Q And A

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday June 16, 2008

Nicole Manktelow qa@nicolemanktelow.comwww.smh.com.au/techtips

Q I bought a Toshiba Satellite laptop in December 2007 and it came with Vista Business. My problem is deleting files from the word processor. I have tried doing this through Computer (My computer) and cannot work out why the word processor list is still listing these files in the Open screen and not "refreshing". If I try to open one of these files, it announces there is nothing in the file. The suppliers said it must be just a glitch with Word or Vista. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

A It's most likely that, while your files have in fact been deleted, their entries within Vista's search index remain and this is causing confusion. References to deleted files should gradually disappear as Vista reindexes your computer over time. If these items have remained visible for a long time, then try forcing a rebuild of the index. Go to the Control Panel, then System and Maintenance, Indexing Options and click Advanced. You will be able to choose "rebuild". It can take hours, so pick a time when the computer is not used. How-To Geek (www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/speed-up-or-disable-windows-search-indexing-in-vista/) will show you how to restrict your Search Index.

Q How can I export my address book from Outlook in a form that Thunderbird can use?

A Rather than getting Outlook to export, you can get Thunderbird to do the work, as it can handle the task of importing from other major email programs. Go to the Tools menu, Import and choose Address Books. The next step is to choose the program you are importing from. It's important not to confuse Outlook with Outlook Express (as these are very different). You can then click Next to start the import process and follow Thunderbird from there.

Q I'd prefer to use Firefox but it seems to have trouble printing colourful websites. If I need to print something with a lot of colour, I now have to go back to Internet Explorer, because Firefox just prints the text.

A Firefox has specific background print settings that are off by default, which is handy if you want to save printer ink. Bring back the colour to your web page printouts by going to the File menu and choosing Print Background Colours and Print Background Images.