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Past Tips of The Month
All tips from before April 1999 were for AOL 3.0, however, most are still valid for AOL 4.0 & 5.0.
April 2000 Storing Your Password
March 2000 House Hunting Online
November & December 1999 Turning off Pop-Up Ads
October 1999 Add A 6th & 7th Screen Name to Your AOL Account
Save Hundreds of Dollars
September 1999 Finding A Link In Favorite Places Folder
August 1999 Get Paid To Use The Web
Monitor Your Child On The Web
July 1999 Setting Your AOL Marketing Preferences
June 1999 Turn-off auto-loading of AOL's "Channels"
May 1999 Compacting Your Personal Filing Cabinet in AOL 4.0
April 1999 Right-Click To Save Web Pages
October 1998 Saving Wav Files From a Web Page
September 1998 Syquest's SparQ Drive Is Far Superior To Iomega's Zip Drive
July & August 1998 Avoiding Computer Viruses
June 1998 Gone to Disney World :-)
May 1998 Use The e-mail Reply Feature in AOL
Alt-Tab Through Open Programs
Sending an e-mail BCC
April 1998 The "You've been idle" warning.
Make the Taskbar a "Pop-up Taskbar"
Select the Startup page for your browser
March 1998 Blocking IMs from a specific screen name
Select the Startup page for your browser
Improving the photo quality in your web browser
February 1998 Deleting Multiple E-mails in one click of the Delete button
Droping Favorite Places on the Windows '95 Desktop
Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.
January 1998 Turning off the pop-up advertisements that greet us at sign-on
Clearing the AOL Hourglass in Windows 3.1
Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.
1997's Tips of The Week
November 30, 1997 Auto-Answer the "time online" warnings
November 23, 1997 Use Stuffit to unzip zip files
November 9, 1997 Your Mail Icon Doesn't Always Work
October 26, 1997 Compacting your Personal File Cabinet
October 12, 1997 Not necessary to type "http://"
October 5, 1997 Deleting a Range of E-mails
September 28, 1997 Unzipping Files
September 21, 1997 Using Your Right Mouse Button
September 14, 1997 The Best Keyword of All
September 7, 1997 Clearing Cache
August 31, 1997 Blocking other members from adding you to their Buddy Lists
August 24, 1997 To Stop A Long Chain Letter from downloading
August 17, 1997 Auto-Answer the "time online" warnings
August 10, 1997 Buddy List Sounds
August 3, 1997 Sending an e-mail BCC
July 27, 1997 Clearing the AOL Hourglass in Windows 3.1
July 20, 1997 Using Hot Keys With AOL
July 13, 1997 Adding extra categories to your Member Profile
July 6, 1997 Turning off the pop-up advertisements that greet us at sign-on

The Tip Of The Month



April 2000

Storing Your Password

If you don't want to type your password every time you sign-on to AOL, you can have it automatically stored for you. However, you'll probably only want to do this if you are the only person who has access to your computer, or if you don't care if other family members use your account.

* Remember that when you change your password, you must update your password preferences, too.


March 2000

House Hunting Online

It's very likely that, sooner or later, you'll either be buying or selling a home. Here are links to two sites that will help you determine how much a house is really worth. At Realtor.com you'll find what's for sale and what sellers' asking prices are, and at HomePriceCheck.com you can find out what houses ACTUALLY sell for. Both of these sites are easy-to-use and free!

Find What's For Sale
www.Realtor.com

Find What Houses Actually Sell For
www.HomePriceCheck.com

November & December 1999

Turning off the pop-up advertisements that greet us at sign-on

If you're using AOL, you know about those Pop-Up advertisements that show up when you sign-on. You can turn them off. Even if you've already done this in the past, AOL will send you an e-mail telling you that your option to turn them off has expired. Pretty lame, right? Anyhow, here are the instructions for turning them off:


October 1999

Tip 1 of 2

Add A 6th & 7th Screen Name to Your AOL Account

I've been told that when you upgrade to AOL 5.0 you can have 7 screen names, instead of the current 5. If you've run out of screen names and need another, upgade to 5.0.

Other than that one enhancement I've not yet discovered any other compelling reasons to upgrade just yet.

AOL 5.0
(note: this link will only work for AOL members)


Tip 2 of 2

Save Hundreds of Dollars

If you surf the web a lot, no doubt you've seen an advertisement for this offer. For the longest time I just ignored the banners, but I finally decided to check it out, and I'm glad I did. Not only am I really saving money but I also have a credit card with my daughter's picture on it.

The First, True Internet VISA: Get online account info,download statements, email questions, sort transactions, pay bills, transfer balance, & 100% safe for Internet shopping. Save money with online approvals and rates as low as 2.9% APR! NextCard

September 1999

Finding A Link In Favorite Places Folder

If you have a long list of web sites in your Favorite Places folder (or a Favorite Places sub-folder) and you want to find a specific site, you can find it easily if you remember just one word from the Title of that site.

August 1999

Tip 1 of 2

Use "My Points"

If you enjoy surfing the web, you might as well get paid for it. You can earn points for visiting sites, and then cash those points in for free prizes from real stores. If you decide to do this, can you please tell them that "Freegags" referred you? That's the name I use for myself at My Points.

Earn FREE Rewards Just By Using the Web
Please tell them "Freegags" referred you!


Tip 2 of 2

Monitor Your Child On The Web

If you're a parent who is worried about what your child is seeing on the Web, you probably know by now that most web page blocking software is not effective. "Prudence" is a program that approaches the problem differently. "Prudence" logs the addresses of all the web sites that your child visits, so you can then review the pages to make sure that the content meets with your approval. Unless your child enjoys getting in serious trouble, he or she will be sure to avoid visiting sites that have inappropriate content.

This program is currently on the FREE products site. There's no rebate form involved; it's completely free. I'm not sure how long it will remain free, so if you want it, I recommend that you get it right now:

Click to "Prudence"


July 1999

Setting Your AOL Marketing Preferences

AOL has actually made it easier to set Marketing Preferences. By "Marketing Preferences", AOL is referring to advertising they send you via U.S. Mail, e-Mail, Pop-Up Windows and Telephone. You have the option to choose which, if any, of these types of advertising you'd like to receive.


June 1999

Turn-Off The Automatic Loading of AOL's "Channels"

If you don't want AOL's "Channels" screen to come up every time you sign-on, simply do the following:


Then, when you actually do want to use AOL's "Channels", you can get to the list from the "Channels" icon at the top of the AOL window.




May 1999

Compacting Your Personal Filing Cabinet in AOL 4.0

This will reclaim wasted space on your harddrive that is being taken up by e-mails that you've deleted.

  • Click on "My Files" icon and select the "Personal Filing Cabinet" option
  • Click the "Compact PFC" button
  • Click the "Compact Now" button
  • Click the "OK" button

April 1999

Right-Click on A Web Page to Save It

When you're on a web page and you want to save it to your Favorite Places, just right-click on the web page, and left-click on the words "Add To Favorites...". Then click the "OK" button.



October 1998

Saving Wav Files From a Web Page

This varies, depending on which web browser you're using, and even which version of the browser you are using. In most browsers, simply right-click on the text (or picture) that links to the wav file. A pop-up box comes up that then lets you choose where to Save the wav file to.



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September 1998

Syquest's SparQ Drive Is Far Superior To Iomega's Zip Drive

BAD NEWS! Syquest has either gone out of business or is about to go out of business. So, even though this was a great product, don't buy it!

This month's tip deals with hardware. Most people have heard of something called a Zip Drive. It is a diskette drive that reads from 100 meg Zip diskettes. It's made by a company named Iomega. I strongly recommend that you NOT buy one. Here's why ...

A company named Syquest makes a similar product to the Zip Drive, but the diskettes that it reads hold 10 times the information that a Zip disk can hold (1,000 meg, or 1 gig). Also, information is written to the diskette 5 times faster than it is written to a Zip Diskette. The Syquest drive is named SparQ.

The SparQ drive itself is slightly more expensive than a Zip Drive. However, the diskettes are much less expensive (per megabyte), thus, the overall cost of a SparQ drive will be less than the cost of a Zip Drive.

If you plan to share Zip Disks with family and friends that have Zip Drives, then you have to buy a Zip Drive. If you do not need to do this, and you want a good way to backup the information on your computer, a SparQ drive is much better than an Iomega Zip Drive (it'll save you time and money).

Learn more about the SparQ drive at www.syquest.com.


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July & August 1998

Tip 1 of 1

Avoiding Computer Viruses

There is only one tip this month because it's a very important tip and I'm hoping that you'll focus on this information.

VERY IMPORTANT TIP!!!

It seems to me that most people do not understand how computer viruses are passed from computer to computer. To make things worse, AOL gives flawed advice about computer viruses - saying that you should not download files (or click on links) unless they are sent to you by someone you know. This is inept and incorrect advice!!! The reality is this - even a person you know, may be unwittingly sending you a file containing a computer virus! AOL gives the advice that it gives because they think we're incapable of learning the facts about computer viruses.

Here's the real deal on computer viruses:

Computer viruses are spread by a few types of files. You'll know the file type by reading the extension at the end of the name. For instance, a file named "susan.exe" is an EXE file, a file named "homer.wav" is a WAV file.

Computer viruses can come to you in files that end in exe, zip, bat, com, doc or xls. Also, you have to both download the file and then run (or execute) the file on your computer, for the virus to be actually transmitted to your computer.

Important note: The vast majority of .exe, .bat, .com, .doc and .xls files do NOT contain viruses.

Other file types can not contain viruses! You CAN NOT get a virus from a wav, jpg, bmp, gif, avi, mov or mpg file. Stop believing that you can!

If you receive any files that have these extensions: exe, zip, bat, com, doc or xls, be sure that you know their origin. Make sure that they were either created by someone you know or are being distributed by a reputable software company.

Another way that computer viruses are passed from computer to computer is on computer diskettes. If a diskette that contains a boot-sector virus comes into your posession, you risk transmitting the virus that is on that particular diskette to your PC. Usually, the virus will be transmitted when you turn your computer on with the diskette in the disk drive. This is a very common mistake! Almost all of us have turned our computers on with a diskette accidentally left in the diskette drive from the previous time we used the computer. If that diskette had a boot sector virus on it, then your computer is infected.

There are many companies making anti-virus software. You definitely should have anti-virus software on your PC. Here's a good place to start learning about this type of software:

www.McAffe.com



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May 1998


Tip 1 of 3

Use The e-mail Reply Feature in AOL

To use the e-mail Reply feature in AOL to reply to specific text, highlight the text that you are replying to and then click Reply.

This was one of the original tips that I included on this page. It's being reprised to let new members to the site know about it. To effectively use e-mail you need to know how to use this feature!



Tip 2 of 3

Alt-Tab Through Open Programs

Hold the Alt key down and press the Tab key to cycle through programs that are open. This is an easy way to switch between programs. I've mentioned this tip before, but I mention it again now because it's very useful and most people are unaware of it.


Tip 3 of 3

Sending an e-mail BCC

When using AOL, to send a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) e-mail, simply put the e-mail addresses in parenthesis and separate them by a comma. By doing this you can e-mail a group of people all at once without them seeing the other names in the e-mail.



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April 1998


Tip 1 of 3

The "You've been idle" warning.

To prevent the "you've been idle" warning from popping up, you can either:
  1. keep a chat room open and minimize it (if you don't want to be bothered with IMs, turn them off), or
  2. open a page that updates periodically and minimize it



Tip 2 of 3

Make the Taskbar a "Pop-up Taskbar" (a Windows '95 trick)

You might dislike having your taskbar work like this. If that's the case, switch it back after trying this.

With your Taskbar set this way, you'll only see it when you point your mouse at the are where your Taskbar is located

  • Right-click on any blank area of the taskbar
  • Chose Properties from the shortcut menu
  • In the Taskbar Options tab, select Auto Hide
  • Click on OK


Tip 3 of 3

Select the Startup page for your browser

You can select your own startup page to use in your web browser. This is the page that appears when you first open your browser. If you're using AOL's browser, it's the page that opens when you click on the little globe icon at the top of your AOL screen. Personally, I start the day with The Joke of The Day page as my Start Page. Not only is it a cool page to start with, but it also has links to 4 very good start pages (one each for stocks, sports, entertainment and life links).

Here's how to change your start page in AOL:

  • In the AOL menu click on Members | Preferences | WWW
  • On the WWW options screen there is a box for Home Page
  • Replace the address that is there with this new address:

    http://members.aol.com/rich6543/jokeaday.html

    (the easiest way to do this is to copy and paste this address from this page into the preferences window)

  • Click OK
Note: You can also change the Start Page in Netscape. If you are using Netscape, refer to the Netscape menu and help for instructions.


March 1998


Tip 1 of 3

Blocking IMs from a specific screen name

If you wish to block IMs from one person send an IM to $IM_OFF screename

For example, if you wanted to block IMs from me, in an IM you'd type:

$im_off susantips

and then click on the Available button.



Tip 2 of 3

Select the Startup page for your browser

You can select your own startup page to use in your web browser. This is the page that appears when you first open your browser. If you're using AOL's browser, it's the page that opens when you click on the little globe icon at the top of your AOL screen. Personally, I start the day with The Joke of The Day page as my Start Page. Not only is it a cool page to start with, but it also has links to 4 very good start pages (one each for stocks, sports, entertainment and life links).

Here's how to change your start page in AOL:

  • In the AOL menu click on Members | Preferences | WWW
  • On the WWW options screen there is a box for Home Page
  • Replace the address that is there with this new address:

    http://members.aol.com/rich6543/jokeaday.html

    (the easiest way to do this is to copy and paste this address from this page into the preferences window)

  • Click OK
Note: You can also change the Start Page in Netscape. If you are using Netscape, refer to the Netscape menu and help for instructions.

Tip 3 of 3

Improving the photo quality in your web browser

I've referred to this tip in the past but I know a lot of people are still not aware of this. PCs are often shipped with their graphics setting set to dislpay at 256 colors. However, most PCs can display graphics with more than 256 different colors. If your PC has the ability to display 64,000 or 16 million colors, you might want to switch to this higher color level. The reason is simple - photographic images will be clearer.

In Windows '95 it's relatively easy to switch color-settings and it's safe to do. If you are using Windows 3.1 or 3.11 it is not easy to change color-settings unless your PC came with a program that was made specifically for this chore. I'm not going to give instructions for changing your color-level in Windows 3.1 or 3.11.

In Windows '95

  1. Right-click on the Desktop area.
  2. Click on "Properties"
  3. Click the tab for "Settings"
  4. You should now be seeing the settings for "Color Palette" and "Desktop Area" Since there are many different types of graphics cards and monitors, I can not tell you what options are available to you under these 2 settings. If your "Color Palette" is set to 256 (8-bit) colors and you're given the option to increase it to a higher-level, this is where you would do that.

Technical Note:

8-bit = 256 colors
16-bit = 64,000 colors
24-bit = 16.7 million colors
32-bit = billions of colors (i forget the precise number)


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February 1998


Tip 1 of 3

Deleting Multiple E-mails in one click of the Delete button

    Hold down the Ctrl key while you are clicking on e-mails on the list. When you are finished selecting e-mails to delete, let go of Ctrl key and click the Delete button.

    To delete a continuous range of e-mails, hold down the shift key and click on the first e-mail you want to delete and the last one you want to delete in a range of e-mails. Then release the shift key and click the delete button.



Tip 2 of 3

Droping Favorite Places on the Windows '95 Desktop

If you take one of your favorite place hearts, and drag it onto your "desktop", it will create an Icon.

Then, the next time you click that Icon, it will not only start AOL, but go straight to your favorite place. This is assuming that your password is automatically entered.


Tip 3 of 3

Yes, it's back again for the third month in a row! This tip has resulted in so much positive feedback that I've decided to keep it here on the home page for one more month.

Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.


It's a shareware program that you are allowed to use for 15 days and will cost you $5 to use beyond that point.

This program can be found at www.tpasoft.com


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January 1998

I'm starting this year's AOL Tips with the 3 best tips from 1997. I made the choices. Please, no complaints!

Tip 1 of 3

Turning off the pop-up advertisements that greet us at sign-on
  • use keyword: Marketing Prefs
  • choose "Tell Us What Your Pop-Up Preferences Are."
  • Once in this screen, you will see a button in the lower right hand corner which says "Click here if you would like to receive special member benefit pop-up offers." Click on this button.
  • Once you click on this, another box will appear and read: "I prefer not to receive special member benefit popup offers from AOL."
  • You must click on the small square that comes before this sentence.
  • An "X" should appear in the box.
  • Once you have done this you can click on "OK" and your request will be completed.



Tip 2 of 3

Clearing the AOL Hourglass in Windows 3.1

Every now and then you find yourself frustrated by the AOL hourglass. Here's how you break out of the hourglass mode:

  1. When AOL's hourglass icon appears ...
  2. Click on the "dash" in the upper lefthand corner of the AOL screen (if you're using Windows '95, instead of a dash, you'll see a tiny AOL icon).
  3. Now hold down the mouse button and move your pointer over to the Help option.
  4. In the Help menu click on the About option.
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. Mission accomplished :-)


Tip 3 of 3

Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.


It's a shareware program that you are allowed to use for 15 days and will cost you $5 to use beyond that point.

This program can be found at www.tpasoft.com




November 30, 1997

Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.

This program can be found at www.tpasoft.com

It's a shareware program that you are allowed to use for 15 days and will cost you $5 to use beyond that point.


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November 23, 1997

Use Stuffit to unzip zip files

  • Click on the AOL File Search icon (it's the icon with a diskette and a magnifying glass).
  • Then type "stuffit" in the "Enter a Search Definition" field.
  • The name of the program is sitex10.exe
  • Read the instructions
  • Download sitex10.exe
  • Install it on your PC
  • Then when you receive a zip file, all you will need to do to unzip it, is click on it's file name in File Manager or My Computer.


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November 9, 1997

Your Mail Icon Doesn't Always Work

Believe it or not, there are times when the mail icon becomes deactivated and you will not be aware that you have e-mail. If you haven't received e-mail in a while, but think you should have received something, click on Mail | Read New Mail.


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October 26, 1997

Compacting your Personal File Cabinet

This will reclaim space on your harddrive that is being taken up by e-mails that you've deleted. Even if you do not use the Personal File Cabinet this will reclaim harddrive space on your PC if you use Flash Sessions and the Incoming Mail features.

  • Click on File | Personal File Cabinet
  • Click the "Compact PFC" button
  • Click the "Compact Now" button

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October 12, 1997

Not necessary to type "http://"

When typing a web page address, it's not necessary to type the "http://" at the beginning of the web address. In some browsers it's not necessary to type the "www." either.


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October 5, 1997

Deleting a Range of E-mails

  • Click on the first e-mail you want to delete
  • Hold down Shift key and click on last e-mail in the range of e-mails you want to delete.
  • This will highlight the entire range of e-mails
  • Now press the Delete key on your Keyboard
  • Click on "OK"


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September 28, 1997

Unzipping files

To unzip Zip or SIT files ... select Members | Preferences and click on Download icon. Then select "Automatically decompress file at sign-off".


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September 21, 1997

Using Your Right Mouse Button

You can use your right mouse button to get to many menu features FAST!!! Use it and see!!!


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September 14, 1997

The Best Keyword of All

Most people know that you use the Keyword menu option in AOL to go directly to an area of AOL. But did you know that choosing Keyword "Keywords" will give you a listing of all the AOL Keywords? If you're looking for a good way to become better aware of what AOL has to offer, study the list for a few minutes.
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September 7, 1997

Clearing Cache

This tip is for AOL 3.0. If you are surfing the web using AOL's browser, and your PC begins to grind to a hault ...
  • In the AOL Browser menu click on Members
  • Then click Preferences
  • Then click on WWW
  • Click on Advanced
  • Click Purge Cache
  • This will clear memory (RAM) for your PC to use
  • If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape as your web browser, the option to clear memory cache is also available from their menus

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August 31, 1997

Blocking other members from adding you to their Buddy Lists

  • In the Buddy List window, click on the Setup icon
  • Click on the Preferences icon
  • Then click on "Block all members" or "Block only the members below"

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August 24, 1997

To Stop A Long Chain Letter...

To stop a long chain letter from downloading, simply press the ESC key on your keyboard.


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August 17, 1997

Terminator: A program that auto-answers the "time online" warnings.

This program can be found at www.tpasoft.com

It's a shareware program that you are allowed to use for 15 days and will cost you $5 to use beyond that point.


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August 10, 1997

Buddy List Sounds

  • Click on Setup in Buddy List
  • Then click on Preferences
  • Then click Sound Library
  • click on Download Buddy Sound Installer "Door Theme"
  • once that file is downloaded run it from the Run line
  • Buddoor.exe is the name of the file
  • then you'll need to go into Control Panel
  • Click on Sound
  • Set Buddyin setting to Buddyin.wav file
  • you also have to be sure that "Play sound when buddies sign on" is checked in Preferences area of Buddy List Setup

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August 3, 1997

Sending an e-mail BCC

To send a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) e-mail, simply put the e-mail addresses in parenthesis and separate them by a comma.

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July 27, 1997

Clearing the AOL Hourglass in Windows 3.1

Every now and then you find yourself frustrated by the AOL hourglass. Here's how you break out of the hourglass mode:

  1. When AOL's hourglass icon appears ...
  2. Click on the "dash" in the upper lefthand corner of the AOL screen (if you're using Windows '95, instead of a dash, you'll see a tiny AOL icon).
  3. Now hold down the mouse button and move your pointer over to the Help option.
  4. In the Help menu click on the About option.
  5. Click the OK button.
  6. Mission accomplished :-)

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July 20, 1997

Using Hot Keys With AOL

Many AOL features that you normally access by clicking on menu options can also be accessed using "Hot Key" combinations. You can find some of these "Hot Key" combinations next to various menu options. The advantage of using "Hot Keys" is that you can keep your hands on the keyboard and not have to deal with your mouse or pointer device as often.

Some useful Hot Key combinations

Ctrl/CCopies text to the Windows' Clipboard
Ctrl/XCuts text and places it on the Windows' Clipboard
Ctrl/VPastes text to the Windows' Clipboard
Ctrl/GOpens the "Get a Member's Profile" box.
Ctrl/LOpens the "Locate Member Online" box.
Ctrl/IOpens the "Send Instant Message" box.
Ctrl/EnterTo send an IM
Ctrl/MOpens a Compose Mail window.
Ctrl/TABCycles you through you open AOL windows.
Alt/TABCycles you through all open Windows programs.

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July 13, 1997

Adding extra categories to your Member Profile
I believe this tip is no longer valid. I suspect that the changes AOL made to it's Member Profile Window has made this trick obsolete.
  1. Pull up any profile besides your own.
  2. Highlight the space between "Member Name:" and the answer.
  3. Go to Edit at the top of the screen, and click on Copy.
  4. Go to Keyword: Profile
  5. Click at the end of any text box (where you fill in your info).
  6. Go back up to Edit at the top, and click on Paste (this will create a small square).
  7. hold Ctrl and press Backspace (this will create a second small square).
  8. Decide what you want to call the category, and type the category title!
  9. Go back up to Edit at the top, and click on Paste (this will create a third square).
  10. Now fill in the information to go with the category you just created.
  11. You can make as many extra categories as the profile will hold.
  12. Enjoy!

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July 6, 1997

Turning off the pop-up advertisements that greet us at sign-on
  • use keyword: Marketing Prefs
  • choose "Tell Us What Your Pop-Up Preferences Are."
  • Once in this screen, you will see a button in the lower right hand corner which says "Click here if you would like to receive special member benefit pop-up offers." Click on this button.
  • Once you click on this, another box will appear and read: "I prefer not to receive special member benefit popup offers from AOL."
  • You must click on the small square that comes before this sentence.
  • An "X" should appear in the box.
  • Once you have done this you can click on "OK" and your request will be completed.


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