Information management and technology assurance

No, Word can do simple math, but the tools are well-hidden. Did you notice I said tools—not tool. Buried deep in Word are all sorts of wonders. For simple arithmetic, the function is Tools Calculate. It’s certainly not in your toolbar unless the person who used your computer before you

Yes, you can cut, copy or reformat vertical columns of text. (see screenshot below). Think of the letters in Word as appearing in two dimensions—as a horizontal row (which is how we traditionally think of it) and as a vertical column lined up one above the other. To highlight a

  The simple answer is sort of. Let me explain: Windows password-protected files are secure as long as a would-be intruder is not computer literate. If you do a Google search on Word Excel passwords, you’ll quickly come up with a bunch of products designed to crack Windows passwords. So

I assume you’ve thought of the obvious: placing those favorite tools as stand-alone icons right in the toolbar. And I assume you want to avoid having the toolbar (which, when full, expands to accommodate new icons) get so fat and crowded that you can’t easily find the ones you want.

I must say I’ve never experienced a Save All command in Excel. I have in Word, but that’s another story I’ll get to later. I think you’re confusing Save All with Close All. If you have more than one file open in Excel and you press Shift+File, a Close All

Yes to both questions. Each time you pull the plug, the sudden, unprogrammed loss of electricity endangers the hard disk. But sometimes pulling the plug is the only way to shut it down—risk or not. Fortunately, there is another choice that works most of the time: Hold down the power

 »  Key to Instructions   To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we used two different typefaces: Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. Sans serif type shows the names of files and the names of commands and instructions that users should type into

I just read about a new CD-R (recordable) from Kodak that is supposed to safely store data for 300 years. I’m aware that a conventional CD-R’s surface oxidizes, making it unreliable after about 10 years. So what’s your take on this 300-year claim? Your guess is as good as mine.

Stanley Zarowin, a former JofA ssenior editor, is now a contributing editor to the magazine. His e-mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com . Do you have technology questions for this column? Or, after reading an answer, do you have a better solution? Send them to contributing editor Stanley Zarowin via e-mail at

How do you get a printer to stop printing? Sometimes all I want to do is print one page, but if I forget to click on the right button, the whole 100-page document starts pouring out. Help! You’re not alone. It’s a small crisis many have experienced. It’s called the

A new cordless technology that promises phone service without the usual crackles and whooshes has just reached the market. The technology uses a frequency (1.9 gigahertz) that’s outside the range of many other wireless devices—thus freeing it from static-causing interference. The new frequency is more secure against eavesdropping, too.

When I have a big print job running, I often have to wait until it’s done before I can return to work on the computer. My system has plenty of memory. Why can’t it do both jobs simultaneously? I don’t think it’s a memory problem. It sounds like you have

When I’m working on a file, its name appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. That’s OK, but I sure would like Windows to identify not just the file’s name but its path also. I never understood why Windows failed to take that extra step. As you can

I copied a large important spreadsheet file to a portable memory stick, but when I examined the file later, I discovered it was corrupt and therefore unusable. What caused that? Although I love those portable memory sticks—they’re great for keeping my office computer synchronized with my laptop—now I’m leery about