FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  242 (14/12/00)

Q

My wife is undertaking a further study course that entails compiling essays
that have to be of a certain number of words. Common enough, but the essays also routinely contain numerous passages that are "quotes" from other writers published work. The aggregate number of words in these quotes are not totalled in the final document word count and at present each quote is word counted, the total added manually and then subtracted from the complete document word count. This is somewhat tedious. Is there a way to simplify this process? We are using Word 97 with Windows 98.
David J Betts

A

There may well be easier ways (alternative suggestions invited), but this rough and ready method works. Save your document then use Replace on the Edit menu to find and remove all words between quotation marks, then do a word count. In the Find field use an asterisk ‘wildcard’ to specify any number of characters between the quotation marks, so you would type “*” (quote asterisk quote). You may need to enable the Wildcard option in Replace by clicking on the ‘More’ button. Leave the Replace field empty then click the ‘Replace All’ button. You can restore all of the quotations by clicking the Undo icon on the toolbar or pressing Ctrl + Z.

Q  

I seem to have lost my spell check in Outlook Express. The icon on the toolbar is greyed out and there is no spelling tab in Tools, Options.  Do I have to re-install or is there another way I can get it back? Any suggestions appreciated. Apologies for any spelling mistakes!

Janice Gowland

A

Outlook Express doesn’t have its own spell checker, instead it uses one in either MS Word, Excel or PowerPoint so if you’ve uninstalled one or all of these programs recently, put it back.

Q

Some time ago I came across a utility program called "Print Screen". It was claimed that this software enabled direct printing of the existing screen content in Windows, as was possible in DOS, thereby dispensing with the tedious cut/paste/edit procedure. I have not seen it mentioned for several months and wondered if it is still available anywhere? If not, have you any suggestions for any alternative program(s), which would offer the same facility. I am using Windows 98.

J Mgilmore

A.

Not only is the original Print Screen still alive and kicking, so too are at least half a dozen other programs with similar sounding names and functions (Print Screen 132, Print Screen 2000, PrintScreen deluxe etc.). Here are some web sites to browse:

http://www.americansys.com/psd.htm

http://www.davecentral.com/2298.html

http://www.powware.com/

http://www.macinsearch.com/infomac2/

printing/print-screen-132.html

http://www.screencapture.com/

Q

I have a DVD drive in my PC and have just got a nice new widescreen TV. Is it in any way possible to watch DVDs on the TV using the PC as a DVD player?
Simon Pryor

You need a specialist video card with video output that plugs into a vacant PCI slot on the computer’s motherboard. Maplin Electronics has one (code No TK45W) with simultaneous video and PC monitor output, costing £40. (www.maplin.co.uk 0870 264 6000)

Q

Although I can easily set up password protection of files in Microsoft Word, I cannot find any way of doing so in Works. This is particularly frustrating as I wish to protect financial data on spreadsheets. Can you help?
Tony Burley

A

An excellent freeware utility called rjhExtensions operates within Windows Explorer and can encrypt and password protect any file on your PC (as well as doing lots of other useful file management tricks), you can find it at: www.rjhsoftware.com

Q

Even by the profligate standards of Word 97, W.T. Potter (FFF Nov. 30th) has been unfortunate to fit only two chapters of a book on one floppy disk. To check this, I have just tried re-saving a 63,000-word book (previously held as a single Word 6.0 document of 404k) in Word 97, and the size only increased to 762k. Saving it as a .TXT file reduced this to 345k.

Word's notorious "Allow Fast Saves" option seems to have the effect of making a file bigger whatever you do to the document.  Try Tools > Options > Save and un-check the "Allow Fast Saves" box.  You are unlikely to notice any difference in operation, and I'll bet the file size will shrink considerably.

Bill Welland

Save documents not as text (which loses all formatting), but as Rich Text Format or as Word for Windows 2 files. In most cases, both of these will give massive reductions in size and basic formatting and styles are preserved.

Ken Fitchew

A

You can reduce the size of the Word file by as much as 50% by simply doing a "SaveAs" to a different file name. In a simple experiment I did just that with a small, relatively straightforward 556KB word document. The "SaveAs" document reduced to 213KB without any loss of formatting, layout etc., which you would experience when saving the document as Rich Text or Plain Text.

Alan Oxer

A

Thanks for those useful tips

Q

Reference your reply to Mike Godwin (F!F!F! November 30th) about loud dialling tones from a modem, there is another possible solution which I found when trying to restore the sound to my wife's silent laptop modem. There is yet another modem volume control in Windows 98) accessed through Control Panel > Internet Options, Connections tab, Settings > Properties tab, General tab, Configure button, which finally brings up another General tab on which there is the offending Speaker Volume slider. Adjusting this had the desired result and it seems as though this one takes precedence over all the others!

Paul Bevan

The modem speaker can be muted completely using "AT" commands. Enter Control Panel >Modems > Properties > Connection > Advanced. Immediately after the last entry (no spaces) in the "Extra Settings" window enter the "Command" M0 (M zero). If there are no previous entries, use the command AT immediately prior to M0 (i.e. ATM0). The volume slider you refer does not always mute the volume completely. The "noises off" can be annoying but they are a good indication of connection progress.

Gordon Walker

A

Some useful suggestions but note that the second volume slider accessed via Control Panel may or may not be available, according to the type of modem and driver software.

Q

Here’s an addition to your method to get the Calculator to start-up in the minimised state when the PC is switched on (F!F!F! November 30th). Create a Shortcut to the Calculator in the Start-up menu as before. View the Shortcut's properties and select "Run" Minimised.
Roy Venkatesh

A

A worthwhile improvement, thanks