[abcomputers] ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers, Vol. 28: Preview of Office 2003 and More!
- From: "Linda F. Johnson" <linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "ABCfreelists" <abcomputers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2003 16:30:33 -0400
______________________________________________________
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers. The ezine YOU subscribed to. If you want to change
your subscription options or unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email for full
instructions. Thank you.
Linda
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/abc
______________________________________________________
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers
Volume 28; September, 2003 - mailed to 4539 subscribers
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Please rate this Ezine at the Cumuli Ezine Finder
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ABC is also listed at FreeTechMail. Please visit their site
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If you would prefer to read the online Web-azine, which
includes pictures and screenshots and is, basically, more
user-friendly, follow either of these links:
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(frames)
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(no frames)
or, scroll down to the Contents where you can click on
over to any individual article
NOTE: Unsighted readers or anyone who uses a screen
reader shoud probably go online and read that version if
my separator lines are making too much "noise".
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For definitions of any terms you do not understand, visit
the GeekSpeak Translator:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
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WATCH FOR LONG LINKS!
Most of these have been replaced with SnipURLs
http://www.snipurl.com
so you shouldn't have to copy/paste URLs anymore,
unless you have a reeeeaaallly tiny monitor ;-)
So...if the links are longer than a certain amount, I've
"snipped" them.
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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THIS MONTHS' FEATURED SPONSOR:
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@@@@@@@@@@
SPAM INSPECTOR
@@@@@@@@@@
Here's another product I have added to my computer.
Because I own a website and my email address is readily
available to every spammer on the net, I get over 200
garbage spam mails a day! The subject lines in my inbox
would impress even sailors. I get advertisements,
pornography, and "business" proposals from all over the
world. I've tried filtering this out with my mail rules,
blocked senders lists, and even freeware programs like
Mail Washer and found that none of these methods were
as effective as I needed.
But, this one DEFINITELY works.
And, it's so easy to setup and monitor.
READ MY FULL REVIEW HERE AND DOWNLOAD A DEMO:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/spami.htm
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ADVERTISE in ABC:
ABC offers inexpensive advertising in this email version.
Full details on how to do this are explained here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/abcad.htm
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Do you love ABC? Click here to donate any amount.
http://snurl.com/pks
Heck! If half the subscribers donated 25 cents each,
I would be in business. LOL
All contributions are greatly appreciated!
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CONTENTS
(all links below these items take you to the non-frames
online versions)
(items with *** behind them include pictures and/or are
better if viewed online)
1. Important How-To Message for Reading This Ezine
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/vol28.htm#HowTo
2. GeekSpeak Translation from the Cap'n
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
~ by Patt Meara
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THIS MONTH'S FEATURE ~
3. Microsoft Office 2003R***
~ by Linda F. Johnson
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/linda28.htm
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TIPS & TUTORIALS
4. FrontPage Table Fill
~ by Tina Clarke
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/tina28.htm
5. Using Photoshop To Turn Your Photos into a
Coloring Book***
~ by Vic Ferri
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/vic28.htm
6. Preventing and Fixing PowerPoint File Corruption
~ by Kathryn Jacobs
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/kath28.htm
7. Beyond Excel's Holy Grail:
Moving Beyond a Dependence on Array Formulae***
~ by Ray Blake
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/ray28.htm
8. How To Make Outlook 2002 Play Nice At Freelists
~ by Greg Chapman
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/greg28.htm
9. Undocumented Fix for Errors When Installing Office 2000
in Windows XP
~ by Shelley Turk
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/shel28.htm
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10. A Little Humor ~ Windows "Really Good" Edition
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/winrge.htm
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11. ASK THE FLEET
~ Questions submitted by readers and answered by
ABC's Fleet of Writers
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/ask28.htm
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Miscellaneous:
12. Subscription Management
13. Contact Information
14. Advertise in ABC
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/abcad.htm
*** means the article includes pictures in the online version
or is better viewed online
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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ECLECTIC ACADEMY ~ A Better Choice in Distance Learning
DO YOU WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL WITHOUT LEAVING
THE HOUSE?
It's the latest rage and it's called Distance Learning.
Most colleges now offer Distance Learning classes
because they know some people work hard and just
can't fit a classroom into their busy lives. But,
sometimes you don't want to enroll in a full program;
you just want to take one class.
ECLECTIC ACADEMY IS YOUR ANSWER!
http://eclecticacademy.com
Eclectic Academy offers a large range of classes to suit
many needs. Go there now and check out their
curriculum and roster. Classes are only $20 for 6 weeks.
HOW CAN YOU BEAT THAT?
Here's a sampling of what they offer:
*Art Courses, both digital and traditional
*Business Courses, including all of the MS Office
Programs (many taught by none other than Linda
Johnson herself)
*Graphics Courses - Flash, PhotoShop, Paint Shop Pro
& more
*Website Development Courses - FrontPage,
Dreamweaver, ASP, DHTML, Website Promotion, and
on and on and on
*Eclectic Classes - Computer Maintenance, Writing
Workshops, Feng Shui, Eating Safely - just about
anything you can think of
Go to Eclectic Academy now and sign up to be notified
when classes are added or ENROLL NOW in the class of
your choice. Go there now to enroll in the next set of
classes.
ONLY $20 FOR A SIX-WEEK CLASS!
http://eclecticacademy.com
*********************************************
FLASH!! NEW CLASSES STARTED Sept.7, 2003
BUT LATE ENROLLEES WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL
MIDNITE, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2003
DON'T DELAY -- SIGN UP NOW!!
*********************************************
Also, don't forget that Eclectic Academy offers classes
on many different programs and techniques. As a matter
of fact, some of the EA staff have put together forums
on their areas of expertise that you might want to check
out here:
http://www.pixelparity.org/
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(1.) IMPORTANT HOW-TO MESSAGE
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If you decide to go to the Online "Web-azine" version,
go here first for navigation instructions:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/vol28.htm#HowTo
If you are reading this plain text issue, maximize your
email window for best viewing.
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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USING WINDOWS XP AND CONFUSED?
Here are two great resources for you and buying either one
of them will help keep ABC alive!
SHOW ME WINDOWS XP
A Video Tutorial on CD that walks you through it all
http://showmewindows.com/c.cgi/windowstutorial
WINDOWS XP FOR NEWBIES
An E-Book full of simple, easy-to-follow instructions
http://newbieclub.com/wfncopy/?buntah
Both are still available for Windows 95/98/ME users
More info on them available on my Windows webpage:
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com/windows.htm
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(2.) Cap'n Patt's
GEEKSPEAK TRANSLATOR
~ by Patt Meara
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Visit the Cap'n's Official GeekSpeak Database at
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/gs.htm
If the word you need defined is not there, or the
definition is not clear, too geeky, or just plain confusing
to you, email the Cap'n. He would love to hear from
you at CapnPatt@xxxxxxx
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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Computer Help Central Presents...
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**SUPPORT ABC BY ORDERING THIS PRODUCT**
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*****THIS MONTH'S FEATURE*****
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(3.) MICROSOFT OFFICE 2003R
~~Linda F. Johnson, Linda's Computer Stop
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article includes pictures and is
clearer if read online. You can see the online version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/linda28.htm
**********************************************
First let me tell you that if you are using the Office 2003
Beta 2, there are technical refresh patches for all of the
programs which are free from Microsoft if you already have
the beta installed. They address different issues that have
been reported by beta testers, so I recommend you download
and install them. Here's the links. I don't know how long
they will be available so if you go there and they are gone,
that means you waited too long, so do it NOW (date of this
posting is 9/13/2003)
Microsoft Office 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch, which
includes Word 2003, Excel 2003, Outlook 2003, PowerPoint
2003, and Access 2003.
http://snurl.com/2c3i
FrontPage 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
http://snurl.com/2c3j
Publisher 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
http://snurl.com/2c3m
InfoPath 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
http://snurl.com/2c3n
OneNote 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
http://snurl.com/2c3k
Visio 2003 Beta 2 Technical Refresh Patch
http://snurl.com/2c3l
If you can't get the refresh patches any more, then you
will just have to wait until the full versions are released.
Currently, Office 2003 is scheduled for release in October
in retail stores, and September if you buy a new computer
with Office pre-installed.
I've been playing with the beta for a couple months and
the two programs I'm most impressed with are Outlook
2003 and FrontPage 2003 (which I'm using to create the
online version of this article). I have yet to see anything
in the other programs that I couldn't live without, since I've
been using Office XP which suits my needs just fine. But,
why do I like Outlook and FrontPage so much better in this
new version? Read on....
FRONTPAGE 2003
Well, the first thing I can say is THANK YOU MICROSOFT for
finally putting something in FrontPage that cleans up the code.
When you publish your FrontPage site, you now have options
to reduce the size of a page by removing empty tags, white
space, redundant tags, unused and empty style definitions,
and even certain tags that you specify. I've tried it on some
of my pages and it definitely works. I'm hesitant to use it
on all of my site yet, especially with a beta, until I'm sure
it doesn't remove anything that is necessary, but so far I'm
impressed. And, at least we know now that Microsoft has
recognized this shortcoming in FrontPage's ability to create
clean html code and is finally trying to help us clean it up.
Another thing I like is now, at the top of a page, while you
are working on it, FrontPage displays all the html tags it is
adding. There's a picture which shows how it looks, in the
online version of this article. And you can click on the
dropdown for any tag and look at the choices you get (see
online picture)!
Also, FrontPage 2003 offers some new views, including a
split view which lets you see the html code in the same
window as the actual page while you work. There's a
picture of that in the online version of this article too.
Note all the html tags are color coded and also note that
the lines of code are numbered on the left automatically
so you can reference the actual line of code when you get
those errors saying something is amiss in line number
such and such.
Of course, with all the xml improvements in Office 2003,
FrontPage, being a web design program, definitely benefits
from this. When you edit XML, the XML View toolbar provides
additional options for formatting code.
So, for now, I am a big fan of FP 2003 and look forward to
making the final product my default web editor.
OUTLOOK 2003
I held off on using Outlook 2003 because I use Spam
Inspector within Outlook and the makers of Spam Inspector
had not yet approved it for use with the Outlook 2003 beta.
And, because of all the spam I get, I cannot use any email
program that won't let me use my beloved Spam Inspector.
But, as luck would have it, I wrote to the Spam Inspector
people and asked them if I could use it with Outlook's 2003
beta and they told me the existing version would not be
compatible but they would let me beta test the new version,
so I took a BIG chance and installed the beta version (v 4.0)
of Spam Inspector inside the beta version of Outlook 2003
and actually made them both my default programs and I've
been using them together now for about a week with no
problems at all (knock wood). Actually, "no problems at all"
seems like an understatement....I not only love Outlook
2003, I ADORE this new version of Spam Inspector!! (and
I'll tell you more about that in a minute.) But here's what
I love about Outlook 2003 so far:
The interface is GREAT and soooo customizable :-) You can
set up default views for all of your folders and the choices
you have are innumerable so I doubt you won't be able to
create one you love. And there's a wonderful new feature
which allows you to save your searches to a folder so you
can just open that folder and the search will run
automatically, based on the new contents of your folders
...and you can tell it exactly which folders to include in the
search. Here's an example of one of the searches that's
already created for you when you install Outlook 2003...it's
called the Unread Mail folder. I set this folder up to only
search the folders that are most important to me and now
whenever I open this folder, all of my unread items appear,
and I used the sorting and grouping features to display the
mail, grouped by the folders they are in. Now, when I open
this folder, it shows me all of the unread items in the
folders I chose, and they are grouped by folder and it looks
like this (see online picture).
And notice there are collapse buttons to the left of each
folder name, so I can expand and collapse each one as I
want. There are also view choices to display the groups
as expanded or collapsed by default. I also use the
preinstalled search folder called "For Follow Up" so I can
easily see all messages I marked for follow up, no matter
which folder they are in and I REALLY like this convenience.
And, another goodie is the addition of the "Favorite
Folders" option at the top of your folder list. I used to
have to add numbers to the beginning of my most common
folders so they would appear at the top of my folder list...
now I don't have to play around with tweaking folder names
anymore because I can just drag them to this pane at the
top of my folder list and they are right there at the top for
me. (see picture online)
SPAM INSPECTOR 4.0
Now let me quickly tell you about why I love the new
Spam Inspector. It gives me SO many new choices for
bouncing mail, reporting spammers, and general
configurations and even allows me to turn it off and on
quickly, with the click of one button on the toolbar. And,
I'm not sure if it's Outlook 2003 or Spam Inspector 4.0, or
the combination, but the whole process of them working
together is MUCH faster and smoother! Yes, I got it
because I needed a version that would work with Outlook
2003, but it works with Outlook 2000/2002/2003, Outlook
Express 5/6, MSN Hotmail in IE, Eudora 5.2/6, and
IncrediMail XE/Pro. More info on Spam Inspector is here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/spami.htm
Like I said, I've only been using the Office 2003 beta
seriously for a couple weeks, but, if the other programs
are half as nice as Outlook and FrontPage, I think this
one is going to be a winner. If you want to see more and
learn what new features are included in all of the programs,
you can go here and read Microsoft's description. Just
remember though, if you buy it, it will not work on any
versions of Windows previous to XP and 2k, SP3...so
please don't go buy it if you have Windows 98 or ME :-)
Now that I've fallen in love with it, I am accepting
donations so I can buy it once it hits the store
shelves...LOL
*********************************************
Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the
Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop
and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning
classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and
Word at Eclectic Academy.
http://www.eclecticacademy.com
She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at
Many local businesses and tech schools in her area.
Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's website
http://www.personal-computer-tutor.com
and her ebook series, MS Word MAGIC!
Part I: Fonts, Fun & Formats
http://snurl.com/6sk
Part II: Table Wizardry
http://snurl.com/6sl
AND, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer:
http://snurl.com/6sd
*********************************************
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AND DON'T MISS LINDA'S NEWEST EBOOK SERIES:
If you have been interested in taking any of Linda's
Online Classes but don't want to wait six weeks to
complete all the lessons or don't have the desire to be
part of an online classroom, why not
SKIP THE CLASS & BUY THE BOOK INSTEAD?
Check out the eBook .exe versions of all of Linda's
classes here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/library.htm
Only $15 each!! Where else can you master a software
Program for that price?
Separate eBook tutorials on Access, Excel, Outlook,
PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word. Terrific value!!
OR BUY THEM ALL ON ONE CD Only $45.00!!
Order online or by regular mail
Details here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/cdtutorial.htm
Download the free Sample Version at CNET:
http://snurl.com/6sc
And PLEASE rate it there for me? Thanks!!
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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ANY FRONTPAGE COMMUNITY
http://anyfrontpage.com/bytes/
AnyFrontPage Bytes is your monthly FrontPage Community
Interactive Ezine: bringing you goodies, Links, News &
Tutorials that you can't find elsewhere.
Easy, free subscription for the latest, the hottest, cutting
edge in website crafting with ANY FrontPage.
FREE FrontPage E-Books included. Sign Up:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PARTY TIME!!!
WHO? You are invited! PRIZES FOR ALL!
News Scoops ~Special Announcements to be made
at the party!
WHAT? A Virtual Birthday Party Bash to top even last year's!
WHERE? Party will be held in the Chat Room at
AnyFrontPage Bytes
http://anyfrontpage.com/chat/default.asp
WHEN? Saturday, September 20, 2003
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM CST / 12 Noon to 2:00 PM EST /
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM GMT
RSVP editors@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We're looking forward to seeing you!!
**********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA:
There will be PRIZES given away at this party ...
The prize that I am giving is TWO FREE EBOOKS!!
You get to choose any two of my ebooks about
the Office programs ... A $30 t0 $40 value!
So, don't miss it :-) Hope to see you there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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(4.) FRONTPAGE TABLE FILL
~~Tina Clarke, AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
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Did you know you can copy content from a cell to adjacent
rows or columns automatically, and all without using cut
and paste?
Insert the cursor in the cell that has the content you want
to copy.
Select the cell and the adjacent cells that are in the row
to the right (you can drag the cursor to select the cells).
Next go to the Table menu | Fill | click 'Right'.
If you want to copy content to a column, do the same
procedure as above except you're selecting a column down.
Next go to the Table menu | Fill | click 'Down'.
NOTE: You must select cells that are either in a row to
the right or in a column below the cell with the content
you are copying. From the original cell, you must select
cells that run in a straight line from the original cell, either
horizontally in rows, or vertically in columns.
********************************************
Tina Clarke is the Webmaster of AccessFP - FrontPage
Resource Centre at http://accessfp.net and an editor of
"AnyFrontPage Bytes Ezine". Subscribe to the FrontPage
ezine and get FREE FrontPage E-Books upon joining.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes
********************************************
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**************STATION BREAK*****************
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DREAM JOBS TO GO
Check out OVER 80 INSTANT GUIDES to your DREAM JOB or
LIFESTYLE, by real world been-there, done-that authors.
Click here to get YOUR REAL LIFE moving NOW:
http://snurl.com/6sd
Including Linda Johnson's
"How to Get Started as a Software Trainer"
AND LOTS MORE!
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(5.) USING PHOTOSHOP TO TURN YOUR PHOTOS INTO
A COLORING BOOK
~~Vic Ferri, WinTips and Tricks
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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article includes pictures and is
clearer if read online. You can see the online version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/vic28.htm
**********************************************
Here is a simple way to turn your photos into black and
white coloring sketches which make a great personalized
gift for the special kids in your life.
This assumes you already have your photos scanned and
saved as image files on your disk. Not all images will
give equal results as far as quality is concerned - and in
this context I mean quality as clearly defined outlines.
Busy photos with a lot of small details probably won't do
as well as simpler photos. You'll just have to experiment.
Open up Photoshop and load an image.
Now convert it to black and white by clicking Image>
Mode>Grayscale. You will be told that color information
will be discarded. Click OK to that. Your photo is now a
standard black and white one which is just what we want
for this.
Next, go to the Filter menu, and choose Blur>Smart Blur.
Adjust the zoom (+ and - buttons) so you can see most
of your image in the Preview screen. At the bottom you
will see 2 drop down lists. For Quality choose High For
Mode choose Edge Only. Your image will now look be black
with white outlines (the reverse of what we really want)
Now play with the two sliders - Threshold and Radius.
What you do here can greatly affect the final result and
this is where you will have to do the most experimenting
to get the best results possible. You want the the lines
to be as distinct as possible, especially the fine ones,
but without bleeding. Play around with different settings
- you will see the results immediately in the preview screen.
Increasing Threshold will diminish detailed and fine outlines
- i.e.; the higher you set it, the more black and fewer visible
white lines you will see. Increasing Radius will make the
white lines more distinct and thicker. Once you settle on a
setting that looks like it may be acceptable to you, click OK
to accept the change.
Next, go to the Image menu and point to Adjustments>Invert.
And there you have the final result of the settings you made
in a reversed format which should now be black lines on white,
instead of white lines on black. If it doesn't look right - i.e.;
some lines are washed out or bleed out, then go back to play
with the Threshold and Radius settings again. You can just
use the Step Backward option in the Edit Menu.
Once done, you can further improve your sketch by using
the pencil and eraser tools to fill in broken lines and erase
unwanted ones. You can also enhance your sketch by
clicking Filter>Sketch and choosing different effects. But
for coloring pages you would probably want plain white.
The final step to make the pages should be obvious -
just print them out to an 8x10 size (or whatever size you
prefer). By converting multiple images into black and
white sketches you can have enough pages to create a
coloring book for the kids who can have fun coloring ma,
pa and a dog named poo. LOL
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NOTE FROM LINDA: I love this tip and am planning to take
some old family photos and make coloring books for all
my family members this Christmas. The picture you start
with definitely influences how much cleaning up you have
to do with the pencil and eraser tools, but if you go to
the online version of this article, you can see a couple
pictures of trees I tried it on.
********************************************
Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips and Tricks
email group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
He is also in charge of the Printing Tips page at
Linda's Computer Stop.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/printing.htm
and also the Registry Tips page.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc1/v4/vic4.htm
Vic has also created a program which allows you to
Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.
Read more and get the free demo here.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint
presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on
computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html
********************************************
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Are you into Video Computing?
VIDEOMAKER is the world's most popular monthly
consumer video production publication and covers the
use of digital video editing, camcorders, cameras, and
desktop video and audio production for novice and
expert enthusiasts alike. Its articles teach production
techniques, survey and review the latest equipment,
and explain the newest technological advances.
Published monthly, and is available on select newsstands
and to subscribers. In addition, you receive a password
giving you full access to Club VId, Videomaker's vast
online resource of information about making video.
And the best part is, it's CHEAP! Only $14.97 for 13 issues!
http://snurl.com/6t1
And, our own multimedia expert, Vic Ferri wants to tell you about
the great offer being made by VideoMaker Magazine. You can now
get a free trial issue and free Ulead CD of video editing software.
No obligation, no cost.
NOTE - the free CD is for US only. Other countries, free trial
issue only.
More info and instructions from Vic here:
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/expert_guides/videomaker.html
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(6.) PREVENTING AND FIXING POWERPOINT FILE
CORRUPTION
~~Kathryn Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Let's face it, PowerPoint presentation files tend to be
large. What's more, they get corrupted easily. Everyday
we get posts on the PowerPoint newsgroup complaining
that PowerPoint won't open a file. Fixing the problem is
time consuming and scary. But preventing the problem I
s easy. Just follow these three pieces of advice and you
are unlikely to have any corrupted files!
Number One: Turn off fast saves
Bring up the Options Window (Tools --> Options). Go to
the Save Tab. The first check box is for Fast Saves. Un-
check the box. If you had a file open, re-save it under a
new name. Go on - do it now - then come back - I
promise I'll tell you why.
Now that Fast Saves are off, your files are much less likely
to be corrupted. Fast Saves takes your PowerPoint
presentations and periodically saves just the update
information to your file. It doesn't save the whole file,
just the actions that have been taken since the last
Fast Save. When PowerPoint goes to re-create the file,
it has to re-build the file from the steps taken. Fast
Saves don't save unless you hit save, so even if they
didn't corrupt files, they don't save much time.
Number Two: Save often
Save your files regularly. Don't just save them to the same
name, save them to new names so that you have backups.
This way, even if something does happen to your file,
you won't have to start from scratch. You can just open
the last saved version and work from there.
If you aren't able to remember to save frequently to a
different name, check out the free Sequential Save Add-In
from Shyam Pillai. It is available from his site or the PPT FAQ:
His site: http://www.mvps.org/skp/seqsave.htm
FAQ entry: www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00494.htm
This add-n will allow you to set up where you want the
backup copies saved and how you want them named. Once
you have the add-in set up, it is accessed by a new toolbar
button conveniently located next to the Save button.
Number Three: Don't access files over a network
PowerPoint files and networks don't play well together.
It is much safer to keep a local copy of your presentation
and work on it. Use Windows to make a copy of the
presentation on your local drive. Work with that copy.
When you are done, copy the presentation back to the
network drive.
Same thing applies to linked files. Since you really want
all files in the same folder before you link to them anyway,
copy them locally and then link to them. (If you link to a
file that isn't in the same directory as your presentation,
the links will break when you move the presentation back
to the network drive.)
What if the files are already corrupted?
If PowerPoint won't open your file, chances are it is
already corrupted. Make a copy of the presentation and
try these recovery tricks:
1) Open a new presentation and use Insert --> Slides -->
From existing presentation to pull in the slides from the
corrupted file. This works about 50% of the time.
2) Try using the Clone Me add-in from Microsoft. It may
work, it may not.
http://snurl.com/2c3x
3) Download OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) and
use Impress to open the file. It has an amazing track record
for opening corrupted files.
4) Check the PPT FAQ entry
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00108.htm
on file corruption for a list of Knowledge Base articles
on this subject.
One other thing: Files that have a password applied by
PowerPoint 2002 or later can't be opened in the earlier
versions. Get the developer to remove the password
protection and send you a new copy.
**********************************************
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with
http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever
else there is time for.
I believe life is meant to be lived. But, if we live without
making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived.
************************************************
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POWERPOINT TO EXE
We can convert your Powerpoint presentations into stand alone
exe files that will play on all the major Windows platforms
without the need for a Powerpoint viewer. More info here:
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html
Email: pptexe@xxxxxxxxxx
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(7.) BEYOND EXCEL'S HOLY GRAIL:
MOVING BEYOND A DEPENDENCE ON ARRAY FORMULAE
~~by Ray Blake, GR Business Process Solutions
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
**********************************************
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article includes tables and is
clearer if read online. Also, if any of the long formulas
break into two lines in this plain text email, spaces may
be inserted if you copy/paste the formula into Excel, so
you must remove the spaces. You can see the online
version here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc3/v28/ray28.htm
**********************************************
It's something of a rite of passage, really, the day when
the intermediate Excel user discovers array formulae. If
you haven't got to that stage just yet, stop reading now,
but keep this article handy. When you get to the point
(and you will) when you can't imagine life again without
array formulae, take out this article and read it.
**********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA: If you want to know a little about array
entered formulas, here's an article I wrote about them in
TechTrax ezine.
http://snurl.com/2c3y
**********************************************
Array formulae are without doubt one of Excel's crown
jewels. Few features in any programme can offer the kind
of magic which is possible with arrays. Look at this data
in the table in the online version of this newsletter, for
instance.
We can, of course, total the columns. We can even use
functions like SUMIF and COUNTIF to add up the data
based on conditions, like the number of occasions four or
more units were sold, or the total income on or after a
particular date.
But as soon as we want to combine 2 or more conditions,
these basic functions let us down, since they are limited
to only a single condition.
So, if we want to know the total number of units sold by
South Branch on 2 August, we can use:
{=SUM(IF(B2:B17="South",IF(E2:E17=DATEVALUE("02/08/03"),C2:C17,0)))}
At its heart, of course, this is a sum command. If we
were to render the command into English, it might say
something like this:
Add up where it says 'South' in column B and where
the date in column E is 02/08/03 whatever is in the
corresponding row of column C.
Note the interesting framing of this function by the curly
brackets. This is required of every array formula, but you
can't just type them. After typing in the rest of the
formula, you simply type [Ctrl]+[Shift]+Enter, rather
than just Enter, as you usually would. Excel will add the
curly brackets automatically. Also remember that
whenever you edit the cell with an array formula in it,
you should exit with the same 3-key combination.
The power of the array formula soon becomes apparent
once you start playing with more fields and bigger, more
complex lists. Some time ago, infatuated with arrays, I
built a large spreadsheet to track results of 3,000
salespeople going through a number of assessments.
I had array formulae to show how many people had
passed how many assessments mapped against dates,
assessment centres and case studies. In all, there
were several hundred array formulae across a few
worksheets in the one file. I was delighted with my
achievement, and installed the file on the client's
network.
As more and more data came in, though, it started taking
longer and longer for the file to open, close or save.
Before long, users were having to wait 4 minutes or more
to get their statistics, and another 4 to close the file again.
Clearly, this wasn't acceptable and I determined to find out
what was happening and what I had done wrong.
The answer turned out to be nothing; I hadn't made any
mistakes, and the sheet was working exactly as I'd designed
it to. But I'd had my first taste of "array crawl". It seems
that array formulae are highly volatile. In Excel terms this
means that they will be forced to recalculate at the drop of
a hat. Virtually anything you do in Excel will cause a chain
reaction forcing all your arrays to recalculate, whether or
not whatever you've done has any impact on them - and
remember that each individual array formula could represent
thousands of calculations. I was using far too many of
them and they had to go.
But my sheet depended on them utterly. How could I do
without them? The answer actually turned out to be quite
easy. I knew about the Database functions - DSUM,
DCOUNT and the like - but they'd never seemed terribly
useful to me. I was about to be enlightened in a big way.
The basic syntax of a D formula (taking DSUM as an
example) is:
DSUM(database,field,criteria)
'Database' is the range of cells which contains the data
you want to query. It should contain a title row and look
pretty much like the example we're using, although it can
be any number of columns wide, and any number of rows
long. Often, you will want to define a dynamic range
name for it.
'Field' indicates which column is used in the function. For
example, are you totalling units sold, or the unit price?
'Criteria' sets out the conditions you want to match, and
here a little knowledge of advanced filters will pay
dividends, because this works in exactly the same way.
In order to prepare for the D formula to work, you
effectively set up as you would for an advanced filter.
We'll need an example to see this working, and let's look
back at the earlier example we used in the array formula:
Add up where it says 'South' in column B and where
the date in column E is 02/08/03 whatever is in the
corresponding row of column C.
So let's set up the filter. Look at the range in G6:K7.
(see the table in the online version of this article).
I started by copying and pasting the entire title row. This
is a good idea, because any misspellings at all will make
the D-functions fail. Then we can type under the headings
any criteria we want for each field.
In our example, we just want to identify those sold by
South on 02/08/03, so I've entered those details in the
appropriate columns. This would do the trick quite nicely,
but if you're only using criteria in those two columns, you
could simplify as in the range G10:H11.
We can now enter the D-function in the cell of our choice:
=DSUM(A1:E17,3,G6:K7)
Look at the three arguments in detail. The 'database' is
A1:E17, which is the table containing all the data to query,
including the column titles. At the end, the 'criteria' refers
to G6:K7, where I've set up the advanced filter. Note that
I could have shown G10:H11 using the simplified table for
the same effect here.
The middle argument, 'field', is shown here as 3. We want
to total the units sold, and this is the 3rd column in the
database, so we show this as '3'. Personally, I find this
difficult to debug, and counting columns every time is no fun.
Fortunately, Excel allows you an alternative syntax in which
you can refer to the field by its database column title, thus:
=DSUM(A1:E17,"Units sold",G6:K7)
In fact, if you name both the database range and the filter
range, you can create D-functions which are virtually self-
documenting, like this:
=DSUM(AllData, "Units sold", Filter_South2August)
So I recoded my 4 minute sheet using D-functions. The
sheet now has even more data than before and is open
and usable within 5 seconds. In all respects it is just as
good as the old one, but is now an entirely array-formula-
free zone. I have a personal rule these days; if I ever find
myself going beyond 10 array formulae in a spreadsheet
workbook, I convert to D-functions before moving on.
This has been an introduction only to the D-functions,
and how they can replace array formulae in your
spreadsheets. I hope it will be enough to send you off to
the Excel help file to check out the other D-functions. I
am sure you will find as I did that these tools can exceed
array formulae in terms of power and speed and that,
like me, you won't look back.
**********************************************
Ray Blake lives in England and spent 15 years training
people in the financial services industry there. He had
always used PCs in his work, and gradually realised he
might make a career out of them. He and his business
partner set up GR Business Process Solutions
( http://www.grbps.com ) which specializes in innovative
IT to support knowledge testing and skills assessment.
Although he spends a lot of time these days developing
in VB and Access, Excel remains his favourite development
tool, because, as he says, 'It can do everything; there's no
computer application you can think of that you couldn't
develop in Excel.'
********************************************
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LOCK&HIDE
from Vic Ferri
High level desktop folder security for
Windows 95/98/Me
Keep your personal and most valuable files locked
and hidden from prying eyes, viruses, and other users
of your computer. Easy to use and extremely secure.
Lock&Hide is an extremely easy to use program that
allows you to lock and hide any folder on your desktop.
Folders secured with Lock&Hide cannot be seen, found,
or accessed. Your folders remain totally invisible and
highly secured, yet can be accessed quckly and easily
at any time!
More Info here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
Screenshots and instructions here:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/scrnshots.htm
Or download the free demo here
(the demo does not include the "Restore All" feature
or the password protection utility.)
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/demoinf.htm
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(8.) HOW TO MAKE OUTLOOK 2002 PLAY NICE AT
FREELISTS
~~ by Greg Chapman, Senior Systems Engineer
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**********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA: Greg wrote this tutorial for the
members of my MSO email support group at freelists
because many of the members kept posting that links
that were shared were bad, etc. Well, the links were
NOT bad but in the process of freelists' server converting
Outlook 2002 email, these "=" and "=20" signs kept
being inserted at the end of lines and if a link was long,
it was full of them. But, Greg saved the day and figured
out the fix for us, so I asked him to share it here in case
any others here have seen this problem when posting to
any plain text lists. This fix DEFINITELY works and my
MSO group is proof of it :-)
**********************************************
This article is separated into 4 parts:
PROBLEM - Brief summary of the observed problem
DESCRIPTION - Summary of behavior to match this problem
against what you may be experiencing
RESOLUTION - Steps you can take in order to correct the
problem
HISTORY - Cleaning up from previous attempts to fix the
problem.
PROBLEM:
Messages sent to freelists.org lists often have extra
characters inserted at the ends of lines.
DESCRIPTION:
Freelists, like many subscription based messaging systems,
is designed to work with plain text messages as described
in RFC2646
ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2646.txt
There are many 'stylistic' issues with plain text, though.
Amongst them is control of line breaks. Without this
control (or a proper semblance of it) a writer's attempts
to confine a paragraph to 76 characters (standard shell
screen width) can cause paragraph structure to fall apart
as it is rendered on other systems.
Outlook XP is set by default to use Base 64 encoded
text, part of the MIME specification RFC2045
ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2045.txt
and this is the source of unusual line breaks (lines
terminated with '=' and '=20' characters when sending
mail to freelists.org. By no means is this to say that
Freelists' mail processor doesn't have compliancy issues
since it is supposed to cleanly support Quoted-Printable
and Base 64 encoded text. However, those extra
characters are a huge annoyance and, up to now, Outlook
XP users have been largely unsuccessful in using Outlook
to post clean, readable messages to Freelists.
**********************************************
NOTE FROM LINDA: In defense of Freelists, there is a
setting which can be turned on in groups, which allows
humanize-quotedprintable and says "If set to true,
attempt to remove any and all quoted printable characters
from subject and body replacing them with their actual
character." However, this is in the same section where you
can allow attachments to be sent to the list, so it's ME who
has chosen not to turn this on because I don't want possibly
dangerous attachments sent to this list and, therefore,
I'm just plain chicken to turn it on. LOL
**********************************************
In older versions of Outlook, users could control text
depending on whether Outlook was in Corporate Workgroup
mode or in Internet Only mode. Corporate Workgroup mode
users had no control of the text output. Internet Only users
had a variety of options by which the output text encoding
was controlled. With the introduction of Outlook XP, the
ability to switch modes disappeared and, with it, so did
most of the ability to control plain text formatting in a
message. Also in Outlook XP, a new mechanism called I
ntelligent Encoding was introduced. Intelligent Encoding
works on this logical flow:
- Clients attached to an Exchange Server use the format
specified at the server
- Clients attached to an Exchange Server use the same
rule set as would Exchange Server. From MSKB article
278134 - "Outlook 2002 encodes each plain text body part
for which Outlook creates Multipurpose Internet Mail
Extensions (MIME) by using the same algorithm that
Exchange servers use to send plain text to the Internet.
In general, if 25 percent or more of the message is
comprised of 8-bit characters, Outlook uses Base 64
encoding, otherwise Outlook uses Quoted-Printable
encoding."
RESOLUTION:
Outlook XP will ignore the algorithm by which it decides
to change the encoding of text and can also be set to
consistently follow a single specification. There is no
interface provide for this, though, and can only be
implemented through a registry setting.
Note that making mistakes in the registry is generally not
a good thing. It is possible to make a mistake which will
render a system useless. Follow the guidelines for registry
editing in MSKB article "256986 Description of the Microsoft
Windows Registry"
1. Look for the registry key
HEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\
Outlook\Options\Mail
2. If the DWORD value InternetMailTextEncoding doesn't
exist, create it.
3. The following values change Outlook XPs behavior in
this fashion (from MSKB article 278134," OL2002: How
Outlook Applies Encoding to Plain Text Messages")-
If the value data is 0, Outlook is set to Encode
Intelligently.
If the value data is 1, Outlook uses Quoted-Printable
encoding.
If the value data is 2, Outlook uses Base 64 encoding.
If the value data is 3, Outlook uses no encoding and
leaves 8-bit characters as 8-bit characters.
Setting the value to 3 will ensure that no encoding will
be applied to messages composed in plain text. This will
allow your posts to Freelists to remain clean of unwanted
characters.
HISTORY:
If you've been mucking about with Outlook XP in an attempt
to control this hair-tearing little annoyance, you can easily
undo all your changes by going to the Tools menu and
choosing Otions->Mail Format->Internet Format and clicking
the Restore Defaults button. Then, change the outbound
format back to plain text. In the "automatically wrap lines
at" input, change the value to be at least 72 characters
(76 is standard) and then click OK and OK again. Close
Outlook XP and restart it. Come back to this article and
set the above described Registry key and DWORD value.
**********************************************
Greg Chapman is a Microsoft MVP, Senior Systems
Engineer, developer, private pilot, luthier, musician and
dad. When Greg's not flying or helping to solve the l
atest teenager crisis, he gets his jollies from finding the
unusual stuff in Windows, wrestling with some obscure
technical issues or beta testing games and simulators.
His freelance work through MouseTrax Computing Solutions
allows him to exercise these passions to their fullest.
http://www.mousetrax.com/
********************************************
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(9.) UNDOCUMENTED FIX FOR ERRORS WHEN INSTALLING
OFFICE 2000 ON WINDOWS XP
~~ Shelley Turk
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
I have found an undocumented fix to solve the MSOffice
2000 (on XP) install problem. I wanted to share this with
you, in case someone else has the same problem.
I had searched Google, and also the Microsoft knowledge
base, to fix the install error 2755 and tried all their
suggestions for the problem. NOTHING WORKED! I spent
days researching it. I even contacted MS product support,
but unless I paid, they were not prepared to give me any
assistance as they no longer support Office 2000 install
problems. I was frustrated until I found the solution. It
was so simple, I could kick myself!
Office 2000 setup is very slow and if it eventually issues
error 2336 or 2755, right click 'My Computer', click
'Manage', double click 'Services', look down the list for
"Windows Installer", right click and choose "start" then
run the install.
********************************************
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(10.) A Little Humor ~ Windows "Really Good" Edition
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
This is just a little humor....
PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY.
This was sent to us by John Galvin, in the Computer Help
and Discussion Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Computer_Help_and_Discussion/
and some of the members almost had a heart attack when
they ran it ... so YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED .... it is just a
joke and you can just hit alt+F4 to end it.
Sit back and enjoy what some think was the prototype for
Windows ME (LOL)
Windows RGE (Really Good Edition)
http://www.deanliou.com/WinRG/
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
(11.) ASK THE FLEET
~ Questions submitted by readers and answered by ABC's
Fleet of Writers
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
QUESTION submitted by Judith in Olympia, WA:
I designed a watermark for use in a document header in
Word 98. I upgraded to Word 2000 and the watermark
works fine. The watermark is composed of 3 text boxes.
One is 36pt Rage Italic, one is 12 pt Arial Black, bold,
and the third is 36 pt Arial Black, bold. All three are rotated
270 degrees and positioned to fit between the holes in
3-hole punch. I create them in WordArt, copy to PowerPoint
where I position and group them into a single graphic, and
copy back to Word so when I reposition I'm not dealing
with 3 elements, just one. In formatting a training manual
with this header watermark, all was fine on my PC and the
PC of the writer as long as she had all the necessary
TrueType font files. But on the PC of the person who hired
us to write and on the PC at Kinko's when we went to have
the color print done, the Arial Black, bold 12 pt text box
flipped to 90 degrees. After some questioning, it seems
that Word XP is the ingredient doing the flipping. The
Kinko guys took my files to a PC with Word 2000 loaded
and were able to finish the print job without the text flip.
Since I don't have Word XP, I can't do any redesign work.
Has anyone else run into this problem? Any fix suggestions
for me for collaborating with Word XP users?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi Judith...this is a known bug in Office XP, with files that
were flipped in earlier versions of PowerPoint and so far
Microsoft has not come up with a fix....their answer is to
open the file in XP, flip the images so they are correct,
then save the file again in XP ... this *should* fix this in
all versions, but it has to be done in PowerPoint 2002
(XP) for it to work. Is it possible for you to take the file
back to Kinkos or any other place that has Office XP and
correct the images there? Cuz, unfortunately, at this
point, that's the only workaround Microsoft is offering.
For more info on this, read this thread in the Microsoft
Newsgroups:
http://snurl.com/20ep
And here's Microsoft's article about the flipped images
in PowerPoint:
http://snurl.com/2c44
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Irving:
I am using HP PII, 350 mhz, Win98SE. I am going to
purchase a new computer, with WinXP. I would like the
new computer to also have a copy of my Win98SE (I have
the legal CD). Is it possible to have 98 installed in a
partition of my 80gig hard drive? And can I use either
XP or 98 to boot up? Will this cause any problems with
the machine? Will all, or most of the s/w on old machine
be able to be "copied" to new machine and will XP be
able to access and use the s/w? What would U
recommend?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Sure. You can do this and Hal Cardona wrote an article
on how it's done for ABC...you should search the archives
before you ask ;-)
Here's Hal's article .. and good luck:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc1/v4/hal4.htm
If, after you read this, you have any SPECIFIC questions,
send them to me, with this full email intact and I will
forward them onto the Fleet, including Hal.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by GFL:
While using the IE6 web browser and selecting "favorites"
is there a way to force "favorites" to display multi columns?
ANSWER from Vic Ferri (Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips
and Tricks email group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
He has also created a program which allows you to
Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.
Read more and get the free demo here.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint
presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on
computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html.):
Nope, not possible, as far as I know. However you can
make your Start>Programs> menu into multiple columns.
In case that interests you too here's how to change the
Programs menu to a multiple columns format:
Click Start>Run, type regedit and click OK to open up
your registry editor.
Then use the plus signs to make your way to this key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\explorer\Advanced
In the right hand pane, right click a blank area and
choose New>String Value.
Name it StartMenuScrollPrograms
Then double click it and enter False as the data value.
Exit the registry and then check your Start>Programs
menu. They should now appear in multiple columns.
REPLY from GFL:
Thank you for the prompt reply. Vic answered my question!
I want you to know I've drove everyone to distraction,
from protronics to TSGL list. Vic was the only one to step
forward with a opinion. Your the BEST!
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by camille522:
an error message appears upon startup sometimes and
said there is an error in Spool 32, try restart your computer
what is Spool 32 and how do I fix this problem?
ANSWER from Hal Cardona (Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth
http://pcsleuth.com serves as tech support and/or offsite
Sys Admin for over 200 clients around the US. He designs,
builds, and troubleshoots networks and builds custom
computer systems.):
Camille522, Try this troubleshooter from MS.
http://snurl.com/21er
REPLY from camille522:
Thank you for your help. Now I understand better what is
happening and how to correct it. Again, Thanks
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by mumtomanyuk:
What are BDF files please?
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
bdf files are backup definition files....usually refers to
backups of files that are burned to a CD.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Hermann:
Occasionally, the Windows button in the taskbar turns
orange and starts flashing. It sometimes happens when
I work in Word. Even though it does not seem to do any
harm, I would like to know, what it means.
ANSWER from Kathy Jacobs (Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft
PowerPoint MVP. Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com Cook anything
outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com Kathy is a
trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever else there
is time for.):
This is an easy one, but I haven't found documentation
anywhere on it. The flashing button means that something
has happened in that window that requires your attention.
(Generally, it means there is a message box up or an action
required. Another (fairly common) situation is when you load
a web page and then change windows before the page
loaded fully. When it has loaded, the button will turn orange
to alert you to go look at it.) Hope this helps!
REPLY from Hermann:
I would like to express my thanks regarding Kathy Jacobs'
message covering the subject. This has been a mystery of
two weeks standing in our computer group for seniors here
in Novato, California. We searched high and low in
reference books to no avail. That clears it up. Thanks again
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Mike from Arlington:
I suddenly had an error message yesterday when I tried to
open ms word. It was a window informing me that ms word
would have to close, and would i like to send microsoft a
message (boy, would I). I removed ms office from my
machine using add/remove, and reloaded. I get the same
error message. I went to tucows, etc., and scanned for
viruses, removed, reloaded, with same result. Please help
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi Mike. That's something I cover in my Word
Troubleshooting page. Read this and you should be able
to fix this problem quickly:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/NNTWord.htm
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by judinan:
What a wonderful site. I happened upon it when I went
to askjeeves.com to find out about deleting files from
my computer that I don't need. I followed your directions
for deleting temp files, but I'm curious to find out how to
delete all the temporary internet files that are clogging
our system. Other than these two places to delete junk,
are there other files I can safely delete? Cache and Cookie
files? (I'm really just a beginner and am always worried
about deleting the wrong things!) Thanks again for all
your help.
ANSWER from Vic Ferri (Vic Ferri owns the very popular WinTips
and Tricks email group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinTips-Tricks
He has also created a program which allows you to
Lock & Hide desktop folders in Windows 9X/ME.
Read more and get the free demo here.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/lh/lockhide.htm
And, he now offers a service to convert PowerPoint
presentations to .exe files which can be viewed on
computers which do not have PowerPoint installed.
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/vic3/index.html.):
Hi Judinan, The easiest way to delete your Temporary
Internet Files is by opening Internet Explorer, then
clicking > Tools>Internet Options and under the General
tab click Delete Files in the section entitled Temporary
Internet Files. If you are using Internet Explorer 6, you
will also see the option to delete your Cookies there. If
you do not see the option to delete Cookies, then just
click your Start button, then click Run and type in COOKIES.
This will open up your Cookies folder where you can delete
the cookies you don't want. Be aware that by deleting
your cookies and/or your Temporary Internet Files, you
may have to re-enter your login information at some sites.
REPLY from judinan:
Hi Vic, Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. I'm
about to 'clean up' the computer while my son is out!
I know it will run much better when I'm done. If we have
to re-enter information, that will be fine. Most likely,
some of these files are sooooooooooooo old, anyway!
Again, thanks for your quick response.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Janine at BPI:
I am trying to create a locked form with hyperlinks to
areas within the same word document - NOT to a web
site. I have already used your ref "Adding Hyperlinks to
Locked Form in MS Word" and that is very helpful but it
only shows how to hyperlink to URL addresses. I only need
to move around with the same word document. Is this
possible, how?
ANSWER from Dian Chapman (Dian Chapman is a Technical
Consultant, Microsoft MVP, Instructor of several advanced
Word online courses, Editor of TechTrax, free support Ezine
http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax/
and author of the eBook: Word AutoForms and Beginning
VBA. Dian specializes in AutoForms creating and training,
technical writing, web development and tech support. She
enjoys teaching people how to enjoy their computers more
and loves the challenge of providing automated solutions
to business problems. You can find out more about Dian
and read many more of her tutorials by visiting her web
site at http://www.mousetrax.com/ and her online
magazine at http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax/
And if you're interested in learning more about creating
Word AutoForms or you'd like to start learning how to
use Visual Basic for Applications, Word's programming
language, be sure to check out her new eBook at
http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html and her online
classes at http://www.mousetrax.com/techclasses.html.):
To be honest with you...I don't know. I mean...I know what
has to be done, but I've never taken the time to work out
the code. It's not as easy as just saying...okay this goes to
a hyperlink and this goes to something else. Because you
program to OBJECTS, you'd need to work out a routine with
the GOTO button, I believe. I don't know if it would/
wouldn't need an unprotect toggle or not. I've had this
question before and it's "one of those things" on my ToDo
list...to work out when I have time. At this point, I don't
have the time. So I can only suggest that you check out
the Microsoft Newsgroups. However, I will try to figure
this one out and write up an article in the future with
details and code.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Christina London UK:
I have created a template for a letter in Word 2000 and
other users on Word 98 and Word 2000 have a problem
with text changing font unexpectedly from Arial 10pt
(which is the default for all our documents including
Normal.dot) to Times New Roman 12pt! This appears
to happen most often when using autotext/autocorrect
and macro buttons to insert names and addresses and
frequently used text. I have re-created the template in
case it was corrupted and I have checked the default
settings on all users machines and cannot find the
answer. Have you experienced this problem and does
anyone know how to overcome it?
ANSWER from Dian Chapman (Dian Chapman is a Technical
Consultant, Microsoft MVP, Instructor of several advanced
Word online courses, Editor of TechTrax, free support Ezine
http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax/
and author of the eBook: Word AutoForms and Beginning
VBA. Dian specializes in AutoForms creating and training,
technical writing, web development and tech support. She
enjoys teaching people how to enjoy their computers more
and loves the challenge of providing automated solutions
to business problems. You can find out more about Dian
and read many more of her tutorials by visiting her web
site at http://www.mousetrax.com/ and her online
magazine at http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax/
And if you're interested in learning more about creating
Word AutoForms or you'd like to start learning how to
use Visual Basic for Applications, Word's programming
language, be sure to check out her new eBook at
http://www.mousetrax.com/books.html and her online
classes at http://www.mousetrax.com/techclasses.html.):
AutoText is based on the style that was applied when
the AutoText was saved. If that was NORMAL, then it'll
be saved in normal. However, if some other style was
applied at the time...then it's that format/style. So if
they created some text in myStyle, which was say, Arial
12pt and some info as their new AutoText item...then
when they paste that back into a document, the same
style that was applied then, will be returned to the new
doc. Even if that style no longer exists...AutoText retains
the VIRTUAL style name and it'll now be added. So they
need to check their AutoText entries to verify...and
possibly reformat...their AutoText entries.
REPLY from Christina London UK:
Thank you for your reply. It makes sense as the problem
only occurred after the inhouse style changed from Times
New Roman 12pt to Arial 10pt. Is there a quick way of
reformatting all old autotext entries as each pc user has
their own extensive list of autotext entries.
ANSWER from Dian Chapman:
Sorry, but I'm not aware of any "quick" way to reset a
style. You can print out a list of AutoText to see what
you have and the names. Then it would be a matter of
retrieving each item, applying Normal or some other
generic style, selecting and resaving back to AutoText
...by hitting Alt/F3 and reentering the same name. Of
course, I would write a VBA routine to do this for me. ;-)
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by MichaelAtAOL:
Can i install Office XP on my win ME system ??? Can i
select components of Office XP to install/not install
individually ???
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Sure Michael. You can install Office XP on Windows ME
with no problems. And, yes, if you don't want to install it
all, you can pick and choose the parts you want. When
you insert the CD, you will see a few choices, if you
choose the option to Add/Remove Features, you then will
see a list of all that is on the CD, beside each part, you
will see a drive icon, just click on that and you will see
choices, choose "Run from My Computer" and that part
will be installed. Only the parts you choose will be
installed, however, you can always go back to the CD
later and check or uncheck "Run from my computer"
on different parts to add them or remove them.
REPLY from MichaelAtAOL:
Thanks Linda. I know you are very busy and get lots of
mails, but it is always nice to receive a compliment, and
know that your efforts are much appreciated. I did install
Word & Excel from office XP to my WIN ME system. They
both work fine and i really appreciate knowing i could do
that. Once again, thanks bunches
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Henry:
Does anyone know about these files and if they are
dangerous to run. It sounds like they are designed to
speed things up. The following is from the Microsoft
Knowledge Base Article - 191655 "Winalign.exe and
Walign.exe optimize programs by rewriting a program's
file headers, creating a new section table, and then
writing file sections, each of which starts on a 4-kilobyte
(KB) boundary...."
ANSWER from Hal Cardona (Hal Cardona, PC Sleuth
http://pcsleuth.com serves as tech support and/or offsite
Sys Admin for over 200 clients around the US. He designs,
builds, and troubleshoots networks and builds custom
computer systems.):
They are used by Windows to allow defrag to place certain
files in an optimum position for Windows and program
start-up.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by T.Rivers:
In the same Microsoft Excel Workbook I want to enter
information into a cell in work sheet#1 And then
automatically have that information entered into a cell
in worksheet # 2 and work sheet #3 Example Worksheet
# 1 is the candy orders that I take from each family
Worksheet # 2 is the actual order form that I will use
I am trying to cut down on the typing Thank you
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi T.Rivers. Let's see if I can explain this in the easiest
way possible. The easiest way to do this is this:
Click in the cell on sheet 2 where you want the
information to be copied from sheet 1 and type an equal
sign (=) Then click on the sheet tab for sheet one and
click in the cell where you will be typing the info and then
hit the enter key...now the cell on sheet 2 will have a
formula in it that says =sheetname!cellname
For example, lets say sheet one is named "CandyOrders"
and sheet two is named "OrderForm"....you will be entering
a number in cell B5 on CandyOrders and want that number
to appear in cell F10 of OrderForm. You can click on cell
F10 on the OrderForm sheet and type an equal sign...then
move to the CandyOrders sheet and click on cell B5 and hit
Enter. Now, look in cell F10 of the OrderForm sheet and
you will see this:
=CandyOrders!B5
Which you could type in directly, but doing it the way I
suggest assures that you won't accidentally misspell the
sheet name or something (in which case the formula would
not work)...but if you choose to type it in manually, don't
forget the exclamation point at the end of the sheet name
or it won't work (the exclamation point is how Excel knows
it's a sheet name.)
Now type a number in cell B5 on the CandyOrders sheet
and you will see that number is automatically added to cell
F10 of the OrderForm sheet and every time you change the
value in B5 of CandyOrders, F10 in OrderForm will change too.
And, since you said you have three sheets and want this
info to appear on sheet three also, you can just do the
same thing there. Hope this is clear enough for you.
**********************************************
QUESTION submitted by Walt:
Every time I start or close Excel, I get the following
message: Compile error in hidden module:AutoExec. I
found your information about the same problem with
Word and fixed that one, but, I didn't find anything about
Excel.
ANSWER from Linda Johnson:
Hi Walt. It sounds like you have a macro running at
startup in Excel (possibly something like Adobe Acrobat,
since you said you had the same problem with Word?)....
you need to search your hard drive for a folder called
XLStart and see if there's anything in there (by default,
this folder would be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\
OFFICE<version number 9, 10, 11, etc.)\XLSTART unless
you have Office installed differently...just search your hard
drive for xlstart. If there's anything in that folder, move
EVERYTHING to another location and then see if Excel
will start...if it does, you can try moving stuff back to that
folder one at a time to see which thing it is that causes
the error, then maybe reinstall whatever it was that you
installed that added that addin in the first place.
Good luck
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Thanks to all who submitted questions this month. If you
submitted a question and did not get an answer, and the
problem still persists, try going here and submitting it again.
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc/ask.htm
Just remember that we cannot guarantee that we will answer
every question, though I think the Fleet did a bang-up job
this month! Thanks to all of the Fleet for your expert advice
and your valuable time :-)
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>=====<>
Well, gang.....that's about it for this edition of
ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers. I sure hope you enjoyed it!
If any of it was over your head and you need some
clarification from one of the Fleet, just send me an
email to linda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and I will
pass it on to them. Remember that they do this in their
spare time on a voluntary basis, so you might have to
wait for an answer. To make all things work more
quickly, include as many details as you can in your
email and make your questions as specific as possible.
Also, feel free to write to me and let us know what you
want the Fleet to teach you. This is YOUR newsletter!
Happy computing, my friends!
Linda Johnson
http://personal-computer-tutor.com
*********************************************
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Other related posts:
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