Dealing With Text in EMail and Web Pages
Did You Know?
You can actually send yourself email (this is particularly useful if you have no friends). Seriously, this is great to try out an email before sending it out. I use this method when attaching photos to insure they are not "mural" sized when the recipient opens them. Simply put your own email address in the TO line. Practice forwarding emails to yourself to try out the forwarding techniques below. The message goes from your computer to your ISP (Internet service provider) mail server and sits there until you download it. No harm, no foul. Try it (it's a cheap way to amuse yourself).
How to copy text from a web site to your document.
Open a word processor. If you don't have a preferred word processor, go to START, then PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, and select either WORDPAD or NOTEPAD (Wordpad is preferred if your computer has it). Open the program, then click on the minus (-) sign at the right top corner of the screen to minimize the screen. The program will now show up in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
Go to the web page that you want to copy from. Highlight the text that you want to copy by holding down the left mouse button and drag across the text until the portion that you want to copy is all highlighted. Hold down the "Ctrl" button and press the "C" key. This copies the text that you have selected to a portion of memory called "the Clipboard".
Now go to the bottom of the screen and click on the word processor that we "shrunk" (minimized) earlier. Open a blank page then hold down the "Ctrl" button and press the "V" key. This pastes the text from the website into your word processor. You may now print your new document or save it by going to "file" and selecting "save as". You will need to give your new document a name that tells you what it contains (i.e. Apple Pie Recipe, etc.).
Congratulations, you have now mastered "cutting" (or in this case "copying") and "pasting".
How to Forward Email
Did you ever receive an email that was "buried" under layers of forwards that took dozens of mouse clicks to open? Of course, everyone has. Have you also noticed that the email addresses of everyone that forwarded that message are also available? Spammers prey on these emails as they can gather several dozen email addresses when they intercept one of these forwards. This is why I never forward one of those messages that say" send this to 20 people in the next 10 minutes and UPS will deliver a real gold brick to your door in the next hour. Do not break this chain". This is a spammers dream. Here is how to forward a message and cut the layers to one, it will appear that the message originated with you. First, go to the message that you want to forward (the actual message itself, not the one in your inbox). Click on forward at the top of the screen. The message now appears in an email form. Add the recipients as usual. Go to the subject line, highlight the text by dragging the cursor over the text (as described above in copying and pasting), and press "delete". Now type in the subject. Next go to the text of the email and highlight the heading material that has the name(s) of the party that sent the email to you, hit delete. You should now have an email that is "clean" with no ones email addresses showing and also one that the recipient can open with ONE click.
How to Forward Email (alternate method)
Go to the message that you want to forward. Highlight the text that you want to send (omitting the email addresses at the beginning of the message). Hold down the "Ctrl" button and press the "C" key. This copies the text that you have selected to a portion of memory called "the Clipboard". Now go to the top of the screen and select "create mail". Fill in the recipient and subject lines then click the mouse in the body of the message. Next hold down the "Ctrl" button and press the "V" key. The message should now be pasted into your new document. Send your new email.