AUGUST 2003 - Vol 19 - Issue 08

Newsletter - Internet Edition

Your hard drive is the heart of your computer and contains all of the operating system modules and application programs that make your computer function. It is also where you store your priceless data files that you create using your computer. To loose any or all of the files stored on your hard drive is a major disaster and one that would take you weeks or months to recover from. You may never recover from the loss of your most important files. To protect yourself from the loss of your hard drive with a well thought out backup plan is essential for every one of us to implement. This session will explorer the many backup options available to you and help you pick which one is best for your needs. This is an important topic that every PC user should understand and implement on their computer. Don't miss this session!

The July 25, 2003 meeting started just plain "off." The newsletter stated that the meeting was to open at 7:00 but the doors were to open at 7:30 so the first half hour was to be held in the parking lot! Fortunately, the officers did not read that part of the newsletter and opened the doors at our normal 6:30 for all of us. When they brought me up front to point out this 'misprint,' I suggested that either they could not read, or perhaps they were telling me they wanted to take over as newsletter editor! Everybody got a great laugh out of the incident.

The program was supposed to be PaperPort version 9, but the software did not arrive from the manufacturer before the meeting. As the meeting was about to start, one of our members who had brought her copy with her, offered to let us use it for the meeting. She had just received a copy and came to learn about it. Unfortunately we did not have time to install, and make sure it was working during the meeting. Jon is good, but he can't lead question and answer, load software, and make sure it is working with his scanner all at the same time. So, PaperPort will be presented at a later time. (By the way, the software is here, so we won't have the same problem again.)

On Monday, when PaperPort had not arrived, I asked Jon Slough if he could do a presentation if it did not. Fortunately, Jon agreed. By Wednesday afternoon, it was clear the software was not going to arrive and Jon was told he was the program, short-notice again, and Jon to the rescue!

Jon demonstrated DocuWare, a document management software that Jon sells for Information and Records Associates in South Bend where he works. DocuWare is a complete document management package and includes the ability to scan documents as single pages, or as complete multipage documents that can be indexed with up to 24 different ways to search for the document.

DocuWare allows the user to do complex searches with multiple index fields selected. This allows for a very refined search to limit the number of documents displayed. DocuWare allows the user to either manually enter what to look for, type a few letters and then an * to limit the selection, or use a pull down menu to select the first item from a list. Using the select-select from the pull-down menu the user can select additional index field items to limit the search further. The search will open a retrieval list showing all documents that match the search parameters.

Jon showed that by double clicking on an item in the retrieval list, a document viewer opens and displays the first page of the document. If the document is multipage, the user can move forward and backward in the document viewer to find the page that desired. You can also display all the pages as thumbnails, and then move directly to that page. In the viewer you can zoom in and out, rotate, flip, and print the page(s) and then close the viewer without closing the retrieval list.

Back in the retrieval list, highlighting the document again, and clicking on the e-mail icon, converts the document into a multipage tiff image and automatically attaches it to an e-mail that only requires the e-mail address be entered and clicking on send. An uneditable copy of the document is sent in seconds without the need to look up the document and send it via a fax machine.

At the request of several members who wanted to see how to set up an electronic file cabinet, Jon 'built' a file cabinet for them in less than two minutes. Jon then scanned a document and put it into the electronic file cabinet and was able to retrieve it.

There was a brief discussion about what was required to make an electronic copy of a document as binding as the original paper and legal to use in a court of law. Jon explained that making an uneditable copy of the document on a CR-R disk is required. This is a feature of DocuWare. CD-RW disks do not work as they can be edited, only CD-R disks meet the uneditable requirements.

The presentation was interesting and enlightening in the fast-moving world of electronic document management. DocuWare is not a program designed for a home user individual, but geared for business usage. Jon had at least two persons representing their company come and discuss corporate presentations after the meeting was over.

We wish to thank Jon, again, for coming to our rescue and filling the need for a presentation on such short notice. We also thank Information and Records Associates in South Bend for the loan of their valued employee.

The meeting ended with the usual door prize drawings followed by cleanup duties. Thanks to all the members for their participation in continuing to help with setup and cleanup of the facilities.

To prepare a boot disk first Full Format a floppy diskette, this assures that the disk is error free. If it does show any bad cluster, throw the disk away and use another. Next, Quick Format the diskette with Copy System Files near the bottom checked. You can also name the disk Win98Boot, if you like at this point.

This will place the following system files on the disk:

command.com
io.sys
msdos.sys
drvspace.bin

You can delete the drvspace.bin to save room.

From your c:\ root directory, ..\windows\command\, and ..\windows\command\ebd\ directories, copy the following files to your diskette:
attrib.exe
autoexec.bat
config.sys
debug.exe
deltree.exe
edit.com
fdisk.exe
format.com
himem.sys
mscdex.exe
oakcdrom.sys
regedit.exe
scandisk.exe
sys.com

Edit the autoexec.bat and config.sys files using Notepad. The autoexec.bat should read as follows:

@echo off
prompt $P$G
a:\mscdex.exe /D:mscd000

And the config.sys should contain the following lines:

device=a:\himem.sys
buffers=20
files=60
device=a:\oakcdrom.sys /D:mscd000

Test

Write Protect

Questions?

"Summer Successes" was the theme of the August 9, 2003 meeting of the Genealogy Special Interest Group. We met at 10:00 a.m. in the Board of Directors Room of the Greencroft Goshen Campus Senior Center.

A dozen members and guests discussed their summer's Genealogy efforts and successes. Several members took trips to meet long lost relatives. Some attended genealogy conferences and lots of work got done on finding those elusive family members hidden behind proverbial "brick walls."

Most of us complained about losing important data to computer virus and worm attacks. This lead to discussions of anti-virus programs and firewalls. Several members talked about having new or modernized computers. We also discussed how DSL and Broadband connections are making it easier (but more expensive) to search for missing relatives.

A couple of our genealogists talked about their library trips and recommended new search tools such as the Allen County Public Library's "PERSI" catalog. This system tracks magazines and publications related to genealogy, and it is searchable by computer!

After the break we used a high speed Internet connection connected to a video projector to visit the new State of Illinois Global Search site. This is a new capability that allows researchers to search numerous Illinois State and County databases from a single entry. Formerly it was necessary to search for the various databases, and then search in each of the various Illinois databases, one-at-a-time. (Very tedious.) Now you make one entry, the Global Search makes a list of the databases that have the information you requested, and you can search the ones that meet your requirements!

For our next meeting we hope to have a session on "Tips and Tricks" of using Cindy's List, a Genealogy treasure trove. The September meeting is scheduled for September 13, 2003. We plan to meet at 10:00 a.m. in the Board of Directors Room of the Greencroft Sr. Center, Goshen, Indiana. Please join us. The coffee pot will be on.