FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 186 (18/11/99)

OUT OF SORTS
I use Internet Explorer, and whenever I add to my Favourites list, the new items are added at the end, is there a quick way to sort them into alphabetical order?
Mike Blackmun

A

The simplest method is to click on each entry then drag and drop it to its new location. However, rather than sort your Favourites alphabetically you might find it easier to group them together according to type, i.e. search engines, shareware sites, on-line shopping etc.

DUO DRIVE

I am going to add a CD-RW drive to my PC. Is there any reason why I wouldn't want to keep my existing CD drive, for example, to play music while I work on the new CD drive?
Terry Hughes

A

You should keep the existing drive, indeed you will probably need it to install the driver and operating software on CD-ROM for your new CD-RW drive. In addition to playing music a second drive means you can leave a frequently accessed disc in one of the drives. Incidentally only one drive can be used to play audio CDs it will be the one with an audio connection to the PC's soundcard.

SPOT OF BOTHER

You have dealt extensively in the past with the question of putting accents on characters, but I have not been able to find in back issues whether it is possible in Word 97 to put a dot centrally underneath a character. This is done to indicate how that character is to be pronounced and is common in the transliteration of other languages into English script. An example is Ahmad, where with a dot beneath the h it is pronounced Ach-mad and without a dot is pronounced Ah-mad. Can you help?
Mike Bayfield

A

We can find characters with dots on top and the sides in the Symbol lists but as yet no way of inserting one underneath a letter so this sounds like a problem for F!F!F! readers. Over to you!

ARROWS ANGST

I have just changed computers and the new one has Windows 98. The arrows are all over the screen. So I went back to F!F!F! and reminded myself about Tweak UI. In your previous help items you said it would be an icon in Control Panel. It is not. So I searched the Microsoft site only to find that Tweak UI is only meant for Windows 95. Is there an equivalent program for Windows 98? I really can't stand those arrows.
Colin R Goss

A

Tweak UI is part of the PowerToys suite of utilities for customising the way Windows looks and works (UI stands for 'user interface') and a version for Windows 98 is included on the CD-ROM installation disc. Pop the disc into the drive, if it starts automatically use the 'Browse This CD button (or search the disc using Windows Explorer) to open Tools > Reskit > Powertoys, then open the Readme file and follow the installation instructions.

Incidentally, there's an even easier way to remove shortcut arrows than using Tweak UI and that's to double click on the Display icon in Control Panel and select the Appearance tab. Click the arrow next to 'Item', select Icon from the list and reduce the 'size' to 30 or less.

CHECK LIST

My C:\ drive is overrun by .chk files, amounting to over 200 megabytes which, when opened in Notepad, consist of gibberish with occasional snippets from Help files for a program I uninstalled years ago, and the occasional mention of the words 'Java' and 'Internet'. On a 1.6 gig hard drive, this is space I'd rather not waste. Is it safe to delete these files, or will nasty errors occur?
Owen Smith

A

Lots of *.chk files is a sure sign your PC is crashing or you haven't been shutting it down properly. They are created by Scandisk, which automatically checks the hard disc for errors after Windows or running programs unexpectedly stop running. Most programs – including Windows -- create temporary files whilst they are running and they're normally deleted when the program is shut down. Following an improper shutdown Scandisk clears up the clutter left behind on the hard disc drive and converts it to a *.chk file, in case the data is important an you want to retrieve it. If the PC and your applications appear to be running normally then you can safely delete those *chk files but the way to avoid creating more of them is to exit Windows properly, or sort out any problems that is causing your machine to crash.

STOP IT!

When I type a abbreviation which ends with a full stop on Word 97, the next word I type in automatically changes the first letter of the word into a capital letter. This is frustrating. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

Helen Whalley

A

Word is trying to be helpful, it assumes the full stop is the end of a sentence and capitalises the first letter of the next sentence. You can switch it off by going to the Insert menu, select AutoText, then AutoText, click the AutoCorrect tab and deselect 'Capitalize first letter of Sentences'.

COUNTY COUNSEL

Whenever I type 'Lancashire' into a Word 97 document, it is not accepted. At the next keystroke, whether it is a space or a punctuation mark, 'Lancashire' becomes 'Lancaster'. My only way out of this is to continue typing, then cursor back, delete 'ter' and type 'hire', then move the cursor forward to where it came from. I have tried adding the offending county name to the spell checker, but it does no good. Other counties such as Yorkshire and Hertfordshire behave. I have taken another town ending in 'aster' and invented a 'Doncashire' county, but it is accepted with the usual spelling underline. How do I get out of this?

Ron Barker, Poulton-Le-Fylde, Lancashire

A

This is the work of Word's AutoCorrect facility. You can stop it happening by going to the Insert menu, click AutoText and AutoText and select the AutoCorrect tab, scroll down the list until you find Lancashire, highlight the entry and click the Delete button.

MISSING MENUS

I e-mailed you recently concerning a problem I had with Word 97. The drop down menu items had disappeared and whatever I tried (even to reloading the entire Office 97 suite) I couldn't get them back on the screen. I tried your solution (F!F!F! 28^th) but it still did not work. I am now writing to inform you that I have solved the problem. Our school uses guarded programs, which prevent the children from accessing the main body of the programs. It was set up for us by Research Machines on a PC known as 'RM Window Box'. One of the programs is called 'Talking Textease', which uses Word 97. After opening 

Textease you can get in 'Control Mode' by pressing 'Ctrl+Alt+shift+'T' to reset to default values and bingo, the menus in Word 97 reappear. I have no idea how the initial problem started but I am willing to bet that sooner or later other schools will suffer.
Graham Spring

A

Thanks very much for the feedback.

FADING GLORY

Regarding your recent reply to a query concerning digital cameras (F!F!F! October 14^th). I am about to buy one and was perturbed to read about images printed on an inkjet printer fading. Can you elaborate and is it only digital camera prints that fade or is there more to it?

G. J. Beads

A

Most colour inkjet printers use dye-based inks and prints – of all kinds -- will fade over time, in a matter of months in extreme cases. The speed at which colours fade depends on a number of factors, ultra violet light (sunlight) is a print's worst enemy, but heat (from a radiator), humidity, atmospheric pollutants, even the type of paper all take their toll. You can slow the ageing process down with protective sprays like Printguard, which contains a UV filter and sealant, keeping a print in a glass fronted frames and well away from direct sunlight helps as well. There are also fade resistant or 'lightfast' inks and cartridges available for some makes of printer, contact your printer manufacturer or stationary supplier for details.