Questions & Answers

Do you have a computer software question?
Try my Question & Answer service by emailing support@roem.co.uk. Rather than sending personal replies or deal with every email I will publish questions that may be of interest to others below. I'll update them regularly, so do come back.

If you would like to start the week with a free computer tip covering ideas that help you make the most of your computer send a blank email to subscribe@roem.co.uk. I never sell or share the list, so you can rest assured your details will be kept in strict confidence.

Countdown to retirement
Q GB writes: I am retiring from my primary career at the end of August 2007 after 36 years. I am not very good on the computer. Can you find it in your busy schedule to have someone make a weekly ( Fun ) countdown to retirement for me...perhaps an email attachment...Thanks
A Well, I found a simple JavaScript countdown/count-up code on http://www.hashemian.com/tools/javascript-countdown.htm. I've copied and pasted it in to this FAQ webpage and assuming you'll retire at 5PM on 08/31/2007 your countdown looks like this:
Happy retirement!

Shrink to fit in Access
Q VF writes: My colleague has a database listing headings going across the top. When this is viewed on the screen you are only able to view part of the description heading as it is too wide to fit onto the screen completely. Would like to be able to print this all out onto 1 A4 page - at the moment it breaks and covers 2 pages. Is there anyway this can be done, in other applications she says that she uses a shrink to fit function, is there something like this in access? If there is a way it would save much frustration and sellotape!!!
A I’m afraid Access doesn’t have a "shrink to fit" option similar to Excel or Word so I’d say the following are your options:

• Tweak the margins using File/Page Setup (and swap to Landscape?)
• Export the list to Word or Excel using the OfficeLinks button on the toolbar and do the "shrink to fit" trick. (The OfficeLinks button looks like the blue Word icon. If you cannot find the icon on your toolbar, use the Tools, OfficeLinks command. See tip 151.)

Print a Word document with comments showing at the end of the printout
Q JB writes: How do I get comments inserted into a document to print on the page that the comments referred to and not at the end of the document?
A In Word 2003 the procedure is as follows:

• On the File menu, click Print.
• In the Print what list, click Document showing markup, and then click OK.

Hide row numbers on the left side of the sheet (Excel)
Q RC writes: I am sure there is a way to hide the number column on the left of a spreadsheet, please could you let me know if this is possible?
A Well, as far as I know you can only turn off both the rows (numbers) and columns (letters) as follows:

• On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.
• Select the Row & column headers check box to hide the items.

Calculate the number of days between two dates (Excel)
Q AE writes: Is there a way of calculating the number of days between 2 dates?
A The Date function (syntax DATE(year,month,day) ) might do the trick for you. For example, to compute the number of days between 17 March 2005 and 30 March 2005 you enter =DATE(2005,3,30)-DATE(2005,3,17)+1

Sort by month in Excel
Q TD writes: Is there a way to rank birthdates only in order of the month?
A I'm sure there must be other ways of doing this but I got around it using the text worksheet function and then sort; see http://www.roem.co.uk/example.xls.)

UK computer in Canada
Q F writes: I don't know if you are able to help me, but I need to know if a UK computer can be used in Canada.
A As I understand the voltage in Canada is the same as in the USA (i.e. different from Europe) you'll need to change the voltage. You should find a switch on the power supply to do so. If it's a laptop this shouldn't be necessary - check the laptop's power supply - it should say something about it (mine says it can cope from 100-240V).

Missing Excel Formula Bar
Q MB writes: ... can't get back her Formula Bar on her Excel spreadsheets and I can't find/work out how to do it either. I didn't know it could even disappear.
A I guess what happend is that the Formula bar tick box under Tools / Option / View is unticked?

An Outlook Calendar question
Q DA writes: Regarding the Outlook Calendar, I put entries on there, for example of when people are on holiday and I put it as an all day event so it appears as a grey strip across the day. At this time of year, there are a lot of people on holiday and so when you go to print the calendar for the month, a particular all day event can not been seen on the printout because of the order of all day events. Is there any way of some how of prioritising the entries? I have tried several ways and the calendar seems to put them into a random order.
A When you put a number in front of the subject they get ordered by number.

Unlocking a Password Protected Word Document
Q LC writes: Yesterday I sent out a password protected Word document (I went into Tools, Protect Document and clicked "protected documents for comments") but when I got it back this morning the recipient had nevertheless managed to make visible mark-ups in the document. Do you know how that is possible?
A By using Tools/Protect Document you're not preventing others to make changes to your document, which is what you hoped to achieve. Tools/Protect Document allows you to protect the tracking process itself. There are two ways of tracking changes in your document: unprotected and protected. An "unprotected" document means the ability to track, accept, and reject changes can be turned on or off by anyone. A "protected" document means the ability to track, accept, and reject changes can only be turned on or off by the person who set the document up for protection, generally the original author. The protected way also allows you to enter a password.

Adding animation to PowerPoint sub-bullets
Q LRC writes: How do I make sub-bullets of text appear on the screen, one by one, rather than all at once?
A If you have sub-bullets in your bulleted list, you can have the list come in all at once or one (sub)bullet at a time. In slide view choose Slide Show/Custom Animation. Click the relevant text box under "Check to animate slide objects" and change the "Grouped by 1st" option to 2nd.

Home   Training   Support   Clients   Contact Details   Disclaimer   Virtual Press Room