FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  261 (03/05/01)

Q

I produce a newsletter twice a year for which I keep WordPerfect loaded on my computer merely for the simplicity of producing a landscape document, booklet style, with the correct page numbers i.e. page 1 is on the right hand side of the landscape page.  I feel there must be a way I can do this in Word 2000 without exporting the file to Microsoft Publisher but I cannot for the life of me work out how.  Can anyone help?  I find the brain becoming less and less adaptable transferring back to Word Perfect each time and miss the Word features I have become used to using.
Fiona Joint

Booklet printing is not one of Word's strongest features, in fact it is hopeless at it, but it can be done and it's something we covered some in detail in Boot Camps 121 and 122..

Q

Every time I type my e-mail address in a Word document, it comes up underlined and in blue.  I read your reply in F!F!F! (15th February) regarding 'Auto-text annoyance' and tried the solution you offered there.  However, my e-mail address does not appear in the auto-text list and therefore I cannot delete it. Any other solutions?

Joy Hutchings

You're in the right area but this particular feature is quite well hidden. It can be found lurking on the Insert menu, select AutoText then AutoText and the 'AutoFormat as you Type' tab. Uncheck the cryptically labelled 'Internet and network paths with Hyperlinks'. This feature turns any line of text that Word thinks might be a web or email address – containing the '@' symbol or 'www.' etc. -- into an underlined hyperlink.

Q

I want to rule some A4 pages horizontally and vertically, to keep some manually entered records of medication taken daily. I can use the hyphen key to rule horizontal lines. Is there a way to produce vertical lines?

Charles Hill

A

Why not use the Table facility in Word and most other word processing programs?

Q

After customising my Word toolbar to my satisfaction, the letters EZP appear once, then twice and later three or times at the start of the bar. If I click on the EZP button, the paperclip tells me: "Microsoft Word err = 1220. Word cannot find or run the application". I have asked friends if they know the meaning of the letters EZP.  They don't. Can you please explain and tell me how to get rid of it permanently?

James Standfield

A

EZP stands for EasyPhoto, it's a macro, installed by Adobe PhotoDeluxe, almost certainly without your permission. It was intended for Word 7 and is incompatible with later versions of Word. To remove it close Word and make sure 'Show all File Types is enabled in Windows Explorer (View > Folder Options >View tab), then go to Find on the Start menu and look for 'ezpwll32.wll', and give it the file extension 'old'. Do the same for Word's 'normal.dot', restart Word and you should not be bothered by EZP again.

Q

I too was driven mad by the caps lock key on my Sony Viao laptop (Boot Camp Top Tip April 19th), because the caps lock key is so big and is not sculpted. I found sMaRTcaPS from www.phoebusnet.com, which stops you misusing the caps lock, num lock and insert keys. It has optional voices, adjustable delays, it’s brilliant!

Chris Rees

A

Thanks for that tip and several other readers who suggested Toggle Keys feature (Accessibility Options in Control Panel), though be warned this may not work on all machines as it relies on the PC's internal speaker, which in any case is not usually very loud.

Q

I would like to suggest an alternative to the alarm call program you suggested in F!F!F! (April 19th). It's called Lux Aeterna Multilingual Speaking Clock, which is freeware and is available from the following site:

 http://www.abc.se/~m8501/spclock/ . It is very easy to set up the clock to announce the time on the hour every hour. There is also a Deluxe Shareware version (free for 30 days then $15 to register.)

Paul Sweeney, Edinburgh

Another way to do it might be to create a 'Scheduled task' to run a program at hourly intervals. Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks, then click on 'Add a new task'. Choose a suitable program such as Windows Media Player. Choose 'Daily' for the interval (it doesn't offer hourly but there's a workaround). Click 'Next' button then 'Every Day' and Next. Click the "Open Advanced Properties screen when I click Finish'' box then Finish. Then up comes the 'Windows media Player' Properties window. Select the Schedule tab and the Advanced button, then the Repeat Task flag. Put 1 and hours in the 'Every' boxes. Put 24 and hours in the Duration boxes. Close the windows and you are all set. Now the Windows Media Player should appear every hour. If you haven't done so already set it up so one click will play a suitable tune. If you work in an office it could be a ballroom dance tune and everyone could join in

Brian Gilbert

A

Some useful alternatives, thanks for those.

Q

I was interested to read your article in today's Telegraph entitled "Struck by the Plage". I have been plagued by a similar message for sometime now about a file called  "ptsnoop.exe". This is not one of the names mentioned when I go into the web site you suggest, but obviously similar as it involves win.ini file. Is the cure the same?
Don Wright

Ptsnoop is not a worm or virus but a modem diagnostic utility that checks the modem driver when a COM port is opened. As far as I know it doesn't do any harm and it can be safely disabled as follows: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Information, go to the Tools menu then System Configuration, Start up tab and uncheck the item 'ptsnoop.exe'. If you experience any problems switch it back on again.