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Ask
Ed Cyber
Dear Ms.
Not yet backed up,
What a nice gift! One of the
worst things that can happen is turning on your computer and hearing your
hard drive die. But if your
data is backed up, you can rest easy knowing that even if you have to
reinstall all of your programs on a new hard drive, you can easily restore
your data.
First,
let's look at good hard drive use habits.
Important system files are stored in many places on your hard
drive, including the System directory and many of the Program Files
directories. It's not a
good idea to be storing your data files in the same place as these files,
which is why there's probably a folder on your hard drive called My
Documents. That's the best
place to put all of your data. If you want to create subdirectories, or sub-folders, to
organize your files (one for Word documents and one for Excel
spreadsheets, for example) you can do this all within My Documents.
If you
keep all of your data in one place, it's quite easy to make a backup.
You simply tell your program to backup all of My Documents.
However, there are other places on your hard drive that your
information might be stored. Favorites,
for example can be found in a subdirectory of the same name in Windows.
Netscape mail and bookmarks will probably be in Program Files -
Netscape - Users. Other
important Microsoft files can be found in Windows - Application Data.
Once you
know where all of your data is, start your back up program.
Iomega hardware comes with it's own backup program and is
probably best to use if you have a zip drive.
Windows also comes with a backup program that can be found in
Accessories - System tools but I recommend using the Iomega in your
case.
Click
Start, Programs, Iomega Ware, 1 step backup.
Click the customize button and then follow the steps to create a
backup job that only includes the files and folders with your data.
Make sure you have a disk in the drive and start the backup.
It is a
good idea to backup your data every week and to use at least two disks,
rotating them each week so that if something catastrophic happened to your
computer during a backup, you would still have last weeks backed up data.
- Ed
Censorship on the Net
by
Brian DeLaet
Governments have tried (and
largely failed) to control it. Pornographers
have abused it (and been wildly successful).
Politicians have railed against it.
And still the Web grows. Despite
our every effort, the web has so far been uncensorable.
Too many pages, growing too quickly.
Yet we continue to attempt to
censor. And continue to fail.
The programs and filters are unsuccessful for a simple reason.
They are too static. The
'Net changes in unpredictable ways every day.
If you download a program today that blocks websites known to be
adult-oriented, will it block the site just created today that has
sexually explicit pictures? No.
Some sites and filters update
their list of unacceptable sites regularly but the problem is, who is
devising these lists? There
was quite an uproar a while back when one site put the word "adult" on
its list of words to look for and block.
Is adult really a dirty word?
I suppose you could have
customizable filters and then have each group come up with their own list
of words or methods for blocking certain web sites. But where does it end? Is
every religion and denomination, every race group and special interest
group to come up with their own filter?
If it comes to that, then each of us will be running so many different
filters that we probably won't be able to get to any website.
Self-censorship seems to be the
best answer. Though we have a
home network, our children will not have computers in their rooms, just as
they won't have TV's in their rooms.
Even if we aren't watching TV or surfing the Internet together,
it happens in a common room where we can monitor what is happening.
Even in places of public access this seems like a good answer.
Put some computers with Internet access in areas where children can
use them and put others where children are not allowed.
For those adults who need (for whatever reason) to access pages
that are best not available to children, they can go to the adult only
area.
If we don't use self-censorship
and allow others, whether it be government or software companies, to set
our limits, we give up our right to make rational choices.
I'd rather be allowed to make my own decisions.
Want
Computer Help?
Need
a Web Site?
Visit us on the web at
Educyber.com or call us at (303) 268-2245 for information and
assistance. Our service is
professional and your satisfaction is our goal.
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Word
2000 Tips
Start the
year off right, using your Word 2000 to it's fullest extent - or at
least get a little more bang for your buck - by trying these tips:
1.
Place text precisely on the page by double clicking where you want
to start. Notice how the cursor indicates whether the text will be
left-aligned, right-aligned, or centered by how the small lines appear
next to the I-beam.
2.
Customize your toolbar(s) to show the buttons you use and get rid
of the ones you don't. Click
the small black triangle at the end of the toolbar and then click on Add
or Remove Buttons. Check the ones you want and uncheck the ones you don't.
3.
Use the clipboard toolbar to copy up to 12 different items (text,
pictures, clipart, etc.) to the clipboard and then paste them back in, in
the order you want. (View - Toolbars - Clipboard)
4.
Get just the bullets you want for lists by creating just the right
bullets. From the Format
menu, click on bullets and numbering.
Then click the bullet tab and click picture.
Choose the picture you want. Note
you can even add animated bullets. If
you click customize instead of picture, you can redesign the standard
bullets to fit your needs as well.
5.
Quickly navigate to the folder you want using the shortcuts in the
open and save windows. Click
open, then click History, My Documents, Desktop, Favorites or Web Folders
to get there fast.
6.
Download and use the latest Word add-ins and templates.
Click the Help menu and then Office on the Web.
When your browser opens the Microsoft Word web site, click the
downloads button and see what is available to help you do your job better.
7.
If you use Word to make web pages, use the Web and Web Tools
toolbars to help. The web
tools toolbar can help you quickly add forms to your document.
8.
Whether you're designing for the web or just to look special on
paper, use the Themes (in the Format menu) to provide a pleasant-looking
and consistent theme to your document.
9.
Use the Web Page Preview (File menu) to quickly see what your
document would look like as a web page.
10.
Insert bookmarks into long files (Insert menu).
The bookmarks work the same as they do in web pages - allowing
you to quickly find the specified location later.
Copernic
http://www.copernic.com/
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