your net:// InBox highlights

Compiled by Peter Sinclair

Welcome to InBox, where we attempt to answer your internet questions.

"A Dutch friend of mine sent me an email," writes Henk Magendans, "and at the end of his message it finished up with some animated windmills. I would love to return the favour with a typical New Zealand icon, like animated kiwis, Maoris doing a haka or animated kiwi-fruit... would appreciate your help."

Nice idea - what Henk is looking for is some animated .gif files, the kind you see all over the web, with a local flavour. I checked the 300 or so I have in a folder on my hard drive – everything from a cat in a hammock to Mick Jagger's lips – and all I can find is our national flag plus the (unofficial) standard of the Chatham Islands. Animated kiwifruit, anyone? Of course, he could always make his own – even for a beginner, it's not too difficult with the right software (try http://desktoppublishing.com/reviews/animbegin.html).

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Ashley King, the chef at Raetihi's Country Classic Lodge, must be thinking about a spot of OE this summer: "I am trying to copy the addresses which i have on my internet explorer program to enable me to take these overseas. In simple language, can you help me to accomplish this please?"

If you're using Outlook Express, Ashley, copy your Address Book file (*.WAB) from C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Address Book to a floppy. In Outlook itself, though, you'll need an often huge .PST file – might be easier just to open up your Contacts window, choose 'Select All' from the Edit menu and print the whole thing out…

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John Baird's mailer is driving him nuts: "I have an icon on my desktop that I click on… to connect to the internet. However when I am using the computer for other reasons this dialog box keeps popping up. How can I stop it??"

Your software is trying to do you a favour by checking your mailbox even when you're offline, John. I don't know what software you're using, but you should find a checkbox somewhere in its Options or Preferences menu which will tell it not to (don't forget to turn it back on!).

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Jim Johnson: "Is it possible to find e-mail addresses on the net?"

Only up to a point, Jim, because nobody wants their address to wind up on some spammer's list. WhoWhere (www.whowhere.lycos.com) is useful for North American email addresses, though.

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Alan Ramsbottom wants to brush up his typing skills, and as always the net can help: www.easytype.com.

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More of your InBox questions will be answered Wednesday in CyberLunch, on air 12:00-1:00 with Murray Lindsay and Peter Sinclair on Classic Hits 97FM.

If there's anything you want to know about the exciting world of the web, just e-mail inbox@herald.co.nz.