May 2000

Janice Blencowe - Steve Cox - Neil Mactavish - Dan Mooney - Gisèle Winger - Ric Woltz

| Classroom Computer Tip | Upcoming Computer Workshops | Internet Links and Browser Tips | Macintosh Tips | Windows Tips |

	Classroom Computer Tip
	HyperStudio: Making a Reset Card Button This is a good one for people who use NBA. Buttons made with a connection to Another Card, and choosing the same card you are on, will restore the screen. An example for this might be if you had a card with a scrolling text item; then the screen would be restored, (by clicking on this reset button), the text item would be brought back to the beginning. (Gisele Winger)
	Upcoming Computer Workshops (Register for all workshop by email to: Carol_Edmondson@gecdsb.on.ca or fax to 255-1651.)
	Webpage Design with Claris Homepage (May 104:00 pm Park St). After you've surfed a bit, the next step is to create your own, your student's, or your school's presence on the Internet with a personally crafted Web Page. In this session, you'll learn the ins and outs of HTML writing and build a powerful page in the process. Consider the Internet as the ultimate publishing and multimedia experience. Elementary/Secondary School Computer Contacts (May 15 TBA) Effective Presentation with Corel Presentation (May 17 4:00 pm Dowswell) With a computer and data projector or Averkey and the Ministry of Education licensed Corel Presentations program, you and your students can make effective multimedia presentations. This workshop will take you through the process of creating a presentation from scratch to the finished production.
	| Classroom Computer Tip | Upcoming Computer Workshops | Internet Links and Browser Tips | | Macintosh Tips | Windows Tips |
	Internet Links and Browser Tips
	Journey Into Amazonia http://www.pbs.org/journeyintoamazonia/ Take a magical journey into the Amazonian tropical rainforest, one of the Earth's natural wonders, and home to the world's largest river system. Start with a trip through "Waterworlds," a look at the region's teeming aquatic life: Giant Otters, Piranha, Tucuxi (dolphin-like creatures), and Electric Eels. Next, explore "Life on Land," which includes jaguars, anacondas, and vampire bats. (Mind that cave.) We've only just begun: true to form, PBS provides a rich, wonderful site to accompany their three-hour television show of the same name. Mosquito repellent optional. Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/brain/ Anyone with an inquisitive brain will appreciate this consummate collection. Images of over 100 different mammal brains from several research institutions are on display, representing 17 distinct mammalian orders, homo sapiens included. Check out the preserved chimpanzee, monkey, and rodent brains, as well those of "special interest" animals like sea lions, manatees, and bottle-nose dolphins. The site uses Quicktime movies to create animated atlases of brain architecture. Wondrous, beautiful, and useful for studying the evolution and diversity of brains. Discovery School's Puzzlemaker http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/index.html Discovery Channel School is proud to be the new home for Puzzlemaker - a puzzle and games generation tool for teachers, parents and students. Create and print customised word search, crossword and math puzzles using your word lists. Build your own maze or print our speciality hand-drawn mazes created around holidays and classroom topics. E-Conflict - Nations Of The World http://www.emulateme.com/ Country information from around the world. a resource for business, tourists, students and teachers. The Internet's best source of country data. Internet Explorer 5.0 Keyboard Shortcuts (Macintosh) Microsoft has released the latest version of its Web browser, Internet Explorer 5.0. If you've downloaded Bill's latest effort, use these keyboard commands to make your browsing more beneficial: Press Command-B to collapse the toolbars. Press Command-L to highlight the address field. Press Command-Option-L to open the old Open Location dialogue box. Press Command-M to open the Download Manager. Press Command-~ to cycle through open windows. Press Command and drag in the browser window to scroll a page. Press Command-+ (plus) and Command- - (minus) to enlarge or reduce the text on a page. Cracking into Internet Explorer 5's Easter Egg (Windows 98) Internet Explorer 5 has a pretty cool Easter egg hidden in it. To find it, launch Internet Explorer, pull down the Tools menu, and select the Internet Options command. Then, click the Languages button at the bottom of the General tab. When you see the Language Preferences dialogue box, click the Add button. When you see the Add Language dialogue box, type ie-ee in the User Defined text box and click OK. When you return to the Language Preferences dialogue box, select the ie-ee language and click the Move Up button to put the ie-ee language at the top of the list. Now, click OK twice, once to close the Language Preferences dialogue box and once to close the Internet Options dialogue box. When you return to Internet Explorer, click the Search icon on the toolbar. Once you see the Search panel, try some of the interesting search options and see where they take you. Try clicking the Customize button. If you get lost, you can return to the Easter egg search panel by clicking the New button. Then, select the Previous Searches option to access a couple other interesting sites. You can also return everything back to normal by selecting the Reset Your Language Settings link. http://www.zdjournals.com/w98/0005/w980052.htm
	| Classroom Computer Tip | Upcoming Computer Workshops | Internet Links and Browser Tips | | Macintosh Tips | Windows Tips |
	Macintosh Tips (for home computers)
	Force Quit Need to get out of a program quickly? Use the Force Quit command.</P><P>Sometimes a program will freeze and nothing will function, not even the mouse. You shouldn't have to restart your machine. First try forcing the program to quit: press Option-Command-Escape. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work, but it's worth a try especially if you have a file open in another application. Changing line spacing in ClarisWorks When you create word processing documents in ClarisWorks, you may sometimes use double-spacing or 1.5 line spacing. Instead of making these changes in the Paragraph dialogue box, you can simply click on the ruler's Increase- and Decrease- Spacing controls instead. These look like two boxes and then a text box that by default reads 1 li. You'll find them on the ruler, just to the right of the four tab marker icons. If you don't see the ruler, select Show Rulers from the View menu or press [shift][command]U. The first box is the Decrease-Spacing control. The second box is the Increase-Spacing Control. Click the Increase-Spacing Control once to increase line spacing to 1.5 lines, again to increase spacing to 2 lines, again for 2.5 lines, and so on. If you go too far, just click the Decrease-Spacing Control to decrease line spacing a half-line at a time.
	| Classroom Computer Tip | Upcoming Computer Workshops | Internet Links and Browser Tips | | Macintosh Tips | Windows Tips |
	Windows Tips (for home computers)
	Get Fast Access to your Favourite Programs http://www.viewz.com/computingtips/computingtip23.shtml Double-clicking on program shortcuts on your desktop is a quick way to access programs, but there's an even faster way. You can create keyboard shortcuts to your favourite applications. To do this: On the desktop, right-click on the desired program icon. Choose Properties from the menu and then click on the Shortcut tab. A window like the one below will pop up In the Shortcut key field, you will see "None." Click on the field and press the letter A or any letter you'd like to associate with the program. The text in the field will change to Ctrl + Alt + A or whatever letter you choose. Now when you press the Ctrl, Alt, and A keys at the same time, that program will launch. Cookies What are cookies and how to deal with them PC Webopaedia defines a cookie as "a message given to a Web browser by a Web server." They are used to keep track of web surfers; remember user preferences on how to load a particular page (i.e. chosen colours or frames vs. no-frames); and store information about items in your online shopping basket. The information in a cookie usually includes a name, a value, expiration date and site that it originates from. This data is gathered in a cookies file or folder on your hard drive. (Use "find" and search for "cookie.") In general, cookies are harmless. But many users like to guard their privacy or just don't like the fact that some cookies stay on the PC for a very long time. Dealing with Cookies There are a variety of ways to foil cookies. If you use Navigator, go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced to find the cookies options. For IE, go to View, select Internet Options, then choose the Advanced tab. Scroll down until you to see the yellow triangle with the exclamation point. With Navigator, you have three basic options for cookies. 1.Accept all cookies. 2.Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server. 3.Disable cookies. In addition to one of these settings, you can choose to be warned before you accept a cookie. The settings are similar with IE except that option 2 is replaced with "Prompt before accepting cookies." Just remember that if you disable cookies you'll probably get error messages when you try to shop online or you won't be able to add items to your basket. Your browser gets sent an astounding number of cookies, so surfing with the prompt or warning option active means you'll see a lot of warning notices. Deleting Cookies If you're seeking a more permanent solution to cookies, it's possible to delete cookies yourself or change the file to stop cookies from being saved. There are also programs that will let you select what cookies to keep and clear out the rest or just periodically delete all cookies. For more information on the Do-It-Yourself option try this article http://www.paperdots.com/cookie.html or have a look at these freeware programs. Windows: CookieMaster, Cookie Cruncher, Cookie Monster Mac: Cookie Monster and Cookie Cutter Software Secret You'd like the Outlook Express window to open maximized whenever you start the program. Launch Outlook Express, maximize the window, then quit the program. The next time you use Outlook Express, the window should open maximized.