Q–I bought a computer from Gateway and I am delighted with how it works, but I suddenly realize that although I specified what size of hard drive, how much memory and what sort of Pentium chip it would have, I really don’t have a way to check and make sure they shipped what I ordered.
How do I know I actually have the specifications I agreed to buy?
William Barnhart, Chicago
A–Great question, Mr. B. Actually, you’ve asked three great questions:
1. To make sure your hard drive is the size you paid for, click on the My Computer icon and move your mouse cursor arrow over the icon for the C: drive and right click. Pick Properties from the pop-up menu that gets displayed and you will see a pie chart readout of how many gigabytes your hard drive holds and how many are filled and how many remain available.
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2. To confirm your PC’s chip, shut the Properties display and move your mouse arrow back over the My Computer icon and right click there. In the pop-up that this creates, pick Properties. The display that comes up next will include a box showing the name of your operating system, the serial number of your computer and the identity of the microprocessor it is running.
3. In that same box, look for a tab marked Performance. Click it and you will see a display showing the amount of Random Access Memory in your machine.
Q–How about some help adding fancy fonts to my computer so that I can dress up the Web sites I create for friends and clients. I have been using Photoshop LE version for about the last five or six years, and I must say it works really well. I use it to make graphics for Web pages, buttons, and banners and to recolor and resize graphics.
It’s been the greatest thing since sliced bread. The $50 that I spent to get it back then is the best money I ever spent. But some of my more knowledgeable friends (more knowledgeable in graphic arts and design) recently have wanted to use fonts that Photoshop LE does not have.
I have searched the Net to find free or inexpensive fonts but have had no luck. Since Web page development is a hobby/part-time job for me, I don’t really want to spend the $1,800 that Adobe wants for its fonts package.
How can I get a breadbasket full of fonts for a reasonable price?
David Lawrence @netzero.com
A–I, too, help friends build Web sites, and I, too, consider Photoshop LE (it costs more like $100 now) my most important art tool, Mr. L. But I get my fonts and a staggering amount of royalty-free clip art from the $39 PrintMaster Platinum 10 from Mindscape.
There are hundreds of fonts, everything from elegant Old English to glitzy chrome-plated boilerplate. You just pick the ones you want from the Fonts CD in the eight-disc treasure trove and drag them into the Fonts folder in the Windows directory of your PC.
The other CDs hold all that clip art, tens of thousands of snippets that you can lift and tweak in PhotoShop and add to Web sites. Details are at www.mindscape.com.
Q–I need advice about whether to replace my old modem/telephone connection with a digital subscriber line connection for the speed. However, with my first inquiries, I learned that I had to have new hardware installed on my computers.
Currently, I have two Gateway computers: a 3-year-old desktop and a 5-year-old laptop that connect through a designated phone line.
The desktop connects via AOL, my laptop through Mindspring. My question: Will I still be able to use a modem on the laptop and would this computer still use a card-type Internet connector? On the desktop, would the modem be disconnected and would the children lose their AOL chat capacity?
I pay $40 per month for the two services and am willing to step up to the $60 for DSL. Also, I hesitate to use an Ameritech DSL given its service problems, so I am considering staying with Mindspring/Earthlink.
Should I step up, and what will the impact on my computers be?
Danille Taylor-Guthrie @iunhaw1.iun.indiana.edu
A–Your letter is a wonderful illustration of the mare’s-nest of issues that upgrades to high-speed or broadband Internet access raise in an otherwise sane and organized household, Ms. T. I think you should jump at the chance now that you’ve gotten this far, but there are some issues you don’t seem to be considering.
Because your machines are old, you will be forced to install an Ethernet Interface Card (called a NIC) in the desktop and an Ethernet PC card interface in the aging laptop, which should cost in the $100 to $150 ball park, both machines included.
If you fret about Ameritech, I would urge you to consider getting a cable modem from your local cable operator instead of DSL from Mindspring/Earthlink. You see, DSL carriers work over existing Ameritech wires, and to get a DSL connection you first must wait in line for one of those rare Ameritech installers. Cable modems, of course, work through your cable company, so if you think cable TV is more reliable than Ameritech, that would be the best move. I prefer cable modems because they are simpler than DSL and, oftentimes, faster as well.
I think the economics of broadband upgrades will please you a lot.
Your children could keep their AOL chat sessions by buying a $10 “roll your own” connection, in which you access AOL over the Internet rather than dialing in to one of its modems. The $10 saved plus the $20 from canceling Mindspring would make a cable modem sweeter still. Furthermore, with a cable modem, you no longer would need that dedicated computer phone line and could maybe save $20 a month dropping it.
Your case is an excellent illustration of why cable modems best fit the needs of ordinary consumers anywhere they are lucky enough to get them.
Q–Call me Hopalong Cursor. This summer, after lots of tweaking and fooling, I succeeded in upgrading from Windows 95 to 98. The only irritating glitch that remains is now my arrow cursor jumps 2-3 inches every time I move the mouse even just a tiny bit, so I have to slide back and forth until I’m finally able to sneak up on the button I’m trying to click on the screen. I’ve cleaned the mouse ball and rollers, but that’s not it.
Have you got any brilliantly simple explanations, or should I feel lucky that’s all that’s wrong?
Cal Saulnier, Vernon Hills
A–Call me Kemo Sabe, Hopalong. That renegade varmint of a cursor can be tamed by fixing the speed settings in a part of Windows 98 called the Control Panel’s Mouse folder. The operating system allows all sorts of adjustments to how fast the mouse moves, which buttons do what and many other functions. To change these settings and fix your problem, click on the desktop My Computer icon, open the Control Panel Folder and click on the Mouse icon. The complex display that comes up next includes a wide variety of tweaks for you to play with, but your fix is under the heading Basics. There you will find the Pointer Speed module you need to slow down.
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Hi ho, whatchamacallit! Away.
Q–I would like to purchase that PC photograph display software that you recommend called Multimedia Xplorer, but I am confused about something. Since it is only available as a download, is it possible to copy this software to a CD in case I change computers? I do have a CD-RW drive, but I’m not sure if it is possible to copy or not.
Jim Jenkins @prodigy.net
A–I keep my own collection of shareware on exactly the sort of home-burned CD you are talking about, Mr. J., and that’s just peachy keen with the companies that use the shareware model to sell their programs. The idea is that you go to a shareware Web site and download the program in the form of a self-installing file. You click the installation icon and it automatically places a copy of the software on your hard drive. You then type in the password you get when you pay the shareware fee and the program is ready to go.
I keep not only my own copy of Multimedia Xplorer on a CD, but right next to it is a text file holding my paid password so that I can activate it on any computer I own. The honor system is that I do not share that password with others, but I am free to use it on my own machines. So, I urge you, grab this gem of a program, burn that CD and sit back to enjoy one of the best pieces of shareware in the Windows world.
Note to readers: Multimedia Xplorer is a must-have for users who collect large numbers of .jpg or .gif files on their hard drive. It lets users call up directories and instantly display all of the picture and movie files they hold. It also plays sound files and quickly becomes indispensable for multimedia file collectors. It is available for a $25 shareware fee at www.moonsoftware.com.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. If you think you’ve got a better answer to any of these questions, add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/go/askjim.Ask Jim Why