Hot Hint of the Week

Beware signing up for AOL
If you have other ISPs on the go, like dial in privilages to Compuserve for example, do not install the AOL disk. It locks out everything else, and the only way of doing anything is via AOL which is very non-standard. If you must have AOL, and I cannot see why myself, then have it on a separate computer.

NTL Cable Broadband
If your NTL broadband via the set-top box fails, then try switching off your computer and the set-top box at the mains. Switch on the set-top box and wait for the two green lights to show. All should then be well. If still stuck ring Technical Support on 0845-650-0125.
By the way, I don't think the 650KB service is worthwhile, the cheaper 150KB seems just as good.

Short Messages
This JavaScript code can be used to present a series of messages from a drop-down menu, rather than have a lot of text down the page.

Go for Demo

Easy typing of .com URLs in IE
Here's another trick in Internet Explorer that saves typing. If the URL you're typing in is a .com, then just type the domain name without the .com or the http://. Then hit CTRL-ENTER.

Closing Pop-up Windows
Everyone hates them. In most cases you can just close them and carry on. But in the worst cases, if you close one pop-up, another appears. The first rule is not use sites that do this to you. The second thing you can do is to save any open files and close down the computer. But the professional thing is to install Proxmitron which is free from http://www.proxomitron.org And while you are at it install Ad-aware free from http://www.lavasoft.nu which searches out any naughty programs which send a profile of your computer back to the bad people. Both these programs require a little time to get working, and indeed you may not want to have Proxomitron working all the time.

Use Refresh or Reload often
It seems that both the server ISPs, and modern browsers are becoming more efficient at storing web pages in their cache. So the page you see when you access it may not be the latest version. Depending on the browser, use Ctrl/Refresh or Ctrl/Reload, or use Ctrl/R to get the latest version. Many new users do not know this.

Highlights, Hover, Tooltips
Item 1 - Highlight the Background of Text:
<span style="background-color:ffff00;">Wow, that's yellow!</span>

Item 2 - On-Hover Background Color of Links - place this statement in the HEAD section. Much easier than using JavaScript. This is not demonstrated here - try it!
<STYLE TYPE="text/css">a:hover{background-color:red;}</STYLE>

Item 3 - Adding a Title attribute to your links creates a tool-tip description:
<A HREF="index.html" TITLE="Go to Homepage">Homepage</a>
Homepage

Forwarding and Filtering
If you forward messages, or use your Email program to filter messages, and you get the address slightly wrong, any messages goes straight down a blackhole and there is no warning of the loss. If the destination does not exist. Or you enter the wrong address. Or if you have a space in the address, particularly at the end of it, then it is lost for ever.
Rule 1: take especial care. Rule 2: always test.

Backup your FTP codes
Even if you have only one website, make sure you have a copy of the FTP codes someplace safe. Usually the ISP will have sent you an Email with all the stuiff on it. Every ISP has different conventions and it is troublesome to have to ring up the help desk on premium rate phonecalls to plead for help. I lost my copy of CuteFTP and had to re-install it. Then I had to enter all the codes again. Do a copy on a separate database; take a backup of this on disk; print it out and file it carefully. You need:

• The name of the host company
• Server address (like ftp.waller.co.uk)
• User ID (like Waller)
• Password (like pass54)
• Default Remote Address (like public_html)

Beware Premium Rate Surfing
You can pay for access to Business, Games or Porno websites by creditcard in which case the they give you a password and usually a cookie to save you trouble the next time you call. Or they have an option to dialup using a premium rate 090 number. They a supposed to warn you of the rate, warn you that the number is being dialed for you, and give you an audible tone. All these things are easy to miss. So watch it. You could still think you are on Anytime and be building up an enormous bill. And they will still give you a cookie so any repeat access adds to this large bill.

MORE ON THIS

Defrag for faster computing
You should defragment the disks on your computer every month otherwise they get in a mess and the system runs more slowly.
1. Prune your Email and forum files, and Windows | Cookies
2. Use the programs in Start | Programs | Accessories | System Tools:
   2.1 Use Disk Cleanup to delete Temporary Internet files; Downloaded program files; Recycle Bin; Temporary Files
   2.2 Use Scandisk
   2.3 Use Disk Defragmenter which may take an hour or two.
There is a Maintenance Wizard that does the items 2.1/2/3 on a scheduled basis if you leave your computer running at that time.

Internet Explorer Window Heading
Some suppliers place their name in the Window Heading of programs which they install for you. You can remove this, or replace it with your choice of words. This involves Regedit. Warning: there is a possibility that if you screw this up the computer may stop working so have a care. In START | Run enter: regedit and drill down HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE | Software | Microsoft | Internet Explorer | Main then right-click on Window Title to edit or remove the words you find there. If this does not work for you then do the same thing with HKEY_CURRENT_USER etc.
If it worries you you can do the same for Outlook Express.

Solve problems with a re-boot
Quite often you have problems with accessing the Internet. Before ringing the help desk at 50p per minute, try re-booting your PC. The problem will often go away.

.exe Email attachments
Most firewalls and all careful users will avoid opening .exe and similar files that arrive as attachments. I had a particularly attractive one sent to me this Christmas. But at the same time there was a warning about a virus that was in a file called christmas.exe. If you must send such files the trick is to ZIP them and let the recipient unzip them and check for viruses before he runs it.
Or put the file on your website and invited people to download it from there.

The No-No list of things to avoid
There are 25 items on this checklist that brand you as an amateur website author. Avoid them, or incur the displeasure of your surfers.

Switch off your screen saver
Most PCs seem to have a screen saver flickering away when the computer is not being used, sometimes 24/7. Modern displays no longer need relief. The programs driving the saver are complex and use a lot system resources interfering with fax input, printers, recording of CDs, and will probably screw up a program download. The control panel has a power settings icon that enables you to turn off the display afetr say 15 minutes, and save a lot of energy.

Cat 5 Cabling
I am told that if you have new telephone extensions wired in your home or office you should go for Cat 5 cabling - four twisted pair wires, unshielded. In this way you should also be able to carry high-end video and audio as well as ISDN and voice.

Avoid Viruses with Outlook Express
It is increasingly becoming a bad idea to even look at Email messages that may contain a virus. Your virus software should check each message before it is displayed but why take even this risk. The trick is not to show the Preview Pane.
View | Layout | Preview-Pane and see that the Show option is not checked. So you can delete unread any messages that even look suspiciuous, and certainly all the spam. Double click the message you want to read.

Speed up your Outlook Express
Outlook Express is fussy about the folders. Every now and then you should delete unwanted messages, and then use File | Folder | Compact. It may take a few minutes to sort out all the rubbish but OE should then load much faster.

Help visitors to print pages
If you supply reference information on your site that users may print, check how it prints out in the common browsers. Pages with truncated lines are not much help! Often the difficulty is with images that force a wider window than the paper can handle. This could also be a problem for users who choose to use smaller display windows. In extreme cases a separate version of the page for printing may be desired. Or perhaps even an Adobe version if you happen to have the Adobe creation program on your system.

Use Ctrl+F for FIND within any page
The least remembered but most useful tool. Ctrl+F will identify exactly where a word or phrase is in any page - a follow up from the search engine referencing only to the page itself.

You should have Anti-Virus software
Someone in an Internet forum drew the nice analogy that going online without virus protection these days is like having unprotected sex with strangers. It is not a question of "If I get infected" but rather a question of "When will I get infected."
I use McAfee, but Norton is good too.

Right Click
Right Click is a splendid tool. Try it practically anywhere in any application. My favourite? in Word you can easily specify bullet options and paras.

Using a red background
Internet Explorer (and not NS) has a quirk that whenever you dwell the cursor over a link it goes red. This gives an effect which is like JavaScript mouseover and is normally good.
There is nothing you can do in the BODY statement that prevents this. So if you have a red background as sometimes seems a good idea, the link disappears. Annoying.

FTP upload indigestion
Sometimes, particularly when you are in a hurry, FTP fails to upload some files if you give it more than, say, a dozen files in one batch. Success comes apparently in small parcels.

Window size control
You can control the size of the IE window when it opens. Set the size to what you want, and then hold Shift when you close the window. You should be able to set the size for the first display window, and also for the second windows.

Easy change of browser Text Size
On the menu bar View | lets you make the text on the display larger (or smaller) for your greater viewing comfort, or to see whether your webpage design adapts correctly for other people's choice of text size.

Good Housekeeping
Erase all the Windows Temp and Temp Internet folder contents often - particularly after an unscheduled Power off. They build up at an alarming rate. The Temp Internet files can be deleted from the IE Tools | Options menu. And while you are at it, empty the Recycle Bin.

File Segregation
Every website starts small, and you tend to be lazy and to put all the pages and all the images in one sub-directory. Be professional from the start - open a sub-directory called images and save yourself a lot of hassle later when, like topsy, it growed.

Downloading Flash movies
There is a problem if you want to download, for whatever reason, a page which contains Flash. The normal right-click or File | save-as function is sometimes greyed out.
But if you have seen the website on your screen then it is all someplace in your PC cache which is normally Windows | Temporary Internet Files. You can arrange these into website order if you wish and then copy them to wherever on your hard disk.
They are all in one level of directory which you can fix, and when you copy the files there are funny characters and numbers in the names which you can take out.

Return links made easy
I have now put return links at the top of the Website Evaluation set of pages. They certainly provide a quick way of getting back up the chain of links from where you are now. I guess we ought to put them at the bottom of pages as well. Here is what the link-chain looks like on the For-a-Fee service page, to save you having to check back.

Take care when creating forms
Whichever forms package you use, they all have funnies. Mine ignores the first line of data, his has a millenium date problem, theirs sends the data in a random order. There are fixes for all these things, but you need to check with care.

Make the display degrade gracefully
Remember that many users still have small screens on their computers, or surf on their big screens with a small window. So don't make them scroll to see the whole picture; and use percentage widths so the text will reformat to suit.

Testing Websites for Speed
You can get a good idea of how fast your site will be for average users, by loading it from a floppy disk, which roughly approximates to an average modem connection."

Get an Independent View
Ask someone who hasn't seen your site to try using it, and ask them to note any problems or comments. If you are very close to a site, you will probably be blind to its defects.
(contributed by www.lois.co.uk)

Shift and Click
Shift and Click on a link gives you the display in a new window

Use the Google search engine
The search engine that relies on links to tell it which sites are the most popular and which you are most likely to want to see
http://www.google.com

Autocomplete
Anyone who as surfed for more than a couple of minutes can probably key in their Email address correctly at very high speed. But Autocomplete can save even this effort.
Autocomplete in IE is Tools | Options | Personal Info | Autocomplete
There is an annoying thing about using this; you cannot just click and go, you have to keep the mouse over the item you want to auto-complete until it has entered successfully. Patience is a virtue, they tell me.

Use a mouse with a wheel
I am surprised you are not using one already! Well worth the small amount of money. In this way you can control accurately the area that you want to highlight and copy, and travel in a controlled way down the page when you are reading.

Have a 2nd ISP
Most of the time you can dial into your ISP and on out into the Internet without problem. Then suddenly it all goes pear-shaped. No reason. In a few moments it will get better - you hope! Why not sign up for a second ISP, like Freeserve if you are not into them already. Then if you have a problem you have a different number to try.

Blank Browser Home Display
Browsers are delivered with the homepage set for the portal of MSN or the ISP that supplied the program. This is a pain unless you really want to go there. In IE go to Tools | Internet Options | General | Homepage. NS is in Edit | Preferences | Navigator. You could change it to Blank. Or as I have done, create a page in HTML and save it on your disk, and have this as the home page with a picture of your dog, together with all your favourite links.

Ctrl+Alt+Del
In the old days this combination restarted the PC. Now it displays a list of the programs that are currently running. So you can End Task of the program that could be causing you grief. Maybe the computer will come un-frozen and start working properly again.
It may not solve your problem but it is worth a try. Sometimes there is nothing that will do except switch of the main switch, wait a few seconds and then restart. And then wait for the diagnostic scan to look at every byte on your disk.
There will be a load of programs running, none of which you will recognise. Don't bother about it. Just End Task on the ones at the top that seem familiar that say Program not Responding.
This is useful too when installing a new program. Stop everything except Explorer, Systray, and Rnaapp.

Translate Mac text into PC
First try renaming it to a binhex file (.bhx) and throw it at winzip - it'll probably unravel it for you. This works with compressed files too. Otherwise you will need a program like Transmac.

Turn off un-needed programs
When you have finished with a program, click X or Quit to turn it off. If you have a lot of programs open the computer will run more slowly. In fact, if it seems slower than usual, try closing everything and re-booting to get rid of all the rubbish in memory.

Use Multiple Windows for faster searching
The trick is to open more than one window on your browser, have the second window searching for the next topic while you are reading the first.

Save time in Internet Explorer keying in domain names
Alt+D takes you to the Address line to enter the name part of the URL,
then Ctrl+Enter inserts www. + .com and goes to get it.

Instant Shut Down
Highlight C:\windows\rundll.exe and create a shortcut on your desk top or desk tray. Then display properties on this shortcut and add some more things to the string as follows:
C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows
(watch the space and the punctuation!)
Click on this to exit immediately. But note that you have still to obey the rules about saving files in the applications that are running.
Note: This may not work on Windows 2000. Dammit.

Better than the IE Back button
Use backspace to previous page, or Alt+Left and Alt+Right for Back and Forward.

Control+Z is Undo
There are a stack of quick-keys on the PC Keys page

Automatic Disconnect on Timeout
IE has a a way of timing out your telephone line if you forget to disconnect. That is, if your ISP does not do this for you.
Tools | Internet Options | Connections | Settings | Advanced.
If you always dial up using IE, then you can swap to one of your other programs and know that you will be disconnected before the phone bill gets too large.
Don't use this if you are using FTP to download large files, as it will cut you off after a 30 second warning.