CHICAGO: WEB TOOLS ADD EXCITING FEATURES TO YOUR WEB SITE (Part 1)

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In this issue

FEATURE
- CHICAGO: WEB TOOLS ADD EXCITING FEATURES TO YOUR WEB SITE  (Part 1)

NEW DOWNLOAD ON SITE
- PASSWORD BREAKER for MICROSOFT WORD

MICROSOFT TIPS
- WINDOWS 2000:  STOPPING STARTUP
- MS-EXCHANGE: WHEN SOMEBODY LEAVES
- MICROSOFT ACCESS: FLIPPING #NAME# and #ERROR# PROBLEMS
- MS-WORD: USE THE FORMAT PAINTER TO COPY AND PASTE FORMATS MORE THAN ONCE
- MS-OUTLOOK: CHANGING CALENDAR COLOURS


UNIX/UNIPLEX TIPS
- UNIPLEX: JOINING TWO CARD INDEX FILES
- SCO UNIX: CLEARING THE "WHO" LIST

WEB TIPS
- MACROMEDIA FLASH:  SETTING MOVIE SIZE


GRAPHICS AND FONT TIPS
- GRAPHICS TIP: USING MAGIC WAND TO SELECT AREAS
- FREE FONT URL'S


LOCAL GOVERNMENT
- PRESERVING GOVERNMENT EMAIL FOR POSTERITY


QUICK BITS
- Don't touch that mouse - keyboard shortcuts
- Seen on the Internet - another slice of fun.





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======== CENTRELINE 2000 PRODUCT TIPS AND INDUSTRY NEWS ================
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________________________________________________________________________
CHICAGO: WEB TOOLS ADD EXCITING FEATURES TO YOUR WEB SITE  (Part 1)

As you probably know Centreline 2000 builds web sites for lots of
companies.  Over the years we have developed an interesting
toolkit of web modules to add features to web sites.  These we
have now collated together to form our CHICAGO toolkit.

Using this toolkit means we can bring custom built web features
to you quickly and to match your web site design.

We'll be looking at the CHICAGO toolkit over the next two issues,
this week we'll look at two features related to picture
galleries.




Picture Galleries:
------------------

Why have one?  Because it helps you sell your products.  Maybe
you need to show lots of different product types, different paint
schemes, different client showcases, detailed photo's, all sorts
of reasons.

So it's easy isn't it?  Well, easy yes, quick no.  Managing
picture galleries is very time consuming.  The gallery manager
creates gallery pages for you automatically, embedding pictures,
text, titles and so on against your standard web template.  

The gallery manager also includes tools for easy, automated
navigation through the gallery, avoiding the need to hand-code
every single link, including next and previous links.



Picture Postcards:
------------------

And of course, if you've got pictures, why not let them be used
as postcards.  Customers (and sales staff) can mail photo's with
their own text and email address to anyone, anywhere.

A great way of spreading the word.  While postcard sites are
fairly common on the net, how many of them have postcards related
to your industry niche say?



Picture Downloader:
-------------------

And maybe you want people to add their own photo's to the site.
Maybe prizes for the best example of product use, smiling
customers, on-site samples.  CHICAGO includes tools for custom
built download facilities for your customers.  

Not just pictures, but other data files or text too.  Could be
useful for uploading customer samples, data reports, sales
reports or other features.

If you want to see samples of our web developments or look at any
of the CHICAGO tools in action:

http://www.c2000.com/webmanag/




________________________________________________________________________
NEW DOWNLOAD: PASSWORD BREAKER for MICROSOFT WORD

This MS-Word password breaker can be a real life saver. You only
password protect the really important documents - and of course
the only passwords you forget are the really important ones.

This password breaker won't guarantee to find your password but
it will have a damn good go. On the flip side it can show you
just how weak password protection is...

http://www.c2000.com/software/



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======== MICROSOFT TIPS AND TRICKS =====================================
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________________________________________________________________________
WINDOWS 2000:  STOPPING STARTUP

Here's a quick tip, hold down the CTRL key while starting Windows
2000 and items in the Startup folder are skipped, rather than
launched.

________________________________________________________________________
MS-EXCHANGE: WHEN SOMEBODY LEAVES

Someone leaves the company, you delete the mail box right?  Now
the system admin gets all the mail that previously went to that
mailbox.  So far so good, but after a few weeks you realise that
all the company contacts have now got updated addresses and all
you are getting is junk mail, circulars and email from the ex-
employees friends.  So now what?

Create a new mailbox called Old-Employees.  For each ex-employee
add their SMTP email address to that mailbox.  

You can check the mailbox on a regular basis just to make sure
nothing significant has slipped through, otherwise just delete it
all or set Mailbox Manager to clean it every few days.



________________________________________________________________________
MICROSOFT ACCESS: FLIPPING #NAME# and #ERROR# PROBLEMS
A most infuriating Access "feature"

If you get the dreaded "#NAME#" error then there is a very
good chance that you have a field name on your form (or
report) which is the same as a column name in the data
source.

Which is very frustrating because Access does this by
default if you use the Wizards to make forms and reports.

This usually crops up when:
a) You have a column called say "Expenses"
b) A control on the form called "Expenses"
c) Another control references [Expenses]

To resolve this, find the appropriate control and rename it.

Nowadays as soon as I have created a form or report I often
go through and rename all the fields from "Name" to
"FldName" just so I don't get caught by this later.



________________________________________________________________________
MS-WORD: USE THE FORMAT PAINTER TO COPY AND PASTE FORMATS MORE THAN ONCE

The Format Painter (the pastebrush icon on the toolbar) is a brilliant tool for copying the formatting
of one piece of text to another, avoiding the hassle of having to
remember exactly what formatting you applied.

However, by default it only pastes the format once.  To apply the
format to many items, double click on the pastebrush.  Then the
Format Painter stays enabled, formatting everything you select,
until you click on the icon again.


________________________________________________________________________
MS-OUTLOOK: CHANGING CALENDAR COLOURS

Don't like, can't read, the Outlook 2000 calendar colour scheme,
then select:

Tools | Options | Preferences | Calendar Options | Background Color.


More Microsoft Tips at 
http://www.c2000.com/mswindow/



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======== UNIX AND UNIPLEX TIPS AND TRICKS ==============================
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________________________________________________________________________
UNIPLEX: JOINING TWO CARD INDEX FILES

This is a three stage operation and uses the command line.
Firstly you must dump the card indexes to text files:

	ucard -d index-name -D > file.txt

Dumps the contents of a card index to a text file.  Then you can
append the contents of a text file to the card index using the -l
option:

	ucard -d index-name -l file


More Unix and Uniplex tips at
http://www.c2000.com/uniplex



________________________________________________________________________
SCO UNIX: CLEARING THE "WHO" LIST


Usually "who" is pretty good at showing the correct list of
currently logged in users.  However though it seems to get a bit
lost, especially after a system crash.

The "who" information is kept in /etc/utmp and /etc/utmpx.  Since
5.0.4. this is cleared on system reboot, but earlier releases you
could modify /etc/bcheckrc to clear the files:

  [ -w /etc/utmp ] && > /etc/utmp
  [ -w /etc/utmpx ] && > /etc/utmpx


More Unix and Uniplex tips at
http://www.c2000.com/uniplex





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======== WEB AND HTML TIPS AND TRICKS ==================================
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________________________________________________________________________
MACROMEDIA FLASH:  SETTING MOVIE SIZE

STOP!  Before you make your next Flash movie, make sure you know
how big you want it.  Flash does not scale multiple elements well
if you change your mind later.

The default size is 550 by 400 pixels - comfortable on even low-
res screens.  But if you need different dimensions go to
Modify/Movie and set the required dimensions.

If you create a movie and then realize you need to adjust the
area coverage, all is not lost. First make sure all the layers
are unlocked. 

Then click the Edit Multiple Frames button, and make sure the
Modify Onion markers on the timeline are set to 0 and to the last
frame in your movie.

Now choose Edit/Select All from the main menu, then choose
Modify/Transform/Scale And Rotate. Set the percentage you want
your movie to increase or decrease in area size. 

While all the elements are selected, use the Arrow tool to drag
them in line with the upper left corner of the movie area, then
choose Modify/Movie from the main menu and select Match: Contents
from the Dimensions area of the Movie Properties dialog box. The
dimensions of the movie will reset to fit its contents exactly.


More Web Tips at 
http://www.c2000.com/



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======== FONT AND GRAPHICS TIPS AND TRICKS =============================
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________________________________________________________________________
GRAPHICS TIP: USING MAGIC WAND TO SELECT AREAS

Most graphics packages offer the "magic wand" or similar, where
you click on a colour and all areas of a similar colour are
selected.

Sometimes you will find that magic wand does not select your
chosen area well enough. In this case, try splitting the channels
to see if one of the single colour channels gives you a much
clearer selection area.



________________________________________________________________________
FREE FONT URL'S: 

For you font collectors you might be interested in:

http://members.xoom.com/acidfonts/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/5194/
http://fontempire.host4u.com/alphabetical.html
http://fontempire.host4u.com/new.html
http://www.fontpool.com/fonts.shtml
http://www.delirium.com/larabiefonts/
http://www.surfmadison.com/library.htm
http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/wilsdd/fonts/tenfonts.htm

More Graphic and Digital Image information at
http://www.justkiss.com/psp/







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======== ADDITIONAL ITEMS ==============================================
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________________________________________________________________________
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: PRESERVING GOVERNMENT EMAIL FOR POSTERITY

The management, storage and accessibility of government and other
public records in electronic formats, including official email
and word processor documents, is crucial to ensure the
politicians of the future can produce policy based on clear
evidence of what worked and what did not in the past.

There are other reasons too, for good electronic record-keeping,
including its importance for cross-departmental working and hence
joined-up government, and for complying with ever-tighter
regulations on data protection and freedom of information, which
many departments are in severe danger of violating (see IIB,
November 1999).

At last month's Government Solutions conference in London,
Stephen Harries of the Public Records Office told delegates that
systems to manage electronic records needed the same essential
components as those which have gro wn up over the decades to
manage Whitehall's paper mountains.

A typical system:

- must be trusted and reliable

- needs to identify what records are important, eg which email
messages should be kept, ahead of time - not to capture
everything and debate what to keep every few months

- should be able to capture, access and maintain records
throughout their life cycle

- must destroy what is discarded

- must ensure that what is retained remains authentic.

The first stage of any system is to have a way in which a user
can declare a document to be a public record at the moment of its
creation, Harries said. The best way was to have this facility as
an option from within an a dapted standard software package such
as Word, so that one click on a button sets the record, and
ensures it cannot be changed.

Documents should then be classified according to type and
importance within a corporate 'fileplan', and stored in such a
way as to remain accessible and complete whatever future changes
of software and data standards may take place.

Software which has all the required functionality is currently
thin on the ground, as the marketplace for electronic records
management in the UK is still immature, Harries said. However,
the PRO has been working on devel oping a standard for the
functional requirements of these systems, for use by government
and other public bodies, backed by 'Invest to Save' money from
the Treasury.

The standard has now been released on the office's web site, at:
www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/eros/invest/sorcontents.htm

The PRO is now embarking on a programme of tests of all
commercially available packages for compliance with these
guidelines, and will release a list of approved systems alongside
the test report in June 2000. The product s themselves should
become available through the government's G-CAT online
procurement system by September of next year.

Individual departments will have to choose the right package for
their particular security and other requirements within the basic
guidelines, Harries said. Although all approved systems will have
the same core functional ity of document classification,
declaration and sustainability, other issues such as technical
standards, scalability and back-up would not be tested.

Finally, Harries said the new software systems will just be one
element in a major programme of change needed if Whitehall is to
realise the government's aim for all newly created public records
to be electronically store d and retrieved by 2004.

The work must be backed up by staff training and procedural
changes, he said. The PRO will shortly be issuing a framework for
the transition to electronic public records, including ways of
educating staff to view electron ic files as part of a
record-keeping culture; to know what electronic records exist
today; and to make records and information management work
together.

Harries said he was often asked why, given that data storage and
retrieval is now possible on hitherto undreamed-of scales, it is
not possible to scrap any selection process of what to retain and
what to discard, and simp ly to store everything in one vast
database of public records.

He said this was not practical because the more data piled up in
a database, the harder it was to conduct meaningful searches,
just as it is hard to find anything on the web because so many
pages are returned by search en gines that any useful data is
effectively lost. Furthermore, as the amount of electronic data
increases over the years, there is no telling how large the
database would become and it could become unmanageable.

For more information see the PRO's records management web site
at: www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/

This article reproduced from E-Government Bulletin: Copyright
2000 Headstar Ltd. The Bulletin may be reproduced in full as long
as all parts including this copyright notice are included.
Sections of the report may be quoted as long as they are clearly
sourced and their web site address (www.headstar.com/egb) is also
cited.

For more local government news visit:
http://www.c2000.com/lgovt/



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======== QUICK HITS ====================================================
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________________________________________________________________________
DON'T TOUCH THAT MOUSE!
An occasional series of keyboard shortcuts

OUTLOOK calendar view, you can change the number of days in view
by holding down the Alt key and pressing numbers:

	ALT+1		View 1 day
	ALT+2		View 2 days (etc)
	ALT+7		View 1 week
	ALT+0		View 10 days


More MS-Word Shortcut Sheets at 
http://www.c2000.com/mswindow/wordcut1.htm



________________________________________________________________________
SEEN ON THE INTERNET: Real quotes from Internet newsgroups


Subject: Re: What is the best restaurant in Silicon Valley? 
From: Ted Feuerbach <>
Newsgroups: ba.food

> Steve Wertz wrote:
> Weird, Menlo Park is not part of the Historic Silicon Valley?  That's
> news to me.

Things just happen too fast around The Valley.  As you will see, Menlo
Park has had to have been removed from the roster.

The Sad Story:
FYI, historically it was a part, but due to the greed of the VC's on Sand
Hill Road the Silicon deposits were rapidly played out and all the IC chip
mines were closed. Thousands of silicon miners were uprooted and are now
picking artichokes in Castroville.  A few stayed to eek out a living
panning the placer deposits of 486DX chips in the local creeks.  They sell
them to the local satellite manufacturers who still use them in
applications such as the Hubble Space Telescope.  A meager living at best.

You often see these poor broken souls walking around pushing shopping
carts and picking up partially smoked cigarette butts off the sidewalk.  
But alas, the boom is over in Menlo Park as evidenced by the flagging
property values there.  Most residents are packing their meager belongings
into the dilapidated family SUV and migrating to Austin, TX.  Some writer
in Monterey is writing a book about it:  "The Chips of Wrath".

It's not all gloom and doom, though.

The Recovery:
Many of Menlo Park's fine restaurants, cafe's and bars were built on some
of the old 386SX mine sites.  Late for the Train, for example.

There is already an archaeological preservationist movement afoot to
locate and preserve the ancient 8086 sites.  Though experts tend to agree
that in those heady boom times, poor records were kept and that the search
is probably futile.

It is interesting to note that, in the last generation (3 months ago),
this happened in Atherton.  Now, all the old mine buildings have been
converted into multi-million dollar mansions!

There has also been a recent discovery of DNA in the tailings of the old
IC mines. That shows promise for a budding new Biotech Industry!

Hope this helps,
Ted



More Internet fun at
http://www.c2000.com/fun/




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