Q: Is there any way to keep
small sections of text available quickly, rather than having to keep opening up long
documents to refer to them?
A: I
can think of two, quite different methods, depending on the software you have on your
machine. Both items can be deleted when you
have finished with them by selecting and pressing your Delete key.
a. If you open a word processed
document but keep the window “restored” so that you can see part of the desktop
behind, you can select a chunk of text with the mouse and then drag it onto the desktop. This is known as a “scrap” and can be
double-clicked to open into its own window for reference or to copy.
b. For anyone using Microsoft
Outlook, there is a Notes feature. These are
like post-its. Open a new note, write in your
block of text (or paste it from a long document) and then, with the window restored, drag
the note onto the desktop. As with scraps,
double click to read the entry.
Q: I now have a brand new
scanner and can scan in pictures, but don’t know how to get them into a publication
or send them via e-mail. Can you advise?
A: For
copying into Publisher or another DTP application, select the open picture in the scanner
window on screen - there may be a menu option or use a selecting objects arrow pointer -
and then click Copy (or go to Edit - Copy). Many image editors will have different selection
tools available from a toolbar or Tools menu, so you can draw round particular parts of
the picture and only copy those across.
Open your publication, click Paste and then treat the
picture that appears like any other object e.g. resize or move it around the page.
Scanners often create images as TIFF files, but you can
save them in any form. I would suggest for emailing,
it is best to save them as JPEG files, so simply use the File - Save As menu option to save your picture in this form. To email, locate
the saved picture using Explorer or from the desktop by opening e.g. My Documents, and
right-click. One option is usually Send To.. and you need to pick Mail Recipient.
Wait a couple of seconds and you should see an open New Message window with your
picture file already attached. Complete the message
and send it as normal.
Q: I am thinking of buying
a new computer which will have Windows XP installed and will be buying Office XP software. How different are these from earlier versions?
A: Having
just bought an XP machine, I am delighted to say that very little has changed. You will find that playing music and DVDs etc is
made much easier and pleasanter, and the Start menu works very slightly differently as you
can “pin” useful programs onto it, but in the main it is only superficial
differences. One thing I have liked about the
software is a new “Task Pane” that pops up alongside the main window, offering
shortcuts and previews of various features such as font styles, publication layouts, items
copied into the Clipboard and slide designs in PowerPoint. You
can close this at any time with the usual X close button, but it often reappears when you
start a new activity.
For anyone moving from Windows 98 (but available in
Windows 2000), you also have an easier way to manage files as you can go between My
Document filing to the Explorer 2-pane layout simply by clicking a toolbar button labelled
Folders, and the Start - Search facility seems
more user-friendly.
A note to readers - do send your XP questions, so the column can
give you up-to-date help and advice as well as meet the needs of readers with older
systems.
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