A signature file is used by your e-mail software to include contact information about you in every message you send. A signature file is an easy way to identify yourself and offer contact information about you and your library (phone, fax, Web site URL, etc.) Each time you send an e-mail your signature file will automagically be appended!

If you use Pine, a signature file was set up for you when your account was created. But if you use Netscape Communicator or another e-mail application, you may need to "roll your own," just follow these steps:

Step 1:
Create your signature file

a. Click on Windows 95 or WindowsNT Start Button | Programs | Accessories | Notepad.

b. Enter the basic information about you and your library, which may include:

• Your name
• Your job title
• Library name
• Library street address
• City, WI, Zip code
• E-mail address
• Voice phone number
• Fax number
• Your library's Web site URL (make sure to use the http:// prefix so it's a "clickable" hyperlink).

You can use punctuation or spacing to put this information on 4 or 5 lines, like this:

Melvil Dui                           | e-mail: dui@winnefox.org 
Technical Services Manager           | phone: 920-233-8383 
Sanford Berman Public Library        | fax: 920-235-0123
Packertown, WI                       | Web site: http://www.winnefox.org/ 
"If you didn't want them to think, you shouldn't have given them library cards."
                                                     -- Robert Kaufman

c. Save the file by clicking Notepad's menu bar File | Save As, choose your My Documents folder and name the document "signature.txt".

Step 2:
Set your e-mail application's preferences to use your new signature file.

a. Open Netscape 4.51 Communicator.

b. On the Netscape menu bar click Edit, then Preferences.

c. Double click the Mail & Newsgroups folder, and click on Identity. The bottom field is Signature File, and you can either...

• click the Choose button to locate your new signature file -- once you've found it, click the Open button, and then click the OK button, or
• type in the pathname and filename and click the OK button.

d. Send yourself a test message to see if your new signature looks right, and you're set!

Pine users: if you need any changes made to your signature file ...
if you're familiar with editing in SmarTerm you can edit the file "signature.txt", or
you can contact Karla Smith and ask her to edit your signature file.

And if you want to spruce up your signature file with a quote, peruse The Laughing Librarian's Lib.Sigs.: Quotations for Librarians' E-mail Signature Files. I like this one from Will Manley: "In fact a few simple mathematical calculations reveal that if reference librarians were paid at market rates for all the roles they play, they would have salaries well over $200,000."

Even though the Netscape status bar may say "Reading File...Done" the Web page may still be blank, and sometimes its hard to tell when a Web page has finished loading. Just look at the animated N logo in the upper right-hand corner of Netscape, and if you see shooting stars it means the Web browser is either searching for or loading a new page and a transfer is in progress. The "meteor shower" stops when the entire Web page is loaded or when the transfer has stopped. 

The Windows 9x and WindowsNT Taskbar indicates your minimized programs -- that is programs you have opened and which are still active.

Problem: Your Windows 9x or NT Taskbar buttons are too tiny. After you open SmarTerm, Netscape Navigator, MSWord, your e-mail application, the My Documents folder, and any other applications or windows you need to multi-task, the buttons on the Taskbar are so tiny that only the program icon and a few letters are visible!

Solution: Resize the height of the Taskbar so it shows more buttons. Follow these steps:

1. Put your mouse pointer at the upper edge of the Taskbar until you see a double-headed arrow.
2. Now hold down the mouse's left button, and drag the border of the Taskbar up to add enough rows to make the Taskbar buttons more readable.
3. W
hen you want to shrink your Taskbar, follow step one but drag the border inward to reduce the amount of rows.

For more tips on customizing the Taskbar, read the article "Working With the Taskbar" from Inside Microsoft Windows95 magazine.

Are you on the routing list for a journal, but by the time you get it the "hot" news is "cold"? Or is there a journal that's peripheral to the library field, but still has articles you find useful? And it's not available fulltext in EbscoHost? Consider visiting some of these publications' Web sites -- quite a few of them m offer many of their articles fulltext online:

• Computers in Libraries
• LJDigital (the "electronic offshoot of Library Journal", kind of like LJHotline)
• American Libraries
• Booklist
• Library Trends
• Information Today
• PCWorld
• Wired

Ever heard of a punning game called "Bess Sellers?" It consists of a made-up book title linked with a made-up author, such as "The Broken Window" by Eva Brick. The Atlantic magazine held a contest (edited by Rita Lott and Paige Turner) where the punning was escalated by suggesting for each title two authors. Visit the list of contest winners to groan over bogus books like "Life of the Caveman" by Milo Forehead and Anne Thropology and "Military Recruitment Pamphlet" by John D. Army and C.D. World.

Rueben in the Round Crescents.

This issue of The Ides was written on March 15, 2000

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

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