Goodies to Go ™
February 4, 2001–Newsletter #166
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Announcement Goodies
Our Community Mentor program will be
open for business as of 5:00 p.m. EST today. If you need help and can’t seem to
find your answer on our site this could be just the resource you have been
looking for.
Editorial Goodies – Busy World
In today’s busy world most people
spend much of their time completing tasks and rushing from place to place.
Sometimes it becomes very hard to keep up with our jobs, handle housekeeping and
home improvements, run the kids to about 100 more places than you would have
ever imagined, get the groceries and still find time to sleep. Ahhh, who needs
sleep.
So, is technology helping to free up some of our constantly demanded time?
Maybe.
What did you do, way back when, after the VCR became popular? Did you find
yourself having more free time in the evening because your VCR was recording
your favorite show? Or did you find yourself taping more shows than you used to
watch before and then trying to make time to actually watch them? Did you
actually find it cost you more time than it saved?
What about when you got that PDA? Did it help you get organized? Or did it help
you just fit more things into your schedule because you had a better handle on
your schedule?
Here’s a good one. How did the internet effect you? Well, for many of you I’m
sure it gave you a job. It also provided the world easy access to a wealth of
information. Did the ability to gather information on almost anything save you
time? Or did you find yourself spending more time on the internet?
So, what’s my point? I guess my point is that ultimately we dictate how busy our
lives will be. With the advent of every new time-saving advance in technology we
still have to keep in mind that we control our "free" time. Just because
technology has helped to eliminate or reduce the time it takes to do something
doesn’t mean we have to fill the void with something else.
Over the past several years studies have shown that people are placing much
higher price on their "free" time. Personally, I think this is a healthy trend.
Making your life so busy that you have no time left to enjoy the things that
make you happy can make the most even-tempered person tired and cranky. Spend
time with your family, take in a sports event or just take a nap.
Technology can be your friend if you just let it help you reduce the demands on
your time and not let it give you more time to add new demands.
Quiz Goodies
How do you create a drop-down listbox
within a form?
Q & A Goodies
Q. How do you make and
automated response?
A. Well, there are a few ways
you can make an automated response.
The short answer is check your email server and see what features are available
to you.
You can create a response on your mail server. If you are using your own server
it’s just a matter of researching your software and finding out if there is a
built-in feature for "auto-responses" or "vacation messages" ("Auto-responses"
and "vacation messages" are essentially the same thing. Different software
packages may refer to this feature differently.) If your software doesn’t have
this feature you may be able to purchase a third party plug-in that will work.
If you don’t have your own server but are using a mail server that your web host
provides, contact your web host. Their software may already have the feature
installed.
Some email software has the ability to automatically respond to incoming
messages. For example, Outlook gives you the option of setting your own message
by using the "I am currently out of the office" feature. This only works if you
are running Microsoft Exchange Server, though.
Q. How can I keep or make
hyperlinks the same color as my text? I have created a calendar using a TABLE.
Sunday’s are in Red and Monday-Saturday are in Blue. These are all links to my
diary, naturally when the link is visited it changes color. How can I stop this
from happening? I want the Red link (Sunday’s) to stay red and the Weekdays to
stay blue even when they have been visited.
A. You simply need to set your
font color with each link. Here is an example of how you can do that with the
Sunday example mentioned above.
<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com">
<font color="#FF0000">Sunday</font></a>
Q. By carefully examining the
source on your pages I figured out how you have text aligned on the left and
text running through the center of your page on the same lines – you’re using a
table command. But what I can’t figure out is how to put the text in the first
cell (in your case your various links to the different tutorials) at the top of
the page. Because when I use a table command, whatever I wanted in the first
cell automatically is centered, so it’s put halfway down the page next to all my
other text in the second cell. How do you put your input in the first cell at
the top?
A.
Each cell that you create allows you to have both vertical and horizontal
control of the cell. You just need to define your cell within the <td> tag.
For example:
<td halign="center" valign="top">
The halign (horizontal alignment) gives you control over your horizontal
alignment which can be left, right, center or justify with the default being
left.
The common valign (vertical alignment) choices are top, middle and bottom with
the default being middle.
News Goodies
I’m sure you’ve heard about the
collapse of Enron and the devastating effects it has had on its employees. I’m
sure you have also heard about the developing scandal surrounding the
destruction of documents. So, how could the Enron fiasco effect the future of
electronic documents and how they are tracked?
Click here to read the article
Signs of life? The server market
showed some signs of growth last year. Are things looking up in the Tech world?
Click here to read the article
Adobe is shelling out a chunk of
change to acquire a company called Accelio. Ever heard of Accelio? Read about
how Adobe plans to roll Accelio’s technology into their future versions for
Acrobat.
Click here to read the article
Quiz Answer
Like this:
<select size="1" name="Form Object Name">
<option select>Choice 1</option>
<option>Choice 2</option>
</select>
Here’s how it works:
The select let’s the browser know that you are creating a drop-down listbox. The
size designates the height – how many choices will be visible to the user before
they click on the listbox. The name simply gives the object a unique name on the
form.
The option tag tells the browser that you are entering an option for the user to
pick from. The select makes this option the the default option. Therefore, if
the user fails to make a selection then "Choice 1" will be selected
automatically.
And, of course, everything has its own corresponding end tag.
And Remember This . . .
In honor of the SuperBowl here’s a little SuperBowl trivia. Do you know who
played in the very first SuperBowl and what
the final score was?
The first SuperBowl was played in 1967 by Green Bay and Kansas City. The final
score was Green Bay 35 – Kansas City 10.
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!