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Pocket-size Hard Drive, Wide Spreadsheet, Word Processor CompatibilityIn recent weeks a worm known as Conficker or Downadup has infected millions of computers world-wide in what appears to be the beginning of a multistage attack. A lot of technical verbiage has been posted about this virus, but the bottom line is that it gets into one's computer via a Windows vulnerability. Your PC is immune as long as you have all of Microsoft's updates. Go to Microsoft.com and click on Security & Updates. While you're there, sign up for Automatic Updates for maximum protection. While at Microsoft.com you might consider trying the 90-day free trial of their OneCare Security program. I've been pleased with the way it works, and have heard rumors that it may become a free program. If not, I'll use the free anti-virus program from Avira.com. In any case, do NOT have more than one anti-virus program installed at a time. They tend to confuse each other and neither will work properly.  Regarding PC security, Sue Coffin asked how to backup her computer's files. Well, there are many ways, but the most practical is to use an external hard drive such as the Maxtor One-touch Mini. Ours holds 500 gigs of data and can be carried in a shirt pocket. It gets power via its USB cable and doesn't need an AC adapter. We bought ours online from Amazon.com, where we've found the best prices and service. Bigger external hard drives are available with capacities of up to 2 Terabytes. These drives do require AC power, but their huge capacities are ideal for those who collect lots of videos, photos, and/or music files. Sue also asked how to copy individual files from her PC to a flash memory stick drive. With the flash drive inserted into a USB port, click on Start>My Computer or Computer to see all drives displayed. Then open the My Documents or Documents folder containing the target files. Arrange the windows onscreen to display both the list of files and the flash drive. Finally, drag the files onto the flash drive, whereupon they will be copied rather than physically moved. The files can be copied to another computer by simply reversing the process. Wide Spreadsheet Kathy Ryan wrote that she had a spreadsheet that was too wide to fit on a standard sheet of typing paper and asked how this could be fixed. Well, spreadsheets are more likely to fit on paper when printed "sideways" in a Landscape (11 inches) view rather than a Portrait (8.5 inches) view. Click on File>Page Setup>Page>Landscape to change the layout. Then click on File>Print Preview to see exactly how the printed page would look. If the worksheet still goes beyond the paper's edges, consider using a smaller and/or narrower font, such as 8-point Arial Narrow. Beyond this, using "legal size" paper (8.5x14 inches) often solves the problem. Word Processor Compatibility Mags McLean wrote that he uses MSWord at the office, but has MSWorks on his home computer, and asked how to make his documents compatible with both programs. Easy — just save all documents with an RTF (rich text format) extension rather than the traditional Word and Works extensions. RTF documents are compatible with all popular word processing programs, including WordPerfect, AbiWord, and OpenOffice Writer. © Donald Ray Edrington - All Rights Reserved
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