Small Board Problem - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Paul LaPointe on October 15, 1998 at 09:53:40:

I use Microsoft Explorer and I don’t have any problem with the board. When I’m through reading a post, I just hit the back button on my task bar and I end up back where I started.
Love the page/ etc: I’m a beginning investor and I’m sure this page will be very helpful.
Thanks,
Paul

Small Board Problem - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Brad Crouch on October 14, 1998 at 20:01:04:

Terry,

On the old board, if you read a message that was one of the “top” 23 postings, you would be bounced back to the top of the page when you finished.

But when you read messages “below” the top 23 lines, you would come back to the place you were at before you accessed the posting.

Now, it doesn’t matter where you are on the page of postings, you “always” get bounced back to the top of the page (I guess because the page “reloads”), and have to scroll down to wherever you were. Seems like a lot of “scrolling activity”. Is there a way where this wouldn’t be necessary? Like we had before?

Brad

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by S.G

Posted by S.G on October 17, 1998 at 15:16:13:

I am having the same problem, so if you find an easy solution could you please let me know? I have to scroll down and it is alot of scrolling every time.
Thanks

Microsurfer might help - Posted by John Behle

Posted by John Behle on October 15, 1998 at 24:11:44:

I found a program at www.cnet.com a few weeks ago that is wonderful. They had a free 30 day trial of “Microsurfer”. It downloads links or posts in the background. I just drag the links or posts over to Microsurfer and it loads them.

That way I just scroll down the newsgroup, drag new posts over and then read them online or offline whenever I want and post later to the ones I want. It can load newsgroup 2 or another link while you are reading posts here. It’s fabulous on pages where there are graphics that take a long time to load. A green light shows you the link has finished loading and you can then browse them online or offline in any order.

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by Irwin(CA)

Posted by Irwin(CA) on October 14, 1998 at 23:44:00:

Brad,

You’re not alone. I also always go back to the top and it seems to take forever.

Irwin

Problem - possible solution! - Posted by Terry Vaughan

Posted by Terry Vaughan on October 14, 1998 at 23:07:32:

Brad:

I’ll look into the programing side of it. However, You might try “clicking” with your right mouse button while over a link. You will be offered a menu. On it will be a choice to “open the file in a NEW window”. I’ve been doing that for years and I like it better. That way, when you’re finished with the one you are reading, just close it and you are right back where you started.

Also, I noticed this happens to me only if I use the Netscape Browser. It’s much better with the Microsoft Explorer.

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by JPiper

Posted by JPiper on October 14, 1998 at 21:38:27:

Brad:

I’m having the same problem of going back to the top. Hopefully there is a “fix” to this.

JPiper

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by JohnBoy

Posted by JohnBoy on October 14, 1998 at 20:23:55:

I haven’t had this problem so far. Everything seems to be working fine. No matter where I’m at it pops back to the same post after reading it.

Re: Microsurfer might help - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Brad Crouch on October 16, 1998 at 02:17:24:

John,

I thought this was a good tip. Let me tell you what happened:

I went to the site you mentioned and found MicroSurfer. Tried to download it, but it wouldn’t download because I was not using the Microsoft 4.0 Internet explorer browser (I’m using Netscape).

So I went to get version 4.01 of the Internet Explorer. Tried to download that, but couldn’t because my version of Windows NT only had the “service pack 2” added to the original installation of the operating system instead of the latest version, “service pack 3”.

So I spent about three hours downloading service pack 3, but it wouldn’t install. It seems I didn’t have a “checked” computer. It was obvious that I had downloaded the wrong service pack. That was last night.

Today I found the right service pack and downloaded it (in only 2½ hours). When I tried to install it, I was told that I needed to create a new “repair” diskette, so of course I had to do that, first. Then I finally installed service pack 3.

That’s enough “hoops” to jump through for now. I’ll download the Internet Explorer version 4.01 later . . . and then, of course, MicroSurfer. Then I can try it out.

There is only one problem that I will have to overcome . . . that’s using a Bill Gates product (Microsoft) that isn’t ABSOLUTELY necessary. I’m trying to convince myself that Microsurfer IS absolutely necessary because I can’t get this board to display properly, and I don’t want to loose all the good stuff found here.

As much as I fight it, I’m afraid that my dislike for Gates is “coloring” rational thought.

But I DO think that anyone following this thread, and who believes Microsurfer is a viable solution ought to know that Internet Explorer version 4 is REQUIRED to make it work. And depending on your operating system, an upgrade to the latest update may be necessary in order to get the Internet Explorer version 4.x.

I certainly hope it will work well because I will be biting my tongue every time I run a Bill Gates product, as I do when I turn on my computer and Windows NT starts up.

Thanks for the tip, John. I hope it eventually works out.

Brad

Re: Problem - possible solution! - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Brad Crouch on October 20, 1998 at 21:36:54:

Terry,

While it is true that the colors do not change immediately on the postings that have already been read, it is also true that by “right clicking” on a “primary” posting, you can follow an entire thread by clicking “back” when responses have been read . . . and when you come back to the original “primary” posting, just click on “close” (the little “X” in the upper right corner).

What I noticed was that if you pay attention to the subject lines of the “primary” postings, you’ll know exactly when to click on “close” or “back”.

You can go through the entire board list this way, or only partially . . . if you are in a hurry. When the main page of postings is loaded again (perhaps during a subsequent session), you will find that every posting you have read will have taken on the color of “read” postings.

Also, the responses to a “primary” posting, will change colors to let you know which ones have been read. This is something new, and I for one, appreciate it. Thanks!

Brad

Re: Problem - possible solution! - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Brad Crouch on October 16, 1998 at 03:16:31:

Terry,

You’re right about this working and leaving you right where you were.

I feel that I should add that by clicking on “back”, nothing is changed. You have to click on the little “x” in the upper right corner to close the new window.

One small glitch, however . . . using the method you described, the colors of the postings do not change. That means that on a later session, you won’t be able to tell the difference between the posts that have been already read and those which have not been read.

Am I missing something? Have you found a way to change the markings of the posts you have already read?

I really like your method as it would give me a good excuse not to use a “Bill Gates” product, but there is this little hangup . . .

Brad

Re: Problem - possible solution! - Posted by Geff

Posted by Geff on October 15, 1998 at 10:36:04:

The only problem with opening a new window is that previously clicked links don’t get highlighted and I lose my place.

Geff

Re: Problem - possible solution! - Posted by JPiper

Posted by JPiper on October 15, 1998 at 10:06:52:

Terry:

Thanks for the idea of right clicking the post…I like this. The only problem is that it doesn’t highlight (in the original window) the messages read. Any solution to that??

I also found using Internet Explorer 4.0 that the problem of returning to the top of the page doesn’t occur. Bill Gates strikes again!!

JPiper

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by Brad Crouch

Posted by Brad Crouch on October 14, 1998 at 21:30:45:

Well, I guess the problem is mine. I wish I could find some setting in my browser (Netscape Gold 3.0) that I could adjust to avoid this. But so far I haven’t found one.

If anybody else has this same problem, kindly let me know.

By the way, my operating system is Windows NT 5.0 (server version).

Brad

Re: Microsurfer might help - Posted by John Behle

Posted by John Behle on October 18, 1998 at 01:46:38:

Didn’t know the program didn’t work well with Navigator. It downloaded in a couple minutes and ran perfectly on Explorer 4.0. I might try some of the other ones that have been mentioned.

Re: Microsurfer might help - Posted by Samuel

Posted by Samuel on October 16, 1998 at 17:36:17:

Brad,

You might not need Micro Surfer once you download IE.
I experienced the same problem you and many others have here lately with Navigator and started using my version of IE 4.01 and it works very well for this page. When you hit the back button I am taken directly to the post I came from. In addition, IE has the capability of being used as an offline browser as well. You can download a copy of any page to your hard drive and browse it off line. You can even set it up so that your computer is automated to dial in to your ISP, downloads the pages you want while you are away from you computer.
Hope this helps you.
Samuel

Re: Microsurfer might help - Posted by Mirko

Posted by Mirko on October 16, 1998 at 14:50:03:

I share your frustration with microsoft products, that is why I never purchase them unless they have been on the market for quite some time (I have a B version of Windows 95 which is much more stable than the previous A version). Microsoft tends to release their products too early while they are still unstable and full of bugs.

If you don’t want microsurfer there are similar products on the market such as teleport pro and grab-a-site. They are spiders which would download a full browsable copy of the site you specify to you hard drive instead of dragging and dropping links one by one (I don?t know if microsurfer downloads underlying links so you have a whole thread, but spiders do). If you set the www board to be the starting page, it would download the whole board which you could then browse of line. (saves time, and frees up your phone line which is great if you only use one, like me). You can also set up criteria by which it downloads to exclude graphics or you can download only graphics from a whole site (which is handy for other purposes). The programs can be found at zd net shareware library www.hotfiles.com which is my favorite . The programs on the site are rated, searchable and have good descriptions and out of over hundred of programs I downloaded from the site I newer got a virus or any system problems as a result. There might be better spiders out there, but I only tested these two and Teleport Pro is my choice. By the way If you do lots of downloading Go!Zilla is my choice of batch download tool. You can drag and drop files you want to download and schedule them to be downloaded while you sleep. It can also pick up right where it stopped if you are disconected in the midle of a download and keaps a log of all files you downloaded. (this one is free)

By the way, the fact that MS IE doesn?t go to the top of the page like NN, doesn?t mean MS IE is a superior product, the code for the board is probably more suitable to MS IE, after all NN worked fine with the old version.

Sorry for a long post.

Mirko

Refresh should solve problem - Posted by ChuckD (NV)

Posted by ChuckD (NV) on October 16, 1998 at 23:45:31:

Brad,

The next time you come to the board, the links should have changed to the visited color. If they didn’t, try hitting your refresh button. I’m using the right click method and when I refresh, all the visited links have changed.

Hope this helps,

Chuck

You will be assimilated! - Posted by John Behle

Posted by John Behle on October 15, 1998 at 11:21:22:

We are Microsoft. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Re: Small Board Problem - Posted by Eric

Posted by Eric on October 14, 1998 at 22:15:24:

Brad,

I had the same problem as you on the old board. By the way, what’s with this new format. It took forever for me to get into Newsgroup, and the whole layout looks more chintzy. Is this the result of some cost-cutting?