FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 096 (12/02/98)

LOST FOR WORDS

I am a post graduate student having to type up long texts, albeit very slowly. This takes up a great deal of research time. Would any of the voice packages help? Are they effective for academic work?

Phil Bramley

A
Voice typing software is improving all the time, and they are a boon to those who cannot, for one reason or another, use a PC keyboard, however, even the best of them are still very slow, even compared with a novice typist. They suffer from a number of drawbacks. Firstly they have to be taught to recognise your voice and at first they make a lot of mistakes, which have to be corrected manually, and that is time consuming. If you catch a cold or loose your voice they become even more unreliable. They’re not very good at discriminating between a voice and background noises, so you’ll probably have to wear a headset, and work in comparative silence. Whilst they can become quite proficient with ordinary, everyday words, the kind of work you’re doing will almost certainly involve lots of obscure words, technical jargon and acronyms. Each time you use a new one it will have to be keyed in. Typing skills can be developed quite quickly; they improve rapidly with practice and will be of lasting value throughout your career. There are several good typing tutorial packages on the market including the old favourite, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

http://www.mavisbeacon.com

TWEAKEASY

I'm writing in reference to your reply to a reader with a problem of missing My Computer and Recycle bin icons on her desktop (F!F!F! January 29). You warned against editing the registry, which for most Windows 95 users is good advice, but buying the PlusPack? There's a utility on the Microsoft Internet site called TweakUI, which has the facility to rebuild icons. This will cure the problem and it’s free!

Kris

A

TweakUI to the rescue once again. You’re right we really should have mentioned this excellent little utility. In addition to icon reconstruction it gets rid of the shortcut arrows some users find so irritating, it can help solve file system errors, and much more besides; it should be on every Windows 95 users PC. TweakUI is part of the Powertoys package and can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. If you haven’t got Internet access, get hold of a copy of PC Pro magazine; Powertoys is included on their free cover-mount CD-ROM every month.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/

download/powertoy.exe

MISSING SOUND

I am running Office 97 and Windows 95, and had installed a sound card before, but had to format the hard drive to install these as I was running an old version of Ami Pro.  Now I find that my sound card does not work, and have been told by my computer guru friend that a command needs to be entered.  Please could you tell me if this is right, and if it is, or is not, what do I do to get the sound back?

Roger Flaherty

A

Reformatting your hard disc was a drastic way to get rid of Ami Pro! Next time use more conventional measures to remove unwanted software. You’ve lost the driver for your soundcard so call up the install/remove hardware wizard in Control Panel. This should automatically identify the soundcard and try to locate a suitable driver. If it can’t find one it will ask you to supply the driver on disc. One should have been supplied with the PC, or the soundcard, if it was brought separately. If you haven’t got it you should be able to obtain one from the PC vendor or failing that, the soundcard manufacturer. Most of them have Internet web-sites with driver libraries, though you will have to find out the make and model number first.

BURPING LION…

I recently upgraded our family PC from a 486/33 with Windows 3.1 to a Pentium multimedia model, using Windows 95. I re-loaded most of the games successfully but I’m still having trouble with Disney’s The Lion King, which makes a terrible burping noise. I have tried all of the sound card settings with no joy; is there a patch or software upgrade available; do you know if there is a compatibility problem between this program and Windows 95?

Ray Mason, Chiselhurst, Kent

A

Lion King, in common with a lot of older games is designed to run under DOS, will not operate properly from the DOS prompt in Windows 95. You have to restart your PC in DOS mode from the option that appears when you click on Shut Down in the Start menu.

STAYING IN CONTACT

I have a large number of names and addresses in the Contacts section of Microsoft Outlook and would like to back these up for safety's sake. I have not yet found a way however of transferring these files to a floppy. How can this be done?

J. D. A. Lowe

A

From the File menu select Import and Export to start the Wizard helper program. Click on Export to a File option then Next, and from the list shown, choose Contacts. Click the Next button again and you will see a list of file types, select one from the list, click the Browse button and you will see the familiar file tree box, where you can choose floppy drive A: Click OK and it’s done.