• All-in-one, easy-to-use experience: AOL 9.5 puts everything users want at their fingertips - a Web browser, mail, messaging and content.
• New tabbed browsing: Users can easily open and manage multiple windows. Tabs let you keep several sites all open at once without cluttering your screen, and there's no need to use a separate search engine because AOL Search, enhanced by Google[TM], is always on the top of your screen.
• Integrated AIM: AIM(R) is built-in -- so you can see which of your buddies are online and instantly chat, share pictures and more.

• Windows Vista or Windows XP
  
• Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher
  
• 166 MHz Pentium-class processor or higher
  
• 128MB RAM, 460MB free disk space
  
• 28.8 Kbps or faster modem, or other Internet connection

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You can get a copy of AIM for Mac 1.0 by visiting AIM.com (you can also click the AIM for Mac screen shot).

If you're one of those users who is thinking of moving over to the Mac, AOL's got you covered.

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You know when you use something over and over, and sometimes you forget how useful it is because it's just part of your daily routine? For me, over the last month or so, I've been using a little icon in middle of the Desktop Toolbar. It was titled "Elections 08" and it took me directly to election news coverage. I used it all the time.

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Hi everyone,

After five great years working at AOL, it's sadly time for me to move on to some new challenges. I'm heading to a new position, but you'll still see me in Beta and I'll definitely be commenting here. If you figured out my email address by now, I'll be happy to answer your questions unofficially if I can!

The AOL Desktop blog will be left in the capable hands of Kevin Mayo, my boss and Director of Product Management -- stay tuned for some cool tips from him.

Thanks for reading the blog, and I'm glad to have been able to help you all with your questions about AOL.

Don't forget to try Yedda.com, where many other AOL employees respond to all sorts of questions.

All the best,

Laura Peterson

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There are parts of the new Toolbar Favorites functionality that I really like and some that I wish were better. I love the "More" option. It used to be a huge dilemma for me when I realized I had a new site that I needed to regularly check but my carousel was full and I had to delegate one of my beloved existing Toolbar Favorite shortcuts down to the lame Favorite Places folder (where there was no icon, it took an extra click to retrieve, there was no ability to sort ...). I also like that all the AOL channels were represented upon initial download. In 9.1, the selection of default AOL shortcuts seemed random.

But I've worked here almost ten years and I know how to get around AOL pretty well so I wanted to move the AOL channels out of the visible Toolbar Carousel (which is why the "More" feature is so fabulous - I don't have to delete them altogether). Changing out the Toolbar Favorites was a piece of cake - I love drag and drop functionality. I had hopes maybe there would be some new icons from the library added for the shortcuts, but there was nothing new. However, what is new is that now, when you add a Toolbar Favorite, the shortcut icon is often picked up from the page. For example, I regularly read a friend's blog that uses Vox. When I added the URL to my Toolbar Favorites, the default icon showed up as the Vox logo. That was pretty neat.

Sadly, because the new Toolbar is a lot narrower, the icons are very small once they are implemented. If it hasn't already been made clear that I really enjoy using Toolbar Favorites, let me reiterate the point by saying I rely on them constantly. I am used to being able to glance across the Toolbar and seeing a clear "!" and knowing that's the shortcut for my Poll Tool or knowing the cartoon penguin will take me to my family's Web site. They are not as recognizable anymore. However, when you mouse over them, you now get a full description, whereas before there was a strict character limit (my Poll Tool used be identified as "Plltl").

Lastly, and this is what I am really excited about, it is easy to (FINALLY) prioritize the Favorites, both on the Toolbar Carousel and in the Favorite Places folder - again, a simple drag and drop. In 9.1, that was one of my biggest frustrations. If I wanted to change the order on the Toolbar Carousel (like group all the similar ones together), I had to delete the Toolbar Favorite and re-add it to the new location. If I wanted to organize my Favorite Places folder (like alphabetize them), well, I couldn't. I also thought it was interesting that all of my Favorite places from AOL 9.1 came over as did my Internet Explorer Favorites. It was great to have them all in the same place and conveniently accessible down the left-side of the Web panel.

Let me conclude by acknowledging I have a seriously unhealthy obsession with Toolbar Favorites. It's bad enough I probably spent a full hour playing with, organizing, prioritizing and assigning icons to my Toolbar Favorites list. Now I've also spent an entire blog just talking about them. More (on a new topic, I promise) next week!

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Workaround #1

1) Manually Locate the folder:

C:\Program Files\AIM6\services\imApp\ver6_5_#_#\content\im

Note that ver6_5_#_# represents your version number of AIM. It will change each time you upgrade AIM. You must manually type in your version number or navigate to that directory.

2) Right Click Template.html (icon should be a page with an e)
3) Click Properties
3) Click Change
4) Select Notepad
5) Click OK Twice


Workaround #2

1) Start Internet Explorer
if it's IE7, hit the ALT key
2) Click on Tools
3) Click on Internet Options
4) Click on the Advanced Tab
5) Click on the Reset button
If you're running an older version then IE7, maybe click on Restore Defaults button.

Thanks,

Laura

___

Laura Peterson

Product Lead, AOL Desktop

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I'm finally getting used to closing the tab instead of the full window. However, one thing I keep forgetting is that the upper left corner is no longer "Write Mail." I keep expecting to see a blank email form every time I click it and instead I just get my inbox. Even after a week, I'm still doing it. (I'm a slow learner.)

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Click the "Favorites" link in the browser menu to expand the folders (as you can see in the screenshot below). You can also add, import, or manage favorites from this menu via the links at the top.



Favorites Menu view:

• Quickly expand folders and their contents
• Link to "Import Favorites"
• "Suitcase and heart" menu contains your AOL Favorite Places from a prior version of AOL

• Click the "heart" to open it.
• Sidepanel view also lets you view, edit, remove and add favorites.
• Double click folders to expand them.
• Click and hold to drag favorites or folders into other folders or to change the order
• "Suitcase and heart" folder at the top contains your AOL Favorites Places from an older version of AOL

How do I add links to Favorites, the Toolbar, or send in an IM or Email?

The heart menu from 9.1 is still around -- it's now the "add" button in the browser to the left of the URL field. Click this menu and choose one of the choices in the dropdown. Here's a screenshot:



In my next blog article, I'll take you through the steps to carry Favorite Places over from older versions of AOL as well as troubleshooting issues for anyone who has more questions.

Cheers,

Laura

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I've gotten a lot of comments from folks warning me about what they like/don't like on Desktop. Thanks so much! I'll certainly be on the lookout for these things and let you know if I can find some way around the ones you don't like.

Meanwhile, today I downloaded Desktop 10.1. As it downloaded, I got a little tutorial about all the new features. This is a nice touch - entertaining and informative.

Some of the features I noted from my tutorial:

1) Browse without signing on. Not sure what that means, but I am sure I will figure out when I get downloaded.

2) Tabs for browser, email and IM windows. My husband uses Firefox so I've seen this before. It's neat, but it takes some getting used to. I tend to automatically close the X in the upper right corner, thus shutting down ALL windows.

3) Send and receive email from multiple accounts. Ohhhh, that's kind of cool.

4) Easily add maps and directions to emails and IM's. I wonder if they could make it even easier than just adding a link. Personally, I prefer to just send an address and make someone else do the work. I'm inconsiderate that way.

Even though I read the intro, when Desktop opened, I thought it had automatically signed me in because I was looking at a slicker version of the Welcome experience I was used to receiving after I signed in. But then I had to sign on once I tried to get my email. Ah-ha, this is "Browse without signing on." Makes sense. I like the new way you sign in.

A poll was recently done that showed 55% of AOL users check email first. I am one of them. So, a couple notes about my first mail experience. I like the reading pane (a preview to an email before you open it) because I find it to be a timesaver. One thing I don't like is that the default layout of your mail inbox gives you a less-complete view of the subject line than before. Easily fixed by enlarging the mail inbox, but I do wish it was automatically expanded.

Something else I really appreciated is that when I minimized 10.1, I saw my old AOL 9.1 icon sitting next to the new one. Just out of curiosity, I clicked and there was my old AOL just as I left it. This was definitely different -- in my previous experiences, if you upgraded to a new version of AOL, it replaced the old one completely.

My next step was adding my Gmail account. When I went to access it, the inbox claimed I had 430 emails but it only showed me the first 100 or so, with the most recent from Oct. 2007. I tried moving those 100 to my saved folder, and then tried deleting them, but it claimed I had zero emails, which wasn't right either. I couldn't access anything recent. So I removed the Gmail account and will play around with it over the next week. More on what I figure out, plus my thoughts on adding favorites to the toolbar, next week.

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As promised, here's a closer look at the Address Book simplifications and enhancements that you'll find in AOL Desktop version 10.1. (If you haven't downloaded version 10.1 yet, get it here.)

When you open the Address Book from your mailbox or a draft write mail form, you'll notice that the search, edit, and other action buttons are on top. Secondly, double-clicking on a contact will automatically create a new draft write mail form. (Alternatively, double-clicking when an existing draft is open will add that contact to the same existing draft rather than creating a new one. For example, if you're already writing a letter to one friend and you want to add a second friend from your Address Book, double-clicking on your second friend's contact details will automatically add their address to the existing draft.)

Here's a screenshot demonstrating the convenient auto-filtering search box and the new Address Book layout.

This screenshot shows you how to add a new or existing contact to a mailing list. (Are you looking for the "Groups" from AOL 9.0 and 9.1? Don't worry: Mailing Lists are the same thing as Groups!)

Finally, here are three steps demonstrating how to add the entire contacts in a mailing list to a write mail draft.

Do you have an Address Book tip that I haven't covered? Share it here by adding a comment!

Cheers,

Laura

____
Laura Peterson
Product Lead, AOL Desktop

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AOL Desktop version 10.1 officially launched on Tuesday! It's available for download on Discover AOL.

You'll find more desktop themes and colors, enhancements to the Favorites and Address Book layout, and improvements in speed and stability in AOL Desktop v.10.1.

I'll go into more depth on Favorites and Address Book in the next few articles. Right now, I want to show you how to make AOL Desktop all your own.

Personalizations: With the Personalize menu in AOL Desktop v. 10.1, you can choose themes, customize the software with any color you want, apply your own personal photos to the background, and even set up a rotating photo slideshow.

Whenever you make changes inside the "Personalize" menu, your selections will be previewed in the software in real time.

Themes: Right-click on the background of AOL Desktop with your mouse to bring up the "Personalize" menu. This will bring you into the "theme" area, where you can select stock themes or modify and store your own.

Appearance: This is where you can change the color of the software using a number of pre-set colors. Or, select "custom" to launch the Windows color chooser to choose from even more colors.

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The News

I'm pleased to share that my friends on the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) social media team have created a custom chat room for the deaf community. You can access this room conveniently within AOL Desktop or via an external browser. All you need is an AOL or AIM screenname to chat.

The room is called "Deaf Friends".

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