Frontgate MX (www.presorium.com) is a very useful anti-spam program and best of all, is free! The software integrates easily with most POP3 email clients and provides facilities including the function to filter email, preview mail before downloading and tagging suspected spam. (more…)

Old programs designed for earlier versions of Microsoft Windows may not work correctly under Windows XP. However, Windows XP has the ability to run programs in ‘Compatibility Modes’ for earlier versions of Windows. To enable this function for a particular program, locate the EXE file (the executable file) for the program, right-click and select ‘Properties’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Compatibility’ tab. Tick ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for’ and select an operating system (e.g. Windows 95, 98/Me, NT 4.0, or 2000). Click OK to apply and save the settings. (more…)

Many Excel spreadsheets have the first row as a heading row, containing the headings for the various columns in the spreadsheet. When the spreadsheet is printed, often the heading row is only printed on the first page. So, when reading the second, third, fourth, etc. pages of the printout, reference is often made back to the first page to determine the heading of a particular column. However, Excel has the feature to repeat a specified row(s) at the top of each printed page. Go to the ‘File’ menu > ‘Page Setup’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Sheet’ tab. The setting ‘Rows to repeat at top’ allows you to specify the rows to repeat at the top of each page. Click the button next to the input text area for this setting to allow easy selection of the rows to repeat. There is also the option to repeat specified column(s) at the left of each printed page. (more…)

Microsoft recently launched Visual Studio 2005, a suite of powerful tools for the development of applications. As an added bonus, Microsoft has released ‘express’ editions of Visual Studio, such as Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition and Visual C++ Express Edition. These express editions are free for download for one year (starting 7th November 2005) allowing hobbyists and novice developers to try out these products and get into programming. You can download Visual Studio Express from msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express. For more information on the product, have a look at the FAQ available at msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/faq/default.aspx. (more…)

Microsoft Word has a feature that when highlighting text using the mouse, Word will automatically select the entire word. While this can be useful in some circumstances, often I want to select only part of a word. To disable Word from automatically selecting entire words, in Word go to the ‘Tools’ menu > ‘Options’. In the window that appears, click the ‘Edit’ tab. Disable the option ‘When selecting, automatically select entire word’. Click OK. (more…)