Number 196 - September 1999

Clean Up The Mess
by Lynn L. Kauer, Blue Chip News, Saginaw PCUG
At the last General Meeting a couple of questions arose relative to e-mail and downloading files. Since I work with AOL as a provider I will address the questions relative to how I work with them. However, I believe the answers will apply to almost any service provider.     The question about e-mail was, "How can I get this message to print correctly so it doesn't look so funny?" The questions regarding downloading of files referred to how to download them and where they are in your machine after they are downloaded. Let's take the e-mail question first. Saving E-Mail     The average user will read a message. If they find it interesting they will print it instead of saving it as a text file. When the message is printed the formatting of the page is a mess. The reason is the message they are printing is a text file with hard returns after each line.     After a while they learn to click on the save message button so that it becomes a saved message. The problem is, they can't find the message because they don't know where on the machine it was saved.     When I read an e-mail message, and want to save it, I never let the software select the destination as to where it is to be saved. I tell the software where to save it. This is how I do it.     It is my practice to separate programs from data files. Yes, e-mail messages are data files! On my system the AOL software program is installed on drive F. (My drives are partitioned so they can be thought of a file drawers.) All of my data files are on drive D. On drive D: I made two folders called AOLfiles and AOLmail. Thus, when I save an e-mail message it is saved in the AOLmail folder. How is this done?     When the message is read, and I elect to save it, I click on the File menu--File SaveAs--select the AOLmail folder, type in a file name that makes sense relative to its content, and click OK. It now is a saved text file that I can open later with a word processor. Cleaning Up E-Mail     It doesn't make any difference what word processor is used as they can all open text files. I use Microsoft Word to read and edit all text files. The graphics used in this article are screen captures of the Word program. Other word processors will look similar.     I placed a button on my toolbar (Tools, Customize, View, ShowHide symbol 6) that toggles the hidden characters on and off.     This symbol is the button to view the hidden codes. (I use as the Reveal Codes feature in WordPerfect.) It shows each double space, carriage return, section break, page break etc. that exists in the file.     In order to 'clean up' the text we must first get rid of the hard returns, called paragraph markers, at the end of each line. However, it's important to maintain some sort of paragraph separation. As I 'clean up' the text file I do it in the following order. Step One     Highlight and delete all of the junk. This includes everything that you don't want to see in the finished print out. Step Two     At each paragraph insert one extra carriage return. (That means pressing the enter key).[Actually pressing the enter key inserts a Carriage Return and a Line Feed (CR/LF) but I quibble. -rjt] Step Three     By using the Edit Replace commands one can easily get rid of all the unwanted carriage returns. But first, we must be sure to maintain the paragraph structure. When the Edit Replace window is active you will see the place to insert what it is we want to replace--Find What? You can either type in ^p^p (two small letter p's preceded by a	caret) which is the text representation for two hard returns--paragraph markers--or click on the Special button and select paragraph markers twice. Remember, you must indicate two returns as that is what is to be replaced.     Next in the "Replace with what?" area type in a # sign.     Next click on the "Replace All" button. All of the double returns will be replaced with a # sign. Step Four     Next, repeat step two except that instead of having two ^p's in the "Find what?" area there should be only one. Either delete one or highlight the previous selection and reinsert one ^p.     In the "Replace with what?" area replace the # sign with a space--highlight the # sign and tap the spacebar once. Click on the "Replace All" button. The result is the # [is replaced by a space.] Step Five     Now we will replace the paragraphs. In the "Find what?" area replace the ^p with the # sign. In the "Replace with what?" area replace the empty space with ^p--the paragraph marker. Then click on "Replace All." Step Five-A     There are still some people who type and insert two spaces following periods, colons, etc. To delete the double spaces in the "Find what?" area insert a double space by tapping the spacebar twice. In the "Replace with what?" area insert a single space. Click on the "Replace All" button. To complete the operation click on the Cancel button. Macro's Are Magic!     When the steps are completed the text will [be] in a form that is presentable. It's now a simple matter to highlight the text and select a proper font and type size for the final printout.     To automate things even more, it is a simple matter to create a macro. While in Word click on Tools, Macro, Record. When prompted for a macro name enter one that makes sense to you. The name I chose for my macro was TextFix.     While the macro is in record mode repeat steps three, four and five. When the Replace window is closed (by clicking on Cancel in step five) click on Tools, Macro, Stop Recording. The next time you want to perform all of the steps contained in three, four and five just click on Tools, Macro and double click on the macro TextFix. It will do all of the steps as if by magic. Downloading Files     Sometimes an e-mail message contains an attached file. To download it just click on the "Download Now" button. A message box will appear likely indicating the default "download" folder that exists in your program folder. Redirect the location to the AOLfiles folder that you previously created, or any other folder you wish to download the folder into.     Sometimes I download a program. To make it easy for myself I create and name a folder with the program name I want to download. I then direct the download of the file to that folder.     The reason is twofold. Sometimes the software program you are using, AOL for example, will automatically unzip it. Sometimes a program contains more than one file. If they are extracted into a common folder it is difficult to identify what files belong to the program and which belong to something else. I've turned the automatic extraction option in AOL off!     If the downloaded file was a word processor file it can be easily opened and read with the word processor of your choice. All that is necessary to view the file is to know what type of file it is; word processor, spreadsheet etc. and use the appropriate program to open and view it.
Number 196 - September 1999