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WRITE.EXE and WRITE.HLP: Sure, they're less powerful than WordPad, buth they're also smaller and faster.
PBRUSH.EXE , PBRUSH.HLP, PBRUSH.DLL: If you need to work in .PCX format, these are keepers. Win95's paint does not support .PCX.
Progman, Winfile: You'll find Win95 versions of these in the \Windows directory, and you even can select them as the default GUI at installation. Most times, for most people, the new GUI is infinitely better. But in some instances you may find it worth having the old standbys available.
Win95's Backup applet can get confused if you mishandle tapes. To avoid "failed to detect a tape drive" errors (and possible 18-minute gaps) don't insert a tape cartridge until you see a "waiting for tape" prompt. This appears to be a bug in the way some QIC-80 tape drives communicate with Win95 and the floppy drive controller, but it's easily worked around simply by not inserting a tape until it's asked for.
When you run the Win95 Backup applet, it will create a Full System Backup file called "backup.set" for you and will gently suggest you use it. Take the advice. If you backup using "backup.set,' you'll be saving not only the files on your system, but also the associations, hidden system settings, and other registry arcana that might not otherwise get backed up. This means you could restore your system from the Backup.Set tapes, and get it back *exactly* to where it was the moment you backed it up. Not bad!
The Win95 Briefcase applet is good, but not great. Briefcase lets you semi-intelligently transfer files between two computers. It keeps track of files that have changed on each system, and selectively transfers only the changed files when the host and remote computer are connected. But other utilities, such as LapLink 6.0, do better jobs. LapLink, for example, doesn't require that you place files in special Briefcase directories, and it can transfer just the changed portions of files, rather than transferring entire files. In fact, except for its lack of support for long filenames, LapLink is a nearly ideal counterpart to Win95.
If you want to know what the Calculator keys really do, place your cursor over the key in question, click the right mouse button and click on the What's This box that appears. An explanation of the key's function will appear.
You can adjust communications session settings without launching HyperTerminal. From within the HyperTerminal folder right click on a HyperTerminal Session file. A menu will appear with Connect, Open, Send To and Properties options. Click on Properties and make the adjustments to the settings.
TAPI, the software used by Windows 95 to communicate with modems, assumes you don't need to dial an area code for intra-area code phone calls. You can override this feature in HyperTerminal by typing the complete number you wish to call, including the area code.
Win95's Hyperterminal applet can sniff out connections and take care of a lot of the plumbing required to make modem-to-modem contact. But because it's so good at shielding you from the nuts and bolts of modem communications, it's lousy as a modem troubleshoooter. There's no easy way, for example, just to send AT commands to the modem to see how the modem responds. The solution: keep a copy of Win3.*x*'s good ol' TERMINAL.EXE handy. It's a poor communications tool, but a wonderful troubleshooter.
Forget the clumsy, woefully lacking editing tools of the old Notepad. Win95's version flexes a little more muscle with right-button, pop-up editing menus. The popup lets you cut, copy. paste, delete and undo your previous action.
Take a quick screen shot of your Windows 95 session by pressing the Print Screen key on your keyboard. Start up Paint (Start menu/Programs/Accessories/Paint), select Edit/Paste and--*voila!*--your screen has been captured for posterity.
The Paint toolbar--like WordPad's--can be dragged to either the right- or left-hand side of the screen, or as a floating palette on any screen location. Just click on it and hold, drag it and then release the mouse button.
Paint is also right-button aware. Click the right mouse button when either the freeform select, select,or text tools is active, and a menu of editing choices will pop up.
The Phone Dialer's Speed Dial gives you one-button access to your frequently called numbers. To add a new phone number, click on an empty button, type the name and number, and save it. To change a Speed Dial button, choose Edit/Speed Dial and click on the Speed Dial button you want to change.
If you need a prefix--like the number 9--to dial an outside line, you can add it to all your speed-dial entries by selecting Tools/Dialing Properties. You can also enter calling card information for a particular entry in the same dialog box or disable call waiting.
You may have to use different dialing prefixes--or none at all--depending on where you're calling from. You can set up dialing locations by selecting Tools/Dialing Properties and clicking on New next to the "I am dialing from" box. You can create several locations with information specific to each. To switch locations, just select the appropriate one from the drop-down list next to "I am dialing from" before dialing.
Save time by copying phone numbers from other applications and pasting them into the Number to Dial box.
If your sound card allows it, Win95 now lets you adjust bass and treble along with the normal volume and balance controls. The easiest way to get to the new features is to double-click on the speaker icon on the taskbar. This activates the Volume Control applet. Next, select Options/Advanced Controls to access these features. (If your sound card doesn't support bass and treble controls, the Advanced menu will be grayed out and inactive.)
Many audio cards feature separate controls for the input channels. For microphone and line-in input, for example, Win95 supports recording all the way up to CD-quality, as long as your sound card can handle it. Check out all the menu items on the Volume Control applet and in Control Panel/Multimedia/Audio. Your options will vary greatly depending on which sound card you have, but it's definitely worth a look—and a listen—to see what's there.
Like Word, Win95's WordPad has pop-up menus that are triggered with a click of the right mouse button. Highlight a section of WordPad text and click the right mouse button. You can then choose from the menu to alter the appearance of the text, cut it or copy it.
You can rearrange words and phrases in WordPad by highlighting and dragging them from one spot and dropping them in a new location. WordPad will adjust spacing appropriately so when you move a word it will have the proper spacing around it.
To select all of the text in a WordPad document, press either CTRL+A or use the ancient command CTRL+5 (on the numerical keypad).
You can expand WordPad's work area so that you can see more of your document. Combine WordPad's Toolbar with its Format Bar so that they're on the same line. Click on the Toolbar, drag it up to the Format Bar and then release the mouse button. The Toolbar will nestle in next to the Format Bar, and you'll be able to see a few more lines of your document.
Keep your toolbar on the side or running along the bottom of WordPad. Click on the toolbar or the format bar and drag the items to either the right-hand side, left-hand side or along the bottom of the screen. You can even let the toolbar float as a separate palette over your text.
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