. Among those in attendance were returning
members Jesse Lyman and Marjorie and Ted Hoogenbosch who decided to rejoin
our group. Welcome back to the flock folks!
My presentation on CD burning software seemed to generate more questions
than answers (as often happens when one attempts these endeavors).
Hopefully though, some of you were able to take away a little more
knowledge about the subject than you had before, or at least the curiosity
to explore some of the many programs on your own. We will probably cover
more on this topic at future meetings if the interest remains high. What
would you like to see?
A thank you to Ray Isenson is in order for his volunteering to run the 50-
50 drawing in Vic McLaughlin's absence. This is an activity that I know a
lot of you enjoy participating in and is also the primary source of revenue
for the club's equipment fund. This fund was established in order to have
the resources available to acquire new and to repair existing club
equipment. The computer system used in Dick Trissel's SIG and the laptop
and projector used in the main room are examples of items purchased from
the equipment fund.
The door prize genie was generous in rewarding those who showed up at the
meeting and only picked one member not in attendance (an oversight, I'm
sure). The winners were as follows: Allen Alderson - Roxio's Easy CD
Creator 5 Platinum, Bob Chikar - Printshop Pro Publisher 12, Donald Calhoun
- Bicycle Card Games, ArmandoPerez - Musicmatch Jukebox Deluxe 6.0, and
Harry Clark - Rand McNally Trip Maker Deluxe. The only one called for a
prize and not present was Donald Rowe, but I'm sure he meant to be there!
At our upcoming meeting on June 18th, our own Sharon Allen will be
treating us to another of her capable presentations. She told me that she
plans to cover the use of the recent Disk of the Year CD as well as some
other very practical and interesting subjects. Don't miss it! I'll see you
there. - Charles
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CCCC Page 3 June 2002
EDITOR'S COMMENTS
By Dick Trissel
I'm devoting this month's Editor's Comments to some suggested Web sites for
those that want to expand their knowledge.
The first reference is:
http://microscopy.fsu.edu/primer/
java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/
index.html
This site has over 20 simulations of a view of a point on earth (a leaf on
campus at Florida State University) from 1000 lightyears away down to a
magnification of 1 fermi. The slides can be shown in decreasing or
increasing magnification either manual or automatically.
The entire show complete with the slides can be played back offline from
the Temporary Internet Files folder. But, I was unable to save the files
to another folder and retain the pictures as they are only resident on the
Web server.
The next reference is:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cd.htm
This is just one small part of what is available on this site. The CD area
referenced here goes into great detail on the theory and technology
involved in playing CDs, making commercial CDs, and burning your own Cds.
There are four pages on CD theory, eight pages on CD burning, six pages on
analog/digital theory, and more. These pages can be saved from the
Temporary Internet Files and played offline. However, the graphics must be
viewed separately. These pictures are photos of the insides of CD
hardware, and drawings of the structure of CDs.
More CD information:
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq.html
This CD faq (frequently asked questions) site has even more information
about how to make successful CDs. I saved the pages as text files and
ended up with over 500MB of text. This way I can do an offline search into
the text using keywords.
Now for some Windows system stuff:
http://www.PCnineoneone.com/howto/
regback1.htm
This Web site has help for just about every problem with your computer.
The particular site referenced here is an explanation of how the Windows
registry can be automatically backed up for up to 14 daily startups, not
just the default of five. And, what is more important, it shows a method
that allows restoring the registry from any of the 14 compressed backups in
the C:\Windows\Sysbckup folder, not just the last four of the five
currently allowed.
I've been doing the equivalent for 10 backups by manually saving the past
ten compressed backups to a separate partition, and then shuffling the
files. I then still have to go to DOS and run Scanreg /restore.
The Scanreg run has to be done in DOS since the registry files (System.dat
and User.dat) are "hidden" files. And, to make the change effective
Windows has to be restarted.
This Web site contains a listing (and a download) of a DOS batch file that
will do all that manipulation for you. Of course, the batch file has to be
run from the Start /Shutdown / Restart in MS-DOS mode.
Now, here's the really tricky part. On this site is an explanation of how
to make Windows 95 do the same automatic backup and restore that Windows 98
can do.
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CCCC Page 4 June 2002
MAY INTERNET S.I.G.
by Dick Trissel
Talk about a packed room, we had it with 37 attendees including those
standing in the doorway.
The first item discussed was the changing of the name of this S.I.G. to
Systems S.I.G. This doesn't mean there is any change in the format or
material from what we've been discussing over the years. It just better
reflects what we do cover--everything except religion and politics.
For example, there was a complaint about the "pop-ups" windows while
browsing the Web. One member said he has good luck with the program
"POPUPSTOPPER". Another program is "ADSGONE". Both of these and more are
listed in the www.google.com search engine site under the search word
popups.
There was a question about the advisability of deleting all the files in
the C:\Windows\Temp folder. My experience is to keep it cleaned out.
There questions about how to stop mouse "flicker" and how to get a listing
(file) of the Outlook Express addressbook to be included in an outgoing e-
mail message body. Both of these problems were addressed in the EXTRA4C
bulletins (EXTRA4C 23/05/02 and EXTRA4C 25/05/02).
An interesting problem was brought up by a member. After running Easy CD
Creator, the subsequent running of a program causes the ECDC window to
reappear. At least I think that's a description of the problem. If anyone
has a solution, bring it to the June meeting.
Along that line, as Charles mentioned, Thanks to him we now have a 4X speed
CD burner for the club's computer to be used at the Systems S.I.G. The
issue of it being an external USB1.1 device was discussed last month.
USB1.1 has a maximum transfer rate of 1.5megabytes per second. This is
equivalent to a little over an 8X CD speed (8 x 150000 = 1.2MB per second),
twice as fast as the burner maximum--no problem. So, look for discussions
about CD burning at the next meeting.
I don't know if we mentioned this, but if we didn't we should have. Be
advised--the Internet Explorer Security patch that has been recently
recommended by Microsoft has security problems of its own.
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CCCC Page 5 June 2002
May Windows S.I.G. Meeting - Windows/Word
By Amy Malicki
Deleting groups of unwanted E-mail files was the first subject discussed.
Using the Microsoft Shift key or Control Key options will highlight several
files at a time, which can be deleted, copied or moved. Hold down the
Shift Key, Click the first file to be deleted, scroll down and Click again
on the last file to be deleted. All the files in between will be
highlighted as a group.
The Control Key-Mouse combination will highlight "randomly" selected files.
Hold down the Control Key while clicking on files of your choice. The
selected files become highlighted and can be deleted, copied, or moved as a
group. To delete, Click the Right Mouse Button and select DELETE. or Click
the Delete Key Button on the Internet window. You can also Press Delete
Key on the keyboard. To Delete without sending them to the Recycle Bin,
Hold down the Shift Key when you press Delete.
Duplicate copies of Internet Explorer or AOL ICONS can be deleted by simply
right clicking on the icon then clicking Delete. If the ICONS have been
there for a long time, it's a good idea to make sure they are both
connected to the same file. If you have changed Internet servers, and now
have two Explorer ICONS, check the Icon Properties first to make sure you
don't delete the wrong one. Right Click on the Icon, Left Click on
Properties, then Click the Connection Tab to see if your current server is
listed as the default. If both properties pages are identical, it doesn't
matter which one you delete.
AutoRecover
Recovering files using the AutoRecover option in WORD was also discussed.
Go to Tools, then Options, then SAVE. If the Automatic Save is set to
every ten minutes, it's possible that most of the file can be recovered if
the power should suddenly go out, or if the program should lock up. Word
will store the saved data in a specific file location and will retrieve it
the next time the Program is opened, then ask if you want to save it and
replace the original file.
Usually this works, unless you have made a lot of changes and want to keep
your original file as it was last saved. If so, you can give the
AutoRecovered file a new name. If you would like the AutoRecover files to
be saved to the desktop, go to Tools, Options and Click File Locations,
then highlight Auto Recover and Click the Modify Button. You can make note
of where the recovered file will be located, or change the file location to
C:\Desktop or whatever directory you would like it saved to.
Scanning
The Visioneer PaperPort Scanning software was reviewed. This is a "very
easy to use software", which identifies programs on the computer and
creates picture links, so that scanned items can be easily transferred.
Some versions add the words "acquire" to the File Menu in Word Processing,
Paint Programs or Excel, so scanned items can be accessed directly from
that program.
Scanned items can be printed, faxed, e-mailed or edited. Files can also be
imported from, or exported to, a disk or hard drive in a variety of file
formats. Books and magazines can be scanned and saved in "groups of
pages". Single pages can be grouped (stacked) and saved as one file. The
scanning area can be adjusted to scan just a single column or a single
picture.
Most items are copied as graphics or photos. Using OCR (Optical Character
Recognition) scanning, pages can be input to a word processor as a text
document for editing. This means paragraphs or sections can be added to,
re-styled, or cut and pasted into another document.
Creating a text document is easy. Simply Click on the Word Processing Icon
after scanning and the program translates the pixels (dots) to actual text
and displays it in your word processor as if you had typed it all yourself.
Some OCR programs like Caere or TextBridge offer more complicated scanning
options, but this program keeps it simple.
Scanning Toolbars
A Toolbar to add notes or arrows, highlight and underline words, or add
text to photos provides more creativity. These add-on features can be
saved with the file and viewed when the file is re-opened.
Using the Photo Wizard Button or photo toolbar, a photo can be rotated,
adjusted, sharpened, inverted, cropped, and red-eye removed. This toolbar
also removes "stray dots" from a complicated page of text and lines and
enhances the lines in (Excel) tables and forms to appear darker and
straighter.
At the next meeting we will save data to a floppy disk and use the
Microsoft BackUp Utility to save a "group" of document files to a disk; and
discuss the incremental backup process, which makes it possible to back up
new and updated files on a regular basis.
A tip for those who use "Control Key commands" when word processing. To
Center a word or title, use CTRL-E; for Left Align, CTRL-L; for Right
Align, CTRL-R; for Justification (used in most newspaper publications)
CTRL-J. Also, to change the text size quickly, use CTRL+SHIFT+P. The SIZE
Editing Line will become Highlighted. Use Arrow Keys to Increase/Decrease
Size. PRESS the ENTER KEY to accept (this part is very important).
To change FONT, use CTRL+SHIFT+F. The FONT Editing Line becomes
Highlighted. Use Arrow keys to select a new name. PRESS ENTER TO ACCEPT.
To return to original font, use CTRL+SHIFT+F then type Arial or Times New
Roman, and Press Enter.
See you at the next meeting - bring a friend.
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
| COMPUTER CONSULTING |
| |
| Amy Malicki has started an "In-House" computer consulting service. |
| She charges $35 per hour in your home at your computer. |
| She can be contacted at 925-5780 or amymal@juno.com. |
______________________________________________________________________
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CCCC Page 6 June 2002
WEB WANDERINGS
by Gil Smith
COLLECTIBLES
Here is a great shopping resource for antique collectors. It lists over
40,000 antique shops. You can also research all kinds of items, or shop
on-line.
http://www.curioscape.com/
A DIFFERENT THEORY
This web page has stirred a lot of controversy. It suggests United
Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, may have
been shot down. Eyewitnesses testimony and news articles are referenced.
http://www.flight93crash.com
KIM KOMANDO NEWSLETTER
I'm sure that several members of 4C's already subscribe to the Kim Komando
weekly newsletter. It contains lots of computer tips, new product alerts,
virus alerts (and hoaxes), and interesting web sites. It's easy to
subscribe and you'll get it every Saturday. http://www.komando.com/
newsletter.asp
THE STRIPPER
No, it's nothing risque, it's not a paint stripper either. It's a text
cleaner. Don't you hate those messages where you have all those characters
and symbols that don't belong in your precious text? Well here's a nice
text cleaner that's easy to use. You just copy and paste your text into
the first box, check the boxes below the characters you want removed, then
you hit the
'strip it' button and your cleaned up text appears in the box below.
http://www.draac.com/stripper.html
PLUMBING REPAIR TIPS
All homeowners have a plumbing problem sometime. This do it yourself
section has dozens of plumbing repair tips and plumbing project how-to's
for the home improvement do it yourselfer. This web site has its own
search engine in addition to various links and a forum where a do it
yourself plumber can help you do it yourself. Plumbing is only one
of the Repair/Fix-it links which include Appliances, Electrical,
Housewares, Pest Control, etc.
http://www.doityourself.com/
plumbing
THE OLD HOUSE WEB
Lots of How To articles. You may also sign up to receive their weekly news
articles, and they have a weekly poll like this one: How do you get rid of
fallen leaves? a) Power Blower b) Rake to Street c) Burn them d) Get an
axe.
http://www.insidespaces.com/
THE DO IT YOURSELF NETWORK
DIY is a site where you'll find everything from beginning projects to
advanced Page Layouts, Templates, Videos, and Web exclusives. Everything
from Arts & Crafts to Recreation & Hobbies. If you have a home repair or
gardening question, you can e-mail or call TALK2DIY and talk to their
experts. This is one of the most comprehensive help sites that I have
found.
http://www.diynet.com
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CCCC Page 7 June 2002
REVIEW: Microsoft Office XP PRO
by Ray Isenson
As many of the members know, earlier this year the Four Seas received a
copy of Microsoft's Office XP PRO Suite for review. The software,
furnished by the Mindshare folks who are the Microsoft Corporation's
interface to User Groups, came with the understanding that a review would
be published in our newsletter within 90 days. For a reason totally beyond
our control, satisfying the requirement has been impossible. The program
failed when we tried to run any of the applications.
Although we could, seemingly satisfactorily, install the software in a
computer, the applications could not be accessed. The attempt to bring up
Word, Excel or Access was frustrated by a screen showing the normal first
page of the program with a super imposed block stating that the wrong Key
had been used for the installation; that the proper one need be input
before continuing.
The only Key we had was that fastened to the jewel case in which the
software CD was delivered. To the best of our understanding, the "wrong
Key" should not have permitted software installation, in the first place.
Be that as it may, it did permit installation but nothing more. For the
record, these results were experienced in three different computers; each
running a different operating system; Windows 98SE, Windows ME and Windows
XP. It clearly was not an operating system problem.
We were greatly disappointed in the lack of response from Mindshare, who
did not reply to the several e-mail messages sent to them requesting
resolution to this apparent oversight. Hopefully, we'll have better luck
with future Microsoft software sent to us for review, as they have
traditionally been a strong supporter for user groups.
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CCCC Page 8 June 2002
PUBLICATION LIBRARY By Barbara Godwin 934-9885 yung.bag@verizon.net
The following is a list of 42 books (6 additions) in the CCCC library.
These can be checked out one month at a time and renewed. They must be
requested from Barbara--they are not at the meetings. Asterisks indicate
new to the library.
America Online for Windows
Bill Gates-The Road Ahead
Build Your Own PC - A Tutorial *
CD and DVD Recording for Dummies *
Close the Gaps
Computer Resource Guide
Fix Your Own PC, 2nd Edition
Getting Ready for Windows 95
How Computers Work *
How to Do Everything with the Internet
Inside Windows 95
Introducing MS Windows 95
Master Office 97 Visually (with CD)
Microsoft Windows Me for Dummies
Modems for Dummies
MS Windows 95 Resource Kit (w/Floppies)
MS Windows 98-Getting Started
Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research
Official Netscape Navigator 2.0
PC Mechanics' Build Your Own PC
Personal Computers-A Guide for Seniors
Pocket PC Starter Pak for Dummies (w/CD)
Running Microsoft Windows 95
Teach Yourself the Internet in a Week,Ed2
The Official America On Line, 2nd Edition
The Secret Guide to Computers- Ed.24 1998
The Ultimate MS Windows 95 Book
The Windows 95 Bug Collection
Upgrading & Repairing PC's, 2nd Edition
Web Pages, 2nd Edition *
Windows 95 Made Easy
Windows 95 Secrets Gold (with CD)
Windows 95 Secrets, 3rd Edition (with CD)
Windows 95 Secrets, 4th Edition (with CD)
Windows 98 for Busy People
Windows 98 for Dummies (X's 2)
Windows 98 in a Nutshell
Windows 98 Quick Reference
Windows 98 Simplified
Windows Me - I Didn't Know You Could Do That... *
Windows Me for Dummies(Special PC World Pocket Edition) *
Windows Millennium-The Missing Manual
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CCCC Page 9 June 2002
Maintaining Your Windows XP Computer by Ray Isenson
Upgrading to or buying a new computer with the latest operating system
doesn't change one well known fact. Making sure that your PC functions at
its best still requires periodic maintenance. The utilities needed for
trouble-shooting and maintaining your PC are provided by Microsoft in your
system. By and large they are accessible the same way that you found them
in Windows 9x although they may seem to function differently.
Regular defragging of every partition on your hard drive to keep it running
faster and to increase your chances of recovering data if the drive crashes
is a must. There's a common, erroneous assumption that if one isn't
regularly writing, saving and deleting files it isn't necessary to defrag.
Remember, when you receive e-mail it's written to the hard drive. When you
surf the WEB cookies and temporary Internet files are being written to that
drive. If you don't regularly delete these files operation of your
computer will slow noticeably. If you do, you're creating a situation
where the next files will be fragmented as they are stored. Defragmenting
in Windows XP is initiated in XP just about the same as in 95, 98 or ME;
click on Start / AllPrograms / Accessories / System Tools / Disk
Defragmenter.
The presentation is completely different from that in Windows 9x Defrag,
but you'll have no trouble interpreting it. One major difference is that
The percent completed will jump up and down as the program accomplishes
different actions. By the way, it's still a good idea to disable your
screen saver before starting defrag.
You won't find the Scandisk utility in Windows XP. Never the less, the
function it served in Windows 9x, searching for misplaced file fragments
and checking the drive surface for damaged areas, is still needed. Right-
click on Start, select Explore and, in the left frame, select the C:\ drive
if it isn't the default. Now, right click in the right frame and click on
properties in the window that opens. In the next window select the tools
tab and, under Error Checking, click in the check now box. You may get a
message telling you that the utility needs exclusive rights to some Windows
files on the disk. Windows will then ask if you want to perform the check
at the next restart. If so, click yes and then OK. I generally run this
check at least monthly.
Another significant difference from Windows 9x is the "System Restore"
utility. It existed in Windows 98 as "Scanreg /Restore" but wasn't
particularly well known or used. In XP it allows the user to return the
system to a condition that existed at some previous time. To make maximum
use of this possibility, when your system is running well, click Start /
Help and Support / then "Undo changes with System Restore". In the Right
panel select "Create a restore point". You'll be asked to name it. I call
mine "Base" as I consider it to be my standard. In the future should you
have a system problem, you can restore your computer to the condition that
existed when you established the check point. When you make a change or
add a new program, you'll want to establish a new reference to which you
can return if needed. Reselecting the older checkpoint would remove the
added program from your system.
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