PC Doctor June 30, 2010

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Dear PC Doctor :

            I typed a lot of information into an Excel worksheet and would like to use some of that in Word for another thing I’m doing.  When I go to Word and try to open it, it asks me questions and if I say I want to bring it in, it comes in all scrambled up.  I really don’t want to retype that stuff, is there a way I can bring it in?

                                                            Bob

 

Dear Bob:

            Although, unfortunately, there is no direct way to have your Excel spreadsheet arrive unscathed into your Word document, there is a way you can bring it in fairly intact and have just a little cleanup to get the results you are hoping for.

            Open Word and create a new blank document.  Then open Excel and retrieve the spreadsheet you wish to convert.  If you want to put the entire document into Word, then go up to the ‘Edit’ menu and choose ‘Select All’.  If you only want a portion, then select the desired text by highlighting.  Either way, return to the ‘Edit’ menu and choose ‘Copy’.

            Return to your blank Word document, go to ‘Edit’ and select ‘Paste Special’ (not paste).  From the list that appears, choose ‘Formatted Text (RTF), and click ‘OK’.  Your converted text should appear and then you can get to work just adjusting the formatting or spacing to your specifications.

                                                            PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

            When I use the Internet my address bar is full of addresses that I no longer care about.  How can I get rid of some of them?

                                                Shirley

 

Dear Shirley:

           

            To remove addresses individually, of course assuming that you know which ones you want to delete, click on the History icon on your tool bar (at the top).  It looks like a sundial or if you move your mouse over the icons slowly, the word ‘history’ will pop up over the appropriate icon.   When you click on it, another window will open up to the left of your Internet Explorer screen.  Choose ‘View’ and then ‘By Site’.  The sites will be listed below and you can just click on the sites you do not want, one by one, and hit ‘Delete’.  A box will pop up and ask ‘Are you sure’ and you would select ‘Yes’. 

            Now you can delete them all at once by clicking on ‘Tools’ off the menu bar, select ‘Internet Options’ and click the ‘Clear History’ button.  Then if you wanted to place a smaller number in the “Days to keep pages in history’ box, then Explorer would automatically delete the sites after that number of days, thereby reducing your list periodically.

                                    PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

            I’ve heard a lot of good things about Firefox and would like to switch to it.  Do I need to uninstall Internet Explorer since I heard things like that conflict with each other?   I don’t need one more thing to go wrong with my computer.

                                    Thanks Fran

Dear Fran:

            No, not a problem.  You can safely have both of these on your computer.  In fact I do for the simple fact that some things will not open up correctly in Firefox or vice versa so you can simply switch to the other browser and try that.  Some websites are just formatted to work specifically on a particular browser and don’t want to cooperate with another.  If you find that you are having trouble opening up something, just try the other.  That will give you an indication whether the problem is with the actual website or how it’s operating in the browser.

                                                PC Doctor

 

 

Until next time…….. happy computing!