If you receive an e-mail message from someone whom you'd like to add to your list of contacts, you don't have to manually enter all the contact information about that person. You can automagically add them to your contacts by following these steps:

1. Open an e-mail message, and in the From, To or Cc field use your mouse to right-click the name you want to add to your contacts.
   
   
2. Then click "Add to Contacts" on the menu.
   
   
   
3. When the entry for the contact opens, the name and e-mail address will be filled in for you. You may want to add other information as well.
   
   
4. Click the "Save and Close" button on the Contact toolbar.

For more tips on contacts consult the WALS Online Web Site: Contacts.

If you need to re-visit a web site you saw recently, but you didn't set a favorite for it, don't worry -- use Internet Explorer's History bar. Wherever you go on the Web, IE keeps a constantly updated list of the pages you visit, and stores them in its History file.

1. To open the History Bar click on the Internet Explorer History button:
   
   
   
2. You can expand links to web pages by clicking on the folder next to the web page's title and URL.
   
   
   
3. By default the links in History are sorted in order by the date you visited them, but you can click on "View" and choose from three other options:
   
   
   
4. If your History list is large, you may want to use the Search function instead:
   
   
   
5. To re-size the History Bar, use your mouse to click and drag the border between the left and right panes, until the History window is the size you prefer.
   
   
6. When you're finished, click on the x in the History Bar window to close it.
   

Fragmentation of a computer's hard drive occurs naturally when creating, deleting, and modifying files. It happens most often when a large number of files have been added to a drive, as in installing a new piece of software.

The reason this happens is because Windows doesn't write files in adjacent areas on the PC's hard disk, and these files get divided into pieces scattered around the disk. When you reopen your files and programs the hard disk heads may have to skip all over the drive -- beginning, middle and end -- to read all the data into memory. This is invisible to you, but it can slow down the speed that data is accessed because the disk drive has to search through different parts of the disk to put together a single file. Even creating new files takes longer because Windows must locate free space that's scattered around the hard disk.

Without regularly scheduled disk defragmentation, the performance of even the fastest MHz PC can get bogged down. Periodically running a disk defragmenter can help cure this problem by reorganizing the file structure of your hard disk by placing individual pieces of a file into consecutive order.

To get your copy of the defragmenter utility so you can improve and maintain your Windows NT workstation's performance, just follow these steps:

1. Click on this link for "Disk Defragmenter for NT" (or you can also download the free software directly from Executive Software's web site) and it's ready to be downloaded to your PC.
2. In the "Save As" window, either accept the default installation location, or click the "Browse" button to choose a different directory. Then click the Save button.
   
3. Close all programs and software applications you have open.
4. Locate the newly-downloaded file (named defrag.exe) and double-click the file to install the software on your PC.

To run the defragmenter,

1. Open Diskeeper Lite.
   
   
2. Double-click the Diskeeper Lite Analyze button
   
   
   to get a window that looks like this:
   
   where you can click the OK button to proceed.
   
   
3. Next, click the Defragment button
   
   and you can watch the software go to work on your PC's hard drive. A PC this fragmented took about 15-20 minutes to defrag:

You can multitask and run other programs while defragmentation is occurring, but performance of the other open processes will probably be slowed down.

If you weren't able to attend the Public Library Association conference last March you might want to borrow cassette recordings of the conference programs. Seventy-three sessions were recorded, and a list of the titles available for loan from the Reference & Loan Library can be found at R&LL's Audiovisual Materials and Services page in .pdf format. For program handouts and descriptions of the sessions check the PLA 2002 Conference web site. These cassettes may be borrowed through regular interlibrary loan channels.

On the eve of the opening day of "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" I thought it fitting to introduce you to Madame Jocastu Nu, Jedi Librarian. Perhaps she could teach us some Jedi mind tricks like, "These aren't the books you're looking for."

"The comfort that his library time afforded him was unexpected, welcome. As the weeks passed, he became aware of how much the place, the press, the steady flow of people, the scent of glue and binding, the scent of books pleased him. At first he could not articulate what he felt about it, and then one day he realized that he felt invited into meaning there, that the world seemed large when viewed through the library's broad windows. "
   -- Kathleen Cambor, In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden

It's spring, so whip up some yummy Rhubarb Custard Bars.

This issue of The Ides was written on May 15, 2002
Copyright 2001, Winnefox Library System

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

URL: http://www.winnefox.org/ides/idesmay02.html