FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 166 (17/06/99)

CLUNKY CLICK?

I subscribe to BT Internet (£10 per month) and use it for the Internet and email, frequently with quite large attachments. Now BT is offering us BTClick, subscription-free. Since I don't believe there is any such thing as a free lunch, we wonder if I would notice any difference in service if I moved to BTClick. For example, would it be significantly slower because of a poorer server/line ratio? Am I more likely to have unscheduled disconnections? Does it have any restriction on the size of an email attachment?
George Birnie

A

BT assures us there are no difference in the basic facilities, i.e. connection speed, reliability and e-mail handling. The BT Internet subscription pays for 'added value' features (newsgroup access, competitions, promotions, etc.) and the new 0800 facility, which offers freephone access off-peak and at weekends.   

POLISHED ANSWERS

With regard to A. E. Wilmot's query concerning Polish characters in MS Word (F!F!F! 3rd June), it is possible to switch between keyboard layouts by installing International Language Support (see Multilanguage Support in Windows Help) and installing the required-language keyboard(s). Any language-specific characters are then available, the only problem is that the standard UK keyboard has to be marked with the remapped layout. A simpler option might be to ask the Polish relatives to send a Polish keyboard, which can be swapped as required.

Stephen Whistlecraft

A

ZEM Software Ltd (www.zem.co.uk - telephone 0181-568 0083) can supply Zecer 2.1 software to add Polish fonts to all applications running on Windows 3.1, 3.11, Win 95 & NT, 20 Polish fonts cost £23. ZEM can also supply Polish proofing tools - spellchecker, thesaurus - for MS Word, word translators, multimedia CD's + other Polish software.
John Majek, john.majek@ch.Novartis.com

SOUND ADVICE

I have a large collection of live music recordings on cassette tape. Now seems like a good time to convert them to CDs. What is the best way of linking my hi-fi to the computer and writing music format CDs? I don't yet have a CD writer - so what hardware and software should I consider?
Dave Evans

A

In order to create an audio CD using a CD writer it is first necessary to convert the analogue sound from your hi-fi into 'wav' digital data files on your PCs hard disc. The output from the hi-fi connects to the audio input on your PC's soundcard. You can use the Sound Recorder program in Windows or better still a third party audio recording utility. You will find several excellent shareware and freeware programs at www.tucows.com and www.download.com The files can then be recorded to disc using the audio CD copying program that comes with most (if not all) CD writers.

PAGE PROOF

I read an article (on the Internet) which described how to send messages from PC to an alphanumeric pager. I would like to be able to use such a facility in the UK to communicate with friends who have pagers, but we have been unable to find any company here that seems to understand the technology. Perhaps I'm being cynical, but I suspect they are evading the issue because the current phone to pager route is more profitable for them. Can you help?
Alan Potts

A

There are several programs that will enable you to send text messages from your PC to  pagers and digital mobile phones (using the short message service or SMS). Try SMS centre from DeSoft (01506) 4623732, which costs around £23. You can download a 30-day evaluation copy from: http://www.ttp.co.uk

LOST LION

When I first acquired my PC I had the most beautiful lioness as my screensaver. Subsequently, a certain member of my family decided that Leonardo Da Vinci was more appropriate and changed it. I have searched in vain for my lioness - to no avail. Where has she gone and how do I retrieve her?
Colette House

A

We're not familiar with that particular screensaver but you should be able to locate it or the associated image files using the Windows Find utility, (assuming it hasn't been deleted). Open Find (Start > Find > Files or Folders) and search using keywords like 'lion' or 'lioness' in the Named field, followed by an .scr extension, or .*, and see what turns up.

AWKWARD ASSISTANT

My Office Assistant in Word 97 seems indestructible (F!F!F! June 3rd). Despite unchecking Display Alerts, he still pops up and tries to help when I write a letter. How can I kill him off?
Martin Harper

A

Try this. In Word go to Tools, then Options and select the General tab, uncheck the boxes marked Provide Feedback with Sound and Provide Feedback with Animation and that should get rid of it once and for all.

BAD LANGUAGE

I had the disconcerting experience about a year ago of bits of my browser turning to German (Arrivederci, l'inglese – F!F!F!  3rd June). We eventually established it was a corruption in MSN, which had replaced my msn.ini file with a German version. Downloading a replacement English
version msn.ini solved the problem. I presume BT Internet have their own .ini file to support their customisation. If there are versions in different languages this might be the culprit - although I like the sound of stampa, chiudi and pagina iniziale and would be reluctant to change them if it happened to me
John Dean, Headington, Oxford

I had several languages appear in Windows program menus following an occasional Registry error. Restoring the registry as per the manual did not cure the problem. Safe Mode diagnosed the RAM card as intermittent and it was changed. This cured registry faults but I had to format hard disk to get rid of the foreign languages.

Tom Kellock

Your correspondent may have installed a patch update for Internet Explorer 4 or 5 (some programs install them under the guise "HTML Help Update). I installed one on my PC a little while ago when I installed a Help File editor and suddenly all the IE4 menus were in Spanish! It is possible that this patch could be loaded without you noticing. I am afraid that there appears to be no cure other than re-installing Windows '98 (or just IE4 if you have Windows '95). Drastic, I agree, but I found no other way of removing it.
David Allsopp

Thanks for the suggestions – they're certainly worth investigating though we have not as yet managed to find a definitive cause for the Italian invasion, or a simple solution, other than removing and re-installing Windows and/or Internet Explorer

My PC has recently been returned from repair and to my great dismay has had the hard drive reformatted and the system software reinstalled. My first question is if there is any software that I can use to scan the hard drive for my old files and retrieve selected important ones. My second inquiry is whether or not it was really necessary for the system software to be re-installed in the replacement of the motherboard for one of the same model as indicated on the maintenance report?
Paul Money

It sound as though the engineers originally suspected a hard disc or software fault, then subsequently discovered the problem lay with the motherboard. It's a timely reminder to us all to regularly backup non-replaceable files on removable media. A program called Lost & Found might be worth trying, it can recover files after a hard disc format, but only if they haven't been overwritten. It costs £46 and you can get more details from www.powerquest.com