FAQS! FACTS! FAX!  192 (23/12/99

MANUAL INTERVENTION

My PC has recently been upgraded from Windows 3.11 to Windows 98. I was given the installation CD by the firm that did the upgrade, but was told that the Microsoft manual(s) are not given with the upgrade disk. If this is so, How can I obtain them?

I have two problems with Windows 98. After the screen saver has been running for some time the screen itself is switched off. How can I stop this switch off and also adjust the time before the screen saver operates?

I'm still using Word 6 and while the ruler at the top of the screen runs from zero to 14.5.  The page now only occupies about two-thirds of the width of the screen, the text is cramped, tables in documents produced in Windows 3.11 don't fit and each line is broken onto the next line. How can I make full use of the window width?
Bernard Vaughan

A

You're not missing much. The standard Microsoft user manual supplied with Windows 98 is a poor little thing covering only the very basics. The best way to get to know Windows is to follow the tutorial on the installation disc or buy one of the many books on the market. The Big Dummies Guides are quite good for beginners and then there's our very own Boot Up, a spin off from the Boot Camp series. It's published by Orion Books (ISBN 0-75282-099-0) and is available from Telegraph books or your local bookshop for £6.99.

The controls for the screensaver can be found in Control Panel, click on the Start button, then Settings and Control Panel. Double click on the Display icon then the screensaver tab and select 'None' to stop a screen saver activating or adjust the 'Wait' setting to suit.

The reason Word looks cramped is probably because Windows 98 has chosen a higher resolution setting. It's probably a good idea to leave it alone and instead change the Zoom setting in Word, which will increase the size of the page. The adjustment can be found on the toolbar, below the menus, It's normally set to 100% by default, try a slightly higher setting – 105% or 110% -- and see how you get on with that. 

LEFT IS RIGHT

With reference to the reader who complained about the layout of PC keyboards (F!F!F! December 9, I suggest the numeric pad on the right and the right-handed mouse were both designed, inadvertently, for use by left handers with their right hands, leaving the left hand free for the more skilled jobs, like note taking and drinking coffee. Equally well the British car, as distinct to its American or Continental counterparts, is designed for the left-handed. In the UK the gearshift, handbrake and direction indicator are all performed by the left hand, not to mention the radio, hi-fi, temperature, air control, the cup of coffee again, or patting the passenger on the knee. It is less than reassuring to us left handed drivers to know that 80% of other drivers are using their less skilled hand for these vital actions. To Rob Dickenson I say all the best people are left handed... well, there's you, and me, and Leonardo for a start"

Harry Metcalfe

A

Steering seems like a fairly important task too! Perhaps some could reassure us with some accident statistics about left handers, especially amongst those with a propensity for patting passenger's knees...

OUT OF CONTROL

Some while ago you printed a "how to" restoring the volume control to the task bar. I can't find the Connected with it in. Is there any chance you could run it again? Mine has disappeared from both my laptop (not desperately important) and my desktop PC where it is really, really important. I have no idea how I lost them.

John Wheater, Market Weighton, York

A

It's very well hidden. Open Control Panel and click on the Multimedia icon, there you will find the checkbox option 'Show Volume Control on Taskbar'.

DUMB DICTIONARY

Some words are wrongly spelt in the Word 97 main dictionary. Is it possible to remove them?

David Smith

A

Unfortunately not, the data in the main dictionary cannot be changed but you can specify a preferred spelling for a word and stop the spell checker flagging up words it considers misspelt. Click on Word Help then Contents and Index, select the Index tab. Scroll down the list of Index topics and click on 'dictionaries (spelling)', select the item 'Specify a preferred spelling for a word' and follow the instructions to create Exclusion Dictionary.

EASIER CALENDAR?

The WordPad/Paint calendar method (Boot Camp December 9) is rather tedious, and on my system the numbers come out very crudely. A more elegant method is to create a universal month matrix on a spreadsheet, which can be modified for the specific day on which the first of the month occurs. For simplicity here I ignore the month/day
headings.

At A2 enter +G1+1. At B2 enter +A2+1. Copy B2 to the range B2..G2. Copy the range A2..G2 to the four rows below, then copy range A2..G2 to the row above. Do not be alarmed at the warning signs, which then appear; just delete A1. You should then have a series of numbers from 1 at B1 to 41 at G6, arranged in sevens. Save at this stage as a master - you start with this afresh for each month. If the first of the month is day 3 of your week, enter 1 at C1. This gives the days of the month starting from day 3, plus some extras at each end. Delete these and you have your month's calendar ready for formatting in large print. Of course you do have to have a diary to set the system up.
Bernard Bookey

A

Thanks for that but the idea behind that particular Boot Camp tip was to show how to create a simple calendar, using only the utilities supplied in Windows.

HEALTH MONITOR

I have a Gateway 2000 computer, which has been in constant use, since I bought in it August 1996. Over the last couple of months I have been experiencing problems with my monitor, which is a Gateway 2000 Crystal Scan 14, the main problems are
1. The screen has become dim
2. It is slightly out of focus, making constant usage trying
3. The traditional Microsoft cloud wallpaper is now covered in swirls
more like a contour map. In fact the blank page of a word document is also
covered in swirls but this is not quite so noticeable.
I think degaussing might help but the monitor does not include this feature. Is there any other way to degauss it? If degaussing does not solve the problem what will? Or should I save up for a new monitor?
Elizabeth Dodwell

A

You monitor almost certainly does have a degaussing system but on a lot of older models it's an automatic function, that de-magnetises the screen every time it is switched on. In any event it doesn't sound as though that's the problem with your monitor, stray magnetic fields show up as colour patches on an otherwise normal picture. The symptoms you describe are more likely to be caused by a failing picture tube or its drive circuitry. It's worth getting a repair estimate but if the tube is faulty it will almost certainly be cheaper to buy a new monitor. The cost of 14 and 15-inch models has fallen dramatically in the past couple of years and prices start at under £100 from mail order companies advertising computer magazines.