1) File transfer

In general, use a left mouse click to view a file, and a right click to download it. The steps are:

1. Click the right mouse button, and choose "save link as" from the small menu that pops up.
2. A "save as" box will then appear, to let you specify the file name and the directory you want to put the file in, or even change the file name if you wanted to.
3. This will copy the file to your hard drive, and you can open it later with the appropriate application.
4. To avoid confusion try leaving the file name as is (like "fs019.ppt", or "case1.doc"), and make one directory in advance to put all the MPM class stuff in.

A Netscape 'unable to open' message probably means you've left-clicked and it's trying to read a new file type. To do this Netscape needs to be told what application to view them with. This is worth doing since you only have to tell it once for each file type and it's set up forever:

1. Open Netscape and click "options", "general preferences", "helpers".
2. Click "create new type". For Powerpoint, the Mime type would be "application", the Mime sub type would be "Powerpoint", and you'd enter ppt in the file extensions box,
3. Click "launch the application", and browse till you can select the exe file that starts your powerpoint viewer.
4. You can do the same for Word, Excel, Acrobat, or whatever. The only downside is that it takes a while to load a big file for viewing, and you could download it just as easily.

An exception to the above rules are files from an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site. These are just for file transfer, and the web address looks like "ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/PPTVW16.EXE". A left-click on these links will immediately start the download process, bringing up a "save as" box on your screen.

If you're really serious about FTP, go to Stroud's Winsock Apps List. This has good background information, ratings of popular applications, and links to download some powerful software.

2) E-mail

E-mail programs: A free and easy to use application is Eudora Light. Eudora is pretty intuitive, and lets one easily create multiple mailboxes as well as "nicknames" for individuals or groups you might mail to. The newest version (3.01 beta) also includes a way to filter incoming messages, which can be a great tool. It's available to download from Eudora at: http://www.eudora.com/light.html

E-mail address headers: To make a long address header display go away, one can send mail to a group by addressing it using BCC: instead of TO:. BCC means "blind carbon copy", and suppresses all other BCC recipient names from view. (Your mail program will still require one address in the TO field).

3) Creating your own web pages

Starting is simple:

1. Create a directory on your hard drive like "webpages" (for now just dump everything there).
2. If you have Word97 or Publisher97, just create a document and click "file", "save as HTML", and put it in that directory. (A web doc is "htm" or "html". The two mean the same [hypertext markup language], but DOS files are limited to the htm file extension).
3. If not, just save any web page you like to that directory from Netscape. (Make it a simple one because photos, texture, and special effects are probably separate files that won't save with it).
4. You now have a local web page you can view with Netscape (just click "file", "open file in browser"). If you have Netscape Gold you can also choose "open file in editor", or just create a new document. There is also lots of web page freeware, or you can simply open an existing htm file in a text editor and make some careful changes. If you're buying software, Netscape Gold is probably the best and easiest to use for the money.

For the world to see your pages, they only need to be transferred to your own directory at a service provider. You could do everything else in advance, transferring them is just 20 minutes work and a short list of Unix commands.

4) Service providers & options

Service providers: If you're unhappy or would like e-mail separate from your company account check out Eskimo North. They've been in business since 1982, and are also the cheapest deal in town. Rates are $120 per year or $192 for 2 years (paid in advance) for unlimited use, which includes e-mail, full internet access, and 10mb of disk space for your own web pages or whatever. The only downside is that it's not very user-friendly till you figure out some basics. For more information go to their home page at: http://www.eskimo.com/

Domain name registration: This is an additional option from many service providers. This means that one could register "weidner.com" (for example) and your e-mail could be "steve@weidner.com" rather than "sweidner@msn.com". Your web page address would then be "http://www.weidner.com/" rather than a longer name. This also protects one from a provider's business failure, because your domain name could stay the same and you'd just have to find a new host for it.

"Virtual domain service provides the ability to host your web page and/or ftp area here, and receive mail, under your own domain name even though the services are provided by and reside on our hosts.

This service is available as an adjunct to single or multi-user accounts. Basically, all the services are provided as they normally would be under these accounts except that your directory and login are mapped to a virtual domain so that they appear on the net under that domain name.

Our setup fee for this service is $50 and then there is a fee of $10/month in addition to the normal account fees. These fees are paid to Eskimo North. The Internic will also charge you $100 initially for the first two years and then $50 each year there after for domain maintenance. The Internic will bill you directly for this fee. The domain registration is done in the same way as it would be if the service resided on your own servers but the domain is pointed at our hosts and our hosts have special software that enables them to respond differently to queries for different domains."

4) General information & software tips

Software standards: Standards for the class will be PowerPoint 7, Excel 5, and Word 6.

Changing Netscape "cache" settings can improve performance: To do this click "options", "network preferences", "cache". Try settings of 2000 to 4000 kilobytes for both memory and disk cache to start with, the defaults values are probably much less.

Netscape font settings are proportional, which means changing the base font size affects the size of all the words you're viewing or printing. What's right for you also depends on screen size and resolution, but generally a proportional font size of 12 is too big, and 10 or 11 will make you much happier (and save paper). To change or check this click "options", "general preferences", "fonts", and click the "Choose Font" button for proportional fonts. (You can change the font name and style as well as size).

Netscape TIP: If you're looking for a web domain address, at least in Netscape you don't have to input the whole thing. For http://www.eskimo.com/, just type "eskimo" in the location bar and hit "enter". (Though if you're looking for "UPS", this would default to ups.com unless you entered ups.edu). 

Netscape TIP: To search a web document for key words or phrases, do "edit", "find" and enter what you're looking for.

TIP: For copying mail and web addresses, or long sections of text: Highlight what you want to copy, push the "Ctrl" and "Insert" keys, then go to where you want to place it, position the cursor and push "Shift" and "Insert". This is the same as clicking the "copy" and "paste" found in most applications, but it works almost anywhere and is a quick way to move things between completely different programs.