AOL power tips: making an OK thing better
AOL bills itself as an Internet jack-of-all-trades. Instead of forcing you to fuss with a separate dialer, e-mail client, and browser, AOL gives you everything in one tidy integrated package, plus some extra applications to boot. Once AOL claws its way online, with a click or two you can merrily delete spam, receive buddy messages from strangers, and surf the Web with AOL's clunky built-in browser. If you're a new member (and an insomniac), you can try to use those 1,025 free hours in 45 days without going bonkers.

OK, we're wearing our cranky pants today. I just spent hours coaxing AOL into acting a bit more like a modern program, say, Eudora Lite circa 1996, for the benefit of all my fellow sufferers. My expectations were low. Could I export the address book in one (or two or three) keystrokes? How about keeping the browser window maximized? If nothing else, how about making AOL shut up?

I consulted experts (thank you, BPS Software), talked to AOL's tech gurus (yes, they exist), and fiddled with the program (mostly AOL 7.0 and 8.0). The results were mixed. Some tweaks, patches, upgrades, and third-party utilities helped, but some couldn't do a darn thing to modernize AOL. If you want to have AOL your way--more or less--try the following hard-won tips:

Export the address book
AOL's Address Book has offered a print button for ages--in case you want to print your address book and search through listings the slow way. But you can't presort your list of contacts or output those contacts to a file. At least, you couldn't before you read this tip. To output contacts to a file, click the Windows Start button, then select Settings > Printers, and double-click Add New Printer. Tell the wizard that this is a local printer; in the Printer Port dialog, select File > Print To File and click Next. Under Manufacturers, select Generic, then under Printers, choose Generic/Text Only. Click Next and answer a few miscellaneous prompts.

Back in AOL, select Mail > Address Book, choose the desired entries, and click Print. Supply an output filename, confirm your choices, and voilà--you get a text file with entries in this format:

Contact name: Alto Havocking
Screen name: ahavock
E-mail 1: Alto.Havocking@ukraine.edu

You'll have to do some reformatting once you import this data into a spreadsheet or another e-mail program, but it's doable. AOL 8.0 can also output physical addresses in either mailing-label format or a Complete mode that includes other information stored in the address book, such as birth date.

Too much work? If you can wait until February 25, Boletrice Software's free AOL Tools for AOL 8.0 will be able to export your address book to disk and much more. Better yet, according to BPS Software, you can import AOL's address book into its PowerTools Pro 10.0 software (available now), which is compatible with Microsoft Access.

Keep browser and e-mail windows maximized
AOL's built-in (some say brain-dead) browser has a maddening flaw in every version: it won't open maximized, and if you maximize the browser, it won't stay maximized when you visit sites with pop-up windows or if you flip back to AOL proper. Controlling e-mail window size and placement is equally maddening. The trick: manually stretch out the browser or e-mail window to its maximum size, then select Window > "Remember window size and position." AOL should remember this setting in this and future sessions. All stretched out? Boletrice's new AOL Tools should also solve this problem.

Hush, hush, sweet AOL
Tired of AOL beeping, chirping, and bleating "You've got spam"? One way to shut up AOL 6.0, 7.0, or 8.0 is to open Settings > Preferences, click Toolbar & Sound, and uncheck the Enable AOL Sounds box. If that doesn't work, fire up Windows Explorer and search for gotmail.wav. This file and its blabby cohorts should live in two separate folders--typically C:\Program Files\America Online x.x\sounds and C:\Program Files\Common Files\aolshare\sounds\US\default. (In AOL 6.0, look in America Online 6.0\sounds.) Select all the WAV files and delete them. Ah, sweet silence!

Take out the trash
Like any browser, AOL's accumulates cookies, old Web pages, and other digital clutter. AOL also stores e-mail attachments that have long since been sent in a folder on your hard drive. Installing AOL and downloading patches may also leave bric-a-brac on your drive. How can you clean house?

For starters, open Windows' Internet Properties control panel (in 98, 98 SE, 2000, and XP) and, in the General tab, click the Delete Files and Delete Cookies buttons. (The latter button isn't available in Windows 98. To purge cookies in that OS, go to the Windows\Cookies folder and erase the contents--except for the index.dat file.) To avoid the hassle in the future, click the Advanced tab, scroll down to the Security section, and check the box labeled "Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed." Note: If you purge files and cookies in your standalone Internet Explorer, they'll be purged from AOL's browser as well. To keep the cache lean and mean, go to the control panel's General tab, click the Settings button, and enter a small number--such as 5 or less--in the "Amount of disk space to use" box.

To get rid of old e-mail attachments, load Windows Explorer and erase the zipped files in the America Online x.x\misc\temp folder. Next, get rid of the programs that AOL dropped on your hard disk during installation. Click Local Disk (C:) and look for folders such as Install ICQ or AOL Extras. (Double-check the Add/Remove Programs control panel. If additional programs were installed, uninstall them here.)

AOL should clean up outdated files and settings when an update is installed, assuming you properly exited and reloaded the app. If it doesn't, erase the leftovers in America Online x.x\TOD.

Send blind CC messages
For years, AOL devotees have asked for a formal blind CC, or BCC, field, which hides the names of your recipients, in the Write Mail form. And for years, AOL has ignored them. If you're in AOL's address book, of course, you can select addresses, then click the Blind Copy button, but that's no good if you're typing in new addresses. Here's an old trick to use: In the Send To or Copy To field, simply type your desired e-mail addresses, separated by commas, and enclose them in parentheses like this: (bob@aol.com, sue@aol.com, maria@aol.com). When your mail arrives, AOL members won't see a To: field; non-AOLers will see only "undisclosed recipients." You can eliminate the "undisclosed recipients" note by sending the group e-mail to yourself; put your address in the Send To: field and the others in parentheses in the Copy To: field.

Get automatic
Going on vacation? Sounds like you need an automated response that tells correspondents you're taking a powder. Alas, only AOL 8.0 can solve this problem. Select Read Mail, click the Mail Options button, then "Set away mail messages," and turn on AOL's autoresponder.

Hide annoying windows
AOL 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0's Welcome screen can look like a car wreck, with all of its windows, menus, and general flotsam soaking up valuable screenspace. One partial solution: minimize--don't close--the Channels list, then select Window > "Remember window size and position." The next time you load AOL, the list will be tucked down in the bottom-left corner of the screen. A better solution: BPS Software's PowerTools Pro can hide or automatically shutter many AOL windows, including the Channels list.

Use another browser
Tired of AOL's barely-a-browser? Kiss it good-bye. Dial up with AOL, but launch Internet Explorer, Netscape, or some other browser for surfing. You'll pay a slight performance price, but running a browser on top of AOL works just fine.

Block that pitch
AOL's antispam filters stink (stay tuned for a future column on this subject), but you can stem the marketing flood from AOL and its partners. At Keyword: Preferences, in the Marketing section, open each of the five items listed, click "No, I do not want...," then OK. Click the Additional Information item and learn how to remove yourself from non-AOL mailing and phone lists. In the Privacy section, choose from the paltry blocking options offered.

Do you have a gripe list of your own? Got some solutions? Drop me a note at rluhn@aol.com and share the wealth.