Getting  Along With Your Computer Column Archive

Your Questions and Answers

By Cate Eales
Appeared May 31, 2007 on castanet.net

I've received lots of email from readers in the last couple of weeks, and the best part is that there have been almost as many answers as there have been questions! You folks are great, and I appreciate your taking the time to write. Thank you!

Here is a sampling of the recent email.



Resize Redux
Last week I showed you how to resize any window. "Al" wrote in with more on this:

Read your article on "Back to basics" and had one more to add to it. You mentioned that clicking the center button in the three on the upper right corner to make the page smaller or larger. I just wanted to add one more.

If you double click on the top bar of anything you have open on your desktop (browser or anything else), it will do the exact same thing as if you clicked on that center button.

I tell most of my clients and students this trick and they love it.

Great tip, Al; thanks.


Outlandish Outlook Behaviour
"Vince" was annoyed by Outlook's stubbornness.

In Outlook when I type in the first letter of a person's address I get a window that shows me all the names with this first letter. Some people have changed their addresses so I would like to delete or prevent the wrong address from being displayed and selected.

I have not been able to figure this one out. My address book only has the correct email address for this person but the window displays old ones that I have used. So often I will send emails to the wrong address and then get several Internet Failure messages.

This has got to be one of the most irritating features of Outlook, second only to the "I won't let you open this attachment in order to protect you from yourself" feature.

When you type in the To: or the cc: field, you're being offered choices for addresses that you have already deleted from your address book. All you need to do is use the arrow keys on your keyboard to highlight the address you want to get rid of, and when it's highlighted, just hit the Delete key. Who knew?

The reason you are offered that choice even though it's out of your address book is that Outlook keeps track of this stuff in an Auto complete list. So although you've gotten it out of your address book, Outlook isn't even looking there. Instead it's just looking at the Auto complete list.

Thanks for the question!
 

Pass the Cookies
"Jen" wrote with a problem about her home page in Firefox.

The problem I have is my Home Page. I always use Google.com. This is fine in IE and hasn't changed, but I nearly always use Firefox and now it keeps loading Google.ca.

I have gone to the Tools-Options-Main Tab and it says that my home page is Google.com, but it keeps bringing up Google.ca. I have changed the page by clicking to Google.com on the Google.ca page and it does change for me at that time. But even when I am on the Google.com page I have told Firefox Options to use the current page as my home page, and have also Bookmarked Google.com and then told Firefox to use the Bookmarked page as my home page and every time it goes to Google.ca.

Jen did everything correctly to change the home page, but it just wouldn't stick. I was in the process of answering her email when I received an update from her. She solved the problem on her own.

Having spent some considerable time tracking down and eradicating a nasty trojan in her machine, Jen had changed the setting in Firefox so that it would only accept cookies until she closed Firefox. So she would change the home page, but next time she wanted to go to google.com, she would be directed to google.ca. This is normal behaviour for Google, but "telling" Google to use google.com is supposed to override that behaviour.

Once Jen went back into the settings and allowed Firefox to accept cookies until they expire, Firefox used the cookie to remember Jen's preference for google.com and sent her straight there.

Good detective work, Jen!

For more about cookies, check here or here.


Please send your questions, comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism to cate@rlis.com. I appreciate hearing from you. You can always have a look at any column any time by browsing to the Column Archives, here. We are open 24/7!

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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.