Printing: If you are having trouble printing pictures from the internet you are probably printing the screen. Right click and save to a folder on your hard drive. Then you can bring up the pictures in a graphics program, fix any problems and then print. This way you can always be sure you are working with the same size pic that was on the website.

Joanne

Understandable Computer Information: Here are a couple of computer-related web-sites that are pretty intelligible. Aimed respectively at old people and women, but nobody's gonna know if you sneak in under false pretenses: http://www.aarp.org/comptech/learning/qtips/

http://www.ivillage.com/click/

Mary

Printer Problems: Try double clicking on your HP printer Icon (or open it from your main menu and go to HP Toolbox). Then go to "Troubleshooting." A drop down menu block will occur, and there's a selection for "Print quality is poor." If you open that, you will see a number of suggestions, including cleaning your printer cartridges (which your computer can do for you -- it takes a couple of minutes and a blank sheet of paper). Or the contacts may need cleaning, and it will give you instructions on how to do that. Also make sure you are printing on "Best Print Quality" under your printer "Properties" selection.

Anita Myers

Keeping up with Digests: I have developed a technique helpful to me in keeping up with the posts of digests with my many lists, mini and non-mini. I have created "in-coming" folders for the different lists. I use Netscape as a browser, but I know of others who develop folders with other programs. These are "Message Filters." By placing new messages in the "in-coming" folders created with "Message Filters" (found in the edit menu at the top of the e-mail screen), I am able to pre-sort the messages and read them all at one time from each individual source. This process helps to maintain my train of thought. I avoid responding to posts that have already been answered to death. I can cut and paste tips and new ideas into a new message to myself, putting subjects on them for filing into folders to keep the information for later reference. I have become more efficient this way. I needed to find a way to compute less and mini more.

Peg

Requesting SS back issues: You can only enter one issue number at a time. Enter 471, submit. enter 470, submit. etc. Also, make absolutely sure you are entering your email address correctly, and it is the one you are subscribed with.

Anne Gerdes

Signature Files and Spam: Because I receive a great deal of spam, a few days ago I began subscribing to a wonderful, free anti-spam program called Brightmail. It's doing an impressive job -- for me, about a 90% success rate -- of weeding out my spam, which is stored on their website for 30 days so one can log on and check it to make sure it hasn't caught something that it should have let through.

Well, when I was about to send my first e-mail message after subscribing I noticed that it had automatically attached a signature file to my outgoing message promoting itself. (Now I know why it's a free service -- LOL!).However, if you know it's there, it may be a simple matter to manually delete it if you think of it (and here I'm assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that it makes no difference what e-mail program you use or what version).

Bev G.

Scanners: Anyone with a scanner should check out: http://www.scantips.com It's a really great site written so anyone can understand it and full of great ideas and tips.

Carl Crist in Lake Isabella, CA

Keeping Albums Straight: When you bookmark a site as a favorite, it just has a title like "Photo Site (Guest Mode)" which does not tell you later which album it is (Rik's, Bonnie's etc.). You can rename it! In Netscape, you go to Bookmarks > Edit Bookmarks and then right-click on the link and select Bookmark Properties. Then you can type in a new name, like "Rik Pierce's Album". In Internet Explorer, Click on Favorites, then right click on the one you want to rename and choose "Rename".

Anne Gerdes

Internet Search Tips:

1. It doesn't matter WHAT search engine you use - choose one, and get to know it. They all have their ido syn crazies (as we say in our house). BUT they all have a button that says something about Search Tips. Click on it and take the time to read and understand it. Most useful tool for limiting your search is the inverted commas. If you type in Mona Lisa you are going to get ALL the Monas; all the Lisa's and all the Mona Lisas. If you type in "Mona Lisa" you will only get the Mona Lisas. (Although they won't all be to do with fine art!!!)

2. Generally speaking type your search term in lower case letters UNLESS it is the name of a person place or thing (Proper Noun) that you are looking for. If you typed bill gates you would get everything about bills; everything about gates; everything about Bill and everything about Gates as well as everything about Bill Gates. If you typed "Bill Gates" you would get everything about Bill Gates. Re reading that lot sounds a bit confusing! Only use capitals when you mean them!

Barbara B

Split Links: I think what you are asking about is the situation where internet links are split by a line break and then do not show up (or work) as hot links. Although, by definition, these are long links you can write them out on a piece of paper and then type them into the Address field. The problem with this is that if you make even one mistake the computer will not find the web site. Alternatively, you can highlight them and then Copy and Paste into the address field. But perhaps you are asking about the width of your screen. Try clicking on View / Wrap long lines. That should do it.

Barbara B

"Searching the web". some general :

1/ Use a search engine, there are lots out there, Yahoo, Excite, AltaVista, Look Smart, Deja, just to name a few.

2/ Typing in the word 'Dollhouse' will result in all kinds of Web sites, including Real estate Agents, Business names, indeed all sorts of things you don't want.

3/ Refine your search, by typing in a few extra words that describe exactly what you are after. Separate each word with a + sign, leaving a space between each word and the + sign. For Example Dollhouse + America.

4/ Cheat a little! To stop all those Real Estate sites coming up add a - sign. For example, Dollhouse + America - Real Estate.

Tony

Here follow some computer tips, so scan on by if you know your computer - but be careful - you may miss some pearls of wisdom :-)

Did you know that the easiest way to highlight is with the shift and arrow keys? Hold down the shift button and then stab your arrow keys. Shift + Right arrow highlights one letter at a time going right. Shift + Left arrow highlights one letter at a time going left. Shift + Down arrow highlights one line at a time going down. Shift + up arrow highlights one line at a time going up.

While on the subject, here is another cool computer tip. While on a web page you can search for just one word. Hold down control and stab F. Up pops a window that says Find what? Type in the word you are looking for, put a tick in the box that says "Match whole word only" and press Enter. It jumps to the word and highlights it. (this works everywhere - not just on web pages). Remember: Control + F (control gives you control and F for find).

Barbara B

How to print out individual hints from 'Small Stuff" without printing the full page. Easy, try the following:

1/ Minimize your 'Small Stuff' Web Page, or if your desktop is available, open a word processor program, "Word, Microsoft Works, or whatever you have installed. Word Pad And Note book may be too small if you want to go on week after week and collect huge amounts of hints. Minimize this program so that it sits on your task bar.

2/ Highlight the 'Hint you want, ( Left click on the first letter and holding down the left mouse button, run it down the left side of the lines you want to keep.

Another way - Position your cursor before the first letter and hold down the 'shift key' then use your 'right' arrow on your keyboard, highlight your lines.

3/ Once highlighted, 'Right click on the highlighted lines, and 'right click' in the box click 'copy'

4/ From your task bar, open your word processor program, position your cursor, ( The cursor should, by default, already be at the top. left hand side of your page)

5/ Right click your mouse and select 'paste' - Voila! Save your page, ( Small Stuff Hints) or whatever you wish to call it, and save under 'Documents' or any other area, and click save. From there, you can also save the file to a floppy disk, perhaps Drive "A", and resave each time you add a hint. You Can also "print" or Email the hint to friends.

Tony

Printing Images: NEVER save your image as a jpeg before printing. JPEGS are called "lossy" images, because the program condenses them and in the process they lose colors, sharpness, and resolution. You should print them directly as bmp's or tiff images. You'll get much better results. JPEGS are strictly for use on the web or as "previews" on photo CD's of bmp and tiff images that you can purchase from the stock photo companies. JPEGS are useful for any pictures such as photographs that have subtle gradations of color, such as a portrait, etc.

GIF images are also lossy images, and they are used mainly for images that have _no graduations_ of color. Basically, the computer looks at a series of colors that make up a graduation, and says "OK, these three colors are pretty similar, so I'm getting rid of two of them and keeping the third. If there are gradations, then the _only_ way a GIF can reproduce it is through our old friend, dithering. GIFS are best used for images with large, flat areas of color. One rule of thumb is, for printing, the image should be at least 300 dpi. JPEGS and GIFS taken from web sites are typically only 72 dpi. TIFF, EPS and BMP images are best. Also PICT and PDF. But remember, that ink jet printers do not handle EPS images very well. They get severe cases of the "jaggies".

Dave Pierce

Printers: As to a recommendation on printers, my personal favorite is Epson. They have some printers that offer photographic quality, and aren't _too_ expensive. My own printer can print on pages up to 17"X22", and the print quality can be set at 360 dpi for quickie prints...as in smallstuff postings...720 dpi for faster almost-photo-quality prints, and 1024 dpi for real photo quality. On gloss paper, it takes a really good magnifier to see that it's not a real photograph.

But remember, you also have to have your monitor and printer talking the same language as far as colors are concerned. What looks like a bright, warm red on the monitor may print like a dark purplish color on paper, because the system hasn't been adjusted. There are programs to help set up your system for proper color management. When it's been done right, what you see on your monitor will be very, very close to being what you get. (Rarely will it match completely, because the screen is emitting light as red, green and blue glowing spots, intermixing the three colors across the screen to give images. The printer is printing that in 4 colors on paper, with inks that are cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Each has it's own gamut, and some of the colors just don't coincide.)

Check with your local printer dealers, where you bought yours, and find out if there is a way to set you printer to print at a higher resolution. Then go to Staples, Office Max or the like and get some good paper...not the 360 quick print type, and definitely not copier paper. Actually, the Epson papers are about the best in the biz. I've used both, and while the Epson papers offer smooth, even, bright colors, the colors that come off the HP papers seem to be a bit blotchy. It can be seen very readily on large areas of flat color.

There are occasional light or dark spots where the ink is absorbed at a different rate.

Also, keep in mind that your computer type (Mac or PC) also makes a difference. Macs handle graphics and color much better than those PC computers...

Dave Pierce

Colour Printers & Monitors: to help set up your system for proper color management.

The site I have marked below, is a site I send many of my customers to before I start designing a site for them. It helps you adjust your monitor and thereby avoids the client telling me, "That's not the colour I wanted!!!"

http://www.colormatters.com/comput.html

Please do this when you have time and patience. The site is explanatory as well as providing tests to check your monitor's gamma so it takes a bit of time to go through, but it's well worth it.

And I must confess that all this chatter over the past weeks as to what you can do/use a colour printer for regarding miniatures, well I just gave up last week and went out and bought a colour printer. I don't need it for my work at all, I have an HP postscript laser for that, and well, the colour one may come in handy for work at some point, but for minis, well it just became an absolute two-hundred dollar necessity! I bought the BJC 6100 and am very happy with it.

Joy Perkins

Web Search Tutorial: Here is a tutorial on searching techniques. http://doc.altavista.com/adv_search/ast_i_index.html

Tom Berkner

Copying Favorites / Bookmarks: In Netscape you can go to "Edit Bookmarks" and then copy and paste them into Word, NotePad or Word Pad. The URLs are what pastes. You will then have to go in hit "Enter" at the end of each one (or at the beginning of each "http").

Anne Gerdes

Saving Favorites/Bookmarks With Internet Explorer: I always save my favorites every so often to disk, just in case my computer crashes. Go to file, and click on import/export. up comes the Wizard and you click next. Highlight export favorites and next. Highlight favorites folder and click next. Click on export to a file or address and click on browse. Click on my documents and choose the A drive and save. You should have all of your favorites on disk. You should be able to print off these addresses also from the disk.

Marlene Chapman in Ontario

Saving Bookmarks With Netscape; Click on bookmarks then click on Edit Bookmarks, then go up to File in the left hand corner and click on Save As and then save it to your desktop or to a disk or both. Then save it as "Bookmarks Sept2000.html" or whatever you want to call them but leave them as a html file, I usually date them so that I can replace them with a newer version the next month or so. If you go into Netscape and then open that file up, you can make a printout that will show you what you have in there so you can delete any doubles or move them around in your bookmarks, you can also click on the item right in the file and it will open the webpage. You can also send the file as an attachment to a friend if they lose their bookmarks.

Jean in Maine