tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-182765582011-11-27T17:41:41.332-06:00"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." <br>Abraham Maslow <br/>Davenoreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1130254630515852322010-12-31T12:59:00.002-06:002011-07-25T12:52:20.453-05:00

At first, this blog was all about troubleshooting Microsoft Word problems. But since computers are such an integral part of our lives, I now try to include information helpful to many aspects of computer life include security, antivirus, firewalls, etc. Comments and questions are welcome, as are links to my posts on your website.Happy shooting!Dave[ SAD UPDATE ]Well, I've removed myself too far

Davenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-3360364417342986482009-06-16T09:15:00.004-05:002009-06-16T09:29:20.750-05:00

Sometimes formatting a document does not work as we would expect. We select text and apply formatting and the whole paragraph and sometimes the whole document goes nuts! There's always a possibility that it's a corrupt document. What it comes down to is a very complex set of formatting rules which are more cumbersome than the U.S. tax code.There are many levels of formatting that you can put on

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-63644226482229598332009-05-13T12:51:00.006-05:002009-08-04T10:29:36.211-05:00

So, I've been working ocassionally on a pet project. It's current inception is called Legacy of Power, a MMORPRTSG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Real-Time Strategy Game - whew!). It was started under the guise of FeudalSim, but I have since taken my ball and gone to my own playing field.Please feel free to stop by and check it out. If you're interested in helping, drop me a line. I'm

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-55972721281139783172009-05-07T14:47:00.003-05:002009-05-07T14:52:09.951-05:00

So you go to change fonts in Word and suddenly they're missing! You get a box that looks like this:What happened?! What do you do? Well, this is because your default driver selected is a generic/text only driver. This printer driver is helpful as a testing tool, but only provides you a couple of raster fonts - certainly nothing that you want to use for production.The fix is easy - just change

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-10991523148188550872009-04-08T08:54:00.003-05:002009-04-08T08:58:31.611-05:00

Sometimes we wish that we could just make changes in the registry to make feature changes in applications. For Word, sometimes we want to be able to change things such as the Normal.dot default location, or our workgroup templates location without having to do it manually on every computer we're responsible for. Well, help has arrived!You can change the default normal.dot location by doing the

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-22886933343098181462008-08-18T09:30:00.001-05:002009-08-14T13:08:08.129-05:00

I see a lot of documents. Some good, most pretty bad. But, they all look pretty good. So, why do I call them "bad"? What's so "bad" about them? You just have to look at the finer details - how was the document put together? And what does this have to do with creating styles in Word? Well, let me give you my 2c about creating styles and making sure documents have a good, simple foundation. Warning

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-56153487574952201942008-08-15T14:47:00.000-05:002008-08-15T15:08:22.885-05:00

I see a lot of comments asking, "why does Word create temp files?" or, "what are those hidden files with the little ~$ in front of them?" I'll answer both of those questions with a quick and dirty explanation of how Word works and why those temp file are important.Document FilesFirst of all, we all know what document files are. Those are the "finished products" that we work on - .doc files. We

Davenoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-37614137713199271682008-08-15T14:32:00.001-05:002008-08-15T15:10:00.208-05:00

So, have you ever noticed how weird Word behaves on a network? You open a document on your server/network, and Word creates a temp file. That's okay, Word does that. You close the document, but you see owner (~$...) files and working (~...wrl, ~...tmp, etc.) files scattered and left behind. Now, when you open documents, Word tells you that they're open by someone else - sometimes you! And even

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-76176040273275685482008-05-27T08:43:00.001-05:002008-08-15T15:18:26.532-05:00

I've seen a mysterious problem crop up to many Microsoft Word users: you double-click a Document (or even Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, etc.), and the computer hangs for a a little bit, and then the document opens. Equally irritating is that opening the document from File > Open inside of Word is usually nice and snappy. Fingers have been pointed at (insert name of Office

Davenoreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-10256345137125144192008-05-15T16:09:00.004-05:002008-12-08T09:32:30.429-06:00

Over time, Windows collects bloat just like a snowball. If you're not careful, some of that bloat could be something really nasty like a virus or spyware. Below are some simple steps that can help you safely restore the performance and safety of your computer. Of course, since I'm cheap, I want to point out that this process won't cost you a dime!Update WindowsYou have to start by updating

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-49282140610527088512008-05-07T16:32:00.004-05:002009-05-14T14:27:24.165-05:00

So, who is this mysterious Dave/DopyIII person? For starters, I'm a geek and a software engineer (not a programmer - an actual engineer doing real engineering). Here's a summary of my experience and why I think my opinion should matter (roughly chronologically listed).Served as a missionary for the LDS church in Uruguay from 1994 to 1996.Graduate of Utah State University with a B.S. in Psychology

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-24123917453958575742008-04-28T11:56:00.003-05:002009-05-14T14:32:30.026-05:00

I've been itching to switch to Linux for a while now. Unfortunately, I'm really rusty and really lack the confidence that I need to take the plunge. And, I didn't want to go through the hassle of dual booting (although, the solution I'm using now is essentially that). Instead, I've installed Ubuntu 8.04 using the Wubi Installer for Windows.All I had to do was download the ISO for Ubuntu (actually

Davenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-23870681435458965002008-04-28T11:24:00.002-05:002008-05-08T10:43:21.929-05:00

So, I downloaded and installed Windows XP Service Pack (SP3) - or at least, I tried to install it. About half-way through, I got an "access denied" error, which is odd because I have an administrative account (the actual administrator account did the same thing). Thinking that this was related to my previous issue with registry permissions, I did some digging and found that this is likely due to

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-28467486964091480152008-04-23T23:13:00.002-05:002008-05-07T15:35:55.354-05:00

So, I was trying to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 tonight, but I ran into some issues. I kept getting errors that it couldn't backup a few registry keys. I'd seen something similar to this when I ran programs like Adaware and Spybot Search & Destroy. They'd hit a certain registry key and give various errors about not being able to access it ("access denied", "failed to open...", etc.).

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-63350930998253017442008-04-20T13:24:00.000-05:002008-04-20T13:56:39.587-05:00

Okay, so I gave in. I violated my #1 rule about software: don't buy it if you don't have to (especially if it's from Microsoft). I've had the luxury of not buying Office, Windows, Visual Studio, etc., because they were either free through an educational agreement, or something that I received from work. I was happy as a clam, until I decided that I "needed" Office 2007. What changed my mind? Why

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-26408791697693107262007-11-01T09:10:00.000-05:002007-11-01T09:46:53.157-05:00

So, I've made a couple of comments about never wanting to own Vista. You might ask why, so I'll give you my (possibly skewed) reasons why:1. It's a system hog.Now honestly, does the operating system, the thing that has the SOLE responsibility of helping me interact with my hardware, really have to require such an awesome computer. Check out these system reqs:Minimum:800 MHz processor and 512 MB

Davenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-61112884164035507742007-10-04T14:28:00.002-05:002008-05-07T15:46:10.313-05:00

Tracked changes is IMO an underused, over abused feature in Microsoft Word. Essentially unchanged since Word 6.0, it has traditionally been clunky and hard to use. I have also talked with people who have serious I'll-sue-you concerns over privacy with regards to the Tracked Changes feature. However, in Word 2002 and Word 2003, the feature has been enhanced, though still not perfect. Some

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-45759711937477992952007-09-24T13:22:00.001-05:002008-05-07T15:40:12.025-05:00

So, on one of my computers, I've had problems updating Firefox. When going to Help > Check for Updates, I'd get the error: "".Well, after some research, I found that the app.update.url setting in the Firefox configuration was wrong, or at least pointing to something invalid. My original update url was:https://aus2.mozilla.org/update/2/%PRODUCT%/%VERSION%/%BUILD_ID%/%BUILD_TARGET%/%LOCALE%/%

Davenoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-91437693983264490342007-09-13T11:18:00.000-05:002007-10-16T14:59:56.892-05:00

So, you get a spam email. Or, you get a telemarketer (after you register with DNC and after the effective date passes). What do you do? Report 'em!For email spam, depending on what it is, you report it differently. Here is an awesome and comprehensive list about reporting junk.Here are some highlights: basically, any "spam" can be sent to spam@uce.gov. But, there are special reporting email

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-19980192761353351762007-09-13T10:12:00.000-05:002007-10-29T10:43:14.032-05:00

I hate spam; both the meat and the junk. Well, I've successfully eliminated most of my telephone, postal, and email spam. This is written from a U.S. perspective, so if you live elsewhere, you'll have to look elsewhere for help (sorry). Here's what to do:1. Opt-out from mailing spamThis is not as straightforward as you'd think, but I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. Most junk mail comes

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-47404651917909369542007-09-06T11:35:00.002-05:002008-05-07T15:31:51.370-05:00

I just love free software and I wish there was more support for developers who want to produce software as a hobby (or in some cases, a second job). I think it's awesome that developers are willing to put time and energy into developing applications for the community. Most accept donations, and we should donate to encourage their continued efforts.With that said, I've put together a list of free

Davenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-34543067504953339132007-09-04T15:18:00.000-05:002007-09-04T15:03:24.933-05:00

Document protection on Word documents is like the little locks you put on your luggage: it's only good for honest thieves. As with anything software, you can break into it. But, keeping this realistic, let's say you have a document that you created and you forgot the password (otherwise, you'd just use the password, right?). Here's what you can try:1. Insert the documentThis works well if you

Davenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-31926431372091691092007-08-30T14:24:00.000-05:002007-09-06T11:39:59.379-05:00

So, wouldn't it be cool if you could see all of Word's keyboard shortcuts? Well, you can! You can print a list of all assigned keyboard shortcuts, or all commands that could have a keyboard shortcut assigned.Here's how:Go to Tools > Macro > Macros...Change the Macros In: dropdown to Word CommandsAs an interesting side note, these are all macros that Word uses to do those fancy features that we

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-20115255296300644022007-08-23T10:49:00.000-05:002007-09-11T09:30:35.535-05:00

In order to give my blog more credibility, I've opted to use my semi-real name and "professionalize" up my blog a bit.First, the short version of the sorted history of the name DopyIII, a handle by which I'm known by at multiple places on the Internet. I've never danced with Mary Jane, or anything like that, so the "Dopy" is not because I'm doped or a moron (although, opinions differ).Back in my

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-82002988927130212302007-08-16T12:24:00.000-05:002007-09-06T11:38:40.392-05:00

Yeah, so Blogger + Tables = big pain. The format that I had for this page goofed, so I had to recreate it:http://howtotroubleshoot.blogspot.com/2007/09/free-software_3224.htmlSorry for the click-through!Dave

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-43981354293059856742007-08-15T13:54:00.005-05:002008-12-01T15:24:49.048-06:00

Word is a pack rat. If it doesn't close properly, or if you forget to do the voodoo dance of existential symmetric closure while creating your styles, or just use it how the average normal person would use it, Word will eventually have a problem due to its attic full of treasures. Here's how you clean Word out and reset it back to defaults!

Davenoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-30078850631562091102007-08-09T09:42:00.000-05:002007-08-09T09:58:57.726-05:00

I never used to worry about knowing about networking stuff; ignorance was bliss. But now, it's helpful to have a working knowledge of networking components. Not only is it easier to talk to geeks, it's also easier to know how to get around and secure a computer.Now, something that I set (and do forget about) is an additional layer of external security: OpenDNS. OpenDNS is an unbelievably free

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-75066819925651085652007-08-09T09:14:00.000-05:002007-08-09T12:13:40.049-05:00

So you're not sold on buying Office 2007; that's fine. But you're friends and/or coworkers are. Perhaps a business partner uses it. And now you're getting Office 2007 documents, but you can't open them because they're in Office 2007's new Open XML format. What to do?!Lucky for you (and me), Microsoft has provided a compatibility pack to make Office XP and Office 2003 compatible with Open

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-30593955229204976702007-08-07T13:46:00.001-05:002008-05-07T15:27:28.496-05:00

So, if you're like me, you have a common computer at home. Probably have multiple users too. While two adults can theoretically share a computer effectively, I've never seen it happen without sacrifice, patience and frustration. Now at home, I have three users on our computer: myself, my spouse, and my four year-old. Sharing one profile would be a nightmare!Well, Windows has in it all the tools

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-63772424727099212262007-08-07T13:23:00.001-05:002008-05-07T16:05:28.222-05:00

When you're in Word and you right-click on something, you get a snazzy shortcut menu with items specifically tailored to the thing upon which you right-clicked. Right? I remember in my Word support training, our motto was: "right click is your friend."Well, I have some good news: you can make it your best friend! You can actually customize the shortcut menu that pops up when you right-click.

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-63527401183657623572007-08-07T13:15:00.000-05:002007-08-07T13:23:04.777-05:00

Think back now... back to a time before the task pane... Back... back... Word 2003... back.... Word 2002.... back... Word 2000. Okay, we're there. Remember the old mail merge helper? That cool dialog box that came up and walked you through a seemingly easier mail merge process. Miss it? Want it back?Here's what you do in Word 2002/2003:Open WordClick Tools > Customize > Commands tabUnder

Davenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-4546884911605198472007-08-06T11:12:00.000-05:002007-09-05T10:20:09.052-05:00

I'm a little paranoid about computer security. I've never personally had my computer hacked, identity stolen, etc. But, I've had my share of viruses and spyware. But, really nothing in the last three years.With that in mind, I'd like to pass along sage advice to anyone who's trying to get up to speed in the desktop/laptop security world, or is wondering how their current solution (free or not

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-59224365384513477872007-05-21T11:04:00.002-05:002008-05-17T07:53:54.264-05:00

So, I recently bought a Geforce 7300GS PCI-e 256MB video card with Turbocache. I was surprised to see that it didn't really outperform my old 128 MB Geforce 5200FX. Seemed like it was hiccuping under load. After some research, I learned that it might be Turbocache. Unfortunately, there was no apparent way to turn it off... until now :)I know this (usually) works on Windows XP, but I haven't heard

Davenoreply@blogger.com61tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-17840724872577967942007-05-01T10:50:00.000-05:002007-08-15T13:29:45.331-05:00

I've tried a lot of antivirus programs over the years. I've tried Norton, McAfee, Antivir, Avast, AVG, Clamwin, and Comodo. But there's one that's on top right now: Grisoft's AVG (free), and I'll tell you why.1. System resourcesAVG doesn't hog the resources that other antivirus programs do. I always hated how Norton and McAfee dug their claws into my system like sentinels at the gates. While

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-67610097472921117602007-05-01T10:34:00.002-05:002008-06-04T15:11:51.010-05:00

Lifelock: proactive security for your identityI've recently discovered a service called Lifelock. The CEO's so confident that their service works that he publishes his social security number on the home page. Must be something to it!Lifelock promises a proactive identity theft solution. They help to unsubscribe you from all of the credit card offers, etc. because they are a potential source of

Davenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1145295674194682962006-04-17T12:40:00.003-05:002008-07-31T14:28:38.029-05:00

While Word has many time-saving features, wouldn't it just be better if you had control of Word instead of Word having control of you? I'll present here my preferred setup for Word that helps me get the most out of it.1. General Word OptionsFirst off, the Drawing Canvas is designed to make your life simpler by grouping drawing objects into one great whole. Well, IMHO, it's just a great big pain

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1144940190881924282006-04-13T09:56:00.001-05:002008-12-08T09:34:54.038-06:00

So your computer is slowing down. Maybe you're getting an error at startup or the blasted thing won't shut down anymore. Well, the Microsoft System Configuration Utility is a built-in way to help Windows XP feel better. While this article won't discuss all of the nitty-gritty's in using the utility, I will discuss how to use it to diagnose some problems.Please skim the article before you start

Davenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1142459681006270152006-03-15T15:44:00.000-06:002007-08-15T14:00:20.353-05:00

While I couldn't list all of the ways in which Word can fail to work, I can give you the basic thought process when troubleshooting Word.Step 1. Word Vs. The documentThe first thing you have to do if you're having a problem with a particular document is point a finger. How often do you get to do that first? This can be simply done by trying to reproduce the problem in a new document. If you

Davenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1142452662811583982006-03-15T13:27:00.000-06:002007-09-19T09:06:20.775-05:00

Remember back when you used to be able to uninstall an application and it really was uninstalled? Me neither. So, here’s a good way to make sure that Office is really gone without having to completely destroy your Windows installation.In days gone by, Microsoft included utilities to uninstall Office completely. As of Office XP, they no longer make these utilities and promise that the

Davenoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1142450198870092002006-03-15T12:29:00.001-06:002009-06-09T10:55:29.025-05:00

Most of the information presented here is common (or at least similar) to all versions of Microsoft Word. However, some steps such as “Open and Repair” are new features to Word XP, 2003. The next version of Word will use a different format, so we’ll see what happens there.Introduction: So Your Document Is PossessedSo many things can happen to a Word document just through use. Sometimes it’s a

Davenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1130355032456304462005-10-26T14:30:00.000-05:002007-08-16T12:49:14.946-05:00

Note: I have updated this post (new post also found here), but keep this page alive for the benefit of all the archived links out there.Word is a pack rat. If it doesn’t close properly, or if you forget to do the voodoo dance of existential symmetric closure while creating your styles, or just use it how the average normal person would use it, Word will eventually have a problem due to its attic

Davenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18276558.post-1130270712037377932005-10-25T15:04:00.000-05:002007-08-23T10:49:53.540-05:00

Note to everyone who might use or refer to the information that I provide on this blog:Troubleshooting your computer can make you lose work, productivity, time, etc. However, I have added warnings in the places where they should be to help you be aware of the potential for loss. Keep in mind that since I’m not forcing you to do these things, you alone are liable to what you’re about to do to

Davenoreply@blogger.com