Reference & Help

Pat's Converter

I hope this collection helps you get more out of using your computer and the Internet, or even creating your own web page. Business resources explain creating a Web site, and how it can work for you while you sleep! I have always provided information about creating a web page yourself. Some of the online tools are from my other sites, such as "Boating in Canada".

Internet Help

1. Software downloads - best free browsers, email readers, Web editors, FTP, anti-virus, firewalls, utilities, office suite.
2. Searching the Web - My favorites for finding information, people, news
   • Reference Sites
   • Deep Web - vast reservoir of information, where to find it.
3. Email & Web mail
   • Stop Spam with Email filtering - manage your mail by moving spam or mailing lists into separate folders.
   • Stop Spam by "Munging" your address - don't become a spam target in newsgroups and Web sites.
   • Outlook Express - setting up a email (POP) account.
   • Sympatico email setup in Thunderbird
   • Setting up an RSS feed setup in Thunderbird
   • Emailing MS-Word documents - send mail directly from MS-Word the easy way (converting to plain text email format)
   • Email Links Won't Work - Help!
4. Computer Viruses- What are they, how to protect your computer, and how to get rid of them.
   • Famous Computer Viruses
   • Six Virus Rules (Internet Tourbus)
   • Virus Notes
   • Palm Viruses
5. Online hoaxes - don't get fooled!
   • Internet hoax that was real
   • "Phishing" Attacks - online scams
   • Scam Attacks - protect yourself from identity theft
6. Start a Blog - online news for a club or your family.
7. File Associations - changing the program that opens on a double-click.
8. Cookies - tiny files left behind by Web sites
9. Firefox web browser add-ons (extensions)
10. Downloading a browser update as a file (install later)
11. Bookmarklets - bookmarks that are actually javascript tools that do amazing things. More Bookmarklets
12. Youtube Videos - Play & Download
13. 10-digit dialing connections - change phone or modem dialing from your computer from 7 to 10 digits
14. Getting "around" interactive voice response (IVR) systems
    
15. Online Books - most are free to download
16. Google Maps - create a map for web forums, sale ads, and emails.
17. 2 letter Country Codes - used in Internet domains (i.e. "ca" for Canada)
18. Canadian provincial digraphs (abbreviations used for addresses)

Computer Help

1. Software downloads - best free browsers, email readers, Web editors, FTP, anti-virus, firewalls, utilities, office suite.
2. My Favorite Software - my favorite free and almost free software. Also a list of my favorite ezines and mailing lists. (see #1 above)
3. Computer problem checklist
4. Direct X diagnostics - check your graphics and games capability
5. Converting PDF files - convert PDF to text.
6. Removing Windows Messenger from Windows XP
7. Emailing MS-Word documents - send email directly from MS-Word the easy way!
8. Backing up your computer - cost effective solution for restoring corrupted files and operating systems.
9. Computer Viruses #1- What are they, how to protect your computer, and how to get rid of them.
   • Famous Computer Viruses
   • Virus Rules (Internet Tourbus)
   • Virus Notes
   • Palm Viruses
10. Mal-ware scanners will scan and remove mal-ware and spyware from your computer.
11. Explorer Icons for File Types - some free icons
12. COPYFILES batch program - backing up special files to a disk.
13. Wireless router security. More Wireless router security.
14. Digital camera - quality, resolution, and size for fast Web photos or quality printed photos.
15. PC Screen Colours - How to change your screen to 800x600 and 16-bit colour the current standard for the Internet from the default 8-bit colour setting (256 colours) used by MS Windows.
16. Web Colour - using web page colours.
17. Laptop Travel Tips - how not to lose yours.
18. Laptops Cleaning - how to do it properly.
19. Year 2000 Y2K PC testing (old)
20. Screensaver - display a slideshow of your own photos as a screensaver (Win XP)
21. Desktop Web page - how to put a web page right on your Desktop.
22. How to totally rebuild XP - important enough to link to this external site: www.informationweek.com
23. Windows Vista Task Scheduler - how to edit tasks

Web Design

1. HTML - Create your first Web page, testing it
   1. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) - basic tags
   2. Latin1 Accent Codes for HTML
2. File formats - we like to receive your business information in these formats for your Web site.
3. Web Images - formats, palettes, file size and speed.
   1. Size Test - boxes in various screen sizes
4. Web Style - Design for accessibilty and speed
   1. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) - common page styles, samples, newsgroups
   2. Copyright protection for your work
5. Robots File to control search robots
6. Redirecting domain requests (x.com to www.x.com)
7. Redirecting file requests to a new location
8. Javascript popup box - sample code
9. Javascript to display file date - 2 different formats
10. FTP publishing- Using software to publish Web files.
    • FTP publishing using Ms-Word
11. Digital camera - quality, resolution, and size for fast Web photos or quality printed photos.

    1and1 Web hosting with a domain, website space,
    email accounts, PHP forms, etc. start at $50 per year. Their email/phone support is very good.

Business on the Web

1. Web 101 for Business
2. Web 102 Web Marketing
3. Business Web Plan
4. 8 Steps to creating a Web site
5. Starting a Consulting Business
6. Domain Names explained :: Domain Name Authorities
7. Internet statistics
8. Canadian Provincial postal digraphs
9. Business Email Hosting

People Power on the Net - This Hour Has 22 Minutes proved how easy it is to get 3% of Canadian voters to support a referendum! (humour 2000)

Online Tools

1. Pat's Converter - kilometres, knots, kilograms, Celcius, litres, US prices, gas prices, & Calculators.
2. PDQ Monthly Calendar (java applet)
3. Moon phase display

WindowsSecrets.com and Fred Langa's award-winning newsletter have merged to provide free tips for using your computer and the Internet. (Plus! Edition is well-worth the extra fee)

Internet Help Computer Help Web Design Tools