Q. You recently wrote a column about the new MSN software for the Microsoft Network and advised that it may be “just the ticket for families and casual Internet users.” Is there something out there more directed to businesses (small, medium, large) for someone who potentially may want to use an Internet portal while doing business?
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A. It certainly does seem a tad on the frivolous side to sit at work using a computer where the home page or portal use comes from a family-oriented outfit such as MSN or America Online.
But I’ll tell you a bit about how these two leading Internet service providers offer business-oriented versions of their starting pages. Then I’ll offer a couple of alternatives.
At MSN, go to MoneyCentral.com, which is chock full of links, data and services geared to investments, budgets and financial news. Based on the Microsoft Money software and a raft of business features from the MSNBC cable network, this is a superb way to follow breaking business developments and to do investment research.
The available stock, bond and commodity quotes and historical data and charts rival what many Fortune 500 companies pay outfits like Bloomberg to provide.
MSN-equipped members can link the MoneyCentral.com portal to their Microsoft Money software and directly access home and even small-business budgets, cash transfers and other online banking services.
To make MoneyCentral.com or any other site your home page where the Web browser always opens, go to the desired site and then click on Tools and Internet Options in the browser. You will find a command to make the current page the home page.
To get a look at the business side of America Online’s latest 9.0 software, open AOL and press Control + K (for Keyword) and then type in the phrase small business.
This will take you to the rather awesome small-business-oriented side of America Online that you can designate as your kickoff point. You will find a mixture of helpful data sources on topics as diverse as applying for Small Business Administration loans and buying stamps online from the Postal Service.
The site offers links to UPS and
FedEx to ship stuff, and there also are links to Office Depot to buy supplies–nice bits of advertising revenue for AOL but still quite useful.
Both AOL and MSN offer a crucial service in the form of online calendars that can be shared by a small knot of people such as the staff of a small business to coordinate appointments, dole out assignments and such. Each user is issued an e-mail address and screen name, thus also supplying fairly robust e-mail, particularly at MSN.
You also can find your own portal and use the Tools/Internet Options technique to make it your home page. I particularly like Yahoo.com for this because it gives me access to financial services from Microsoft’s arch competitor for bookkeeping and tax software, Quicken.
At Yahoo, users can select content and arrange its layout for maximum comfort. My Yahoo Page opens with breaking news headlines on top followed by a long list of the stocks I follow on the job.
It also includes a calendar I could share with co-workers and access to phone books, mapping services and other stuff.
The core idea is that Tool/Internet Options lets users find any site they want and designate it their portal. Many companies and even the federal government vie for that honor. Check out BusinessNation.com, Workz.com and FirstGov.gov.
Another first-rate business portal is the small-business area at Quicken.com.
Q. I have a Palm V PDA that I synchronize with my desktop Palm software version 4.1. My computer is HP Pavilion with Windows XP Home Edition. I would like to change and synchronize to Microsoft Outlook. How can I make the change?
Anthony [email protected]
A. Your question has one answer for you as a user of an older Palm V and a different one for users of the latest versions known as Palm Tungstens.
In the latest Tungsten model, Palm includes software from PalmOne Inc., the maker of the Palm line, that automatically senses if you have Outlook loaded on a Windows computer.
Then it gives you a choice of whether to synchronize with Microsoft’s software or use the first-rate Palm Desktop with the company’s own variety of calendars, contacts, memos and to-do lists.
The lowest priced Tungsten costs $199 at the Palm Web site (www.palmone.com).
The company recommends that folks like yourself, Mr. T., who own Palm III, V and the m100 line, etc., use software called PocketMirror from Chapura Inc.
Likewise, the low-cost Zire line of Palms that start at $80 requires PocketMirror to talk to Outlook.
The program comes in a $40 standard and a $50 professional version and simply uses Outlook to insert data into the Palm Desktop applications onboard virtually any Palm.
You can find the software and details at www.chapura.com/products.php.
Anticipating questions from folks with Palm-powered products such as Handspring or Treo and other Palm-type cell phones, they usually come with PocketMirror Standard included.
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Q. I have 1,735 names with e-mails in my database. How can I copy the names and paste them in the blind carbon copy list in Outlook Express to send a broadcast e-mail? Does each name have to be added to my Outlook Express contact list? That would take forever.
Cynthia Wozny @datamediaproducts.com.
A. You don’t say what database you are using, but I assume that you can use it to output a list of e-mail addresses for each person listed. I’ll offer some hints how to do this after covering the core of your question.
The blind carbon copy or Bcc: command is switched on and off in Outlook Express by going to the View command at the top of any message you are composing and selecting All Headers.
This brings up a box where one can insert long lists of e-mail addresses in such a way that each person will get a copy of the note without the usual accompanying lines listing every other person who got the same note.
This is a crucial tool for protecting the identities of friends and customers as well as for reducing the confusing amount of information that an e-mail recipient receives.
One can simply copy a list of e-mail addresses and then paste them into the Bcc: windows that can be invoked in Outlook Express.
If a database user doesn’t know how to order it to output a list of e-mail addresses, it is possible to use Microsoft Excel to open up the database’s files and consign each field of data to a different column in the spreadsheet.
Excel can open dozens of database formats, virtually every one used in recent years.
One needs to place a semicolon between each address in Outlook Express, so here is the drill, Ms. W.
Load the data into Excel and then click at the top of the column with addresses to select all of them. Now click on Edit and Copy in the toolbar.
Next, open a new Excel workbook and select the top cell in a column and use the Control plus V keys to paste each name into a new cell going down. Then go to the top of the column next to the name list and type a semicolon in the top cell.
Now paint every cell below until you reach the end of your data. Then click on Edit and pick Fill and Down to put a semicolon next to all of the addresses.
Now use the mouse to select all of the data in both columns and click on Edit and Copy to put the information into memory.
The final step is to open an Outlook Express message and click inside the Bcc box and then press Control + V to paste the list of addresses for sending the message in bulk.
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Have a question for Jim Coates on small-business technology? Send an e-mail to [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column.