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Jewish World Review Dec. 3, 2003 / 8 Kislev, 5764
By James Coates
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | (KRT)
Q: I have a Sony laptop with Windows XP Home Edition,
and when using Microsoft Office 2000 it is extremely
difficult to select text. As I select text and move my
cursor below or above the visible page, the selected
text scrolls up or down at lightning speed. Within half a
second I am all the way at the bottom or top of the
document, when I only wanted to select a page and a
half of text.
Is there a way to set the speed at which I scroll up or
down? Note: I do not use a mouse, but use the
notebook touch pad. I searched Windows and Word
but cannot find any clues. I would appreciate any
insight.
A: Isn't technology just grand? Intel Corp. spends billions
of dollars making computer chips faster, while
Microsoft makes software that uses the ultrafast chips
to do its stuff so fast that a user can't even see it.
Cursor speeds can be slowed or increased using the
Windows Control Panel for the mouse, but that really
isn't the best fix because slowing it down to fix your
problem makes other actions too slow. Check it out by
clicking on Start and Control Panel and then Mouse
and finally Pointer Options, where you will find a slider
for speed settings.
Now read on for a better approach:
This tendency of Word and other Office software to act
like a NASCAR wannabe instead of scrolling text at
readable speeds is best overcome by simply
abandoning the mouse and using the keyboard for
scrolling through relatively short blocks of text. This is
particularly the case with laptops that employ
essentially unwieldy methods, such as dragging a
finger across a touch pad to move the cursor.
Like you, we newspaper writers, whose work rarely
exceeds 20 paragraphs per article, don't often need
Word's ability to scroll through hundreds of paragraphs
rapidly. Most of us have learned to simply click the
mouse cursor at the start of text to be selected and
then hold down the shift key while moving the cursor
with the arrow keys in the lower right of the keyboard.
In cases where lots of text must be covered, it is far
better to hold down the shift key and tap the page-down
or page-up keys to select larger chunks. If you want to
select the whole thing in one fell swoop, turbocharged
cursor-dragging works fine, but even here you will have
better control by holding down shift and hitting the End
or Home keys.
Q: My question involves how to get my new Windows XP
computer to make a dictionary and thesaurus available
throughout the workday.
Three years ago my wife bought me a World Book
Millennium 2000 edition with a great dictionary and
thesaurus that could be accessed on my old computer
in a modestly sized window while running Word. But it
doesn't work with the new machine. I was told this
program does not work with Windows XP.
Do you know of anyone that offers an XP-compatible
dictionary and thesaurus that I can purchase? Do you
have any other suggestions?
A: After giving your problem a bunch of thought, I think a
little trick known as Alt + Tab will let you get just about
the same features you enjoyed before - no matter
which of the many dictionary or thesaurus CD-ROM
products you may want to use.
Here's the gist of it: When one holds down the Alt key
and then the Tab key, Windows displays a list of all the
programs running. By tapping Tab repeatedly, the
display moves from program to program and lets you
quickly open each and then Alt + Tab your way back to
Word. With Alt + Tab it doesn't matter what dictionary
and thesaurus software one purchases because all
can be had.
Check it out by running that fine World Book
encyclopedia and Word at the same time. Alt + Tab will
let you move back and forth instantly.
That said, many of the current CD-ROM
dictionary/thesaurus products, including the latest CD
of the Merriam-Webster offering, contain modules that
let one highlight a word in Microsoft software and
summon a definition or list of synonyms. I found this
XP-ready product for under $16 at the Barnes & Noble
Web site, for example.
And let me say this: Microsoft Office 2003 includes
Microsoft's own Encarta dictionary, ready to check any
word you highlight and right-click. That same right-click
summons "synonyms" that appear in a command-style
box that lets you pick one for quick replacement. You
might consider an upgrade.
And that said, let me say one last thing: In recent days,
the ever-amazing Google Web site has added a
dictionary to its many offerings. You just type in a
command, like define happiness, and the search
engine opens with a dictionary listing for that word and
then a list of links to further pursue it.
Isn't it amazing how the rush toward computer-driven
productivity has entered the fusty and laid-back world of
scholarship, just as it has punching out widgets on an
assembly line? Can you imagine James Joyce
right-clicking through Ulysses to ferret out just the right
word?
As Andy Grove, a co-founder of Intel, once (roughly) put
it, "We aren't the ones forcing you to work yourself to
death, but we do provide the tools you can use to do it."
Q; The icon labeled "Safely Remove Hardware" has
disappeared from the Notification Area in my taskbar in
the right-hand corner of the screen. I've checked
several books on Windows XP with no success. Any
suggestions?
This is a tad more complicated than it would seem, but
the ultimate answer is finding a one-click command to
activate the feature. But first, some background.
This icon does not appear unless one installs a
so-called plug-and-play remote storage device such
as a USB thumb drive for portable memory, a digital
camera or a plug-in hard drive. Then the software for
the device in question notifies the operating system to
display that icon. When you precipitously yank out a
removable device, the software behind this icon howls
with a protest warning that such yanking is a serious
no-no.
In reality, the Safely Remove Hardware service exists
when Windows optimizes a gadget to run faster by first
caching data sent to it into ultrafast system memory
and then writing it to the slower hardware afterward. A
yank during the cache-writing process contaminates
the data and can mess up the removable card,
requiring one to reformat.
If you have something plugged into USB or Firewire
ports on the computer, the software can be set by
right-clicking on the My Computer icon and then
selecting the Hardware tab and then Device Manager.
Now look high up in the display for the Disk Drives
heading. If you find a removable device there, give a
right-click and then pick Properties and select the
Policies tab. There you find check boxes to turn on and
off the warning notification. Look for the tab to Restore
Defaults and click it first to get the icon back.
As a pretty obvious caution, the little USB thumb drives
and cameras don't require much caching, but if one
has a large removable drive like an 80-gigabyte
external USB or Firewire hard drive, a quick removal
can be disastrous. Proceed with extreme caution if you
have one of those.
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James Coates is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Let us know what you think of this column by clicking here.
Keyboard trick can rein in that out-of-control Office scrolling; XP-compatible dictionary and thesaurus; "Safely Remove Hardware" icon disappeared from the Notification Area in taskbar
