Microsoft Word 2007 Help - System Restore Fixed Infection Strange Symbols Appearing in Word - Pruning Word Toolbar Backing Up Docs with Gmail - Friend's Hard Drive Suddenly Full
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Why Is This Symbol Appearing in All My Word Files?
Dorothy Enright asked how to remove the "paragraph" symbols that suddenly appeared in all her Microsoft Word documents. This symbol's icon appears in many users' Word toolbar and, when clicked, inserts itself at the end of each paragraph in an open document. However, giving the icon another click will remove all occurrences of the symbol.
If you don't see the toolbar icon you can still remove the symbols by clicking Tools>Options>View and unchecking the items under Formatting Marks in pre-2007 versions of Word.
Word 2007 users accomplish this by clicking the Microsoft Office Button and then clicking the Word Options button at the bottom of the page. Finally, click Display and uncheck all the items under "Always show these formatting marks on the screen. "
Trying to Figure Out Word 2007 (& Excel 2007)
Speaking of the painfully complicated Word 2007, my friend Prof. Carl Von Papp (Bellevue Community College in Bellevue, WA) told me of a free download that displays a Word 2003 page that lets you click a familiar mouse sequence, which will then explain how to accomplish the same task in Word 2007. Click for this free
Word 2007 helper tool. Click for a similar
Excel 2007 helper tool.
Another Use for "System Restore?"
I've previously explained how System Restore can fix a variety of PC glitches by returning your computer's settings to a previous date. However, I'd never heard of System Restore removing malware from a PC — until Bob Sprung called to say it did just that for him. When an anti-malware program told him he had an infection, Bob said doing a System Restore got rid of it. I found this quite amazing. How to do a System Restore is described here.
Using Gmail (Google Mail) for Backing Up Your Documents
Gloria Bernal wants to back up documents by sending them to herself via Gmail. However, Gloria could find no way of creating folders in Gmail that would let her separate her messages into specific groups.
Well, oddly enough, Gmail calls its folders Labels and has a comprehensive video that explains how to create and use them.
Go to your Gmail Inbox and click on Help in the Menu Bar. Type labels into the "What Can We Help You With?" box. and click the Search Help Center button. Next, click on the top link: "Using Labels - Help Center". Finally, click on " Learn the basics of using labels to better organize your mail. View a brief demo." Here you can view and listen to the instructional video.
Using Windows Media Player (My Favorite) to Play Your Media Files
Gary Asbury installed Nero on his computer for burning CDs, but wants to play his media discs via Windows Media Player. However, Nero installed itself as the default player. This can be fixed by opening Windows Media Player, clicking on Tools>Options>File Types and making your choices. Personally, I use WMP to play all the media types in the list.
A Friend's Hard Drive Mysteriously Became Suddenly Full
A friend called to say his PC's hard drive, which always had plenty of free space, suddenly became nearly full — and asked what might have caused this. For starters, I suggested checking to see what his largest files were.
I told him to click Start>Search>All Files & Folders, and to type *.* into the Name or Partial Name box.
An asterisk (*) is a "search wild card" and two of them separated by a dot (period) means "every file name" and "every extension" on the computer. I then told him to click on "What Size Is It?" and select "Large."
When he clicked Search the largest files named in the list had extensions of AVI, MPG, and WAV — in other words, video and music files. I asked if he had recently begun putting songs and videos on his computer. Well, you can guess the answer.
I rarely hear questions about hard drives being filled up anymore, since they have become so huge. But my friend said that when he bought his Dell it never occurred to him he would be collecting media files some day, so he just ordered a 60-gig drive.
What Are Paragraph Marks Used For and Why Are They on My PC?
Paragraph symbols (along with other symbols that can be found under
Tools>Options>View>Formatting Marks in pre-2007 versions of Word) are a throw-back to typewriter days when editors penciled in these marks to indicate changes to be made in a typewritten document.
They are rarely, if ever, used anymore. Their main purpose nowadays seems to be to drive users crazy when they suddenly find them showing up in their Word pages.
Pruning Microsoft Word's Toolbar
When first installed, Word has toolbars that display way more icons than most of us ever use.
You may see three or four rows of icons, many of which have little meaning to you. If you eliminate these excess icons, you can pick up an extra row or two of white space, thus seeing more of the document you’re working on. Also, having less icons on your toolbar makes it easier to find the ones you want.
Adding & Removing Toolbar Icons (in Pre-2007 Versions of Word)
To add or remove icons, go to Tools>Customize. After the Customize window opens, simply drag any unwanted icons into it. (You can always replace them later if you change your mind.)
Little Yellow Labels Can Tell You...
But how do we know what all these icons mean? Maybe we’d want to keep some if we knew what they meant. Well, just let your mouse pointer rest on one for a second or two and a little yellow label will appear, giving information about the icon.
To drag an icon from the Customize window onto your toolbar, find it in the Commands window under the Commands tab, and drag it onto the toolbar at a position of your choice. An icon I use constantly, for instance, but which does not appear on the initial toolbar setup is Ruler. Click on Commands>View and then drag the Ruler icon onto your toolbar. From then on you will be able to turn your Ruler on and off with one click.
Picking Up More White Space
Another way to pick up some extra white space is to eliminate the Status Bar at the bottom of your Word screen. This bar is useful to people writing a long document and who may need "page number" and other pertinent data displayed, but it is seldom used by folks writing one- or two-page letters. Go to Tools> Options>View, and uncheck Status Bar.
Appearing in All My Word Files?