! STMUG - Mugletts !

Microsoft Office EXCEL: WORKING WITH 3-D PIE CHARTS

Why have an Excel pie chart that looks just OK when you can make it really stand out? You can change the viewing angle and the rotation of a 3-D pie chart. This allows you to display the optimum view in your Excel worksheets.

Try this: Open a blank worksheet and enter 1 into cells A1 through A3. Now, click cell B1 and enter 10 into cells B1 through B3. Use the mouse to highlight the entries and then choose Insert, Chart, On This Sheet. Now, use the mouse to draw the chart area. When the ChartWizard opens, click Next and then click 3-D Pie Chart in the next page. Click Next and select any format, then click Finish.

Now that your chart is in place, let's get to how you manipulate the view. First double-click the chart to select it. Now click the chart and choose 3-D View. When the Format 3-D View dialog box opens, click the Up/Down and Rotation buttons to get the view that looks best for you. After you make a change, click Apply to see how your chart looks. When you're satisfied with the settings, click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

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Photoshop DOCKING PALETTES

As you know, there are numerous palettes available within Adobe Photoshop that give you quick access to various features and functions. Because there are so many, Photoshop allows you to dock the palettes together so they take up less room on your screen. To dock a palette, click the "tab" within the palette; then, drag and drop it next to a tab in another palette. As you'll see, Photoshop places the palette in the same box as the other. To display a docked palette, simply click the appropriate tab.

While earlier versions of Photoshop dock palettes horizontally, Photoshop 6 now allows you to dock palettes vertically. To do so, click and drag the tab of a palette and drop it on the bottom or top of another palette.

To undock a palette, click and drag the tab of the palette and drop it in an empty spot. Photoshop displays the palette independently.

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MAC OS GIMME THAT TEXT, WEBHEAD

So you're surfing the Web, and THERE IT IS. That perfect recipe for Humble Pie. Only you're the one who's humbled--because you can't seem to highlight the text on that Web page. Gad, will you have to retype it? Perish the thought!

While some pages prevent you from highlighting text (often due to the use of Javascript coding), there is a simple workaround: Just view the source code of the page and then copy the text from there.

Now, here's the catch: The source page is likely to be cluttered with code gibberish, so the easiest way to locate your text may be to use your browser's Find command. Search for a word or words that are contained in the section you want ("humble pie recipe," for instance) and your browser will jump right to it.

To view the source code in Internet Explorer, select View, Source. With Netscape Communicator, choose View, Page Source.

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Today's Tip: DVD-RAM Memory Issue Fixed

Tip level: Intermediate

Several weeks ago I mentioned that when you eject a DVD-RAM disc, every DVD-RAM disc you subsequently mount will appear to have the same amount of free space available. Obviously, this was a boo-boo under Mac OS 9.0.x. Mac OS 9.1 fixes the problem.

Netscape Communicator A QUICK ONE FOR THE MACS--TRY, TRY AGAIN

A first-time installation of Netscape 6 on a Macintosh computer may cause a crash. Netscape is aware of this and urges users to try again. A subsequent attempt at installation will be successful.

:::Yeah, sure, I know I am always eager to reinstall a program that crashed on the first install attempt. NOT. - AppleAngel:::

Microsoft Office WORD: DO-IT-ALL MACRO FOR PURFECT SPELING AND GOODER GRAMMAR

When you finish an important Word document, you probably run the spelling checker, then perhaps you run the grammar checker, and finally you save the corrected version. To make sure you don't forget any of these steps, you can write a simple macro to perform all these tasks for you.

To generate the macro, choose Tools, Macro. When the Macro dialog box opens, type

DoAll

and then click Create. Now, enter the macro as shown here. Note that Sub Main and End Sub are supplied by Word. You supply the rest.

Sub MAIN ToolsSpelling ToolsGrammar FileSave End Sub

After you enter the macro, choose File, Save to save it to Normal.dot. To make your macro more useful, assign it to a toolbar button. To do so, choose View, Toolbars and click Customize. When the Customize dialog box opens, click the Toolbars tab. Locate Macros and select it. Now your new macro should appear in the right pane of the dialog box. Use the mouse to drag it to the toolbar. When you reach the location where you want the button to appear, release the mouse button. In the next dialog box, click Assign to assign the macro name to the button and close the dialog box. Back in Customize, click Close to close the dialog box and save your changes.

Photoshop MOVING GUIDES

We've been discussing Adobe Photoshop guides. To create a guide, simply click within a ruler and drag a guide to the desired location. Occasionally, it may be necessary to move an existing guide. To do so, first choose the Move tool from the toolbox and move your cursor over the guide. When your cursor becomes a double arrow, click the guide and drag it to the new location.

It's also possible to select and move a guide without choosing the Move tool. To do so, press Ctrl in Windows or Command on the Macintosh as you click, drag, and move the guide. However, this method does not work with the Hand, Slice, or Slice Select tool.

Netscape HIDE DIRECTORY BUTTONS

So you don't use those directory buttons that appear in the menu bar in the Navigator browser (What's New?, What's Cool?, Destinations, and so forth)? No problem--just dump them from the browser. From the Navigator menu, choose Options, then deselect Show Directory Buttons. See you later, directory buttons.

MAC OS POWERBOOK: X-RAY SPECS

Okay, so you're about to jet off for that Katmandhu getaway. Or maybe it's Omaha, no matter. What should you do with your trusty, indispensable laptop as you approach the sour-faced X-ray operator wanting to jam your number one gizmo into that conveyer belt?

Let 'em have at it. X-rays and conveyer belts and the whole security thing are no threat to your mighty laptop. Now, the same can't be said for dropping it or banging it on the airport bar--so make sure you've got a decent travel bag before you set out.

Photoshop VIEWING YOUR WORK IN TWO WINDOWS AT ONCE

When manipulating an image, you may find it necessary to view the image at various magnifications. To change the view magnification, you can choose various magnifications from the View menu, use the Magnifying Glass tool, or use a shortcut key such as Command-+ on the Macintosh. In addition to switching views, Adobe Photoshop allows you to display two magnifications of the same screen at once. You can switch between screens or display them simultaneously. When you make a change on one screen, it is visible on the other.

To display a second screen of your work, choose View, New View. As you'll see, Photoshop opens a new window displaying the same image. You can still change the view percentage in either window if necessary.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 PASSWORD SHORTCUT

Can't remember Web site passwords? Try this tip from reader David Spencer:

"Many of the passwords required by sites are not critical. When I save a Favorite (Select Favorites, Add To Favorites) for an item such as a forum that requires a password, I type the password at the end of the shortcut name. Then all I have to do is look at the Favorites to see my password. Obviously, you'd never put your bank password there, but plenty of others are less sensitive."

Thanks, David!

EXCEL: MOVING CELLS

To move the contents of a cell to a new location, select the cell and move the mouse over the edge of the cell until the cursor turns into a pointer. Now, use the mouse to grab the cell by one of the edges, and hold down the mouse button while you move the data or formula to a new location. When you reach the new location, release the mouse button.

MAC OS OPEN SAYS-A ME

So, you're a master organizer and have nests and nests of sensible folders for all your stuff, right? But you've noticed it's a pain to click through all those outer folders to get to that one, deeply buried item.

In situations like this, you should use List View to view folders in the Finder. In this view, you get those little triangles to the left of each folder. Click on the triangle, and it will reveal the contents of the folder. But you already know that, right?

Well, try this one: If you hold down the Option key and click on one of those triangles, ALL the nested folders inside that folder will magically reveal their contents. Alrighty then...

Do it again (Option-click an already expanded folder), and all the subfolders will fold back up, nice and neat.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 FAST ADDRESSING

Mark Kennedy, a friendly reader, wrote in with two good tips this month:

"Next time you are surfing to a site that ends with .com (rather than, say, ..edu, .mil, or .org), try this: Type the name in the address bar--for example:

versiontracker

Then press Ctrl-Enter.

"The www. and .com are added for you, and you're off and running. Microsoft Internet Explorer has a lot to offer the lazy surfer!"

As the laziest surfer I know, I appreciate your tip, Mark. Thanks again.

LCD Warm Up

Tip level: Intermediate

If the LCD screen on your PowerBook, iBook, Apple Cinema Display, or Apple Studio Display isn't as bright as you'd like it to be after the Mac first starts up or wakes from sleep, wait a bit. As a backlit LCD display warms up, it gets brighter. The period it takes to warm up can range from a few minutes to over an hour, so be patient.

Photoshop CHANGING THE UNIT OF MEASUREMENT

Adobe Photoshop's rulers and guides are indispensable when you're doing precise graphic manipulation. As you may know, you can adjust the rulers so that they display various units of measurement. For example, you can use inches, picas, points, and so forth, depending on your preference.

To change the unit of measurement for your rulers, choose Preferences, Units And Rulers. Photoshop displays the Preferences dialog box. Under Rulers, choose the desired unit of measurement from the Units drop-down list and click OK. However, if you switch between units of measurement often, this is a bit cumbersome. Fortunately, there is a shortcut. To display the Units And Rulers Preferences dialog box, double-click within the vertical or horizontal ruler. As you'll see, Photoshop displays the dialog box, and you can choose the desired unit of measurement from the drop-down list.

MUGlett¨ Mac OS 9.1 (an overview)
Margin Notes: Mac OS 9.1: The bottom line

With Mac OS 9.1 out for a few weeks, we thought we'd take a look at how the new OS stacks up from a troubleshooting perspective:

The good: Mac OS 9.1 clearly fixes many bugs in previous OS 9 versions. It also improves the overall speed and stability of the system for most users. What problems do exist tend to be minor or involve conflicts with third party software (many of which have already been fixed via updates).

The bad: Mac OS 9.1 appears to be mainly a bug fix maintenance release. As such, you would expect it to eliminate problems rather than to create new ones. Given this, there have been a surprising number of new bug reports. Clearly, there is a lot more going on "under the hood" than just bug fixes. The reorganization of the OS folders (for Mac OS X compatibility) and the changes to Remote Access scripting are two prime examples. Problems with USB modems has been another unexpected hassle.

The ugly: Much more than is typical for an update, there are several reported problems that defy an easy solution. There are supposed bugs where readers are divided as to whether the problem exists at all. Similarly, among those users that have the alleged bug, a half dozen or more suggested solutions often compete with each other. Explanations for all of this inconsistency are too often not known. The two recently posted items on inkjet printing and "time zone" errors are examples.

The bottom line: Despite the "bad" and the "ugly," most users are likely to find Mac OS 9.1 to be a worthwhile upgrade. After possibly needing to update a few third party programs, all should run smoothly, probably better than ever. There have been very few truly serious (e.g., disk corruption, startup crash, etc.) problems reported with the update (the Open Firmware error being one albeit uncommon exception) - so there is little to scare you away from installing the update. And Mac OS 9.1 will be required to work with new Macs and with the release version of Mac OS X - so you may ultimately have no choice about upgrading. Still, for the moment, if you are happy with your current setup, there are no compelling new features in OS 9.1 that you will lose by not upgrading. In such cases, feel free to stick with what you got.

This week's browser tip: Browsing shortcuts

Whether you use Netscape or Internet Explorer, you can help stamp out repetitive strain injuries by avoiding the mouse whenever possible--and you'll save time too!

For a blissfully mouse-free browsing experience with Netscape Communicator, use these shortcuts:

Command-H opens the History list
Command-D adds the current page to your Bookmark list
Command-B lets you edit your bookmarks
Command-2 opens the Message Center
Command-Option-2 opens the Address Book
Command-M starts a new e-mail message
Command-N opens a new browser window.

Try these commands to speed up your browsing with Internet Explorer:

Command-Left Arrow is the same as the Back button Command-Right Arrow is the same as the Forward button Command-R will Refresh.

You can combine these commands with the Tab key, which moves you around any input boxes on the Web page (such as forms or Search boxes). Option-Tab moves you through all elements on the Web page, including links. When you get to the link you want, hit Return to follow it.

If you have a browser tip of your own that you'd like to share, submit it here: http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBWC0Io7k0Q0CgXd

Tip level: Intermediate If you use iTunes to import music from audio CDs and then burn those tracks to a CD-R (if you're making a compilation disc, for example) make sure that you import those tracks via iTunes AIFF encoder. Unlike iTunes' MP3 encoder, the AIFF encoder doesn't compress the audio tracks when importing files (an action that degrades audio quality).

To select the AIFF encoder, select iTunes Advanced tab and choose AIFF Encoder from the Import Using pop-up menu.

Bear in mind that because the audio files are not compressed when imported with the AIFF encoder, those files will take up a fair amount of space on your hard drive. A 74-minute audio CD typically holds about 640MB.

Subscriber Robert S. wants to pass along a technique he uses during his slide shows: "In some cases, slides can become busier than you would like. No matter what you do, some of the slides in your show still end up with more than the optimum number of objects. What I do in such a situation is to draw circles on the slide to highlight each object I discuss. This not only helps to focus attention on a specific object, but it also offers a way for the presenter to interact with the audience in real time."

To use Robert's suggestion, all you have to do is open the slide and then press Ctrl-P. This activates PowerPoint's pen tool. You can now use the pen to draw circles around the objects under discussion.

After you finish with your discussion on a particular object, press E to erase the circle. Now, you can draw a new circle around the next object of interest.

Apple has finally joined the MP3 craze by releasing its own slick software for the Mac. It's called iTunes, and it's designed to handle all aspects of the MP3 music world. And best of all, it's FREE FREE FREE!

iTunes is an application that acts as a central hub for managing your music. It can create MP3s from a CD, manage play lists, load music into a portable player, and listen to streaming audio from the Internet. It can also burn CD-Rs, if you have a new G4 with an Apple CD-R drive. (You can expect plug-ins for third party CD burners in the next few months.)

Apparently, Apple worked directly with the code from Casady & Greene's highly respected SoundJam MP, one of the frontrunners in the MP3 player race. I mention this only because if you're currently using SoundJam MP and you want to switch to iTunes, be sure to completely remove SoundJam MP from your Mac. There have been reports of the two products clashing because they install similar resources.

Friendly reader Camrynne Six wrote in with this handy Favorites tip and a site that gets her thumbs-up:

Its service allows you to store all of your Favorites on the Web, organized into folders you create. It's free, easy to manage, and the best part is that you can access your Favorites from any computer, anywhere."

Fonts can consume a lot of your system resources. The more fonts you have loaded on the computer, the less memory applications will have to run. And while it's great to have plenty of fonts to choose from in Adobe Photoshop, you probably don't need all of those fonts when you are browsing the Web or writing a letter. Fortunately, you can keep a minimum number of fonts loaded in your system while still having plenty of font choices when you run Photoshop.

To do so, simply install the fonts you wish to use in Photoshop in the Adobe Fonts folder. Photoshop will load these fonts as it launches. However, your system will not keep these fonts in memory after you close Photoshop. You can find the Adobe Fonts folder in Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Fonts in Windows or in System Folder/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts on the Macintosh.

Diligent reader Richard J. has offered his solution to the nuisance of messages with spoofed or otherwise incorrect e-mail messages (see our last tip, "Spoofed Dates Explained"). He uses message filters to delete messages with incorrect dates.

To do this, in Messenger, click Edit, Message Filters. Click the New button to begin creating a new filter. Give this particular filter a descriptive name and set the contents of the drop-down boxes to Date, Is After, today's date, and Delete. (The sentence should read "The Date Of The Message Is After [today's date] Then Delete.") Click OK to save this new filter. Whenever Communicator downloads a message from the server that fits those criteria, the message will be deleted automatically and sent to your Trash folder as a precautionary measure. You then have the option of deleting it permanently by clicking File, Empty Trash On Local Mail.

When you're working on a worksheet that you want to show off, why not use WordArt to enhance the titles? To do this, choose Insert, Object, Microsoft WordArt. When the WordArt dialog box opens, type in your title and click Update Display. Next, click the worksheet somewhere away from WordArt to close the dialog box and record your entry. Now, use the mouse to size and place your WordArt title.

If you've created an audio CD with iTunes and it won't play on a stand-alone DVD player, Apple recommends that:

1. You make sure that you record to CD-R media rather than CD-RW media. CD-RW discs won't play back on DVD players (and most consumer CD players as well).

2. Check your DVD player's manual to see if it's capable of playing CD-R discs. Not all DVD players can.

3. Try a different-colored disc. If green discs don't work for you, try one with a silver or gold tint.

In an effort to reverse the tide of criticism directed toward Netscape 6, the folks at Netscape have just released version 6.01. The update claims to address some of the earlier version's bugs.

Warning: I have not tried this browser, if you do, you do so at your own risk. Version 6.0 was so full of bugs that most people went back to version 4.7.6 or earlier!

As you may know, the Dodge and Burn tools allow you to darken or lighten the highlight, midtone, or shadows. However, the tools have a very local effect. If you want to alter the tonal levels of an area larger than a brush size, select the area and use Curves or Levels.

To do so, select the Lasso tool and draw a selection around an area in your image. Then, feather the edges of the selection so your tonal adjustment blends with the surrounding image area. To feather the selection, choose Select, Feather and specify a Feather of 3 to 5 pixels. Next, choose Image, Adjust, Levels or Curves. Using Levels or Curves, you can affect the selected area at once.

Industrious reader Jay L. has provided the following reason why most of us receive messages with incorrect date stamps: "Normally the reason you'd get an e-mail dated 12/31/1969 (the earliest date a PC will recognize) is that the mail is automailed from a misconfigured server. This happens to more than just spam. Usually, the server is sending a date in a format your own PC doesn't recognize, so your PC assumes the message is too old to recognize and backdates it as far as possible. If your PC were old enough (nine to ten years or more), you'd probably see all those messages dated 1/1/80. This can be, but isn't necessarily, the result of an adjustment to prevent a Y2K problem. Sometimes it's just a bad script at the server side."

Thanks Jay, for such a lucid and thoughtfully provided explanation. As Johnny Carson used to say, "I did not know this."

When you request a page that can't be found on a Web server, Internet Explorer shows its own error message. Internet Explorer 5 refers to this error message as a "friendly http error." You can turn off this message and see the page the Web site's designer intends you to see when something goes amiss by following these steps:

Choose Tools, Internet Options, and click the Advanced tab to bring it forward. Scroll down to the selection Show Friendly Errors and uncheck it. Click OK to save your changes.

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Today, let's talk about old relatives. You know, like Aunt Gertie and Great-great Grandad Walton? Remember them? Oh, you've just heard the stories, eh?

Well, next time you wax poetic about the ancestors, think about Leister Productions' Reunion, a Mac-based "family tree" program. Reunion records names, dates, places, pictures, even sounds and videos. (Where did junior's piano-playing chops come from anyway?) In addition to its charting capabilities, it can also easily export Family Tree info to HTML for posting on the Web.

The free Reunion Demo can contain up to 35 ancestors, while the full version, which retails for $89.95, supports up to 99 generations, Methuselah.

An Adobe Photoshop user recently wrote: "How do I make the background transparent on a piece of artwork or photo in Photoshop?"

There are many ways to remove the background of an image so that you may see the image layers beneath the current image. The first step is to be certain your image is on a layer rather than the background layer. To do so, choose Window, Show Layers. In the Layers palette, locate the layer that holds your image. If the appropriate layer is labeled Background, double-click the layer to open the Make Layer dialog box. Then, click OK to save the background as a layer.

Now you can remove the background. The simplest method is to choose the Lasso selection tool. Next, create a selection around the background of your image. Then, press Delete or Backspace. Photoshop will delete the contents of the selection and set the selection area to transparent.

Under Mac OS 9.0.x, when you attempt to print material displayed by the Help Viewer on some Epson printers, an error message occurs or Help Viewer unceremoniously quits. Installing OS 9.1 fixes this problem.

The iMac (Slot Loading), iBook, and Power Mac G4s give you the ability to choose a boot volume during the start-up process. Here's how: Just press and hold the Option key at startup.

As the Mac boots, you'll see a Circular Arrow icon, along with icons for any bootable devices attached to your Mac, and an Arrow icon. If you click on the Circular Arrow icon, your Mac will rescan all busses, looking for bootable devices. When you see the appropriate device, select it and click the Arrow icon (on the left) to proceed with the startup.

In the last few tips, we introduced the six new Shape tools that allow you to create vector drawings in your Adobe Photoshop image. Adobe actually provides you with a seventh Shape tool: the Pen tool. As you'll notice, the Pen tool is not grouped with the other six Shape tools. However, you can still use it to create a vector drawing. To do so, choose the Pen tool from the Photoshop toolbox. Then, click the New Shape layer in the Options bar. Now, click and drag to create your new shape.

The Spike is a special AutoText function that acts as a multiple cut-and-paste tool. Let's say that you have a paragraph that you're inclined to delete, but you're afraid that you might need it later. You can use the Spike to save the paragraph for later use. Use the mouse (or keyboard) to select the paragraph. Now, press Ctrl-F3 to cut the paragraph and place it on the Spike.

Suppose now that you decide to use the paragraph in a new location in your document. Just click at the desired insertion point and press Ctrl-Shift-F3. This will paste the paragraph into your document and clear the Spike.

If you'd like to paste the material in the Spike without clearing it, choose Edit, AutoText and select Spike. Click Insert to insert the Spike contents and close the dialog box. In this case, the text is still available for use in another location.

Under Mac OS 9.0.x, AppleWorks Paint Bucket and Magic Wand only affect a single pixel (this occurs when your Mac's monitor is configured to display "Thousands" of colors). Installing OS 9.1 fixes this problem.

Every now and then we touch on techniques to keep your Powerbook from overheating. This is by far the coolest.

If you use an external monitor and keyboard, you can show off your Powerbook and cool it off at the same time. Just fold it until it's only about 30 percent open and stand it on end, A-frame style. This also gives you better access to the backside ports, since they're now on top.

Several readers have sent messages about sudden, inexplicable crashes in Communicator. Most of the time these crashes require a restart of at least Communicator, if not the whole computer. Some readers experience these crashes often and are at the end of their rope.

Unfortunately, these problems have no easy solution. Everyone's computer is configured differently, and no application is foolproof across so many different platforms.

That said, we can offer some advice. First and foremost, pay attention to what your computer is doing while you browse the Internet. If you experience sluggishness or outright system halts, you may be running too many applications at once. Even with processors of 500 MHz and up and system memory greater than 128 MB, processing power is still finite. Try closing a few less important programs before you start Communicator. Also, if your browser consistently crashes when you visit a particular site, contact the site's administrator and describe your problem. The site might have a bug in its Web page and you may not be the only victim, or the Webmaster might have some insight into your situation.

Netscape has tried to fix bugs and plug security holes as quickly as possible. If you know for certain that an older version of Communicator worked better for you than whatever version you now use, you can revert to the older one. Netscape provides an archive of previous versions of Navigator and Communicator at:

Adobe Photoshop 6 has added six new tools that allow you to create vector drawings. If you are not familiar with this type of drawing, think of it as shapes or outlines that are resolution independent. Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand create vector drawings.

Rectangle tool
Rounded Rectangle tool
Ellipse tool
Polygon tool
Line tool
Custom Shape tool

Today we'll work on sending a message using our newly created mailing list. If the list does not contain many entries, you can start a new message from the Address Book window. Click Communicator, Address Book. Click your mailing list and click New Message. Netscape will open a message composition window and enter all the members of your list as recipients.

The drawback to this method is that every person to whom you send the message will have a lengthy recipient list at the top of the message, but you can circumvent this problem. Close the Address Book window and press Ctrl-M to start a new message. In the message composition window, click File, Select Addresses; this will present you with the contents of your address book and the sending options. Locate your mailing list, single-click it, and click the BCC button. This will cause Netscape to send your message to each member of the list as a blind carbon copy. This way, none of the recipients will know who else received a copy. Click OK, and compose your message as you normally would. You now know the joy of mailing lists!

If you don't like the way Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 underlines every hyperlink on a page (it does get kind of busy), you can customize the look of pages to suit yourself. Choose Tools, Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab to bring it forward. Under the Underline links section, select Hover or Never. Click OK to finish up and get a new look for your pages.

In another example that Apple is listening to its customers, Mac OS 9.1 contains a keyboard command for emptying the Trash. To employ it, simply press Shift-Command-Delete. Regrettably, there doesn't appear to be a keyboard command that -- like holding down the Option key and selecting Empty Trash from the Special menu -- skirts the Empty Trash Warning dialog box.

I'll tell you what--do you want to impress people with your Mac? Just go to the Apple menu and pop up that calculator! You've got yer addition, yer subtraction, yer multiplication . . . hold on a sec--you're not buying this, are you?

Okay, okay, sometimes the Apple calculator leaves a bit to be desired. But for those times, there's CalcWorks. CalcWorks features selectable scientific, engineering, or decimal-only notation; adjustable fixed or floating decimal point; and optional thousands separators. Did I mention display accuracy to 16 digits? Oh yeah, it's also resizable, scrollable, saveable, and has a printable "paper tape" window.

If your head is swimming with probabilities, you'd better rush on over to the CalcWorks homepage. But remember: Never run with a slide ruler. Or was that scissors?

A reader writes, "I always see fonts referred to by point size. Does point size have any direct relationship to measurement in inches?"

The point size of a font refers to that font's height. There are 72 points to an inch. Therefore, a 72-point font will be an inch high, and a 36-point font will be one-half-inch high. Although most True Type fonts show 72 points as the maximum size, most will look OK even larger. If you need a two-inch tall headline, select the text you want to set to 144 points and choose Format, Font. When the Font dialog box opens, double-click in the Size entry box to select the current contents, and then type in 144. Click OK, and your selected text will appear in all its 144-point glory.

This works because True Type fonts are vector drawings rather than bitmaps. This allows Word to expand the size while retaining the same resolution you have at smaller sizes. If you try this, you'll find that 144-point fonts will print quite nicely. Note: Bitmapped fonts will look jagged when expanded. The True Type fonts have TT before the name for easy identification.

In previous versions of Adobe Photoshop, you could choose Save, Save As, or Save A Copy. In addition, some formats spawned even more file attribute choices. In Photoshop 6, these extra options are combined and are available in the Save As dialog box.

For example, saving an image as an Adobe Acrobat PDF displays a dialog box with the following options:

Subscriber R. G. says it's a pain to enter formulas in a table cell in Word. The trick is to use Word's Table, Formula command.

To see how it works, create a simple table. To do this, open a blank document and choose Table, Insert Table. When the Insert Table dialog box opens, click OK to accept the default table. Now, let's say you want to add a formula to the bottom cell in the first column. Click the cell to select it and then choose Table, Formula. This opens the Formula dialog box. The most commonly used formula is SUM, so the Formula dialog box opens with the default formula:

If this is what you want, click OK to continue. If you want to use a different formula, click the arrow at the right side of the Paste Function list box to expand the list. Select your new formula and perform any necessary editing. Click OK to continue.

Need more room for browsing? Try reducing the size of your Standard Buttons toolbar. Click a button on the toolbar--say, the History button (it doesn't matter which one--you can even select a blank space). From the pop-up list that appears, choose Customize. From the Icon options menu, choose Small Icons. Select the Text options menu and select Selective Text On Right or No Text Labels to gain even more space. Choose Close to apply your changes.

If you own one of the sleek-but-holy-cow-what-an-initially-expensive-piece-of-technology 20th Anniversary Macs, you should know that if you install Mac OS 9.1 on this machine, virtual memory will be switched off. To enable it, open the Memory control panel, switch on Virtual Memory, and restart your Mac.

At the end of the day, who wants to review every open Adobe Photoshop image window? Fortunately, a new feature in Photoshop 6 allows you to close all open image windows in one step.

To close all open image windows, choose Window, Close All. Photoshop prompts you to choose a save method and then closes the image windows. As an alternative to the menu command, you can also press Ctrl-Shift-W in Windows or Command-Shift-W on the Macintosh.

Like many e-mail clients, Netscape Messenger allows you to create mailing lists. These lists can consist of entries in your address book, other e-mail addresses, or even the contents of other mailing lists. You can later use Messenger to send a single message to all members of a mailing list without having to enter each e-mail address by hand.

To create a new mailing list, start Communicator and open your Address Book (click Communicator, Address Book, or press Ctrl-Shift-2). In the Address Book window, click File, New List. In the New List window, give your list a descriptive name, and then a nickname. The nickname will be how you specify to Netscape that you wish to send a message to the members of that list. Click OK to save your new list. It will appear in your list of address book entries with a different icon indicating that it is a list rather than a single entry. Our next few tips will have more on working with mailing lists in Communicator.

We received this advice from helpful tipster S. H.: "I often need to present slide shows on computers away from my home site. I would like to warn people that they need to make sure to use fonts that are available on all computers. Otherwise, the fonts won't look right. This can really mess up a good slide show."

Thanks to S. H. for some good advice. However, there is another approach you can embed those fonts in your slide show. Let's say you use a font that probably doesn't exist on most computers. As long as you choose a True Type font, you can embed that font into your slide show. To do this, choose File, Save As. When the dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Embed True Type. Give the filename and click Save.

In the Internet Options dialog box, you can choose whether to allow Page Hit Counting. What does that mean? Let's take a look.

Select Tools, Internet Options, and click the Advanced tab. There you'll see the Enable Page Hit Counting selection, which you can turn on or off by clicking with the mouse. Page hit counting allows Web sites to track the pages you view at their site. This lets them get an idea of how successful they are at keeping you on the site. It also allows them to tailor their content toward the things you typically check out. If you find this intrusive, deselect the option and click the OK button to save your changes.

If you've downloaded iTunes, ripped a mess of MP3s, and noticed that your hard drive is getting mighty full, you may want to toss out some of those MP3 files. And where would you find them? Inside the iTunes Music folder, which is inside the iTunes folder inside the Documents folder at the root level of your hard drive.

Very often, an Adobe Photoshop project necessitates bringing other applications into play. Although Photoshop supports multiple import and export methods, often the easiest way to transfer an image is through the standard copy to the Clipboard and paste.

As you may have experienced, copying and pasting as well as switching between applications can sometimes overwhelm the single-purpose Clipboard. When this occurs, you may copy an item, switch to an application, and not be able to paste. In essence, the Clipboard is not responsive to the Paste command. A workaround is to choose Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Clipboard Viewer to open the Clipboard. Once the Clipboard launches, try to paste into your application. Sometimes launching the Clipboard is enough to activate the Paste command.

If you want to change the order of the columns in the Navigator mail message pane, just grab the column heading and drag it to a new location (to the left or right). You might, for example, want to see your messages by Subject or Date first, rather than Sender.

Some readers are under the impression that Excel's AutoFill works only with dates and sequences that you enter. This isn't quite the case. Since AutoFill will work with number sequences, you can use any label you want as long as Excel can understand the numerical sequence.

Select cells A1 and A2 and then grab the handle at the lower-right corner of cell A2. Drag to the bottom several cells and Excel will display

into cell A2. You can select the cells and drag down to get a descending sequence.

The History list (Ctrl-H) shows every site you've browsed. If you want to see all the sites you've entered into the Address bar during a browser session, click the downward pointing arrow to the right of the Address bar or click F4. You'll see a pop-up list. Click a site to visit it.

Apple tells us that if you attempt to play iTunes visuals on a television connected to a PowerBook's S-Video port, you may not be able to view those visuals at full screen. Here's why: iTunes visuals play at 640-by-480. If your PowerBook is set to display at a resolution other than 640-by-480 on the TV, full screen won't work.

As you might have guessed, the way around this is to set the PowerBook's external display to 640-by-480 from the Control Strip and restart the PowerBook.

Dorothy Parker said "The only things we can be sure of are death and taxes." To that short, pungent list, let's add "greater RAM requirements." Forevermore.

Let's take a look at one of your most common tools, the lowly Web browser. Use ye Netscape Communicator or Microsoft Internet Explorer? It matters not. In the age of Webness, the browsing experience is defined by browser plug-ins like Shockwave, Flash, Real Audio, and QuickTime (to name some cornerstones). Each of these plugins needs juice of its own, which ups the overall amount of memory required for smooth browsing.

In other words: If you're surfing with a handful of browser plug-ins (and you should be, for maximum Web effect), you may well need to increase your browser's memory settings. If you can spare the RAM, shoot for the 25mb range (that's 25,000 kb), at which point you're likely to suffer fewer crashes and slowdowns.

To increase the amount of RAM your browser will use, first select its icon (make sure the application is not running) and then choose File, Get Info. In the resulting window, choose Memory from the Show popup menu, which will give you access to the Memory Requirements boxes. Then, increase the Preferred Size option (DO NOT change the Minimum Size option) by 10 to 50 percent, depending on how much RAM you can spare.

Want to go back a few steps in your Web browsing? Press Ctrl-H when you're in the Navigator browser. The History window opens, showing your most recently visited sites.

Many users organize their addresses into directories according to labels such as "work related" or "family." However, eventually you may need to delete a whole directory from your collection. First, double-check to make sure there are no entries in the directory you may need later. Once they're gone, you can't retrieve them. After you've checked, click the directory in question (in the left pane of the Address Book window) and select Delete. Bear in mind, Netscape will not let you delete all of your address book directories--it claims, "You must have at least one address book."

The downloadable upgrade to OS 9.1 will not work on NuBus Macs (including the Mac 6100, 7100, 8100 series, the 8115, and Workgroup Servers 6150, 8150, and 9150). If you wish to run Mac OS 9.1 on these Macs you must install it from a Mac OS 9.1 CD-ROM.

One of the best features in Explorer 5 for Mac is the Scrapbook. Most people never try it, but once you do, you'll be hooked. Putting a page in your Scrapbook copies its entire contents to your hard disk, so you can call it up later at any time. Just open the Scrapbook tab, then click Add. This is great for research purposes put all your finds in a Scrapbook folder and you can refer to them without being online. It's also a handy way to save order confirmations from online stores, travel itineraries, auction pages, and so on, without having to print them out.

Ah, Sherlock, Sherlock. What a great snoop. One of the fabulous features of the Mac OS search engine is that it can (finally) look inside documents for actual strings of text, instead of just looking for file names. In order to accomplish this, though, you must first index your drives. Furthermore, you have to index them regularly (you can set this up as an automatic task, but that's another tip), which can take time.

One way to speed up this doddering process is to allocate more RAM to Sherlock. Sherlock is located in the Apple Menu Items folder. To increase the amount of RAM it will use, first select the Sherlock icon (make sure the application is not running) and choose File, Get Info. In the resulting window, choose Memory from the Show popup menu, which will give you access to the Memory Requirements boxes. Then, increase the Preferred Size option (DO NOT change the Minimum Size option) by 10 to 50 percent, depending on how much RAM you can spare.

In our previous tip, we explained how sensitive Photoshop is to crashing if even one of your installed fonts is corrupted. We further explained that you should remove any fonts you installed since you last opened Photoshop. Then, you load each one back into the system, testing Photoshop as you go.

As an alternative to this rather lengthy solution, you can delete your adobefnt.lst file from the System folder, Application Support, Adobe, Fonts folder. Deleting this file forces Photoshop to rewrite its font list and possibly correct the problem.

One way to enhance the appearance of documents such as flyers and bulletins is to use a vertical text header down the left side of the page. To create a vertical header, first choose File, Page Setup and click the Margins tab. Set the top margin to -1 and click OK.

Now choose View, Header And Footer and then choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, set the Left indentation to -72 points and click OK. This gives you about one inch of space. Choose Format, Font and choose the font, font size, and color (if desired), and click OK.

Type in your text now, one letter at a time. To make the text vertical, press Enter after each letter and press Enter twice after each word. You may have to experiment to get the text placed where you want it.

Note that this vertical header is still a header. It will appear on every page of your document, and you won't see it in Normal view. To see how it will print, choose File, Print Preview.

If you attempt to install Mac OS 9.1 from the software disc that ships with the Apple Pro Keyboard on a Mac that doesn't natively carry a USB port (in other words, a Mac with an add-on PCI USB card), the install won't work. If you're running Mac OS 9.x on a non-USB Mac, the downloadable upgrade to OS 9.1 should work fine. Likewise, the retail version of Mac OS 9.1 will install on such a Mac.

Did you know you can "scroll" diagonally in an open window? Yup. Say you've got a folder open and you've got folders and documents and icons and the whole nine yards bustin' out. Of course, the item you want is in the far reaches of the lower right corner of this folder--so far and low that you have to scroll down with the down arrow, and then use the side-to-side arrow to scroll over to the side. What a drag.

Actually a CLICK AND DRAG, and here's why: You can actually scroll diagonally in an open window by holding down the command key. When you do, the pointer will turn into a gloved hand, and you can then CLICK AND DRAG your way anywhere in the window. (Keep in mind that you're using the hand icon to drag the window; so to scroll down, you grab the lower corner and drag it up.) Go southwest, young Mac.

If Adobe Photoshop has ever crashed on you as you launch the application, it most likely crashed while it attempted to initialize the Type Engine. Photoshop is most vulnerable to crashes while it searches and loads the fonts installed in the system.

Unfortunately, fonts are very susceptible to corruption. In turn, Photoshop is very sensitive to corrupted fonts. If Photoshop attempts to load a corrupted font, the program will most likely crash. If your Photoshop is crashing during startup, the best path for you to take is to remove any fonts you installed since you last opened Photoshop. Then, load each font back into the system, launching and testing Photoshop as you go.

Netscape Messenger allows you to add and organize as many separate directories (or collections of addresses) as you require. To work with your address book, start Netscape and click Communicator, Address Book (or press Ctrl-Shift-2). Adding a new directory is easy; simply click File, New Address Book. Give your new directory a name and click OK.

Unless your Address Book window is configured for this feature, you probably can't see the list of directories. There should be a thin button on the left edge of the Address Book window. Click and drag this button to the right to split the window into two panes. The left pane is the directory list, where you can choose which directory you wish to work with. On the right appears the list of entries (or cards) in the directory. Our next few tips will offer more on working with the Address Book.

We always want our documents to look good. And there are times when we want them to look a little dressy. One fairly common way to dress up a document is to add a vertical line to the left side of the page.

To insert a vertical line before you start typing, choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, set the Left Indentation to -0.5 and click OK. Now choose Format, Borders And Shading. In the Paragraph Borders And Shading dialog box, click at the left side of the preview under Borders to tell Word that you want a single left border. Now, click OK to close the dialog box.

As you type, a vertical line will appear at the left side of the text. Note that we chose an indent of > 0.5 to keep the line from interfering with the text. You can experiment with this value to get your vertical line to appear just as you want it.

If you copy (Ctrl-C) and paste (Ctrl-V) pages of information from Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 to other applications, here's a trick to make this job easier. You can select a range of text (and images) by pressing the Shift key, then selecting the first item. Now, while holding the Shift key down, move the scroll bar (if necessary) to the area where the last item appears, then select it. It's a little tricky, but it's especially helpful when you're trying to select a long page of information and the browser keeps scrolling too fast for you.

When you upgrade to Mac OS 9.1 from Mac OS 9.x, your Views, Trash, and default Desktop Printer preferences are lost. To bring things back to the way you like them you must reset these preferences. Also, if you're using Web Sharing and File Sharing over TCP/IP, you must also flip these back on when you upgrade.

As we've mentioned in previous tips, Adobe Photoshop layers allow you to treat image elements as independent objects to quickly composite complex images. As you cut, copy, paste, and merge layers, some layers will become extraneous. When this occurs, some users prefer to keep those extraneous layers just in case they need them later.

This may help your confidence level as you build an image, but once a layer has served its purpose, it's best to merge or delete it. Layers dramatically increase your document's size, drain application resources, and slow down Photoshop's effectiveness. Everyone works differently, however. You'll have to choose the best method based on your work habits and skill level.

With IomegaWare, a free software suite from the makers of Zip drives, you'll never have to ponder that head-scratcher again. That's because IomegaWare features the super-fabulous Findit, which is like a pumped-up version of Sherlock for all your removable media.

Keep things on Zip disks? FindIt will automatically index each Zip disk as it is ejected. If you archive files onto recordable CDs, FindIt is your new best friend. It will index and store information about each and every CD, allowing you to search ALL of your CDs (and other media) from the FindIt search window.

Also, IomegaWare installs a handy control strip module so you can do your all-media searches even more quickly and easily.

Adobe Photoshop 4 has a great feature that allows you to quickly import a portion of a large file. After you complete changes, you can close and save that image portion to the original image. Unfortunately, the Quick-Edit feature is missing from the File, Import menu in Photoshop 5 and above. Luckily, Quick-Edit is still available; it's just not installed by default.

To install Quick-Edit, on the Photoshop CD navigate to the Goodies\Quikedit folder in Windows or to the Optional Plug-Ins\Wquikedit folder on the Macintosh. Then, drag the plug-in to the Plug-ins folder on your system and launch Photoshop. Quick-Edit should appear in the File, Import menu.

A reader, Ward B., has sent us his idea for a third option for the home page that opens when you start Netscape. He says: "Create a simple Web page using Composer, save it to the hard drive, then instead of having to download the page or stare at a blank gray screen, you can fill it with a page of your choice--and change it as often as you want."

To specify your newly created page as the Communicator home page, click Edit, Preferences. Select Navigator on the left side of the Preferences window. On the right, under Navigator Starts With, choose Home Page. Under Home Page, click Browse and locate the page you've created. Click Open to specify it, then click OK to save your changes. Test your efforts by clicking the Home Page button on your toolbar; click Go, Home; or close and restart Communicator.

You can scroll through all the slides in a show by using PowerPoint's vertical scroll bar. All you have to do is grab the bar with the mouse and drag up or down.

You can also scroll through all the slides in a show with the Page Up and Page Down keys. Press Page Up to move to the previous slide and Page Down to move to the next slide. We use the scroll bar only to move through a large number of slides quickly because the Page Up and Page Down method is a bit more convenient for moving one slide at a time.

Hyperlinks tend to appear in blue on the Web, but you can change them to anything you like. For instance, we use a slightly darker blue, which we think is a little more subtle. It's easy.

Choose Tools, Internet Options. From the General tab, choose Colors. In the Links area, click the color swatch pop-up menus to choose the colors of your visited and unvisited links. You can also choose the color for links over which you're hovering (but haven't yet clicked). Select Use Hover Color, then select a color from the Hover menu that appears. Choices, choices.

As many of us know, when it comes to emailing files to friends, compression is king. For years, the king of compression has been Aladdin's StuffIt software. StuffIt Deluxe, which was originally more of an archiving package, has become a cornerstone tool for Mac users who need to send files, collect graphic projects, or decompress files sent by other Mac and PC users.

However, if you happen to be up-to-date enough to be using Stuffit 5 or 6, you may have received complaints from people who can't open your archives because they've got an earlier version of StuffIt.

Because the current version of DropStuff 5.x or 6.x doesn't allow you to save files in StuffIt 4.x format, you might be tempted to insist that the recipient download the latest version of StuffIt Expander. There is, however, an alternative--all you need is a way to save your StuffIt file in the earlier format. Here's how you do just that:

Download a copy of StuffIt Lite, the grandaddy of the modern Stuffit Deluxe Package. Unlike DropStuff 4.x, StuffIt Lite doesn't depend on the StuffIt Engine (an extension)--all the compression takes place within the StuffIt Lite application--so your files will be accessible to all versions of StuffIt, old and new.

Press Ctrl-B from the Navigator browser to open the bookmark window immediately.

Part of becoming a seasoned Adobe Photoshop expert is learning to communicate with the application. Photoshop tries to communicate with you with many methods. However, the most tactile feedback is the custom cursors it uses.

For instance, when you choose the Paintbrush tool, the cursor changes to a paintbrush. In addition to using this cursor, you can set Photoshop to display the precise size of the brush you have chosen to use with the Paintbrush tool. If the size of the brush is distracting or obscuring an area you want to view, you can press the Caps Lock key to switch the precise brush-size cursor to a cross-hair cursor.

Photoshop is full of subtle communication, such as custom cursors. Take a few moments with each Photoshop tool and feature and get to know your application.

Did you know that you can send a new e-mail without first opening Outlook Express? Just select File, New, and choose Message--simple as that. You can also use this tip to open your newsreader (choose Post instead of Message in the New menu.) You can also launch Netmeeting by choosing Internet Call in the New menu.

You can change the programs that open when you make selections from the new menu by selecting Tools, Internet Options, then clicking Programs. Choose the program you want to use for e-mail or your newsreader, for example. Then click OK to save your changes.

If your slot-loading iMac is connected to the Internet via PPP, it may not wake up after you put it to sleep if you're running OS 8.6 or 9.0. Apple suggests that if you have this problem you upgrade to Mac OS 9.0.4.

So, what can you do with the G4 Cube's Power button other than admire its transparent good looks?
•You can turn the Cube on by touching the button.
•You can put an awake Cube to sleep by touching the button.
•You can wake a sleeping Cube by touching the button.
•You can shut down the Cube by touching and holding the button for at least five seconds.

You can control the number of days Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 keeps track of the pages you've visited. Choose Tools, Internet Options. From the General tab, enter the number of days you want your history tracked in the History area. Click OK to save changes.

If you like to use Word's automatic hyphenation but find there are times when you don't want Word to hyphenate on its own, you should know that there's a way to eliminate hyphens in a single paragraph without turning off the feature globally.

Yes, you can turn off hyphenation for a single paragraph. But before we get to that, let's take a quick look at how to turn on automatic hyphenation. Choose Tools, Hyphenation. When the Hyphenation dialog box opens, select the check box labeled Automatically Hyphenate Document and then click OK. Once you've made the selection, Word will place hyphens in your document automatically. (By the way--if you choose to use automatic hyphenation, you should always check your document to make sure you like the way it's hyphenated.)

To turn off the hyphenation for a specific paragraph, click in the paragraph (or where the new paragraph will begin) and choose Format, Paragraph. When the Paragraph dialog box opens, click the Text Flow tab. Now, select the check box labeled Don't Hyphenate and then click OK to close the dialog box and register your change.

Enter your paragraph and press Enter. If you now want to return to automatic hyphenation, you need to choose Format, Paragraph again. Click the Text Flow tab and then deselect the Don't Hyphenate check box. Click OK to record your change and close the dialog box.

A reader asks: "My version of Netscape does not remember the sites I have visited. I have set the colors in the Preferences menu, and my History is set for one day. Any suggestions? Does Netscape 6 fix this problem?"

You've answered your own question, or at least the first part of it. To clarify, Communicator allows you to specify certain text colors and have them supersede any colors specified by the page you are visiting. You do this in the Netscape Preferences window under Appearance, Colors. Web designers almost always specify text colors within the HTML code of a page in an effort to match a certain motif or color scheme for the design of the page, or to ensure that text is readable against a background image.

Because you set up a custom color scheme of your own in Communicator rather than let the page you are visiting decide the text colors, you've forced Netscape to always show links (visited or non visited) as a specific color. Therefore, anything you've specified for the link history is overridden.

It's an either-or situation. You'll have to choose whether you would prefer to use your color scheme or benefit from the Visited Link History feature. To stop using a custom text color scheme, click Edit, Preferences. Select Colors under the Appearance preferences. Uncheck Always Use My Colors, Overriding Document. Click OK to save your changes.

In answer to your second question, Netscape 6 does not necessarily fix ANY problems with 4.7x. Version 6 is an entirely new browser, built from the ground up, which is still in the beta testing stage. It is not recommended for regular use at this time, although preview versions are available from Netscape's Web site.

Although most people work in 24-bit RGB color mode, Adobe Photoshop is capable of converting images from 2-bit to 64-bit color. Why would you want to change the bit depth of the image you're working on? One reason is for color correction. The 16-bit color mode more accurately displays colors and color modifications. To change the bit depth of the image you are working on to 16 bits, flatten the image and choose Image, Mode, 16 Bits/Channel.

If the 16-bit color mode more accurately displays colors and color modifications, you may wonder if you should always work in 16-bit color mode. Unfortunately, some Photoshop tools and filters are available only in 24-bit color mode.

Here's a computer tip of the most basic variety, which doesn't get mentioned enough: Beware of Click and Destroy tendencies. Yea and verily, we all have them!

You know what I'm talking about--maybe a Web page isn't loading fast enough, or you think an application should open faster, so you click-click-click some more. Kind of like hitting the elevator button over and over, only with the elevator it doesn't make any difference. (You knew that, right?)

With your Mac, though, "hyper-clicking" can stack up excessive processor requests, causing your poor OS to go ape-hockey when it finally does snap out of its pondering phase.

So, have patience, and lay off the clickety-clickety-clicking. Try drumming your fingers for at least a few seconds, if that's what it takes, before assuming your Mac is ignoring you.

As you've no doubt noticed, Adobe ImageReady has a slightly different interface than Adobe Photoshop. In ImageReady, you affect most objects (such as type) through the appropriate palette. To do so, select an object and enter a new value in the palette text field, then press Return to apply the change.

You may also have noticed that pressing Return to apply the new setting will often deselect the palette and set the focus to the image window. This is fine if you plan to make just one change. However, if you are experimenting or plan to modify several attributes, reselecting the palette and appropriate text field is tedious. Fortunately, you can keep the palette text field active. To do so, press Shift-Return instead of Return to apply the new changes and keep the current input text field active.

Suppose one day you're visiting a Web page when suddenly you are overcome with the urge to e-mail the MUGlett¨ editors and tell them what a great job they're doing! "How do I avoid having to open Messenger and click File, New Message?" you ask. Simple--press Ctrl-M. Communicator immediately opens a New Message Composition window.

As you type, Word 95 places a squiggly red line under any words that aren't listed in the dictionary. Some people dislike this feature and prefer to correct everything at once by running the spelling checker after they're finished with their document.

If you'd like to turn off the automatic spell checking, choose Tools, Options. When the Options dialog box opens, click the Spelling tab. Now, deselect the check box labeled Automatic Spell Checking and click OK. If you decide you miss those squiggly red lines, just repeat the above procedure and select the Automatic Spell Checking check box.

One of the easiest ways to gain more performance on your Macintosh is to pare down the number of extensions (those icons appearing across the bottom of the screen when your Macintosh starts). Limiting the number of extensions your Macintosh loads increases the amount of memory and resources for other applications, such as Adobe Photoshop.

You can easily turn extensions on or off through the Extensions Manager. To open the Extensions Manager, choose the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of the screen and select Control Panel, Extension Manager. In the resulting dialog box, deselect the extensions you don't want to load.

However, setting an extension not to load can cause an application that uses that extension to be unstable. This includes your Macintosh system. Therefore, be certain you know what the extension does before you turn it off. Also, never turn off any Macintosh OS system extension.

Note: In case you are wondering, Photoshop does install an extension or two when you install the program. However, Photoshop doesn't require any extension to run.

Yesterday's tip offered a few shortcut keys to help copy and paste a URL into an outgoing e-mail message. Today we'll tell you how to get a URL into an outgoing message with more functionality and even less effort.

Suppose you are viewing a Web page you would like to e-mail to a friend. Press Ctrl-M to open a new Mail Composition Window. Using your mouse, drag the Location icon (between the words Bookmarks and Location on your Location Bar) into the outgoing message. As a result, in the body of your message you will have the title of the Web page, linked by HTML to the corresponding URL. All your friend has to do is click it to go directly to the page.

A reader writes, "I like to use color to separate parts of some of my worksheets. The problem is that when I print the worksheets on a laser printer, the colors often come out too dark or too light. Is there a way to tell Excel to convert all the colors to shades of gray?"

Excel doesn't offer any function that will automatically make the conversion for you. The best solution to your problem is to put together a worksheet that uses a number of different colors. Now, choose File, Print Preview. Since your system is set up to use a black-and-white printer, the preview will display in black and white and look much like the worksheet will look on paper. You can experiment with a variety of colors using this method and make notes of the colors that look best.

In general, you should stay away from dark, fully saturated colors. For example, saturated red and blue will both look almost black on a black-and-white printout.

You probably know that pressing Ctrl-D puts a shortcut to the page you're currently viewing in the Favorites menu. Another way to get the same effect is to grab the Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 page icon (just to the left of the Web address in the Address bar), then drag it to the Favorites menu until it opens. Then just drop it wherever you want it in the Favorites menu (preferably in a folder to keep things organized).

Look! Up on the Screen! Improving your System! It's FinderPop, the venerable contextual menus enhancer from the wise guy known as turly. With FinderPop, lots of little extras allow you to do things like empty trash, look inside folders (and StuffIt archives) without opening them, and have a custom set of contextual shortcuts that point to the documents and applications you fancy. This tiny piece of freeware adds all these things by way of the click-and-hold (or control-click) functionality of Apple's Contextual Menu feature, and spiffs it up quite nicely to boot. Also, the latest update adds support from within many applications. Poptastic!

As you've noticed, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe ImageReady have so many tools Adobe decided to group similar tools in the toolbar. Subsequently, only one tool in a group can be active at a time. Therefore, some tools are always hidden. Normally, to choose a hidden tool you click and hold a tool in the toolbox for a second or two until a list of stacked tools appears. Then, you choose the tool you want.

Those precious few milliseconds you wait to see the hidden tools may not seem like much of a detriment. But it takes only an instant to throw you off a really good Photoshop groove. The next time you want to use a hidden tool, don't rely on the toolbox to show you a choice of hidden tools. Instead, press Alt in Windows or Option on the Macintosh and click a tool in the toolbox. Each click will cycle to the next hidden tool. Pressing Shift while you Alt- or Option-click will cycle to the previous hidden tool.