Computer Tips...
REDECORATING WITH NEW WALLPAPER
Can't stand the sight of that boring, solid-coloured desktop? Then spice it up with some wallpaper. Right-mouse-click a blank area of the desktop, select Properties,
and on the Background tab, you'll see loads of options under Wallpaper.
Select any item in the list (in the white box), and it appears in the preview at the top of the dialog box. When you find one you like, select an option under Display--Center, Tile, or Stretch, depending on the wallpaper you've chosen (select each one
to see its effect on the preview)
--then click Apply or OK to paste it onto your desktop.
Maybe you just came across a picture that would make great wallpaper while browsing the Web. You can easily mount it on the desktop as wallpaper. Right-click the graphic, select Set As Wallpaper,
and there's that picture.
(Tip: If you currently have the Tiled option selected on the Background tab of the Display Properties dialog box, that's the way the image will appear. Most likely, you'll want to change this setting to Centered or Stretched.)
KEEP MODEM SPEAKER QUIET
Tired of hearing all that racket as your modem dials the phone and connects to your ISP? Windows 98 includes a setting designed to silence your modem. (It works for most, but not all, modems; you'll have to try it on yours and see.)
Open the Control Panel (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
and double-click Modems.
On the General tab, select your modem, click the Properties button,
and move the lever under Speaker Volume all the way left, to Off.
Click OK and then Close.
From now on, that modem will connect in silence.
RENAMING FILES
This tip is particularly useful when working with photos from your digital camera. Most cameras automatically name the photo files something like DSC000874.jpg. It can be pretty hard to tell if that's a picture of the front of the house or of the
kitchen.
To rename any file in Windows 98, single-click the filename twice - once to select the file
and once to open the rename text box.
Type the new filename over the old one.
Accessing the rename text box with two single-clicks can be a bit frustrating since it can be easily translated as a double-click instead. To avoid this, right-click the item and select Rename from the context menu.
SMARTER SEARCHING
Want to be able to find what you're looking for easier on the web? A few simple tricks can narrow down your search results from hundreds of thousands to just a handful of pages with exactly what you need.
For example, here are some sample searches with the numbers of results at Google:
| Searches: | Results: | Notes: |
|---|---|---|
| dalmations | 35,400 | |
| dalmations -101 -102 | 8,210 | (1) |
| "dalmation puppies" -101 -102 | 283 | (2) |
| "dalmation? * for sale" -101 -102 | 15 | (3) |
- Putting the minus-sign (-) immediately before a word tells the search engine to throw out all pages containing that word.
- Enclosing several words in double quotes ("") tells the search engine to find pages with that exact phrase.
- Within a quoted phrase(""), using the question mark (?) tells the search engine that any letter in that place is OK. (Great for when you're not sure how to spell a word or for plurals). using the asterisk (*) tells the search engine that any word in that place is OK. (Who knew that people were selling 'dalmation beans' and 'dalmation hamsters'?)
