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Rather than talk about my standard topic SEO (search engine
optimization and its importance), I have decided, based on
events over the weekend, to talk about 2 topics with regard to
the use of your computer. I hope they will be of some use to
you. Feel free to share them with all of your friends and
co-workers.
The first involves a problem that has plagued Bell Sympatico and AOL customers. It seems that there are times when these customers cannot connect to the Internet. When they click on the connection icon on the desktop, the normal connection dialog box comes up, but when the customer clicks on the "connect" button, the dialog box disappears without connecting. I talked a client through one episode on the weekend. I first had her look in "Programs to see if she could find the program that did the connection. She advised that she could not find any program from her ISP (Sympatico). I next had her go to the "Control Panel", and then to "Add or Remove Programs". She searched through her whole list of programs, and once again could not find any reference to a Sympatico program. I had to give up then because when you're unable to find a reference to a program that you want to load, you have a serious problem. I suggested that she would be best to call Sympatico, and see what advice they had to offer. I wished her luck. A few hours later she called back and told me that the service rep at Sympatico knew immediately what the problem was. Apparently it's an extremely common problem for them. The service rep told my client to remove the Yahoo toolbar. I didn't think to ask, because I don't use the Yahoo toolbar. I've used the Google toolbar for years and have never had a problem. Once she had removed the Yahoo toolbar, everything worked perfectly. My initial advice would be to refrain from using the Yahoo toolbar. However, if you really want or need that particular toolbar, you should first contact the service department of your ISP to see if they are aware of any conflicts that you might encounter. Good luck! The second item concerns a very useful procedure that comes in handy for me several times a week. It is the procedure to capture and use a screenshot (or an exact image of what is on your screen at a moment in time). In the old DOS days all you had to do was hit the "Print Screen" button on the keyboard and the printer would happily print out a very close (but not exact copy) of your screen. Well the Windows version of capturing a screenshot starts the same way press the "Print Screen" button. I know you're going to tell me that you've tried that and nothing happens. I agree that nothing seems to happen, but in fact a very important something has happened. Invisibly, the computer has put an exact copy of the of your screen in something called the "clipboard". The clipboard isn't a program you can actually access and play with. It's a built-in windows component that works transparently. When you copy or cut, the info is put onto this clipboard. When you paste, the information that's on the clipboard is put into whatever it is you're working on. It's still on the clipboard so you can paste again and again until you next cut or copy. The maddening thing is that you cannot see or use what is in the clipboard until you paste it somewhere. Also, when you hit the "Print Screen button" the computer does not tell you that it has put the screen's contents onto the clipboard. Also, you can't see these contents until you paste them somewhere. The best place to paste a screenshot is Microsoft Paint or other graphic program. Since Paint comes with your computer and is very complete, it is a good choice. You can usually find Paint at START >> PROGRAMS >> ACCESSORIES. When Paint opens there is usually a white rectangle in the top left of the work area. I typically right click on this white area, and the use Control+V to paste the contents of the clipboard into Paint. Normally Paint will display your paste at 100% or full size. If it's not full size, you will have to adjust the size by using the Zoom feature under View. Now you have captured the screenshot, and your image is ready for printing or saving. Paint includes both under its File menu. When you decide to save you should use the "Save As" option so you can give the screenshot a useful name and also tell the computer what format you want to use to save the picture. For a screenshot of pictures of people or landscapes, you use the "Save as type" and choose JPEG. For this type of subject JPEG will usually be smaller in size and clearer. If the screenshot is of lines or text, you should use the GIF option to save. For lines and text, the GIF format will be smaller and sharper. Now you're done. You've taken your first screenshot. I use this procedure a lot when I'm filling out forms on the screen, as most forms don't give you a copy of what you've typed. I also use it to take and attach pictures of trouble spots to emails and trouble tickets. This procedure is really helpful when I'm paying for things with PayPal. There is an intermediate screen that shows what the charges will be in Canadian funds, but this amount disappears by the final screen. Since I find it very useful to know what my exact charges will be I routinely take a shot of this screen, and immediately print it out.. I hope you will find this little technique as useful as I have. All the best. |
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