Feedback

Here's just some of the Feedback we've received during the month of March. To send us your comments, related to articles published here in TechTrax, click the Feedback button on the above menu.

Note that if you have support questions that are not directly related to articles in TechTrax, you should post them within the appropriate Microsoft Newsgroup support group. These can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/newsgroups. Or join one of the MouseTrax supported, free support groups. A list of these can be found here: http://www.mousetrax.com/resources.html.

Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

• Thanks so much to subscriber Teresia Avila who took the time to notify me of a rating page error on an article last month!
  
  
• Thanks so much to subscriber Diane Rainaud who took the time to notify me that my drawing confirmation page had the wrong date listed.
  
  
• Big congrats to Dawn Crosier, one of my first VBA course students and one of the terrific moderators of my free support groups...who has just received the award of Microsoft MVP! Way to go, Dawn!

Feedback

A reader in India writes...

Greetings from Bangalore, India. Greg's Word Directory Cataloger is great. But the output is not in alphabetical order. Can you give me some hints? I am an Oracle programmer and I am not familiar with VBscript.

Reply
Greg Chapman, developer of the free Directory Cataloger, writes...

That's an interesting problem and I am, unfortunately, unable to reproduce the results!

So, first, thanks for the compliments! Second, let's verify which of the two versions of the cataloger you're using: is this the Word template or are you using the VBScript download?

I can tell you the following about the behavior of the code's orientation. It returns results alphabetically as returned from the FileSystemObject and it does it from the deepest directories first, then the files within each of those directories. For example, a typical result set might look like:
C:\folder
             |-c:\folder\subfolder\
                                           | - file1
                                           | - file2
             | - file1
             | - file2

Is there any chance I might be able to look at some sample output from you? I'd also recommend that you take a look at the MTraxFileCataloger available at http://www.mousetrax.com/downloads.html. This tool produces a slightly different output and is much more controllable as to what gets inventoried in the report. You may find it more closely matches your needs.

Either way, let me know and thanks again!

Greg Chapman
http://www.mousetrax.com
http://www.layer1wireless.com

Feedback

Brett H. from Houston, TX, writes...

First off, thank you and great article. Is there anyway to dynamically change the legend in the chart? I've created a dynamic chart that I can pick the start date and weeks (duration) to show via a drop down box using the knowledge from your article. However, the legend of the chart shows all data field headers, not just the ones being shown on the chart. The one work around that I've found is to create the dynamic chart using my criterea and the legends that don't apply, I go to the data worksheet tab and hide the column which then removes it from the legend. I can provide a copy of the worksheet if necessary.

Thank you (THANK YOU!) for freeing up about an hour of my week by teaching me that I don't have to go into approximately 45 series in a chart (plus the X axis) and manually change the ranges such as $A$1:$H!1 to $B$1:$I$1. Human error has more then once caused me to pull my hair out. Thank you again!

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

John Mansfield, author of the original Dynamic Charting Formulas in Excel article, did more than just provide you with an answer, Brett...he wrote a whole new article this month related to your questions. Be sure to check it out here: Dynamic Charting Formulas in Excel - Part 2.

Feedback

A reader writes...

Hi, I love your website and programs soooooo much, and I thank you for giving us the help you have. You're wonderful! Now, I really, really need these to work in MS Word 2003. I use File Cataloguer a lot, and I can't get it to work in this. Can you please help me? I'm desperate! I need it for some church files. I sure hope you can help. They really need this file list tomorrow, if possible. Again, thanks for ALL you do! I couldn't run my computer half as well without you. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks!!!

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

I appreciate all the thanks. But you didn't tell me what your problem is! I don't understand what trouble you're having and need more details about what you are trying to do and what is happening in order to provide you with some help.

Read this article and then get back to me with details...
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=507

(Editor's note...no further reply was ever received.)

Feedback

A Reader from Dayton, OH writes...

RE: Awesome website

I don't remember how I came across your website, but I signed up for the ezine. The March issue was the first I read and it cleared up some misunderstanding I had with default templates and dreamweaver page setup. I will definitely be looking forward to every issue.

Thanks for the information and a very nice, well thoughtout web site. Keep up the Excellent work!!!

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

Thanks so much for the great comments. Although it appears that we've somewhat lost some of our graphics/web authors of late, I do hope to have more Dreamweaver and graphics articles in the future.

(If there are any web/graphic designers/devs out there who would like to promote their own work and become famous<smile> by writing for TechTrax, contact the editor.)

Feedback

Kathryn Ballard Shut from Denver, CO, writes...

Dear TechTrax,

I hope you will forgive the nature of this letter, but through an Internet search, I found an old friend of mine that posted to this forum in February 2003. I haven't seen him in many years and would appreciate the contact hint to Mr. Reginald George.

As a side note, I am thrilled to see that advancements have been made that allow blind people to be able to use computers, and would appreciate it if
you could pass my information along to him to write me!

(Reg, if you can read this, your old friend would love an email from you at [contact the editor for her email address]. Hope you remember me.)

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

I'm happy to post and pass along your comments. Okay, Reginald...if you read this contact Dian Chapman at TechTrax so we can link you up with your old friend.<smile>

Feedback

Keith McDaniels, Ahwahnee, Ca., writes...

Is this the Doug Hemmerling who has a sister named Billie McGregor?

Trying to find both of you.

Your cousin, Keith McDaniels, Ahwahnee, Ca.

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

HA...well, if TechTrax ever bombs as a technical support magazine, I guess we can always make it as a Match magazine!<smirk> Amazing to have two "need to find so and so" requests in the same month.

Okay, here goes...I have no idea if Doug has a sister named Billie...but Doug, if you're out there...contact Dian Chapman, Editor of TechTrax so I can pass along Keith's email.<grin>

Feedback

Curtis writes...

Re: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=74

Great article, but I have a question....

I'd like to use this nav-image-swap technique (coding in Notepad, not Dreamweaver or other WYSIWYG) in a head frame to bring up sections in a body
frame, but it seems to ignore my 'target="body"' tag in the <a> tag....

Any idea if I can surmount this without going to javascript? Here's a snip of my code from the head.html in a 3 frame page:

<a href="body.html#serv" tagrget="body"
onMouseOver="document.navLink1.src='nav-serv-a.jpg' "
onMouseOut="document.navLink1.src='nav-serv.jpg' ">
<img src="nav-serv.jpg" width="120px"
height="35px" align="right" alt="Services" border="0"
name="navLink1">
</a>

TIA for your feedback, and again, great article!

Reply
Dian Chapman, author of Learning HTML: Designing Navigation Buttons, writes...

Fix the typo in TARGET from your code and see if that helps.

...>tagrget="body"

Feedback

A reader writes...

Re Your magazine

It is great....love the style, contents.

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

Thanks!!

Feedback

Don D. from Omaha, Nebraska, writes...

I help put together old computers at a thrift store people donate. Some of them still have passwords & I am not able to access them to make the system bootup to Windows XP. I read the article about XP Security issues, but not sure how to change what I need once I have used the Windows 2000 boot disks to access the recovery console. I get to the prompt screen & can move around from directory to directory, but I have no idea how to get programs to execute so I can change the logon password.

Please explain to me how I go about changing the password so I can get these computers to boot up without the old password from the previous owner.
Thank for your help.

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

See if this TechTrax article helps...

I Forgot My Administrator Password!
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=305

Feedback

A reader writes...

Re: They're So Special

I enjoyed the article and already use most of the methods you mentioned. My question is: is there any way to enlarge the caracter map? I have mature eyes and it is difficult to see what some are without putting the cursor over each one individually. Sure would be an asset to me to be able to see them easily.

Reply
Dian Chapman, author of They're So Special, writes...

There is no other way to enlarge the CHARMAP itself, but do know that you can click on symbol item and hold down the mouse while you DRAG your mouse around. This will enlarge the view of each one as you drag over it. This is slightly better than clicking on each, although you'll need to hold down the mouse button longer.

Other than that...you might want to check into the Windows Magnifier. This allows you to enlarge part of the screen in Windows. This is an accessibility feature in Windows. You can read more about it in this article, as well as find directions for using this feature.

Windows Magnifier
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=90

Additionally, if you are using Windows XP you can click Start > Programs > Accessories > Accessibility > Accessibility Wizard and this will allow you to have the icons and other text items and menus enlarged for you. It might also help without resorting to the magnifier (although I think that is a pretty nice feature.)

[Dian's Note! A word of warning about using the Accessibility Wizard to make enlagement adjustments to your screen. While experimenting with this feature, I did successfully enlarge my screen settings. However, when attempting to return the settings back to their original size, the min, max and close buttons (top/right) of each window became unusually tiny! I have not been able to get them back to their normal size...so I'm now stuck with tiny little buttons. Not a big problem in my case, although it would be nice to get them back to original size. But, I've tried everything I know, as has Greg, with no success. I've informed Microsoft of this apparent bug...but have yet to receive any reply regarding that email! So if you try it...don't complain to me that your buttons are now tiny...tell Microsoft!]

Feedback

A reader writes...

How do I break open the word and excel powerpoint files in win2k which are locked using passwords using spectacular dos commands. I have been browsing since a long long time to find but unfortunately not found yet. Please make sure you send me how to open them.

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

Sorry, but there is no predefined way to open a Microsoft Office document, if you forgot the password.

Your only option is to buy a password cracker program from the Internet. But, of course, that also means that you'll need to give your credit card
number to a hacker who specializing in bypassing security.

Feedback

Louise Anderson from Santa Ana, CA, writes...

Thank you for this great set of articles on MircoSoft Project. I have referred one of my mentorees to these for step by step assistance.

Reply
Mike Glen, author of our fantastic Microsoft Project series, writes...

Hi Louise,

Thanks for the compliment, I hope it all goes well for you :)

Don't forget that help is readily available in the Microsoft Project newsgroups.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://www.mvps.org/project/

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

Feedback

Moshe Gotesman from Santa Clara, CA, writes...

FEEDBACK: Microsoft Project: 9 – Manipulating Tasks

Hi Mike.

The last paragraph in the above page (http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=284) discusses forcing tasks to execute on a specific day of the week. You suggest to assign a Task Calendar with the appropriate restriction to a milestone task, to control that. However, I found that although MS Project allows me to assign a special calendar to a milestone, the calculation of the milestone does not seem to follow that calendar. The milestone does not move to the correct day of the week. If I assign the same calendar to a regular task, the End Date does follow the calendar restriction.

I am using MS Project 2000. Can you, please advise?

Thanks.
Moshe Gotesman

Reply
Mike Glen, author of Microsoft Project: 9 – Manipulating Tasks, writes...

Hi Moshe,

You're quite right - my mistake. You need to give the "milestone" task a duration of 1 minute and the task calendar set to 0800 to 0801 working hours. That'll fix it for you, though subsequent tasks will be one minute out , so I suggest you subtract a minute from the next task's duration. Sorry for the mis-info.

[Editor's Note: This article has now has a correction paragraph added.]

Mike

Feedback

A reader writes...

Re: Controlling the Printer from Word VBA

I have been using the brilliant code in the above article for approx 2 years without any problems controlling our duplex colour laser printers. Allowing various printing options (such as b/w & duplex, colour & non duplex) within Word XP with Windows 2000 OS. We are now moving into a Citrix enviroment with Word 2003 and the code does not work. Although there is no error message it ignores any printer commands to switch between colour&b/w and/or duplex&non-duplex and just prints the document in the default format which printer is set. Do you know how to get this working in a Citrix environment. Any assistance would be gratefully appreciated. Thanks

Reply
Jonathan West, author of the very popular series: Controlling the Printer from Word VBA, writes...

Hi ...

I'm really pleased you have found the code useful for so long.

As I warned in the article, controlling printers is a notoriously flaky area of Windows. I did my best to cover a range of environments, but there was always the possibility that someone would hit a problem in a configuation I have not had a chance to test. It looks like you may found such a
configuration.

I have zero experience of Citrix as a development environment, so I'm afraid I'm going to be floundering here, but there are a couple of things to check.

1. Do you have adequate permissions to control the printer?
2. Do you have the printer driver locally installed on the same Citrix machine that is hosting the Word session?
3. Have you tried stepping through the code to see where it behaves differently on Citrix as compared to a local PC?

I am local to your area if you would like to contact me for further consulting to help you solve this issue.

Regards
Jonathan

Feedback

A reader writes...

Re: creating a table of contents that spans multiple documents

Hi there
I am getting my PhD thesis together and I must say you have saved my life, I was ready to leap off the building, thanks so much!

Reply
Jonathan West, author of Creating a Table of Contents Spanning Multiple Documents, writes...

I never thought I was the equivalent of a call to the Samaritans, but I'm really pleased the article helped :-)

Regards
Jonathan

Feedback

A reader writes...

RE: Disabling System File Protection in Windows XP

the article avoided the one crucial issue, which is: where is the list of protected files stored, and how do you put a different file on the list, so you can re-enable file protection and have it protect your new file also?

Reply
Vic Ferri, author of Disabling System File Protection in Windows XP, writes...

There is no "list". The system files include mostly all exe and dll files and most of those files are in your Windows and Windows\System32 folder.
File protection is system wide. You can either have them all protected or none.

vic
http://www.angelfire.com/va3/wintips/

Feedback

A reader writes...

RE: Excel chart FAQs

Thank you! Excel help is not easy. I quickly found a solution on your site for a custom chart I was trying to do. Blood pressure is back to normal.

Reply
Jon Peltier, author of Microsoft Excel Charting FAQ, writes...

I'm glad to have helped with your charting problem.

- Jon
http://peltiertech.com/

Feedback

A reader from New Delhi, India, writes...

This is the most comprehensive article on Microsoft Excel Charting Utility. I have save the article for future reference and I am going to share it with everyone who I know uses excel.

Thanks for bring out such informating articles. They are very much appreciated.

Reply
Jon Peltier, author of Microsoft Excel Charting FAQ, writes...

Thank you for your comments. I'm glad to be able to help so many people become more proficient at using Excel, particularly with data presentation.

- Jon
http://peltiertech.com/

Feedback

Roberta from Matoaca Virginia, writes...

FEEDBACK: microsoft photo editor wherefore art thou???

Ah, Thank you.

I installed MS XP (Bill was truly drunk when he created this one...) and MS Office Pro... I could not figure out what happened to ms photo editor. Viewing and working with images has been a royal pain.

After following your instructions (about a 68 second process... to offset months of wtf how did this happen? angst); I went to an image and saw the lovely little icon that means MS Photo Editor is alive and well. She (MS Photo Ed) may not be the fastest horse in the race but she's the one I know how to to use.

Thanks!!!
Roberta

Reply
Herb Tyson, author of MS Photo Editor, Wherefore Art Thou?, writes...

Ah, yes. When Ms. PhotoEd turns up missing in action, you can bet that MS had a hand in it. Sometimes, I really wonder what they're smoking in Redmond. I use both PhotoEd and the new Picture Manager every day. I could live without the latter, but the former serves needs that Picture Manager can't touch. I'm glad that TechTrax was able to help you extract Ms. PhotoEd. Fortunately, you didn't need CIA "black ops" to perform the extraction... at least not THIS time.

Cheers,

Herb Tyson
http://www.herbtyson.com

Feedback

Randy Hutchins from Sugar Mtn., NC, writes...

My brother recently asked me if there was a way to print just the current (first) page of a WORD document by default. I immediately thought this would be easy, because in EXCEL you can go to "VIEW" then select "PAGE BREAK PREVIEW", move the blue line up so just the first page shows, and you are set. BUT - WORD does not let you do that. I searched the help system for a couple of hours to no avail. Then I downloaded your "shortcuts" file (loved it by the way) but did not find anything there either. Do you know of anyway to print the first page of a multi-page document by default?

Thanks!!

Randy Hutchins

Reply
Dian Chapman, TechTrax Editor, writes...

What you have to do (as I've done to get this capability) is to just record yourself clicking File > Print and selecting the This Page option and Print.

You can then put that recorded macro on your Standard toolbar so a quick click prints whatever page on which you're currently located. In fact, I
used the print icon and modified it slightly to show a number 1 in red next to the printer. This helps me know which printer icon will just print one
page.

To learn how to record a macro, view my free MACRO video lesson from my Word VBA course that you can find at this link:

http://www.mousetrax.com/TechCourses.html#samples

To learn how to put that code on a toolbar or menu...you can find that information in these two article (one more detailed than the other)...

Creating Custom Toolbars and Menus
http://www.mousetrax.com/toolbars.html

Sharing Macros
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=166

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine
www.mousetrax.com/consulting

Feedback

cosmicbrat from Mid Canada, writes...

re" Bouncing SPAM, with added aggressions..

I get some real goofy nasty SPAM's, and Spoofs, on occasion... and two to ten mindless nigerian and netherland's 419's per week... I usually forward it all to abuse@ their providers...Too few do this... It forces them to move to other providers... and keeps them out of the loop for a few hours, or days... but doesn't really give those petty criminal parasitic senders a meaningful Strong Message that I'm not interested... They really need an army boot full-force kick to the throat... They are representative of the aggressive parasites that damage our World Internet's love and respect, and dignity... They don't deserve Any gentleness nor consideration nor respect...

If I send the 419'er a vicious note, the evil little buggers link my address to several shid sites... and I am thus barraged by piles of horrid SPAM's and SCAM's... feeling like the little field mouse that happened to be sleeping under the back end of a cow, when it lifts its tail...

I would really like to give those senders a keen clear powerful THUNDERBIRD super angry screaming message, that says I Really Do Not want their mindless crap ape emails, for all eternity...

I would really like the bounced email to blast out a wicked bird screech, and show an animated huge dinosaur sized bird turd suddenly falling onto the sender's desktop screen, accompanied by extremely nauseous sulfurous "thhhhhht!" and "Splat!" sounds... and splashes of the excrement all over their screen... and a wicked cookie that gives them a little bit of due stress in trying to get the bird poop off their desktop screen... and maybe even a link to a bird poop on-line desktop BP cleaner, but no software download for them... Each time they get a birdie bounce, they must visit the desktop on-line wash...

And maybe a few drops of indelible bird stuff that sticks to the corners of their desktop, and stays there, till they format the HD... That would do it... maybe.

Reply
Dian Chapman, author of Bouncing Spam, writes...

LOL...I feel your pain, Don, and know EXACTLY what you mean. I waste way too much time reviewing and deleting my spam folders each week. Even with all the software I have to try to handle this stuff. Since my email address has been listed publicly in many places throughout the web for over 10 years, you can image how much junk mail I get (upwards of 9,000 pieces of spam a week...although I was recording approx 30,000 pieces until I incorporated various software like MailWasher to handle much of the obvious offenders.)

Let's hope that some wise entrepreneur can come up with a solution. In the meantime, I've worn the writing off my delete key!<smile> Although, I must say that your bird poop solution gives my mind great joy at the prospect.<snicker>

TechTrax Stats

Top 10 Articles for March 2005...hits from 03/01/2005 to 03/31/2005