When cutting-and-pasting formatted text (e.g. from a webpage or document) into an Outlook Express email, generally the formatting of the text is also carried over. This makes the pasted text in the email look out of sync with the typed text in the message. Unfortunately, Outlook Express does not have the option to paste as ‘Unformatted Text’ (like Microsoft Word). However, you can remove all formatting from the message (so all text looks the same) by going to the ‘Format’ menu > ‘Plain Text’. This will convert the message from HTML (formatted) format, into plain text format (no formatting). Then, convert the message back to HTML format by going to the ‘Format’ menu > ‘Rich Text (HTML)’. The message will be converted back to HTML format, but without any text formatting (as we removed all the formatting during the first conversion from HTML to Plain Text). So, all the text will look the same! (more…)

When surfing the internet I can only access the Google home page. No other pages will display, and I cannot even do any Google searches. The internet connection is definitely live, as I can receive email. Recently I have been receiving messages saying my computer has registry problems, but these appeared to be some form of spam so I did not respond to request to download software to fix the issue. The computer is running Windows 2000, and I have both Spybot and Ad-Aware installed. (more…)

Occasionally, when starting Windows XP, the computer loads to the Windows splash screen and the progress bar, but then returns to a black screen. There is no taskbar, mouse pointer, icons, or anything else - just a completely black screen. CTRL-ALT-DEL does not work, and I must press the computer reset button. Once the computer restarts, it loads correctly, but displays the incorrect shutdown message. A second occasional problem, which does not necessarily occur together with the first problem, is the computer will not shutdown when using the ‘Start’ menu > ‘Turn off computer’ function. Instead, the computer remains at the Windows desktop. Repeated attempts to shutdown the computer does not help. Eventually I must switch the computer off at the power point, since that seems the only way to shutdown the machine! However, when I restart the computer I do not receive the incorrect shutdown message. Can you help with these two problems? (more…)

Recently I changed scanners from a Hewlett Packard Scanjet 3300C to a Canon Canoscan FB630P. The new Canoscan works, but I am now unable to download photos from my Sony Cybershot DSC-P9 digital camera. Although the camera is plugged into the computer through a USB connection, nothing happens. Normally, the ‘Scanners and Cameras’ wizard would appear as soon as the camera is connected, allowing me to download the photos. So, I manually open the ‘Scanners and Cameras’ control panel and a message appears saying the device is not connected, and I must follow the wizard to install the camera, but the camera is not listed in the device list. This issue only arose since the installation of the new Canoscan scanner. The computer is running Windows XP Home Edition. (more…)

When saving Word documents as HTML, for publishing as web pages, you will notice the file sizes are quite large. This is because Word inserts a lot of Word-specific tags in the HTML source, to enable the document to be re-opened in Word for editing. To remove these Word-specific tags (and make the resulting HTML file size much smaller), open the file in Word, then go to the ‘File’ menu > ‘Save As’. Type the file name you wish to save the file as, and for the ‘Save as type’ select ‘Web Page, Filtered’. Click ‘Save’. (more…)