Issue 4

Topics In the past, the field of computing was restricted to only those who had access to them. Today, with the expansion of technology, a large portion of the population now has a personal computer. These new computers are easy to use, and are nothing like the old processors which required many years of study to operate. However, today's computers are still not perfect. There are times that we have problems with them that we can not solve alone. Here we will try to highlight some of the most common problems and the solutions. This section is divided into three areas. The first is about a specific problem, and/or information about operating systems, browsers, and programs in general. The second has useful advice, tips and tricks. The third section gives indispensible links, which are interesting for both the newbie and the seasoned techie. In the future, we would like to group these problems in terms of the distinct application or system. As well, the tips we give on the user of Office (Word-Excel-Access-Power Point), operating systems (Windows 98-ME-2000-XP), browsers (Internet Explorer-Netscape Navigator-Opera-etc), security (antivirus-firewall) and other applications, will be distributed according to the category. This will come with time, and in the meantime we will continue to provide smaller but useful pieces of information.

Problems Q: I have a problem. When I turned on my computer this morning, all the icons on my Desktop were gone! I like having the icons there because it is very fast to open my favourite programs. How can I put the icons back onto my Desktop? I have Windows XP on my computer. A: The most likely cause for the missing icons is that they were accidentally hidden. Try the following steps to make the missing icons reappear. Remember that this solution is only for Windows XP. Right click on an open space on your Desktop. A popup menu will appear (see Figure 1). Figure 1 From the popup menu, select the option Arrange Icons By. A secondary popup menu will appear (see Figure 2). Figure 2 The option Show Desktop Icons should have a checkmark beside it. If your popup menu looks like Figure 2 and does not have a checkmark, then click on that option. It may take a moment or two, but your desktop icons should appear.

Tips n' Tricks It doesn't matter for how much time you have been using Microsoft Word, always there are new things to learn about it that increase the speed and efficiency of your work. Here we have some favourite tips and shortcuts for Word. Basic Tips for Word Keyboard Tricks Here are some keyboard shortcuts to quickly adjust the line spacing of a document. Simply select the text you wish to adjust, and use one of the following: Ctrl-1 for single-spacing Ctrl-2 for double-spacing Ctrl-5 for line-and-a-half spacing Do you want to see how your document will look when printed? Press Ctrl-F2 for a shortcut to the Print Preview screen. Pressing Ctrl-F2 again will close the Print Preview view. More tips : Autotext Don't let Autotext be a mystery to you. Autotext allows you to insert text and other items quickly. When you start to type a phrase and Word recognizes it, a small yellow popup will appear with the full text (see Figure 3 below). Figure 3 If you wish to quickly complete the phrase, simply press <Enter> and the phrase will automatically be completed for you. Word already has many phrases built in. To see and edit these phrases, go to the menu and select Insert | Autotext. From the submenu, select Autotext. A dialog will appear (see Figure 4) where you may add, edit and delete Autotext entries. To add a new entry, type the word or phrase in the box under the label "Enter AutoText entries here" (indicated by the green arrow) and then click Add. To delete an existing entry, scroll through the list to find the entry. Click on the entry and then click the Delete button. Be cautious when deleting as Word does not ask for confirmation. In order to change an entry, you must delete it and then add a new one. Figure 4

Technology Links www.desarrolloweb.com In Spanish. For all who like development, programming and databases. www.servicioalpc.com/utiles/servicioalpc2.pdf In Spanish. A manual written that explains the basic principals of how Personal Computers (PCs) work. It explains what a computer is, how it functions, and describes the basic components. An excellent resource for all. It is in PDF. In order to read the document, you must have Acrobat Reader installed on your system, which you can download for free here. www.belarc.com In English. The Belarc Advisor a tool that we at Western IT Solutions always recommend. It builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server. We highly recommend that you download and install this tool and run it. Print the results and keep them as it will assist you or your technician in any future repairs. It will provide details such as the type and amount of memory your computer has, the operating system, the hard drive and its capacity, the type of motherboard, the type of BIOS, etc.