FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  326 (13/08/02)

Q

Do you know of a utility that can add an icon link to a website to the IE 6 toolbar? I want to be able to click straight to a site without first working my way through a list to find a link.

Peter Codner

A

Your best bet is the Links toolbar, but you should first weed out all of the sites that have installed themselves without asking, to make it easier to use. Just right click on the entries you want to get rid of and select Delete. Now you can drag and drop entries from your Favourites list into the Links Toolbar. You might find it more convenient to click and drag the Links button down onto the desktop to create a separate toolbar.

Q

In the recent Boot Camps on shareware and freeware none of the listed programs include reference to Windows ME system. I find it difficult to believe that none of these sharewares can be used with ME.

Martin Silber

A

Apologies to Martin and several other readers that wrote in. I should have explained that Windows ‘9x’ is shorthand for Windows 95, 98 and the SE and ME variants, so all of the programs will work on your computer

Whilst we’re on the subject, there was also a glitch with the web address for the program Drive Rescue, which appeared in Part 2 (July 30th) of the series. An underscore inexplicably turned into a hyphen and t he correct address should be: http://home.arcor.de/christian_grau/rescue/

Q

I would like to have a copy of all the fonts available in Word. Is there any book that has them all set out? I presume it would be a very lengthy job to print them all out from the program and am not even sure how this could be done.

Dennis Turner

A

If you have Word 2000 or later you can see an example of the font styles by clicking on the Font selection down arrow on the Formatting tool bar. If you want a print out you can either use a 'macro' or a third-party utility. Some versions of Word 2000 have the ListFont macro installed, to find out go to Macro on the Tools menu, select Macro and if its there, then click ListFont and then the Run button. This will create a document containing samples of all the fonts on your PC, which you can then save and print. Alternatively you can download the ListFont macros for Word 97 and 2000 from the Microsoft web site at:

http://support.microsoft.com/

default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q170970&

http://support.microsoft.com/

default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q209205&

Highlight and copy (Ctrl + C) the body of the macro then go to Macro on the Tools menu, select Macros then click the Create Button and paste (Ctrl + V) the macro commands into the body of the macro editor. If that sounds like too much of a palaver then you can download a program, which does all the hard work for you. It's called FontList, it's small (50kb), freeware and can be found at: http://www.bitstorm.org/fontlist/

Q

My PC monitor is only about 4 years old and not really had much use. It has developed big yellow and purple blobs on the right hand side of the screen. I can still use the PC but this is somewhat irritating. I have tried all the various knobs and buttons on the monitor and checked all the connections but no good. Any ideas, or am I looking at buying a new monitor?

Harry Mann

A

No need to buy a new monitor, this sounds a bad case of like magnetic staining. It’s caused by a build up of magnetism on a perforated metal screen inside the picture tube, (called the aperture grille or shadowmask). This can happen if the monitor is sited close to a strong magnetic field, such as a loudspeaker, electric motor or large metal object; even the earth's own magnetic field can have an effect over time. Normally it's not a problem, most monitors (and TVs) automatically 'degauss' themselves at switch on to neutralise the effect. Some models also have a manual degauss facility (check your manual or on-screen menus) but in your case it may be that the auto degauss circuit has failed, if so it shouldn't be expensive to have repaired. In an extreme case - where the auto degauss system cannot cope -- an engineer can manually degauss the screen so if the monitor is otherwise okay it's probably worth spending a few bob to have it fixed.

Q

I recently had the Checksum Error notice appear together with irregular date/times and thanks to the Boot Up Rescue book I cured the problem by fitting a new backup battery on the motherboard. The time and date are now back to normal - however the error notice still appears on booting up and I still have to press F1 to continue boot up. How can I tell my PC that the problem has been solved, and get rid of the error message?

Harry Ashworth

A

Glad to hear the book was helpful. Normally replacing the battery does the trick but you may need to reset the PC's 'hardware' clock on the motherboard. To do that go into the BIOS program, (press a combination of keys at boot-up, look for an on-screen message or consult the motherboard manual). Reset the BIOS time and date -- even if they're correct -- then Save and Exit.

Q

Do you know whether there is a keyboard made for a desktop computer, laid out in the same format as the keyboard of a laptop?

Mrs G. M. Brown, via email

A

There are several mini keyboard and laptop-style keyboards available and probably the best places to start looking are the Keyboard Company's web site at www.keyboard.com and Keytools at: www.keytools.com/keyboards

Q

Can you tell me where I can find a list of file-name extensions so that I can find the programs they’re associated with? Files I have a problem with at the moment are ".pps" and ".gid".

John Pether

A

Whenever I come across a file extension I'm not familiar with I head straight for: http://extsearch.com/ or www.stack.com. For the record files ending with '.gid' are normally associated with Windows help, and a '.pps' file is probably a PowerPoint slideshow or presentation.

Q

I had an anagram program for my Apple Mac, I fully expected my new PC loaded with Microsoft Windows to have this built in somewhere. I cannot find this if it does exist. If not, can you suggest a freeware or shareware program I could download?

G. G. Grove, Evesham, Worcs

A

Even the holy Apple Mac doesn't come with anagram software as standard but there's certainly no shortage of freeware and shareware for the PC and I suggest you begin your quest at a couple of web sites devoted to anagram programs and links to other anagram sites at: http://www.anagrammy.com/

resources/generators.html and http://www.ani-gram.com/Links.htm