DA2C - Windows Niggles

FAQ Index		Disabled Access to Computing
		~ Common Problems in ~ Microsoft Windows

File Extensions in XP These are the three characters appended to the end of a file name, for example a Word document is stored as a .doc file. Windows keeps a list of the standard extensions and associates these with specific programs and in Windows XP they decided to hide the extensions. Normally this is not a problem for a non technical user, however it can cause all sorts of grief for people working with web pages and gets in the way of resolving some problems with video clips. To have the extensions visible you open My Computer (if you do not have a My Computer icon right click on the start button, select Explore, go up the right hand list and click on My Computer near the top). In the My Computer window click on Tools and select Folder options. In the dialogue click on View and go down the list of options, 'un-tick' the 'Hide extensions for known file types' check box and click on Apply in the bottom of the dialogue box.

Outlook Express (and possibly Windows Mail) One common problem with Outlook is the size of the Inbox, Outbox etc. Because of the way Outlook handles these if they get too big the whole system can start throwing wobblers. You can go through the folders and delete unwanted files (which is what Microsoft expected people to do) but that takes time and you may wish to archive your e-mails for legal reasons. The 'folders' are actually single files (messages are actually stored in a form of database), these files have the extension .dbx, for example Inbox.dbx, Outbox.dbx etc. If you delete these files new versions are automatically created, but again you just deleted all you e-mails. A better option is to move the files to a back-up disc and use a third party program to access them. The DA2C support disc includes DBX-Viewer, a freeware stand-alone, non installing program that can give you simple access to the contents of the dbx 'folders', if you move the DBX files to a new folder, and put a copy of DBX Viewer into that folder you can burn the lot to a CD or copy the folder to a memory stick as an archive.

Why can't people open my Word 2007 files? Probably because you have left the default as 'save as DOCX', this is Microsoft's attempt to emulate the Open Document Format but using a proprietary system. You could ask them to download the latest 'word viewer' program (Click here to access the relevant page on the Microsoft website), or you could change the default to the Office 97-2003 formats which are more widely supported. To change the default open Word and click on Word Options, Select Save in the left pane, then select Word 97-2003 Documents from the drop down and click on OK.

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