When replying to an e-mail message there are times when one needs to take care not to reply to more people than one would expect! When you receive an e-mail message from an electronic discussion group (like WALS-L, FVLC-L or WIPUBLIB) if you don't pay attention to where your reply is going it can be embarrassing when a message intended for one person ends up going out to everyone on a discussion list (especially an archived list such as PUBLIB), and it can also be annoying to the unintended recipients.

Here's what the "header" of an e-mail looks like on a message from the WALS-L discussion list:

     From: dui@winnefox.org
     Reply-To: WALS-L@winnefox.org
     To: WALS-L <WALS-L@winnefox.org>

Netscape Communicator 4.51 users: Netscape will automagically address your reply to the recipient(s) in the "Reply-To" field of the original message. So when you click the Reply button, check the address area to make sure that the message is addressed the way you want. That is, if you only want your reply to go to Melvil Dui you'll need to delete WALS-L@winnefox.org and replace it with dui@winnefox.org.

Pine users: when you reply Pine will ask, "Use "Reply-To:" address instead of "From:" address?" So if you want to reply to just the sender (Melvil Dui) tell Pine no, and if you want to send your reply to the entire list (WALS-L) tell Pine yes.

The e-mail header may vary depending on the electronic discussion group software

     From: Melville Dewey <melville.dewey@columbia.edu>
     To: fvlc-l@lawrence.edu

When working from a Web page that's chock full o' good links (gee, I don't know, maybe like the Ides) do you sometimes find it too easy to follow link after link, wander astray, and forget that you wanted to follow the other great links on the original page? Here's a trick that will allow you to keep the first page open in Netscape 4.x, and open a link in an additional session of Netscape:

1. Place your mouse pointer over any hyperlink;
2. Click the RIGHT mouse button;
3. A small popup menu will open up;
4. Click the LEFT mouse button on "Open in New Window".
5. This second session of Netscape will open up, and
6. You can see on your Windows 95/NT Taskbar that there are now two Netscape sessions open.
7. To go back to that first page, just click on the first Netscape icon on your Taskbar.

Now that you've got two sessions of Netscape open, how can you tell which Web page is on which? Just place your mouse pointer over one of the icons, and a small white box will pop up like this:

Did you write a memo last year, forget what filename you gave it, and need to find it again? Or have you recently visited a Web site you want to return to, but you didn't bookmark it? Luckily Windows 95/NT allows you to locate any file on your computer or any Web site stored in your Web browser's cache.

You can search for a document based on a key word or text, the document's file name or portion of a file name, or even by date. It can find any incidence of a keyword in a cached Web site, a document, and can even search through your PC's recycle bin. You can search either your entire PC, or any drives or directories that you choose.

Here's how to start looking:

1. Click the Windows Start button
2. Place your mouse pointer over Find
3. Then click Files or Folders
   
   
4. A small window will open and you can enter the text you're searching for in the boxes, and then click the Find Now button.
5. The default search is for Name & Location on the PC's c:\ drive, but you can click the tab marked Date or Advanced to perform other types of searches (see Windweaver's
Finding Files: Advanced Searching for details.)
6. When Find shows the result of its search, you can click on the files it lists to access them from there.
   

And if you're trying to find your sunglasses, your car keys, or even the meaning of life, try the UltimateMegaSuperExcellentSearcher instead.

The Reference and Loan Library has purchased and made available for loan audiocassettes of 52 of the programs held at this year's American Library Association annual conference. Any of the audiocassettes may be requested through interlibrary loan.

Here's a sample of some of the programs available:

• "Words Are Music: The Joys of Adult Reading Aloud Activities"
• "Libraries Build Community"
• "Building a Community of Readers"

And if you were unable to attend the WiLSWorld Conference last month, you can visit the speakers' notes and presenters' Web sites for these programs and more:

• "Libraries and Librarians for the New Millennium"
• "Virtual Reference: How to Bring Personal Service to the Web"
• "e-Books, e-Music, e-Mags, e-Yikes: Making Sense of the Library of the Future".

I can't explain why I'm in a Gilbert and Sullivan mood lately, but I just am, so here are

• "I am the Very Model of a Computerized Librarian", sung to the tune "I am the Very Model of a Modern Major General" (listen to a sound clip here)
• "I Am The Very Finest Kind of Information Scientist (or, An Ugly Trend In Library Studies)"
• Dr. Seuss’s The Pirates of Penzance
• The Librarians of Penzance: An Operatic Extravaganza, in PowerPoint.

is Green Pancakes. And if you need more new ideas for what to do with all those zucchini in your garden try the Martha Stewart Recipe Database -- I found 13 new uses for zucchini (and that's a Good Thing.)

This issue of The Ides was written on August 15, 2000
Copyright 2000, Winnefox Library System

The Ides is written by Joy Schwarz.
Please direct any questions, comments or recipes to schwarz@winnefox.org

URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/idesaug00.html