Ask The Computer Lady » Programs

How To Create a Table of Contents in Word

The Computer Lady — Sat, 25 May 2013 20:51:10 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

I am one of your followers that reads all your letters throughout the year. Thanks for sharing your expertise with computers.

I’m working on a document which requires a “Table of Contents” and I have no idea on how to do this. I have Microsoft 2007 at work, and I’m familiar with the “Ribbon” but I never created such a page. Could you help me please?

Many thanks… Martha

Dear Martha,

Creating a table of contents in Word is actually quite easy, all you have to do is a little bit of preparation, and it will almost create the TOC for you.

To start with, go through your document and find each chapter heading and any sub-headings that you want to be included in your table of contents.

Highlight each heading, and click on the “Heading 1″ style in the ribbon. If you are going to have sub-headings in each chapter, use “Heading 2″ for those sections.

If you don’t like the default settings for Heading 1 and Heading 2, just right click on the icon for each heading, and click “Modify…” to change the style.

Once you have applied that formatting to each heading, click in the front of your document where you want the Table of Contents to be located, click on the “References” tab in the ribbon, then click on the “Table of Contents” icon in the ribbon.

Select the style of TOC that you want, and click on it. Word will automatically build your Table of Contents.

As you continue to work on your document, you can update the TOC by simply clicking on the “Update Table” icon.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Computer Protection

The Computer Lady — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:35:28 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

We called Norton about a problem we were having and were connected to a support person at iYogi. The problem was resolved by giving access to our computer and we then purchased a contract from them to handle any issues that arose.

Every time we are in communication for one reason or another, they try to sell us yet another service.
What protection do you recommend?

We have used Norton 360 for years but have no Malware or Spyware programs running.

Joan

Dear Joan,

You really don’t need a contract with a company like iYogi, all you really need is a good internet security program.

I use AVG Internet Security and it keeps all types of viruses, malware, spyware and advertising programs from getting into my system.

You can download a 30 day trial of AVG Internet Security by clicking this link.

AVG Internet Security 2013

Just make sure you un-install Norton 360, or whatever antivirus program you are now using before you install the AVG.

If you do run into a problem that AVG can’t get rid of, or if you need help getting your system cleaned out before installing AVG, just let me know. That is a service that I can provide.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Giving Control To Tech Support

The Computer Lady — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:53:33 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

I updated AVG.com which I had purchased originally. I kept getting pop-ups after I did this.

I tried to contact them and I ended up with a company called Lester.com and a service in the Uk called guru.

I gave control to the person and I became concerned about giving control to the about removing my pop-up! I thought I was getting help from AVG !

Did I compromise my computers information?
Thanks, Ray

Dear Ray,

I don’t believe that AVG has phone support, only email and online chat support, so if you found the phone number for this GuruAid after doing an online search, you were most likely not getting help from AVG.

Just out of curiosity, I did a search for GuruAid and found lots on complaints online, mostly from people who thought they were contacting the support department of a major company like Microsoft, McAfee or Norton.

Remember that anyone can put up a web page listing their phone number as the support number for a company.

When you are searching for contact information for a company, don’t just google it. Make sure you get the number from the actual company website. So, for example, if you are looking for support for AVG, make sure you are at the www.avg.com website.

I am always a little wary about giving control of my computer to anyone. I don’t provide remote services, and I would have to be ABSOLUTELY SURE that a person was from the company that I needed help from before I gave them control of my computer. They could install any number of programs on my computer while they are running it, anything from a program that collects passwords, to a keylogger that tracks everything you type.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Can I Copy Quicken?

The Computer Lady — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 13:20:44 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

I used a thumb drive to transfer a Quicken program from a desktop computer to a small laptop that does not have a disk drive.

On the laptop, when I click on the *.exe file, I get a logo, which quickly disappears but cannot open the program.

Can you suggest how to open the program. I do not own an external disk drive.

Thanks for all your help over the years.

Barbara

Dear Barbara,

A couple of things came to my mind as I read your question.

First, did you copy the files from your desktop computer where Quicken was installed? If so, the problem is that you can’t just copy a program on one computer and have it work on another computer like you could back in the days of DOS. It needs to be installed from the instalation disk.

In this case, you could put your Quicken disk in the desktop comptuer and copy the entire contents of the disk to your thumb drive, then move the thumb drive to your laptop and run the install from the thumb drive.

If you have already tried this, then it might be that your Quicken disk has some safeguards built in that won’t allow you to install the program unless you are using the disk. (to prevent piracy). In that case, you would have to either purchase or borrow an external optical drive.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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How To Install CDs on My Netbook

The Computer Lady — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:46:49 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

Ah, after all these years, I finally have a question.

I have a little gateway notebook.

Can the CD’s ( I have a Printmaster and a couple of others) be downloaded onto a flash drive and then used with the notebook?

Thanks so much, Rachel

Dear Rachel,

I am guessing that your little notebook does not have a CD drive and that is why you want to put your programs on a flash drive.

There are a couple of ways you can install your CDs on your netbook.

First, you can purchase a USB DVD drive at your local office supply store, or even online at Amazon.

When you want to install a program from a CD or DVD, just plug in the external drive and your computer will recognize it and you will be able to run your CDs.

Second, you can usually copy the entire contents of your install disks to a flash drive and install the program that way. There are a few programs that don’t work with this method, but I have had great success doing it this way.

Just insert the flash drive in your notebook, open the flash drive folder and look for a file named either setup or install and double click on that.

Hope this helps.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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My Search Has Been Hijacked!

The Computer Lady — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:00:33 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

Here’s the problem I am having. Whenever I use a search engine, it doesn’t matter which one, a majority of the time when I click on the link of what I am looking for (I always use right click and open in a new window) it will open but to some other type of search and not what I clicked on. So I will close it and click the link again and then it will work fine. I don’t have a virus on my system (which is Windows XP Pro) and use both AVG and Ad-Award by Lava Soft. This started about a week and a half ago and I can’t figure out how to fix it.

I was also checking under the Add or Remove Programs section on my computer and I noticed a file I do not recall seeing before. It says it is: AnswerWorks Runtime and is 0.01 MB in size. Could this be causing my problem? Any help will be so much appreciated.

Thanks, Bradley

Dear Bradley,

You might not have a virus, but it does sound like you have been infected with some kind of Malware. There are many malware programs out there that hijack your browser search functions.

I would suggest that you download and run a scan with Malwarebytes, just click on the image at the top of this post.

This is a program that I use quite often to remove malware from infected computers ,and I have used it to remove the type of infection you are describing.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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How To Learn Excel

The Computer Lady — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:27:23 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

Could you please advise me of the best way to learn excel.

With thanks, Karen

Dear Karen,

The best way to learn Excel depends on what kind of learner you are.

If you learn best by reading, there are some excellent books on Excel, I think my favorite is the Missing Manual series of books, and they do have one on Excel.

If you learn best by doing, the “Professor Teaches” series offers you a hands on tutorial that runs on your computer and talks you through the most common tasks in the program.

If you are looking for instructions for a specific task, you can always write it in a question and submit it on my website. I’m sure there will be others who will benefit from the instructions also.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
Connect with Elizabeth on Google+

How To Merge OneNote Files

The Computer Lady — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:03:47 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

I’ve been reading your posts for a long time. They are very enlightening.

My question is about “Onenote” the Microsoft program.

I first had it on Windows 7 and it transferred over when I updated to Windows 8.

There seems to be two separate places for the Onenote books and they aren’t synced or related. One you can access via the file explorer in the documents library. The other one you get to by clicking the Onenote tile on the start menu. They each have different files in them.

Is this normal or is there some way to sync these two files?

Geiser

Dear Geiser,

I have to tell you, I love Microsoft OneNote, and I use it all the time.

You can have multiple files in OneNote, and you can have them open at the same time. OneNote refers to each file as a “Notebook” and each opened Notebook is listed as a tab on the left side of the OneNote window. I currently have 6 notebooks, a cookbook, sewing and crafting notes, business notes, and more.

You should be able to open both of your notebooks, just open the one from your start menu, then click on the “File” tab, click “Open” and navigate to the notebook in your documents.

Once you have both notebooks open at the same time, you can easily move pages from one to the other to “merge” them. Just right click on a page (pages are listed down the right side of the window) and click “Move or copy” to start the process.

If you want to access your OneNote files from more than one location, you can store your files on Microsoft’s Skydrive and the files will automatically sync to skydrive.

I love being able to start a document on my desktop computer, then finish it while on the go with my laptop, and even be able to access it from my iPad.

OneNote stores a local copy on your computer or device, so as long as you sync before you leave the house, you don’t need an active internet connection to view your files. Any changes you make while offline will be automatically synced when you get back online.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Using Office with Windows 8

The Computer Lady — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:38:32 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

Have new Windows 8 computer.

Can I install Microsoft Office 7 or 10 on my computer?

The new Office is good for one year, while older versions are good for the life of the computer and expensive.

Thanks – Dave

Hi Dave,

I have not yet experimented with different versions of Office on Windows 8, but after a bit of research online, it looks like you should be able to run either Office 2007 or 2010 on your new Windows 8 Computer.

I do want to explain a little bit about the new office. There are actually two different versions of Office 2013. One is subscription based. It lets you purchase a one year subscription and use it on up to 5 devices, including your Mac and tablet. All your work is stored in the cloud so that you can work on your documents in one location, and pick right back up where you left off from another location.

Microsoft also sells Office 2013 in a stand alone version which does not expire after one year, but you can only install it on one computer, and it will not be continuously updated like the 360 version.

If both of those options are not in your price range, there is always the free, open source, version of Office called Open Office at http://www.openoffice.org Open source simply means that it was created by a group of volunteers instead of a company. Open Office can read files created in Microsoft Office, and save files in Office format as well.

Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
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Free Image Editing Programs

The Computer Lady — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:10:06 +0000

Dear Computer Lady,

A friend suggested I install Infranview to edit pictures.

When I Google Infranview… all that comes up is IRFANVIEW.

This friend sent me a link to her picture editing program and it definitely show Infranview but this page shows a list of “sponsors” for editing pictures.

Whether I try to download Infranview or Irfanview, my AVG virus program comes up and advises against the downloads, one stating that it is a relatively new program, and the other attempt simply would not let me do the download.

This friend has highly recommended her picture editing program and I would love to have it .
Thanks for your help.

Diz (Maine)

Dear Diz,

I have not heard of Infranview, but I have used Irfanview for more than 10 years and I think it is a great program.

I did an online search for the program you are looking for, but all I found was various websites that look like they were set up to take advantage of people who were searching for Irfanview, but spelled it wrong.

The program, Irfanview is a great little program for viewing images and doing some basic editing. When you view a folder full of photos using Irfanview, you just open the first image, and can quickly go from one image to the next using the space bar on your keyboard. I also like to use it to crop, re-size and convert my images, but it is not as good at adding text or combining images.

You can find Irfanview at: http://www.irfanview.com
Here is a direct link to download it:
http://www.irfanview.info/files/iview435_setup.exe
My AVG is happy with that download.

When I want to use more powerful image editing features, I use a free, open source program called, Gimp which is available at: http://www.gimp.org/

Gimp is a very powerful image editing program similar to expensive programs like photoshop. If you are not familiar with image editing programs, the Gimp website has some tutorials, and you can usually find a tutorial for what you want to do with a simple Google search.

Elizabeth

It’s Your Turn: What do you think?
…. Share your experience in the comments box below.

Elizabeth Boston is a Web designer, Social Media Consultant and managing editor of, “Ask The Computer Lady”.
Connect with Elizabeth on Google+