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Tips for AOL Users
this page
preferences | personal filing
cabinet
logging | instant messaging
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If you use AOL, may be familiar with these features already. If you aren't, I hope this page helps.
These features should be available in AOL version 6, but the specific menus and options here explain AOL 5. If you haven't upgraded to 6, you should consider doing so.
Pull down the MyAOL menu and select Preferences. All of them are worth exploring, but I have several recommendations. I don't explain why here, so send me a separate email if you want to know.
Check Retain all mail I send / read in my Personal Filing Cabinet.
In Web Graphics, un-check Use compressed graphics.
AOL uses a crippled version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Among many problems, it won't let you open two browser windows at the same time. That makes filling out online forms perilous and it makes developing web pages difficult. Leave the sandbox.
Note | I recommend not using AOL's browser under any circumstances except to see how your pages look in it.
Check Automatically decompress files at sign-off.
Explore and discover on your own.
You can get rid of all of the commercial pop-up windows and email ads that AOL pushes on you.
Your Mailbox, as you probably know, has New Mail, Old Mail, and Sent Mail. These emails are all on AOL's computers in Virginia and they stay there only so long. If you pull down the My Files menu and select Personal Filing Cabinet, you'll see a number of folders, which may be empty: Mail, Incoming / Saved Mail, Mail Waiting To Be Sent, Mail You've Sent, Newsgroups, and Download Manager.
If you checked the Mail preferences recommended above, these Personal Filing Cabinet folders will begin to fill.
This email is stored on your computer, not AOL's.
Thus, you can get to it offline and for as long as you want. You
can also make new folders and then drop the email into them, either from your
Mailbox by selecting File | Save to Personal Filing Cabinet or by dragging and
dropping within the PFC.
Note that you can move and delete in batches by using your Shift and Ctrl keys
in tandem with your mouse. For example, hold down the Ctrl key and click on
every second or third email. Still holding down the Ctrl key, click again on one
and watch it unselect. Letting up the Ctrl key, you should be able to drag all
the selected files at the same time.
When you send me emails from the various forms on the course web, I let the emails accumulate. After you have all responded, in either the Mailbox or PFC, I pull down the MyAOL menu and select Log Manager.
In this dialog box, I click Open Log. I navigate to the folder where I want to store your form responses, usually my Desktop. I give it a file name that ends in .log (the default) or .txt. Then back in the Mailbox or PFC, I click on all the emails you sent. They will open one by one, but I just keep clicking.
When I'm done, I choose Close Log from the Logging dialog box, which should still be visible. Then all the email is in one long text file on my Desktop and I can read it with a text processor.
Note that you can also log IM sessions.
You may well have a Buddy List appearing on your AOL
screen. If not, pull down the People Connection menu and select Buddy List.
The IM (Instant Message) option is a one-on-one chat (or simultaneous email). The Buddy Chat is a group chat, what is often called a chat room. You can chat only with people who are online. If they are using an AOL account, the software is built in and you would use their AOL screen name to find them.
If they aren't using an AOL account, they need to
download the Instant Messaging client from AOL directly or from Netscape's site.
When they register with AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), they will choose a screen
name, and that's how you'll chat with them. If you want to practice, let me know
and we'll pick a time to both be online together.
I hope you find these suggestions helpful. Please feel free to email me if the directions aren't clear or if you need further help.
Do you have any tips to share? Talk about it at the Bistro.
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