Reading words
We do not use Microsoft Word, but increasingly people are sending us emails with attachments written in the latest Word formats. On my Windows 98 machine I can read these with WordPad, but on my wife's older Windows 95 machine, WordPad produces a load of garbage. Can I copy my Win98 version on to her machine, and how? Is there any other program that will read them?
Joseph Edwards
joseph.edwards@ntlworld.com
Jack Schofield replies: Microsoft provides a free viewer for Word files. You can download it from a link at http://support.microsoft.com/ support/kb/articles/q165/9/ 08.asp
However, you could also encourage the people who write to you to use plain text or save documents as Rich Text Files (.rtf). A copy of Wordpad.exe from Windows 98 will not run (or not easily) in Windows 95. Programs from earlier versions of Windows usually run in later ones, but not vice versa.
Spellcheck
My daughter works in Italy as an English teacher. Her home system runs Microsoft Word 97 and Windows 98 - nothing unusual except that it is all Italian language-based. Since an important part of her work is in English, she needs a spellcheck that scans her English language work as conveniently as the embedded (Italian) one.
Rob Brady
Br@dyRobert.co.uk
JS : Can she upgrade to Word 2000? Many word processors can be loaded with spelling checkers for different languages, but Word 2000 performs the neat trick of checking the spelling of multiple languages on the same page. She should get the Italian version, which supports Italian, French, German and English out of the box. The English version only supports English, French and Spanish. To support Italian and other languages, she would then need to add the Office 2000 Proofing Tools ( www.microsoft.com/office/multilingual/proofing.htm ). This series of CDs covers more than 30 languages.
What Works
I use the Microsoft Works 2000 word processor, which creates .wps files. I sometimes need to send files as email attachments but IE5 won't open them. This means they have to be converted to .doc or .txt files for transmission. Annoyingly, conversion removes page numbers and page-end references. Is there any way around this, please?
Mike Cooper
bartolo@waitrose.com
JS: There may be, but I would not look for one. I think you should stop using the wps file format, which has no long-term future, and save things in (Word) doc or rtf format, or even html. The more files you save in wps now, the more tedious it will be when you have to translate them all later. Both the Works Suite 2000 and 2001 include a copy of Word 2000, so you may already have a copy.
Still squawks I have tried all three remedies for silencing "the parrot" without success (May 10). Have you any other ideas short of a shotgun? I have been told it may be because AOL use their own software.
Robin Griffiths
GRIFFNR@aol.com
JS: Several AOL users have written in with the same complaint so you are probably right. AOL dial-up software does contain its own settings for modem noises. In AOL 4.0i, for example, go into Setup, and then Expert Add Modem. There you will find a selector for speaker volume, which offers Off, Low, Normal and Loud.
Passwords
Since upgrading to Internet Explorer 5.5, I have been unable to save my password. The Save Password option on the Dial Up Connection box is greyed out, so I can't tick it, and I have to retype the password every time. Can you help? I can't find anything on the web about others experiencing this problem.
Peter Flanagan
peter@flana49.freeserve.co.uk
JS: This is, unfortunately, a frequently-asked question. Worse, there is no reliable answer. There are so many things that can possibly go wrong that there is not room to go into them all here.
However, Microsoft has some advice in its Knowledge Base at http://support. microsoft.com/support/kb/ articles/q148/9/25.asp
You can also work through a list of the possibilities on the WindowsAnnoyances website at www.annoyances.org/cgi-bin/ce-showtopic/006_004
Re-send
I use Outlook Express 5 and would like to know if you can re-send a message that is in the Sent Items box?
Peter Deighton
peterdeighton@csma-netlink
JS: Not that I can see: Outlook Express will not let you put it back in the Outbox. However, if you double-click a mail message in Sent Items, you can forward it to someone, including the original recipient.
Anti spam
Spam merchants almost always include something like: "to be removed from this list, reply with REMOVE in the subject line". Is there any evidence that this achieves anything, or should I just delete the junk and save myself the bother of replying?
Bob Wilkins
bob_wilkins@email.msn.com
JS: Yes, it does achieve something - it tells the spammer that your mailbox is active, rather than one of the countless defunct or non-existent ones included on CDs that offer millions of email addresses for a few dollars.
· Following last week's question from Judit Carson, thanks to Clem Dye and other readers for telling us about Microsoft's Application Compatibility tool (Apcompat.exe) for Windows 2000. This does not change anything but lets Windows 2000 lie about which operating system it is when asked, which may allow some games to run. See http://support. microsoft.com/support/kb/ articles/Q251/0/62.ASP
· Due to popular demand, Ask Jack will now appear every week, instead of fortnightly. However, I would really like to broaden the range of topics covered, so feel free to ask about MP3 files, utility programs or web sites and other general topics: if I don't know the answer, I'll find someone who does. (And if the answer would be too big to fit this space, we'll consider the topic for the Step By Step section.) I never make up the questions for this column, so if there is anything you would like to see covered, you really do have to ask.
