Recently, I opened Microsoft Word to write a post for TechieViews and the application just hanged on the splash screen. All other applications in the Office suite such as Excel and PowerPoint were still working perfectly, and although Word itself offered me to launch itself in ’safe mode’ and later to ‘fix’ itself, nothing helped. As a matter of fact the problem was with the printer driver which for some reason became corrupted. In fact after removing the printer driver and installing a more recent one, Word started to work again. So, keep in mind this tip as it might save you a lot of frustration if you encounter the same problem.
Archive for the ‘Techie Tips’ Category
Tip: Microsoft Word hangs on the splash screen
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Software Tip: Changing from Caps to Lower Case (or Vice Versa) in Microsoft Office
Friday, September 18th, 2009If you have text that is in the wrong case, select (highlight) the text, and then click Shift+F3 until it changes to the case style that you like. Clicking Shift+F3 toggles the text case between ALL CAPS, lower case, and Initial Capital styles. You’ll be surprised how often you will use this once you get the hang of it!
Browser Tip
Thursday, July 30th, 2009Many important websites use the .com domain suffix. The latter is so common that the most popular browsers such as IE and Firefox let you add this suffix with a quick keyboard shortcut. For example everytime you want to visit TechieViews there is no need that you type http://www.techieviews.com ! All that is needed is to type techieviews in the address bar of the browser and press CTRL and Enter.
Software Tip: Fast way to insert the current time in an Excel cell
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009To insert the current time in Microsoft Excel without having to access the menus just hold down Ctrl and Shift and press the colon (:) key. This works with both right and left Ctrl+Shift combinations.
Temporarily prevent StartUp folder programs from launching
Saturday, July 18th, 2009It is possible to prevent the programs in your Windows StartUp folder from automatically launching. This is helpful for troubleshooting issues or for fast boot-ups. Start your PC, and when you see the Windows logo screen, hold down the Shift key until Windows is fully finished loading (keep holding down Shift until the disk stops churning). Next time your restart, all your startup programs will run again (unless you hold down the Sift key again of course). This method does not turn off services which run from the System Registry and works with any version of Windows from 95 onwards.
PC Tip: How to avoid file disasters
Monday, July 13th, 2009There is a thing … a real bad one which I see frequently on PCs operated by beginners: data files (Word docs, Excel sheets, etc …) scattered around the hard-disk without any logical sense. It is of utmost importance that users understand from day one what is a directory/folder and understand their purpose.
If you don’t put your data files in logically named folders it will be more difficult to find these files later on and also there is one particular shortcoming in the FAT file system (if you still use this old file system) which is known as the ‘Maximum entry limit in a FAT root directory’. In fact if you’re trying to create files on the root directory of a FAT drive and get an error, this usually means that you have exceeded the maximum entry limit of 512.
There are a couple of things to remember about the 512-entry limit:
1. Long filenames (more than 8 characters) take up more than one entry.
2. Hidden files, which don’t show up in the file count at a command line, also count toward the total number of entries.
So if you want to avoid file disasters create a logical structure of folders and sub folders and save your files in them.
Hardware Tip
Monday, June 8th, 2009How to fix lit/stuck LCD pixels:
Last week I have noticed that my one year old 42inch LCD TV had developed a lit/stuck pixel in the right-bottom corner of the display. A lit/stuck pixel is usually caused by a transistor that is not getting any power, and is therefore continuously allowing light at that point to pass through. In order to fix this problem I just used an LCD cleaning cloth and gently rubbed the affected part of the screen from top to bottom. Although many people have reported that this method works, it must be noted that it is not guaranteed that it will work in all circumstances. Also, some people have reported that after leaving the screen off for several hours, the lit/stuck pixels reappear.
Software Tip
Saturday, May 30th, 2009Not many people know that in Powerpoint one can set up a presentation to run in a continuous loop. This is indeed an important feature for those who want to show advertising material in shop windows or during commercial events. This feature can be enabled very easily:
1. On the Slide Show menu, click ‘Set Up Show’.
2. Select ‘Loop continuously until ‘Esc” check box.
Software Tip
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009Have you ever been surfing the Internet and opened a number of different Internet Explorer or Firefox windows? This can happen many times and after some time one will realise that there is the need to minimise all windows because one might need to access an icon on the desktop! There is no need to minimise all windows one by one since if one holds down the Windows key and presses M, all open programs will be minimised.