June 05 Newsletter

Telephone fraud

There are many scams around at the moment. Upon answering the telephone, you will hear a recorded message congratulating you on winning an 'all expenses paid trip' to an exotic location. You will be asked to press a particular key, which unbeknown to you will connect you to a premium rate line. A recent one cost £20 per minute; if you stay connected for say 5 minutes listening to further instructions you will be charged £100 on your usual phone bill.
Another scam going around are individuals claiming to be engineers conducting a test on the line and asking for 9, 0# - Do not dial any order of these numbers for anyone!
And finally one on mobile phones - a missed call comes up from 0709 020 3840 the last four numbers may differ but do not call back as you will be charge £50 per minute. Do not call any numbers beginning 0709

Virus Alert

Panda Software has sent out a warning with regard to Mydoom.AO Internet search engines. Once again the Mydoom virus is on the loose again using Google, Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos - in order to trick users, the worm pretends to be a mail delivery error message. The name of the attached file that actually contains the worm is JAVA with any extension ie, EXE, ZIP,COM,SCR,PIF,BAT or CMD.

Is your Business at risk?

Depending on your business, and/or computer set-up, a Maxtor could save your business and data. Not only should you have protection from viruses from corrupting your files, you also need to make sure you have in place some type of backup. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE TELEPHONE THE OFFICE AND SPEAK TO JOHN.

Make a headstart

Have the programme you use the most, up and ready for work as soon as you are. To do this you need to get the programme to automatically load when your pc starts up by adding a shortcut to the programme in the Startup folder. Click on the Start button; scroll to Settings and across to Taskbar. Click on the Start Menu Programs tab to bring it to the front, and then click on the Advanced button. Double-click on Programs to view its contents in the right-hand pane. To remove a programme from here, remember this is only the short-cut not the actual programme itself, click it once to highlight it, then select Delete from the File menu. To place a programme here, locate it in the Program list, right-click on the programme icon, drag it into the Startup folder and choose Create Shortcut Here from the pop-up menu.

How colourful are you!

Bored with the green background, grey Taskbar and windows borders? Why not change them to a more exciting colour to brighten up your day! Simply right-click on a clear part of your Desktop, click on Properties, then on the Appearance tab. The 'windows of windows' in this dialogue box shows what your changes will look like when you click Apply or OK. You can select from a pre-defined range of colour schemes by clicking on the down-pointing arrow underneath the Scheme legend, or you can define you own. Just select a Desktop item from the Item drop down list and then click on a colour or font title and size. To return back to the original settings if you can't cope with too much colour, simply select Windows Standard from the end of the preset schemes list.

Text Enlargement

Would you like an easier way to increase the size of your text. Select the text you want to resize by clicking and dragging. Once the text is selected, to increase it's size press and hold the Ctrl+Shift keys on the keyboard and press> to make larger or < to make smaller.

Zoom in

If you have a wheel mouse of any description, you can use it to zoom in or out of any Microsoft Word, Excel or Powerpoint document. Open a previously saved document and then press down the Ctrl key. Now rotate the wheel on your mouse and the page you are viewing will increase or decrease depending on which way you turn the wheel. This method also works in Internet Explorer, which is especially useful as the text on some web pages can be very small. New optical mice from only £15!

Desktop maths

Almost everyone will have used the Windows calculator at one time or other. But if you have something a little more complex than usual, open up the Windows calculator by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories and Calculator. When the calculator appears, click on the View menu and select Scientific. Better still, get a new Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard with all of the most used accessories programmed in for only £39 + VAT from Oakleigh Computers.

Pick a Paragraph

Never have enough Formatting know how in Microsoft Word - you probably know that by double clicking a word in the document it will highlight the whole word, the same is true of paragraphs - quickly to select a paragraph - just double click on the left hand margin and the whole paragraph will be highlighted.

Sound Keyboard Tip

To let your computer warn you if you accidently hit the caps lock key - try this:- go to control panel, double click on the Accessability option; when the dialogue box appears click on the check box next to 'toggle keys' and click OK. Now whenever one of the Lock Keys is activated it will BEEP

Reader tip -

Typing in com addresses where if it is a .com address you can just type the name of the site ie. Skymarket and then hold the control key down and hit enter and it will put www in the front bit and .com in the last bit - ONLY WORKS FOR .coms

Re emailing -

All emails should have a "subject" line and make sure it is relevant to the email text, otherwise the recipient may think it is a scam and just delete it without even opening it! Use Plain text as format. You can Drag and drop the email into the relevant folder to turn the email into a Task or Calendar.
Keep your emails organised - Colour code or group them by company
Keep emails brief, if it is long, send a letter.

Typical help desk queries

Each newsletter we produce, we will print a variety of queries that we have received over the last month from some of our customers.

1. How to get a return receipt on email - Go to Outlook and open/type you message, click on the Options tab on the toolbar at top of screen and put a tick in Request a read receipt for this message.

2. How to Forward a web page by email - Go to the Web page, click File, go to Send and you will be given choices;Page by email, Link by email or Shortcut to Desktop - the rest is self explanatory.

3. How to adjust your Timeout setting if downloading a large email - Load Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, Connections, select the default dialup connection and click Settings, click on Advanced and change the Disconnect if idle time and take the tick out of disconnect when no longer needed.

Oakleigh Computer Services TRAINING · SOFTWARE SUPPORT · MARKETING · CREATIVE DATABASES · INTERNET SOLUTIONS
June 05 Newsletter Useful hints and tips for your computer and the latest virus alerts
Telephone fraud There are many scams around at the moment. Upon answering the telephone, you will hear a recorded message congratulating you on winning an 'all expenses paid trip' to an exotic location. You will be asked to press a particular key, which unbeknown to you will connect you to a premium rate line. A recent one cost £20 per minute; if you stay connected for say 5 minutes listening to further instructions you will be charged £100 on your usual phone bill. Another scam going around are individuals claiming to be engineers conducting a test on the line and asking for 9, 0# - Do not dial any order of these numbers for anyone! And finally one on mobile phones - a missed call comes up from 0709 020 3840 the last four numbers may differ but do not call back as you will be charge £50 per minute. Do not call any numbers beginning 0709 Virus Alert Panda Software has sent out a warning with regard to Mydoom.AO Internet search engines. Once again the Mydoom virus is on the loose again using Google, Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos - in order to trick users, the worm pretends to be a mail delivery error message. The name of the attached file that actually contains the worm is JAVA with any extension ie, EXE, ZIP,COM,SCR,PIF,BAT or CMD. Is your Business at risk? Depending on your business, and/or computer set-up, a Maxtor could save your business and data. Not only should you have protection from viruses from corrupting your files, you also need to make sure you have in place some type of backup. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE TELEPHONE THE OFFICE AND SPEAK TO JOHN. Make a headstart Have the programme you use the most, up and ready for work as soon as you are. To do this you need to get the programme to automatically load when your pc starts up by adding a shortcut to the programme in the Startup folder. Click on the Start button; scroll to Settings and across to Taskbar. Click on the Start Menu Programs tab to bring it to the front, and then click on the Advanced button. Double-click on Programs to view its contents in the right-hand pane. To remove a programme from here, remember this is only the short-cut not the actual programme itself, click it once to highlight it, then select Delete from the File menu. To place a programme here, locate it in the Program list, right-click on the programme icon, drag it into the Startup folder and choose Create Shortcut Here from the pop-up menu. How colourful are you! Bored with the green background, grey Taskbar and windows borders? Why not change them to a more exciting colour to brighten up your day! Simply right-click on a clear part of your Desktop, click on Properties, then on the Appearance tab. The 'windows of windows' in this dialogue box shows what your changes will look like when you click Apply or OK. You can select from a pre-defined range of colour schemes by clicking on the down-pointing arrow underneath the Scheme legend, or you can define you own. Just select a Desktop item from the Item drop down list and then click on a colour or font title and size. To return back to the original settings if you can't cope with too much colour, simply select Windows Standard from the end of the preset schemes list. Text Enlargement Would you like an easier way to increase the size of your text. Select the text you want to resize by clicking and dragging. Once the text is selected, to increase it's size press and hold the Ctrl+Shift keys on the keyboard and press> to make larger or < to make smaller. Zoom in If you have a wheel mouse of any description, you can use it to zoom in or out of any Microsoft Word, Excel or Powerpoint document. Open a previously saved document and then press down the Ctrl key. Now rotate the wheel on your mouse and the page you are viewing will increase or decrease depending on which way you turn the wheel. This method also works in Internet Explorer, which is especially useful as the text on some web pages can be very small. New optical mice from only £15! Desktop maths Almost everyone will have used the Windows calculator at one time or other. But if you have something a little more complex than usual, open up the Windows calculator by clicking Start, Programs, Accessories and Calculator. When the calculator appears, click on the View menu and select Scientific. Better still, get a new Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard with all of the most used accessories programmed in for only £39 + VAT from Oakleigh Computers. Pick a Paragraph Never have enough Formatting know how in Microsoft Word - you probably know that by double clicking a word in the document it will highlight the whole word, the same is true of paragraphs - quickly to select a paragraph - just double click on the left hand margin and the whole paragraph will be highlighted. Sound Keyboard Tip To let your computer warn you if you accidently hit the caps lock key - try this:- go to control panel, double click on the Accessability option; when the dialogue box appears click on the check box next to 'toggle keys' and click OK. Now whenever one of the Lock Keys is activated it will BEEP Reader tip - Typing in com addresses where if it is a .com address you can just type the name of the site ie. Skymarket and then hold the control key down and hit enter and it will put www in the front bit and .com in the last bit - ONLY WORKS FOR .coms Re emailing - All emails should have a "subject" line and make sure it is relevant to the email text, otherwise the recipient may think it is a scam and just delete it without even opening it! Use Plain text as format. You can Drag and drop the email into the relevant folder to turn the email into a Task or Calendar. Keep your emails organised - Colour code or group them by company Keep emails brief, if it is long, send a letter. Typical help desk queries Each newsletter we produce, we will print a variety of queries that we have received over the last month from some of our customers. 1. How to get a return receipt on email - Go to Outlook and open/type you message, click on the Options tab on the toolbar at top of screen and put a tick in Request a read receipt for this message. 2. How to Forward a web page by email - Go to the Web page, click File, go to Send and you will be given choices;Page by email, Link by email or Shortcut to Desktop - the rest is self explanatory. 3. How to adjust your Timeout setting if downloading a large email - Load Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options, Connections, select the default dialup connection and click Settings, click on Advanced and change the Disconnect if idle time and take the tick out of disconnect when no longer needed.