FEBRUARY 2003 - Vol 19 - Issue 02
Newsletter - Internet Edition
| January Meeting Review | GENSIG Meeting |
| Product Review - Microsoft Office XP | Security on Your PC: Extensions and Sending Files |
| Make Your Own PDF Files |
| Current Officer's List | Current Calendar of Events |
| Gordon Hochstetler | Picture It Pro Digital Imaging |
| Jim Orange | Teasle Games |
| Bob Brown | Microsoft cap |
| Jack Monk | Microsoft Bobble Man |
| Howard Killarney | McAfee Firewall |
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Microsoft Word XP is a program that seems to be unchanging on its simple exterior look to the program but on a deeper investigation we find much advancement in its technology that is true to all of the XP programs. MS Word just wants to be the best word processing program for the home and office use, allowing you do things in a simpler and more intuitive manner.
As I type right now there are a few features that come up over and over for me. One is that when I spell the word feetures it replaces the word with features automatically as a commonly misspelled word in the auto correct feature that can be turned of but defaults to being active. Another is the spell check in general, all the red underlined words saying that I spell quite bad. But with MS words dictionary of words I just click my right mouse button on the red underlined word and it will come up with a list of replacements correctly spelled not new but definitely improved. Well, spell-check only goes so fare for me as I will get confused some times with all the choices and pick the wrong one. So when I'm in question of a correctly spelled word I just click on it with my right mouse button and it now comes up with other synonyms for the word for me to check its synonyms for comparison.
A new feature that I really like is the ability to turn of its auto correcting features and the revert the changes that it makes. Sometimes I want to make something lower case or put a hole bunch of "_" in but before this was almost impossible because of Word's bossy mentality of the way it thought you wanted things was the only way that it would let you work so it would replace your underlines with a drawn line all the way across the page. Well now with the auto correct option box that pops up you can go in and undo what the auto formatting dose for you by ether undoing the formatting or turning off that auto formatting default.
The new clipboard in XP allows you to copy many items from any of the application and selectively past them or past them all at once. To find the clipboard in Word go to >View>Task Pane in the menu list at the top. This will open your Styles and Formatting box/Clipboard options in a window on the side of your document. To change from one to the other you use the left/right arrows in the top left of the newly opened area. To get rid of this box you can click on the "X" in the top right corner. In this box you can select any one of the items coped on the clipboard, select all of them, or clear the clipboard. In the Styles and Formatting menu you find all the formatting styles found in your document so if you have a header set up with Bold, Italic, and underlie with the font set larger. Then this will show up in the menu.
With Office XP's new selection feature you can highlight multiple arias by holding down the control key and selecting them with the mouse. After you have these different areas selected just click on the formatting you wish to apply and they are now all changed. If you wish to change them all again to a larger size you click on the arrow to the right of the format that comes up when your mouse is over the style, click on the to option of "select all instances" then you can edit the style changing them all at once.
If you have ever tried to merge two presentations in PowerPoint that look different you know that this can be frustrating in previous versions. Now with the new PowerPoint you can actual have multiple master slides so you can easily combine presentations. Then when you go to save your documents you can make it easier to find you folders in the Save As menu by highlighting the folder in the window then go to the tools menu in the top right side and select "add to `My Places'". This will now appear in the quick icons on the left side of the box, you might have to go to the arrow at the bottom to scroll down to it. You can change the placement of the new icon by clicking on it with the right mouse button and clicking on the "move up" option.
I think some of you might like all the new templates that are available as well. If you want to see more than what is installed, the CD has more, and then there is even more at www.microsoft.com.
I could keep listing all the new improvements but there are just so many. Office XP makes things quick and convenient for changes. They seem to have really listened to what people were looking for when they made this new version. I talked mostly about Word but most of the items can be found in all the programs creating greater similarities in the way the programs work. If you want to view more changes to Office XP I recommend going to Microsoft's Video comparison of Office 97 vs. XP site at: http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/indepth/97videos.asp
Eric Nisly (eanisly@hotmail.com) has been a member of EPCUG for several years and has held board positions including Newsletter Editor and Ad Director. He is currently studying to complete his degree in the field of photography and attends Goshen College.
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One of today's biggest computing irritations is competing standards! While there are standards out there for such things as e-mail, file transfer and Internet protocols, and HTML coding for web display, someone is always "pushing the envelope" (to be polite) or "ignoring them" (to be blunt). Document sharing is an example. Many think that Microsoft Word is the standard for documents but it is only one in a field of word processors. At one time, they simply pretended each other didn't exist and if you created a document using one word processor, you couldn't share it with others who were using a competitive product. Now, at least the major brands provide the ability to convert between formats but often at the expense of some of your painstaking efforts to create that `Beautiful Format'.
Enter Adobe and the Portable Document Format (PDF). If you can create (or "export to") a PDF file with your word processor, you can produce a "stand-alone" document that anyone can see or print exactly as it was created - fonts, pictures, whatever - but without the program that created it! Catch? Of course there's a catch! First of all, you need the Acrobat Adobe Reader to see/print these. Yes, it's free; but it is a few megabytes in size and usually has to be downloaded and installed. But how to create the PDF in the first place? Are we still somewhat at the mercy of the Adobes, Microsofts and Corels? Read on!
There are two freeware (free for non-commercial, home use) programs that can enable you to create (and read) standard PDF files (as well as postscript files):
MakePDF, (http://www.lexacorp.com.pg/soft/makepdf22.zip) a freeware utility for converting the postscript translations from GhostScript to a Portable Document Format file and
GhostScript, (ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/AFPL/gs703/gs703w32.exe) a free postscript interpreter which translates postscript documents.
NOTE: If the version numbers change, the above links will become outdated.
If you visit the Lexacorp site first, there is a link there to GhostScript as well as to MakePDF. Stuart also offers several other MAKEPDF tips and tricks at http://www.lexacorp.com.pg After downloading both of these, install GhostScript by double-clicking the GS703W32.EXE file. Then simply unzip MAKEPDF21.ZIP into the folder of your choice (no installation needed). I must assume that the reader can do this using their favourite compressed file unpacker.
Then, you need to define a printer that can produce postscript output such as the HP Laserjet III PostScript+ in your selection of printers. You do not need to have this printer connected, you merely need to add/install it as if it were installed and configure it to send output to a .PRN file. Here's how.
In Windows, click Start|Settings|Printers and then double-click `Add Printer'. Choose `Local Printer' and click `Next'. Now select the printer you'd like, making sure that it can produce postscript. The HP Laserjet III PostScript+ is an obvious choice but other manufacturers are available on the list you'll see. After selecting one, you'll be asked where to output your data and this is where you will choose `FILE:' and then click `Next'. Most likely you will not want this to be your default printer, but this option is always available later if your needs should change. Click `Next' and then `Finish' and you will most likely be prompted to insert your Windows installation CD in order to retrieve the necessary driver files. After the printer driver files have been copied, you will be prompted for a PRN filename (in case you wanted to print a test page). You can click `Cancel' to skip this step. Did you know that you could also rename this printer installation to something more helpful like PostScript Creation?
Right click it and rename!
Once the process is complete to this point, you will have an additional printer option whenever you wish to "print" a document from any application you are using. When choosing this new option you have just installed, you will be asked for a filename and destination folder since the output will not be a "hard copy" on paper, but a .PRN file on your computer.
We now need to create a way to easily send these PRN files created by your newly installed postscript-capable (phantom) printer driver to MAKEPDF which will use GhostScript to finally create the PDF file.
One way to provide this "connection" is to add a shortcut in your SendTo links that will appear when you right-click a file in Windows Explorer (or other file manager) and select `Send To'. Open your \Windows\SendTo folder and right-click a blank spot. Click New|Shortcut and insert a command line similar to the following, but insert the proper path for your installation of MAKEPDF in place of the square bracketed portion.
[C:\Utils]\MAKEPDF.EXE (Editor's Note: [C:\Utils] equals the path on your computer to the file MAKEPDF.EXE)
Click `Next' and then name it MakePDF or whatever you like. Click `Finish' and you're done.
Now you can right-click any PRN file created by your phantom printer and then choose SendTo|MakePDF to create your PDF file.
You could also create a shortcut on your desktop in the same way and just drag and drop PRN files onto the icon.
There are a few other clever tricks the more advanced user can perform either by defining a new filetype (see end of this article) or using macros in your word processor or creating a custom printer port or having your PDF sent directly to your e-mail client but you can read about those in Stuart McLachlan's (author of MAKEPDF) Readme text file that comes with MAKEPDF. Most of us will be quite happy with a shortcut in the SendTo folder!
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The GENSIG meeting was held Saturday, February 8, 2003 in the American Mortgage and Financial Services Conference Room. Eighteen members were present.
The meeting opened with a discussion of the use of the facility at the Greencroft Senior Center. It is a beautiful room with space to grow. It will comfortably hold up to 40-members! Arrangements have been made to hold our March and April meetings there. Vercoe Jones was instrumental in getting this set-up for us!
Our group leader Gloria Savill works for a Tax preparation firm and could not be with us. (We missed you Gloria!) So the members filled in this month!
Sue Dufour lead a discussion regarding Indiana House Bill 1540 regarding restricting access to vital records for 100 years. Genealogists from around the state are against this legislation and they are contacting their legislators regarding this matter!!!
Jackie MacKenzie talked about and demonstrated a family history book she made for her grandchildren. It is a beautiful book with about 100 pages and was well received by her family and by the members present.
Jim Mathias talked about the course he has prepared to help us assemble our own genealogy web page. A majority of the members present want to make their own web page, so we will arrange for a meeting after the meeting next month (March 8.)
After a brief coffee break we walked down the street to Shutter Hugs Studio for a demonstration on restoring old photos and printing large pages of family charts. Leman Hugs put on a fine meeting that lasted over an hour. Following his demonstrations we took a tour of the studio.
The March meeting will open with a Q&A session on Genealogy related computer questions. We plan an open discussion on current research projects the members are engaged in, and we plan to do some on-line research on finding property deeds.
Our next meeting will be held at the Greencroft Senior Center in the Conference Room. This is a new location for us, so plan to arrive early and bring a friend. We hope the coffee will be ready!
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There are times when you want to email files to a colleague or friend to share important information. What used to be a simple matter of attaching a document, spreadsheet or database to an email and quickly sending information, has today become more of a problem. Recently, a colleague attempted to send a MS Access database file to me. Because of my security settings, it was rejected: I received the email, stripped of its attachment.
Due to increased cyber criminal threats and attacks, the utopian vision of global harmony that the computing industry originally designed for, where everyone happily shared files and information, and everyone was honest and upright, now seems naive and shortsighted. A decade ago, no one worried about receiving attachments to their emails. Viruses and worms existed, but were seldom seen. Few people thought virus protection was necessary or indeed ever encountered a virus.
With the whole-hearted and enthusiastic embracing of the personal computer (PC), email and the World Wide Web by the public, security issues started to gain in importance as the industry grew. As more people used the technology, and the vulnerable computers grew exponentially, so did the incidences of cyber crimes and criminal hacking. It became incredibly easy to introduce a virus or worm by email or other means and have it spread by social engineering (I Love You virus) and by taking advantage of people who did not update their software.
In order to grow the industry in the early days, the software manufacturers had focused on ease of use and added features as the most important factors to develop for. They listened to what their customers wanted, and gave them the bells and whistles they asked for. As the security threat grew, however, the emphasis had to change. The open, share with everyone, gee-whiz features from the past are moving to a more closed cautious approach in the present.
So how do you send a database file to a friend without them having to lower their security settings? There is a way. MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express will accept text (.txt) files without a problem, so I told my colleague to change the file extension from databasename.dbs to databasename.txt and send it to me. After receiving it, I could easily change the extension back to what it was before, and (drum-roll, please), I would have the database without changing my security settings.
So she tried it. I am fortunate to have an ISP who filters for SPAM and also aggressively filters for Viruses and Worms (even so, I update my own virus protection daily). However, in this case, the ISP's virus filter stripped the ".txt" attachment from the email and I received nothing but a virus warning! What had happened?
After some trouble-shooting back and forth by email, I determined that she had her version of Windows set to hide file extensions. When she tried to rename the file, she simply added .txt to the name. She saw databasename.txt on her desktop, but because she couldn't see the file extension, the file was actually named databasename.txt.dbs! The ISP virus filter rightly saw that as a possible threat and dumped the file.
Having her file extensions hidden was also not a good idea from a security stand point. She would never know if a virus program was hidden in files she looked at: for example as in filename.jpg.vbs because she would not be able to see the ".vbs" (Visual Basic Script) extension. The file would look to her like filename.jpg and she might mistakenly open it, setting off a Trojan worm.
I suggested that she turn on her "view file extensions". Then she would be able to rename files correctly and her system would be more secure at the same time.
Here's how you do it in Windows 98:
Click Start
Click Settings
Click Folder Options
Click View Tab
Under Advanced Settings / Files and Folders:
Click the box to put a check in: Remember each folder's view settings
Uncheck the box next to: Hide file extensions for known file types
Click OK to confirm your selection.
Now after making the above changes, if my colleague looks at that copy of her database file on her desktop, she will see the extension as it truly is. If she renames it, she will see the correct extension and will also see the database icon change to the text icon. She may get a warning that she is about to do something terrible, (as in changing file extensions will cause the file not to open) but since she is working with a copy, she can ignore it. When she sends me the file, it will pass all the security checks both from my ISP and my system, and I will receive it successfully. I will then change the extension back to .dbs and ta-da! I will have the database file without compromising my over-all security. A quick and easy tip for everyone that needs to share a file, just make sure your virus scanner is up-to-date!
This article was first published in an issue of the Bytes and Bits Online Newsletter. Please drop me an email if you publish this article to: barbara@web-centric.net. I would be very pleased to receive either a link to your online publication, PDF, or a hard copy of your newsletter if possible. If this article is too long, please feel free to break it up into 2 or 3 parts at appropriate points if that would work better for you.
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