================================================================= Maurer Publications Computing Tips - Issue 010731 ================================================================= Publisher: Steve Maurer,owner Maurer Publications Date: July 31, 2001 You are subscribed as: ================================================================= In Today's Issue: Note from the editor: 1. Article: Keeping Track of Software Installations 2. Today's Quick Tip: The Sticky Note Program on Your Computer 3. Quote of the Day: (And I thought I was Special!) 4. Website News 5. Subscription information: ================================================================= A Note from the Editor: Hello! Summer is upon us in a big way here in Arkansas! The temperatures are in the 90's and 100's. Summer storm season is also here, so we have to be careful of heavy rains at times, coupled with lightning and thunder! Not too good on the old PC modem if it hits the telephone lines (yes, I'm STILL using a dial-up connection.) As some of you know, I have a small network of computers at home. Well, (and this is the excuse I'll use for not sending out a newsletter sooner...please?) I added a new horse to the stable, so to speak, and the old gray mare just didn't like the competition, I guess. My old faithful Gateway P5-90 up and died on me. I just finished transferring my files (was that ever a job) to the new machine and getting Mary's files onto the P5-90 (that's my wife...Mary, of course, not the P5-90). To make a long story short, after downloading email once and a quick game of Solitaire (to test out the mouse, of course) the old gal just lay down and quit (the P5-90, not Mary!) I had already given Mary's machine to our daughter, so I tried a few things and almost got it working...almost..just about...not quite. Now it's time to do some major alterations...let's see, I know my hammer is around here somewhere. If I get the machine up and running, I'll document what I did in a future newsletter. If not, please don't ever mention this to anyone ever again...just kidding! ANYWAY, I believe you'll find this issue's article and tip very useful. If you install software, need to keep a phone log or quick business contact records you will enjoy the article. And if you're an author of news articles, short stories, or maybe the next "best-seller", you will definitely want to take advantage of the Quick Tip! (Let me give you a hint...You just might be able to get rid of those yellow things hanging all over your monitor!) ================================================================= 1. Article: Keeping Track of Software Installations Some software does not play well with others. Different program files with similar names but different functions may interfere with the correct functioning of the various programs on your machine. Updated files that are installed with a program may also cause other, older programs to misbehave. And sometimes different programs will use the same extension (the 3 letters after the dot in a file name, like doc or txt) for different kinds of files. This can give you problems with older files, since an extension is usually associated (set to open with) the last program that was installed that uses it. And programs that share "DLL's" (dynamic link library, a set of programming instructions) with other programs may install a newer version of the DLL that does not work well with older programs. Sometimes the problem is not very harmful, just a nuisance, and a work around can be used. Many software developers are aware of the conflicts that can happen and therefore have fixes or work-arounds posted. But you have to know what program is the culprit! I came across an example of this on my recent vacation to see the folks back home. Dad was having some minor problems with his computer. He uses Internet Explorer 5.5, the same browser that I use. When he would try to open his mail using the icons at the top, his Outlook Express mail would not open. If he clicked on the program icon on the desktop, the mail opened just fine. It just wouldn't open from the browser buttons. Another related problem was that when he looked at the Internet properties Outlook Express was not listed as one of the email program choices on the programs tab. When he would open Outlook Express, it said it was not the default mail handler. He would make it the default, but it still would not show up on the programs tab in the Internet properties and still would not work from the browser. Well, to make a long story short, the problem came down to a software installation and un-installation. He had installed Microsoft Office, which also installed Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express. Outlook is the full office version of the email program.) After some time he decided to un-install Office and use a different program. When he un-installed it, Outlook was removed. Some registry keys that Outlook Express uses were also altered by the un-installation program. Specifically, entries that allowed OE to interface with the browser. At a later date he reinstalled Office, but the registry keys that Outlook Express needed were not were not replaced. We searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base and found two solutions. One was to edit the registry, a task which is not for the faint hearted or novice. You can really mess up your computer if you make an error in the registry. The other solution was to re-install Outlook Express. That's the option we chose. (I've worked with the registry before, but it still makes me nervous.) After re-installing OE (just installed it over the program to replace missing or corrupted files, I did not un-install OE) everything worked correctly. Since we knew some of the history of his software installations, we were able to track down the problem fairly quickly. It is a good idea to keep track of all the software you install on your computer. You should include the name of the software, manufacturer or vendor and the date and time of installation. This information will be helpful if any of your programs or your computer start to work improperly. Often folks who provide technical support for programs will ask for this information. If you can provide this information if will help speed up the process (if you are being charged by the hour, this can have a financial benefit as well). Here is my suggestion for a quick, easy way of tracking your software installations. This can also be used for other purposes, as I will suggest later in this article. Open up "Notepad", a simple text editor that comes with most all Windows versions. You can usually find it by clicking "Start", scrolling to "Programs", then over to "Accessories". It should be in the list somewhere. At the top of the new document type ".LOG" (without the quotes and be sure to include the period). Save the document somewhere convenient, like your desktop or in your "My Documents" folder with a name like "my_installs.txt. Skip a line after .LOG and type in some kind of description, such as "software installation log". Your log sheet is now ready for use. If you are not installing anything at this time, just close the file. The next time you open it, the current time and date will be automatically inserted and you can enter the installation information after it. When you are finished, save and exit. Again, the next time you open the file for a new installation log entry, the time and date will be inserted automatically. If you are installing several items that don't require "rebooting", you can leave the file open. Pressing the F5 key will insert the time and date. Keeping a log sheet like this will be of great benefit when troubleshooting software problems. You can look at it and see what program you last installed. This may be the troublemaker. If you install a lot of programs, especially freeware and shareware from the Internet, this will be an invaluable tool. There are many other uses for the log sheet. If you are in an office setting (especially a home office), you can use this for making notes and records of incoming phone calls, contacts you make, or even a record of tasks you are performing. For instance, type in the ".LOG" and name the file "time_record.txt". When you start a task, open the file and enter a task description after the date and time. Save and close the file. When you are finished with the task, open the log file again, and make a notation that you have finished or stopped working on the file. This can be useful if you charge by the hour for your work, or need to keep a time record for billing purposes. The phone record sheet can be used instead of paper phone records and can be printed out if needed. Name it something like phone010727.txt (the numbers indicating the date). Use a new file for each day. This might be useful at tax time to help validate your business activity. Note that I have used the international convention for the date: year/month/day. I have found that this organizes my files more efficiently because it keeps all the files for each year together and then organizes the year by month, then by day when sorting them "alphabetically" by name. Hope you enjoyed this article and tip! Let me know what other uses you come up for the ".LOG" file in Notepad! Type to you later...Steve _________ Article By: Steve Maurer, Maurer Publications copyright July 2001 ================================================================= - - Sponsor Advertisement - - CAN YOU REALLY EARN A LIVING ON THE NET? It's no secret that average people from all walks of life are becoming wealthy online. But could YOU do it too...? Cut through the hype and confusion and discover the answer for yourself. Click to this free, no-hype, step-by-step Guide to Making a Living from the Internet (from someone who's actually doing it): - - End Advertisement - - ================================================================= 2. Today's Quick Tip: The Sticky Note Program on Your Computer We all have probably used those "sticky note" pads for leaving notes to ourselves (or in my case, to my teenagers!). And of course, since computers imitate paper, there have been several retail "sticky note" programs developed to do the same thing. But...did you know that you most likely have a program to do this already installed on your computer? The program is "WordPad", Microsoft Word's "baby brother", and it comes installed with the Windows operating system. WordPad is usually located in your "Accessories" menu. Click "Start", then "Programs", then "Accessories". It should be listed there. Once you have it open, you're ready to create your "sticky note". Type your note and minimize the program window just enough to be able to see your desktop. Highlight all the text (you can press "CTRL + A" to do this if you like) and then LEFT click and hold on the selected text. Drag the text onto your desktop and release the mouse button. A "scrap" document will be placed on your desktop. Now close the WordPad file WITHOUT saving it. That's right, don't save the original document. The file on your desktop will be named "WordPad Document Scrap'firstlineofyourdocument'.shs". The first line of your document will be used as part of the file name, so make it something descriptive. You can also rename the file and shorten it. Just make sure to keep the "shs" extension. When you need to add something to the document, just click on it to open and make your additions or corrections. Then click on "File" on the menu bar and you will get two update selections, one to update and exit and one to update and continue editing. Choose one of them and you're on your way! If you are finished with the document, it can be saved in a more permanent format or printed out (some formats available are TXT,RTF, and DOC. Click on "file" in the menu bar, and choose "save copy as". What uses can you come up with for this "sticky note" tip? I use it to keep a record of ideas that come to me for the newsletter. I have a scrap document called "newsideas.shs" and if I come across a tip I just click open the file and type it in before I forget it. Of course, you can use copy and paste from other documents and the Internet to add to the file. Great for class research projects. If you are writing a news article, or a documentary, or even a best selling novel, use a scrap document to collect your "seed" ideas. Just click it open and type away. Don't let those great ideas become a distant, foggy memory! Steve Maurer, Maurer Publications copyright July 2001 ================================================================= 3. Quote of the Day: We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do. - Olin Miller ================================================================= 4. Website News I am adding a new section to the website. It is an archive of past newsletter articles from the Maurer Publication Computing Tips Newsletter. So if you've lost your copy of that fantastic tip that you printed out for future reference and to show off to your friends and family, which I know you have done and perhaps even framed it and put it in a prominent place on your fireplace mantel...or if you're new and want to see what you've been missing, drop by my site: Maurer Publications, and browse the archives. The format for those pages is very plain and suitable for printing. And of course for framing. And showing off to friends and family and .......... ================================================================= Stop sending "Dear Customer" Emails. Get WorldMerge, and send personalized email to your targeted contact list in minutes! Download your free copy today: http://www.coloradosoft.com/associate-jump.cgi?ID=2581 ================================================================= 5. Subscription information: This newsletter is sent ONLY to the subscriber who requested it. If you received this newsletter as a forward, we invite you to subscribe! You can subscribe at our website: To subscribe by email... To un-subscribe, email... To submit an article for consideration, use our tip submission form on our website Please pass this to a friend who may be interested! ================================================================= Contact Info: Steve Maurer Maurer Publications and WebDesign Check out our new tips and tutorials section! <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> IT'S HERE!! My new eBook, Email Primer - From @ to Zip Now also available in PDF format with illustrations~ Stop sending "Dear Customer" Emails. Get WorldMerge, and send personalized email to your targeted contact list in minutes! Download your free copy today: