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http://www.saundersbusiness.com
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IN
THIS ISSUE |
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- BEGINNING
USERS - Adding bullets to your Microsoft Word
document
- INTERMEDIATE USERS -
Internet tools, don't write your own code or set up a
server, rent it by the month.
- ADVANCED USERS -
Wireless networks for small environments - what you should
know.
- CUSTOMER'S REAL WORLD
ISSUES - Domains, Hosting and Webmasters - how do
they relate to each other
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1. BEGINNING USERS - Computer
facts that you should know
about to
make your computing easier.
For 13 years, we have been helping
companies and individual, small business computer users with their
computer needs. There is not a week that goes by that we do
not have a person ask us about the most basic computer
questions. Below we will mention and answer a few of the most
common questions.
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Microsoft Word is
probably the most used program by computer users. To make your document look as professional as
possible, you will want to add some unique characters or bullets
to make you points stand out. Bullets or characters add emphasis to your
document and draw the reader's attention to your key
points.
This feature is not very easy to
explain so I will try to detail how to do this using as many
pictures as possible.
The easiest way to begin your
bullets is to type your first item on the list then hit the
Enter button and then type the next item and so on until all
your bullet items are on the page. Your list should look
like the list below:
Next you will want to
highlight the items that you want to have a bullet beside.
To do this, place your pointer at the beginning of the B in the
Bullet 1 line, click and hold the left mouse button and drag down
to the end of the 4 in Bullet 4. When you finish, it should
look like this:
Now that you have highlighted these bullets, you
can now select the bullet style you want. You can either
choose 1,2,3 or a standard bullet (large dots) or other
symbols. Click on the icon in the bar at the top of the
screen to pick the bullets.
Now you will see the
bullets like the picture below:
If you want to add
another bullet - Number 5 - place your curser at the end of
"Bullet 4" and click the enter key. Your curser
will go to the next line and number it "5".
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If you want to get
fancy with your bullets, highlight the items that need to be bulleted
and go to the top of the screen, Click Format | Bullets and
Numbering.
Now you can select the
style bullets or numbering you want.
As you can see, there
are many options and can result in a very professional looking
document.
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2.
INTERMEDIATE USERS
- Whether you are creating your own web
site, paying someone to create a web site for you, or modifying your
site, there are many tools you can purchase, borrow or rent that
will make your web site better and easier to navigate for your
visitors. Here are some examples of the sites and tools we use
when developing our site or customer's sites:
Part
1 or a 3 part series
Tools to rent
- Microsoft
B-Central - Good for banner add placements,
search engine listings and web site enhancements, keyword
testing, search engine status (position) and many other
features. They are constantly updating and I use the
service all the time. Monthly fee.
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- Animation
Factory - If you want animated characters, text,
pictures, borders, lines, etc that add movement and interest
to your web site - this is the place. We are a platinum
member and really use the service. Annual fee.
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- MyEmailManager
- If you want to manage your outgoing e-mails, newsletters, subscriptions
and other related lists, this is a great service. For
example, you can add a form to your web site that allows
someone to subscribe to your newsletter. The
information will be captured by MyEmailManager and added to
the list. A confirmation will be sent to the
subscriber confirming that the e-mail address is
correct. When you write your next newsletter, it will
be sent to all subscribers. If someone wants to
withdraw their subscription, it will handle that as well. This is a
great service and we are beginning to use it for this
newsletter. Monthly fee.
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- 1
Shopping Cart - Say you want to sell your
products from your web site but do not know how. Or
worse, you have been told that you must have a server,
security certificate and other tools to take online
orders. This is not the case. Unless you are
very big, you will probably want to rent the technology that
allows you to take orders and process them without all the
headaches of having a server, etc. You simply set
up your account and add hyperlinks to buttons you place on
your web page. 1 Shopping Cart does the rest. Annual
Fee.
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Next month we will tell you about the
free sites that we use to get free java scripts and other neat things
that can greatly enhance your web site.
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| 3.
ADVANCED USERS
- The other day one of my customers
wanted to add a second computer and connect the second computer to
their Charter Cable access to the internet. They did not want
to pull a CAT5 cable to the other computer and wanted to go
wireless. They already had one computer connected to the
internet using Charter Cable, the system was configured and working
well.
They went to the local Office Depot
store and purchased a Cable/DSL router and an Enhanced 2.4GHz
Wireless PCI Adapter. The Hub went between the Computer and
the Cable Modem and the PCI adapter went into the remote
computer. There was some configuration issues that were
addressed in the documentation that we will not get into here, but
it was fairly easy to set up.
The PCI card was put in the remote
computer and gave it the ability to access the main computer and
resulting internet connection. With the set up we had, the
internet connection was not the greatest, and can be tweaked to get
more speed. It was not as fast as the connected computer, and
will not be with the current technology. We used the DI-614
router that is recommended by PC World.
I still recommend hard wire when
speed and reliability are critical. But when you cannot run a
wire but still want internet and network access, this is a
good alternative to having nothing at all. To get more
information, visit their web site at www.dlink.com
By the way, their tech support is
great! They are very helpful and willing to walk you through the entire
installation process if necessary.
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| 4.
CUSTOMER'S REAL WORLD
ISSUES - What our customers have been asking for over
the last month.
Each month, we try to include a real
world issue that our customers have requested.
This month our subject is web
sites. I have received a number of questions about web sites,
domains and hosting - what are these terms and how do they relate to
each other.
- Domains - The
Domain name is the name of your web site such as www.saundersbusiness.com
The "saundersbusiness.com" is the domain name
and is registered with the company where you rented the
name such as www.register.com
or www.networksolutions.com
or many other companies. The Domain name is the
internet designation for your web site and has an address
associated with it that tells visitors where your server
is that has your web site.
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- Hosting - The
server is a computer somewhere that has the files on it
that make up your web site - host. This server can
be a computer in your office, a computer owned by a
company such as Bell South or Charter Communications or it
can be a computer owned by someone else such as www.HighSpd.net
The company where you have your web site may or may not be the same
as your internet service provider.
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- Webmaster -
This is the person or company that created your web
site. Your web site is a group of files that
interact with each other using various forms of connection
such as hyperlinks. The webmaster creates the web
site to your specifications and then publishes it (copies)
to the server. Then when someone types in your
Domain name your server is accessed and the web site
appears.
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| Now for the
confusing part, all three of these parts can be provided by
one or many companies or individuals. For example,
register.com can provide your domain, web hosting and web site
creation all in one package, or you can get your Domain and
your hosting from the same company and have an individual or
company create your web site. |
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KEY
INFORMATION |
- When you get your Domain
name be sure it is registered in your name with your name
as the administrator. This information is key if you
ever want to make changes or move your domain.
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- Record the user name and
password for the Domain registration - you will need this
later - it may be years later.
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- When you host your web site
with a company, they will give you a user name and
password to access your web site. This information
is very important if you ever want to make changes to your
web site. Your webmaster will need this, and you
will need this if your webmaster ever disappears or
changes jobs - some companies make it
very hard to get the user name and password later.
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- Once you have your web site
created, have your webmaster create a CD with the source
code on it and the name of the program he used to develop
your site such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver. This
will be helpful in the future if the webmaster is not
available.
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| It is very
important that you have this information. It is hard to
get later. There are even some companies that will
register your domain name in their name and hold it hostage to
keep you as a customer. If they register your domain in
their name, you cannot get it unless they say it is okay, |
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| Thank you for your time.
We hope you've found our tips helpful!
Rob Saunders
Tell
a friend about this Web Site
Copyright
2003 by Saunders Business Solutions. All rights reserved |
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