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FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 233 (12/10/00)
EYES ONLY – THE ANSWERS
Regarding the problem about sending individualised
mails to recipients on a mailing list (F!F!F! 28/09/00) why not set the whole
thing up in Word as a Mail Merge and when merging opt for electronic mail? One
of your fields can then contain the necessary e-mail addresses, then nobody
sees any other addresses.
Jane Millard
I
believe if you put your email address in the 'To' box and the ones you want to send to in 'Bcc' (separated by a semi colon), that may solve the problem.
David
Gratton
A
Get
a copy of the Pegasus e-mail client. The mail-merge extension will allow you to
customise the message to each recipient or insert some other personal text,
which is different for each addressee in the body of the message. Pegasus is
available for Netware, Windows 3+ and Windows 95/98, the link to your local
site and extensions can be found at: www.pegasus.com
Malcolm
Warden
Depending
on Paul Kirkwood's exact requirements, a program called Arrow may be
suitable. It is mailing list software, but could possibly be used for his
needs with some experimentation with the templates and schedules
features. See: http://www.jadebox.com/arrow/
Andrew W. Young
Dare
I suggest Paul Kirkwood goes back to basics and discard the address book! I've
been in PR for more years than I care to remember. I use email for press
releases, where that method of delivery has been requested. Every release is sent to a named individual by the simple method of typing that name's e-mail address into the TO: box. Yes, it takes longer than Bcc, but
I presume he’s hoping for press coverage from his releases. My method makes it
look like a one-off, personal e-mail and has the advantage of you being able to
tailor the text or add a personal preface, should you so choose.
Sonia
Howell-Jones
I
highly recommend Galleon Software's eMerge. This allows each email to be fully customised with up to 10 variables taken from its own mailing list or
imported from a database. It has a host of powerful features and is easy to
use. The (optional) sound effects even make sending to a long list rather fun.The downloadable demo can be used for up to 10 recipients. For a feature list
see: http://www.galleon.com
/emerge/features/index.html
Jeff Ross
There
are loads of free utilities available for sending e-mails to multiple
recipients. A good source for them is Nonags: www.nonags.com/nonags/indexf.html;
browse under E-mail tools and you will find such gems as Mihov Mail Sender,
MailReactor and List Mail Deliverer.
Chris
Stokes, via email
Your
correspondent needs Aureate Group Mail, which does exactly what he wants. Visit
www.aureate.comto download a freeware
evaluation copy. The paid for version does away with the irritating
banner ads.
Michael Walker, Cambridge
A
Another terrific response, many thanks to everyone who contributed!
GOHIP
STILL WON’T GO!
I was interested to see a letter in F!F!F!
(September 28th) referring to gohip.com. Over the last two weeks, I
have noted an advert for Gohip.com appearing whenever I use Outlook Express to
send an e-mail. As soon as I click on New Mail, a page is displayed which is
blank except for a Gohip advert. I have tried accessing the Gohip
web site to find a removal utility but have found nothing.
John Hammond
In the address we printed the dashes either side of
the word ‘browser’ should have been underscores, however, for some mysterious
reason even the correct address doesn’t always work. You can get to the removal
utility by going to Gohip’s home page (www.gohip.com),
then click on Customer Services link at the bottom of the page and then Removal
Instructions, this will take you to a download for a small program called
Remove.exe.
MESSY MAIL
All my received e-mails are displayed in the
appropriate box but not in sequence. Is there any way I could alter this as it
a tedious task scrolling through looking for the most recent ones flagged up in
the inbox?
Terry Murphy
To sort the entries in your Inbox by date and time click
on the header in the Received column. One click usually arranges the emails
listed below in descending order (i.e. most recent at the top); a second click
reverses the order. This is a fairly common convention in Windows programs with
lists of files and you will usually find that clicking on the header in the
Name column sorts entries alphabetically.
ME
MUTTERINGS
I have just installed Windows ME after reading the
review in Boot Camp review (dot.com September 21st), and it looks
good. However, Windows Explorer has vanished from the Programs list and I
can't find it anywhere.
Marilyn Jamieson
Are
you aware that Windows ME is incompatible with Norton AntiVirus 2000 and that
there is no option to enter MS-DOS directly? I can't get full screen DOS
- only a nasty little window.
Quentin
de la Bedoyere
Under the bonnet Windows ME and Windows 98 are very
similar but there have been some changes in presentation, and a few
compatibility problems are coming to light. Windows Explorer has moved to the
Accessories list under Programs on the Start menu, but you can place a shortcut
anywhere you like by holding down the Ctrl key, right-clicking on the Windows
Explorer folder icon then dragging it to your preferred location
Most programs and hardware devices seem to work perfectly
well with Windows ME but there are exceptions and if problems occur your first
stop should be the ME FAQ on the Microsoft Web site at: http://support.microsoft.com/support/windows
/topics/winme/software/softwarefaq.asp, there you will
find an updated list of known problems, including the one with Norton AntiVirus
2000, which is apparently fairly easy to resolve.
You can still boot to MS-DOS, but not from Windows, the
trick is to load the emergency recovery disc -- that you’re urged to make
during installation -- and when the Startup menu appears, press F5.
NOT
SO SOUND ADVICE
Is
it true that playing music CDs will damage the CD-ROM drive in my PC? I
have been happily playing Mozart until a friend told me about it. If it is
true are PC speakers only for playing music etc. through the computer?
Sue Fletcher
Your friend is talking complete twaddle, though you might
damage your sensibilities trying to listen to music on the nasty tinny little
speakers supplied with most PCs these days... PCs are actually quite good at
playing music CDs so either plug in a pair of headphones (most CD-ROM drives
have a socket on the front), or better still, replace the PC speakers with a
pair of small bookshelf speakers. The soundcards on PCs have an amplified
output, it won’t be very loud, but the improvement in sound quality can be
dramatic!
OVER
TO YOU
Here’s this week’s selection of head-scratchers that have
us baffled – can anyone help?
Please
can you tell me to find a symbol for ‘century’ i.e. 17th century (a big C round
17th)? I've looked and looked and can't find one. Can anyone help?
Jenny Crawley
I have to produce concert
programmes and posters for two music societies, and I am wondering
whether F!F!F! readers can recommend any suitable software - the more user-friendly the
better! I need to be able to import photographs into the concert
programmes. I have Windows 98, and use Microsoft Word and Lotus Word Pro
for word processing purposes. I also have a scanner.
Angela
Walker
I would be grateful for help in transferring my
Outlook Contact file from my PC to the MAC G4 we have recently acquired. I have
tried saving it in various formats, but none of them seem to be properly
recognised by the Mac, and the only one that looked hopeful lost all the
formatting. If it is not possible, is there an inexpensive piece of software
that can help. All my work contacts (over 400) are in the Contact folder and I
am reluctant to purchase another software contact management programme and have
to transfer them all.
Anthony Kent.
I
have been trying to adapt a Lotus WordPro SmartMaster invoice template for my
own use and have been quite successful, except that in the "price"
column I wish to replace the default $ sign with a £ sign. No can
do. Have tried "find and replace" have tried deleting the
dollar sign and typing in my £ sign and still it comes back with the dreaded $.
Does anyone have a solution?
Karen
Redman
I want to apply text watermarks on certain
spreadsheets I prepare using Microsoft Excel '97. I also want to be able
to rotate these watermarks to chosen angles across these spreadsheets.
How can I do this - I do not have Print Shop Pro or its equivalent? Can I
achieve this using Excel itself or do I have to import text in some fashion
from MSWord?
Roger
Porteous
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