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The paragraphs in the body of this page are Tipworld E-mails that I've received and archived for my personal reference. You are welcome to browse these files, using your vertical scroll bar, and decide if subscribing to TipWorld's E-mail service is of interest to you.

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WORK WHILE YOU WORK
If you're in a hurry and hate to sit around drinking coffee while you download a long file, just press Ctrl-N to open a new browser window. Now you can surf to your heart's content while the download proceeds. Oh sure, you'll slow the download somewhat, but it beats sitting around drinking coffee, doesn't it? Alternatively, you can continue to navigate the Web while a download is in progress by simply clicking on a favorite or typing a URL into the Address box. It's just that it might be easier to keep track of what's happening if you open a new window.

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HOLD MY MAIL
All those Microsoft Mail messages that you're not sure of can stack up quickly. We mean those messages that you've read but aren't sure you should delete quite yet. If you leave them in the Inbox, the folder will get large very quickly. If you save them individually, you'll probably forget all about them. So, why not create a new folder to hold them? You could call the folder Hold. Choose File, Folder, Create. Type in the name of your new folder (such as "Hold") and click on OK. Now, when you want to save a message for later consideration, click on the message to select it, and then choose Mail, Move To, Hold. You can shorten this procedure with keystrokes. Click on the message and press (in sequence) Alt-M-V. Now use the arrow key to select the Hold folder and press Enter.

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MULTIPLE E-MAIL RECIPIENTS
You can send a single message to multiple recipients using Microsoft Internet Mail. Just click New Message and then double-click the To icon to open the Address Book. Now you can select a recipient and then click To. Repeat until you've selected all the recipients. After you make your selections, click OK. You can click Send now. As you know, the message may not be sent until you also click Send and Receive. The only drawback is that all the recipients' names will appear on all the messages. So if you don't want Mary Smith to see that you also sent the message to John Smith, you'll have to send them separately.

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DON'T LOSE THOSE ADDRESSES
Based on recent e-mail, there seems to be a bit of confusion about how to back up the Address Book. Let's put an end to the confusion. To locate the Address Book file (its location is dependent on where you put it), click the desktop and then press F3 to open Find. Now search Drive C: and its subfolders for *.wab. Copy the file to a floppy in Drive A. You have just backed up your Address Book. The default location for the file is C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book.

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HAND ME MY HIGHLIGHTER, PLEASE--PART 1 OF 2
Want some tips for quick text highlighting in Word Pad (or most any other word processor that runs under Windows 95)? All that fussy letter-by-letter clicking and dragging is for the birds. Here are three shortcuts you're sure to love:
- To highlight a word, double-click it.
- To highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line, in the left margin.
- To highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph, anywhere in the margin.

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HAND ME MY HIGHLIGHTER, PLEASE--PART 2 OF 2
In our last tip, we gave you three ways to highlight text in a word processing document: To highlight a word, double-click on it; to highlight a single line, click once directly to the left of the line in the left margin; and to highlight an entire paragraph, double-click directly to the left of the paragraph anywhere in the margin. Moving on to four bigger and better selections . . .
To highlight a whole bunch of text: Place the cursor at the beginning of the text, hold down Shift, and click at the end of what you want to select. OR, place the cursor at the beginning of the text you want to select, and then, while holding down Shift, use the arrow keys to expand the selection.
Of course, we saved the biggest for last: highlighting an entire document. In some word processors, you can choose Edit, Select All. But if your word processor doesn't have that command or if you're especially fond of keyboard combinations, hold down Ctrl-Shift and click in the left margin of the document (Note: In some word processors, this method may highlight only text below the cursor.) OR, place the cursor at the very beginning of the document and press Ctrl-Shift-End.
With all these options, who needs mice?

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PLAYING THE BLUES
Do you ever get tired of looking at black text on a white background? If so, Word will give you some relief. All you have to do is choose Tools, Options and click the General tab. Now select the "Blue background, white text" check box and click OK. Now you can spend your time looking at white text on a blue screen. Sorry, no other colors are offered.

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FILE TYPE DRESS-UP
You know that boring icon Windows 95 uses to represent .TXT files, or any other file type for that matter? You can change it to any icon on your system. It's just like changing the icon used to represent a shortcut--the difference is, you start on the File Types tab of the Options dialog box. Open any Explorer window and select Options under the View menu. (If you have Internet Explorer 4.0 installed, select Folder Options under the View menu.) On the File Types tab, find the file type whose icon you'd like to change in the Registered File Types list. Select this type, click the Edit button, and in the Edit File Type dialog box, click Change Icon. (Note: If this button is grayed out, you can't change the icon for that file type.) Select a new icon (alternatively, click Browse, select the file that includes the icon you want, click Open, and select an icon) and click OK. From now on Windows will use the icon you've selected to represent every file of that type on your system.

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OPEN (WITH) SESAME
Previously, we ran some tips explaining how to remove a file extension from a file type with multiple extensions (via File Manager), and then how to re-associate that extension with another application. Boy, did we get a lot of feedback on those tips, with suggestions and variations on the theme! We've discussed many of them in previous tips, but one bears repeating: You can change the association of a file type using the Open With dialog box. While holding down Shift, right-mouse click on a SELECTED icon of the file type you want to change and select Open With. (If you don't hold down Shift, this command won't appear.) In the Open With dialog box, choose the application you'd like to use to open files of this type, make sure you've selected Always Use This Program to Open This Type of File, and click on OK.

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THAT DARN PASSWORD THING AGAIN!
If you install Internet Explorer 4.0, quite a few features of the Windows 95 user interface change. Many of you have already taken the upgrade plunge, so starting this month, we'll publish an occasional tip for IE 4 users. Those of you who haven't upgraded may find the information useful, as well, in helping with an upgrade decision. So without further ado, here's the very first Windows 95 tip for IE 4 users.
A reader, J. Teagle, asks:
"My system always remembered my password for connecting to the Internet until I installed IE 4. Can I get the system to remember it, like it did before?"
Funny, the same thing happened to us! We solved the problem--and expect that you can as well--by repeating the steps to install the Windows 95 Password List Update (even if you've already done it once). Here's a quick review:
Download mspwlupd.exe from www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/passwd.htm (Microsoft's Web site gives the file's name as mspwlupd2.exe, but the file you download has no 2 in its name.) Delete all the *.PWL files from your Windows folder. Double-click on mspwlupd.exe to install the necessary files. Log on to the Internet as you normally would, entering your password and selecting the Remember Password option. Windows should remember your password from now on.

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START OFF WITH A SEARCH
Many of the search sites have now added news and links to other sites. With all the information now available on search pages, it isn't unreasonable to use one as your start page. This is a real advantage if your Internet usage consists primarily of extensive searches.
To make a search page your start page, navigate to the page and then choose View, Options and click on Navigation. Now click on Use Current. Click on Apply and then OK to close the dialog box and save your changes.

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YOU CALL THAT A HIGHLIGHTER?
When you select a menu item and then scroll down its list of options, your mouse functions as a highlighter, coloring each command it passes. (This highlight color will vary depending on the color scheme you're using.) Want to change the color it uses? For example, if you're using the Windows Standard scheme, you may want to change that dark blue to red for some real contrast. Whatever your taste in colors, right-click on the Desktop, select Properties, and click on the Appearance tab. Click on the down arrow under Item, select Selected Items, and then choose a Color. Click on Apply to try out your change without closing the dialog box, or click on OK to make it stick. There, much better. Who ever heard of a dark blue highlighter anyway?
(Note: If you want to save the change as part of the color scheme you're using, before closing the Display Properties dialog box, select Save As, name the scheme--or leave the name as is, to write over the existing scheme--then click on OK.)

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EDITING WITH STYLE
If Word's Normal style is almost what you want--almost, but not quite--you can edit the style to make it do exactly what you want. Click on some text that's assigned the Normal style. Now choose Format, Style. When the Style dialog box opens, click on Modify. In Modify Style, select Automatically Update and Add to Template. Now, let's say you want to change the font. Click on Format and then click on Font. Make your selection and click on OK. Click on OK again and then click on Apply. Your new font will remain part of the style until you modify it again.

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TEXT FILES FOR INTERNET MAIL
We recently discussed the fact that you can send a text file either as an e-mail attachment or inserted into a message. To do this, choose Insert, Text File. When the dialog box opens, choose a text file to insert. Note that you can only select a file with a .TXT extension.
This poses a problem for some users because of the way word processors save certain types of text files. For example, if you save a document as formatted text (Microsoft Word calls this MS- DOS Text with Layout), many word processors will use an extension other than .TXT. Word uses an .ASC extension.
The way around the problem is to open Windows Explorer, locate the file, and rename it. If your file is named Test.asc, for example, change it to Test.txt. Now Mail can send it with the formatting intact.

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CREATING E-MAIL GROUPS
If you commonly need to send a single e-mail message to a number of recipients in Microsoft Internet Mail, you can create a Group. Go to File, Address Book, and in the dialog box that opens, click on New Group. Give the group a name, click on Add, and then select the members from your Address Book list, clicking on Add for each member. After you make your selections, click on OK. Click on OK again to save your changes and close the Address Book.
When you compose a new message that's going to all the recipients in your group, simply double-click on the To icon and select your new group from the list. Click on To, and click on OK to continue with your e-mail composition.

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STOP STARTING ALREADY!
Can't figure out how to get a program to stop loading every time you start Windows 95? (Software developers have a whole lotta nerve to assume this is a convenience. They should ask first.) There are three places where you can try to stop this annoyance:
* The Startup folder. This is the most obvious location for a program reference. Right-mouse click on Start, select Open, double-click on Programs, then double-click on Startup. If you see a shortcut to the annoying program inside, delete it.
* Your WIN.INI file. Select Start, Run, type
and click on OK. Inside the System Configuration Editor, make the WIN.INI window active and look for a "run=" or "load=" line under the [windows] section. Programs referred to on these lines load at startup.
If you feel comfortable doing so, remove the reference to the annoying program, and save your change. (If not, have your local computer guru help you. WIN.INI is a very important file and should not be messed with unless you know what you're doing.)
* The Registry. Select Start, Run, type
regedit
and click on OK to open the Registry Editor. Navigate your way to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN. In the right pane, you'll find programs that load when Windows 95 starts. Right-mouse click on the one giving you grief, select Delete, and close the Registry Editor. (As always, before editing the Registry, back it up. One way is to zip your System.dat and User.dat files and store them on a floppy disk.)
Whichever method you used, restart Windows 95 and (in most cases) breathe a deep sigh of satisfaction!

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NEWS IN MODERATION
If you use Internet News, you probably know that this is one of the easiest routes your kids can take to access explicit, offensive, and just plain stupid information. If you allow your kids to use Internet News, you can relieve the burden somewhat by subscribing only to moderated groups. Unmoderated groups allow almost anything to be posted, and it's now common for people to post ads (and even photos) for sites you might consider undesirable. But this is much less likely to happen in moderated groups, where moderators delete inappropriate posts before they ever appear.

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