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Miscellaneous Tips, Tricks and Easter Eggs
| Internet Explorer 4 | FrontPage 98 | FrontPage Express |
| Outlook 97/98 | Windows 95/98 Games | Word 97 |
| ICQ | USNF '97 | Quake II |
| Office 95/97 | Windows 95 | Windows NT 4 |
Credits(also works in FrontPage 97)
- Start FrontPage Explorer.
- With FrontPage Explorer application open, hold down the Shift key
- Select Help | About
- Click OK
- With the Shift key still held down, click on Help | About for the second time
- Click OK
- With the Shift key still held down, click on Help | About for the last time
- The credits screen should appear with a song
To spell check or not to spell check
- Highlight a piece of text.
- Click on spell check.
- It will say Spell Checker checked your document but it really only check the piece of highlighted text.
- This can be useful if you only want to check certain text and not an entire document.
Here are some of FrontPage 98's Bugs:
- When the FrontPage Editor in FrontPage 97 and FrontPage 98 parses HTML, unknown
attributes are discarded for the following tags: AREA, B, BASE, BASEFONT, BGSOUND, BIG,
BLINK, CENTER, CITE, CODE, DFN, DIV, EM, FONT, HEAD, HTML, MAP, META, NEXTID, NOFRAMES,
OPTION, SAMP, SCRIPT, SMALL, STRIKE, S, STRONG, SUB, SUP, TITLE, TT, U, VAR, NOEMBED,
PARAM. Microsoft's workaround: To write HTML with unknown attributes to the above tags,
put the entire tag into an HTML Markup section.
- When you change the page title in the Page Properties dialog box in FrontPage Editor,
the change to the title will not reflected in the folder pane in Navigation view in
FrontPage Explorer. Microsoft says this isn’t a bug but a feature.
- In FrontPage Explorer in Microsoft FrontPage 98, if you rename a page that is the destination of a hyperlink in a page that is open in HTML view in FrontPage Editor, the hyperlink will not be updated even if you clicked Yes when FrontPage Explorer prompted you to update the pages so that the hyperlinks would not be broken. The work-around: To update the HTML source of the file that is open in FrontPage Editor, choose the Normal tab before you switch to FrontPage Explorer. Then you should rename the file that is the destination of a hyperlink.
- You may receive the following error message if you attempt to use the Registration Form Handler in FrontPage 98 (or the FrontPage Registration WebBot in previous versions of FrontPage and FrontPage for the Power Macintosh) on a web site running the Internet Information Server (IIS), and view the properties of the page: "This server does not support registered end users." This message appears because the Internet Information Server does not allow users to register through their browser for access to a web. This is by design, and thus there is no workaround.
- In Microsoft FrontPage 98, the Script Wizard button in the Script dialog box will not be
available when Other is selected, and if you try to use the Script Wizard in FrontPage 97,
you'll encounter the following message: "This document contains scripts in an
unsupported language, which will be ignored." This problem occurs because if you use
a language other than VBScript or JavaScript, the Script Wizard will not display any of
the procedures or objects contained in the script.
- Microsoft reports the following problem in FrontPage 98: When you browse the home page
of a web containing several top-level pages and on which you inserted a navigation bar,
you may not see any links to other top-level pages. When you browse one of the other
top-level pages, these pages will not contain links to the other top-level pages although
they will contain a link to the home page. You will need to set the Top Level option in
the Navigation Bar Properties dialog box. Here's how:
1) In FrontPage Editor, go to the Insert menu and click Navigation Bar.
2) Under Hyperlinks To Include, choose Top Level, then click OK and save the Page. Links to all the top-level pages will now appear in the navigation bar when you click Preview In Browser on the File menu. - Some of these bugs are fixed in the FrontPage 98b Update.
Compose a Theme
You can apply any of FrontPage 98's design themes to your entire site in a matter of
seconds. Select Themes from the Views bar on the left-hand side of the screen, select Use
Selected Theme and choose a theme. To apply a different theme to an individual page, open
that page in FrontPage Editor and select Format/Theme.
Customize Your Nav Bars
FrontPage automatically generates universal navigation buttons for your site and labels
them according to the corresponding page's title-with the exception of the Home, Up, Back
and Next buttons. You can customize these labels by choosing the Tools/Web Settings option
and selecting the Navigation tab. Replace the default settings with your custom names.
Little Orphan Web Page
You can easily find orphaned pages (without any hyperlinks pointing to them) on your site
with FrontPage 98. Choose View/All Files, then click on the column header labeled Orphan.
This will sort all your site's orphaned files (HTML, graphics and so on) into one group.
Double-clicking on any entry will launch the file in your browser so you can quickly
determine whether you still need it.
Don't Repeat Yourself
Duplicate files can make managing a site extremely difficult. Use FrontPage's View/All
Files option to locate all duplicate files. Click on the Name column and FrontPage will
sort all your site's files by name (regardless of any folder they may reside in) so you
can easily locate duplicates across your entire site.
Cascading Style Sheets, Part I
FrontPage 98 supports the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) open Web standard. To add a CSS to
your page, select your target text and choose Format/Font/Special Styles. In the Font
dialog box, select the Style button and specify the properties you want to incorporate.
Cascading Style Sheets, Part II
You can also customize and save your own CSS templates. Select Format/Stylesheet and the
style-sheet dialog will open. From here, you can add HTML directly, or you can click on
the Style button and specify style characteristics. When you return to the style-sheet
dialog, FrontPage will insert the corresponding code for you.
Send Form Results to E-Mail
If you want to automatically forward form results to an e-mail address, right-click on the
form field after creating your form. Select Form Properties from the pop-up menu. Select
the Send To: option and enter the e-mail address to which you want the results sent.
Thumbnails Express
FrontPage makes it easy to create thumbnail versions of images. First, insert the original
image into a page, then select the image and choose Auto Thumbnail from the Tools menu. A
smaller version will appear on the page. FrontPage even automatically hyperlinks the
thumbnail to the original, full-sized image. To modify thumbnail properties, open
Tools/Options and select the Auto Thumbnail tab.
View All Tasks
When you mark a task complete in the Tasks view, the task is not deleted, but it is
removed from the active view. You can view completed and uncompleted tasks by enabling
Task History from the View menu.
Java Jolt
FrontPage lets you add Java applet hover buttons to your site. These buttons animate,
change color or trigger a sound when a cursor hovers over them. From the Insert menu,
select Active Elements/Hover Button. In the dialog box that appears, you can customize the
default text and actions, and specify your own images or sounds using the Custom button.
Use Image Bullets
Standard HTML bullets can be a little boring, so use custom images in place of plain
bullets. First, create a standard bulleted list, then open Format/Bullets and Numbering
and select the Image Bullets tab. Browse the list until you find a suitable image. In
addition, if you've selected a theme for your site, FrontPage will automatically insert
image bullets consistent with the theme.
Options Galore
You may occasionally find that choosing a menu item doesn't’t always yield the same
results as clicking on the associated toolbar button. For example, clicking the New button
on the toolbar creates a blank page, but choosing File/New brings up the New Page dialog
box, from which you can select different page templates. Typically, when the actions
differ, the toolbar button is more likely to contain only one option, while a menu item
may reveal more.
Get out of the Gutter
Stop text from bumping up against your images by adding white space. The easy way is to
assign numerical values to the HSPACE and VSPACE attributes of the IMG tag. For browsers
that don't support these attributes, insert the image into a single-cell borderless HTML
table with Cellpadding equal to 15 or so. Or set the table's alignment to left or right to
force text to wrap around the table (and image)
Table Talk
If you rely on HTML tables for precise layout and spacing, always assign a value to table
attributes. For example, some browsers will assume a value of 1 for Cellpadding and
Cellspacing, which could create unwanted space in the table. Set the value to 0 to avoid
this. Unless you want the browser to determine the width of a table, always assign a Width
value for your tables, either in percentages or pixels.
Tips on Tips
For more tips on HTML, JavaScript and other Web goodies, visit WinMag's Web Resource
Center at http://www.winmag.com/web.
The Consummate Spacer GIF
HTML isn't very accommodating when it comes to precise layout, leading and spacing,
particularly within straight text. To overcome this programming handicap, use a spacer
GIF. Using your favorite image editor, create a 1x1-pixel GIF file and add a transparency
to it. Insert the image into your HTML page wherever you need extra space and increase the
Height and Width attributes of the IMG tag until you achieve the desired amount of white
space. It's ideal for creating paragraph indents and custom text leading.
The Web-Safe Color Palette
Standard browsers (on both PC and Mac) support only 216 colors when displaying graphics in
256-color resolution. Images containing colors outside this exclusive palette will appear
dithered, or pixelated. For clean graphics, design images and choose HTML colors that
adhere to this palette. Download the palette as a swatch for PhotoShop or as a GIF file
for import into an image editor's color palette from WinMag's Web site at http://www.winmag.com/wow/0801t4.htm.
Shaded Tables, Part I
The good news: Shaded tables (the BGCOLOR attribute of the TABLE and TD tags) can add
color and life to a dull page without relying on large graphics. Add the
BGCOLOR="#CC0000" attribute (where CC0000 is the ASCII equivalent of whatever
color you want) to your TABLE or TD tags and watch your page come to life.
Shaded Tables, Part II
The bad news: Some browsers (such as AOL and Navigator 2.0) don't support shaded tables.
If you're relying on shaded tables for a page's integrity, try adding BORDER=1 to create a
1-pixel border to help separate tables. Also, avoid using white text within shaded tables.
Browsers that don't support shaded tables may not display the text at all if the HTML
background color is set to white.
Universal Design
To be sure most surfers see your Web pages in the best light, check your page on multiple
browsers: Navigator 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0; Internet Explorer 3.0 and later; and America
Online's default browser. You should also check a page's integrity under multiple screen
resolutions and color depths, as well as with varied default font sizes under your
browser.
The Table Gap
While hard returns within code are not supposed to affect HTML layout, Navigator sometimes
displays unwanted gaps between cells of tables, which is particularly noticeable in shaded
tables. If that happens, chances are you've got hard returns between your TD tags and
their contents. Remove them. Also, set your Cellpadding and Cellspacing equal to 0 in the
Table tag.
Mind Your Margins
Avoid long text-based pages that scroll on forever horizontally and vertically. Create
left and right margins by inserting text into a borderless, fixed table with Cellpadding
and Cellspacing values pumped up, or add a blank, fixed-width cell on either side of your
main text cell. Also, avoid endless vertical scrolling by breaking up longer documents
into multiple pages and incorporating navigational elements (such as a table of contents
and Ahead To or Back To links) on the smaller pages.
FrontPage Express vs. FrontPage
Don't confuse FrontPage Express with FrontPage. FrontPage Express, which comes free with
Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows 98, offers basic HTML document editing functions.
Microsoft's FrontPage is a commercial product for HTML editing plus site management, link
tracking and page design. If you have only a handful of Web pages to maintain, save your
money-FrontPage Express should do just fine.
Right-Click Rulez!
Right-click just about any item in a FrontPage Express document, and you'll get a menu of
changes you can make for that item. This includes selected text, forms, tables, horizontal
lines, bulleted lists, Java applets and images.
Gimme a Break
If you want to put a line-break tag (<BR>) into an HTML document rather than a
paragraph mark (<P>), press Shift+Enter at the end of the line.
Show Good Form
FrontPage Express lets you design forms the WYSIWYG way. Select Insert/Form Field from the
menu. If the cursor is already inside a form, the field will be added to the current form.
Otherwise, FrontPage Express creates a new form and inserts the new field into this new
form.
Hide and Seek
If you need to add hidden fields to a form, right-click inside the form and then select
Form Properties. You can set or change hidden fields in the resulting dialog. CGI programs
generally don't distinguish hidden fields from fields entered by the user, so hidden
fields are an excellent way to pass information to a CGI program without cluttering up
your form.
Count the Seconds
FrontPage Express' status bar includes an estimate of how long it will take to load the
current page and all its graphics with a typical 28.8Kb-per-second modem. If the load time
of your page exceeds 30 seconds, reduce the load time by eliminating graphics, removing
Java applets or splitting a large page into smaller ones.
Crack the Code
FrontPage Express' WYSIWYG features are great, but sometimes you'll still want to see the
exact HTML codes being inserted into your document. Or you may need to add special HTML
codes that aren't supported by FrontPage Express. In such cases, select View/HTML from the
menu and you'll get a window that allows you to view and edit the raw HTML code.
Got No Bot? Worry Not!
The form field validation features of FrontPage Express depend on a FrontPage server
feature called bots. FrontPage Express inserts the validation instructions as HTML
comments next to the field being validated, and the bots on the server look at the
comments for their marching orders. Even if you don't have FrontPage installed on your
server, you can use these imbedded comments as documentation for what data validation
should be done by your own custom CGI program or database server. So use form field
validation liberally, even if you don't own FrontPage.
Use Your Height and Width
When you insert a graphic with FrontPage Express, the image tag's HEIGHT and WIDTH
properties are not automatically inserted. It's a good idea to specify size because it
helps pages to load and redraw quickly. To turn this on, right-click on the graphic,
select Image Properties, click the Appearance tab and check the Specify Size box.
FrontPage Express will already have filled in the actual height and width of the graphic
for you.
Hyperlinks Made Easy
Turn the chore of creating Web hyperlinks into a point-and-click operation. Inside
FrontPage Express, open all the local documents you plan to link together. Highlight the
text you want to use for your link. Then select Insert/Hyperlink. From the Open Pages tab,
select the document you want this hyperlink to reference. If that document has any
bookmarks, you can select one of them here as well. If the link needs to reference a page
you don't have open in FrontPage Express, you can type in the URL manually on the World
Wide Web tab.
In Search of Bookmarks
You might think you'd be able to insert a bookmark from the Insert menu. You'd be wrong:
the Bookmark item is on the Edit menu. To insert a new bookmark, place the cursor at the
point in the document where you want a bookmark. Then select Edit/Bookmark. Type in the
new bookmark name and press OK. In HTML terms, this is equivalent to placing <A
NAME="bookmarkname"> into the document.
Windows 95 - The Shadow Knows
Highlight any desktop icons by clicking on it once. Press F1 to call upon Help. Click on the Find tab. If this is your first time, follow the wizard along.
- Click on the Options... button. On the radio box(the
on with tiny circles to select) Select
All the words you type in order.
- From the Show word that dropdown list, select begin with the
characters you type.
- Click on OK to return to the Find tab. Type in the
text box Who knows who built this tool? Hold down Ctrl+Shift
and click the Clear button.
- Click the Options... button again and this time, on the radio box
select At least one of the words you type and from the dropdown list,
select contains the characters you type.
- Back at the Find tab, type The Shadow knows!. Hold down Ctrl+Shift again and click the Clear button.
The credits screen will appear. Whew!
Windows 95 - Credits Screen
The Microsoft programmers aren't easily satisfied are they? Well, that's because the have included another credits screen! This one is a multimedia toy, a boon to music freaks. However, it is rather tricky. You have to rename the folder 3 times!
Right-click the desktop, and select New, Folder.
Name the folder exactly as written, and now, the moment you've all been waiting
for
Press F2 to rename it into we proudly present for your viewing
pleasure
Press F2 again to rename it into The Microsoft Windows 95 Product
Team!
Now double-click it to see it in action.
Windows 95 - Bill Gates' Horse
- When Windows 95 is loading, wait until you see the mouse cursor in the middle of a black screen
- Press in the following keys in this order :
- Ctrl, F6, Right Shift, Del, then click the right mouse button.
- If you do it before the black screen is replaced by wallpaper, it will show Bill Gates' horse, Nugget.
Windows 95-3D Screensaver
Try out this cool Screensaver trick. In the screen saver settings dialog select '3D Text' as your screen saver. Click 'Settings' and change the text to be displayed to Volcano. The screen saver will now display names of different volcanoes.
Windows NT 4-3D Screensaver
To those of you who is using the Windows NT you may enjoy this trick. Open the Display properties. Click on the Settings of the 3D Text screen saver. In the Text box, type volcano. You will see different volcano names displayed. Now, to see the credits screen, repeat the process but type Not Evil in the text box. The programmers of Windows NT will appear. Also try I love NT.
Bugs
You want someone's IP address, but they have set it to be hidden when you Info their UIN. You can bypass this by just clicking Disconnect, and then Info the user. Like the pulling the rabbit out of the hat...
Another bug is when you pop up a new message window (to anyone), and Click and Drag the More button. Now click the More button once more...bye bye buttons. This can be done in any box with the More button.
Tip
- Open ICQ
- Click and hold on a nick name in your ICQ list
- Drag the nick name to your desktop
- Voila! the person's nick name is there and you can fully utilize it like you would by opening the whole menu stuff. To get rid of it drag it back to the ICQ menu.
Quake 2 - Developers' Photos/Tank
- Go to the last level, Final Showdown
- Once you have finished the boss Makron, find 2 stepplates on this floor and step on them
- Then you will see an entrance that leads to a place below, other than where you started
- There's a switch in the middle. Press on it and turn behind
- Shoot the wall in the front and it will explode
- Walk in and you will be in a room called id Gallery
- Step on every switch on front of every photo to see them
- Then there will be a hole leading to down under, with a ladder
- Get down and you will see a tank
Quake 2 - Weird Message
- After you have completed Reactor Unit and are ready to go to the Big Gun, return to the Cooling Facility
- Go through the Cooling Facility up to the outside area where the upper canal begins and there is a pool with three pipes going up the wall
- In the pool you will notice that an underwater passage has opened
- Swim through it into the room and you will see the big pipe with a crack in it
- Shoot and enter it
- The screen will read Design is law
Atomic Mothballs
- Hold down Alt, Ctrl, and the right Shift key while you select Fly Quick Mission
- Keep holding these keys while you select all of the things you want to have on the mission
- In the Select Aircraft screen, you should be able to choose the Atomic Moth
- While you're still holding the keys, click OK
- Enjoy the mission--it takes a lot of Atomic Mothballs to destroy a TU Bear
Microsoft Office 95/97 - Easter Egg
- Click on small four-color square on the MS Office toolbar
- Click on About Microsoft Office
- Hold down Ctrl+Shift and double-click on the MS Office Logo
- Floating Splash screen appears
- Click anywhere on the plate
Credits
Click on the menu bar, Contact | New Contact
Name of contact is Ren Hoek. Save the contact
On the left side, click on contact and then click on the new contact name you have just
created
Click on the menu bar, Help | About Microsoft Outlook
Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click on the OK button
The credits screen should appear. If you want more, click on the link and it will bring
you to the online credits screen
Microsoft Word 97
Word - Pinball Game
In a new Word 97 document, change the font color to blue and the typeface to bold. Type Blue and then press the spacebar. Select Help/About Microsoft Word and click on the envelope under the W in the upper left corner. Control your flippers using the M and Z keys. (Note: It works with Red and Yellow, too.) Next time, you can open the game simply by choosing Help/About and clicking by the W logo.
Word 97 - Floating Word 97 Splash Screen
Select Help, About Microsoft Word
The About Box appears
Hold down Ctrl+Shift+Alt keys
Click on the horizontal divider in the About Box
A floating splash screen appears
Word 97 - Deletable Menu Items
Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and the cursor should change into
a minus sign. Click on a menu and then click on any menu item.
That menu item will disappear! Don't worry, this is only temporary and will be restored
the next time you restart your computer
If you really need it back, right-click on the toolbar and select Customize... Highlight
Menu Bar and click on Reset...
The menu item will be restored
Word 97 - No Competition
- Word knows when to win a competition. Type Maxis, highlight the word and run the Thesaurus
- Then type Smartsuite and look at that
Word 97 - Define zzzz
Open a blank document and type zzzz and run the spell checker. See what's the definition for it.
Word 97 - Problems?
- Open a new document in Word
- Type Unable to follow directions
- Highlight the entire sentence you just typed
- Click Tools, Thesaurus (or hit shift-F7 to open the thesaurus)
Now, does Bill Gates have a problem the world doesn't know about?
Word 97 - Naked?
- Open Word and type I'd love to see you naked. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus.
- Try I want to see you naked and be just as suprised!
Word 97 - Pagan?
Open Word and type Who is God?. Highlight the word and run a spell check. See who does the Word 97 programmers think God is.
Word 97 - Corny Developers?
- Open Word and type I love porn. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus.
- How about typing I am gay and run the thesaurus again.
Word 97 - Hairy?
Open Word and type Shag Me. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus. How's the definition?
Word 97 - Define Eat Me Shorts
- Open Word and type Eat Me Shorts. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus.
- What does it says?
Word 97 - Can I ...
- Open Word and type May I screw your daughter?. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus.
- Check out the answer.
Word 97 - Biological Associates
- Open Word and type Ice boobs go with what?. Highlight the word and press Shift+F7 to run the Thesaurus.
- Check out the associate - now who says Word is dumb?
IE 4's Easter Egg
In IE4.0, click on Help/About Internet Explorer. When the screen appears, hold down Control key and drag the "E" logo to the globe. Release and hold Control key again and drag the logo to the words. They will start to move to the left and there will be a Unlock button. Click on the button and the globe will start to dance! Hold down the Control key again and drag the logo back to the globe. Sit back and enjoy!
IE 4 Tip
To assign a page as your homepage just drag its link from the address bar to the Home toolbar button or if you already on the page drag the little icon with the "e" on it to Home toolbar button.
IE 4 Keyboard Shortcuts
- [Backspace]
Pressing [Backspace] takes you from the current document to the previous document you accessed. - [Shift]+[Backspace]
This key combination takes you forward one document. - [Esc]
The [Esc] key operates just like the Stop button and lets you stop loading the current document. This function is helpful when a document is taking too long to load. When you press [Esc], Internet Explorer will display the page data it has already loaded. - [F5]
Pressing [F5] reloads a Web page. This key can be helpful if Internet Explorer has to load a Web page from its cache (which it will do if it has trouble getting through to the host server). Pressing [F5] tells Internet Explorer to retrieve the most recent copy of the current page from the host server. - [Ctrl]+P
This key combination prints the current document. If the document contains frames, pressing [Ctrl]P prints the current frame. - [Ctrl]+S
This key combination will save the current document as an HTML file. - [Home]
Pressing [Home] will quickly take you to the top of a Web page. - [End]
Pressing [End] lets you quickly move to the bottom of a Web page. - [Page Up] and [Page Down]
You can use the [Page Up] and [Page Down] keys as alternatives to the scroll bar. Pressing these keys will let you scroll up or down a Web page one screen at a time. You can also use + or [ to scroll up or down one line at a time. - [Ctrl]+A
Pressing [Ctrl]+A lets you highlight all the text on a Web page so you can quickly copy it. - [Ctrl]+O
This key combination displays a dialog box for opening files from your hard drive. - [Ctrl]+N
The [Ctrl]+N key combination lets you open a new Internet Explorer browser window. - [Ctrl]+W
This key combination closes the current browser window. - [Shift]+[mouse click]
This key-and-mouse combination lets you copy sections of text from a Web page. Place the cursor at the beginning of a text section, and press the [Shift] key as you click the mouse button. Next, place the cursor at the end of the section, and press the [Shift] key as you click the mouse button again. Internet Explorer will highlight the section for copying.
Solitaire
You can actually turn only one card at a time in 3 cards over mode. Just hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click and the card! This will turn only one card instead of 3.
Free Cell
Can't win? Hold down Ctrl+Shift+F10. A pop-up menu can let you choose whether you want to win, lose or restart.
Minesweeper
Hold down the Shift key and type XYZZY. Release Shift and then press it again. Now whenever your cursor is over the top of a mine, the top left pixel on your screen shows as a black dot.
Hearts
This Egg works only with the Windows 95 release of Hearts. Run Regedit.exe (the Win95 Registry editor, located in your Win95 folder) and go to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Hearts Now, you might be wondering why this teeny game needs its own registry entry (??). In the right hand pane add a new key (string) and name it zb (no quotes). Give it a value of 42 Now run Mshearts.exe and during gameplay press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 the same time.
Some of the tips and Easter eggs posted here were originally posted on Active Windows.
Copyright© 1998 of The Code Name: Windows 98 Team