From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Thu Apr 27 14:25:41 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k3RKPfjb019415; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:25:41 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k3RKPdVA012681 for ; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:25:39 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k3RHqVFI025843 for ; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:52:31 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k3RHqVih025842 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:52:31 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k3RG8WFI025624 for ; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:08:32 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k3RIfSh5013476 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:41:28 -0600 X-Envelope-From: hornbeck@s-hornbeck.com Thu Apr 27 12:41:28 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k3RIfSjb013467 for ; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:41:28 -0600 Received: from smtp016.mail.yahoo.com (smtp016.mail.yahoo.com [216.136.174.113]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id k3RIfOQ9018655 for ; Thu, 27 Apr 2006 12:41:25 -0600 Received: (qmail 52100 invoked from network); 27 Apr 2006 18:41:18 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO shirley-.s-hornbeck.com) (shirleyhornbeck@sbcglobal.net@69.106.120.252 with login) by smtp016.mail.yahoo.com with SMTP; 27 Apr 2006 18:41:18 -0000 Message-Id: <6.2.3.4.2.20060427114122.025040e0@pop.mail.yahoo.com> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.3.4 Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:42:17 -0700 To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com From: Shirley Hornbeck Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] This and That Tips on E-Mail and Internet ATTACHMENTS: Attachments are a great way to exchange information via e-mail when they work. They are a great source of frustration when they do not work. In order to open or view an attachment, you must have installed on your computer the very same software that was used by the sender to originally write the file. If you do not have the same software as the sender, you are probably not going to be able to open or view the attachment. Sometimes it will require that you not only have the same software on your computer, but it will require that it be the same version. A newer version will usually open an older version, but an older version will not open a newer version. Te key to attachment are the extensions used, that part of the name of the file that follows the period. All files written for PCS have a file name that ends in a period and then three characters. These last three characters are called the file name extension. Every piece of computer software writes files with different extensions. In order to open/read the file will require that you have a software that writes those same extension, and in most cases that means having the very same software as the sender. Attachments are a wonderful tool and with a little knowledge and some detailed communication they can add greatly to your genealogical research. E-MAIL: Unreadable e-mails are a common problem when trying to send lineage, census and other highly formatted documents via e-mail. In addition to being frustrating, it surely makes for the possibility of errors creeping in during the reconstruction. To solve the problem, you have to consider sending the information as an attached word processing file. E-mail is in ASCII (ask' ee) format, which is a stripped down character set that is supported by most software programs and platforms. There are only 254 characters in ASCII. And since everything digital takes up a character, even a period and a space, there is no tab or table, bold, underline or anything fancy in ASCII. TXT or text files are also in ASCII and will, like e-mail, destroy your formatting. Sending anything in block paragraphs works great, but when you get to formats that include tabs, tables or columns it can be very difficult to reconstruct after transmitting in ASCII. There are a couple of alternatives: The first thing to do is to exchange available software information with the receiver. If you are each using the same word processor you can send your formatted file as an attachment in the native format of that word processor. This is the very best way to preserve the formatting you have done in your genealogy files. The second alternative would be to send the information as an attachment in as a RFT (Rich Format Text). This is a format that has been around for several years and is supported by all of the better word processors. This will come close to having the same word processor and sending in native format. Even if you are not using the very same software, there may still be a way to exchange the files and preserve the formatting. Most better word processors will "read/write", "open/save as" in an emulated native format of several other word processors. If you do not have the same word processor, each of you can check to see if the word processors you do have might share the ability to write/read an emulated native format that you share. In other words, if you have Microsoft Word and your recipient has a software program that will not import MS Word .DOC files but will import WordPerfect files, you can send in the emulated WordPerfect native format from your Word and the recipient will be able to open the formatted document in their word processor even though neither of your are using WordPerfect. Go into the SAVE AS on your word processor and check all the emulated formats that you word processor will save files. This is pretty much a trial and error method of exchanging files, but if all else fails it's worth a shot. The other thing to consider, regardless of which of the three alternatives you chose is the font that you use for your genealogy information. If the recipient does not have the same font installed on his computer their word processor will substitute another font. This is not big deal, but sometimes another font will throw off formatting and make your document difficult to read. This can usually be corrected by the recipient with a little bit of difficulty. For that reason it is a good rule of thumb to use New Times Roman or Arial for all of your genealogy files. These both come with windows and any Windows user should have them. More Tips at my web page, url below. Shirley Hornbeck http://www.s-hornbeck.com THIS & THAT GENEALOGY TIPS: