Finding People on
the Net Do you ever wonder what happened to that cute
girl / handsome boy from high school? Or your best friend who moved to
Idaho when you were in second grade?
With the interconnectedness of the Internet, you have a very good chance
of finding that long lost friend or relative.
Some of the best web sites to go to find people are:
Netscape's People Finder
http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/whitepages.html
AOL's White Pages
http://www.aol.com/netfind/whitepages.adp
GTE's Super Pages
http://bigbook.com/
Yahoo! People Search
http://people.yahoo.com/
WhoWhere?
http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/
If you don't find who you're looking for in one directory, look in
another. They each get their information from different places. Some come
from phone books, others from information each person makes available
online and others from places we would probably prefer not to know about.
Most of the search engines now have some kind of White Page service
available for their visitors.
Sometimes you might find more information than you would care to know
about. I was showing my grandmother how it worked and we found her address
and telephone number. When you submit your name or other personal
information on a web site, take the time to read the privacy statement. If
there isn't one, don't submit anything personal. If you do submit, don't
complain when the spam and junk mail arrive.
On the other hand, with just a name we were able to locate the email
address of a relative in Norway and re-establish contact. The incredible
power of computers can be put to good use in tracking down those we've
lost, or to poor use, stalking those who make the mistake of posting too
much information online.
One last place to look online is http://www.dejanews.com.
They archive thousands of newsgroups and, if the person you're looking
for has ever posted to a newsgroup and included their name in the posting,
you should be able to find them by doing a search. For example, a recent
search for Educyber turned up all the places Educyber appeared in January
for the announcement of our new "Edunotes for Educators"
newsletter.
Customizing MS Word
Microsoft Word is probably the most powerful word processing tool on the
market today. However, a tool is only useful if it's used properly. One
of the powerful features of Word is that it can be customized to fit your
needs.
If you are frequently changing the default font to a different font face
or size, perhaps you need to change it. Go to the Format menu, choose the
Font, Font Style, and Size that you prefer to be the standard or default,
and click on the Default button. When Word asks if you want to change the
default settings, say OK. Now every time you start Word, you will start
with your new settings.
If you are constantly changing other settings such as page orientation,
tabs, margins or the like, you should create a template. To create a
template, simply create a document with the settings you want (but no
content) and choose Save As from the file menu. At the bottom of the
dialog box that appears there should be a choice "Save as Type."
From the drop-down box, select "Document Template (.dot)." Then
type in the name for your new template and click on save. The next time
you want to create a document with those settings, choose "New"
from the File Menu. Double click the name of the template you created and
you're ready to roll.
The hardcopy version of this newsletter is created from a template. The
template has the headers and footers as well as the text boxes and the
book image behind the Edu Words text.
Another way to customize Word is by adding often used commands to an
existing toolbar or by creating a completely new toolbar with the buttons
of your choice. For example, to add the double space button to your
toolbar, you would follow these steps:
- Click the View Menu.
- Highlight Toolbars and click on Customize.
- Click on the Commands Tab at the top of the dialog box that appears.
- In the Categories box, click on Format.
- Scroll down the Command box until you get to the Double Space
button.
- Click and Drag the button to the place you want it on the standard
toolbar.
- Drop it in place and close the dialog box.
Now you can double-space text simply by clicking on the button.
Notice that you can also choose to have various toolbars (like drawing,
tables and borders, WordArt) remain on the desktop. At Educyber we keep
the Standard, Formatting and Drawing toolbars visible. Just like with any
desktop, you don't want it to get too cluttered. Keep the important ones
there and use the others as needed. |
Computing Books
Educyber, in association with Amazon.com, provides books to help you improve
your computer skills. Go to http://www.educyber.com/homeuser/
and click on the bookstore link to order one of these titles:
- Html Publishing on the Internet : Covers Html 4 and Dynamic Html
: Everything You Need to Create Professional-Looking Web Pages by
Brent D. Heslop
- Office 2000 Bible With CDROM by Edward C. Willett, Rhonda
Crowder
- AppleWorks 5 for Windows and Macintosh: Visual QuickStart Guide
by C. Ann Brown
- The Essential Windows 98 Book : The Get-It-Done Tutorial by
Elaine J. Marmel, Diane Koers
You'll also find these titles in the Home User bookstore <http://www.educyber.com/books.html>
- The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
- Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and the Last Great
Lesson by Mitch Albom
- Enigma by Robert Harris
Leisure Time Online
Ahhhh. You wake up (late in the morning) on a Saturday in February. You
stumble to the window and see an incredible expanse of white. Nope, not
going anywhere today. What do you do with yourself all day?
Surf's up! Get online and play some games. They come in all shapes and
sizes.
Kids (and adults, too) can surf to fun sites like Bonus.com and play
hundreds of java games. Here's a short list of free sites just right for
kids:
http://www.bombpop.com/fun_n_games.html
http://www.bonus.com
http://www.familyplay.com/
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.ctw.org/
For adults there are as many games sites as there are interests.
If you get lonely, try Multi-Player Online Games at
http://www.mpog.com/
Play Othello at
http://www.htmlgames.com/
Check out Linkopedia's Online Game Links at
http://www.linkopedia.com/games_online1.html
If you prefer to keep the games on your own machine, visit one of the
freeware or share sites, search for games, and download the games or demo
versions of commercial games that you want. A few good sites to check are:
http://www.pcgame.com/ "the
web's most comprehensive search engine for PC games"
http://www.download.com/
http://www.gamingplace.com/
Every Business Should
Have a Web Site Does your business
have a web site? I mean a real web site, not a static page that was
published in 1997 and hasn't been touched since. If not, you should have
one. Even if you do have one, are you using it as well as it could be
used?
A website can serve several important functions. Here are a few reasons to
help you decide if you should have a web site.
It can . . .
- Tell your community who you are and what you do.
- Promote special activities and events you are sponsoring or holding.
- Provide current news and information about your business.
- "Answer questions" and "greet people" 24 hours a
day.
- Help your office communication.
- Improve your communication with customers near and far.
- Advertise job openings.
- Provide a forum for feedback from customers.
- Provide detailed information about your business (without paying the
cost of publishing).
- Provide maps and directions for customers and visitors.
This list could go on for quite some time ( if you have something to add,
we'll be happy to post it on our web site) but the point is, in 1999
having a web site is an essential part of doing business.
For a business site, it would be best to acquire the services of a
professional (Like us!) but if you want to try it on your own, consider
these:
Netscape (3.0 Gold and Communicator) has a web page composer with
an easy-to-use interface. Many Word processing programs like MS Word
and AppleWorks (the company formerly known as ClarisWorks) allow
you to save word processing files as HTML documents. Newer versions of
these word-processors are increasingly sophisticated at creating and
editing HTML. PowerPoint users can save their slide shows as web
pages and a wizard will walk them through the layout choices they need to
make. For working with the HTML code, nothing beats a simple text editor
like SimpleText (Macs) or Notepad (PC's).
There are also some reasonably priced programs available like MS FrontPage,
Allaire's HomeSite 4.0, Adobe PageMill, or HotDog 5
Webmaster Suite. |
