PC Doctor March 5, 2010

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Dear PC Doctor:

            I was trying to teach my mom how to use my computer and somehow she managed to make the taskbar at the bottom of the screen disappear!  It will slide in and out but it won’t stay visible on the screen.  I don’t want to ask her what she did because I know she will get upset that she ‘broke’ the computer so maybe you can help.

                        Kara

Dear Kara:

            Well you’re a great daughter to help her and I’m not sure how she could have changed this setting easily but here’s how to fix it.  Right click on a blank area of the taskbar when it slides up and from the drop down menu that appears, choose Properties.  A box or window will open up and you will want to uncheck the box in front of ‘auto hide the taskbar’.  This is on the taskbar tab.  Click OK and you should find that your taskbar will no longer disappear.

                        PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

            I work with teenagers and I often hear them talking about new technology or computer terms that I have no idea what they mean.  Today they were talking about ‘skyping’ each other.  What does that mean?

                        Joan

Dear Joan:

To find out what Skype is about go to their website at www.skype.com.  This description is from their website “Skype is software that enables the world's conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles.”  

            It’s basically software that allows you to make free phone contact with people and if you have a webcam, you can see them as well.  I know several servicemen overseas who use this to talk to their families.  They can see and talk to their children live.  It’s a wonderful service!

            PC Doctor

Dear PC Doctor:

            I used underscores to separate sections of a Microsoft Word document; now I can’t delete the lines.  What’s going on?

                                                            John

Dear John:

            Those ‘lines’ that Word makes are actually not lines at all, or even graphics, but borders.  By default, if you enter three or more hyphens, underscores, equal signs, or asterisks, followed by a carriage return, Word automatically creates a thin, thick, double, or dotted bottom border.  To get rid of the line, put the cursor directly above it, and from the menu bar click Format/Borders and Shading.  Click the None box, then OK.  To permanently disable this behavior, click Tools/Autocorrect from the menu bar.  Click the Autoformat as you type tab, and uncheck Borders.  On this same tab, you may also disable other ‘friendly’ features that some find annoying – in particular, the automatic numbering / bulleting of lists.

                                                                        PC Doctor

Until next time… happy computing!