When saving a CSV (comma separated values) file in Excel the default is to export with a comma delimiter between each field, as you would expect. However, there may be instances when you would like a different delimiter, such as a semicolon or like. This can be changed, but not within the Excel settings. Instead, it is done through the region settings within Windows. Open the Region and Language control panel. Click the “Format” tab and the “Additional settings…” button. You should see a setting called “List separator”. Change this to whatever delimiter you would like to separate fields in the CSV file. Click OK to save and close. Try saving a CSV file from Excel again and it should now save with that delimiter you defined. Just remember to change it back to a comma when you are done!

Occasionally I receive messages from my ISP warning that I am approaching the monthly download limit of my internet account. This could be because I am doing a lot of downloading, but I am concerned that it could also be due to malware on one of my computers. Is there a simple way to track the volume of traffic coming from the computer? My ISP has a download usage page on their website, but that is for the total amount of traffic that flows through my router – is there a way to identify which processes on my computer are downloading data? On a completely unrelated topic, my grey nomad father in law has minimal computer skills. Can you recommend a remote control program (that operates on Windows 7 Premium) which would allow me to manage his computer so I can help him solve his computer problems? (more…)

Last year a tip of the week was the Windows 8 Developer Preview – a very early preview edition of Windows 8 targeted mostly towards developers. Following on from the developer preview, earlier this year Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview which is a preview edition of Windows 8 containing updates to the developer preview and designed to be targeted towards a much larger audience. This can be downloaded from windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-8/consumer-preview . This preview software will expire on 15 January 2013 and should not be installed over the top of an existing stable operating system on your computer, since it may contain bugs and incomplete features. If you intend to try out Windows 8 then consider installing this into a virtual machine or perhaps a different partition on your hard drive.

Often I encounter problems moving blocks of text from one document to another. The problem occurs when I move the text via copy and paste or drag and drop, with a message appearing saying that there is too much to perform the operation. It is strange because sometimes it works alright, for no rhyme or reason. The computer is running Windows 7 with Microsoft Word. (more…)

When searching the internet using Firefox it directs me towards results using “Funmoods Search”. I have no idea how this happened, as I do not recall installing this application. I am wary of this program and wish to delete it from the computer. While I mainly use Firefox the problem also occurs in Internet Explorer. The computer is running Windows 7. (more…)