Inbox Highlights

Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.

* InBox feels your pain! Yes, last weekend I too was zapped by one of those random thunderbolts with which the God of Geeks occasionally deals to his children. Did I lose all my email, among other things? Did I reach for the gin?

Yes to both questions. To all who sent questions in response to recent columns and broadcasts I can only say: send them again if you want an answer, and sorry.

* Meantime, Ian Hutchinson writes: "You mentioned a freeware program called EndItAll for automating shutdowns ... I was driving and couldn't make a note of the URL?" [see below, Ian]. "Also, can you advise any other macro-programs that will automate repetitive tasks? - using mainly Office 97 on Win98."

My pick is KeyBoard Express, shareware which I've used for years. You'll find it at their website - although I have a nasty feeling you now have to buy it. Give it a try, anyway - they also market a heavier-duty utility called Macro Express, which I'm told is good but I haven't felt the need for.

* Alan Sinclair (no relation) has an image problem: "I received from my son and family in Australia 10 photos of my deceased grandson for mementos. They did not size them before transmission, so they arrived at about 4 times the size of my screen (15"). I need to know: 1. how to store them at a size for transmission; 2. where to transmit them from; 3. to be able to explain this to my children in Aussie. If I can get them right, I can then save them to floppy disc (at the moment they are taking up space)."

You don't tell me what format they're in, so I can't judge whether MS Paint, which comes with your computer's operating system, would be able to handle them. Probably not, I suspect. My advice is download something like Jasc's PaintShop Pro on a trial basis and use it to resize the graphics to more reasonable dimensions. Adobe Photo DeLuxe is also simple to use, unlike PhotoShop, its big brother. I would store them on your hard drive, although you could use floppies if you can get the size down enough, and email them direct from there. As for explaining it to your kids the chances are they'll probably grasp any principles involved in a matter of minutes. Kids these days are like that...

* "I wish to be able to play bridge on the net but so far anything I have tried is not available for an iMac. Do you know of any site that I would be able to use?" - Bev McGregor.

I always go to Pogo, Bev, but I can't for the life of me work out whether it works with a Mac or not. Things don't look too good for online gaming if you're a Macster, I'm afraid, but I suggest a visit to Mac-friendly PlayNet for free play with Finesse Bridge. Good luck!

* More of your InBox questions will be answered Wednesday in CyberLunch, on air 12:00-1:00 with Murray Lindsay and Peter Sinclair on Classic Hits 97FM.

If there's anything you want to know about the exciting world of the web, just e-mail inbox@herald.co.nz.
Links


KeyBoard Express

Jasc Software

Adobe Photo DeLuxe

Pogo

Mac online gaming article

PlayNet