FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  198 (17/02/00)

MOVING HOME

I'm looking for an additional Internet provider whose pages are relatively uncluttered by adverts and unwanted, unnecessary bumph to plough through before you get anywhere near what you want.  Do you have any suggestions?
Judy Udale

You don't have to change your ISP to avoid looking at a lot of advertising. All you have to do is change your 'Home Page' -- the web site your browser goes to first, when you first log on. This could be a search engine or any favourite page. In Internet Explorer the option can be found on the View (or Tools menus, depending on the version), under Internet Options, select the General tab and type in the chosen we site address in the Home Page section.

EXCHANGE RATE

I'm about to change my PC and am worried about how I'm going to transfer valuable data from my old PC to the new one.  I can cope with copying my Word templates and supplementary dictionary but don't know where my many Word 'AutoCorrect entries live. How about all my personalised settings for Outlook Express? Must they all be re-input manually? These are just a couple of examples, there are many more when you think about it. Although transferring large amounts of data is tricky for those without zip drives etc., in my (limited) experience much of this kind of data is usually held in small files easily put on a floppy.

Terence Larkin

The simplest method is to remove the hard disc drive from you old PC and temporarily install it in the new machine. You should change the 'jumpers' on the back to 'slave' mode -- there should be a little diagram on the drive to show how it's done. Connect the drive to the spare plug on the ribbon cable going to the PCs drive, (make sure it's the right way around) and a spare 3-pin power cable. When the PC boots up Windows will automatically recognise the old drive and assign it letter D: When you install programs like Word and Internet Explorer/Outlook Express they will scan all of the drives on your new machine, looking for previous versions and you will be asked if you want to use preferences and import data. You can use Windows Explorer to move any other data from the old drive, and when you've finished it can be removed, or used for additional storage. If you don't fancy installing the drive yourself ask the vendor of your new machine or a local PC dealer, who should be able to do it for you, for a modest fee.

BOXING CLEVER

In reply to Mike de Jong's query about a font with each character enclosed in a box or circle, (F!F!F! January 27^th) I am unsure about availability of such a font, but I know that CorelDraw 3 (and presumably future versions) have the ability to create their own fonts. Standard characters (e.g.: Arial) can be typed in, and a box or circle drawn.  This process saves the new typeface as a font, which can be used in any Windows application.  The option is on the Export menu, and setting the file type as a TrueType file.  This allows you to set all character details, such as sizes, bold etc.  It is all explained in the instruction booklet, and CorelDraw 3 is available for less than £30.

Johnathan Land

The easiest way I can think of putting a box around a character is to either create a table in the word processing document, or a spreadsheet with one character in each cell.  You can leave alternate columns blank and alter their width so that they act as spacers.  Then set the format so that the
gridlines are printed around the characters. This will create the effect of characters surrounded by a box with an extra gap between so that the boxes don't run into each other. I tried it on a spreadsheet and then used copy/paste since it seemed the easiest way to illustrate what I meant.
Nigel Blacker

I run a web site called Acid Fonts at http://www.acidcool.com and have three fonts available for download that match Mike de Jong's criteria. They are: Ball http://www.acidcool.com/b.htm

Bowlorama http://www.acidcool.com/b5.htm

and

Eggs http://www.acidcool.com/e1.htm

All of the fonts are free and ready to install. If you run a Mac there is the facility on my site to convert the fonts to the Mac format.
Simon

Regarding Mike de Jongs'  problem, circled fonts are a bit tricky and it depends on how you want to use them.  If you are looking for Headlines or creating a poster then Corel Draw has a whole host (oh alright, three....)  of them!  They can be found in the Symbols pull-out under Bullets 1, 2 or 3.1 has fonts in oblong tablets, 2 has circles and 3 has triangles. (break a leg!) The only other one I can think of is the font Kidnap, which gives you
letters in ragged squares. 
Sue Ritter. 

Thanks for everyone who sent in suggestions and the many F!F!F! readers who recommended Keystrokes and Keycaps, fonts which resemble keyboard keys.

THE WAYS OF ERROR

In Boot Camp on January 27th Rick Maybury referred to "normally meaningless  error messages". We have all seen them and most users will agree with this  statement. Why should this be?  Some programmer must have devised them to help identify a problem and put it right. Why can't someone write an article (or a book if needs be) explaining what they mean?

The one that bugs me from time to time is "Invalid VxD dynamic link call from  NWREDIR(04) + 000000D0 to device "0487", service 6"  I would love to have this explained in proper English.
Ken Gambier

Proper English is a bit of a tall order, but here goes. Invalid Dynamic Link Call error message are usually caused by damaged, missing or incompatible drivers -- data files that tell programs and peripherals how to interact with Windows. It's always worth uninstalling and re-installing the last program or device, before the problem started. The actual message is divided into three parts that can expressed as follows: Invalid VxD dynamic link call from (Part 1) to device (Part 2), service (Part 3). Part 1 is the driver's name or identity, part 2 is the name of the device or program it is associated with, in your case 0487 refers to 'NWLINK' which is the IPX/SPX-compatible Network Protocol. Part 3 is a fault code that tells the programmer which part of the program was requested, but could not be found.

Your error code suggests that the problem lies Windows Dial Up Networking, so try removing and re-installing the Communications components on the Windows tab in Add/Remove programs in Control Panel. There are several books on the subject of error messages but they're mostly written by experts, for experts. It's always worth typing an error message in to an Internet search engine's Find field, and see what that throws up.