Athol Public Library - PC Doctor 2008 Articles

I have started using Microsoft Outlook to keep track of my appointments. One thing I noticed is that there aren’t any holidays listed in the calendar. I suppose I could just get a paper calendar and figure it out, but thought that there must be some way to have those entered. It seems weird to have to do that manually. Thanks for your help.

Yes for some reason they are not the default. It’s easy to add them though, just go to the upper menu and select Tools and choose Options from the drop down menu. Click the Calendar options button. Near that you will see a button labeled Add Holidays. Click that and from the box that opens, put a check mark in the box next to United States (unless you happen to be in some other country). Click the OK button. This should add all your holidays right into your calendar. If you have a state holiday that is not common to the whole United States you will have to enter it yourself.

When I turn on my printer it starts printing my home page over and over again. How do I make it stop?

Off hand, I would suspect you sent multiple print jobs of your home page (by accident) and they are just waiting in the print buffer until the printer is turned on. Depending on your system, the buffer could be stored in the printer itself (as with a high end network printer) or in the windows print manager. If the printer icon is in the system tray, you should try right clicking on the icon and then deleting all the listed print jobs. If you keep turning off the printer when it starts printing the homepage, it isn’t getting a chance to clear the buffer. If the buffer is stored on the printer, you would need to clear the print jobs through the printer’s control panel. To do this you will have to look in the manual for your particular printer.

I’m not sure why but have you ever noticed that there is a dollar sign on the keyboard but not a cents sign? I would like to use a cents sign on occasion but can’t. I wonder if you know why there isn’t one or is it just certain computers that have it?

Well, can’t say that I do know why but it’s all computers not just yours. You can get one (provided you have a number pad on the right of your computer, it won’t work with laptops). Just hold down the ALT key and type in the numbers 0162. The cents sign will appear. Remember you must use the number pad and not the numbers above the keyboard.

Recently, when I try to open either yahoo im or yahoo mailbox, I get a message that says ‘Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site----------. Operation aborted’ but at the same time, the site opens and is fine. It seems to be happening ever since I switched over to Verizon dsl. Any ideas on why this is happening or how to remedy it? Thanks.

        You could call Verizon tech support to see if there is a known problem, but that seems unlikely and that it could just be a coincidence.
        From what I have been able to research, this error only happens when you use Internet Explorer. If you use a different browser such Mozilla Firefox or Opera or any other browser you should be fine. These browsers are available free as a download at www.download.com. It seems that some of the reasons are Yahoo, Google and Javascript have a code, script or tag that causes this message to appear.
         One thing you can try if you don’t want to switch to another browser is to try clearing the history, cookies, etc. from Internet Explorer. It may be that a website you visited left a cookie or something that is causing the message. To do this, open up Tools from the top menu bar and choose Delete Browsing History from the drop down menu. A box will open and you will see six buttons that allow you to delete : Temporary Internet Files, Cookies, History, Form Data, Passwords and Delete All. If you would like to keep the saved passwords, then individually click on the other buttons. If you don’t have any saved ones, then click Delete All. When it asks ‘Are you sure you want to delete temporary Internet Files?’, click Yes.   Close and reopen Internet Explorer. This may take care of it.
         Another suggestion was to turn off the Internet Explorer popup blocker. To turn it off permanently click on the button on the toolbar below the menu bar that says Popups Blocked. To leave it on and only allow certain links, such as the Yahoo one, just hold the CTRL (control) key down while clicking the link in the address line.
         Also do you have the newest version of Internet Explorer (number 7)? Go to www.microsoft.com and in the search box type in Internet Explorer. Look for the ‘get it now’ button and follow the instructions. Again close out and reopen.
         Hopefully one of these suggestions will work.

Recently my Word started acting weird so a friend told me to take my original disks and reinstall it. However he wasn’t sure if it would wipe out all my documents. That would be disastrous to me if it did. Would it be save for me to do this?

First off you should always make regular backups of your important things so that even if something did happen it wouldn’t be a a problem. That being said, you should be able to reinstall Word without having it affect your documents. Normally your documents are saved in a separate place such as My Documents in XP and Documents in Vista unless you changed the default directory when you first installed. Just make your backup and reinstall and you should be good to go.

I want to get rid of the Quick Launch feature on my new Vista computer. How do I do that?

Just right click on any blank spot of the bottom task bar (that runs across the very bottom of your screen) and choose Properties. From the box that opens up, click on the Task bar tab. Remove the checkmark in front of ‘show Quick Launch’ and click the OK button.

I’m using Word 2007 and it sure takes some getting used to. My question concerns pictures or I should say clip art. When I’m working with them I will often resize, crop, add, change colors, etc. until sometimes I get to a point that I want to just start over. I sometimes end up clicking the undo button 20 or more times. Is there a way that I can just start over without having to do that?

Well, you can simply delete the art and re- insert it. Another way is to select the mess you’ve created by clicking on it, click Picture Tools on the upper ribbon, then Format. On the far left in the Adjust area, click the Reset Picture Button. This should get you back to square one.

What’s the padlock that people talk about when ordering online? I sometimes feel kind of out of it when we get together with friends who are more tech savvy than I. I don’t really order much online but there are some things I can only find there. But last week my friends were saying don’t get anything from a website that doesn’t have the padlock. I was too embarrassed to ask but I figured you could tell me.

            They are talking about the yellow padlock in the lower right hand corner of your browser that displays while you are at a website. If the padlock is locked, then you know that it is security enabled and it is safe to enter your credit card. It is usually a bad idea to enter any personal or credit card information into a website without it.
            Another way to check the security is to look at the web address. If it has an https then you know you are safe.
            While there are great deals on the Internet if you get ripped off, it’s not such a great thing, is it? So make sure you keep aware of these tips that keep you safe.

I use my USB flash drive at home without a problem but when I bring it to the library the computer won’t recognize it. I don’t understand why, can you help me so that I could use it there? I like the laser printer you have to print my resumes which is why I need to use my flash drive as it has my resume on it. Thank you.

The reason that it won’t work is because we have special software called Fortress and Deep Freeze installed on our library computers to keep patrons from intentionally or unintentionally messing up the network. This software detects things that are not allowed like installing outside software. A lot of the USB flash drives have their own software to run them which installs when you plug them in. So the library computers see that your device is trying to install outside software and won’t allow it.
The best thing to do is to just ask the librarian on the desk to take care of allowing the software to temporarily recognize your device.

My sister and I are hoping you can settle this argument. She was told many years ago that email addresses are case sensitive so that you have to be really careful to capitalize, etc. if that’s what’s given to you. I think maybe that was true awhile ago but not anymore. We have a dinner at Eddie’s on this so I hope you will side with me!

Well, not to get in between a friendly bet with sisters but for the most part you are right. That being said though, there may be the rare occasion that a particular email server may require a case sensitive email for whatever reason. In this example if it was inFO@athollibrary.org, if the service provider required it, the server would bounce any emails that did not have the FO capitalized. This would be very rare but if you were having a problem getting an email through, this would be one thing to try. Of course you know that any dashes, periods and underscores are non- negotiable in email addresses and must be used if given to you. And no spaces ever.
So in the interest of sibling harmony, how about splitting the bill?

I type a newsletter for seniors and every time I go into Word, I have to change the font size to 14. Is there any way that I can change the default so I don’t have to? I don’t have the new Word but an older edition.

There is a way but I want you to know that if you change this that all the documents you type in Word will now have 14 as the default size. That means that if you want a smaller font, you will then have to change that. So if the majority of things that you are typing are 14, then change it, if not then I would leave it alone.
So if you decide you want to change it, open up Word and click on the upper blue menu bar and click on Format. Choose Font and select the size and type that you want. Click on the Default button in the lower left hand corner. When it asks you if you want to change the default font click Yes. It will tell you that this decision will affect the NORMAL template. That’s fine. Click the OK button to close out and from now on all your documents should have the font you desire.

My daughter got a new computer and gave me her old one which is actually a new one for me. The problem is that there is nothing wrong with my printer and I would like to keep it. The problem is that I managed to lose the disk that came with it. Does that mean I have to junk this printer and get a new one? Thanks for your help.

No you can find your printer driver in all likelihood by going to the manufacturer’s website. So if it’s a Hewlett Packard (HP) or Epson, just go to their site (Google the name if you don’t know it) and look for Support or Software or Driver Downloads. Find your particular printer and follow the directions for downloading it. I usually download to the desktop and then double click on it. Once it opens, follow the instructions and you should be all set.
You can also call the company and ask for a disk to be sent to you. This will take longer and may involve a small expense.

I have a laptop and my daughter has a regular computer. She has a nice laser printer that she got for Christmas which I would love to use. Is there any way that we can share that printer between the two machines?

            If you have a network, the easiest way is to go to Control Panel (from the Start button) and click on the Network icon. Enable printer sharing.
            Then go into My Computer (or Control Panel if you use XP) into the Printer folder. Click ‘install printer’ and follow the directions that come up, answering the questions. Remember you are choosing the network printer. If your printer is not network enabled then you might not be able to use it, but most likely you will be able to.
            Now if you have stand alone computers, not networked, you can get a switch box from a computer store that will allow you to share one or more computers to a printer. Sometimes you have to push a button on it to get it to switch from one computer to the other, but sometimes they will switch automatically. They are pretty inexpensive, under $40.00. Then you just attach the cable to your laptop printer port, it should recognize the printer and you’re ready to roll!

The other day I was typing and this message came up about turning ‘filterkey’ on? I have no idea why that came up and I was afraid to touch anything. I just said no and it seems to be fine. What is that and why did it come up?

This is a feature or setting that you use to stop repeated key strokes. For example if you held down the ‘a’ key too long and got a long line of aaaaaaaa in your message. You can turn this feature on and it won’t do this. I believe it’s really meant for new typers who may have a heavy hand while learning or someone with problems with their hands that makes their fingers hit the keys too hard.
If this is something you are interested in, go to the Start button, then Control Panel and (in Vista) Ease of Access Center and click on ‘ignore repeated keystrokes using Filterkeys” and (in XP) go to Accessibility Options. Go to the Keyboard tab and check the box in front of ‘use Filterkeys’.

If you are searching on the Internet, the End key will get you to the end of any page that you are looking at instead of scrolling all the way down to the bottom.
In other software, it depends on the particular program. Some will move your cursor to the end of any line you are on and in others it will move you to the end of the page. In Word it goes to the end of the line but if you hold the Control (CTRL) key down in combination it will go to the end of the document. Give it a try to see which yours does.

I recently bought some software that wants me to enter a serial number that is seriously long. I have typed it a bunch of times but it keeps saying it’s the wrong number. Short of taking it back to the store since if it’s me, getting a new one won’t help. Any suggestions?

            One thing you have to be really careful of is that you are typing the correct number or letter for zero and O and one and l. Often when you see the serial number it looks like it might be a zero but in fact it is the letter O.   Many manufacturers will put a line through the 0 to indicate that it is zero to differentiate it. So if you have either of these instances, the first thing I would do is to type these variations to see if that’s the problem.
            The other thing to try is to use only the numbers above the keyboard and not the side number pad. For some reason this could be the problem, not sure why but it does sometimes misinterpret the keys. Using only the keys above will eliminate this as the source of the problem.
            If you still are not having any luck, I would call the software manufacturer support to ask them about it and see if maybe there was a mistyping at their end. They can usually give you a new number or verify what the problem is.

I just got a digital camera and it came with a USB thing that I finally figured out you take the card out of the camera and put it into this USB unit so you can load the pictures onto my computer. That is fine except when I plug it in a message comes up that says something about it being a 2.0 device and I have it in a 1.0 port. Since I had no idea what that was, I just unplugged it and hope you can tell me more about it.

The 2.0 USB ports are faster, about 40 times faster than the 1.0 or 1.1 ports. They are considered high speed while the others are full speed mode. So what the message is telling you is that you have a higher speed device (2.0) while the port you are plugging it into is a slower speed (1.0 or 1.1). Basically the faster unit will slow itself down to run at the lower speed. It’s really not a problem for something you are using it for, it just means a little lower loading time of your photos. Just ignore the message when it comes up as long as everything else is working fine.

When I’m on vacation and I bring my laptop sometimes when I search for a wireless network there will be two kinds – one that is secured and I can’t get into it and one that is unsecured and I can sign on. It has made me concerned that my own little home network of three computers that connect wirelessly is available for anyone to use. I guess that’s a little hypocritical since I like to connect to someone else’s, but I have some fairly private business stuff that I need to protect.

There is a lot of literature out there about how to put WEP or Wired Equivalent Protection which is encryption that requires a key code to access the network or connection. That is what makes the secured networks secure. This is something you would set up on your wireless router and there are many models and makes out there so you need to get out the old manual or use online help to configure yours. If you are really concerned there are other things you can do like changing all the default security settings and passwords on the router. This should keep the average person out of your network.

When I send my email out my name is spelled wrong. I noticed because someone forwarded something back to me and I happened to notice it in the email. Is there a way to change that? Oh yes, I use Outlook, not the Vista one but the older one, if that matters.

Open up Outlook and from the upper menu bar select Tools and then Email Accounts. A window will open up and you want to choose ‘view or change existing email accounts’ and click the Next button. If you have more than one email address, simply choose the one that is the problem off the list and click on the Change button. In the box that has your name (misspelled) you can just highlight, delete and retype the correct information. Click the Next button and the Finish button. This should fix your problem.

I just ordered a new computer from Dell and I didn’t need a new monitor. I figured to save some money I would just use the one I have as it is not too old. But when the computer arrived, there is no place to plug in the old monitor. What happened and what can I do to fix it?

            Actually you do have a place unfortunately it’s not for the type of connection that your monitor has. The good news is that you can buy a small adapter cable that will allow you to use it.
            Let me explain first what happened although this will be really simplified. DVI which stands for Digital Video Interface is a new technology that is supposed to make the most of flat panel monitors and video graphics to give you better quality. If you notice on your machine this connection is two sets of nine pins with a flat horizontal pin on the left. Some computer manufacturers will still give you the old VGA connection as well as the DVI port. But not all and it seems not yours.
            But not to worry as you can get a DVI to VGA analog video cable which in a quick online check were in the $30 range.   Either go to a computer store on type ‘dvi to vga cable’ in the Google search box and there will be a number of companies listed.

I have Vista and want to know how to change my home page from the Dell website to another one.

Well actually you are changing your home page in Internet Explorer regardless of whether you use Vista or any other operating system. Just open up Explorer and from the top menu bar choose Tools and then Internet Options. Click on the General tab and under the Home Page section you will see where you need to delete the old home page and type in the web address of the desired home page. Click the OK button to save and close out.

I tried your suggestion to change all caps text to lower case and it didn’t work. I am using Word 97 so I figured that might be the problem. Could that be it? Is there a way to do it in Word 97?

Yes, my answer was for a person using Word 2007. Another of our astute readers noticed this and came in to share what she found and how it works with 97 as that is what she uses. You select or highlight the text to be changed and hold down the Shift plus the F3 key. As you hold down the shift key and tap the F3 key you will notice the text will change, scrolling through the various options. Just keep tapping the key until the case changes to what you want. Then just take your hands off the keys. Thanks so much to our faithful reader for sharing this with us!

I want to buy a new high speed USB printer but my computer is a few years old. Will this work on my older USB port?

You can attach it and it should work but just be aware that it will only operate at the lower speed. Similarly you can attach an older USB device to a new high speed USB port but it will only work at the lower speed. So if the speed is the attraction for your new printer then you will be disappointed. If you only want a new printer then you are okay.

Tip of the week – Do you sometimes have a worksheet in Excel that is either a tad wide or a little over a sheet so that when you go to print it will spit out two pieces of paper instead of one? Now you can fiddle around with the margins or resizing things to make it fit or try this handy tip.

For those with Excel 2007, click on the Page Layout ribbon. Find the ‘scale to fit’ section where you will see Width and Height. On the right of each you will see an arrow. Click on that and a drop down menu will appear allowing you to choose ‘1 page’. If the page is too wide, then use the Width adjustment or if it’s long, then use Height. If it’s both, then change both.

For older versions of Excel, you’re going to do it a little differently. Go to the upper File menu and click Page Setup. In the box that opens choose the Page tab. Under Scaling (in the middle of the window) click the radio button for ‘fit to # page(s) wide by # tall’ and replace the # marks with the number 1 ( to print on one page). Click the OK button to save and close out.

I got a letter from some business called JumPage Solutions which was thanking me for signing up for their service at $39.95 per month and that it would be billed to my telephone bill. I have no clue what this is and wonder if you have any idea? I use Road Runner for my Internet but they don’t know anything about it so I guess it’s not related to that.

Dear John:
This is yet another new way to scam you. This is called ‘cramming’ where they send you what looks like a bonafide invoice that will be billed to your phone bill. This company’s hope is that you will say that you didn’t order anything and toss the bill in the trash. Or that your phone bill is so complicated that it will get hidden in among all the other charges, especially if you are a business this could happen easily. The bottom line is not to ignore it because if you fail to either tell them that you did not order and do not want this ‘service’, it will go onto your bill. So please act now.
For the best information on how to deal with this particular company, go to www.1st-cofa.com/jumpage_solutions.html where all the information for the Better Business Bureau and Federal Trade Commission are also listed.

I have a colleague who sends me documents that we have to work on together and I’m responsible for cleaning it up and submitting it to the boss. The problem is that he types everything in caps. I’ve spoken to him about it before and he says that it’s easier for him because then he doesn’t have to hit the shift key all the time. Talk about a lazy pain. Hopefully he doesn’t read your column. It sure isn’t easier for me and I’m hoping that there is some super secret way to fix this.

Dear Kimberly,
You mean other than getting a new colleague? Actually if you are using Word, you can use a feature called Change Case. Just highlight the text to be fixed (and if it is the whole document, just hit the Control key (CTRL) together with the A key and that will highlight the whole thing at once. Go to the Home tab and in the Font group, just look for an icon with Aa (capital A and a small a). When you click on this there will be several options to change such as lowercase, uppercase, etc. You will want to choose Sentence Case. This should easily solve your problem – at least with the document, your coworker is another problem!
*These instructions work for Word 2007. One of our readers offered a solution that works on most versions of Word. Select the region with the all caps. Press Shift-F3 until you see the desired capitalization format.

I use Outlook Express and my email used to be in order by date with the newest at the top. For some reason they’re totally messed up and not in any date order that I can see. Is there a way to get back what I had?

Dear Laura:
Somehow the field header must have hit to sort a different way. It’s easy to fix though. Look at the top of the message area and you will see field headings such as: from, subject and received. You will want to just click on the ‘received’ field and your messages should now be sorted by that. If you click on it again, they will sort in the reverse order (since some people like to have the newest at the bottom).

I got a virus on my computer so I figured I’d be safe and download AVG and Avast software both of which I heard were good in addition to my Norton Antivirus. Now my computer is working really weird. Do you think I got another virus in spite of having all this protection?

Dear Don:
I think the actual problem is that you have too many virus protections. You should really only have one on your computer as they usually interfere with each other and I suspect that is what is happening. Don’t get me wrong, you can still have Spybot Search and Destroy and/or Spyware Doctor, etc. Programs that are for spyware or Trojans are okay with your antivirus protection. But you should not have two or more antivirus programs. Look online at both of your programs and decide from there. I usually type the program name with the word ‘review’ in the Google box to see which might be recommended and also describe some of the program features.
What you’ll need to do now is to make your decision and then remove the ones you don’t want. To do this, go to the Start Orb and click on ‘uninstall a program’ under Programs. Scroll down the list, highlight the program to be deleted and click the Uninstall icon. Once you reboot your computer it should get rid of all the parts.

Everytime I go to send an email and I don’t put anything in the subject line, the program stops me and says I must fill that in. I’m just wondering why you have to do that?

Dear Jess:
You don’t actually need to fill it in, however the main reason that I fill it in is to increase my chances of having my email opened and read by the person I’m sending it to. Nowadays we all get inundated with mail so to save time many people scan the subject lines in their inbox to quickly delete those that are junk mail. If you normally send to a person, they will probably recognize your email address with or without a subject line but to a person whom you send to infrequently it increases your chances that they won’t chuck you into the trash.
This is particularly important if you are sending to a commercial company or job application where your email must stand out among all that they get. So putting “Order” or your customer number along with “Request” will show them that it is a customer asking for real information.

When I use drag-to-disc I eject the disc so I can rewrite on it. There have been a few times when I used the wrong setting so it can't be edited, is there any way to change the disc besides reformatting and losing all the info? I use XP. Also I have many old games and crafts discs from windows 95 and windows 98, can they be used with newer versions or should I just toss them?

Dear Novice,
            I think you are talking about rewriting to CDs.   It is possible to save data to a CD and eject it without “finalizing”. Doing so means that the CD can only be read by programs equipped with a CD burner and usually a matching program. Effectively that makes the CD equivalent to a large capacity (700MB) floppy drive. Once the disc has been “finalized” or “closed” it cannot be rewritten.
            My personal experience with rewriting CDs has been unsatisfactory.   I have saved and revised a few times and then the CD ceases to work without reformatting. In addition, I have found a higher frequency of data errors and data loss. Given the capacity of the flash drives today, I think they offer a more satisfactory solution for data that needs to be revised. If a person is storing/archiving pictures or other large files, I would recommend using ordinary CDs and then recycling the old ones when no longer needed.
            As for your old games, you can probably use the Windows 98 games with XP but once you switch to Vista (if you do), they will probably be hard pressed to work properly. Sometimes you can get Windows 95 stuff to work on XP, too.   You can try loading them and see how they react. Do them one at a time and really check them out to make sure things are okay first before loading another. It’s easier to isolate the offending program and uninstall when you’re doing them one at a time.

Dear PC Doctor:
Sometimes when I’m working on a document, my computer will freeze up and force me to reboot and then I lose what I was working on. It seems like it just started happening. Can you tell me why this might be happening?

                                                JC
Dear JC:
            If it just started, I’m wondering if you recently loaded a memory hogging program that you are trying to use simultaneously with Word. If you have multiple programs open at the same time and your computer is at the minimum requirements to run Word, it just might be that the computer can’t handle it all. Try opening only Word when you start up and only use that awhile to see if it works okay.
            If it is the case that you need more RAM or memory to run more programs, then you can check your computer at www.crucial.com to find out what you currently have and what you can add. The price of memory is fairly cheap right now (but as with everything these days, sure to creep up).
            Another thing might be the Windows updates. Have you been doing those regularly to make sure you have the newest patches? To do this open up Internet Explorer, go to the upper menu bar and chose Tools and then Windows Updates. You will probably need to reboot the computer once they have downloaded.
            If it is some kind of virus, you will need to run your antivirus software to correct the problem.
            I would suggest that you turn on the Auto Recover feature which will save your work at intervals that you determine. This will greatly reduce what you lose. To do this, open up Word and go to the upper blue menu bar. Choose Tools, Options and click on the Save tab. Put a check in front of the box that says ‘save Auto Recover info every ___ minutes’ (where you fill in the number of minutes you want on the line in front of minutes). Click the OK button to save.

Dear PC Doctor:
I have a new computer and purchased the newest version of Word, Excel etc. for my computer. The problem seems to be that documents I’ve been sending as attachments or putting on disk for work will not open. Apparently I am told that I have Office 2007 and the one at work is 2003. I really don’t want to go back to 2003, is there anything I can do?

Dear Mario:
That is often a frustration when purchasing or upgrading a system. They are backwards compatible, meaning that the newer software can usually recognize something older but not the other way around.
You can most easily correct this by saving your documents in 2007 in the 97-2003 formats. To do this- when saving, go to the Start Orb, click on Save As (instead of Save) and a drop down list will appear. You will see that there are a number of options. The one you want to select is “Word 97-2003 Document”. This will enable other computers using those earlier versions to understand your document.

Dear PC Doctor:

I started using Mozilla Firefox as my Internet browser instead of Internet Explorer. The problem is that when I click on links in my email, they won’t open up. I have to cut and paste them into the browser. I used to be able to do that in Explorer. Is there a way to make that happen from Firefox?

Rosemary

Dear Rosemary:

I suspect the problem is that Firefox has not been set as your default browser. To do this open up Firefox and from the upper menu bar choose Tools. From the drop down menu select Options. Click the Main tab and at the very bottom of the window, put a checkmark in the box in front of ‘always check to see if Firefox is the default browser at startup’. Then click the Check Now button and click ‘yes’ to make it your default browser. Click the OK button to save and close out.

Another thing you can try if for some reason that doesn’t work is for XP, click the Start button and then Control Panel. Select Add or Remove Programs and on the left side click the Set Program Access and Defaults icon. To expand the Custom category click on the Custom radio button. Find ‘choose a default web browser’ and select the radio button next to Mozilla Firefox. Click the OK button to save and close. If you have Vista then you click on the Start orb and choose Default Programs and then Set Program Access and Computer Defaults. Click the Custom radio button and the radio button for Mozilla under ‘choose a default web browser’. Click OK.

Also be aware that if you are using MSN Messenger or earlier versions of AIM, those are hard-coded to use Internet Explorer regardless of which type you have selected in setup.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

How can I tell how much RAM memory I have? I need it to tell if I have the right amount for a certain software program I want to buy.

Shopper

Dear Shopper:

If you have a My Computer (or Computer in Vista) icon on your desktop, right click on it and from the drop down list select Properties. Under the General tab, you will see your RAM listed. If you don’t have the icon on the desktop, just go to the Start button or Orb and select My Computer (or Computer) and right click on the C drive. Select Properties from the drop down list and you will see it.

PC Doctor

Note to our readers: well if there’s not enough to worry about, there is a new scam similar to phishing which I explained in an earlier column. Although this isn’t computer related per se, I did read about this and wanted to pass it along. This new problem is called voice phishing or vishing. In this scam, you will receive a phone call or a message on your answering machine that your financial account has been compromised. You will be asked to give personal information such as your social security number or PIN. If you give them that information, now these unscrupulous types have all the information they need to access your bank account. If you get one of these calls, simply call your bank back directly and find out what’s going on. Most times if your account is compromised, you will receive a letter in the mail informing you of this and what is going to be done. They will never ask you for your PIN or other personal information.

I might also mention for those that use Google they have just recently introduced a new feature that fights phishing websites. When you try to access one of these malicious websites, a box will pop up that warns you and suggests that you return to your search page and select a different website. You can still go to the site but at least you’ve been warned.

Dear PC Doctor:

I do a lot of letters for my job and I always do a spell check before sending them out. There are many names that continually show up and slow down the process. Is there any way that I can get spell check to skip over proper names? I use Word 2007 with Vista. Keep up the good work.

Sam

Dear Sam:

To change spell check options, open up Word and from the ‘Orb’ (which used to be File in earlier versions) select the Word Options button at the bottom right of the dropdown menu. Click on Proofing from the left hand side. While there is no way to exclude Proper Names per se, there are other options you can customize. The easiest way to do what you would like to do is to add those proper names or words to your dictionary. To do this, when you are in the process of spell check and the name/word comes up as incorrect, just click on the button ‘add to dictionary’ on the right hand side of the spell check window. That way the checker will see that name/word as acceptable on the next pass and skip over it from now on.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

Last week my mouse stopped working for some weird reason. I have a new Vista computer and it has been working fine. What are some things I can try to fix it?

Jason

Dear Jason:

There are a couple of things you can try. If it is a wireless mouse, change the batteries and see if that helps. If it is a USB connection, try unplugging it and plugging it into a different USB slot on your computer. If neither helps, see if you can borrow a mouse from someone else and try that one. If that works, then your mouse is dead and you’ll need to buy another one. They are not too expensive luckily.

Hopefully one of those things will help but if not, I hesitate to say that it could be due to the recent Microsoft Windows Defender update released last week. Apparently it is causing some trouble with mice and keyboards and unfortunately at this time they have not released a patch to fix it. In which case you’ll have to wait for a fix which is a royal pain.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

I use Outlook for my daily calendar and find it really helpful. Recently however I was looking for an appointment that happened sometime in the fall. It’s really important to know the exact date but I can’t seem to find it. Is there a way to search appointments in Outlook?

Pat

Dear Pat:

I know how it is hard to find things sometimes especially if you have lots of appointments and meetings. To find a particular one you’ll need to know some part of the text you typed in for that appointment. For example if it is a doctor’s appointment, do you type in Dr Appt or Doctors, etc. That is one reason it’s a good idea to be consistent so you can use the feature I am about to show you.

Open up Outlook and go to the upper menu bar and choose Tools and then Instant Search. From the drop down menu choose Instant Search (alternatively you can simply hit the Control key plus the E key CTRL+E). Note the area that lists the month and year above the actual calendar switches color and there is a search box. Type in your term and hit enter. You will see a list of dates that match the text and from there it’s easy to spot the one you are looking for.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

Recently I went to sign up for Yahoo mail and since I’m pretty new to the computer world, I was a little stumped by a question at the end so I just got out and thought I’d ask you what it was about and then I’d try again. The thing that confused me was where they ask you to type out some word or numbers that were all mixed up and some I couldn’t even read. What is the purpose of that?

Kerry

Dear Kerry:
That little feature is called CAPTCHA which basically stands for Completely Automated Public Turing (test to tell) Computers and Humans Apart. Many sites like Yahoo, MySpace, TicketMaster, Facebook, etc. use them to prove that a real live human being is setting up this site and not a computer hacker. You see the truth is that humans ARE smarter than computers! A computer cannot figure out when there is dark or shaded background behind odd shaped letters. Often it is difficult for us to read too but usually they give you the option to try another one so look for the instructions that allow you to change the one in front of you to another so you can try again. Usually you can take a pretty reasonable guess if it’s difficult to read.
This is really a security feature for your protection so don’t panic and give it a try.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:
I bought a whole computer setup a few months ago complete with printer. So yesterday I was merrily printing along and suddenly I got a message that popped up that said something about the black ink cartridge getting low and to replace soon. I followed the directions on the printer to get it working again but it said I must replace it soon. That’s one thing I guess I didn’t think about. How do I go about changing that cartridge? I’m kind of afraid of messing around with the printer.

Tony

Dear Tony:
Don’t worry about it. Almost all printers now are really easy to change the cartridges. First you have to purchase a new one. Open up your printer (usually lift the front up) and your cartridge carrier will slide to the middle or if you have fixed cartridges they will be right in front of you. Look on them for the number (or letters or both) on the one you need to replace. Mine are HP and say 10 for black. Write down these numbers and you can get new cartridges online or at regular stores like Walmart, Circuit City, Best Buy or Staples. You might want to write down the model of your printer, just in case. Another place to look is in the manual for the cartridge replacement numbers. If you do a lot of printing, it’s a good idea to have a spare. If you don’t however, they can get old and dry out so don’t buy one until later.
Then just follow the directions either in your manual, on the instructions that come with the cartridge or sometimes they actually print the directions on the inside of the printer where the cartridges are located. Usually it’s as simple as snapping them out and putting the new ones in. It’s very easy so give it a try.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:
Whenever I’m typing a document and I type a web address something makes it change to an underlined link colored in blue. I suppose that’s the correct way of putting it but I don’t want that, I just want it to look like the rest of the words. Is there a way to make it stop?

                                    Kevin
Dear Kevin:
            The phantom that seems to be taking over your computer is a feature known as AutoCorrect. It will also fix any capitalization errors and some spelling. I know the frustration when you want to have something appear with a small first letter instead of a capital and this feature continually changes it back to a capital. You can turn the whole feature off by selecting Tools from the menu bar, then AutoCorrect Options and then unchecking the features you want to shut off.
            To leave the feature on and correct the problem at the time of the incident (which might be easier in the long run if it’s an occasional thing) then right clink on it and choose Remove Hyperlink.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:
I just got a new computer with Vista and Office 2007. As you have said in previous articles, it is different mostly the Office. Luckily I saved one of the columns where you talked about the fact that File, Tools, etc. is gone and now there is a tabbed ribbon or whatever you called it, but what I can’t figure out is where the Tools and Options went to. I wanted to have the formatting marks on my papers, you know, the paragraph, tab, etc. marks. Any ideas?

Bonnie

Dear Bonnie:
Actually the Tool/Options choices are not on the ribbon. If you click on the Orb (round circle in the upper left hand corner with the Microsoft logo inside) you will get a drop down menu with your Save, Print, Open, Close and so on choices. Look at the bottom of this box and near the right hand side you will see a button that says Word Options. Click on that and you will have a wide variety of things you can change and adjust.
If you have the Office Suite depending on which program you are in (Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Publisher) the Options will be in the same place as I described for Word but will be labeled for the particular program you are in. For example, while in Excel it will say Excel Options.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:
When I am on vacation I would like to check my work email but there is no logon website such as Hotmail or Verizon. I know it’s probably impossible but do you have any secret ways to do this?

Just asking

Dear Just Asking:
One thing you can try is to try this website which allows you to access pop3 email accounts www.mail2web.com. This often will let you see that type of email account. Just make sure you know your user name and password.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor
Someone told me that after I use a public computer I should delete the temporary files. How do I do that?

Laura

Dear Laura:

If you are using Internet Explorer on the computer, just go up to the blue upper menu bar and click Tools then Options from the drop down list. Click on the General tab and under ‘browsing history’ click the Delete button, then the OK button. Depending on what you are doing on the computer, this certainly wouldn’t hurt to make sure any personal information you may have entered doesn’t end up on the computer via a cookie, etc. I know the computers at the library use software that erases everything entered on the computer by users when the computer shuts off or is rebooted.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

Hi, I read your weekly column in the Athol News. Something has troubled me I would like to get rid of the lists of addresses, and some other information, that constantly arrive with e-mails so they do not go on when I move these e-mail to others.

Thanks Alf

Dear Alf:

I am assume what you mean is that when you get a forwarded email from someone that the people and addresses from the people that forwarded it to them and on backwards is in the body of the email. I know sometimes you have to scroll down very far to actually find the message itself.

The way that I take care of this is when I click the Forward button and a new email box opens up, I click with my mouse to place the cursor in the body of the email. You can just highlight the text you don’t want and hit the Delete key on the keyboard. It should all disappear (the highlighted portion). If you’re not sure about highlighting, just put the mouse cursor in front of the text, addresses, etc. that you want to get rid of and just hold down the Delete key. It will go pretty fast but it’s easy to control. Just lift your finger off the Delete key when you want to stop. I think this is what you mean, email me back if not.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

I don’t like to have the Windows automatic updates on my computer. Sometimes they start up right in the middle of something and then I have to reboot. I have Windows Vista if that matters. How can I get that to stop?

Tom

Dear Tom:

It is really important to do those updates so if I tell you how to turn it off, please remember to do them on a regular basis. To turn them off just go to the Start orb (formally the Start button) and choose Control Panel. Click on Security and under Windows Update click on ‘turn automatic updating on or off’. You can choose ‘never check for updates’ or might I suggest that you choose ‘check for updates but let me choose whether to download or install them’. That way you can control when they install but you’ll still have the latest updates. To save and close out, click the OK button.

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

I am not sure what to do about this because it’s really weird. I was using my computer and all of a sudden this window opens up and says XP Antivirus protection and that my Norton antivirus didn’t catch something so I need to download this software to fix it. Remembering your advice about not downloading unfamiliar programs I held off until I could see what you had to say. Do you know what this is about?

Scared

Dear Scared:

This is a rogue antivirus software program that actually shows you some false ‘threats’ and tells you that they are on your computer ready to cause havoc. The point is to scare you into purchasing their software package. They offer a trial version, but guess what? It doesn’t remove those rogue entries and it forces you to purchase the full version to do so. Basically this unscrupulous software is faking false entries and then asking you to buy their software to fix it!

There is an easy way to remove this but you need to download a file to do so. There are excellent, very detailed instructions at this website and I would suggest you print them out and follow them. This is much easier than me trying to explain it all here. Just go to: www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic111715.html

Good Luck!

PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

I like to use Microsoft Outlook for all my calendar appointments. I like the way that it reminds me of appointments so I don’t have to. The only thing I don’t like is that sometimes I have the same appointment (like a group meeting or exercise class) every week and I have to enter the same information over and over. I do copy and paste but it’s still pretty time consuming. Do you have any suggestions how to make this easier?

Pam

Dear Pam:

Yes you can set these up as ‘recurring’ events. To do this, open up Outlook and go to the Calendar. If you right click on the date you want to start, a drop down menu will open up. Choose either ‘new recurring appointment’ or ‘new recurring event’ depending on what you are entering. A box will open that will allow you to enter the start and end time along with the recurrence pattern (daily, weekly, monthly or yearly) and when you want the series to end. You can also select ‘no end date’ if it just continues on. Click the OK button, that box will close and you fill in the regular appointment information. Once you save it, you will see it show up on your calendar as a regular appointment as you specified.

If you need to change one of those new appointments in the series, a box will open up and ask if you want to change only this instance or the whole series so be careful to select the right one.

PC Doctor

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