Computer Corner, presented by Nick Wakeham and Alan Larbalestier, is broadcast every Saturday morning at 10am and repeated throughout the week. The show gives you Tips and Tricks along with answers to questions sent in by listeners. There are also talks about the latest software available for your computer and reviews on the latest hardware such as webcams, keyboards, audio and routers, etc. In case you missed it, or were too busy to write down the info given on the programme, we have managed to get the reviews and listener's questions and answers and put them on this page in order that you can play them whenever you wish. Click here to go directly to Reviews

Q: Something strange is happening with my emails. I seem to be getting spam from my own email address – how on earth can this be happening? Have I been hacked?

A: Nothing to worry about, as far as hacking is concerned. What has happened is that spammers are using a fake version of your email address to try and fool your ISP’s email server and your anti-spam program into thinking the emails are legitimate. It’s an annoyance but nothing else.

Q: I recently set up a Hotmail email account in addition to my usual ISP email address. My default browser is Firefox Mozilla but, since setting up the Hotmail account, everytime I get an email through that with a link and I click on it, it starts up my Internet Explorer rather than the Firefox. This is really annoying, can I stop it happening?

A: Yes. It looks as if Internet Explorer is still set to the default browser. Open up Firefox and click the Tools menu, then Options and select the Advanced option from the tabs along the top. Select the General tab and make sure the box with ‘Always check to see if Firefox is the default browser’ is ticked. Next time you start up Firefox, it will tell you whether it is the default browser or not and, if not, then make the changes then, following the instructions on screen

Q: A friend of mine is trying to send me an email with some attachments that I desperately need but I can never open them. The body text of the email appears but, no matter how many files are attached, there is only one attachment called winmail.dat. I have tried double-clicking this file but Windows doesn’t know what software to use to open it – and, so, neither do I. Can you tell me how I do it?

A: It looks like they are sending this through Microsoft Outlook and it has been set to format emails rather than send them as plain text. When the recipient is not using Outlook, the formatted text and attachments are bundled into a single file called – you guessed it – winmail.dat! The easiest (and cheapest) solution is to ask your friend to make sure the emails are sent as plain text. They can do this by clicking on the dropdown menu in the toolbar that says either HTML or Rich Text and select Plain Text instead. This will lose any changes to formatting but you will be able to open the files.

Q: When I used to have Windows 98 I was able to use CD-RW instead of floppy discs in order to backup my documents, etc. However, now on Windows XP it still saves all the material but it is Read Only and I can’t alter it like I used to be able to do. Can you tell me what settings have to be altered?

A: Quick answer: none! Longer answer: Why on earth are you using CD-RW discs in this day and age? The best thing to do would be to invest in a couple of USB flash drives. A couple of 2gb drives would cost less than 2 CD-RW discs and hold so much more information and to copy to one of these drives takes seconds rather than the convoluted method of saving to a CD-RW disc. However, if you wish to remain in the dark ages, then you need to invest in a CD-RW burning software that has ‘packet-writing’ and always burn using the ‘track at once’ option, which will allow you to burn more files at a later date.

Q: I am trying to print out as page from a website but I keep losing the right hand edge of the text on the page. The margins are all set properly and even a Print Preview of the page shows the edges missing. Is this an error on my settings or with the site itself?

A: This is down to the web site, I’m afraid. You see, web pages are designed to be viewed on screen and not printed on to that old chestnut – paper! However, on the new versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox, there is an option to preview the page and to ‘Shrink To Fit’ the page so that you do get the whole thing on one sheet of paper. Alternatively, you could always try printing the page in landscape instead of portrait and that would probably help – although you will not get it all on one sheet.

Q: I sometimes take portrait-oriented photos with my camera rather than the normal landscape layout. When I copy these to my computer, they show as if they were landscape, on their side. How can I sort this out so they are all the right way up?

A: Some cameras do recognise that this is happening and adjust accordingly – yours obviously doesn’t! However, panic not, as there is a way to deal with it. Open a Windows Explorer window and go to the folder containing the images. Click on the View button and select one of the larger thumbnail options so that the picture itself is visible. Right-click on the portrait image and then click on the Rotate Clockwise (or Counter-Clockwise) icon to correct the image.

Q: Can you tell me whether it is possible to connect my old computer to a new one I am buying. The old one doesn’t have a name but it has Windows XP and a 80gb disk, the new one is a Dell with Vista Home and a 120gb disk.

A: This is possible in many ways, but not maybe the way you are thinking., To begin with, why would you want to have two machines cluttering up your space? What I personally would do is to remove the 80gb drive from the old computer and install it as a second hard drive in the new computer. This may be a bit awkward depending on what drives the old and new are. They could be Parallel drives with the big wide cable or they could be SATA drives with the small red cable, or they could be one of each!! If you know what you are doing and feel confident enough, then you could try to install it yourself, or take it to a dealer who will be able to do it for you really quickly. If you want to have a go, then try looking at PC SUPPORT on the web – they have a video. The address is: http://pcsupport.about.com/b/2007/04/13/install-a-second-hard-drive-video.htm
Don’t worry – that will be on the website after the show.
Once you have installed it, the drive will show up as a second hard drive and you can access your Documents etc from there.

Q: There is a problem when I press the @ key on my keyboard – I get quotation marks instead of the @ sign. Not very handy for when I am typing email addresses. What’s gone wrong?

A: Your keyboard has been set to the American Layout and not the British one. Obviously either an import or someone was too quick pressing buttons when installing your operating system! Click on the Start button at the bottom of the screen and go to Control Panel. Click on Date, Time, Language and Regional Options. Left-click on Regional and Language icon. Click on the Languages tab and then on the Details button. Left click on the top drop down menu and then on English (United Kingdom). This will set the keyboard to the British system with all the characters in the correct places. If this option isn’t there, for some reason, click on Add button – select English in the dropdown menu. If you are running Vista, then go to Start / Control Panel / Change Keyboards. Select region and then save.

Q: I have been given an old Dell computer – it is a laptop. It has Internet Explorer 6 installed on it – should I upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 and is this difficult to do?

A: Well, if you have been updating the laptop regularly, this will have been an option for you from Microsoft, as they recommend you do upgrade to 7 and even now to 8. However, you don’t say whether the operating system is Windows XP or something before that. If it’s Windows 2000 then you can’t upgrade to 7 and I would suggest you try installing Firefox instead.

Q: When I quit my screensaver by pressing a key or moving the mouse, the opening log-in screen appears and I have to enter my password to use the computer. This is really bugging me and I want to know if I can do anything to stop this nonsense?

A: You will find this is normal with computers that are in a public place – it is more secure. However, if you are the only user then there is a fix, so don’t worry. In Windows XP, click on the Start Button at the bottom of the screen. Go to Control Panel. Double Click on Display and left left-click on the screensaver tab. If you are using Category mode in Control Panel, left-click on Appearance and Themes and then choose a Screensaver. Click in the box labelled ‘On resume password protect’ so that the tick disappears. Click on OK to save the changes. In windows Vista, click on the Start button and then Control Panel. If a list of icons appears, click on the Control Panel Home link on the left hand side of the window. Click on Appearance and Personalization. Click on Change Screen Saver in the Personalization section at the top of the window. Left-click in the box labelled ‘On Resume, Display Logon Screen’ so the tick disappears. Click OK to save changes.

Q: How do I convert music files saved in the WAV format into the MP3 format? Is this the best format for saving my music?

A: Well, I’ll answer the first part first: The easiest way of doing this is to download a converter from the internet – and there are thousands to choose from. If you want a good reliable one, then something like Switch MP3 converter – but just put ‘Free Wav to MP3 converter’ into Google and watch the thousands of them appear. When you have downloaded it, follow the particular instructions and save them as a MP3. Now, your second part of the question: Yes, for personal use MP3 is fine – make sure you save at least at 128bits. We use MP3 at the studio and that seems to be fine – although in the digital age that is coming upon us, we will have to transmit at WAV or you will certainly hear the difference!

Q: I have just installed Windows XP Professional on a formatted hard drive. I now find that, when I start up, the Num Lock is not enabled, which is a real pain. I can get it working by pressing the Num Lock button on the keyboard but I am sure it used to be enabled at start up on my old system. Is this an XP thing?

A: No, not an XP thing. The Num Lock is actually controlled by the BIOS. There are several different ways of getting in to the Bios, depending on your machine but normally, when you start the computer, an opening screen will appear and on it there will be something like ‘Press F2 for setup’. The key could be Del, Esc, F1 etc and instead of setup it may say bios. When you press that key – before the computer loses that screen, the computer will load the Bios instead of opening the operating system fully. From here it’s a case of finding the settings for the Num Lock and changing this to Enabled. Make sure you don’t change anything else, as it can be tricky, if not impossible, to go back to how it was before you made the changes. Go to the Exit tab and save and exit and the machine will now load fully and the Num Lock button will be enabled.

Q: Is it possible to count the number of coloured cells in an Excel spreadsheet. I have got yellow for paid and red for unpaid and would like to filter them so the red only shows at certain times.

A: The quickest way to do this to filter the list by colour and then you’ll see the results. Click within the list. To the far right of the Home ribbon, click Sort&Filter, then Filter. Click the small down arrow that appears at the top of a column. Choose Filter by Colour. A choice of colours will appear to the right. Pick the one that applies and then all entries with that colour will appear on the sheet and the others will be hidden.

Q: I sometimes have a few emails that all relate to one another but don’t have the original email or some of the follow-ups on the same page. Is there anyway of saving them all to one file for filing in a folder?

A: If you use Microsoft Outlook, here's a tip that you may find useful. If you want to backup or save multiple email messages, it's easy. Simply select the messages you want to save into a single text file, click File, Save As (in Outlook 2003) or Office Button, Save As (in Outlook 2007) and give the text file a name.
 
This is great for combining multiple related emails into a single text file you want to keep for future reference. Once you've saved those emails, you can delete the original emails.

Q: How do you start the computer, to see all the icons on the desktop, if Windows XP does not boot up? I see these options and don't know how to use them: Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

A: When Windows has a problem and fails to boot properly, the next time you boot it will usually offer the options you have listed. Safe Mode starts Windows with the bare minimum of drivers and without any "launch at start-up" programs. It gives you a chance to investigate the problem even when you can't boot fully into Windows. If you have anti-malware software installed, you can try to run a scan in case the problem was caused by malware. Most anti-malware will scan in Safe Mode, though typically real-time protection is disabled. Safe Mode with Networking is exactly what it says—Safe Mode with additional components enabled to make network connection possible. Safe Mode with Command Prompt give you only a Command Prompt to work with; it's rarely necessary.

Q: Is there a way of sending someone a document and not allowing them to print it out?

A: Call this a non-printing tip. If you're distributing a file that you'd rather people not print—because it contains confidential information, say, which you don't want your employees taking out of the office—and you have a program that will let you save in or convert to PDF format, check to see if the program offers PDF security settings to prevent printing without a password. With pdfFactory Pro 3.48, for example, the security settings include the option Do not allow users to print documents. Similarly, Abbyy FineReader 9.0 includes a check box to restrict printing and editing the document and its security settings.

Q: I'm running Vista, but this problem also occurred with XP. My laptop goes back and forth from office to home every day. At the office, when I plug in my external USB hard drive, it appears in Windows Explorer as drive E: and all works well. At the office I also connect to drive F: on our server and drive U: on another workstation.
At home, the external drive doesn't always show up in Windows Explorer and therefore isn't accessible. At home, of course, drives F: and U: are not available, and they show with a red X in Windows Explorer.

A: One reason for this problem would be that there's another device that sometimes takes over the desired drive letter. If that's the case, you'll have to either change the drive letter for that other device or use a drive letter other than E: for the external drive. But if there's no other device interfering, you can tell Vista that you always want it to be E:. Here's the procedure for setting a specific drive letter.

Q: I'm having problems with the Recycle Bin on a two-year-old Dell OptiPlex PC running Vista Business. When I drag a file to the Bin, it takes about 30 to 45 seconds to complete the process, and then finishes only when I click on the desktop with the mouse. Any help would be appreciated.

A: There's a Vista feature that's been reported to cause this problem, even though it shouldn't. Remote Differential Compression attempts to moderate bandwidth when copying files across the network. It looks to see if the file is already present in the target location and, if that's the case, analysis whether it can get away with just transmitting the changes without copying the whole file again. Apparently this feature is not implemented very well and can slow file transfers rather than speed them. Of course the Recycle Bin is not a network destination, but it can be affected regardless.

The simple solution is to turn off Remote Differential Compression. Launch Programs and Features from Control Panel and click the Turn Windows features on or off link at left. Find Remote Differential Compression in the list, uncheck its check box, and click OK. This change may need a reboot to take effect.

A: When you choose Insert | Date and Time from the menu (or click Date and Time in the Text panel of Word 2007's Insert ribbon), you get a Date and Time dialog that lets you choose the desired format. There's a tricky little box at the bottom labelled Update automatically. If you check that box, Word inserts a date field rather than a static date. This field updates to the current date every time you open the document. When you click on such a date it gets a grey highlight—that's a clue you're looking at a field.
Be sure that box is not checked when you want to insert a static date. For your old documents, you'll have to delete the date field and replace it with the date that should be there. Not sure of the correct date? It's probably the date that the document was created or last saved. In Word 2003, choose Properties from the File menu to find the Created date.

Word 2007 users will have to jump through a few hoops to reach this same Document Properties window. Click the Office Orb at top left, choose Prepare, and choose Properties. Click the down arrow next to Document Properties in the panel that appears. Choose Advanced Properties. When you've noted the document creation date, close the properties panel by clicking the small x-icon at its top right-hand corner.

Q: I want to install a new hard drive on my computer to store all my songs. I am going for a terrabyte disk. Are there any constraints or restrictions? I am using Windows XP Home SP2 and have 512mb of RAM.

Q: I am using Microsoft Works and I want the default font to be Georgia size 10 but it keeps defaulting to Time New Roman size 10 – how do I change this?

A: You need to create a template for your documents. Start a new blank document in Works then set the font to Georgia and the size to 10 and use this as the default. Then on the File menu click Save As and them click Template. Type a name for the template, click on Use this template for new Word Processor documents check box and then click OK. That should now set it as the new default.

Q: We inherited a PC. We can reset the PC password, no problem. But how do we reset the password to access Safe Mode?

A: If I understand correctly, you can log on as a user but you do not have the Administrator password. As long as you can log on with an account that has Administrator-level privilege you should be okay. In XP, click Start, click Run (in Vista, just use the Search field), enter control userpasswords2 (don't forget the 2 at the end).
In the dialog that appears is a panel titled Password for Administrator. Click the Reset Password button in this panel and assign a new password that you'll remember but that a malefactor or a virus won't guess.

Q: Is there some way I can stop people accessing my computer while I am at lunch? Or do I need to shut it down?

A: Pressing the Windows key + L, allows you to quickly password protect your system just as if you had logged out or restarted the computer. Any programs that are running when you lock the desktop stay open and let you get back up and running immediately after you supply the password. 

Q: I have lots of slides that I inherited from my father when he died. These are photo slides I’m talking about 35mm. How can I get them on to my computer and then on to a CD?

A: Either a scanner with the facility – or buy a machine that is designed for that purpose only. There is one called the ION Slides 2 PC but I have used that and find it a bit iffy – not all that reliable. There is another machine the PrimeFilm 1800u – this plugs into the USB port of your computer and does exactly what it says on the box. You may have to have a hunt for it on the internet but I got mine from Jessops.com and it was about £120.

Q: I have a form based on my Access 2007 database, each form is A4 size and I would like to number the pages so that when I print them out they have these on them. I have tried but am obviously doing something wrong. Can you help?

A: Well, it would have been handy if you had told us what it was you had done that isn’t working but here is how it is done: Go to Design View in Access, click the Page Numbers button in the Controls group and make selections in the Page Numbers dialogue box. Place your choice in the header or footer and choose an alignment. Once you’ve done that, click the Office button and choose Print, Print Preview and you should see the numbers displayed. By the way, page numbers are not displayed in Form or Layout View – so that’s maybe where you have been going wrong.

Q: I have loads of VHS video tapes that I want to transfer on to DVD. What’s the best way of doing this?

A: For VHS tapes the best way is to buy something like the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD transfer kit for about £40. You will also need a computer and a video player. It is all very self explanatory when you get the piece of kit. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and the other ends go to the video player. You then open up the program and start the player off. Of course, this all has to be done in real time. You could also send them off to a company who will charge about £4-5 an hour plus other bits and pieces.

Q: On an Excel spreadsheet I have a list of places that I have visited in the UK. As a special memento of them I would also like to create a link to an online map or street location of each place.

A: Thanks to Streetmap you can do this little thing. Say you wanted to show the location of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which has a postcode of SW1 7RT, then you would type Victoria and Albert Museum in a cell, right click on that cell and choose Hyperlink. In the address space at the bottom of the dialogue box that has popped up, you type in 'http://streetmap.co.uk/postcode/SW17RT'. Anyone online who clicks on the cell will see an arrow pointing to the vicinity of the museum.

A: Maybe you don't need an indicator to let you know that macro recording is on, or that extended selection is enabled, but it can be awfully handy to see at a glance that Word is tracking changes or that your keystrokes will overtype existing text. The Word Options dialog won't help. You can scan it 'til your eyes cross without finding any settings to bring back those handy indicators. What you need to do is right-click the status bar itself. That brings up a menu of 20 distinct items that can appear on the status bar.

A: Well, I assume you have Word 2003 or later. If not, then why not? So, here’s how you can sort this mess out. Then next time it comes up and says that iPhone is miss-spelt then tell it to Add that to the dictionary. Now, every time it sees iphone or Iphone it will highlight it as an error and when corrected it will make it iPhone. If you accidentally add a word to the dictionary and want to correct it or delete it, then go to TOOLS/Options/Spelling and Grammar/Custom Dictionaries/Modify or in Word 2007 you would go to Word Options/Proofing/Custom Dictionaries/Edit Word List.

Q: I have loads of VHS video tapes that I want to transfer on to DVD. What’s the best way of doing this?

A: For VHS tapes the best way is to buy something like the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD transfer kit for about £40. You will also need a computer and a video player. It is all very self explanatory when you get the piece of kit. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and the other ends go to the video player. You then open up the program and start the player off. Of course, this all has to be done in real time. You could also send them off to a company who will charge about £4-5 an hour plus other bits and pieces.

Q: I have a sister who is older than me and not very good with the computer and she is always phoning me up asking me what has gone wrong or how do I do this or that. I need to be able to see her desktop and maybe go through her settings to solve the problem but it takes forever with someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Is there some way I can access her computer from mine?

A: Remote Desktop Access or better still – TeamViewer. It’s free and the other person has to give you 2 codes to put in your end in order for it to work so no way can you just connect to them anytime you want. The instructions are sent to your sister via email and let me tell you if my sister can do it – so can yours.

Q: The ‘C’ key has stopped working on my keyboard. The same thing happens when I plug it into another computer. The keyboard hasn’t suffered any damage and has hardly been used. Before I take it to bits – have you got a suggestion?

A: Buy a new keyboard. If there were many keys not working then it may be something to do with the interface or the wiring but since it is an isolated key problem then it looks as if the keyboard has given up the ghost. If it is under warranty then send it back for a replacement, if not, then keyboards range from £8 to £400 – there is even a washable keyboard available now called a Silver Seal and is about £29 and can be washed in the dishwasher!! The average keyboard harbours more germs than a lavatory seat!

Q: I have a Vista question for Alan. I have an annoying problem with my PC running Vista Home Premium. Every time I boot up or restart the machine I get that annoying Narrator talking to me. Is there a way of shutting him up or do I have to resort to a gun?

A: Go to Control Panel, Ease of Access then click on the link for ‘Make the computer easier to see’. At the top of the new window you’ll see that the settings below will automatically start each time you log on. Clear the check boxes next to ‘Turn on Narrator’ and ‘Turn on Audio Description’ Click on the Save button, close the Ease of Access centre and then you can put the gun back in the drawer.

Q: I have lots of music on my computer and I want to put it on to my MP3 player but many of the tracks just state Track1 and nothing else. Is there any way I can get a programme that will fill in the artist and track tile so I can search for them easier?

A: Many programs out there and I have just been through about 10 of them. The best by a long chalk was MP3TagPro. It costs about £25 but believe me it is worth it. It searches the internet and Amazon database for the info before giving up and allowing you to type in the details. It isn’t 100% effective but is about 30% more effective than other programs out there.

Q: I have unfortunately lost my For Follow Up folder in Outlook that resided in my Favorites folder in the pane on the left-hand side. Is there any way to recover this? It would be very difficult to go back through all of my individual subfolders to find where I left my follow-up flags.

A: This is an easy one, as long as you know where to look. The folder in question is a search folder, one of the standard ones. To re-create it choose File | New | Search Folder. You can also open this feature by pressing the unlikely key combination Ctrl+Shift+P. Highlight Mail flagged for follow up and click OK. It's back!

A: For Internet Explorer Favorites, choose File | Import and Export from the menu. IE7 users, if you don’t see a menu, press the F10 key to display it. Click Next, choose Export Favorites, click Next twice, check Export to a File, and select the location and filename for the resulting HTML file. Click Next, then Finish, and you’ll have a nice HTML page containing all your Favorites, organized in a sort of outline form that corresponds to any subfolders within the Favorites collection.
Firefox bookmarks are already stored in HTML form; you just have to find the file. It's located in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\random\bookmarks.html, where username is your username and random is a random folder name.To get a printout, simply open the HTML file in your browser by launching it and then print it as you would any other Web page. To transfer the selections to another computer, transfer the HTML file using a USB thumb drive, e-mail, or even a floppy disk. Then import it into the other computer's browser

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A: When you choose Insert | Date and Time from the menu (or click Date and Time in the Text panel of Word 2007's Insert ribbon), you get a Date and Time dialog that lets you choose the desired format. There's a tricky little box at the bottom labelled Update automatically. If you check that box, Word inserts a date field rather than a static date. This field updates to the current date every time you open the document. When you click on such a date it gets a grey highlight—that's a clue you're looking at a field.
Be sure that box is not checked when you want to insert a static date. For your old documents, you'll have to delete the date field and replace it with the date that should be there. Not sure of the correct date? It's probably the date that the document was created or last saved. In Word 2003, choose Properties from the File menu to find the Created date.

Word 2007 users will have to jump through a few hoops to reach this same Document Properties window. Click the Office Orb at top left, choose Prepare, and choose Properties. Click the down arrow next to Document Properties in the panel that appears. Choose Advanced Properties. When you've noted the document creation date, close the properties panel by clicking the small x-icon at its top right-hand corner.

Q: I want to install a new hard drive on my computer to store all my songs. I am going for a terrabyte disk. Are there any constraints or restrictions? I am using Windows XP Home SP2 and have 512mb of RAM.

Q: I am using Microsoft Works and I want the default font to be Georgia size 10 but it keeps defaulting to Time New Roman size 10 – how do I change this?

A: You need to create a template for your documents. Start a new blank document in Works then set the font to Georgia and the size to 10 and use this as the default. Then on the File menu click Save As and them click Template. Type a name for the template, click on Use this template for new Word Processor documents check box and then click OK. That should now set it as the new default.

Q: We inherited a PC. We can reset the PC password, no problem. But how do we reset the password to access Safe Mode?

A: If I understand correctly, you can log on as a user but you do not have the Administrator password. As long as you can log on with an account that has Administrator-level privilege you should be okay. In XP, click Start, click Run (in Vista, just use the Search field), enter control userpasswords2 (don't forget the 2 at the end).
In the dialog that appears is a panel titled Password for Administrator. Click the Reset Password button in this panel and assign a new password that you'll remember but that a malefactor or a virus won't guess.

Q: Is there some way I can stop people accessing my computer while I am at lunch? Or do I need to shut it down?

A: Pressing the Windows key + L, allows you to quickly password protect your system just as if you had logged out or restarted the computer. Any programs that are running when you lock the desktop stay open and let you get back up and running immediately after you supply the password. 

Q: I have lots of slides that I inherited from my father when he died. These are photo slides I’m talking about 35mm. How can I get them on to my computer and then on to a CD?

A: Either a scanner with the facility – or buy a machine that is designed for that purpose only. There is one called the ION Slides 2 PC but I have used that and find it a bit iffy – not all that reliable. There is another machine the PrimeFilm 1800u – this plugs into the USB port of your computer and does exactly what it says on the box. You may have to have a hunt for it on the internet but I got mine from Jessops.com and it was about £120.

Q: I have a form based on my Access 2007 database, each form is A4 size and I would like to number the pages so that when I print them out they have these on them. I have tried but am obviously doing something wrong. Can you help?

A: Well, it would have been handy if you had told us what it was you had done that isn’t working but here is how it is done: Go to Design View in Access, click the Page Numbers button in the Controls group and make selections in the Page Numbers dialogue box. Place your choice in the header or footer and choose an alignment. Once you’ve done that, click the Office button and choose Print, Print Preview and you should see the numbers displayed. By the way, page numbers are not displayed in Form or Layout View – so that’s maybe where you have been going wrong.

Q: I have loads of VHS video tapes that I want to transfer on to DVD. What’s the best way of doing this?

A: For VHS tapes the best way is to buy something like the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD transfer kit for about £40. You will also need a computer and a video player. It is all very self explanatory when you get the piece of kit. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and the other ends go to the video player. You then open up the program and start the player off. Of course, this all has to be done in real time. You could also send them off to a company who will charge about £4-5 an hour plus other bits and pieces.

Q: On an Excel spreadsheet I have a list of places that I have visited in the UK. As a special memento of them I would also like to create a link to an online map or street location of each place.

A: Thanks to Streetmap you can do this little thing. Say you wanted to show the location of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which has a postcode of SW1 7RT, then you would type Victoria and Albert Museum in a cell, right click on that cell and choose Hyperlink. In the address space at the bottom of the dialogue box that has popped up, you type in 'http://streetmap.co.uk/postcode/SW17RT'. Anyone online who clicks on the cell will see an arrow pointing to the vicinity of the museum.

A: Maybe you don't need an indicator to let you know that macro recording is on, or that extended selection is enabled, but it can be awfully handy to see at a glance that Word is tracking changes or that your keystrokes will overtype existing text. The Word Options dialog won't help. You can scan it 'til your eyes cross without finding any settings to bring back those handy indicators. What you need to do is right-click the status bar itself. That brings up a menu of 20 distinct items that can appear on the status bar.

A: Well, I assume you have Word 2003 or later. If not, then why not? So, here’s how you can sort this mess out. Then next time it comes up and says that iPhone is miss-spelt then tell it to Add that to the dictionary. Now, every time it sees iphone or Iphone it will highlight it as an error and when corrected it will make it iPhone. If you accidentally add a word to the dictionary and want to correct it or delete it, then go to TOOLS/Options/Spelling and Grammar/Custom Dictionaries/Modify or in Word 2007 you would go to Word Options/Proofing/Custom Dictionaries/Edit Word List.

Q: I have loads of VHS video tapes that I want to transfer on to DVD. What’s the best way of doing this?

A: For VHS tapes the best way is to buy something like the Roxio Easy VHS to DVD transfer kit for about £40. You will also need a computer and a video player. It is all very self explanatory when you get the piece of kit. It plugs into a USB port on the computer and the other ends go to the video player. You then open up the program and start the player off. Of course, this all has to be done in real time. You could also send them off to a company who will charge about £4-5 an hour plus other bits and pieces.

Q: I have a sister who is older than me and not very good with the computer and she is always phoning me up asking me what has gone wrong or how do I do this or that. I need to be able to see her desktop and maybe go through her settings to solve the problem but it takes forever with someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. Is there some way I can access her computer from mine?

A: Remote Desktop Access or better still – TeamViewer. It’s free and the other person has to give you 2 codes to put in your end in order for it to work so no way can you just connect to them anytime you want. The instructions are sent to your sister via email and let me tell you if my sister can do it – so can yours.

Q: The ‘C’ key has stopped working on my keyboard. The same thing happens when I plug it into another computer. The keyboard hasn’t suffered any damage and has hardly been used. Before I take it to bits – have you got a suggestion?

A: Buy a new keyboard. If there were many keys not working then it may be something to do with the interface or the wiring but since it is an isolated key problem then it looks as if the keyboard has given up the ghost. If it is under warranty then send it back for a replacement, if not, then keyboards range from £8 to £400 – there is even a washable keyboard available now called a Silver Seal and is about £29 and can be washed in the dishwasher!! The average keyboard harbours more germs than a lavatory seat!

Q: I have a Vista question for Alan. I have an annoying problem with my PC running Vista Home Premium. Every time I boot up or restart the machine I get that annoying Narrator talking to me. Is there a way of shutting him up or do I have to resort to a gun?

A: Go to Control Panel, Ease of Access then click on the link for ‘Make the computer easier to see’. At the top of the new window you’ll see that the settings below will automatically start each time you log on. Clear the check boxes next to ‘Turn on Narrator’ and ‘Turn on Audio Description’ Click on the Save button, close the Ease of Access centre and then you can put the gun back in the drawer.

Q: I have lots of music on my computer and I want to put it on to my MP3 player but many of the tracks just state Track1 and nothing else. Is there any way I can get a programme that will fill in the artist and track tile so I can search for them easier?

A: Many programs out there and I have just been through about 10 of them. The best by a long chalk was MP3TagPro. It costs about £25 but believe me it is worth it. It searches the internet and Amazon database for the info before giving up and allowing you to type in the details. It isn’t 100% effective but is about 30% more effective than other programs out there.

Q: I have unfortunately lost my For Follow Up folder in Outlook that resided in my Favorites folder in the pane on the left-hand side. Is there any way to recover this? It would be very difficult to go back through all of my individual subfolders to find where I left my follow-up flags.

A: This is an easy one, as long as you know where to look. The folder in question is a search folder, one of the standard ones. To re-create it choose File | New | Search Folder. You can also open this feature by pressing the unlikely key combination Ctrl+Shift+P. Highlight Mail flagged for follow up and click OK. It's back!

A: For Internet Explorer Favorites, choose File | Import and Export from the menu. IE7 users, if you don’t see a menu, press the F10 key to display it. Click Next, choose Export Favorites, click Next twice, check Export to a File, and select the location and filename for the resulting HTML file. Click Next, then Finish, and you’ll have a nice HTML page containing all your Favorites, organized in a sort of outline form that corresponds to any subfolders within the Favorites collection.
Firefox bookmarks are already stored in HTML form; you just have to find the file. It's located in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\mozilla\firefox\profiles\random\bookmarks.html, where username is your username and random is a random folder name.To get a printout, simply open the HTML file in your browser by launching it and then print it as you would any other Web page. To transfer the selections to another computer, transfer the HTML file using a USB thumb drive, e-mail, or even a floppy disk. Then import it into the other computer's browser

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