May 2007
Jim Scheef, Moderator
Lisa Leifels, Reporter
We welcome questions from the floor at the start of our General Meetings. In addition, members who are not able to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to askdacs@dacs.org. We will ask the question for you and post the reply in DACS.ORG. Please provide as much information as possible since we can’t probe during the session.
Q. What is a good anti-virus software program to use?
A. Some of the anti-virus software programs that were recommended at the meeting were F-Secure, Kaspersky and Nod 32. You can also refer to one of the many websites that compare anti-virus programs. Jamie Yates mentioned the website http://www.av-comparatives.org that is updated quarterly and evaluates over 20 anti-virus programs during the What’s News segment at the March 2007 general meeting.
Q. Are there any problems with using Window Media player?
A. The three most popular media players (Windows Media Player, QuickTime and RealPlayer) all have a browser plug-in, which allow the browser to open up a small media player window inside your browser. You may have the media player software installed, but still need to install the media player plug-in software. There are known issues with each of the plug-ins and configuration changes that can be made to enable the software to work better. You can look on the Microsoft website to find answers to frequently asked questions about Windows Media Player. You may also want to check the website of your browser to see what settings they recommend using.
Q. How do I send a mail merge letter to 20-30 people in Outlook Express?
A. The Outlook Express Address Book is not designed to be used with Microsoft Word 2000 or 2002. You can export the Outlook Express Address Book to a file and then use the exported file as the mail merge data source in Microsoft Word. Since you mentioned that you are using an older copy of Microsoft Word, you should look up Mail Merge in the help file in Microsoft Word.
Here are the instructions to export your address book from Outlook Express:
1. Start Outlook Express. On the File menu, point to Export, and then click Address Book.
2. In the Address Book Export Tool dialog box, click Text File (Comma Separated Values), and then click Export.
3. In the Save exported file as box, type a file name for your exported Address Book file, and then click Browse. Select the folder you would like to save your file to.
You can save your Outlook Express Address Book in one of two formats: Comma Separated Values (*.csv) or Text Files (*.txt). Word can use either format.
5. In the Save as Type box, click the format that you want to use, and then click Save. Click Next. Select the fields that you want to export as part of your data source, and then click Finish.
6. When you are prompted with a message that the address book export process is completed, click OK. Click Close to close the Address Book Export Tool dialog box.
Q. I am using a new PC with Windows XP via a dial up connection to access the Internet. I see a message that Microsoft Update is being downloaded, but I get disconnected from my ISP because it appears that nothing is happening?
A. First find out if your ISP uses a heartbeat message for incoming modem calls. This is a small signal from your ISP server that checks if your machine is still active. You can download freeware of shareware which will send a small periodic signal to your ISP to prevent this disconnect from happening. One of the more popular programs for this is Stay Live 2000 which can be found at www.gregorybraun.com/StayLive.html. .
Submit any question to: askdacs@dacs.org. |
