Newsletter - Internet Edition

The July meeting is going to be a ‘reversed blast’. In a 4th of July firecracker, when you light the fuse it blows into pieces. We are going to take pieces and put them back into a computer. All of the parts have been donated to EPCUG from members or local companies. We in turn will be donating the finished computer to the Goshen Boys and Girls Club.

This will include discussions on the following items:

As much as possible, we are going to ask people from the membership to come up and help us do this assembly. This is a chance for you to “get your hand inside the box.”

Those of us who have been working with computers for years forget how scared we were the first time we took the case off the computer. People sometimes believe that if they touch anything it will quit working. Every couple of years we need to give the new people a chance to peer inside the beast.

We are still trying to confirm if a member of the Goshen Boys and Girls Club will be there to receive the computer. If they cannot, we will make sure that they receive it.

MapleTronics of Goshen will be giving a demonstration on Microsoft Office Pro 97. There are many new features that make the new Office Pro 97 even more powerful than before.

The biggest change in it is the new program Outlook. This is like an electronic office manager. You can use it to schedule your meetings, get your Email, and keep track of your address book. It has a feature that is good for people who know when they worked on something, but not what the name of the file is. Outlook can track every Office Pro 97 document you work on and put it in a time line calendar.

Since this should be a hot meeting, please plan to be there early to get the best seats.

This meeting is one you need to see. The Northern Indiana Independent Living (NIILS) will be showing how they use computers to help blind or visually disabled people live an independent life. This is everything from large monitors, enlargement of text in books, to speech processors that let a blind person see. Charley Adams will be one of our presenters.

Hope to see you as often as possible at the meetings. Bring your questions, someone may have the answer for you from out membership.

If you missed the June general meeting, you missed another fine presentation by our very own Cindy Oyer on Basic Internet. Once again she managed to incorporate enough basic, beginner information, sprinkled with just enough advance tips to keep everybody interested. Going from the basics of things you should know before selecting an ISP to some suggested software and sites along the Net, even I picked up some tips. For example, I’ve known for a long time what an FTP program was and what it’s for. I just never really thought about the fact that using my browser as my FTP would slow it down. Using a separate FTP program frees my browser to do its job of downloading a web page to read or getting to the next site.

Also, I had been to the Stoud’s Consummate Internet Utilities site http://cws.internet.com/ before, but they had moved and I lost track of them. It really is a great site for making sure you have the latest and greatest tools to surf with. They list upgrades regularly and do a really good job of reviewing programs, too.

I’ve always used Eudora Lite for my email program. However, after hearing Cindy talk about Pegasus Mail (w32-254.exe + winpm254.exe), I think I’d like to try it and compare them. After all, I did actually install MS Internet Explorer just to make sure I really did like Netscape better! I’ve already installed ws_ftp (ws_ftp32.zip + ws_ftp.zip), even tho I CuteFtp already set up. Not really much difference there, though. Both Pegasus and Eudora offer a free version. If you don’t mind a slightly older, slightly less featured CuteFtp (not any features that I missed), being freeware or not isn’t an issue between it and ws_ftp either.

I had to miss part of Cindy’s presentation, so I am not sure if she got a lot explained on FreeAgent (fa32-111.exe + fa16-111.exe) for newsgroups. It was already a favorite of mine. She needed no convincing there for me. It just seems to make better sense all the way around to grab some postings from your newsgroups and read them offline. Then jump back on and grab some more. Even though I have 2 phone lines, and some have unlimited time and 2 phone lines, it just makes better sense to me. You don’t have to worry about getting disconnected, if nothing else. The full version, which is called Agent, has some extra features that make it worth purchasing for many people. For myself and just basic, light browsing of the newsgroups, FreeAgent fills the order just fine. It’s very easy to use, and quick to install.

One program that Cindy didn’t get to show us was WinZip (wzbeta32.exe), which I use and always have available in the Resource Center. PkWare also has a Windows version of its compression/decompression software. I usually offer both programs on the same disk. However, I just have to agree with Cindy that Winzip is more intuitive, and easier to use. The readability of the graphical interface is probably the most often commented difference that I hear about. PKZip for Windows is just not as easy to see and read as WinZip. Both function about the same, although you do actually need to have a copy of the basic DOS version of PKZip in your system to perform certain functions in WinZip. I think it’s a small inconvenience for the extras Winzip has.

As Cindy said, all these programs are either freeware or shareware programs and some can be purchased bringing more and better features. You can download all of these programs from the Internet, or picked up from the Resource Center.

Along with the programs added from Cindy’s presentation, I plan on having at next month’s meeting: a couple of new games, a cross-stitching program, a new compression style program recommended by Orbra (sounds neat, too), a uuencoder/decoder for Windows, and maybe a new disk of shareware fonts.

As always, send me any requests or suggestions and I’ll try to have them at the next meeting for you. Also, if you are interested in trying out new programs for me as I find them, please let me know. I always try to make sure the programs I present have already been tested by reputable testing sites. But sometimes, there is more than one program to choose from with the same level of rating. Another opinion is always a great help! Email me anytime at nisly@skyenet.net. I’d be glad to hear from you.

Summer is such a wonderful time of the year. There are always more things to do and never enough time to do them. I know Jon Slough is feeling this as well. He has started taking continuing education classes in his spare time. This is conflicting with the Internet SIG he is running and after July, this SIG will be taking a break for a few months. We will let you know when it is starting back up. Cindy Oyer will be filling in for Jon this month.

Elections are just around the corner in September. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s that time again. Our vice president, Cindy Oyer, is in charge of the election and you will be hearing from her in the next few months. We will be electing 7 people to our board, and Cindy will become president. I have been fortunate to have what I think has been the best board we have had. I have enjoyed the last couple of years and would encourage you to give back to the club by volunteering to help on the board.

Many of you may already know, but Orbra Bliss is leaving for six months to live in Ecuador. Orbra has done so much for our group. He has been our main contact from Crown for years, opening the doors for the meetings, dealing with new security systems at Crown, and running the sound and video system. He has also held various positions on the board of directors, his last position being president last year. Keep Orbra in your prayers as he and his wife are traveling and living in a different country. Thank you, Orbra, for all you have done. Paul Camiller with Crown has agreed to open the doors in July and August.

I’ll finish this article with a problem we had at work a couple of weeks ago. We had a user call saying their PC was running slow and that they could only open a couple of programs at once. The first thing I checked was available memory before starting Windows. Device drivers can cause this type of problem when loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, taking to much conventional memory. They had about 611k of conventional memory, more than enough for Windows. After looking at the configuration files, I found they had loaded more than 500 fonts on the machine. We selected a dozen or two that they needed, deleted the rest, and the machine was back to normal. You can manage your installed fonts by selecting Fonts out of the Control Panel.

Editor’s Note: Brad mentioned that this is the last month for the Internet Sig for a few months. It is also the last month for the Windows 95 Sig. Both will be restarted again after a break.

PROBLEM: A problem has been identified in the Netscape Navigator.

PLATFORM: All platforms running Netscape Navigator 2.0, 3.0, and Communicator 4.0.

DAMAGE: This vulnerability may allow a Web site operator to retrieve known files from the hard disks of visiting users by mimicking the submission of a form.

SOLUTION: Apply the workaround or the appropriate patch provided below.

The exploit is not currently available but knownledge of this vulnerability has been highly publicized by the media.

Recently, the Internet community was made aware of a bug in the Netscape Navigator. Netscape engineers were able to recreated the bug in Netscape Communicator and Navigator 2.0 and 3.0.

Known as the privacy bug, it may allow a Web site operator to retrieve known files from the hard disks of visiting users by mimicking the submission of a form. Under ordinary circumstances, users browsing on known, trusted sites are not at risk. However, if a user visits an unknown, untrusted site, the operator of that site could potentially retrieve files from a user's hard disk through an obscure series of steps. To access a file on the hard drive the Web site operator would need to know the exact name and location of the file.

Even though the bug has been highly publicized, this factor in itself limits the possibility of this vulnerability being exploited.

Netscape released the following statement: "The execution of this attack requires specific knowledge of the user's machine to cause harm and so is unlikely to be reproduced. Because this specific bug has existed for more than a year and a half since Navigator 2.0 - and Netscape has never had a report about this bug or any loss based on this bug - we believe the risk to users from this bug is relatively low."

CIAC recommends that you apply the workarounds or the appropriate patch provided below.

To remove any risk of this bug, Navigator users should download the updated version of Communicator or Navigator, that includes the fix.

In the interim, users of Navigator 3.0 and Communicator 4.0 can take the following steps to enable warning dialog boxes to detect and cancel form submissions:

In Navigator 3.0: Go to the Options menu and select Security Preferences. Select the "Submitting a Form Insecurely" preference to enable that warning dialog box.

In Navigator 4.0: Select the lock in the toolbar to open the Security Advisor. Select Navigator, then select the "Sending Unencrypted Information to a Site" preference to enable that warning dialog box.

Communicator 4.01 for Windows (includes the fix for privacy bug) http://home.netscape.com/download/ client_download.html?communicator 4.01

Navigator 3.0 Fix pending per Netscape.

CIAC, the Computer Incident Advisory Capability, is the computer security incident response team for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the emergency backup response team for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). World Wide Web: http://ciac.llnl.gov/

You've found a great piece of shareware online. Perhaps you downloaded it, or got it sent to you via the Internet. Are you ready to run it? Maybe not. What if the program is in some file format you do not understand - maybe even ASCII text!? Do you need to be concerned with viruses? What if the shareware isn't what you want? How do you get rid of it, for good?

Anyone who downloads and uses shareware needs a group of utility programs to help. These will help you in installing, uninstalling, and protecting your computer as you evaluate and use shareware. These four months (last month, this month, and the next two) we are looking at four categories of utility products: Compressors/Decompressors, Encoders/Decoders, AntiVirus Software, and UnInstallers.

Encoders and Decoders are necessary utilities when you send and receive programs via Internet E-mail. Internet mail can only carry information in ASCII format - in other words, as plain text. It cannot directly transport binary files such as program files or zipped files. However, mail can transport such files if they are converted to ASCII text first. That's where an encoding program comes in. It converts the binary file to ASCII, and attaches it to the text message. On the other end, a decode program is necessary to convert the ASCII text back into the binary file.

There are several Encoding "techniques." Bin-Hex is the most common in the Macintosh world. UUEncode/UUDecode is the standard in the PC and Unix environments. MIME, Multiple Independent Mail Extensions, are extensions to E-mail that are gaining in popularity. MIME is the de facto standard with current E-mail software. Unfortunately, MIME is not supported in some older PC and Unix mail systems. So using UUEncode is usually the safest to ensure the recipient can decode (using UUDecode) the file.

If you receive a mail message with a large amount of (seemingly nonsense) ASCII text, you probably have an attached encoded file. Some decoder programs can work directly with the E-mail message, but is it usually better to cut and paste the text into a separate text file, saved with a UUE extension. Large files may come as multiple encoded messages; cut and paste them into individual text files. Then run your decode program against those text files to turn it back into a binary file.

Wincode, written by G.H. Silva, is a popular freeware Windows UUEn-coder/UUDecoder. Wincode supports drag and drop, and handles single encoded files and multiple-part encoded files. (Large files are often encoded into several smaller files for mailing, since some mail systems limit the length of messages.) Wincode intelligently handles multi-part files, so when you specify the first encoded file it will find all parts of the file and automatically decode those additional files and reassemble the complete encoded file.

Wincode is easy to use. Simply start the program, select decode from the menu, highlight the encoded file name, and click [OK]. Wincode will decode the file back to its binary format. There is also an option to have Wincode automatically run the file after it is decoded. Alternatively you can associate the UUE extension with Wincode, enabling you to run Wincode when you double-click on the filename with that extension.

For DOS users, there are several UUEncode/UUDecode programs that run directly from the command line. One of the most common on online services is UUENC.ZIP, written by Richard Marks. This UUEncode and UUDecode, like Wincode, can handle single and multiple-part encoded files automatically. There are also several command line options for handling specialfiles, but these are generally not needed. Simply run UUDECODE with the encoded file name, and it does the decoding automatically.

For more advanced encoding/decoding needs, there is ESS-Code from Electric Storm Software. ESS-Code is a Windows program that handles the standard UUEncode, along with MIME, SHIP, and BOTA (the latter two are Unix encoding techniques). There are versions of ESS-Code available for Windows, Windows 95/NT, DOS, and Atari. ESS-Code offers a Wizard to help decode (and encode) files, or you can decode and encode by selecting the appropriate encoding type from the File menu.

Next month we'll continue with a look at virus scanners, including McAfee's VirusScan, and FindVirus.

Due to limited space last month, I was not able to present you with a full review on Adobe's new PageMaker 6.5. I would like to add a section to that article now. Many new and improved features are in this upgrade, as one would expect with any program. I feel Adobe has improved on some features which bring it up to a level that will continue to allow it to capture the desktop publishing market.

Besides being a very helpful, quickly accessible overview of all shortcuts, selecting the Shortcut option under HELP gives you a listing of new and changed shortcuts. So, now, you can brush up on your shortcuts and note the changes, or begin learning them by reviewing them every time you begin working.

Absolutely don't miss reading the undocumented features section of the Readme.doc which will be in the PM65 directory after installation! After upgrading, one feature that was lost (or so I thought) was the ability to toggle between Fit in Window and Actual Size view. Adobe replaced this with the ability to obtain the right-mouse context-sensitive pop-up menu that is now available in so many Windows 95 programs. However, I did not appreciate the improvement. I liked toggling in and out with the click of my mouse, which I had a hold of anyway while placing and moving objects on the page. By checking the Readme.doc file, I discovered that this function is still available. I just have to add the Control key to toggle Fit in Window and Actual Size AND using the Shift/Control key toggles between 100%-200%. Good job Adobe!

You will also find information on `Known Issues with PageMaker' in the Readme.doc. This section will inform you about problems that you may encounter, particularly with new features. In some cases, it will tell you how to avoid the issue, or maybe how to work around it. One example of a known issue with 6.5 is when working with the `Adjust Layout' feature. When you change the starting page by an odd number, some of your objects may not end up in their original positions, or even the correct page. Adobe suggests changing the starting page in Document Layout and then using the Adjust Layout option.

Also, Adobe made improvements in Table 3.0 that increase the functionality of that application. Adobe still doesn't deal well with linked tables from other applications. So, whether you are working with Table 3.0 or another program's tables, be sure to OLE-Embed them rather than OLE-Link them.

PageMaker now has some limited graphic editing features by virtue of a plug-in to an included copy of PhotoShop Limited Edition. Within PageMaker, you can only use this to edit TIFF images, (and _not_ CMYK or CIELAB TIFF ones at that), but it is still a very helpful plug-in! If you have nothing else to do some light editing on graphics, it's a real blessing.

Another undocumented feature is PageMaker's new ability to select which program to open when editing the original of a graphic placed in your document. You could decide to have PhotoShop open so you can fix the coloring of a graphic's background, or you could open Paint Shop Pro instead.

Improvements to the Layer capabilities will make working with intense layouts much easier. For example, let's say your layout is some text overlaid on a mosaic of graphics. It's often difficult to select just the text boxes while you are working on them. So you put all the graphics on one layer and all the text on another layer. Then, when you are working with the text, you work only on the text layer. You can even shut visibility of the graphics layer off. This would enable you to get a cleaner vision of what the text looks like without the graphics and the same thing when working on the graphics layer. You can also have a non-printing layer, which is only visible to your printer (if you are sending them an electronic version). This layer can have notes about printing instructions or whatever. Another use for layers, would be the ability to use the same graphical background and layout with different texts.

Another couple of neat features deal with the visual layout of the program as you are working on it. One, you can set all of you pages to the same view. Sometimes, for example, after working back and forth on several different pages, you end up with first this one zoomed in to actual size, the next one at full page view, and still the next one at a percentage view of 50% or something. Now you want to get a page by page overview of what your publication looks like, but you have to zoom in or out of several pages as you come to them. The automatic reset feature comes in here to reset all the pages to the same view. Right along with that feature is the slide-show feature. Rather than having to manually select the next page each time, you can set PageMaker up to run through all your pages in slide-show fashion. Great for making sure you haven't left any sections out, or put any in twice.

You can have multiple documents open in PageMaker 6.5 allowing you to cut/copy and paste between layouts. Also, the ability to click+drag copy graphics has been added. Have a graphic that you would like to have repeated on a page? Perhaps you have a calendar where every Tuesday has a special, which you symbolized with a glass. First, you paste in one copy of the glass graphic and size it to fit. Then you hold the control-key, while you click+drag from the original location to each of the other Tuesdays on the calendar.

Automatic Layout Adjustment is a feature that is extremely helpful when converting a publication to an electronic format, but also has other uses. For example, you might decide to put your publication on legal-sized paper instead of letter-sized, after you have most of the publication done. Or maybe you want to go to a landscape layout instead of the traditional portrait layout. Before you convert to anything, you must first set some preferences which will tell PageMaker what to do with things as it is transforming into the new publication, such as, paper-size or format styles, margins, and columns. But once everything is set, you can make the conversion, and graphics will adjust to within the new margins, articles will flow into the new columns, and most of the layout will be set. You will, of course, have to do some minor adjustments, but the majority of the work will be done automatically.

Exporting to a .pdf file was something I only tried a couple times in 6.0 and never seemed to get something right, since I never got a .pdf file made. However, in 6.5 it's like they got the integration of the Acrobat distiller with PageMaker downright perfect. It is 2-3 basic clicks and you turn your entire document into a crisp clean .pdf file. This can save you many things, the least of which is space. A pdf file takes a lot less room than a regular file. You can still copy the text out (although you may have to work with it a bit afterwards) and you can still get the graphics. You can send the entire file to the printer, or only certain pages, just as you could do with the original document. All this for a couple clicks of the mouse and before I learned anything about the automatic layout adjustment feature!

Our newsletter, in its entirety (well, minus the ads since we paste them into the hardcopy) will now be available on our web site so that you can download it and read it on the computer at your leisure. You will still get your copy in the mail. It will also still be online like it is now, but the benefit for those with sight disadvantages will be a great feature. With Adobe's Acrobat Reader, you can zoom in on the text and read with ease!

A lot of new things and fine tuning went into this upgrade of PageMaker 6.5 which have only secured its standings in the publishing world. It just keeps getting better. Oh, and there's even a Quark XPress import filter for those who have to deal with documents from other people that haven't switched to PageMaker yet!

The following mailing lists tend to be more on the clean humor side, and some are on the lightly religious side. All and all, the sampling that follows gives you a very short idea of how the lists are geared. An information file can be obtained from some of them by sending to the same address as the subscribe/unsubscribe address. Put INFO in the subject line to get the information file if it is available.

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. - Helen Keller (Shared by INSPIRE e-mail list)

Old Sacramento Schoolhouse Museum (Shared by Sebastian's Humor List)

Did you know that dolphins are so intelligent that within only a few weeks of captivity, they can train Americans to stand at the very edge of the pool and throw them fish. (Shared by Bryan Myers via HUMOR Digest e-mail list)

"A precocious 4-year-old was brought to the ER with a severe cough," a nurse writes. "She kept up a non-stop conversation while I was trying to assess her lung sounds. Finally, I said, 'Shhh, I have to see if Barney is in there.' The child looked at me and calmly stated, 'I have Jesus in my heart. Barney is on my underwear.' " (Shared by Have A Nice Day e-mail list)

Poland, Morocco, Mecca, Brazil, Mexico and Miami are cities in Indiana. (Shared by Sunday Funnies e-mail list)

PHILOSOFACTS

An interoffice softball game was held every year between the marketing and support staff of one company. The support staff whipped the marketing department soundly.

To show just "how" the marketing department earns their keep, they posted this memo on the bulletin board after the game:

"The Marketing Department is pleased to announce that for the 1996 Softball Season, we came in 2nd place, having lost but one game all year. The Support Department, however, had a rather dismal season, as they won only one game." (Shared by Joke A Day e-mail list)

A young psychology student serving in the Army decided to test a theory. Drawing kitchen duty, he was given the job of passing out apricots at the end of the chow line. He asked the first few soldiers that came by, "You don't want any apricots, do you?" Ninety percent said "No." Then he tried the positive approach: "You do want apricots, don't you?" About half answered, "Uh, yeah, I'll take some." Then he tried a third test, based on the fundamental either/or selling technique. This time he asked, "One dish of apricots or two?" And in spite of the fact that soldiers don't like Army apricots, 40 percent took two dishes and 50 percent took one! - Bits & Pieces, May 26, 1994

While there may be more phone calls made on Mother's Day than Father's Day - There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.- (Shared by Humor Net)

The first one's easy. They both happen in May. The second one's easy. They both start with the letter "M'. But it's the third commonality that really sets the tone for both Observances., and that is the fact that they were both inspired at around the same time by people who were moved to do something when they observed Mothers, placing flowers on the graves of their fallen sons - killed during the Civil War. (Shared by Joanne Kull)

Everybody has a photographic memory. . . . Some don't have film. (Shared by Jerolyn Baldwin)

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40, and a photo of his car. Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later, he received a letter from the police department that contained another picture -- of handcuffs. (Shared by Tim Colwell)

"A precocious 4-year-old was brought to the ER with a severe cough," a nurse writes. "She kept up a non-stop conversation while I was trying to assess her lung sounds. Finally, I said, `Shhh, I have to see if Barney is in there.' The child looked at me and calmly stated, `I have Jesus in my heart. Barney is on my underwear.' " (Shared by Have A Nice Day e-mail list)

My world is information management. I am in Sales; Technical Sales. Although most people do not know it, the main chore of a Sales Person is List Management. GoldMine is a list management system that easily beats what was the #1 selling contact management system.

Every day I am called upon to prepare lists. I have lists of prospects (sales leads). I have lists of things to do. I have lists of things I plan to sell. I have lists of things I have sold. I have lists of products that have been sold in the past. I have lists of quotes to be sent; letters to be written; Thank-you notes to send and list of phone calls to make. How does GoldMine help with these? Well, all of the above are what GoldMine does, very nicely! (And better than the brand that was #1 in sales.)

Of course, your Boss wants a copy of your contacts. GoldMine allows you to Remotely Synchronize your data. (The brand that was selling #1 requires you to buy an additional software package to this.) So you, your boss, your boss' secretary, and if necessary, co-workers, can all be working off the same list of names.

You can do mailing lists, you can coordinate promotions, you can send e-mail, faxes and letters. It is easy to line up phone calls or to page someone. GoldMine makes it easy to work your claim (your GoldMine). GoldMine is meant to work well with your existing word processing program. (Word, WordPerfect, AmiPro, Excel, WinFax Pro.) So you can use the professional word processing features you are comfortable with.

And GoldMine does all this with a much cleaner layout than the competition. (It is much easier to glance at a contact and get the information you need.) And something the #1 competition does not do at all: GoldMine does forecast management. WOW!

OK, I like the program. But what would I like to change?

Well, I am not really that fond of all those "icons" GoldMine uses to "assist" you in taking short cuts. There are so many icons that I am intimidated. Maybe after I learn a bit more about the program . . .?

GoldMine is a "canned" Contact Management Package. I some times need more flexibility than GoldMine offers. (The formerly #1 selling brand is even more limited than GoldMine.)

Exchanging data with a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is difficult for me in GoldMine. As with other contact managers, GoldMine uses its own file format, and it gets tricky when dealing with data from several sources.

Should you buy GoldMine? If you need to manage "lists" of sales contact or other types of contact data, then GoldMine is an excellent selection. Let me know how you make out with your "GoldMine".

St. Joseph County Public Library has monthly programs on basic Internet introduction as well as highlighting specific useful techniques, applications, and other special related topics. They are usually 90 minutes with a lecture and an online demonstration. Librarian Michael Stephens is in charge of the Internet training and development for the St. Joseph County Public Library.

All dates, times and topics above are subject to change. For questions about the Internet classes, send e-mail to: m.stephens@gomail.sjcpl.lib.in.us

Main Library 304 South Main St. South Bend, IN Phone: 282-4625

Do you know of a computer related, community event that could be listed in our newsletter? Please submit it to the editor.

Although this is an excellent book, it is still not for the faint-of-heart! If you are looking for some light reading, this is not the book to start with, either.

That really has nothing to do with how well the book is written, nor how well the author explains things. That is just a simple fact of life when dealing with the Windows 95 registry. It is a very complex file. It holds everything about your Windows 95 setup, configuration, and then some. If you ask most technicians what their number one fear is, it is uninformed usage of the registry. Most, if asked, will tell you not to mess with it at all. I even had one, who knows me personally, tell me to stay away from it, that it really wasn't something I wanted to learn. There are often work-arounds for the things which can be done through the registry, and if not, then the techs don't want you messing with it. Simply because it is too easy to mess up your entire system, beyond repair, if you don't fully understand what you are doing in there.

I do have to admit, of all the technical manuals I have read, and I have actually read several, John Woram is probably one of the easiest reading authors. He explains things in a manner that is absorbable. In The Windows 95 Registry John gets right down to the nitty-gritty and you get a real hands on workout with the registry. Combining good explanations, with excellent details, and informative graphics, I highly recommend this book to those who are going to seriously venture into the world of the registry. Although here I have to tell you that I do agree with the technicians, don't go there unless you are qualified to learn such things. If you know your way around your system and programs very well, and almost never have to go to someone else for help, then you could consider it. But if you are a frequent questioner, then you are not ready. If you know how to program, you could be ready, but I don't mean those who can write a batch file and call it a mini-program.

John Woram is very thorough in his explanations. First he gives a brief but good overview of the registry. Discussing the .INI formats and structures and how they relate to the registry. A listing of the parts of the actual window, and definitions of individual items. Then he spends two full chapters explaining the different items in the registry panes, including all the names for each item and what they will do. Then we spend a chapter learning about the things you can do in the registry and how to go about doing them. Next comes a chapter of actually doing some things like customizing the Desktop and editing varies parts of Windows 95.

Chapter 6, which deals with backing up the registry, among other issues, should really be much earlier, and John even says that the book is out of order, but that it seemed necessary to write it a bit backwards. And finally chapters 7 & 8 deal with troubleshooting and errors.

I also want to mention that John does get into working with the TweakUI applet in this book. And since TweakUI is a very helpful applet, and comes with virtually no instructions, this is a very nice bonus.

Just briefly, I'd like to say a bit about the author, John Woram. If you think you recognize his name, you probably do. He writes the monthly "Optimizing Windows" column for Windows magazine, and wrote the book PC Configuration Handbook. I feel he has a real winner in this book, and I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity to review it. It's always an extra when the program or book you are asked to review is something you wanted to do anyway.

The Windows 95 Registry, by John Woram, will be available for borrowing from the resource center. Look for it on the table and fill out the sheet giving your name, address, phone number, and e-mail if you have one.

The Resource Center was donated a computer which I can store files, use to make disk copies, and other things. The problem is, we only got a computer - no monitor. Makes it rather tough to use the system if you can't see anything. If there is anyone out there that has upgraded monitors and is looking for a good home for the old one, we would greatly appreciate it.

Also, we have been donated all the parts and pieces for the computer we are building to give to the Goshen Boys and Girls Club, but it would be nice to have some software to install on it. So, if you have switched programs, word processor, graphic program, etc. Why not consider giving the old program to the group to install on the computer? Give Jon Slough a call to discuss donations.