My computer has only three built-in USB ports, and all are in use. But now I want to plug in several other USB devices, such as a remote hard drive and a memory stick. What are my options?

You can buy a component called a hub that contains one male plug, which you insert into your computer, and several female slots to accommodate other USB devices.

There are two types of hubs: powered (which you plug in to a 110-volt wall socket) and unpowered. Unpowered hubs obtain their electricity via the USB plug directly from the computer— but this often puts a significant drain on the computer, and in some cases doesn’t provide enough power to run the plugged-in devices. A powered hub avoids this problem. Another advantage of a powered hub is that it can be used to recharge the battery of a USB-powered device, like an iPod, even when the computer is off.

Be aware, too, that you should only buy hubs that are labeled with the 2.0 spec. Some dealers are still selling old hubs with the slower 1.0 specs.

Sometimes the font of my newly arrived e-mail is so small I can hardly read it. Is there an easy way to enlarge it?

Yes, but the method depends on which e-mail client or browser you use. Here are some of your choices:

If you use Outlook 2007: Press the Ctrl key as you turn the scroll wheel on your mouse away from you. Or open the message in its own window (by double-clicking in it) and click on Other Actions, Zoom to pick a viewing magnification.

If you use Outlook 2003: Same as Outlook 2007, hold down the Ctrl key as you turn the scroll wheel. Or open the message in its own window and click on View, Text Size to adjust the size.

Outlook Express: Same as Outlook 2003.

Gmail, Hotmail and MSN: Since they are Web–based e-mail clients, size is dependent on your browser, and adjustments are less predictable. You can try Ctrl++ (that’s one plus sign) to enlarge and Ctrl+- (minus sign) to reduce magnification. Use Ctrl+0 (zero) to reset magnification to the default value.

I’ve been told to never, never, ever unplug a USB device, like a memory stick, until the Safely Remove Hardware icon gives the OK. And that’s my problem: Some days the icon is in my toolbar, and other days it’s missing. What’s going on? What can I dop?

You’ve been told correctly. If you unplug a device prematurely, you run the risk of corrupting the data being transferred. So the proper procedure is to click on the Safely Remove Hardware icon (shown at right) in the Windows Taskbar before unplugging; and if it’s safe, the icon will generate a message like this:

So what do you do if the icon disappears? For some reason such intermittent annoyances aren’t that unusual. You might first try to solve the problem by resetting its default. To do that, rightclick on the Start button and left-click on Properties and select the Taskbar tab. Then click on Customize and scroll to Safely Remove Hardware and be sure its behavior is set to Always show (see screenshot below).

If that doesn’t solve the problem, or if you plug in and unplug lots of USB hardware, you may want the convenience of a desktop shortcut to Safely Remove Hardware, which you can then trigger whenever the usual icon fails to appear.

To create the shortcut, right-click on the desktop and select New and then Shortcut. In Type the Location of the Item, enter RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL HotPlug.dll and click on Next, and the shortcut will appear on your desktop.

I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally pressed the Insert (Ins) key and innocently typed over a complex paragraph that I worked on for more than an hour. Thanks for the blessed Ctrl+Z keystrokes, which undid my accidental erasures. Isn’t it about time the Insert key was removed from our keyboards?

Yes, and that time is arriving. The overtype Insert key is a holdover from the early word-processor designs. Some new keyboards have removed it from the keypad section and, in its place, doubled the size of the adjacent Del key. And Office 2007 has disabled the function. However, the annoyance still exists in earlier Office programs. It’s possible to decommission it by adjusting the Registry, but toying with the Registry is always dangerous. However, all is not lost: Since it’s only in Word that the problem really manifests itself, I’ll show you a simple way to render it impotent in Word.

While in Word, click on Tools, Customize and highlight the Options tab. Click on Keyboard at the bottom of the screen (see screenshot below).

Under Categories, scroll down to All Commands, and under Commands, go to Overtype. Then click on Remove at the bottom of the screen (see screenshot below) and on Close, and the Ins key will no longer be functional. To make it functional again, return to Commands and click on Reset All. However, be aware that this action will undo any customized keyboard commands you have created.

I know the shortcut for entering a date in Word is Alt+Shift+D, but I don’t know how to change the way the date is displayed. I want the date format to be March 19, 2009, not 3/19/09.

You can change the default by clicking on Insert, Date and Time, which produces this screen:

Then select the format you want and click on Default. The default format for time, whose shortcut keys are Alt+Shift+T, can be adjusted the same way.

I’ve had to stop using the automatic numbering system in Word because it drove me crazy. But I really need it. Here’s the thing: Whenever I want to add a second, separate numbered list under the first list, which ends, say, with six items, Word second-guesses me and no matter what I do, it just makes the next item 7. How do I stop that?

It’s just a simple right-click trick. When you get to the end of the first list, right-click just at that spot and, when the screen below appears, select Restart Numbering.

When I review a client’s numbers in an Excel spreadsheet, I frequently add comments in many of the cells, and many of the comments are the same—such as “Looks Good!” Is there any way I can copy them, in one fell swoop, so I don’t have to type the same message over and over?

Probably the easiest way in Excel 2003 and 2007 is to copy one cell that contains the message (Ctrl+C) and then, if the other cells are contiguous, highlight them; if they are not, hold down the Ctrl key and highlight each one. Then right-click, bringing up the Paste Special menu. Click on Comments and OK.

As you can see in the screenshot below, only the comments are copied—not the data in the cells.

Caution: Any comments placed earlier in the cell will be overwritten.

Help! I hid the two top rows of an Excel file, and now I can’t figure out how to get them back because I can’t find a way to access them to reverse the Hide command.

I sympathize. There is nothing intuitive about this solution, which works in Excel 2003 and 2007. Let’s start from the beginning. To hide, say, rows 3 and 4, highlight the target rows, click on Format, Row, Hide (see screenshot below). 

Or right-click and click on Hide. (See next entry for keyboard shortcuts for hiding and unhiding rows or columns.)

Now, although the hidden rows are not directly accessible, you can indirectly access them by highlighting the two rows that straddle them—2 and 5 (see screenshot below).

So if highlighting rows 2 and 5, right-click and just select Unhide and the two hidden rows will appear.

But if you hide rows 1 and 2, there’s nothing to straddle. One option is to highlight the entire sheet by right-clicking on the box above 1 and to the left of A. And while it works, the Unhide command will unhide the entire sheet. That would be OK unless you have other parts of the worksheet you’ve hidden and you don’t want them revealed.

Here’s where you’ve got to engage the not-so-intuitive trick to unhide just rows 1 and 2: Click on F5 to engage the Go To menu. Under the Reference tag, enter the range of the rows you want to unhide—in this case 1:2—and click on OK (see screenshot below).

Although nothing appears to happen, you actually selected those two hidden rows. Now go to the Format menu, click on Row and Unhide, and rows 1 and 2 will appear.

Ctrl+1: Displays the Format Cells dialog box.

Ctrl+2: Applies or removes bold formatting.

Ctrl+3: Applies or removes italic formatting.

Ctrl+4: Applies or removes underlining.

Ctrl+5: Applies or removes strikethrough.

Ctrl+6: Alternates between hiding objects, displaying objects and displaying placeholders for objects.

Ctrl+7: Displays or hides the Standard toolbar.

Ctrl+8: Displays or hides the outline symbols.

Ctrl+9: Hides the selected rows.

Ctrl+Shift+9: Unhides the selected rows.

Ctrl+0: Hides the selected columns.

Ctrl+Shift+0: Unhides the selected columns.

Ctrl+Ins: If the Ins key’s not disengaged, it highlights a cell.