Dave Bowkster wrote that his wife receives information from a trade association in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, but that she doesn't have the program. Well, a free Excel Reader is available from Microsoft.com. The program lets a person read a spreadsheet, but not create or edit one. However, a complete MSOffice/Excel-compatible suite is free from OpenOffice.org. Another solution is to use the free online word processing and spreadsheet programs at Google.com.

Joe Kraatz said his PC suddenly made typing the same character twice in a row (such as the double-a in his name) impossible. I suggested Joe might have unknowingly activated an "Accessibility" option used by persons who have problems keeping a pressed key from repeating itself. Joe deselected this option and his typing returned to normal.

Windows comes with a number of these options designed to help users with visual and/or other physical problems. Check them out by going to Start>All Programs> Accessories>Accessibility, where a "wizard" will lead you through the various options.

Fran Weiss said she wanted to upload a photo along with a classified ad to be placed on CraigList.org, but didn't understand the "Browse" option for finding the picture on her computer. Well, we've been able to download pictures from web sites for years, but uploading them is a relatively new feature found on dozens of social networking, blog, and news sites.

When ready to upload a picture, clicking the Browse button displays a Windows Explorer listing of your computer's folders, with "My Pictures" being the default search area. Clicking on View>Thumbnails often makes finding the target picture even easier. When you find it, double-clicking its filename will put it in position to be uploaded. Finally, click OK or whatever upload command is shown.