The group wants to thank Vanessa McTigue for being with us on June 24th and presenting Microsoft Office 2000. Microsoft has incorporated many new features into this version of Office. The upgrader should take note of these features to see if it is worth his/her while to upgrade. I will go over a few of the features that I took note of. These are not discussed in any order of importance, just in the order they were discussed at the meeting.

One change that I know I am happy to see, and will make use of, is the font pull down menu. They have changed this from just showing the name of the font to an actual WYSIWYG view of the font. I believe this feature will be in all the Office programs. Another feature that will be universal is the revamped clipboard. The “Collect & Paste” clipboard allows you to store up to 12 different clipboard items and then paste them selectively or all at once into a new document. Clipboard has a cute little dialog box that shows what kind of document that you have stored. I do not know if when you have the pointer over the icon it will show the actual name of the document, but I imagine that it will.

The blocking feature in Excel has been changed, according to Vanessa, which will allow the user when blocking cells off, to be able to more clearly see what has been selected. Excel’s auto format has also been upgraded so that it better recognizes the surrounding cells and formats accordingly. The Save As dialog box has been enlarged, allowing for more folders to be visible when you are saving new files. The Excel pivot tables interface has been redesigned and is much easier to use by use of a drag & drop feature when building tables.

Powerpoint has added a tripane view allowing the user to see the outline of the presentation, the active slide and the speakers notes all at the same time.

The installation routine has been improved to allow the user to install the features needed, and then later when a program is requested that has not been installed, Office 2000 automatically installs it. When Office 2000 is launched, a self examination is performed and any critical files that have been corrupted or deleted are automatically reinstalled. Office 2000’s file formats are backward-compatible with Office 97, which is convenient.

Microsoft has also added additional web publishing features to help in getting your files easily and directly onto the Internet. There are many other additional features that I have failed to mention, that may be of more benefit to you and I encourage you to check them out and see if Office 2000 is worth the purchase.

Interested in helping out with the Elkhart PC Users Group next year? Know someone you would like to see step forward? Be sure to attend the July meeting for the first night of nominations. The second night will be in August, and elections will be held in September.

This is a meeting we have been waiting for. It seems every time we put a new program in the computer the demands on the hard drive get larger and larger. Can you imagine trying to put Windows 98 on the 40 meg hard drive that was in the first PC I had? Good grief, I wouldn’t have been able to load the HELP section. Interestingly enough, I may have paid the same for it as I did for an 8 gig hard drive I just put in my machine. Considering the newest pricing on hard drives, it becomes a very real possibility to have two or even more hard drives at your disposal.

At this meeting you will have the opportunity to see the procedure from start to finish as an installation and disk copy takes place. The mystery of partitions and sectors and multiple drives could well be cleared up for you at last.

We welcome a new contributor to the newsletter this month.Andrew Malek produces a web site with tips, hints, and informative articles for both beginning and advanced computer users.

Recently, Andrew contacted many Users Groups and made the editors an offer to freely reprint articles and tips from his site. I wish to personally thank Andrew for his efforts, and for his contributions to the computing community. I hope you enjoy the selections I make, and besure to visit his site for much, much more help and information than we could reprint here.

Everywhere you turn in the computer world or on the Internet, people are talking about the important choice of web browsers. I constantly see nice three-dimensional pie graphs showing Netscape (http://www.netscape.com) owning a certain amount of the browser market, Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com) owning another percentage of the browser market, and other browsers like Opera (http://www.unipress.com/OPERA/) and Lynx (http://lynx.browser.org/) fighting it out for the rest. Of course, these statistics differ depending on which magazine you read, which month it is, who is doing the survey, is the moon a full moon, is the butter placed on the top or bottom piece of toast, etc.

These statistics are provided because people want to know what web browser the majority of users choose to use. That’s right, choose to use. There’s a choice of web browsers on the market, and people decide to use one or the other to access cyberspace ...

Get real.

Since when was there an actual ‘choice’ in what web browser to use? Maybe this was so when Netscape was still at version 2.0 and Microsoft was at version 1.0. Some people liked Microsoft’s view of the web, and some people liked Netscape’s view, tags and all.

Now, though, how can you choose a browser to use? If you ‘choose’ Netscape, you get supposedly 100% compliant JAVA, some dynamic HTML, JavaScript, and other miscellaneous features. If you ‘choose’ Microsoft, you get semi-compliant JAVA, semi-compliant JavaScript, ActiveX controls, some dynamic HTML, and other features. Each web browser renders web pages differently. If you choose one web browser, you get one view of the web; choose another, and the web becomes completely different.

So, I ask - can you really choose one web browser over another, or do you have to have both web browsers? I certainly can not choose one browser over another. Some pages render perfectly in Internet Explorer 4.0. I also use Netscape Navigator 4.0, but some scripts don’t work quite right, so I keep Netscape Navigator 3.0 on my system for those webpages. Yes, that’s three different web browsers on my system, and that’s only because I decided to uninstall Internet Explorer 3.0.

And that’s nothing. One website I work for has the following set of browsers set up on their network. Netscape Navigator 2.x, 3.x 4.x, Internet Explorer 1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4.x. Seven web browsers are set up on the network because when websites are being designed, one must see how webpages are going to be rendered in every possible way. Oh yeah, I forgot - we have Un*x shell account access so we can look at certain webpages in text-based LYNX.

Windows 98 has made the ‘choice’ of browsers one step crazier by integrating Internet Explorer 4.0 into the operating system. Now, you almost really don’t have a choice of web browsers. If you like using Netscape Navigator, you can still use it to surf the web - but you still have Internet Explorer for Windows Update and other tasks. And lets be honest - even die-hard Netscape fans find the Windows-Internet Explorer integration intriguing and useful for certain tasks.

Let’s give up this idea of ‘choosing’ a web browser. Both browsers perform certain tasks well, so use both. I think this world is big enough for both web browsers, like it or not.

The computer industry is shooting itself in the foot with its cheap computers and horrible new warranties.

Certainly, the idea of inexpensive computers is alluring. The systems that used to cost $2,500 are now selling for less than $1,000, and can be purchased at such major technology centers as Wal-Mart and Costco. There, uninformed buyers can see snazzy demos and listen to sales pitches from people who, themselves, know little or nothing beyond their sales scripts.

So there they are, Ma and Pa Kettle, bringing home their shiny new Gizmo 2000 computer, monitor and printer, courtesy of the warehouse store. They don’t even know the names of the parts of the system, and before you know it, they are on the phone to tech support, looking for help with some of the absolute basics, like “can you use the mo-dium when you are on the telephone talking?” and “How do I get that there American On Line internet stuff?”

If, in the history of the computer industry, there was ever a class of users who needed extensive technical support and education, the sub-$1,000 computer buyer is it. Of course, what the kid at the warehouse store failed to tell Ma and Pa was that they are only allowed two free support calls, and after that they have to pay for support?

Whazzat??? No year-long warranty?

Nope. The computer industry has trimmed its margins so thin that the bean-counters have started slicing warranties to shreds. Where one year hardware and one year software used to be the norm, some major manufacturers have relegated those warranties to the history books — or at least only offer them on the higher end (i.e. more expensive and profitable) systems.

What can sub-$1,000 computer consumers expect in terms of a warranty? Not much. With in-home service calls costing a manufacturer upwards of $250 (not including parts), carry-in service is becoming the norm. The one-year hardware warranty is becoming six month — three in some cases. Get this: “Gizmo Corp (changed to protect the publisher) does not warrant that the operation of Gizmo Corp. products will be uninterrupted or error-free.” This wording was taken from the current warranty of a major computer manufacturer. If you think that is bad, read on: “Gizmo manufactures its hardware products from parts and components that are new or equivalent to new in accordance with industry-standard practices.” That means your computer may even contain used or refurbished parts.

What happens when the company fixes your ‘puter? “Gizmo uses new and reconditioned parts made by various manufacturers in performing warranty repairs and building replacement products. If Gizmo repairs or replaces a product, its warranty term is not extended.” So, if you get a part replaced on the last day of your warranty period, the new part carries no additional warranty. If it is defective, you are simply out of luck. And you wonder why people hate bean counters almost as much as they hate lawyers.

Software support — the source of most warranty calls — is being sharply curtailed. Instead of one year, 90 days is becoming the new standard, and some manufacturers are experimenting with a limited, fixed number of calls: two or three within 90 days. If you’ve added anything to your system, the tech support people may require that it be removed before troubleshooting even begins. The toll-free numbers are vanishing as well.

So, what we end up with is a whole new class of marginally computer-literate computer users with marginal warranties because, in the quest for more market share, the computer manufacturers are selling systems at price points that don’t allow them to offer a decent warranty to the customers who need warranties the most.

The computer industry needs to get its act together. They need to stop selling computers at prices that don’t permit decent margins. There needs to be an industry-standard minimum warranty period, and manufacturers need to sell extensions to the warranties along with the system — taking that business away from the stores, many of which are marginally qualified to support their customers. The computer manufacturers need to stop adding so-called “free” software that is nothing but a maintenance headache, no matter how much the software vendor is willing to “pay” for the space on the hard disk — or they need to require that the software vendor support the bundled packages.

This is where the local computer stores have a real edge on the national manufacturers. If Fred, of Fred’s Computer Store, builds and sells a system, he does so knowing that he is the customer’s first and only line of support, and he doesn’t add a bunch of junk software that sounds good but is a maintenance nightmare.

Warranty information needs to be part of the signage at stores, and should be prominent on the outside of the boxes.

Consumers need to learn how to be informed buyers, and not view computers as just another kitchen appliance.

Go to the EPCUG home page and click on the e-mail list link, or go directly to the signup page at: www.epcug.org/signup.html

Fill out the form and then FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS on the ThankYou page which you will be sent to after you submit the form.

The EPCUG E-Mail List is set up to aid EPCUG members in helping each other, and for occasional messages from the Board of Directors. A place to ask questions, share news, and discuss other computer related topics.

If you have JUNO or the web page does not work for you (some older versions of AOL don’t). Send an email directly to the list manager at: owner-epcug@epcug.org

Get Your Free BonziBuddy
http://www.bonzi.com/
‘Peedy’ talks, sings, makes jokes, schedules, browses and searches the Internet, flies around inside your computer, keeps track of appointments and tasks, and learns as he spends time with you. Peedy learns what kind of sites you like, and his built in search engine helps him find new ones for you. He notifies you of the latest world news and new Virus Alerts. He will even teach *you* tips and tricks about the Internet.

This program normally retails for $40, but for a limited time, Peedy can be downloaded for FREE. Check out Bonzi’s other products while you are there.

Free Bibles and More
http://kingdomnet.com/freebibles/home.htm
The first purpose of this site is to provide you with free software for reading the Bible. But there is so much more available when you start clicking on the links. You will discover sites that have ‘verse-a-day’ software, christian clip art, christian wallpaper and themes, christian banner exchanges, there’s even links for those with PDA’s.

So download yourself some Bible software, and a scripture reminder, and then install some themes to make your desktop more enjoyable, and help your soul feel better!

LDS Makes Another Great Announcement
http://www.familysearch.org/whats_new.asp
By now, most people who do much online genealogy research know that the Latter Day Saint’s Church has placed their Ancestral File™ and International Genealogical Index® online at http://www.familysearch.org.

This has been such an overwhelming success that I often find them limiting access to 20-30 minutes per hour so that all have a chance to access the site. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, it is real similar to using the computers at the Family History Centers, with a few less options, but the result is usually the same.

For those that just use the standard regular search page, you may be missing an excellent new feature on the Custome IGI page. You can now search by specific event and year, and if you enter the names of the parents, you can find all their children! What a nice addition. Date information boxes have been added to the Custom Ancestral File page also. This is great for narrowing down your results when you already have information and are looking for verification.

The latest announcement is of greatest interest to those that use the LDS genealogy program Personal Ancestral File®. The church has just released it’s latest version, 4.0 for Windows. And the best news is that this version is a FREE download to anyone who is interested in having a copy!

If you’ve always wanted to use PAF, but already had something else. Or just never wanted to spend the money when you were doing fine with your spread sheet. Or whatever! Go take this opportunity to try one of the original genealogy programs for free. This is not a time-limited or featureless demo, this is the real thing, the real release of their latest version of PAF. Free to all.

1. Nobody seems to tell new people that they have to clean their mouse every so often. Remove the ball, clean it with rubbing alcohal, use a q-tip or similar, clean the tracks inside, clean off the bottom, etc. Makes a world of difference! If you are using one of those hard surface mouse pads, don’t forget to clean it, too! If you have a soft pad, vacumm or ‘beat’ the dust off it frequently.

2. The slider bars at the right and bottom of your windows are very good for going up and down a page, but using the buttons are very slow when you have extra long or wide pages. Think of the entire slider section as an elevator shaft, and the little button that moves up and down as the car. Place your mouse on the car, click and hold your left button. Now you have ahold of the car and can zoom it anywhere in the shaft instantly! You can also, move your car by leaps instead of inches if you place your mouse in the shaft ahead or behind the car and click instead of on the button. Use the buttons for precise movements, but use the shaft and the car to get to other sections in a hurry.

3. An ‘undocumented feature’ of Windows when installing some new programs or pieces of hardware: Occasionally you may encounter problems from a recent installation that can be corrected (or avoided) by shutting down your computer and restarting it, after the installation. Not always, but just often enough that I make it a habit to always shut down and restart my computer after any installation.

4. Modem giving you a problem? Funny noise or won’t disconnect? Even restarted Windows and still having problems? A funny occurance with modems sometimes causes them to need completely shut off to reset. This does not mean, use the reboot, restart, or standby methods. It means completely shutyour computer down and off , wait 15-20 seconds, and then restart from cold. Don’t ask me why, I’ve just seen it work.

5. Just install a piece of new hardware and now your computer has a siren going off? Go back inside and check your connections. Something is either unhooked or plugged in wrong!

6. Got an error message on the screen and wish you could save it? Quick and simple: Hit the PRINT SCREEN button on your keyboard, Open WORDPAD, Click EDIT/PASTE. Save this with a file name of that day’s date and the word error (i.e. 062499error.doc). You now do not have to ‘try to remember what the box said when talking to someone who is trying to help you!

7. Tired of emptying your recycle bin? Hold down your shift key when you delete a file. It will not be sent to the recycle bin. You must hold the shift key until the dialog box opens, or it will still go into the Recycle Bin. The icon showing will have a red circle with an exclamation point rather than the usual Recycle Bin icon. Now remember, this means it is gone permanently. Programs such as ‘Lost and Found’ by PowerQuest, can only retrieve files that have not been overwritten by other data. So be really sure you know what you are deleting before using that shift key.

8. Want to format a floppy?

Method 1: Double click the ‘MY COMPUTER’ icon. Right click on the floppy icon, or FILE in the menu. Select FORMAT.

Method 2: Open Exploring/File Manager. In the left window, right click the floppy icon. Select FORMAT.

9. Make a notepad file on your desktop to keep notes in. Right mouse click on a clean spot of your desktop, select NEW. Click TEXT DOCUMENT. When you save it, you should make sure you have the DESKTOP in the SAVE IN box.

10. Want to time and date stamp those notes? This is good for turning notepad into a freebie time monitor to keep track of when you start and finish a project. To have the current date and time as part of an entry you can select Time/Date from Notepad’s Edit menu. The current time and date will go into your document at the current text insertion point. So, open the document when you start, close, save. Then do it again when you stop!

If you have a document to which you add text repeatedly, then add a line reading: LOG to the very beninning of your document. Now, every time you load the document with Notepad, the current time and date will go at the end of the document, ready for you to add your latest notes.

Got newbie tips of your own? Try this, make a notepad document and save it on your desktop. Whenever you think of something that you’d like to share, jot it into the document, and at the end of each month send them to me. I will compile them and print them here each month.

First, as in making Rabbit Stew, you must catch the rabbit! In this case, before you can print sections of text from Web pages you must first select the material, then paste it into an appropriate software program (e.g. WordPad, any word processor, MS Publisher, etc.). Do that by following these steps. (Selecting and Printing graphics is covered toward the end of this article).

1. Select desired text material in the normal manner by setting your cursor at the upper left corner of the text and holding down the left mouse button. Continue holding the button down and drag the cursor to the end of the material you want to select, then release the button. Your selected text should now be highlighted.
2. Go to the Edit Menu at the top of your screen and click on Copy (or use the Control-C keyboard shortcut). If you don’t already have the target software application open, open it now via the Start Menu or a shortcut icon on your Desktop.(Let’s assume you will use WordPad from the Accessories Group in the Start Menu. It’s quick and easy, and everyone who uses Windows 95/98 has it available.)
3. Go to the File Menu and click on New to open a new document.
4. Make sure the blinking insertion pointer (vertical bar) is positioned at the upper left of the blank page.
5. Go to the Edit Menu and click on Paste (or use the Control-V keyboard shortcut). The selected material should now appear on the blank page.
6. Now you can either save the text (using Save As from the File Menu), edit it to reformat some of the text or to remove unwanted material, or print it (by going to the File Menu and selecting Print).

I do this all the time. Frequently, when researching a subject for a future article, I first create a file by following steps 3 and 4, typing in just a title and perhaps a few notes at the top of the page, then I use File/Save As to give the file a name and save it in an appropriate folder. I visit various Websites, select helpful material and use Copy/Paste (steps 1 through 5) to insert it into the previously created file.

I often use WordPad for this, but MS Word, Word Perfect or some other word processor that offers a Find or Find/Replace function may be preferable if you assemble a large amount of text in a single file. Such software allows you to search for a word or phrase quickly and easily when necessary.

The process for selecting and Printing material from e-mail is the same. Follow the same Copy, Paste, Print sequence outlined above.

If you want to print an entire Web page, simply click on the right mouse button anywhere on the page. Select Print from the pup-up menu that appears and follow normal Printing procedure.

If you want to print a picture or other graphic from the Web, do this:

1. Place cursor on designed image.
2. Click right mouse button.
3. Click on Save Picture As
4. Select the drive and folder where you want to store the graphic.
5. Save it under the original name, or give it a new name.

You can then print the graphic by importing it into an appropriate image editing program (e.g. Windows Paint, Photo Deluxe, Photo Shop, Photo Impact, etc.). Reminder: Web images are normally in low-resolution GIF of JPEG formats so they will not look as good when Printed as BMP, TIFF or other higher resolution images.

A tip here If you’re only interested in printing out the text on a page, just turn off the graphics. In Internet Explorer follow these stops.

1. On the View menu in the browser, click Internet Options.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Select the Multimedia tab, and remove checks in the Show pictures, Play animations, Play videos, and Play sounds check boxes.

This will make Web pages load a lot faster, too. You can always turn the pictures, animations, etc. back on by reversing the procedure.

Actually, what I do is use two browsers an older version of Netscape Navigator with graphics turn off, and a current version of Internet Explorer with all the goodies turned on.

Your own private
Microsoft HelpDesk
When you are looking for information about obscure Windows error messages, problems with DLLs, virtually any thing about Microsoft products, you need to know about the Microsoft Technical Support Knowledge Base. http://www.support.microsoft.com/support

Sorting out
misbehaving applications
You’ve probably seen at least one comedy routine where two characters arrive at a doorway at the same time and never make it through, because they get caught in an endless loop, each one trying to let the other go first.

“After you,” A says.
“No, after you,” says B
“No, I insist, after you,” A says.
“No, really, I must insist, after you,” says B

Or how about the ones where neither character gives way and they both end up wedged in the doorway.

Either way the result is the same. An impasse.

That’s the sort of confusion IRQ conflicts cause. IRQs (Interrupt Requests) are a way for programs to decide who goes first when more than multiple components require the same resource at the same time. If things can’t be sorted out, one or both components may fail to work. Crashes are usually close behind.

Conflicts between IRQs are not always easy to sort out. There is help however, in the form of a Microsoft diagnostic utility. It’s called Microsoft Diagnostics (no surprise there) and it’s included on your Windows 95 CD-ROM (look for the file MSD.EXE).

Quick now, what are your
system settings?
I have a fairly basic machine. Even so, I wouldn’t even try to remember everything about my system settings. Windows tweaking alone is too much to memorise. All that information is useful to have, but I’m not going to memorise it, or write it all down. Life’s too short. A recent back up can restore everything, but that may not be good enough for reference purposes or if you need to send the information to a tech who is trying to help you solve a problem. There is a solution, Windows 95’s built in reporting feature.

Just click on Start, then Settings, Control Panel, and System.

Once there, select the Device Manager tab. From this tab you can inspect the properties of each individual item, or select print for a System Summary or the full report, which supplies detailed information about all devices on your system.

As useful as these three resources are, I won’t trade them for my membership in Melbourne PC. There is a lot of information here, but unless you have the wisdom of a Jedi master, you won’t be able to decipher all of it on your own. Add them to the combined wisdom of your fellow members and you’re on your way to turning information into knowledge.

Our version of the ‘Shell Answer Man’ has finally completed a very important stage of his life. For purposes related to his job, Jon Slough began attending Davenport College in 1997 to attain ‘formal’ education in his area of acquired knowledge - Computers. Now, most of us have been blessed at least once with an answer from Jon on a problem. Many even wondered why he was going to school to learn something he already knew better than many at the general meetings. Yet as we all know, we are none so smart that we have nothing left to learn, and we are only truly old, when we stop learning something new every day. So, I’m sure Jon picked up some pieces here and there and found value in the extra education. Although, since he was still working full time while attending, his wife, Jocelyne, may not have felt as though she were a very distinctive part of his life!

Jon continued his involvement and dedication to the Lion’s Club as web editor, Elkhart PC Users Group as vice-president, Amateur Radio Club and Skywarn Program as active local member, and secretary to the IN/MI/OH Skywarn Association. Not to mention keeping abreast of the Y2K issues and regularly writing articles on them for EPCUG and others. Jon often worked 50-60 hours at his job and rounded out his week at 83-85 hours after he factored school in. Any wonder he found the answer ‘I don’t have enough time to help with EPCUG (or whatever)’ a bad answer?

Jon received his Business Information Systems Associate Degree in the Applied Science Department with a GPA of 3.98 in less than two years. Two years is the length of time common for a full-time student to complete this program, whereas Jon was only part-time. In just seven quarters, Jon racked up 90 credit hours to his honor. When you realize that the normal maximum credit hours per quarter for a part-time student is 9, you quickly figure out that these numbers don’t match up. Answer: ‘Credit by Exam’ and overload. Now some may say, “Oh, that made it easier.” However, stop and realize that he still is taking an exam over that entire course of knowledge. Since the instructor wants to be really sure you know what he or she covers during the classes that you will be missing, those exams are generally harder. Also, he only took nine this way, so he didn’t do them all the ‘easy’ way.

(Editor’s Note: When Doyle first brought up this column, I thought it was a very good idea, and would personally love it if we could do 3-4 each month! I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have a real hard time keeping names with faces, I hear the name, and think, “I ought to know who that is.” Or, I see the face and think, “I wish I could remember their name!” Well, we don’t have the picture format down yet, but hopefully soon we can put faces with these names, and give us all a helping hand. Give us some feedback, we’d love to hear from you. For that matter, we’d love to interview you! —Sherry

The first step in system maintenance was to back up all the data files that I would not be able to regain by simply reinstalling. I do not back up programs or any of their files if I can avoid it. Even though it takes time to reinstall them, you can only archive so much. So, I began with a full data archival. My entire genealogy partition, my entire data partition, the partition I use for any web design projects whether they are my own, or someone else’s, and my quicken data directory. Then I sifted through Windows and a few other programs to make sure they didn’t have individual things hiding (like Cardfile, if you are still using Windows 3.1) and .ini files for some programs.

I backed up my entire ICQ and email program folders. Some programs sort of mix the data files all in with their own files, and selecting the folders was just easier. I spent a considerable amount of time making sure I had everything selected. It was especially gratifying to know that the next time this will be easier, as DataKeeper will keep track of all my selections for next time. Other archival methods are similar, but subtle differences in DataKeeper just make me feel easier.

Then, I selected specific folders which DataKeeper would monitor and back up on a daily basis. When I’m done working on my genealogy data for the day, I want it backed up so that if I have a problem tomorrow, all that work will still be safe! I also have it monitoring my EPCUG directory. Each time I work on a newsletter, I no longer have to worry about whether it will still be ok tomorrow, now I have all my recent work backed up.

The part I like the most about DataKeeper is the automatic monitoring. I don’t have to do anything except have space on my second hard drive for it to save to. Now, you can also have it saved to your ‘only’ hard drive, but that’s really not a good answer unless you have no other choice. If you have one, you can select your Zip, Jazz, or Syquest. Just be sure to check the cartridge periodically.

One point that was distinguished in the help file, was the subtle difference between ‘selecting a folder’ and ‘selecting all the files within it’. When you select the folder to be backed up, and later add a file, that file gets backed up when DataKeeper does its work. However, when you select all the individual files, the new file will not be archived unless you go into DataKeeper and specifically add it. Another good case for keeping all data files in their own separate directories under ‘My Files’, ‘My Documents’, or whatever you want to call it. I personally have designated an entire partition on my hard drive just to data files. No programs allowed, and with a few exceptions, all files go there. Exceptions include my e-mail program, my ICQ program, and my genealogy data, which has its own entire partition.

Selecting files and folders in DataKeeper, is done from a window that resembles Exploring/File Manager and its hierarchal representation. You can select an entire drive, an entire folder or subfolder from the left window, or individual files from the right window. When you click the box in front of a folder, you will see all the subfolders and files selected in the window on the right. From that window, you could deselect specific files or subfolders, if you like. When an entire drive is selected, a check mark is in its box, when only part of it is selected, the box is gray. This is true for folders also.

Several people have asked me to give them suggestions on topics for articles. I would like to ask the members to please send us topics also. Not knowing what you would like to read about, I don’t even know if I am currently doing a good job selecting articles or not. I think I would appreciate getting some ideas from the members. I did get one recently, and would like to know if anybody out there is participating in this field and willing to undertake the task of writing about it. It does not have to be done elaborately, and could even be done interview style if you think that would be a good idea.

The topic is online stock and bond investing and trading. If someone is using the Internet to do their own investing, please consider that others are interested in beginning and would like to know a few things before jumping into those waters. Now we can all go out and find articles done by Dow Jones or Dean Whitter or some such firm. However, we would like to hear from someone local that might have a few tips and suggestions for the new person. Give this idea some thought if you are doing online investing, and give me a call. We can discuss the possibilities of how to formulate this article.

How many of us have never lost a file we later wish we had? Why do you suppose Windows 95 came with the Recycle Bin? One of the primary causes of frustration for a new user, as well as experienced users, is the remorse over lost data.

Whether we are talking about “Oops, I wanted that file after all!” or “There went my hard drive and half my data!” or “Well, I guess that bounce down the stairs just shot all the data on that floppy!” Lost & Found from PowerQuest can more often than not recover it for you. If your disk is still spinning, Lost & Found can access it. Now those unreadable floppies can be read, and those bad sectored hard drives can be restored. Not to mention the constant worries about viruses that can delete all your data!

I was quite impressed with the amount of data that I was able to view from the system I used Lost & Found on. I was able to go thru the directories and select any files within them. And using Lost & Found was absolutely the easiest thing I’ve ever done. The well-written manual and on-screen explanations and prompts made this possible. Step-by-step instructions guide you right through the process. Now, I’ve read a lot of manuals, and many make this claim, but it was quite refreshing to find one that finally followed up on it. Each step is laid out in the book, and the screens tell you exactly what is happening and going to happen next. No fears over whether this is right or wrong, just plain simplicity.

Lost & Found will let you look at a system to see if the data is recoverable without recourse, but once you decide to recover data, the program then becomes specific to that computer only. Which means you cannot use it on that machine and then later use it one another. You will need a copy for each machine you have. But, I can tell you that the peace of mind that comes with it will be great.

You do not install Lost & Found until you need it. It runs from a floppy, after you have booted to DOS from a floppy. Unless you’ve over-written the files, Lost & Found can recover them, whether the FAT, boot sector, or root directory are corrupted or missing, even if you’ve reformatted! As a bonus, Lost & Found will even do a diagnostic check on the hard drive and let you know if you have any problems that you weren’t aware of.

You can save the recovered data to a floppy, second hard drive, network drive, or other media. Recognizes and preserves long filenames. And it works on all IDE, EIDE, and SCSI disks, including fixed, removeables, floppies, and opticals whether they are FAT16 or FAT32.

I found two annoyances with Lost & Found, one was the reminder beeps, which I thought were a bit quick. I was using this on my mother’s system, and explaining to her what was happening as she was going. Now, when you are a novice, it just takes a bit longer to do things, as you are nervous, but having something beep at you, makes it even worse.

The second annoyance was the fact that, I selected the partition I believed the missing data was on, rather than the entire hard drive. When it wasn’t there, I then of course had to look on the first partition. There in came the problem. I could not simply say, “Ok, now let’s look at the other partition.” I had to exit and rerun the program. Allowing the second choice would seem more expediant to me.

Since Windows 95 was released many computer users have tidied up their computing lives by hiding away those messy little bits that hang off the end of a file name. They haven’t done away with file extensions, they’ve just put them out of site, and out of mind.

My life isn’t tidy. So not surprisingly my files are displayed, extensions and all. Let’s face it, I use my Windows desktop just like I use my actual desktop, to store bits and pieces, works in progress, notes, reminders, things I want to read, stuff I want to check, all there right up front, where I can’t miss it. And just like my actual desktop, things accumulate on my Windows desktop, until I’ve used up all the space. Then I start chucking things into the recycle bin, or putting them away into folders. So it is equally predictable that I choose to display file names with those messy little bits right out in the open.

Why? Because it’s extra information for me to use. And I do use it, all the time. This isn’t the most earth-shattering tip, but it does make my computing life easier.

How? That depends on whether we are talking about standard extensions, or my own, “custom” extensions.

I use custom extensions as a simple, at-a-glance version control system. By glancing at the extension I can tell exactly how far I have gone in the writing or editing process for any submission on my computer. I use a different code for different types of projects too. So by using the standard sorting options, I can group files by type, project and status, along with the standard name, date and size choices.

I use standard extensions as a safety net to prevent me from deleting needed files. Also, because I don’t allow any programs to launch attachments automatically, keeping file extensions visible is a secondary safeguard against me accidentally executing an infected file.

I also use file extensions for the purpose for which they were intended, to tell me what sort of file I’m about to open, view or use in some way.

Yes, I know Windows can do that for me. But not with the kind of flexibility I need. I often have several programs that “can” be used to open a particular file type. Which program I want to use — for example, on *.GIF or *.HTM files, depends on what I want to do with the files. Visible extensions make it easier and quicker for me to choose the right file, and then the right program. Finally because I try to use a common project name for all elements of a project, extensions, nestled right up there, next to the file name, make it much easier for me to see which compost files are notes, documents, tables, definitions, archives, or library items.

If you want to put this sort of information to work for you, you’ll need to do two things.

First you’ll need to adjust your file display settings to show extensions (file types).

Here’s how you do that:

• double click on My Computer
• select View, Options
• then click on the View Tab
• remove the check from the box next to “Hide MS-DOS file extensions for file types that are registered.
• click Apply, then close.

The second thing you need to do, is learn something about the standard/registered file extensions.

The accompanying chart will help you with that. It’s not exhaustive, just a selection of the more common file types I’ve come across. No need to memorise them either, just keep the table or this article where you can find it.

Now, if you are really keen, and want to study file types...

• * this page has an extensive list of Windows 95 file names and functions http://web2.airmail.net/darylc1/windows.htm
• * and this one has a search engine on which you can query 1,353 file extensions. http://kresch.com/exts/ext.htm

One final note on the subject of file extensions. The recent spate of Trojans/viruses spotlighted a deficiency in the general computer user’s understanding of the term “executable file”. Many messages that were accurate on all other counts, identified executable files as “.EXE” files only. While *.EXE files are, most definitely executable, they are not the only executable files. Word documents can contain executable macros, and although they may seem like a blast from the past to some, *.BAT and *.COM files are also executable. As are *.SHS and *.VBS files, and of course, MS Office documents containing Word Macros.

This article is furnished as a benefit of our membership in the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization to which this user group belongs. The author, Carol Daniels is a freelance writer and editor specializing in science, technology computers, computing, business, health, medicine, food and agriculture. She is on the Management Committee of the Melbourne PC User Group and a member of APCUG’s Board of User Group Advisors.