Computer Info –
This Week’s Meeting
We will start with installing PestPatrol. The second half of the meeting, we will look at Access. Questions are always allowed.
Viewers
Here is the Microsoft website where you can download a viewer for files that were created in Word – Excel – Access – Powerpoint even if you do not own those products.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/000/viewers.asp
Tips for writing CDs
Audio CD -- You can view an audio CD using your Windows Explorer the same way you can view the data files that might be on your Windows CD. But that does not make them the same type of files. Everything on the Windows CD is a data file (including any music files that might be on it). Everything on the audio CD is a track or (CDA – CD audio). If you right-click on one of the tracks and choose COPY – you can then go to your hard drive and choose PASTE. This will create an icon that resembles the icon you saw on your audio CD – BUT NOTICE THE SIZE OF THE FILE. It will not play.
To take a song off of an audio CD and place it on your hard drive – you must have a program that will allow you to convert it to a WAV or WMA or MP3 file. Then it will play on a computer. One program that allows you to do this is your Windows Media Player or Roxio EasyCD Creator --- but there are many more programs that will allow you to do this.
Drag N Drop -- If you can drag a file or do a SEND TO to place (write) a file to a CD – you are creating a CD-RW disk. CD-RW disks are not always compatible with all computers. If you want to be sure that your CD that you wrote is capable of being read by everyone’s computer has got to be written to a CD-R using a third-party software.
SnapFiles
Remember where we use to look for good software programs --- at a site called WebAttack. Well, that site now has a new name --- it is called Snapfiles.
Update for Quicken 2004 Release 5
This update is free. It fixes a problem with opening data files under certain conditions, as well as a problem that may occur when using scheduled transactions. It has updated tax exemption calculations, more flexibility in configuring calendar preferences and currency settings. Updated forms and reports are included.
To get this update – use Quicken 2004’s One Step Update. To open it from your Quicken 2004 program, open the Online menu, and click One Step Update. Deselect all of the checkboxes in the dialog box and click the Update Now button. It will download and install any available updates, including the Release 5 Update.
Or visit
http://www.intuit.com/support/quicken/updates/release_notes/2004_r5_notes.html
Home Page Changes in Internet Explorer
If your home page changes to something that you didn’t want --- you were probably hijacked. Probably by a program entitled CWS (CoolWebSEarch). This program can be quite difficult to remove. Ad-Aware and Spybot have had mixed results eliminating CWS due to the large number of variants lurking on the Internet. Fortunately, you can download a program, aptly named CWShredder, which can help.
You can download it at
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/cwschronicles.html#cwshredder
or
and click Downloads on the left side of the page. Many of the CWS variants will try to prevent you from reaching anti-spyware sites, so using the numeric IP address will circumvent their efforts. Once you have successfully reached this page, download the latest version of CWShredder. If you have a particularly nasty strain of CWS, you may have to use the following URL to download CWShredder.
http://209.133.47.200/~merijn/files/CWShredder.exe
After downloading it, double-click it to launch the program.
P.S. – this information was in the Smart Computing magazine --- but I can’t seem to link to the site using the numeric IP address – but thought I better include this information anyway.
PestPatrol
http://research.pestpatrol.com/
At this site, you can find out any information that you would like to know about pests including which countries seem to write them.
PestPatrol retails for $39.99
Query Done In Table Format – Access 2003
When you start to get many fields in your database --- sometimes it is easier to look at the information using limited fields and done in a tabular form. You can request your information by just one field (ex. Last name).
The create the query, click on QUERIES – NEW. Choose the DESIGN VIEW and then choose the table that your information will come from. Your fields should be displayed – you can now drag them down and place them into the table. On the CRITERIA line under the field that you would like to retrieve your information – type [Last Name:] (where in our example Last Name is the name of the field for the column I am in – DON’T FORGET THE COLON). Save your query and whenever you go to open it, it will ask you to enter the information (in this case, the Last Name) that you are trying to locate.