 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Tips and tricks George Skarbek gskarbek@melbpc.org.au |
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Caps problem
Do you ever hit CapsLock instead of the Shift key and continue typing? If you are using Windows 95 there is help.
You can modify Windows to make a sound when the Caps Lock button is hit. Do this by clicking on Start, Settings, Control Panel, Accessibility Options and click on the ToggleKeys check box. Now when you press CapsLock, it will make a sound and when you press it again, to turn it off, it will make a different sound
Sorting files in Windows Explorer
Often it is useful to see your files sorted by date, to find your most recently saved files, or by size to see what is taking up the disk space. With Windows 95 Explorer just click on any of the headings in the right-hand pane and your files will sorted by that field. Click again to reverse the sort order.
If you cannot see the file details in the right-hand pane, then click on View, Toolbar and then on the Details icon on the tool bar. This is the furthest one on the right and you may have to drag the right-hand border farther over to make this icon appear
Suspending auto numbering in Word
When using auto numbering of paragraphs, users often find it tricky to have two or more paragraphs under the one point without the next number appearing and it is a messy business to fix this once it has happened. The answer is actually very simple. Instead of pressing Enter to start a new paragraph, press Shift+Enter. You will get a new paragraph without a new number. Press Enter and the new number will appear.
Promoting levels in Word 5 vs Word 7
In regards to how to promote further levels using multi-level numbering there is a difference between Word 5 and Word 7. To go from 1. to 1.1 in Word 5 you have to press Shift+Alt and the right arrow. In Word 7 this still works but the tab key will achieve the same thing. Tab again to get 1.1.1 and Shift+Tab to go back one level.
Assigning "Print Current Page"
I often wish to print just the current page in a multi-page Word document. Because I tend to do this frequently, I have assigned both a keyboard shortcut and an icon on the Toolbar to save going through the File, Print menu option. This is not that difficult to achieve but takes several steps. To assign your commonly used commands do the following:
- Click on Tools, Macro, then give it a name and description
- Click on Record and assign it to the Keyboard
- Press the key combination that you wish to use. In my case I've selected Ctrl+Shift+P (Ctrl+P brings up the normal print box.) Word will show if the combination you have selected is already assigned. If it is, and you don't use that combination (in my case, it is pre-assigned to FontSize Select which I do not invoke from the keyboard) you can reassign it. If you do use the function to which the key combination is already assigned, simply select another combination that isn't used.
- Click on Assign and you will see two buttons appear in a tiny window called Macro Record as shown and the cursor will change.
- Click on the commands that are required to achieve your task. In this example it is File, Print, Current page and OK.
- Press the Stop button in the Macro Record window.
- Click on Tools, Customise and Toolbars
- Scroll down until you see Macro and click on Macro
- Select the one that you have just created and drag it onto the Toolbar, in the position that you want to have it and change the text as required
- Select a picture that you like
- Click on Assign and then Close
Windows 95 resource kit
Have you ever looked for help in the Windows 95 Help and not found what you were after? Well, Microsoft sells a book called Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit for $100. This book is thicker than the phone directory and has a lot of additional information about Windows 95. However, instead of purchasing it, anyone who has installed Windows 95 from a CD-ROM has that full book, with diagrams and screen dumps, on their CD-ROM. It is not copied onto the hard disk during installation, but can be copied onto your hard disk or accessed from the CD-ROM. The file is WIN95RK and is in a folder called \ADMIN\RESKIT\HELPFILE on the CD-ROM. Microsoft does not appear to advertise this.
What type of memory do I need?
"Occasionally I get a message stating that my computer has insufficient memory. Do I need to increase my hard disk or the RAM?"
This is a question that I am regularly asked. There are many people who have been using computers for many years but still are not sure of the difference between memory and disk storage. The reason for this, I believe, is due to the fact that both are measured in bytes or megabytes (MB). In a similar way, oil and petrol are both needed to make a car run, and both are measured in the same units, litres, but have quite different functions.
The key difference between memory and disk storage is that programs can only be run in Random Access Memory (RAM) but are stored on disk. When power is switched off, anything that is in RAM is immediately lost. The contents on the hard disk remain. To run a program, such as Word, the operating system, Windows, loads the program from the disk, into the memory (RAM). Only then can Word begin to run. However to save time and memory, not all of the program is loaded into memory. Extras such as the thesaurus, drawing functions, etc, are loaded only when required.
Windows itself consumes considerable memory before any application program is loaded. However, Windows can run programs that require more memory than is physically available, by swapping information from memory to a swap file on the hard disk. When information from the swap file is needed, Windows moves it back into real physical memory. This allows several large programs to be loaded simultaneously. The swap file is referred to as virtual memory.
This swapping process is very time consuming, but with more RAM the need for swapping in and out to disk can be drastically reduced or even eliminated. To get the best performance from Windows you must minimise this disk access, as getting data from memory is over one thousand times faster than from disk. With more real RAM available some programs will run many times faster. Word and WordPerfect are among such programs. With more RAM, overlays, such as the spell checker, once loaded do not have to be swapped out, and the next time you run spell check the results will be very much faster. Smaller programs will generally not show much improvement with additional RAM. With today's programs, 16 MB is generally quite adequate. It will give a very significant improvement over an 8 MB system. Going to 32 MB will usually only give a small improvement over 16 MB, however some programs will benefit significantly, such as Adobe Photoshop. Memory prices have fallen drastically and 8 MB of memory can be purchased for about $60.
The clue as to what resource has run out is given by the phrase "Insufficient memory" and this almost certainly points to RAM. If the hard disk has filled, the usual message would state "Disk Full" or "Unable to Write to Disk" or something similar. The "Insufficient memory" message is further complicated by the fact that there are several types of memory used by IBM PCs. Users with 64 MB of RAM (the real memory) can get the "Insufficient memory" error message under Windows 3.1. By far the most important memory is the first 640 KB, known as base memory, because most applications, as well as the operating system, want it. The amount of free base free memory to a large extent, determines the behaviour of Windows 3.1. Windows 95 has much better memory management so the first 640 KB is not as critical.
Before Windows 3.1 users buy more memory, it may pay to try to increase the free space in the base memory, which is the first 640 KB and the most valuable part of memory. Often this is taken up by too many programs and there is insufficient conventional memory left. By freeing up this part of memory you may save having to purchase more RAM, which still may not solve this error message. This is because increasing the total RAM, does not increase the first 640 KB.
The quickest and simplest way of freeing up some of this 640 KB, if you are running DOS 6 or higher, is to use MEMMAKER. This is an automated memory optimisation program which usually helps to make more memory available. This must be run from DOS with Windows not active.
If you have some computer knowledge, examine the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files to see if there are programs being loaded that are now no longer used. Before starting make a copy of the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. A common program that can be removed, which is best done by typing REM in front of the appropriate line, is the mouse driver. This is only required if you are running DOS programs that use the mouse. Windows has its own mouse driver built in and does not need the DOS version. This will usually free a reasonable amount of conventional memory. After deleting such programs run MEMMAKER again to now optimise the RAM.
Reprinted from the May 1997 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
