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 You can do IT is a regular feature
of laterlife.com aimed at trying to help
laterlife visitors make the most of Information
Technology on or off the web.
Jackie Sherman who runs the
You can do IT Question & Answer
section is an IT trainer and author. Jackie has spent
her career in education and specialises in teaching
IT to adults. Her courses for adults include such
topics as MS Office, the Internet, e-mail and basic
web page authoring.
  Jackie
has also written the four books shown
here - you can find more details about these by
clicking on the cover images above. Jackie has
also been running a course specifically for over
50s.
 Via laterlife.com Jackie aims to
particularly help those new to IT and the web to build
up knowledge and confidence, so no question is too
basic. At the same time she will cover Q&As for the
more experienced user.
So if you would like to ask a question
of Jackie, why not email her jackie@laterlife.com
or if you have discovered something
which may be of interest to others in making the most
of the web, then she would love to hear about that too
jackie@laterlife.com
January
2007
Now
is the time for New Year resolutions, so here are four things
you should plan to do regularly this year.
System Restore
If you are running a Windows computer that has an operating
system such as XP on it, Microsoft offers a really useful
utility – system restore. This is a point you can set to which
your system will be restored if something goes wrong later. This
can easily happen if you install new software or pick up a virus
that causes damage and prevents your machine from working
properly.
To set this restore point, go to the Start menu, click Help and
Support and select "undo changes with System Restore." You can
also find it from Start - All Programs – Accessories - System
Tools. You will now be able to click the option to set a restore
point. The current date and time will be set automatically when
you create it, or you can give it a name.
If the worst happens, start your computer in safe mode and go to
the System Restore menu. You will now be able to restore your
machine back to the point when it was functioning normally.
Cleanup and Defragmenter
We all install software we don't use any more, or uninstall
programs and move files around on the hard disk that leave gaps.
So it is a good idea to clean up the disk on a regular basis.
Open My Computer on the desktop, right click the C: drive and
select Properties. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup
button. Temporary files you do not need will be removed, and you
can also clean up other parts of the system if you click the
More Options tab.
To sort out gaps on the hard disk, go to Start - All Programs -
Accessories, select System Tools and then click Disk
Defragmenter. This will analyse the disk and then carry out a
clean-up.
Anti-virus Software/Ads/Spyware
Sadly, the facts of life on the Internet are such that you
simply cannot ignore harmful programs. The only way to be safe
on the Net is to install, run and regularly update software that
checks for viruses or spyware.
One way to make sure you have safe programs it to install them
from the ComputerActive website at
www.computeractive.co.uk/downloads .
Search for security software, download it and make sure you set
it to update regularly.
Some of the programs are time-limited demos so you will have to
keep re-installing them. You might prefer to use a mixture of
free software such as AVG Anti-Virus, Spybot, Ad-Aware or
Microsoft Windows Defender.
Email Management
Today is the day to start organising your messages properly.
There are three golden rules:
1. Delete unwanted messages. If they have attachments or
information in them that you want to keep, store this sensibly
so that you can remove the message itself. For information – set
up a Word document, spreadsheet or other storage system or add
contact details to your email Address Book. Attachments should
be saved into suitable folders – open the message's File
menu
and select Save Attachments. Locate a suitable target folder and
your attachments will be saved without you needing to open them.
2. Set up Inbox and Sent folders and subfolders. For messages on
the same topic, I tend to name the incoming mail subfolder
normally and add the word "out" to the Sent subfolder. To make a
folder, click the Inbox or Sent folder in the Folders List,
right click or open the File menu and select New Folder. Once
you have given the folder a name, you can drag appropriate
messages out of the main folders into these subfolders.
3. Set up a Rule to move new messages into subfolders
automatically. You will know when new messages arrive as a (1)
will appear next to the name of the subfolder. To set up a rule:
go to Tools – Message Rules – Mail. Click New and follow these
steps:
a. Box 1: click the From, Subject or To option.
b. Box 2 – click the Move option. You could also use a rule to
delete unwanted messages.
c. Box 3 – click the underlined link and specify the wording to
be checked when the message arrives (e.g. From "Woolworths") and
the folder to move the message to (e.g. Woolworths shopping).
d. Box 4 – give the message a name.
4. The rule will now be applied whenever you receive messages.
5. If you change your mind, open the Message Rules dialogue box
and delete or edit the named rule.
View previous editions of YoucandoIT
for more useful Questions and Answers
For a wealth of books on the web and IT generally,
visit Amazon
and under the books section select Computers and
Internet.
Don't forget to visit the general
laterlife features section called laterlife
interest
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