Additional Keyboard Shortcuts
While browsing a long web page, pressing the spacebar is the same as pressing the page down key (PgDn).
Keyboard alternatives to the BACK and FORWARD Toolbar buttons are Alt+left-arrow and Alt+ right-arrow.
The STOP button is used to stop the loading of images and text on the current web page. Use it if you don’t want to see the remainder of the page or if a page is loading too slowly. The STOP button is located on the Toolbar. An alternative to the STOP bu tton is to press the escape key, usually located in the upper left corner of your keyboard. It should be marked “Esc”.
The STATUS LINE is located at the bottom of the Netscape browser. It shows two key pieces of information. The first is information about the page location. Point to a link within a web page and the URL is displayed. Point to an image and the information used to load that image is displayed. If Auto Load Image is unchecked, as mentioned above, the status message will show either the alternate text for the image or the URL if the image is a link. The second is the progress loading pages or information dis played graphically. The undocumented command Ctrl+Alt+S toggles the status line off and on if you need a bit more view space onscreen.
Opening Multiple Navigator Browser Windows
Netscape Navigator gives you the option of opening multiple browser windows. This is very useful if you are downloading a large file and would like to keep browsing while it downloads. It is also a good way to keep a page on screen for reference while br owsing or while a lengthy search is completing.
To open another Navigator window, click on File, New Web Browser (keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+N). The keyboard shortcut is: Shift + Click on a link.
To close the current window, select File, Close from the menu. The keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+W. This does not close Netscape Navigator, only the current Netscape window.
Windows Freeware: Mini Notetab
Website: http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/mininote.htm
I have been using an excellent Windows program called Mini NoteTab. It can replace Notepad and then some. Mini NoteTab even recognizes the Notepad LOG command (don’t know what the LOG command is? See below!). NoteTab is very easy to use, very user-friend ly, and contains a wide assortment of productivity tools and unique features, a few of which are outlined below.
Mini NoteTab can open any number of files at once, limited only by the amount of free system resources. The name, NoteTab, comes from the fact that each loaded document is displayed on an individual tabbed page, stacked much like indexes in a notebook. C lick on a tab and the corresponding document is displayed.
My favorite feature is the Clipbook, a tool developed by NoteTab’s author, Eric Fookes. He describes the Clipbook as “...a visible clipboard with multiple text items that can be pasted in any document.” The text item can be any length from one character to multiple lines. Each text item is identified by a header displayed in the Clipbook windows. This header can be the actual text that is pasted or a description of the item.
As an example, click on a phrase in the acronyms Clipbook and the appropriate acronym appears in your document at the current cursor position. But it gets even better. Highlight a block of text, click on an item in the HTML clipbook, and the appropriate tags are placed around the text. The Clipbook can also be used as a “Launch Pad” to open URLs and execute other programs (such as programming language compilers).
A library of templates is included with NoteTab. These include HTML tags, special character tags, HTML color codes, Internet acronyms, smilies, and commands to launch other programs and URLs. These templates can be modified or you can create new template s. Eric’s website contains additional Clipbooks created by users.
NoteTab contains many text and editing features. Text statistics provide a count of words, characters and frequency of use (handy when writing articles for HAL-PC Magazine). There are many types of filters (ANSI-ASCII, UNIX; strip HTML codes, character t o HTML) and numerous functions for manipulating text, including CASE functions (invert, upper, lower, capitalize).
While there are far too many features to list here, a few other favorites include the fact that NoteTab is web-enabled, meaning you can open links and HTML documents in browser; the automatic scrolling feature is excellent for hands-free perusing of a la rge file; each document retains its own settings for font, tabs, word wrap; the “favorite files” dialog box assures a list of most-used files is just a click away; the “always on top” feature keeps NoteTab handy; and the tool bar is configurable.
There are currently four versions of NoteTab available:
(1) NoteTab Pro (Commercial) for Win95/NT costs USD$5 (Currently available from http://www.ideamarket.com/) Notes: Edit files up to 16MB each, foreign language dictionaries and thesaurus available to registered users.
(http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/notepro.htm )
(2) Super NoteTab Freeware for Win95/NT4 Notes: Edit files as large as memory permits. Not as fast as Mini NoteTabs and uses slightly more system resources. http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/notetab.htm
(3) Mini NoteTab 32-bit Freeware for Win95/NT4 (website also has version for NT3.5) Notes: Cannot edit files larger than about 41kb and uses minimal system resources.
(4) Mini NoteTab 16-bit Freeware forWin3.1/Win95/NT Notes: Cannot edit files larger than about 32KB and uses minimal system resources.
Windows Notepad: The Log Command (Mentioned Above)
If the first line of a Notepad document contains the characters .LOG — a period followed by capital letters, starting flush against the left margin with no spaces — Notepad creates a “time-log document”. Each time a “time-log document” is opened, the cur rent time and date are appended to the end of the document. This can function as a log if entries are made after this time-date stamp. You can use the Search function to quickly locate a specific date within the document. This feature is also incorporate d into the NoteTab products.
Windows Freeware: HTML Imager V1.2
Website: http://www.unige.ch/sciences/terre/geologie/fookes/html-img.htm
The HTML Imager is another program by the author of NoteTab. It produces an HTML document containing GIF or JPG pictures from a selected subdirectory. It does not require any knowledge of HTML to use. You can quickly catalog images and create online phot o albums. By clicking the VIEW option, the document may be viewed in your web browser.
Images are displayed in alphabetical order with filename and size. The background color can be changed and a pattern added. There are two versions available, 16-bit (Windows 3.1) and 32-bit (Windows 95/NT). The program is freeware and an e-mail is reques ted if you find the program useful.
Website Update: Chip Shots Screensaver
Website: http://micro.magnet. fsu.edu/chipshot.html
Several months ago I told you about the Chip Shots website which contains interesting and colorful photomicrographs (photographs taken through a microscope) of computer chips (and many other things). The chips are now organized by company and include pro cessors by Intel, IBM, Cyrix, HP and many others. A new Chip Shots Screensaver is available for download for Windows 3.x and Windows 95.
A note about using combination keystrokes: Two-key combinations such as Ctrl+N are achieved by holding the first key down (Ctrl) and pressing the second key (N).
Keystroke combinations such as Ctrl+Alt+S are achieved by holding down both the Ctrl and Alt keys while pressing the S key.
M. L. Giggleman is a HAL-PC member who works contract as a PC Systems Specialist/Network Administrator.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.