writers.com (not so very) technical support
Problems Enrolling or Registering for Classes
We prefer to take care of any problems you may have with our registration page on an individual basis.
Just
email us at
writers@writers.com
and we will help you as soon as possible.
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How to Convert to Plain Text (or ASCII)
The "American Standard Code for Information Interchange" is a form of
data that can be readily understood by the vast
almost every computer. There are no fancy typefaces, no indentations, no
italics or boldface, no "smart"
quotation marks, no formatting at all -- only the words you type,
punctuation, and simple spacing (or, rather,
the binary coding for these element). To insure readability of your
work, the material
you send via email to your class should be in ASCII (also called
"Plain Text" or "Text Only").
Unless we are sending a brief email message, most of us like to compose
our writing with a word processor. (The most common
word processor is Microsoft Word. Others include StarOffice/OpenOffice
Writer, Corel WordPerfect, Lotus WordPro, Appleworks, etc.) This way we
can use
"spell-check" and other features. By default, when you "save" the
material you are working on, it is usually saved as a "document." (The
file name will be followed by ".doc".) It's a
good idea to "save"
your work in this format and then convert it into plain text, but you
can also simply save the file directly to text only.
- Open your document.
- When saving to text only, do NOT save your file the by clicking
on the little diskette icon on the toolbar or by opening "File" on the
menu bar and selecting "Save" from the drop-down menu listing.
Instead, you need to open "File" on the menu bar and select "Save As..."
- When you select "Save As...", a dialog box will open and you'll
see a drop-down box titled "Format" or "File Type," or something
similar. Click on the arrow(s) at the right edge of the drop-down box.
This will open the list, "dropping" it down.
- In most versions of Word you'll see a "Text Only" option. The
naming of this format may vary with your word processor (and even with
the version of MSWord you are using), but it will somehow say "text"
file ("text only," "text," "plain text, "ASCII DOS Text" are some of the
variants).
- Select the "text only"-type format. (If you haven't saved your
document in its current version, You may then get a prompt box noting
something like "Your document may contain
- formatting contain features that are not compatible with text
only format. To preserve the original click "no"...; choose Yes.
- Click Save.
- Close the document.
You may now reopen the document,
copy and paste it to email.
- On Windows machines, Word usually saves the file automatically
designed as ".txt". That leaves your original document as Title.doc and
creates a new file, Title.txt.
- Newer Mac versions of Word offer an "Append File Extension"
option you can click if you want an automatic .txt (or .doc or
whatever). If
- you do not use the extension and your text file has the same
title as your document file (you can, of course, re-name the file at any
point in this procedure before the final click on "Save") and you are
saving it to the same location as the original file (something else you
can change along the way)
- you will get a box prompting "An item named "Title" already
exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you are
saving?" with
- options to "Cancel" or "Replace." If you choose "Replace" your
original document will be -- right -- replaced with the text file.
- One final tip: Check over your text file before copying and
pasting. Since you lose indentions for paragraphs, all your text will be
aligned at the left of the page. double-spacing so they do not become
"jumbled together" when received
Still having problems? You might try the method below. Just copy your material and paste it in the box
immediately below. Click
"Clean." Then highlight, copy, and paste the text that appears in the lower box to email.
We're not entirely sure this works, so
let us know what happens!
Configuring Mail Clients to Send Plain Text
The software you use to email (your "email client") may be able to
send messages in fancy formats. This is not desirable for many reasons,
but as far as Writers.com is concerned, these formats make your
email
unreadable or at least difficult to decipher. Some formats also
automatically attach files and our mail
lists for classes will not accept attachments. You can find
instructions for "Configuring Mail Clients to
Send Plain ASCII Text" at
http://www.expita.
com/nomime.html. This page
gives instructions for almost every
type of email
client.
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How to "Copy and Paste"
-
Using your mouse, place the cursor at the beginning of the text
you want to copy.
-
Click and hold down the left mouse button (or the button if you
have a single-button mouse)
and drag the cursor to the end of the text you want
to copy. This will highlight the text with a color. ("Highlight" might
actually mean the text darkens!)
-
You now have several ways to copy the highlighted selection:
- Click on the "copy" icon (usually looks like two sheets of
paper) on the toolbar, or
- Select "copy" from the Edit Menu at the top of the screen, or
- Press and hold down the "control" (Ctrl) key (the "apple" symbol
on Macs) and press the C key at the same time.
-
After you have copied the text, place your cursor at the location where
you
want the copy of the text to be moved to. You may then "paste" the text
by:
- Click on the "paste" icon (usually a clipboard) on the toolbar,
or
- Select "paste" from the Edit Menu at the top of the screen, or
- Press and hold down the Ctrl key (the "apple" symbol on Macs)
while pressing the V key at the same time.
-
Any of these three choices will "paste" the selection in the new
location.
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How to Select All (Before Copy and Paste)
If you want to copy an entire document just click your mouse anywhere in
the document, then
- Go to the Edit Menu and choose Select All, or
- Press and hold down the Ctrl key (the "apple" symbol on Macs)
while pressing the A key at the same time.
Your computer will do the work for you and highlight the
entire document. Then just copy and paste the complete selection into
the body of your email.
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Filtering Email to Folders
Most email programs have a
function called "filtering" that you can use to sort and
automatically shunt email sent to you into folder organized especially to your needs. We sometimes recommend
using such folders fro class or group email. At Writers.com HQ, we use Eudora and Pegasus Mail, both
offer free versions of their software (
www.pegasus.usa.com
or www.eudora.com).
There are many email clients and they are constantly being updated so we can't be specific here. We suggest
checking the resources for your software. Here are, for example,the instructions for
Eudora (Windows version) and
Eudora (Mac version). Your email program's "help" file contains more
information about customizing mail filters. (Look in the
"help" section
under "filters" or "filtering" or consult the online
tech support area on your
email client's Web site. However, it is not difficult to do. These are very general instructions
to give you an idea:
- Open your email program.
- Locate the Filters section, usually found under Edit, Options, Window, or
Tools on the menu bar.
- Click New and type the name of the new filter. Make sure it's
easy to remember, such as "Poetry Class."
- Enter the filter conditions, or "rules." Conditions are
requirements the email must meet (for example, the sender is poetry@serve.com) in order for the
action (such as placing it is a particular mailbox or folder) to take place. Configure
the filter by telling it that anything with
"poetry@" in the header--any part of the header--should be
moved or transferred into the directory "Poetry." Don't tell
it to filter the whole address, poetry@serve.com, because
sometimes mail will come to you on the list from a slightly different
address like poetry@mail.serve.com, and it won't be filtered if there
isn't an exact match.
- Select the action you want the program to perform with filtered
email. For class mail, you'll want to transfer you messages
to a specific folder or mailbox.
- Click OK or Save to save your new filter.
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AOL email Problems
If you are on AOL and having problems receiving or sending Writers.com
email, please see the
Unofficial
AOL Email FAQ and
AOL's "official" site,
AOL Postmaster
Info.
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Problems with the Web Site
If you find mistakes or experience difficulties not covered here,
please contact the webmaster.
We've tried to design this Web site to be as accessible as possible for
as many people as possible. It helps to have
CSS (Cascading Style
Sheets) enabled and to use the most recent version of your
browser. This should allow you to view the site at its optimum.
If you are experiencing mysterious extra spacing between lines or odd
overlapping of text, try opening your browser window wider until the
spacing looks normal.
If you find the text size too small to comfortably read,
on most newer browsers you can adjust the size of the text. Here are
instructions for:
Firefox 0.8.0 (PC) or 0.9.3 (Mac):
To adjust font size:
From the menu, choose
View, then choose
Increase
Font or Decrease Font.
Internet Explorer 5 or higher (PC):
To increase font size:
From the menu, choose
View, point to
Text Size,
then choose either
Medium,
Large, or
Larger (most people prefer Medium).
To decrease font size:
Choose View, point to Text Size, then
choose either Small or Smaller.
Note: There is a known problem with the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser
displaying text very small when you also use Eudora Light, Eudora, or Eudora Pro
for email.
- Start Eudora, if it is not already open
- From the Eudora menu, choose Tools and then choose Options
- From the Category list (along the left side), choose Viewing Mail
- Click on the Use Microsoft's viewer check box to clear it
- Choose the OK button
- Close Eudora
- Start Internet Explorer, if it is not already open
- From the Internet Explorer menu, choose View, point to Text Size, and then choose the desired size (most people prefer Medium ).
- Close Internet Explorer.
- The next time you start Internet Explorer, the text should be displayed using the size chosen in step 8.
Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher (MAC):
To increase or decrease font size:
From the menu, choose View, point to Text Zoom, and then
choose the desired size.
Mozilla 1.7 (PC):
To increase or decrease font size:
From the menu, choose View, point to Text Zoom, and
then choose the desired size.
Netscape Navigator version 4.x or below (PC):
To adjust font size:
From the menu, choose View, then choose
Increase Font or Decrease Font
Netscape 6 or higher (PC):
To increase or decrease font size:
From the menu, choose View, point to Text
Zoom, and then choose the desired size.
Opera 7 (PC):
To increase or decrease font size:
From the menu, choose View, point to
Zoom, and then
choose the desired size.
Safari v125.1 (MAC):
To adjust font size:
From the menu, choose View, then choose Make
Text BiggerorMake
Text Smaller.
Or simply click on the small letter A on the toolbar to decrease and the large letter A to increase
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Javascript
We use Javascript on a few pages. To use or view features using
Javascript with:
Mozilla 1.X
- Open Mozilla.
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click the arrow next to Advanced
- Click Scripts & Plugins
- Check Navigator beneath "Enable Javascript for"
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Opera 5.X - Opera 7.X
- Open Opera
- Select Quick Preferences from the File menu
- Make sure Enable Javascript is checked
- Click Reload
Safari
- Open Safari
- Select Preferences from the Safari menu
- Click Security
- Check both Enable Java and Enable JavaScript
- Close the window
- Click Reload
Internet Explorer 3.X
- Select Options from the View menu
- Click Security
- Check Enable Java Programs
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Internet Explorer 4.X
- Select Internet Options from the View menu.
- Click the Security tab
- Click Custom
- Click Settings .
- Scroll down to locate Scripting
- Click Enable for Active Scripting
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Internet Explorer 5.X
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select Internet Options from the Tools menu
- In Internet Options dialog box select the Security tab
- Click Custom level button at bottom. The Security Settings dialog box
- will pop up
- Under Scripting category enable Active Scripting, Allow paste options
- via script and Scripting of Java applets
- Click OK twice to close out
- Hit Refresh
Internet Explorer 5.X for MacOS X
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select Preferences from the Explorer menu
- Click the arrow next to Web Browser
- Click Web Content
- Under Active Content check Enable Scripting
- Click OK
- Click Refresh
Internet Explorer 5 for MacOS 9
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click the arrow next to Web Browser
- Click Web Content
- Under Active Content check Enable Scripting
- Click OK
- Click Refresh
Internet Explorer 6.X
- Open Internet Explorer
- Select Internet Options from the Tools menu
- In Internet Options dialog box select the Security tab
- Click Custom level button at bottom. The Security settings dialog box will pop up.
- Under Scripting category enable Active Scripting ,Allow paste options
- via script and Scripting of Java applets
- Click OK twice to close out
- Hit Refresh
Netscape 3.X
- Select Options from the Edit menu
- Click Network Preferences
- Click Languages
- Check both Enable Java and Enable JavaScript
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Netscape 4.X
- Open Netscape
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click Advanced
- Check both Enable Java and Enable JavaScript
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Netscape 4.X for Mac OS9
- Open Netscape
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click Advanced
- Check both Enable Java and Enable JavaScript
- Click OK
- Click Reload
Netscape 6.X for MacOSX
- Open Netscape
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click Advanced
- Check both Enable Java and Enable JavaScript for Navigator
- Click OK
- Click Reload ./li>
Netscape 7.X
- Open Netscape.
- Select Preferences from the Edit menu
- Click the arrow next to Advanced
- Click Scripts & Plugins
- Check Navigator beneath "Enable Javascript for"
- Click OK
- Click Reload
AOL 3.0
- Click Prefs
- Click Security
- Check Enable Java Programs, if the box is blank, single click on it
- Click OK
- Click the browser's back button, once back, click reload
AOL 4.0 and 5.0
- Click My AOL
- Click Preferences
- Click WWW
- Click the Security tab
- Click Custom
- Click Settings
- Scroll down to locate Scripting
- Click Enable for Active Scripting
- Click OK , then click the Reload button.
Note to AOL 4.0 & 5.0 users:
When using the use AOL browser, you may get a Javascript error but, when
using an external browser (i.e., Netscape or Internet Explorer) this
does not occur. AOL uses compressed graphics by default. This doesn't
allow Java to work while browsing inside AOL. (Additionally, this makes
photos you view on Web pages look less than optimal.)
Do the following:
- Click My AOL
- Click Preferences
- Click the WWW icon
- Click Web Graphics tab.
- Uncheck the box next to Use Compressed Graphics
- Click OK Restart the computer
- Note that there are both 16-bit and 32-bit versions of AOL 4.0. Only the 32-bit version has full Java capabilities
AOL 6 & 7
- From the AOL toolbar, select "Settings"
- Click "Preferences" from the "Settings" drop down menu --this will open the "Preferences" window
- Click "Internet Properties (WWW)" from the "Preferences" window. This will display the "Internet Options" window
- Click the "Security" tab in the "Internet Options" window. This will display the "Web content zones" -- click here to see example
- Click "Internet" for your Web content zone. This should show the security level for this zone
- Click "Custom Level...". This should open the "Security Settings" window.
- Scroll through the settings until you find the heading "Scripting". The "Scripting" heading will have the subheadings "Active scripting", "Allow paste operations via script", and "Scripting of Java applets" - click here to see example .
- From the "Security Settings" dialog box (under "Active scripting") click "OK" when exiting each window to save your changes
- You may need to log off and log back on for AOL to activate changes you make
AOL 9
- From the AOL toolbar, select "Settings"
- From the "Settings: Essentials" dialog box, click "Internet [Web] Options"
- From the "Security" tab, click "Custom Level..."
- From the "Security Settings" dialog box (under "Active scripting") click to select Enable and click "OK" when exiting
- Click Close
- You may need to log off and log back on for AOL to activate changes you make
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