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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 2008
Adding toolbars
Q: How can I add a toolbar or
individual button that I want to use to my screen so that it is
always available?
A:
1. To add a new
toolbar, right click on any toolbar (but not on an actual
button)! The list of toolbars will appear. Click the name of any
toolbar you want to use and it will be added to your screen. All
toolbars that are on the screen will have a tick next to their
name in the list. (Click a name to take off the tick if you want
to remove the toolbar.)
2. If a new toolbar arrives and is floating on top of the
screen, click in the grey bar across the top and hold down the
mouse button. Now drag the bar gently up towards the ruler. When
it reaches the ruler, it will suddenly "jump" and park itself
underneath the toolbars already present.
3. If you cannot
find the new toolbar, but its name has a tick next to it on the
toolbar list, it is probably hidden between other toolbars. Look
for the buttons you can recognise. Now move your mouse over the
vertical dotted line on the left-hand edge and the pointer
should show 4 arrows. This is the 'move' arrow. If you want to,
you can now drag the toolbar to a different position.
4. To add
individual buttons, you can either find extra ones normally
associated with the toolbars already displayed, or add unusual
ones that may be on any toolbar.
a. To add extra buttons associated with the toolbar,
click the down-facing arrow on the right-hand edge of any
toolbar and rest the mouse on Add or Remove Buttons. Now rest
your mouse on the toolbar name that will appear and extra
buttons will be visible. Click any button without a tick to add
it to the display.
b. For extra
buttons, click the Customize option. When the window opens,
click Commands and you can scroll through the categories until
you find the relevant toolbar. All the buttons offered in this
category will be displayed in the right-hand pane. Click any
button you want and drag it up to a current toolbar. The mouse
will display a white arrow with a + sign, and the position for
the button will show as a black, vertical bar. When it is in the
place you want the button, let go the mouse and it will drop
into position.
c. To remove an unwanted toolbar button, click Customize
and then drag the button off the toolbar.
Q: How can I track down a web
page I visited a few days ago? I cannot remember its name.
A: If you use Internet Explorer, there is a button
displaying a green arrow labelled History – find this option
under Go in Netscape and check its location if you use a
different browser. Clicking this link will open a side bar
displaying the days of the week and, under each one, will be a
list of folders containing web pages you have visited.
Trace back through these pages and you might be able to find the
actual page you are looking for.
You can also click Search and type in part of the name in a
Search box to look through your history pages.
Q: How do I know that
a page asking for credit card details is
genuine and safe?
A: If you shop or
bank with a reputable company and you open their page directly
from your browser, you should be OK to add your details. There
will be two clear signs that the site is safe and your details
are therefore being encrypted (scrambled). These are https:// in
the Address box (rather than http://) and a padlock at the
bottom of the screen.
If you double click the padlock, it will open a window detailing
the digital certificate that has been provided to authenticate
the site (although what this will mean to the average surfer I
really can't say!!).
If you receive an email that offers a link in the body of the
message to a website (such as your bank's) and then directs you
to put in personal details – DON'T. Take your own route to the
website and check out your account yourself. This may well have
been a fishing (phishing) expedition where you are taken to a
fake website.
(Both Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 browsers have phishing-detecting
filters, but never rely on these alone.)
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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