AOL INTERNET TUTORIAL

1. SAVING/DELETING MAIL
MAIL MAY BE SAVED OR DELETED IN ‘NEW MAIL’, ‘OLD MAIL’ or ‘SENT MAIL’.

NOTES:
a) WHEN DELETING MAIL FROM YOUR COMPUTER, DO SO IN ‘NEW MAIL’, ‘MY FILES’ AND ‘MAIL PREFERENCES’ (THE LATTER BEING FOUND IN YOUR MAIL CENTER).

b) PERIODICALLY CLICK ON ‘COMPACT PFC’, WHICH IS LOCATED ON YOUR “MY FILES” PAGE (DIRECTLY BELOW THE ‘INCOMING MAIL’). THIS WILL ENABLE YOUR COMPUTER TO COMPRESS THE EMPTY SPACE CAUSED BY THE DELETION OF UNWANTED MAIL….AND WILL HELP SPEED UP THE OPERATION OF YOUR COMPUTER.

c) MAIL THAT HAS BEEN DELETED MAY STILL BE RETRIEVED THROUGH THE ‘MAIL CENTER’, PROVIDING IT HAS NOT BEEN AUTOMATICALLY DELETED AFTER A DESIGNATED TIMEFRAME . CLICK ON ‘MAIL PREFERENCES’ WHICH GIVES YOU THE OPTION TO EITHER SAVE CERTAIN ITEMS OR PERMANENTLY DELETE UNWANTED ITEMS.

2. MAIL CENTER
MANY OPTIONS ARE OFFERED IN THE ‘MAIL CENTER’, WHICH WILL ENABLE YOU TO CONTROL, RECOGNIZE, CUSTOMIZE AND UPDATE VARIOUS PHASES OF YOUR MAIL SYSTEM.

a) CLICK ON ‘MAIL CONTROLS’
- CONTROL INCOMING E-MAIL, ETC.
- BLOCK JUNK E-MAIL.
- CUSTOMIZE YOUR SCREEN NAME.
- LEARN HOW TO RECOGNIZE JUNK E-MAIL SCAMS.
- LOCATE AN E-MAIL ADDRESS OF AN AOL OR INTERNET FRIEND.
- SUBSCRIBE TO FREE AOL NEWSLETTERS DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOU VIA YOUR INCOMING E-MAIL.
- CHECK OUT ALL THE FEATURES AND TOPICS OFFERED BY AOL IN “MAIL FEATURES”. CLICK ON EACH OF THEM TO FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE INFORMATION AVAILABLE TO YOU.

b) CLICK ON ‘AOL HELP’
(A CONVENIENT ‘A TO Z’ INDEX IS FEATURED WHICH OFFERS EASY ACCESS
TO ALL THE MAIL TOPICS. CLICK ON ALL TOPICS TO FAMILIARIZE
YOURSELF WITH THE HELP THAT IS AVAILABLE)

- DOWNLOADING FILES AND E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS.
(E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS OFFERS INSTRUCTIONS IN DOWNLOADING, LOCATING FILES AFTER DOWNLOADING, MIME FORMAT, ETC.)
- PERSONAL FINANCE – STOCKS AND QUOTES
- THE INTERNET
- THE AOL BROWSER
- UPDATE AND VIEW YOUR AOL BILLING INFORMATION.

c) CLICK ON “MAIL EXTRAS”. THESE EXTRAS WILL ENABLE YOU TO FORMAT AND ADD EXTRA FLAIR TO YOUR E-MAILS –

- ADD PICTURES, SOUNDS, SMILEYS, ETC. TO YOUR E-MAILS
. PICTURES - CLICK ON “MAIL ART” TO SELECT A PICTURE FOR YOUR E-MAIL.
. SOUNDS - CLICK ON “SOUNDS” FOR A “HELLO”, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY”, ETC.
. SMILEYS - CLICK ON “SMILEYS” FOR A VARIETY OF SMILEY FACES. NOTE: REGULAR TEXT CHARACTERS CAN BE USED TO EXPRESS ONLINE SMILES, SUCH AS: SMILE :) AND LAUGH :D - SIMPLY TYPE KEYWORD “LOL” -

d) SIGNATURE – CLICK ON “SET UP MAIL SIGNATURES”.
CLICK ON “CREATE”.
TYPE NAME IN “SIGNATURE NAME”.
TYPE AGAIN IN BODY.
TYPE “OK”.

NOTE: AFTER TYPING AN OUTGOING E-MAIL, CLICK ON THE “SIGNATURE” ICON WHICH APPEARS AT THE END OF THE TOOL BAR (ABOVE THE TYPED MESSAGE). YOUR SIGNATURE WILL AUTOMATICALLY APPEAR.

e) CALENDAR - ADD DATES AND EVENTS TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL CALENDAR. AOL WILL REMIND YOU OF IMPORTANT DATES AND UPCOMING EVENTS THROUGH YOUR INCOMING E-MAIL.

f) AOL TECH SUPPORT IS AVAILABLE 24 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK. JUST CLICK ON ‘CUSTOMER SERVICE’. NOTE: YOU MAY ALSO REFER TO KEYWORD: HELP WHICH WILL TAKE YOU TO THE AOL ONLINE TECHNICAL SUPPORT.

NOTE: TO CHECK THE STATUS OF YOUR MAIL…WHETHER IT’S ‘NEW MAIL’, ‘OLD MAIL’, OR ‘SENT MAIL’. SIMPLY CLICK ON ‘STATUS’ (APPEARING UNDER YOUR MAIL WINDOW) AND YOU WILL RECEIVE AN UPDATE AS TO WHEN THE E-MAIL WAS READ. (AOL USERS CAN ONLY CHECK STATUS OF AOL AND CS.COM….NOT INTERNET MAIL)

NOTE: CLICK ON “HELP” AT LOWER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF YOUR MAIL BOX TO VIEW THE HELP OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO YOU.

3.MY COMPUTER (ON THE DESKTOP)
THE CONTROL PANEL CONTAINS ICONS REPRESENTING MANY FACETS OF YOUR COMPUTER, SUCH AS:

. ADD / REMOVE PROGRAMS
. DATE / TIME (NOTE: AOL AUTOMATICALLY CHANGES THE DATE AND TIME IN YOUR COMPUTER…IE: NEW MONTH; NEW YEAR; DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, ETC.)
. DIGITAL CAMERA SETTINGS . DESKTOP THEMES (NOTE: YOU CAN SELECT AND CHANGE YOUR DESKTOP THEME AS OFTEN AS YOU LIKE).
. KEYBOARD - ADJUSTMENTS MAY BE MADE TO YOUR KEYBOARD.
. MOUSE - ADJUSTMENTS MAY BE MADE TO YOUR MOUSE.
NOTE: CLICK ON ALL THE ICONS TO FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THESE (AND OTHER) PHASES OF YOUR COMPUTER. SEE THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN ADJUST OR CUSTOMIZE DIFFERENT AREAS OF YOUR COMPUTER.

4. MY AOL
- PREFERENCES - CLICK ON EACH OF THE ICONS OFFERED IN PREFERENCES. FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH EACH ONE IE: LANGUAGE, GRAPHICS, SPELLING, ETC.

- AOL ACCESS NUMBERS - CLICK ON THIS CATEGORY TO SEARCH FOR AOL ACCESS NUMBERS IN ANY STATE OR COUNTRY.

5. KEYWORD - LOOKING FOR A PARTICULAR TOPIC? CLICK ON KEYWORD.

PEOPLE - BUDDY LIST - SEE WHEN YOUR AOL OR CS.COM BUDDIES OR FAMILY

MEMBERS ARE ONLINE AT THE SAME TIME AS YOU. - INSTANT MESSAGE - HAVE AN ONLINE CONVERSATION WITH YOUR BUDDY BY TYPING INSTANT MESSAGES “BACK AND FORTH”.

7. INTERNET
- AOL INTERNET CONNECTION
- GO TO THE WEB (AOL E-MAIL FINDER, INVITATIONS)
- SEARCH THE WEB
- MAPS AND DIRECTIONS

8. FAVORITES

9. CHANNELS
- LOCAL GUIDE
- MUSIC - GAMES - TRAVEL

10. QUOTES - THIS CATEGORY WILL ENABLE YOU TO SET UP PERSONAL FINANCE RECORDS, IN ADDITION TO CHECKING ON MUTUAL FUNDS, MARKET NEWS, CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATES, INVESTMENT RESEARCH, ETC

. 11. PERKS - CHECK OUT SPECIAL OFFERS FROM AOL.

12. AOL CACHE NOTE: SOMETIMES BROWSING THE WEB GETS A BIT SLUGGISH. DELETING THE WEB CACHE OR STORED FILES CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE. THE FOLLOWING CAN BE DONE THROUGH THE TOOLBAR AT THE TOP OF THE AOL SCREEN:

- CLICK ON MY AOL ON THE AOL TOOLBAR, THEN SELECT PREFERENCES.
- SELECT WWW FROM THE OPTIONS.
- CLICK ON DELETE FILES. THEN CLICK ON OK.
NOTE: YOU MAY SEE A SPINNING BALL FOR A FEW SECONDS…BUT BE ASSURED IT IS WORKING.

13. DEFINITIONS
CACHE = MEMORY SYSTEM
.COM = COMMERCIAL
.ORG = ORGANIZATION
.GOV = GOVERNMENT
.EDU = EDUCATION

HELENE STEIN
JUNE 2001

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