So, my wonderful friend Karen took me out computer-shopping on Saturday; I wound up getting a Toshiba laptop with a 15" screen; none of the stores we went to even sold iBooks! Karen came back to my place and set me up—I never could have done it without her. So, here’s some questions:
• The computer came with some kind of Windows word-processing program which Karen says is crap; she’s going to upload Office 2000 for me, which she syas is a better, WordPerfect, program that I’ll be able to save onto CDs and send to my publisher (I don’t even know yet where the CD thingie is on my computer!).
• All laptops some with CD and DVD players now—how do I even play these things? Just jam 'em in there and some instructions will pop up on my screen?
• I get three free months of dial-up AOL; I am not even bothering to register my e-mail address or anything, as I will get Comcast cable-interent connection as soon as this runs out. Question: How would I post here on the Board, as I’d have a different e-mail address at home than I do at work?
• Followup: I have “www.evegolden.com” registered as my URL with Earthlink (it’s not online yet, it’s being designed). Now that I will have Comcast internet, how would I go about keeping my URL, but transferring it from Earthlink to Comcast?
Jeez. I feel like I’ve been yanked out of the 19th century and into the 21st, completely skipping the 20th . . .
Most CDs and DVDs will play themselves when you insert them.
Your e-mail address won’t have an effect on your posting here, because SD is on the World Wide Web. You just need to update your profile if your address changes.
Your URL won’t change. Only the server will change. You just need to have the URL repointed to the new server.
Just to add a little to the last point, it’s sort of like owning a store that you move to a different location. You may be physically located someplace else, but the name of the store stays the same. (You get the idea).
Congrats on your new laptop, and happy surfing. Although I’d still aviod AOL like the plauge.
Thanks . . . So, I would tell Earthlink and Comcast about this, and they’ll arange for my Web site to be in the right domain? I’ve been paying rent on the name, so no one else snaps it up . . .
Anyone know anything about Office 2000, or the Windows systems that come with new laptops? All I’ll be doing is writing articles and books and sending them to my publisher, so I need something easy and user-friendly!
I’ll have to try posting from home and see if it works!
Just a little tip on Office 2000–when you load it, do a customized installation and select “run all from the computer” (or some wording that indicates that) for all the programs you want to load. This will save you the hassle of having to insert the disks if you ever need clipart or any of the wizards that the Office programs use.
Oh, and congrats on the laptop! I’ve played with a Toshiba once and they are sweet little machines.
It depends a bit on your arrangements with them, but you should really only have to tell Comcast.
Regarding Office 2000 and Word for Windows, it can honestly be a bit intimidating because of its feature richness. If you don’t specifically need it, it might not be worth the hassle and money.
If you’ve been on AOL all this time, you might not have known that all you have to do to surf the web is connect to the Internet and open a browser, like Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is almost certain to be on your desktop. Type “straightdope.com” in the address bar, and it should come right up. (You don’t need the “http” and the “www” any more for www-sites.)
Eve,
Windows comes with a rinky dink word processing program called Wordpad. It’s junk.
If your friend is installing Office 2000 for you, just remember that you are pirating the software unless you buy a licence. Wordperfect licences are much much cheaper, and may do for what you need to do. Also, contact your publisher and ask them what format they can accept for electronic submissions. .DOC is MS Office, and .WPD is Wordperfect.
Hmmmm, thanks. I will [this is for anyone looking in on this thread] make sure my friend is not doing anything illegal. If I have to buy Office 2000 to keep outta jail, that sounds like a good deal. I’ll e my publisher and ask about what they’d prefer my submissions on.
This is my first encounter with AOL, and I am not charmed. As soon as the free AOL runs out, I will get Comcast cable access.
Sorry, Eve, but now that you’ve bought a PC laptop, as a Mac user, I’m pretty much obligated, by message board traditions of long-standing, to monitor this thread and contribute nothing but Nelson Muntz-like "Ha! Ha!"s as you discover the wonder that is modern technology.
Well, OK, I use a PC at work, so maybe I’ll be a bit more helpful than that. Here’s a bit of platform independent advice that all laptop users can benefit from – when you plug in your laptop, make sure the cord does not run in such a way that you can snag it with your leg or chair when you stand up. There’s nothing that can ruin a laptop owner’s day faster than getting up and watching their treasured machine project itself off the edge of the table and onto the floor.
Another question, now that I’ll be saving my documents onto CDs instead of floppies: I save every few minutes when I’m writing, and keep one copy away from my house. I don’t trust hard drives enough to save onto them. Now I’m told that I should “save” onto my CDs while I’m working; but that when I’m done with that project, I should “burn” it, after which it cannot be re-edited? Would I send it to my publishers after saving, or burning, as they will have to both read and edit from the CD?
This is all so confusing . . . I need some tea . . .
First. Get a old fashioned notepad. Every time you come up with a question, write it down! Then ask Karen about them.
Second: We want to make your computing experience as comfortable as possible. Where do you mostly plan on using this laptop? At your desk at home? Or will you spend large amounts of time in the field? If you have one location at home that you will be using it at, I might suggest considering, at the very least, getting an external mouse, and not using the little mouse built into the keyboard. They tend to be annoying over time.
Third: Did you get a CD or a DVD drive? It’s like squares and rectangles. All DVD drives are CD drives, but not all CD drives are DVD drives.
Fourth: Did you get a CD/DVD burner? Also known as CDRW, CD+RW, and various other combinations. This is important to know what you can do.
Fifth, AOL: Yes, don’t even bother to register, but DO … Oh, I’m sorry, I have to go. I’ll walk you through the domain issue later.
Eve, if you burn a cd, that’s usually it. That’s all you can put on there. Does your new laptop have a floppy drive? Most of them do. If so, save to your floppies, then when you have enough to warrant burning a cd, upload each of them to your hard drive and then burn them onto the cd.
I have some lovely Red Rose tea, imported from home. Care for a cup?
No floppy drive. I has a DVD/CD drive, but I have no idea if it has a burner or not. If it’s any help, my stove has four burners.
• If I ask Karen one more question she will wash her hands of me. Already the phrase, “what are you, a frickin’ idiot?” has been bandied about.
• I’ll be working at home, at my desk. The Toshiba has a touchpad, which takes getting used to. Karen says she has an extra mouse she can give me—but I’m left-handed, and I don’t know if it will reach to the left side. I can deal with the touchpad if I have to.
I’ll have to bring my manual to work tomorrow . . .
Actually, hard drives are more dependable than floppies and the more you save to a floppy, the more likely it will fail.
You should save your work on the hard drive, then copy it to a floppy for storage. Use the CD drive for final storage when you don’t plan to make any more changes.
I’m guessing the computer came with Microsoft Works. For most uses, it’s just fine, though Word is what’s used in business and is probably what your editors would prefer (and Word doesn’t always read Works).
Also, the best place to save your backups is somewhere like Yahoo’s Briefcase. It puts them on the web for easy access.
Well, rather simply: If you haven’t got a cd burner, or a floppy drive, you will need to get an external drive to save your work to anywhere other than the hard drive.
You will be able to hook up a mouse and have it go to either side. I hate the touchpad, but if I take our laptop for amusement while a passenger in the car, I will use it.
Oh, it must have a burner, then, as I specifically asked Karen, “I will be able to save onto a CD and send it to my publisher with this?” and she said yes.
I guess once I get into Office 2000 or Microsoft Works (I think that is what it came with; sounds familiar), instructions will pop up telling me how to save onto the hard drive and a CD? I e’d my publisher, and hope to hear from them about what format they’ll want me to send my work in.
With any software (Windows or Mac), you choose where to save your work from a drop-down on the window that displays when you’re saving. To save to a CD-ROM, you not only need it to be writable; you also need to have software that does the burning. Some is designed to be transparent to the user, but others require you save to the hard drive and then copy to the CD.
Oh, dear, oh, dear, this is all so complicated . . . Well, when I start playing with whichever system I’m using, I’ll experiment before I start writingh and see if I can retrieve and edit what I’ve saved . . .
