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Visit our online
bookstore to see a list of recommended books.
Students often ask our instructors to recommend books that will help them learn more
about their favorite programs. They are often looking for an in-depth reference guide or a
book that presents more advanced concepts or specific topics.
Most of our instructors and courseware developers purchase and evaluate many reference
books and software manuals each year. You’ll find their favorite books listed on this
page. Read the comments and then order the book quickly and easily from our website by
clicking on the book title. We will be adding titles on a regular basis, so check it out
from time to time.
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Create Web Pages with Office
2000
When it comes to sharing information with others, it’s hard to beat
the Internet (World Wide Web) or your organization’s intranet as the medium of
communication. Anyone with access to the Internet or to your company’s intranet can
view your Web pages once you’ve published them to a server. All they need is a
browser such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator.
Web documents are coded in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). In the past, you
had to be proficient in HTML to create and publish Web documents. Now, Microsoft Office 97
includes features you can use to publish new or existing Office documents for the Web
quickly and easily without knowing HTML.
Microsoft Office 2000 includes Web authoring tools that enable you to create
Web pages from scratch. The Web features in Office 2000 are designed to work together so
that you can combine Word documents, Excel spreadsheets data, PowerPoint presentations,
and Access database information. You can also convert existing Office documents (memos,
spreadsheets, slides, etc.) so that anyone with a browser can view them over an intranet
or on the World Wide Web.
Office 2000 includes a feature called the Web Page wizard that you can use to
create Web documents quickly. You can also use previously created documents and adjust
them for the Web, but the wizard helps you get going quickly if you are starting from
scratch.
One of the advantages of using Word 2000 to create Web pages is that you can
use many of the program’s features to create and edit your pages: spelling and
grammar checking, AutoText, tables, lines, numbering, bullets, and graphics. While
“snaking” newspaper columns aren’t supported in HTML, you can display text
in columns using Word tables. You can also use tables to place text next to graphics.
With the new Web toolbar in Word, you can search for information on the Web
and make online documents richer with hyperlinks to related documents and sites. Word
2000 allows you to quickly convert any document into HTML format for the Web! You can even
import, edit, and save HTML files directly to Internet servers.
Whether you want to create documents for your customers to see on the Web,
documents for employees to share on a company intranet, or your own personal Web page,
Microsoft Office 2000 provides the tools you need.
In future issues, we’ll show you how to use these tools to create Web
pages using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
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Quick Tips
Displaying
Windows filename extensions
 vs.
When you display a list of files by
opening a folder window or by using the File>Open command in a program, you
may discover that the filename extensions (.doc, .xls, .jpg, .gif, .htm, etc.)
are not being displayed. This is because Windows has been instructed to “hide
file extensions for known file types” or of file types that are registered.
You can turn this feature off by opening My Computer (or any folder) and then
choosing one of the following series of menu commands to change your View
preferences.
- Choose View>Options>View
in Windows 95
- Choose View>Folder
Options>View in Windows 98
-
- Choose Tools>Folder
Options in Windows 2000
Once the feature has been disabled,
filename extensions should be displayed as part of the filename whenever
you open a folder or choose the File>Open command within a program. (If
a program is already running when you change the view option, you may not see
the filename extensions in the File>Open list until the next time you
start that program.)
 Open or Explore
folders by double-clicking
When you double-click on a folder, the contents are normally opened
(displayed in a window). You can opt to have the contents displayed using Explorer
instead. Here’s how:
- Open any folder
- Choose View>Options or
View>Folder Options.
- Under File Types, select the Folder item and click the Edit
button.
(Click the Advanced button in Windows 2000).
- Highlight Explore in the Actions window.
- Click on the Set Default button.
- Close all open dialog boxes.
To return to the previous setting, do steps 1-3 and then choose Open
in the Actions window, click Set Default and close all dialog boxes.
FileMaker Pro (Windows)
Although you can switch from one database to another by pulling down the
Window menu and selecting the desired database name, there's a quicker way for Windows
users. Press [Ctrl] [F6] to switch to the next open database. If you go too far, press
[Ctrl] [Shift] [F6] to return to the previous open database.
FrameMaker 5.5
FrameMaker 5.5 has added some new capabilities for saving text files. You
can now select options to separate not only each row or column of a table but also each
table cell, either by carriage return or by tab. Here’s how:
- Choose Save As from the file menu.
- Choose Text Only from the Format pop-up menu.
- Type a name for your text file in the Filename dialog box and click Save. The Save As
Text dialog box will appear.
- Select the Include Text from Table Cells option and then select either Row by Row or
Column by Column.
- Select your separator (\r for a carriage return or \t
for a tab) for the Separate Each Table Cell With and Separate Each Row/Column With
options.
- Select the appropriate encoding options for your platform and then click Save to write
the text file.
Faster Internet Downloads
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is commonly used to let you download
freeware, shareware, demonstration software, graphics, software updates, patches, and
other items from the Internet and you should take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the
process of downloading large files is often slow and laborious. Here are a few quick tips
that can make your FTP sessions faster and easier.
Downloading any file takes time, but if you take advantage of hours when
Internet traffic is lighter, you can make the process faster and easier, especially when
you're downloading very large files. The Internet is busiest in the afternoon between 3:00
and 5:00 and again between 7:00 and 11:00 in the evening. Try to download large files
early in the morning or after midnight. Some FTP software lets you automate your FTP
downloads so you can schedule them to take place during off-peak hours.
Mirror sites are another way to speed up the download process. Popular sites
often provide a choice of mirror sites—additional Websites that make the same
information available for downloading—that help ease traffic to the main site.
Mirrored sites often suggest that you choose the site closest to you for your downloads.
Depending upon the time of day, you might get a faster response from a mirror site in
Europe or on the east coast instead of one on the west coast.
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