Computer Clarity Question Forum

June, 2008 Q & A

Q. We have three computers, use AOL - same screen name, same log in on each, but none of them have the same AOL address book information on them. How can I keep the same updated address data on each computer, without having to input each change or correction separately on each computer?

A. Oooh, I hate to admit it but I know nothing about AOL anymore. So few people use it, I'm not up on the tricks to cope with it. Let me suggest these resources:

How to share address books: http://help.channels.aol.com/kjump.adp?articleId=187848

Saving address book: http://www.naplestechnology.com/pages/aol_tips.htm#Save%20AOL%20add%20book%20and%20PFC (Scroll down to AOL>Saving my address book

May, 2008 Q & A

Q.I click on print and "photo printing wizard" comes up showing the picture I want to print - this is good but
there are a lot of other pictures that I do not know where they came from
I have clicked on (the unwanted) pictures when it did open but it does not offer me the delete option
I have look everywhere I can think of to find the "photo printing wizard" so that I can open it and delete the pictures I do not want

A. That's kind of a hard problem to explain by email but try this.
Open the My Computer Icon and click Folders along the top of your screen. You should see the C: drive.
Click the Search button above the list of folders and search for all files and folders named *.jpg
That will show you all the photos on your computer. Once they show up, you can delete the ones you don't want any more.

April 2008 Q & A

Q. If I cancel my aol account can i keep my email address?

A. No, I'm sorry to say you will give up that AOL address if you cancel the service. You can get a free email address with Yahoo or Google instead. There are many things about email that are imperfect, and this is one of them. Changing internet providers means changing addresses, and no one wants to lose track of friends or have to advise them of your new email address. Other than using a free, permanent account like Yahoo or Google, the other choice is to purchase a domain name, so that your email always goes to the domain name, even if your underlying service provider changes. I've had the email address Helen@cclarity.com since 1996 even though my internet providers have changed a few times.

Q. I have to go thru aol to get on line need icon to go right to comcast

A. This could be a little tricky if you don't see a desktop icon for Comcast. Your Comcast connection should always be on. Can you click on the Internet Explorer icon - big blue E on your screen? If so, Comcast should come right up and you won't have to go through AOL.

March 2008

Q. I have had an AOL account for about eight years. I recently chose Comcast as my ISP but have not yet canceled AOL. I would like to transfer/move my Address Book and all my email related items from AOL to Comcast. Can anyone give me instructions to at least move the Address Book? I could probably do a "Cut & Paste" on all the emails I want to move but if there is an easier way I'm all ears. Thank you in advance.

A. Thanks for your question. There are no easy ways to export AOL - they don't make it easy for you to leave.
Here are two links that can help you rescue the address book. For the messages, it might be easier to forward them to your Comcast account than do cut & paste.
In the long run, you'll be glad you made the move. AOL is a great place for beginners but you're ready to move ahead. Please also see the November 2007 entry below for a tip on how to send yourself a message containing all your addresses.

http://journals.aol.com/adamkb/blog/entries/2004/05/07/tip-exporting-the-aol-address-book/148

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_export_my_america_online_aol_address_book_and_email.html

November 2007

Q.We moved to the country and therefore canceled our Comcast service since we have no cable service in our area only satellite.  What we didn't realize is that when we canceled Comcast that access to our Comcast.net email would also cease.  What we really need is our address book.  Any ideas?

A. Now that your account is cancelled, there is no way for you to log in and retrieve or export the address book.  One "last resort" idea may be this:  If you recently had sent an email TO: a number of people, or TO: your whole address book, someone in your family may have that message. They could forward it to you at your new address and you would see the list of all the addresses where you sent the original message. I'm sorry to say there is no other clever way to recover it once your account is closed. Once you restore your list of addresses, here's how to protect the file. When you routinely back up files on your computer, it's a good idea to also export the address book and save it in your My Documents folder, or a similar place.

June

Q. I want a Zoom icon so I can read my email.
A. Depending on your web browser or the program you use to read email, you can click View / Zoom (or Text Zoom) to enlarge your screen. You can also download a free Virtual Magnifying Glass here http://magnifier.sourceforge.net/, courtesy of SourceForge.net.

Q. What can I do about this problem: One of my accounts was usurped by an idiot who hopefully has been stopped by Google. How would you recommend preventing such scum [not nice people] from accessing and/or stealing a blog?
A. You've discovered the dark side of the free and easy access to the web. Any clown can take over our work. The problem is rare, but you did the right thing by reporting it to Google. They can suspend a user's account for any unfair practices. Discouraging though it is, this type of problem is not as prevalent as you might think. You can also block comments at your blog, just as you can have bad book reviews removed from Amazon. Good luck and stay on top of the situation so it doesn't get worse.

Q. How can I print .tif files using the Photo Printing Wizard of Windows Picture and Fax Viewer.
A. Thanks for your question. Microsoft says there is a fix for this in Win XP service pack 2.
Also, there is a download program available to print .tif files correctly in the Pic and Fax Viewer. It's called Able Fax
http://www.graphicregion.com/faxtifview.htm

Q. Where can I get rid of old computers?
A. Every Spring this question surfaces again and we still don't have a perfect response. It would be nice if we could drop them off for a charity or trade school who helps children learn to repair computers, but their criteria are too narrow for most of our old computers. Here are some choices:

1. Call Lamb's Farm and see if they want them.
2. Donate them to the Cristina Foundation but you might have to pack and pay for shipping. https://www.cristina.org/faq.ncf
3. You can call SWANCC (swancc.org) for a pick-up at a cost of $25, or you can drop off recycling at Staples for a $10/fee.

May

Q. Do you have any instructions on how to download books from Net Library to an MP3 player? It's getting harder and harder to buy cassette players and even CD players for those books on tape.
A. There are plenty of places to download free ebooks, but you mentioned a wonderful way - through your local public library. Most libraries now have links to ebooks, either to download free or through a 3-week license. But most are in the Windows Media format (wma) or Adobe (pdf). So you'll need to convert them to MP3 for playing on many handheld audio players. But try it first - may players also take the wma format. At NetLibrary, click on CD Download, then choose Download Manually so you can save the file. Save it perhaps in an EBook folder inside My Documents. When the download process finishes, double-click to play the file, or use a free utility like AudioGrabber to convert to MP3. It can take about 30 minutes for the oritingal download and another 15-20 minutes to convert from wma to mp3. Or in Windows Media Player or Windows Explorer, right-click on the file and choose Convert Audio Format and choose MP3.

Q. Where do old web pages go to die?

A. I have good news and bad news: They never die. There are far too many stale, out-dated sites lingering on the web, abandoned by their owners. But even old copies of corporate and political sites are saved and archived on the web at The Wayback Machine: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. They've captured over 85 millions sites since 1996, when the boom began, and coincidentally the year I started Computer Clarity. For better or worse, the folks at Wayback in San Francisco are even working with the Library of Congress and Smithsonian to preserve a record of web sites for historical reasons.

April 2007

Q. What’s the difference between an email newsletter and a blog?

A. With an e-newsletter, the sender controls delivery and pushes the newsletter to recipients. For many recipients, these messages get lost in the Inbox or deleted when people have no time or inclination to read online. You may not know, but senders can track the ‘click-through’ rate on newsletters. I’m pleased that mine enjoys an open-rate in excess of 100 percent, which means people re-read or forward them.

A blog is available to the public, unless the author restricts viewing, but requires active participation for readers to visit the page. The usual chronological layout of a blog doesn’t lend itself to an interesting layout, to position topics of interest to readers.

For the author, a blog is a wonderful place for immediate communication and creates a dialog with readers. Topics of interest can be posted on the fly, for readers to see when they stop by. Blogs are ranked just like web pages and often score high because of links and depth of fresh content.

Compared to print communications, the costs of both are negligible.

February 2007

Q. I am interested in a blog, but how does anyone find what we write?
A. As it happens, I was interviewed today by Suite 101. Here's a brief article showing the value of blog directories, similar to search engines. I think this will answer your questions.
http://bloggingpodcasting.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_blog_directory_good_for?CFID=78668996&CFTOKEN=49594541

Q. I have a document saved in Microsoft Word and want to send it via AOL e-mail, can I do this??
A. Yes, you can send a Word document as an AOL attachment. Compose your message as usual, and look below the message for the Attach Files button. Click that button and chose the file, or browse to where you saved the file, such as My Documents. Then click OK, and you'll see the attachment is shown below the text of your message. Then, you're ready to send. By the way, you can always test this by sending an email with an attachment to yourself.

Q. How do I get an icon on my opening screen for Comcast since I pay for it and can't access it?

A. If you want an icon for the actual Comcast modem connection, click Start / Control Panel / Network Connections and View Network Connections. You should see a Comcast cable connection there. Right-click and choose Send To / Desktop, or "create shortcut."

Instead, if you mean you want to use the Internet, and your Comcast is already plugged in and ready, you can click the big blue E for Internet Explorer, which is the default browser on most computers. When it senses the connection it will automatically show you a web page, either for Comcast.net or any other site you wish.

January 2007

Q. How can I sort a list in Excel? When I try it, all the rows get scrambled.

A. To sort a list in Excel file, the critical step is to define the range that should be sorted.
1. Highlight the exact range containing all the rows & columns, from first person to last.
2. If you are sorting an entire sheet, even with one header row, you can click the blank cell between A + 1, to highlight the whole sheet.

2. On the top menu, click Data / Sort. You will see the default is to sort on Last Name, and last name is in Column B, choose Column B.
Under that, if you want a secondary sort by first name, and the names are in Column A, choose Column A for your next choice.

3. If you don't like the result, click Edit / Undo.

You can sort on up to three columns. Note at the bottom of the sort window, you need to indicate whether there is a Header Row. It will exclude the header row if you click that box. Otherwise, a column heading such as First Name will land right between Faith and Hope.
Be sure you always highlight the range you want to sort first, so the data doesn't get scrambled.

Q. WORD messes up graphics when it comes to putting it on a website. You say the new version is improved. Has it improved its handling of graphics?

A. Yes, Office 2007 is improved with many features, but the way Word messes up graphics is still a problem. Because Word is a bloated program with complex formatting, what looks like simple text to us, such as an indent or tab, does not translate well to HTML, the language of the web. It's better to compose web material in Netscape's editor, which I'm using right now, or any other web editor, and insert graphics, text boxes and specific formatting there. In Word you can also choose File/ Save As and save your file as a web page, then open it in any web editor and fix the formatting before loading it on your web site.

Q. Honestly, I can't stop lusting after a new computer, especially with the super-low prices. Can I buy now or should I wait for Vista from Microsoft?

A. Sure, you can buy a new computer now, Honey. Why not? Prices are low because manufacturers are desperate for sales of computers with Windows XP. When machines with Vista preloaded come on the consumer market in another month or two, they will be at much higher prices, because of the more powerful hardware needed to run Vista. Then, those XP machines in inventory now will nearly become give-aways.

So you have three choices:

1. Buy a computer now, at a great price, and use Windows XP as long as you wish, at least another year or two.

2. Buy a better computer now and get a machine with the video card, hard drive, memory and DVD device so you can add Vista later. Some computer manufacturers, like Averatec, offer Vista free, shipping about 8 weeks after it launches this Spring.

3. Wait. If you really want the newest computer, with Vista pre-loaded, saving you hours of upgrade time, hold off for another month or so. In the meantime, save $50 here and there by not eating out, and you'll make up the price difference quickly.

December 2006
Well, I guess you're all busy with the holidays....

November 2006

Q. I am finally ready to move away from AOL and I don't know how to transfer my extensive AOL address book to another account. I wonder if there's some software or service that would enable me to export my address book so that I can [a] use it with Comcast; and [b] enable the TREO to access the address book on both my PC and my MAC. Am I asking too much?

A. One reason people don't leave AOL is exactly what you're experiencing -- very tough to export the address book. Here are two references that might help you.

Exporting the address book. AOL does not provide a way to export your address book (email addresses) so that it can be imported into another address book. No doubt they do this to make it harder to switch away from AOL. I have found two articles that discuss ways around this:

Walter Mossberg. The Wall Street Journal. July 11, 2002. Mossberg's Mailbox. A reader wants to quit AOL but has a large AOL address book and asked how to export the address book to Outlook Express. Mr. Mossberg suggested a program called Address Magic which costs $30. However it only works with the English language version of AOL 7. He also mentioned that Microsoft makes switching from AOL to MSN easy by providing software called TrueSwitch that transfers AOL address book entries to MSN's address book.
AOL power tips: making an OK thing better. CNet. December 5, 2002. By Robert Luhn. The article explains how to use the AOL 7 and 8 feature that prints the address book to output it to a file. This involves creating a dummy printer in Windows. Its not a perfect solution as the file will need some reformatting before it can be imported somewhere else. The article also mentions free software due to be released in January 2003 that will do a better job of this. It has a slew of AOL gripes and then offers solutions for the assorted issues.

As for using the Treo on both a PC and Mac, you'd have to ask the people at the store when you get the Treo, or at an Apple store. I don't work with Macs at all, but I don't think the Treo would work seamlessly between the two.

Yours was a great question. Thanks, and good luck.

October 2006
How do I save a picture from Windows Picture and Fax Viewer (that I received in an email) and transfer it to My Document file?

Here's an illustration of the icon that will help you. When you view a photo in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, common choices are to move forward or backwards, crop, zoom, rotate, delete, or save it by hitting the icon shown in this illustration. And thanks for asking a question that allowed me to insert a visual aid. It livens up our forum.

I keep reading that one must have a fire wall as well as anti-virus protection. Do I have both? Do I need a fire wall?

Anti-virus software protects us from viruses that may creep in attached to an email message. A firewall works more like a gatekeeper, or a crossing guard, allowing traffic to move safely, and stopping unwanted traffic. There are software firewalls included in most good protection suites: ETrust, McAfee, Norton, Panda, PestPatrol, and TrendMicro. Double-click your protection tool icon in the lower right of the screen to see if the firewall is enabled. People who use a router for their DSL modem and/or for their wi-fi access also have a firewall built in to that hardware.

My computer is sooooo slow. What can I do?

1. If it is due to low memory, rebooting should refresh the memory.

2. If there are unwanted programs running, click Start / run and type msconfig
Click the Start-up tab and delete unwanted programs that reside in memory.

2. Hold Ctrl + Alt + Del and you will see the Task Manager. Note the CPU usage percentage showing in the bottom of the window. If it is at or near 100%, you'll understand why your computer is slow - all of the memory is in use. The most common cause is spyware - a program secretly using the full capacity of your computer.

So, before you call for help, run a spyware detection program. Here are two helpful resources:
Spybot easy download : http://www.download.com/Spybot-Search-Destroy/3000-8022_4-10401314.html?tag=lst-0-1
Or scan online at : housecall.trendmicro.com

This can take 20 to 40 minutes depending on how many files reside on your computer, so it's best to run to before calling for help.

September 2006
1. How can I see two screens at once - either two Word documents or a Word and an Excel file?

This is pretty easy, if you use the icon in the upper right corner to resize the screen. Between the X to close a document, and the dash to minimize it, is a rectangle that shows one large rectangle to make your screen full size, and shows two overlapping rectangles to indicate it can be resized smaller, so you can fit two files on the screen.

Practice a bit and you'll quickly see how easy it is to compare documents, or drag text from one file to another -- even from an email to Word. Another interesting use is to have a folder on your desktop, view a photo in email, and resize the screen so you can see part of the desktop. Drag the picture from email directly to the desktop folder.

August 2006
1. How can I re-size digital photos? I can open them in email but they are too big to see.

Managing photos on your computer can be tricky, until you find the right software to use. Most of us have at least Windows Picture & Fax Viewer, or a web browser as the default program to open photos, which usually end in .JPG.

First, try right-clicking on a picture and see if you have an option to control the image size.
If it says something like 1600 x 2400dpi for example, change it to 300 x 600 dpi. (dpi = dots per inch).

2. When you are viewing the picture, see if you can you scroll over to the end, and click to get a black line around the picture? If so, you might be able to resize it by dragging from one corner down toward the other.

3. Again, when viewing, is there a Zoom icon anywhere? Does the menu at the top of the picture viewer show the word View / where you could click Zoom and drop it down to 50 percent or so?

4. Lastly, you could tell the person to resize them down to 300 dpi and resend.

If you want to learn to manage photos, download the free IrFan Viewer (www.irfanview.com) and you can resize, crop, and edit pictures of all types.

July 2006
1. The outlet I want to plug in my surge protector is too far away from my computer. Can I plug the surge protector into a heavy duty appliance extension cord or will that negative the use of the surge protector or be hazardous?

Sure, using a heavy duty extension cord is fine. Any surge in power will still be stopped by the surge protector before it can harm your computer and other electronics.

2. What is the jury duty scam I keep hearing about?

A recent fraudulent telephone scheme involves a person, pretending to be a court official, who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty.

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth to verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers. Give out any of this information and your identity just got stolen.

The FBI reports the scam is occurring in eleven states, including Illinois. Read more about the fraud here:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/092805.htm

3. Can I password-protect my files?

To use a Password on a Word or Excel file, in the program, click Tools / Options / Security or
File / Save as and hit Tools in the top right corner of the menu. Under General Options/ choose a password.

To protect multiple files, put them in a zipped, compressed folder with a password:

Open My Computer, and then locate the compressed folder..
Double-click the compressed folder.
On the File menu, click Add a password.
In the Password box, type a password.
In the Confirm Password box, type the password again.

June 2006

1. What are some examples of sites that I can link with for additional revenue? I have a PayPal account.

Great question! The first way to make money on your site is by using Google's AdSense program. With it, you can get paid a few cents per click when a visitor to your site clicks through to another site from a Google ad. And, the money can be deposited directly to your PayPal account whenever your earnings reach $50 or more. If your site is widely visited (lots of "hits") and the ads offer related content, it brings in plenty of money. Also, placing ads or links on sites related to your business will greatly increase your chances of cross-traffic and shared revenue. When you sign up for these links, you receive a bit of HTML code to paste into your site's home page. If you need help, you know where to reach me.

2. Should I turn the computer off every night or leave it running?

There are two schools of thought on this, but I recommend leaving a desktop computer running all the time, if you use it daily. Just shut off the monitor if you are not using the cooler LCD panel. Old CRT monitors generate a lot of heat and use over 50 percent of the system's electricity.
Keeping the computer running avoids the cycling through hot and cold microchips, which causes them to overheat and to fail. With a laptop, click Start / Turn off / Standby to suspend your computer overnight. In the morning, tap the mouse or shift key and you'll be right back where you were. You might occasionally do a full reboot, to wash out items in memory, but rarely need to actually turn off a computer.

3. Which search engine works best?

Gosh, that's like asking "Which wine is best?" Too many to choose from. Although Google and Yahoo are most popular, I prefer Clusty.com for clustered results. The terms you search for shows up, like in other search tools, but it also categorizes those results so you can quickly narrow the field.

4. How do I make a Word document into a PDF?

We covered this last month too. The software most people use is Adobe Acrobat - not the free Acrobat reader, or Macromedia Flash. When you install either of these, the PDF icon then appears in your toolbar or icon bar. It works with most documents Excel, PowerPoint, QuickBooks, Word.

If your need is limited, you could use a free service like http://www.freepdfconvert.com/ as long as your document is not confidential. (Who knows what happens to files uploaded to the web.)

5. I changed Internet servers from earthlink to Comcast. How do I transfer my address book and any other important things over to Comcast?

When you change Internet providers, you can keep using the same address book you used before. If you want to import your address book into Comcast's web mail, start in your old Earthlink address book and look for the Export option. Save the file to your computer, with a name like abook in My Documents. Then at Comcast, go to the addresss book and choose to Import it.

If you are using an email program that lives on your computer, such as Outlook Express or Netscape, you just have to change the POP mail server name from earthlink.net to comcast.net.

May 2006

1. Should I buy a new computer now?

New computer prices have never been lower, but wait if you can. Microsoft Vista, which will replace Windows XP will be out in the first quarter of 2007. No sense buying a computer now, and getting a product that's three or four years old.

2. How do you get Adobe to read a PDF aloud?

In Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, click Edit / Pre

3. How do you make an Adobe PDF document?

You can't do it with the free Adobe Acrobat reader. You can purchase Adobe Acrobat for about $99, or use a free PDF maker like PrimoPDF.com

4. I have loads of tips ad tricks I've learned. Should I paste them into Word or is there a better way to keep track of them?

You could use Word with it's wildly unformatted white space, but try Excel instead. How about an Excel sheet with: Column A for the program (such as Word, Windows, etc.) and Column B can store the keyboard shortcuts or tips you pick up over time. Make it as wide as you wish. In the 2nd sheet in the same Excel file you could store all the passwords that are so tough to remember. Excel can be sorted alphabetically - so later if you sorted on Column B, passwords would jump out at you. You can also use Edit / Find to do a fast search for the word you're thinking of, such as "filter" or "expense" for example.

April 2006

1. Should I get an extended warranty for my computer?

Not necessarily, for a desktop computer, since parts are easily replaced. But for a laptop, yes. By nature, these small computers are more delicate, heat up, and are harder to repair. The warranty, usually about $200 is almost always a blessing.

2. How do you make a whole document double-spaced?

Assuming you're referring to Word, click Edit / Select All to highlight the whole document. Then click Format, Paragraph, Line Spacing and change from Single to Double spaced.

3. How do you give away or throw away an old computer?

You can't really toss a computer in the trash. Wait for the next electronics recycling event from SWANCC.org if your computer is too old to donate to a school or a charity. Remember to format the hard drive to erase all your data before letting go of your computer, and check the disk drives and CD drawer to be sure you're not getting rid of any important program disks or files.

March 2006

1. How do I back up my address booK?

Your email address list lives in a separate file, so open the address book and click File / Export. Give it a name you'll easily recognize like 'abook' and make sure you note where it is being saved, such as My Documents. If you need to recover it in the future, find the file and click File / Import.

2. Now that I have DSL, can I still keep my old AOL account?

It pains me to say.. yes you can, but why would you want to? Too many people move up to Comcast, Earthlink, or AT&T for high-speed access and remain reluctant to move away from their old dial-up account. Top reasons to cut the cord are cost and simplicity. Eventually, having two email accounts will drive you nuts, and if cost is not an issue for you, then donate $20/month to your local food pantry. The only answer is as soon as you move to broadband, send an email to everyone in your old address book advising them of your new address. Then check the old account once a week, and later once a month, and redirect anyone who is still using that old address. After 3 or 4 months, cancel the old account.

3. What does it cost to do a blog?

Most blogs are free places to post comments and thoughts you want to share publicly. Good sources are blogger.com (owned by Google), lifejournal, typepad, and wordpress.com. Blogs are even easier to use than email, and can take the place of a web site with virtual ease.

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Helen Gallagher • Computer Clarity • Phone: 847-998-6240