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Question submitted by Jim C:
Spam Inspector, Ver 4.0 operates quite differently than Ver 3., and not
as well. It does not clean the Incoming mail very well. Frequently I
get a PROGRAM ERROR siSpamFilterEng.exe has generated errors and will be
closed by Windows. You will need to restart. An error log is being
created. Have others reported this kind of problem? How do I
find and view the error log?
Answer from
Spam Inspector Support representative, Andrew:
Hi Jim. Thank you Linda for putting Jim in touch with support so we
can resolve this issue he is experiencing. Jim, I apologize for any
issues you are experiencing with this version. Can you please send us the
following items so we can investigate these issues you are having? 1)
Your error log file. You can find this in the Spam Inspector installation
path, the file name is errors.log. (C:\Program Files\GIANT Company
Software\Spam Inspector\) 2) Your diagnostics. To get the diagnostics
go to About Spam Inspector. In the about window, select the Diagnostics
button. A window will open. Copy the contents of this window into a reply to
this email so we can analyze them. Also, if you have any further
details on the issues you are experiencing, that would be very helpful as
well. I look forward to receiving these items so that we can get
resolve your issue as soon as possible. I do apologize for the issues you
are experiencing. Once again, thank you for your help and we will work
through these reported issues immediately. If you have any questions,
comments or requests at all, please feel free to contact us at anytime.
NOTE FROM LINDA: This is just
one reason why I recommend Spam Inspector so highly. This immediate
and helpful tech support is rare in the software game these days. And,
I must add that I am running Spam Inspector 4.0 and don't agree with Jim
that it doesn't work as well as 3.0. My experience has been just the
opposite. I absolutely love 4.0.
Question submitted by Dennis at starband.net:
In using the Label Function under tools, Word 2000 defaults to the
Business Address when selecting a name from the Address Book. How do I
set the default to be the Home address?
The addresses in the address book come from Outlook and what Word uses
when you choose the address book in Word email labels is the FIRST address
in the address book, which, in your case, is the business address. If you
want Word to use the the Home address as the default instead of the business
address, you have to set the Home address up as the first one when you enter
addresses in your Outlook Contacts. When you enter new contacts, notice that
the business address is a dropdown and you can choose Home address instead
as the first one. However, there is no easy way to reverse these fields if
you are trying to change ones that already exist. The only way I know to do
this would be to export your Outlook contacts to an Excel file, then put the
columns in the order you want, then delete the contacts currently in Outlook
and import the new ones. Good luck.
Question submitted by Rosemary Schmid:
Hi Linda, First, Merry Christmas. Thanks for the holiday
touches in the latest newsletter, especially the red and green
scroll bar. Made me smile at the detail. You're doing a great job
with things. Labor of love! and it shows. I know you're busy,
but I've an important question. I've been searching online for
specific information that I haven't been able to find. My question
is: With the dangers of flu and colds, is there an easy, VERY
convenient, and frequent-without-damage method for disinfecting the
keyboard? I'm thinking that isopropyl alcohol on a cloth or wipe,
swished across the keys might be OK. (Spraying directly on the keys
doesn't seem like a good idea, right? I've also wondered about some
of the spray surface disinfectants, like Lysol, or the professional
stuff they use at hospitals. ) All I can find are more detailed,
once-a-week or after-a-disaster kinds of things, and I want
something to do that will work for me every day at home, and that I
can suggest to our tech people at the university to use in the
computer commons. They've already gotten signs from the health
center about handwashing and not touching eyes, nose, and mouth, and
some of that hand cleaner stuff, but I'd like to have something I
can do besides that. (I'm not usually so paranoid about "a little
dirt", but my husband has an auto-immune disorder and I sure don't
want him to get the flu or a cold from me!) Do you or any of your team have any idea what to do?
Hi Rosemary....thanks for the compliments about my holiday decorations
on ABC...yes, it is indeed a labor of love. I'm glad to see it's
appreciated :-) At the college where I teach, the flu thing is an
issue also, and I can tell you we DO use Lysol. We don't spray it
directly on the keyboards tho...instead we either spray it on a cloth
and wipe the keyboard down or, better yet, put it in a bowl and dip
q-tips into it and use the q-tips to clean the keyboard. I'm not a
clean freak either, but I agree the keyboard is DEFINITELY a source of
spreading the flu...and Lysol will not hurt it as long as you don't
saturate it and let too much liquid run down under the keys...too much
fluid can short out a keyboard, so do it carefully. I've found
that if I spray a cloth with Lysol, then let it air dry until it's just
damp and not dripping, I can quickly wipe it over a keyboard before I
use it. Knock on wood...but so far this year, I've avoided the
flu...and many others at the college where I work have not, so maybe I
am doing something right. Hang in there...and have a wonderful
holiday.
Question submitted by "confused but happy":
Hi ABC. Just a quick compliment and question please. First, I truly
enjoy your site and have a great deal of trust in it. At least a quarter of
my software is downloaded because of the recommendations of your site. Since
I am recently retired I have been learning all this new comp. stuff. My wife
gave me as a gift Photoshop 7 to play with. However I think I am way over my
head with this. Even after I purchased 4 books (PS 7 for dummies to Teach
yourself PS 7 in 24 hours) I still get that glazed look after trying to
figure this out. BUT!!!!! on your site I found an article from Mr. Vic Ferri
on
how to make pictures look like a coloring book. It was clear,
concise and a heck of a lot of fun! Thanks to you and Mr. Ferri.
Now for the Question part. Where do I find more articles just like this.
Articles like this are the meat and potatoes of learning PS 7.Getting down
and dirty, not having to figure out a hundred small things just to do
something simple.( I made 10 different pictures for my 6 & 8 year olds and
they loved it! I proudly exhibit their finished works on my wall.)
Again , cheers to you and yours on this holiday season and thank you in
advance for any leads you can give.
The best suggestion I can give you for good free step-by-step tutorials
is this yahoo group called Inside Graphics. If you join (it's free), the
owner of the group sends you one Photoshop lesson a week. So, that's all the
mail it generates .. it's not high impact at all. Also, if you join,
you can go to the "messages" section and see an archive of all of the other
lessons he has sent out. They really are pretty good and I think they will
give you just what you want. And, thanks for the nice words about
Vic's article ... I forwarded it on to him. Here's the Inside Graphics
sign up page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InsideGraphics
Question submitted by Karen:
I've used a short .avi file of a US flag fluttering in the wind for
school news shows. I never had a problem with this file in the Office 2000
version of PowerPoint, but when I try to place this file into PP XP, I get a
message saying it's not the right kind of file. It's not a corrupted file;
I've tested it and it still works in other programs. The best I can do to
use
this file in PP XP is place it as an object/windows media and "hope" it will
play automatically. I've uninstalled and reinstalled PP but that didn't
help. Any ideas as to why this won't work. I've followed the instructions to
the letter (I think) and have done this seemingly simple thing many times
before. Before Office XP, that is.
My guess is that the needed codec is not on your system. Two things to
check: First, read the Myers Multimedia FAQ. It is available on the
PPT FAQ or Sonia Coleman's site:
http://www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/multimedia.htm
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00099.htm
As a part of that, you will want to check that the avi plays in the MCI
player. To do that, do a "Run" command from your Start menu and type in
mplay32.exe - Use that player to attempt to play your avi. Does it work? If
it does, it is likely that your movie extensions have been hijacked. The FAQ
will help you with that. Next, check the pathname for your avi. It
needs to be less than 128 characters (some will say 120 characters).
Third, check which version of Direct X you have installed. Should be the
most recent. If it isn't, get the most recent one and see if that helps.
Question submitted by Dotty:
Can text be "wrapped" around graphics in PowerPoint as it is in Word?
Simple answer: No, it can't. However, you can do what you need to do in
Word (remembering to set the font, etc. the way you will want it in
PowerPoint), select the graphic and the text, copy it, and paste it as a
picture or metafile on your slide.
Reply from Dotty:
Thanks, worked like a charm.
Question submitted by Jim:
http://www.dot.state.il.us/blr/lrbull.pdf When I try to load this
page, I keep getting "Microsoft Internet Explorer" Error "This page provides
potentially unsafe information to an ActiveX control. Your current security
settings prohibit running controls in this manner. As a result, this page
may not display correctly." This is despite every setting on security
being set low. Do you know how I can correct this problem so that I
can load this page??
It's opening fine here. It's a pdf file, which is an Adobe Acrobat file.
Do you have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed? You need that to view pdf
files. And, are you SURE you've changed all of the ActiveX settings in
Internet Explorer's Tools>Internet Options>Security to "enable"? (There are
a lot of them in there so make sure you get them all...look for the ones
that say ActiveX, since that's what the error message is telling you that
you have set too high). If none of that fixes it, then I would suspect
it could be a firewall, popup blocker, or your AntiVirus program blocking it
.. so check all of those, if you are running them. Good luck.
Question submitted by louellen_c_2000:
I want to know how to upgrade Explorer to version 5.1! I was trying
to download screen saver and get message that I need explorer 5.1 or higher!
How do I find out what version I am running and how do I upgrade?
Open Internet Explorer and go to the Help menu and click on "About
Internet Explorer"...in there, you will see which version you have. If you
want version 5.01, you can get it here, along with the later versions (5.5
and 6.0):
http://cws.internet.com/ie.html But, be careful with that screen
saver...screensavers that require a later version of Internet Explorer,
usually want to use "Active Desktop" and using that will hog up a lot of
your system resources. If you have an older version of Internet Explorer,
I'm assuming you are running an older machine, with an older version of
Windows .... so ask yourself this ... Is running a cute screensaver really
that important? Is it worth slowing down my computer and possibly causing
other video problems? If I were you, I'd pass on the screensaver.
Question submitted by Arben Hajrizi:
I want to create a BAT file in Windows 2000 Pro so I can delete following
Folders: History, Cookies, Temp, Temporary Internet File. The reason why I
want to create a Bat file is because I'm not at home all the time so my
younger brother don't know how to delete them via internet explorer.
You can use the RD command in Windows 2000 (or XP) for this job.
Here's an example bat file - all you need to do is substitute the paths
with your own paths to the directories you wish to delete.
@echo off
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Cookies"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\Temp"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\Temporary
Internet Files"
RD /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\vic\Local Settings\History"
cls
Note that the quotes around the paths are essential. You can place
the file in your startup folder if you wish or just double click
whenever you wish to delete the directories listed in the bat file.
Question submitted by carl at hotmail:
How do I create a formula to generate random numbers in Excel between
1 and 35 with no repeats? Drawing 3 or 4 numbers at a time.
Do I use RANDBETWEEN?
A tough one, this. At first glance, it should be easy enough, but there
are a couple of nasty traps.First of all, I dislike using RANDBETWEEN (see
my article
'Throwing Dice in Excel' in ABC 30 to learn why and what else to use
instead.) But the real stinger here is the need not to have duplicated
values. Random is random, and without using circular references and some
smart cut and paste-special macro operations, you'll struggle to get
non-volatile, non duplicating values using any of the worksheet functions.
Instead, I turned to VBA to achieve what you need. The code below has been
built so as to be reusable for a wide range of needs - simply change the
constants as indicated.
----------------CODE STARTS HERE--------------
Sub GetRandomNumbers()
Const intLowest As Integer = 1 'Lowest number required
Const intHighest As Integer = 35 'Highest number required
Const intHowMany As Integer = 4 'Number of different values to return
Dim booFlag As Boolean 'Used to record if duplicate values generated
'Check to prevent infinite loop
If intHowMany > (intHighest - intLowest + 1) Then
MsgBox "Too many numbers or too small a range."
Exit Sub
End If
'Set up array to hold the random values
Dim arrRandom(1 To intHowMany) As Integer
Randomize 'resets random seed
'Generate the first random value
arrRandom(1) = Int((intHighest * Rnd) + intLowest)
'Generate subsequent random values and ensure no dupes
For i = 2 To intHowMany
Do
booFlag = False
arrRandom(i) = Int((intHighest * Rnd) + intLowest)
For j = 1 To i - 1
If arrRandom(j) = arrRandom(i) Then booFlag = True
Next j
Loop Until booFlag = False 'ensures value not kept if it is a dupe
Next i
'Write the values to the worksheet - Change "B1" reference as required
For i = 1 To intHowMany
Range("B1").Offset(i, 0).Value = arrRandom(i)
Next i
End Sub
----------------CODE ENDS HERE--------------
Reply from carl at hotmail:
Thanks, I really appreciate your help.
Question submitted by Martha:
How does one access the clipboard in XP Home edition??
you mean the clipboard viewer? go to Start>Run and type clipbrd.exe
Reply from Martha:
I get a message that says "Windows cannot find clipboard.exe." Did
you type the name correctly etc?? Why does it not come up & how
can I restore it if it isn't there???
Answer from Linda Johnson:
I did NOT type clipboard.exe ... I typed clipbrd.exe
Question submitted by Sara E. hsrtulieres at zianet.com:
I am having trouble inserting pictures into the Word document. I am
new to Word but know Photoshop and Illustrator, and fear I hit the wrong
button. I go to insert picture from insert, find the picture from my
pictures folder, click on the picture I want, click on insert and in the
document I get the edges of a graphic box but no picture. Yet when I go
to Print Preview the picture is visible. I cannot view the picture in
print layout or in normal full page view but in preview there it is. I
have looked to see if for some reason I have sent the picture to the
back but I cannot find this anywhere and when I am inserting there is no
text in front of it. I hope the solution is a simple one and right
before my eyes!
Hi Sara .... in Word, go to the Tools menu and click on Options.
Click on the View tab and in the top section, remove the check where it
says "Picture Placeholders". That should solve your problem.
Reply from Sara:
Thank you SO much. Phew and Wow in one breath. I am ready to start a
new document at closing time!!
Question submitted by Ed H:
How can I eliminate having to click on user name on boot up?
Start --> Run control userpasswords2 and remove check mark that forces
users to log on or use tweakUI.
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 :-)<<<back to contents
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