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April Feedback
Below is feedback we received during April. If you have questions
about an article you've read in TechTrax or have comments about this Ezine,
feel free to use the Feedback button on the top menu to pass us your thoughts
or questions.
And please remember you can easily voice your opinion about any article
you read in TechTrax by clicking the Rate This Article button at the bottom
of each article!
Feedback
Martha Bagwell writes...
Regaring The Soapbox!
I absolutely love the way you wrote this article, I
just wish I could write like that! I would like permission to add a link
to this article on this page on my web site, http://www.marthas-web.com/identitytheft.htm.
You
may remember me, I won a copy of Windows XP Pro upgrade and a game in one
of your drawings. My site was keyboardpower then (it has changed a lot!), & I
had a different email address, but it's still me! I might add I am using the
Windows XP Pro & loving it and my younger son who is disabled has enjoyed
many hours playing the game.
Reply
Dian
Chapman, author of I'm
Mad as Hell, writes...
Hey Martha... Of course I remember you! In fact, next month I'll be posting
lots of fun/cool posts that folks have added to their subscription when
they sign up...and YOUR name/site
comes up now and then as a source. So thanks much!
And thanks, too...for
the nice comments. HA! You know it's funny...when I write with passion,
I get lots of great comments about my writing. Like this one...and also
the article I wrote about Honey
the dog from Kuwait. But with much of my
writing...I have NO idea what I'm going to write until I sit down and
then the words just come out.
Anyway...as
for the permission...you don't need permission for this one, but
I appreciate you taking the time to check. At the bottom of that particular
article, I removed all need for copyrights in the hopes that more people
who be encouraged to pass that one around. It's more of an important
social support article versus technical support. So feel free to link
or use it's full text...just leave my name as the author. But no permission
needed! Cheers!
Feedback
A reader writes...
Hi, I'm trying
to make some tools that will allow me to monitor and consolidate the event
logs on 15 servers. I like the code that you wrote. It seems to
be clean and efficient. I would like to modify it to write the events
to and ODBC data source instead of text file. Please let me know if you
can help me and how you would like to be compensated. Thanks
Reply
Greg
Chapman, author of
Synchronized
Logging Through Script, writes...
While I appreciate the compliment, I normally try to avoid the use of databases
for administrative functions on the assumption that the information must
be available anywhere I am (therefore, it must be text based). But that doesn't
mean my mind is closed on the topic.<g>
I'll consider how this might
be done and, if I can come up with a method I like, I'll publish
it in TechTrax. Of course, if that happens, expect to see a copy in your
mail! Thanks again!!
Editor's Note: Greg did subsequently write an article on
this subject. Read it here: Synchronized
Event Logging...to a Database.
Feedback
James Lamm from Raleigh, NC, writes...
How do I arrange the sheets on my active workbook? I've tried
cascasde the options under Window | Arrange but I haven't been successful at
arranging my sheets.
Reply
Dian
Chapman, author of Excel
Tips, writes...
Open your workbook...click Windows > New Window. That'll open a COPY
of the same workbook...you can see that it'll have the name and then
:1, like MyWorkbook:1. Another window would give you another copy such as
MyWorkbook:2, and myWorkbook:3, etc.
Now just click to view different pages in each copy.
And THEN you can click to tile or cascade...whatever...and CHECK
that window in active workbook...so it knows to ONLY arrange the windows
in this same workbook and NOT any other views you might have open if
you had a different workbook open, too. Hope this helps!
Further Reply from James...
Woo hooo ...it worked!!! A little different from MS Word, but it worked!!
Thank you so much. This is the third problem that I've resolved through
tips from mousetrax. Thank you again.
Feedback
Sue Watts from Sheffield UK, writes...
Hi, I have tons of stuff listed in my prefetch folder ...like 40 things!! Is
it alright to delete them all ? Would I cause problems with the preftech
registry zip download?? is it safe to do?
Thanks, Sue
Reply
Greg
Chapman, Senior Systems Engineer, writes...
Here's what Prefetch is:
1. New to Windows XP
2. A file caching system
3. Microsoft says the following:
"Windows XP monitors the files that are used when computer starts and
also when you start applications. By monitoring these files, Windows XP can
prefetch them. Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected
to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and
applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP and start applications."
It is recomended to clear your prefetch directory often and, yes, you
can manually empty the contents of c:\windows\prefetch. No, there should
be no damage from deleting the files you find there.
I DON'T recommend downloading REG files and the like to change a value
whose function you don't understand. Since you don't reference the location
of the zip file your're referring to, we're unable to determine whether
the download is safe. However, erring on the side of caution is probably
a good plan. Just stick to deleting the prefetch files once in a while
and you should be fine.
Feedback
A reader writes...
Went from win98 to winXP Pro and Office97 to Office2003 so I don't have a
CD with OfficeXP to extract a version of MS Photo Editor that will work with
WinXP Pro. I really need MS Photo Editor and I hope there is a way to set-up
a download from you web site to obtain MS Photo Editor and drivers from OfficeXP.
Reply
Herb
Tyson, author of
MS
Photo Editor, Wherefore Art Thou?, writes...
PhotoEditor can be downloaded... as part of MS Office XP if a user
has an MSDN subscription. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/
for subscription information. Other than that, however, Microsoft does not
make Office components available for download. So, I'm unaware of any legitimate
channels for downloading it. A less expensive way, however, would be
to salvage PhotoEditor from the hard drive of your old computer. Or, search
the internet and buy a "new" but remaindered copy of Office XP.
Feedback
Jan Toles from Phoenix, AZ, writes...
Regarding Aligning text without a table. I downloaded your E-Book and, as
I read through the pages, I am trying the different tricks you give. I was
really interested in this particular trick (refer to subject). I tried it
several times and it does not work for me. I am using Office 2003.
P.S. I really like your site. How nice that you and your husband are involved
in this together. You have so much available for free. Thank you so much for
making all of this information available to anyone who wishes to learn.
Reply
Dian
Chapman, author of the free Word
Tips & Tricks eBook, writes...
Hi Jan...First, thanks so much for the kind words.
I'm attaching a sample doc that you can
examine to see how it's done. When you open the attached, hit Ctrl +
Shift + 8 to turn on the hidden markers. This will let you see the tiny
circles between the words I want "held together," the soft line break
at the end and
the hard paragraph break after that.
And just for the sake of clarity, here are the steps again that you can
follow along with, in case the explanation in my free tips and tricks
book
was confusing.
- Open a blank word doc.
- Type your first name.
- Now, rather than hitting the spacebar as you normally would, hit
Ctrl +
Shift + Space to insert a hard space. This will keep the next
word locked
together with your first name.
- Immediately after the hard space, type your last name.
- Now hit the space bar to enter a regular space.
- Type your city.
- Hit a regular spacebar space, again.
- Type the month.
- Enter a hard space again by hitting Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar immediately
after the name of the month.
- Type the year.
- Now set this line as fully justified by hitting Ctrl + j.
- Nothing will seem to have happened...yet! But now hit a soft return
by
hitting Shift + Enter right after the year. This will enter a
soft break in
the line with text. This will tell Word to pull all the text
across the full
width of the page as justified. However, because some words are
locked
together with a hard space, they cannot be pulled apart. This
will cause the
locations with the regular spacing to be stretched very far to
make up the
difference.
The result is that your name will be along the left margin, the city will
be
centered and the month and year will be pulled to the far right edge
of the
page. The effect looks as if you have three separate alignments applied.
But
in fact, it's just one quickly typed line, pulled apart by this cool,
little
trick to properly align it.
It does work in all versions of Word and once you learn how to do it,
it can
save you time aligning things when you need to toss out a quick document.
I
do not suggest you use this trick for formal templates that others will
need
to use, as they'll surely end up messing it up. For that, use a table
with
separate alignment in each cell. But for your own quick work, it's a
cool
trick that you can pull off easily, with practice.
If you're not getting it to work, you're missing a step. So turn on the
codes and study your version against my attached version to see what
step
you've missed. Good luck...let me know how it goes.
Further reply from Jan...
Okay, what I was doing wrong was just pressing ENTER at the end of the
line rather than Shift, ENTER.
Once again, thank you for the hard work you do so that someone like
myself can learn. Your E-Book is really neat.
Feedback
S. Mustafa from Pakistan, writes...
hi!
I loved the quality of contents on your site. Great Job guys!!!
I need some help regarding MS Project Professional 2003. My question
is:
Is there a way by which we can increase the number of possible multi-value
code fields. There are around 10 possible MV fields that we can creat
in enterprise global template and use in enterprise resource pool. What if
i want to increase this number. I want to have more than 30 different multi-value
columns in my resource sheets to assign differnt types of skill sets to my
enterprise resources.
I am willing to do any back-end changes e.g. changes in DB and I would go
with any solutioon from macros, addins, and anything. I am using MS project
professional 2003 and MS project server 2003.
I would really appreciate any help in this regard. Thanks,
Mustafa
Reply
Mike
Glen, author of the Microsoft
Project instructional series, writes...
Hi Mustafa,
Thank you for your query, but I do not have the enterprise version :(
I suggest you post on the server newsgroup. Please see FAQ Item: 24.
Project
Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information
can be seen at this web address: http://www.mvps.org/project/.
Mike Glen,
Project MVP
Feedback
Rick Mckinney from Dos Palos, Ca., writes...
I, know what my video card is but it wont switch to 256colors. it says driver
installed correctly. do you have some tips on troubleshooting this problem.
please help me out.
Thank you, Rick
Reply
Greg
Chapman, author of The
OTHER Way to Find Out What Video Card Is in Your Computer, writes...
If you mean that you're stuck on 16 colors and can't go higher, there are
a couple things you can do. There are two things that dictate whether Windows
will allow your new settings. First, you have to have the right driver and
it has to install correctly.
When you follow the directions at
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=161,
what kind of results do you get? You may need this information to chase down
the best driver for your card.
Second, your card has to have enough memory to support richer color depth
for a given screen resolution. Older cards often don't have enough memory
to support more than 256 colors at resolutions higher than 1024x768.
Which resolution are you usin and how much memory does your video adapter
have?
If you choose a lower screen resolution like 800x600, what color depths
are available to you?
If you're sure that the card should support higher color counts for the
resolution you're using then it's very likely that the driver you've
installed is not the correct one.
Feedback
Celeste Marsh from Carlsbad, NM, writes...
I really appreciate the work you folks do to produce this very helpful and
informative newsletter. Please keep up the good work!
Celeste Marsh
Computer geek, too.
Reply
Dian
Chapman, Editor of TechTrax Ezine, writes...
Thanks so much for taking the time to pass along your great comments, Celeste!
From me, as well as all our writers, we live for comments like these!
They make the time we spend volunteering to help others learn...worth
it!!
Feedback
A reader writes...
In creating a calculated field in the Earned Value table of MS
Project, how do I make the answer display to two decimal places. This
shouldn't be hard, but I am missing something and don't find it in MS Project
Help to be helpful in this case. I had expected it to be similar to
Excel.(In Excel, I just go to Format button, select Cells..., then select
Number and finally select Decimal Places and pull 2 from pick list.)
Reply
Mike
Glen, author of the Microsoft
Project instructional series, writes...
Hi...Project's cells are not spreadsheet cells like those in Excel. You
have no control over their format. All you can do is to format the
text within the cells and change the cells' widths. However, if the result
of the formula in your custom cells is monetry, then Project will calculate
to 2 decimal places. Not knowing what you want from your customization,
I can't be precise, but you could arrange for your cell to be montery by
using one of the Cost cells, but you'd have to put up with the currency sign,
or don't use one at all! (Tools/Options.../View tab and delete the currency
symbol).
You might want to also try posting your question to the Microsoft newsgroup. Please
see FAQ
Item: 24. Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other useful
Project information can be seen at this web address: http://www.mvps.org/project/.
Mike Glen,
Project MVP
Feedback
Cynthia Brandt from Boise, ID, writes...
Months ago I bookmarked your site and then promptly forgot about it. Today,
I had a free moment and was cleaning up my bookmarks and opened Tech Trax.
Wow! The article on Outlook attachments was right on target, easy to use, and
it works! Wow! Needless to say, I am not deleting the bookmark.
But I want more. Can you help me improve it? When I forget things, I forget
a lot of things. How would I tell the code to ask me for more than one attachment
before it closes and sends the email?
Reply
David
Horowitz, author of Did
You Forget Something?, writes...
Hi Cynthia,
Glad to hear from you and glad to hear you enjoyed the article and found
it useful.
Regarding adding more than one attachment, you could call the
ExecuteInsertFileCommand routine in a loop that asks if you have more
attachments to attach or something like that. I am preparing this to
be a retail product that I will sell. If you're interested, you could
be the first customer. If that's the case, let me
know.
Good luck and thanks again Cynthia!
David Horowitz,
Soundside Inc.
Further reply from Cynthia...
I find that the macro works great and just knowing it is there, I now
think more about remembering attachments! You might want to let people
know that when they open Outlook they will get the 'enable macros'
pop-up. That came as a bit of a surprise. And, while I am at it,
can you
make it not search the entire email when you are responding to someone
who mentions an attachment/enclosure?
I guess I am never satisfied but I still love my new macro. Thanks
again.
Further reply from David...
Hi Cynthia,
Good to hear from you again.
Thanks for the tip about the "Enable Macros" popup. That's
good -- I do like to warn people of everything as much as possible.
Regarding searching only new text and not Original, Forwarded or Quoted
text, that's a great idea and let's me know I'm on the right track with
the commercial version of this product which checks for such things, and
includes other features as well. If you'd like more information, please
let me know.
Thanks for your interest, and good luck! David
Feedback
Carolyn Phillips from Greensboro, NC, writes...
Hi, Dave. At first I was thrilled that someone had created a process that
would help me remember to add attachments to email. Upon futher study of your
article, though, I discovered that I simply don't have the smarts to do this.
My first clue was that when I go to my Tools menu, there is no Macro tab there,
much less Visual Basic Editor. (For the record, the selections listed under
Tools on my screen are: Send and Receive, Synchronize All, Address Book and
others, but no Macro.) Further confusion sets in quickly because, despite what
I am sure are excellent instructions and explanations, I don't have a clue
about Environment variables, AppData, etc. I am just a simple (okay, simple-MINDED)
user.
Bottom line: Can you wrangle this into something I can download? Thanks for
your time.
Carolyn Phillips
Greensboro, NC
Reply
David
Horowitz, author of Did
You Forget Something?, writes...
Carolyn,
Thank you for taking the time to write. Glad to hear you were thrilled
initially, even though you didn't understand any of it after that!
I can tell you one thing Carolyn -- it sounds like you're using Outlook
Express and not Outlook. Outlook Express (OE) comes with Internet Explorer
and is a "lite" version of Outlook. Unfortunately, you will not
be able to customize OE in the ways I've described. If you are able to
switch over to using Outlook, that would work. Outlook provides a lot more
functionality than OE. Outlook usually comes with Microsoft Office, like
Word and Excel. So I would say try that if you're interested. It's not
a no-brainer to switch from OE to Outlook, but it's your only option if
you want to take advantage of the programmability I've outlined.
Now, if you do end up in Outlook, I suggest you try my article again and
see if you can get it working, because it sounds like, despite your comments,
you may actually know what you're doing more than you think.
I will have a version available for purchase in the near future.
However, again, it will only work in Outlook, not Outlook Express. If
you're interested, please let me know, and please tell your friends
and colleagues!
Hope this helps. Best wishes, and hope you continue to enjoy the magazine!
Sincerely,
David Horowitz,
Soundside Inc.
Further reply from Carolyn...
Well, DUH! Upon inspection, I see that I do use Outlook Express - I
swear I never really paid much attention. (That's why we have wonderful,
tech-brained folks like you around to guide the rest of us, who stumble
around on a regular basis.) No doubt you rolled your eyes and said
all
kinds of things out loud upon reading my message, so I really appreciate
the kind words you actually typed into your reply.
I'll look into the "regular" Outlook thing.
Thank you. Carolyn Phillips
Further reply from David...
Carolyn,
Nice to hear back from you.
Please feel free to get back in touch if/when you get on Outlook.
I'd love to hear that you got onto Outlook and were able to make
this work for yourself. Lots of people are finding value in it.
If you do end up wanting to just download something simple, let
me know.
Best of luck!
David Horowitz
Soundside Inc.
Feedback
A reader writes...
Hi Mr. West,
Thanks a million for your code I found posted at: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=116 .
This is the first time I've ever sent an email to an MVP.
This code works great in our Win2k environment.
Is there anything I need to do to make it compatible with WinXP?
When I did some testing with an XP machine I tried to automatically duplex
a print out and it only worked with my locally attached printer. I couldn't
get it to work with a networked printer. Any thoughts?
Reply
Jonathan West, author of
Controlling
the Printer from Word VBA, writes...
Hi Dan, You need to ensure that you have a locally installed copy of the
printer driver, even for a network connected printer, otherwise the code
does not work. Provided you do this, it should work under Windows XP.
Regards
Jonathan West
Further reply from the reader...
Thanks for that info. In Win2K we didn't have a local driver installed
and it still worked. Is there any other ways around locally installing
a driver for XP?
Further reply from Jonathan...
I suspect that you did have a local driver installed in Windows 2K & didn't
realise it. Microsoft's own Knowledge Base articles on the topic state
that a local installation of the printer driver is necessary.
Further reply from the reader...
Thanks, can you send me the microsoft knowledge base article for
my reference.
Further reply from Jonathan...
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=http://support.microsoft.com:
80/support/kb/articles/q230/7/43.asp&NoWebContent=1
Feedback
A Jim Kozma,
writes...
I read you article, Automating the Installation of Windows 2000/XP: Part
2: Slipstreaming Hotfixes in TechTrax on logicalexpressions.com. I've
been
doing something very similar in both Windows 2000 and XP with a few minor
changes. First, if you compress the replacement files (accwiz.exe,
crypt32.dll, etc.) using the MS compress program (compress -r -z filename)
you then I don't think you will need to add them to the
[ForceCopyDriverCabFiles] section of DOSNET.inf (and also save a bit
of
space.) You can also do this with all of the other hotfixes. Just use
the
most recent version of any dll if it is included in multiple hotfixes.
(Some hotfixes can't be done this way. For example, fixes to the Front
Page
server extensions are in a cab file that just overwrites them, so you
have
to re-apply that hotfix later anyway. Media player has similar
problems...)
You still do need to create/edit the svcpack.inf file and run the
updates
(as you document) just to get their registry changes from the hotfixes.
It
would be really nice if we could just apply these registry changes without
running the entire hotfix again, but I haven't experimented with this.
Since the hotfixes are signed, I didn't think I'd be able to hack the inf
files, but there may be a way.
Thanks for the article,
Reply
Dennis Roche, author of
Automating
the Installation of Windows 2000/XP: Part 2: Slipstreaming Hotfixes, writes...
Thanks for the tips. I actually decided that the process became too hairy
and it was easier to do it this way. I also ran into problems replacing
individual files. Long ago when I first started monkeying with integrating
hotfixes, Microsoft, through a KB article, informed users that the way
you
have just described was the way to do it. I am still looking into more
efficient way to run this whole process though.
Check out www.MSFN.org. They have some good material.
Thanks again!
-Dennis Roche
Further reply from Jim...
It is somewhat of a chore to keep up with the files, but by comparing
all
the version of all hotfix files, I sometimes see that a hotfix is
obsolete
before Microsoft does.
Thanks, Jim.
Feedback
John Walker from Washington, DC, writes...
I found out how to make the chart interpolate the missing data but how
can you get the y-value that Excel has used to complete the chart?
Reply
Jon
Peltier, author of Microsoft
Excel Chart Types, writes...
John -
Dian Chapman has forwarded me your question to TechTrax, below. When Excel
interpolates over a missing data value, it merely draws a line across
it from the adjacent points, without bothering to calculate the missing
value. To determine the value, you would have to interpolate between
the known values. A simple way to do this is to use the FORECAST worksheet
function.
Say your missing point was cell C3 and the range B2:C4 looked like this
(column B has the X values, column C the Y):
2 1
3
5 4
take the XY values for the point above and below the missing value and
copy them to a convenient place away from the charted table, say, I2:J3.
Put the X value corresponding to the missing Y in I5. In J5 enter this
formula:
=FORECAST(I5,J2:J3,I2:I3)
In this case, the formula returns 2, which sits on the line between the
points on either side.
- Jon
Peltier Technical Services
http://PeltierTech.com/
Further reply from John...
Thanks very much, Jon, for your quick reply. I tried what suggested
and it works just fine.
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