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Checkmark _ opens links in new windows Notepad:
The most simplistic
writing program in
your computer for your use, that I know of, is Notepad.
It can be very advanced if you know how to write html and many people
write their own html using this simple program.
HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) is what is used on most
internet site pages you visit. It is the underlying direction
your computer follows to show you what you see on the pages. Some
people use Notepad or similar to write all their pages and I wish I were
that knowledgeable. I can do very basic html but I do best by
getting into the html file to make changes, not actually writing the code.
There are many software programs, free and otherwise
that will make pages or write the html codes for you and they are simple enough to use after
some study. These software programs (I have used about 5
different ones) do it all for you so you can make pages. The guide
is as follows, some are very basic and some do amazing fetes on pages and
you get what you pay for. Notepad comes with windows and you can format (tell it how you want your finished text file to look) in very basic terms. You can select the font (lettering style and size) to write with and you can put a date and time on your file you are writing to save. It is all done in black and white and Font choice and html direction. Find Notepad
in your computer: Microsoft WordPad: WordPad is very easy to use and does quite a bit more than Notepad except, you can not use it to write html files. Any html used inside WordPad is hidden. Both, are considered basic windows programs and should come with about any computer with Windows in it. WordPad allows you to use colored text and set up paragraphs and if sending it as a file to someone you can include pictures and sound files that play easily. The program is a great alternative for use with the Xanga free. You can set your page up and then put it into the Xanga page maker and pour yourself a color background there. It gives you a little more flexibility. I have not been able to write links into WordPad but, I can feed it live links from pages on the internet. You can not see the guts or interior html file of it. Copied in at this point, is a test I did in Microsoft WordPad, to the star at the left: I am writing with Wordpad, a Microsoft basic writing program. It has font choice, alignments, bullets and color for fonts. I can date and time Thursday, August 05, 2004, my page and I can add hyperlinked items I pull from internet pages. I can also insert pictures and size them in the page but, the pictures must be loaded from somewhere to be seen, I think. A hyper link, to xanga - LittleEgypt and to: the link * There is no justification of lines in WordPad (my paragraphs you see neatly aligned on the sides have been justified) and you can't type hyperlinks into it but only as a link that can be copied into the address bar though, you can paste live links into it as you see I have done from my Xanga page above. There are better writing programs but, WordPad is simple to use, it resides in most Windows Operating systems and it is flexible enough to send pictures and sound files in a .rtf attachment and, it's easy to learn. Writing in WordPad, you can set up margins and colors and hyperlink to sites and more. Write your new Xanga entries in it, save them with the name of your choice making sure you use the proper file extension as there are a couple of choices in the drop down window and then copy them to your Xanga program to download a more nicely done, new page. The file extension (.rtf = rich text file) is more flexible than .txt or text file and again its use is very easy to learn.Find WordPad
in your computer: Microsoft Works, I have never liked Microsoft Works. I did not give it a lot of opportunity to be liked. The interior set up of the program to me was a royal pain. I know it has a lot of advantages over WordPad as it can work with legal size paper as well as envelopes, normal size paper, invitations and more. I hated the program so, there you have what little knowledge I have of it. It does do a lot of things WordPad does not. Outlook Express is a winner PAY ATTENTION AND FOLLOW ME HERE. Outlook Express comes in your Windows programs, always, and you don't have to use it for your email in order to use the program. You can work offline or online (find work offline under file tab) and it does one heck of a lot. If you don't have a program installed with a spell check in it such as Microsoft Word, there will be no spell check in the Outlook Express but, It is your most flexible program for writing inside your computer that allows you to play in html if you wish to do it and you can hyperlink, add scripts, add pictures, sound files, color to text, size text, you can even use it for an internet page maker. It works very well to make Xanga pages to copy to Xanga by (Edit Tab\select all\copy or drag to highlight then right click to copy) then go to your Xanga new page maker and paste into it. You can work in it on or offline. I keep the view of status bar checked and view source edit. That last setting is your real blessing with this program. You can learn to work with html in Outlook Express and actually make pages with it. I have done it. Don't look at it like an email program, look at it like a blessing in disguise. I do use Outlook Express for my email in our other computer and I love it. I think it is one of the finest programs on the internet. In fact, call Bill for me, I think he owes me a fat paycheck for all the nice things I say and believe about his product. PAY ATTENTION AGAIN HERE: If you have a setting in your Internet Explorer set to ignore the font settings on pages, that setting affects your Outlook Express also. You find those settings here: Tools\Internet Options\General\Accessibility and I personally have all of that unchecked as it takes away from so much of the fun of computing and plays hell with your Outlook Express. See an Outlook Express page I made and loaded up to the internet, CLICK HERE. To do this, you write your email, go to your internet site, copy out the hypertext from your written email and paste it into a new html document you created on your server. Any picture files and music files load them up to your server. Change the addresses in the html document for the midis and the picture files. That should do it and you now have a page made by Outlook Express. Microsoft Word, A fine program, I use it all of the time and it has so much I have not learned to do with it. It has spell check and a thesaurus and you can set up tables meaning perimeters like I have surrounding all of the text on this page. Colors, fonts, font alignments, pictures, it creates auto shapes meaning call out balloons like in cartoons, fancy word art for your headers, a ton of stuff. None real difficult to use. It will hyperlink to URL's on the internet, add forms like drop down tables with hyperlinks in them. A veritable ton of stuff. I get aggravated at times when something doesn't work how I think it should work but when I understand where my aggravation comes from it is usually in my understanding. The biggest problem I see with any software is in the directions or HELP FILES in the package. Those who write direction and those who design the software forget their main audience is the laymen and if they would write for us, they could make a lot of people happier and maybe make a lot more money.
FrontPage Express:
One of the very easiest to use
auto page makers is FrontPage Express. Developed by Microsoft and I
am not sure it is available on the market today BUT, I have provided a
download for it. FrontPage Express was in our first packages in
our computers and it did a lot and was very easy to learn. Microsoft
FrontPage which I am using here on these help pages is a more advanced
form of FrontPage Express. If you are using Windows 3.0, 95 or 98
you might have FrontPage Express in your original software package.
To see if you already have it on your computer, If you don't have the
program and would like to have it, you can download it from my
FlyingPigWebDesign pages, free
CLICK HERE to review information and to get the downloads.
I double checked the files for virus before uploading it,
Microsoft Front Page, a writing program that creates html files you can get inside of to add scripts and more for use as on sight pages on the internet. It does all of what Microsoft word does and more and the two work together well. You can drag and drop from one program to the other, and all the basic copy, cut, paste, hyperlink, pictures, scripts, tables, you name it, it does a lot. The programs listed above, all being Microsoft products, are put together basically in the same fashion so that feature alone helps you to learn and use. The advanced programs have more in them, so much so, I have yet to learn it all and, I may never but things fall into place. Your computer is a file cabinet and sits on your desk in your office. The drawers are the programs and the folders sit inside each drawer where all the information on things you created with that program are kept to view on your screen. They can't be touched, unless printed out and your printer will print out all text and all graphics to put into touchable binders if you want them there. You only have to learn and remember where the drawers are and how to access them by remembering what Icon to click on to open the drawers/program. No different than a set of drawers standing in front of you, all of your information is there waiting for use. All of the software programs are used to make the documents you would have done at one time on a sheet of paper. Each program has it's own file extension so when you click on the shortcut icon it opens the correct drawer and you look thru the files as you would in a file cabinet to find the file you want to access. Then, a click on the file and it will open onto your screen to view or read. Most programs will open only their own file types but some programs for instance Paint Shop Pro a graphics program opens and creates almost any picture file type on the internet for you to edit and play with. Paint Shop Pro, my favorite graphics program, http://www.jasc.com.
All pages have been designed, thought out and compiled as helps for use by Seniors and persons new to computing by: RSBlain aka LittleEgypt of http://www.flyingpigwebdesign.com *Scripts used are from: Dynamic Drive
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