Arthritis Insight-AI Help Desk

"... there are some who keep up a tradition of pride in service to the United States of America and remember all those who had fallen .... Let none of us ever forget what Memorial Day really is." --Kathlena Peebles, May 1996

Q: What is an HTML Document?

A: The short answer is - it's a web page. You see, web pages are nothing more than another type of document. In fact, they're really nothing more than a page of text instructions that your web browser reads.

So what exactly is this HTML? HTML is short for Hyper Text Markup Language. It's the programming language of web pages (technically, HTML is not a programming language, but it's the best way to explain it). HTML gives your web browser instructions on how to display the HTML document (web page) you're accessing.

If you would like to take a peek at this HTML stuff, open Internet Explorer and head to your favorite site. From the view menu, select Source or View Source (depending on your version).

Column Size Fun OK, most of us know that you can resize the columns in Windows Explorer. You just grab the little black column separators at the top and drag them to the size you need. Well, there's actually a better way.

If you double-click in the little space between columns, you'll find that the column automatically resizes itself so it shows the complete name of every item in the column. Oh, this little trick works with most programs that use columns of information (outlook, excel, etc).

Selection Tricks

If you want to select files that are in order: Click the first one, hold down your SHIFT key, then click the last one. Everything in between will be highlighted.

OR You can "lasso" items. Just click your left mouse button, hold it down, then drag to "lasso" the files you want selected. Note that this works with Explorer, but not most list boxes.

If the files are NOT in order: Hold down your CTRL key as you click the files you want selected.

Open My Computer, head to your C: drive, and give it a try on some files. Note that if you have your computer set for single-click opening, you won't actually want to click any files to highlight them. Just hover your mouse over them and they will become selected (almost like magic).

File Sizes & Counts

Have you ever wondered how much space a set of files takes up? Or how many files were in a folder? Well, here's how to figure it out. If you're interested in the number of files in a folder and / or the total size of the folder, just right-click it and select Properties from the resulting menu.

OK, that was a fairly well known trick. But what if you have a bunch of files in a folder and need to know the combined size of seven of them? You could right-click each one, select Properties, and then add up all the sizes. However, a better way would be to highlight all seven files in question, right-click them, and select Properties. That will give you a combined file size of just those seven files.

Source: Computer Tips & Techniques
http://www.worldstart.com
Copyright 2001, Worldstart - Reprinted with permission.

Computer and Web News

Internet scam artist fined $1.9M

E-mail scam cites Afghanistan soldier

Microsoft describes software plans

Dry marker defeats CD copy protect

Internet fraud in your inbox

Until next week,

Test your reflexes - http://happyhub.com/network/reflex/ (My best was 0.39 seconds :)

Q: Lately, my CD ROM has been giving me problems. When I try to play a game, it seems to have a hard time reading the CD. You can hear it going fast, then slowing down, then speeding back up. Any ideas what could be causing this?

A: You could have several different problems. First off, if it only does it with one CD, you may want to check that CD for scratches. Maybe it's the CD itself and not the drive that's causing the problem. If you find that it does this with all your CDs, you may need to clean your CD ROM drive. The best way to do this is to try to get a CD cleaning kit and run it in your drive. Now, keep in mind that most CD ROM cleaners aren't meant to be run in a computer, so you may run into a snag or two (ideally, find one that is meant for cleaning CD ROM drives, not just CD players).

If you are stuck with a regular CD player cleaner - The biggest problem with a regular CD player cleaner in a CD ROM drive is that is just won't run. If you can't get the CD cleaner to run on its own, try using the CD Player program. You can get at it by clicking your Start button, Programs, Accessories, Entertainment, CD Player. If it shows a track, try to play it.

If that doesn't get the CD ROM clean (or just doesn't work), you may need to use some canned air to blow the CD ROM drive out. Be careful with this one though. If you hold the can a at funny angle it may spray out some "gunk" that can really mess up the lens on your CD ROM's laser.

Another problem may be your CD ROM performance settings. Hold the ALT key down and double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop. Click the Performance tab on the resulting screen, then the File System button. Now, under the CD ROM tab, try setting the "Supplemental cache size" up or down (probably the larger the better). You may also want to experiment with the "Optimize access pattern drop box".

Finally, there may be an internal problem either in the computer or the drive. The controller on the motherboard may have gone bad or maybe the ribbon cable needs replaced. If you suspect that the drive itself is bad, you'll be out looking for a new drive since there's really no economical way to repair an internal problem with a CD ROM drive. Sorry. Open Trick

If you're like me, you like to make separate folders to keep your stuff in. Maybe one for pictures, one for documents, etc.
Well, if you find yourself hunting all over your hard drive to get from folder to folder, you can place a shortcut to the folders you use all the time on the desktop. Then, when you get to an Open dialog box, click the desktop icon (most dialog boxes have one - usually located next to the "location" drop box or along the side), then double-click the shortcut you created. Just like that you're in the folder you wanted.

It's not real handy if you only have a few folders and they're all in the My Documents folder, but if you scatter your stuff around your hard drive or access sub-folders buried two or three levels deep, this can be a real time saver. This trick is also useful if you keep your stuff in the My Documents folder, but have a program that refuses to look there by default.

Anyhow, if you want to set this up, all you need to do is create a folder shortcut on your desktop. To do that, open Windows Explorer (right-click My Computer, Explore) and find the folder you want to use. Then, right-click the shortcut, select Send To, Desktop. It will create a shortcut for that folder on your desktop.

Now, try it by starting the program you use that folder with and clicking Open. Click the Desktop icon and then your new shortcut.
Poof! You're in the folder. Oh, of course, you can double-click this new Desktop folder shortcut from the Desktop and open the folder.

Q: How do I Copy & Paste?

A: First off, you'll be glad to learn copying and pasting is easy. You can copy and paste just about anything your little heart desires: text, web pages, files, pictures, you name it. The idea behind the process is to take information from one place and deposit it into another.

For example, let's pretend you're working in a word processor and need to copy and paste a section of your document into an e-mail. Here's how:

First, you'll need to select the text you wish to copy. You do this by putting your mouse cursor at the first character you want to copy and, holding down the left mouse button, drag the cursor to the last character you need copied. As you drag, you'll notice everything gets highlighted (selected).
Next, right-click the selected area. Choose Copy from the menu that pops up (or you can use CTRL-C if you like keyboard shortcuts).
Finally, right-click the area in your e-mail document where you would like to insert the word processor text. Click Paste from the menu that pops up (For this, CTRL-V is your keyboard shortcut).

That's it. The steps are basically the same for any copy & paste procedure you need to do.

If you want to get a little more fancy, place your cursor at the first character you want selected and, while holding down the SHIFT key, click next to the last character you want selected. It's sometimes easier to follow this procedure than to make selections by dragging, especially when your wrestling with a lengthy document. I can't remember the number of times the area I wanted to stop selecting at zipped right by me on a document!

Another fun way to use the SHIFT key is adding to an existing selection. Let's say you select an area of text and you came up short of what you really needed. Rather than trying to re-select the whole thing, just hit the SHIFT key and click your mouse where you would like the selection to end. (You can also shorten a selection by doing this too.)

After you have used the SHIFT key to get your text selected, follow the pervious steps to copy / paste.

XP Clock Trick

If you are running Windows XP, you'll never have to worry about manually setting your computer's clock again!
Just double-click the little clock in the System Tray and it will bring up the Time and Date Properties screen. Click the Internet Time tab and you'll see a button that lets you instantly synchronize your clock with one on the internet. Of course, you have to be online for this little trick to work.

Also, you'll notice that there's a check box on that screen that says "Automatically synchronize with an internet time server". If you uncheck that box, you won't be able to do a manual synchronization as described above. However with this feature enabled, not only can you do our little trick, but your computer will automatically update its time once a week - all by itself.

Of course, you need to be online when it's time for the synchronization in order for this to work. Anyhow, no matter how it gets updated - manually or automatically, it's still a handy way to keep your computer's clock right on time.

News from the Web

Intel cuts Pentium prices

Netscape 7 preview

Comcast hit with privacy violation lawsuit

Web surfers balk at online fees

Online pharmacy fined $88M

Whose laws rule on the web