Ask the Fleet
Have your own question for the Fleet?  Click here to ask it.

Question submitted by Judith in Olympia, WA:

I designed a watermark for use in a document header in Word 98. I upgraded to Word 2000 and the watermark works fine.  The watermark is composed of 3 text boxes. One is 36pt Rage Italic, one is 12 pt Arial Black, bold, and the third is 36 pt Arial Black, bold. All three are rotated 270 degrees and positioned to fit between the holes in 3-hole punch. I create them in WordArt, copy to PowerPoint where I position and group them into a single graphic, and copy back to Word so when I reposition I'm not dealing with 3 elements, just one.  In formatting a training manual with this header watermark, all was fine on my PC and the PC of the writer as long as she had all the necessary TrueType font files.  But on the PC of the person who hired us to write and on the PC at Kinko's when we went to have the color print done, the Arial Black, bold 12 pt text box flipped to 90 degrees.  After some questioning, it seems that Word XP is the ingredient doing the flipping. The Kinko guys took my files to a PC with Word 2000 loaded and were able to finish the print job without the text flip.  Since I don't have Word XP, I can't do any redesign work. Has anyone else run into this problem? Any fix suggestions for me for collaborating with Word XP users?

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Hi Judith...this is a known bug in Office XP, with files that were flipped in earlier versions of PowerPoint and so far Microsoft has not come up with a fix....their answer is to open the file in XP, flip the images so they are correct, then save the file again in XP ... this *should* fix this in all versions, but it has to be done in PowerPoint 2002 (XP) for it to work.  Is it possible for you to take the file back to Kinkos or any other place that has Office XP and correct the images there? Cuz, unfortunately, at this point, that's the only workaround Microsoft is offering.

For more info on this, read this thread in the Microsoft Newsgroups:
http://snurl.com/20ep

And here's Microsoft's article about the flipped images in PowerPoint:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;278550

I am using HP PII, 350 mhz, Win98SE.  I am going to purchase a new computer, with WinXP. I would like the new computer to also have a copy of my Win98SE (I have the legal CD). Is it possible to have 98 installed in a partition of my 80gig hard drive? And can I use either XP or 98 to boot up? Will this cause any problems with the machine? Will all, or most of the s/w on old machine be able to be "copied" to new machine and will XP be able to access and use the s/w?  What would U recommend? 

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Sure. You can do this and Hal Cardona wrote an article on how it's done for ABC...you should search the archives before you ask ;-)

Here's Hal's article .. and good luck:
http://personal-computer-tutor.com/abc1/v4/hal4.htm

If, after you read this, you have any SPECIFIC questions, send them to me, with this full email intact and I will forward them onto the Fleet, including Hal.

I suddenly had an error message yesterday when I tried to open ms word. It was a window informing me that ms word would have to close, and would i like to send microsoft a message (boy, would I). I removed ms office from my machine using add/remove, and reloaded. I get the same error message. I went to tucows, etc., and scanned for viruses, removed, reloaded, with same result. Please help

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Hi Mike.  That's something I cover in my Word Troubleshooting page.  Read this and you should be able to fix this problem quickly:

http://personal-computer-tutor.com/NNTWord.htm

Question submitted by judinan:

What a wonderful site. I happened upon it when I went to askjeeves.com to find out about deleting files from my  computer that I don't need.  I followed your directions for deleting temp files, but I'm curious to find out how to delete all the temporary internet files that are clogging our system. Other than these two places to delete junk, are there other files I can safely delete? Cache and Cookie files? (I'm really just a beginner and am always worried about deleting the wrong things!)  Thanks again for all your help.

Answer from Vic Ferri:

Hi Judinan,  The easiest way to delete your Temporary Internet Files is by opening Internet Explorer, then clicking > Tools>Internet Options and under the General tab click Delete Files in the section entitled Temporary Internet Files.  If you are using Internet Explorer 6, you will also see the option to delete your Cookies there. If you do not see the option to delete Cookies, then just click your Start button, then click Run and type in COOKIES.  This will open up your Cookies folder where you can delete the cookies you don't want. Be aware that by deleting your cookies and/or your Temporary Internet Files, you may have to re-enter your login information at some sites.

Reply from judinan:

 Hi Vic,  Thanks for the information, I appreciate it. I'm about to 'clean up' the computer while my son is out!  I know it will run much better when I'm done. If we have to re-enter information, that will be fine. Most likely, some of these files are sooooooooooooo old, anyway!  Again, thanks for your quick response.

Question submitted by Janine at BPI:

I am trying to create a locked form with hyperlinks to areas within the same word document - NOT to a web site.  I have already used your ref "Adding Hyperlinks to Locked Form in MS Word" and that is very helpful but it only shows how to hyperlink to URL addresses. I only need to move around with the same word document.  Is this possible, how?

Answer from Dian Chapman:

To be honest with you...I don't know. I mean...I know what has to be done, but I've never taken the time to work out the code. It's not as easy as just saying...okay this goes to a hyperlink and this goes to something else.  Because you program to OBJECTS, you'd need to work out a routine with the GOTO button, I believe. I don't know if it would/wouldn't need an unprotect toggle or not. I've had this question before and it's "one of those things" on my ToDo list...to work out when I have time.  At this point, I don't have the time. So I can only suggest that you check out the Microsoft Newsgroups. However, I will try to figure this one out and write up an article in the future with details and code.

Question submitted by Christina London UK:

I have created a template for a letter in Word 2000 and other users on Word 98 and Word 2000 have a problem with text changing font unexpectedly from Arial 10pt (which is the default for all our documents including Normal.dot) to Times New Roman 12pt!  This appears to happen most often when using autotext / autocorrect and macro buttons to insert names and addresses and frequently used text. I have re-created the template in case it was corrupted and I have checked the default settings on all users machines and cannot find the answer. Have you experienced this problem and does anyone know how to overcome it?

Answer from Dian Chapman:

AutoText is based on the style that was applied when the AutoText was saved!  If that was NORMAL, then it'll be saved in normal. However, if some other style was applied at the time...then it's that format/style.  So if they created some text in myStyle, which was say, Arial 12pt and some info as their new AutoText item...then when they paste that back into a document, the same style that was applied then, will be returned to the new doc. Even if that style no longer exists...AutoText retains the VIRTUAL style name and it'll now be added. So they need to check their AutoText entries to verify...and possibly reformat...their AutoText entries.

Reply from Christina London UK:

Thank you for your reply.  It makes sense as the problem only occurred after the inhouse style changed from Times New Roman 12pt to Arial 10pt. Is there a quick way of reformatting all old autotext entries as each pc user has their own extensive list of autotext entries.

Answer from Dian Chapman:

Sorry, but I'm not aware of any "quick" way to reset a style. You can print out a list of AutoText to see what you have and the names. Then it would be a matter of retrieving each item, applying Normal or some other generic style, selecting and resaving back to AutoText...by hitting Alt/F3 and reentering the same name.  Of course, I would write a VBA routine to do this for me. ;-)

Question submitted by MichaelAtAOL:

Can i install Office XP on my win ME system ??? Can i select components of Office XP to install/not install individually ???

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Sure Michael. You can install Office XP on Windows ME with no problems. And, yes, if you don't want to install it all, you can pick and choose the parts you want. When you insert the CD, you will see a few choices, if you choose the option to Add/Remove Features, you then will see a list of all that is on the CD, beside each part, you will see a drive icon, just click on that and you will see choices, choose "Run from My Computer" and that part will be installed. Only the parts you choose will be installed, however, you can always go back to the CD later and check or uncheck "Run from my computer" on different parts to add them or remove them.

Reply from MichaelAtAOL:

Thanks Linda. I know you are very busy and get lots of mails, but it is always nice to receive a compliment, and know that your efforts are much appreciated. I did install Word & Excel from office XP to my WIN ME system. They both work fine and i really appreciate knowing i could do that. Once again, thanks bunches

Question submitted by Henry:

Does anyone know about these files and if they are dangerous to run. It sounds like they are designed to speed things up. The following is from the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 191655  "Winalign.exe and Walign.exe optimize programs by rewriting a program's file headers, creating a new section table, and then writing file sections, each of which starts on a 4-kilobyte (KB) boundary...."

Answer from Hal Cardona:

They are used by Windows to allow defrag to place certain files in an optimum position for Windows and program start-up.

Question submitted by T.Rivers:

In the same Microsoft Excel Workbook I want to enter information into a cell in work sheet#1 And then automatically have that information entered into a cell in worksheet # 2 and work sheet #3 Example Worksheet # 1 is the candy orders that I take from each family Worksheet # 2 is the actual order form that I will use I am trying to cut down on the typing Thank you

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Hi T.Rivers. Let's see if I can explain this in the easiest way possible.  The easiest way to do this is this:

Click in the cell on sheet 2 where you want the information to be copied from sheet 1 and type an equal sign (=) Then click on the sheet tab for sheet one and click in the cell where you will be typing the info and then hit the enter key...now the cell on sheet 2 will have a formula in it that says =sheetname!cellname

For example, lets say sheet one is named "CandyOrders" and sheet two is named "OrderForm"....you will be entering a number in cell B5 on CandyOrders and want that number to appear in cell F10 of OrderForm.  You can click on cell F10 on the OrderForm sheet and type an equal sign...then move to the CandyOrders sheet and click on cell B5 and hit Enter. Now, look in cell F10 of the OrderForm sheet and you will see this:
=CandyOrders!B5

Which you could type in directly, but doing it the way I suggest assures that you won't accidentally misspell the sheet name or something (in which case the formula would not work)...but if you choose to type it in manually, don't forget the exclamation point at the end of the sheet name or it won't work (the exclamation point is how Excel knows it's a sheet name.)

Now type a number in cell B5 on the CandyOrders sheet and you will see that number is automatically added to cell F10 of the OrderForm sheet and every time you change the value in B5 of CandyOrders, F10 in OrderForm will change too.

And, since you said you have three sheets and want this info to appear on sheet three also, you can just do the same thing there.  Hope this is clear enough for you.

Question submitted by Walt:

Every time I start or close Excel, I get the following message: Compile error in hidden module:AutoExec. I found your information about the same problem with Word and fixed that one, but, I didn't find anything about Excel.

Answer from Linda Johnson:

Hi Walt. It sounds like you have a macro running at startup in Excel (possibly something like Adobe Acrobat, since you said you had the same problem with Word?)....you need to search your hard drive for a folder called XLStart and see if there's anything in there (by default, this folder would be in C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE<version number 9, 10, 11, etc.)\XLSTART unless you have Office installed differently...just search your hard drive for xlstart.  If there's anything in that folder, move EVERYTHING to another location and then see if Excel will start...if it does, you can try moving stuff back to that folder one at a time to see which thing it is that causes the error, then maybe reinstall whatever it was that you installed that added that addin in the first place.  Good luck

Thanks to all who submitted questions this month.  If you submitted a question and did not get an answer, and the problem still persists, try going here and submitting it again.  Just remember that we cannot guarantee that we will answer every question, though I think the Fleet did a bang-up job this month!  Thanks to all of the Fleet for your expert advice and your valuable time :-)