Simple solutions to software problems

Lots of things can go wrong with software programs and there's often a simple fix. In this article we’ve collected a few of the most common problems and the ways to fix them – usually in just a minute or two.

Office menus – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q The menus in Office 2003 never look the same – what’s going on?

A Office 2003 only shows the most frequently used menu items but you can change it to show all of them. Click on the Tools menu and then Customize. Click on the Options tab and then in the box labelled ‘Always show full menus’. Click on Close.

Hide the Office Ribbon – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I use a widescreen laptop for my work and find that the Ribbon in Word 2007 takes up to much space. How can I shrink it?

A The Ribbon can be minimised so that only the tab titles show. Double-click on a tab to enable this view, then click a tab to see the relevant icons.

No online videos – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I can’t play any videos on Youtube or the Computeractive website. I have broadband, so what’s going wrong?

A The software needed to play these videos does not come with Windows. You'll need to install the Adobe Flash Player.

Add it up – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I need to check the totals in some Excel columns. Is there a method quicker than creating a formula?

A Click and drag to select the cells. Some text will appear at the bottom of the window in the Status bar. Right-click on this text and select Sum. The total of the cells will now be displayed.

Fit to page – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I’ve been asked to fit an Excel 2003 spreadsheet to one page but it keeps spilling over. How can I force it to stay on one page?

A Click on the File menu and then Page Setup. Look for the scaling option in the middle of the window. Click in the circle labelled ‘Fit to’ and select the correct number of pages wide and tall.

Keep my websites – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I have lots of tabs open in Firefox and would like them to re-open when I restart the browser. Can this be done?

A Click on the Tools menu and then on Options. Click on the Main tab and select ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’ in the When Firefox Starts menu.

Save as Word – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I use Open Office and I like to save documents in Word format for sharing. Is this possible?

A It can. Click on the Tools menu and then Options. Click on the small plus sign next to Load/Save and then on General. Select Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP and click on OK.

Sharing holidays – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I have a list of events as a file ending in .hol. I can’t import this into Outlook. What do I need to open it?

A Double-click on the file and a window will appear asking which holidays to import. Select what you want and click OK. They will be imported to your calendar.

Fit to page – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I am trying to print some PDF documents that have US letter-sized pages. I use A4 paper, so how can I make sure the whole document is printed?

A Click on the File menu and then on Print. Click on the dropdown menu in the Page Handling and select ‘Shrink to Printable Area’. Click on OK.

Missing images – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q When I open my emails in Thunderbird most of the images are missing. Why is this?

A Thunderbird (and several other email programs) hides images because they can be used by spammers to see if your email address is valid. To see the images, click on the Show Remote Content link to view the images in that email or click on the ‘Always load remote content’ link to see the images in all messages from that sender.

Old Java updates – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q Browsing through the list of programs that are installed on my computer I’ve found lots of entries starting with Java (TM) Update, ending with numbers up to 18. Can I remove the older ones?

A Yes. Until recently Java updates didn’t remove the old versions. Make sure that you leave the most recent version on your computer, though. Java is a programming language.

Run it quickly – Windows 7, XP, Vista
Q I created an ordinary user account on my computer for everyday use but sometimes software tells me that it requires an administrator, so I have to log out of my computer each time. Is there a way around this?

A Right-click on the program in question and then in Windows XP click on ‘Run as…’ before choosing your Administrator account. In Windows Vista or 7 right-click and choose ‘Run as administrator’.

Make Google Mail Easier
Q I have a Google Mail email account – but can I compose emails without using a web browser?

A You can do this using the free Thunderbird email program. First enable Imap on your Gmail account. Log in and click on the Settings link and then Forwarding and Pop/Imap. Click on the option Enable Imap and then Save Changes.

Next install Thunderbird and run it. Click the Tools menu then Account Settings. Click Account Actions then Add Mail Account. Enter your name as you want it to appear on emails in the top box, your email address in the middle and the password at the bottom. Click Continue.

Green dots by the incoming and outgoing servers will show that the settings are correct so click on the Create Account button. Click on the Start over link if you made a mistake. The Account settings will reappear. You can now use Thunderbird to compose or read emails.

Clean Taskbar Clutter
Q The Notification Area to the right of my Windows Taskbar is full of icons – how can I clean it up?

A In Windows 7 or XP, Right-click on the Taskbar and then left-click on Properties to display the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Window. Click on the Customize button in the Notification Area section.

A window will appear with a list of all the icons that appear in the Notification Area. Click on the dropdown menu to select whether to have the icon on display all the time, only appear when it has something to say, or never appear.

In Windows Vista, right-click the Taskbar and choose Properties, then click on the Notification Area tab. Select Hide Inactive Icons, and select or deselect icons from the list below. Click the Customise button to see all other icons and choose whether they should be shown.

If you have problems with networks, security, hardware or Windows, have a look at these articles, where you may find a solution:

Solve Windows problems
Solve network problems
Solve security problems
Solve hardware problems

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