PC ProSchools – TechTalk

Microsoft Word is a popular word processing application. You can write letters, essays, e-books, forms, brochures and other types of documents. As a Help Desk Professional, you may be called to fix problems with Word. Here is a list of problems and their solutions that you may find useful:

1. How to troubleshoot problems that occur when you start or use Word 2003 or Word 2002 When you are having trouble getting Microsoft Word to open or working correctly, you may have a start up problem. Microsoft Support has a list of items you can do to troubleshoot the problem.
2. Tips, tricks, and problem-solving for tables Tables help you to organize information in a way that makes it easy for people to understand. Sometimes when formatting or organizing your table, problems can occur. Microsoft has provided methods for troubleshooting table errors and tips for making tables even better.
3. Microsoft Word Not Responding: Things You Can Do When Microsoft Word fails to respond or crashes, you will need to troubleshoot the problem. Here is a couple of remedies to try.
4. Remove or change a password Microsoft Word allows you to add or remove a password to a Word document. Passwords can be lost and forgotten. If you forget the password, Microsoft cannot retrieve the password for you. You will need to use a password recovery tool to open a word document with a lost password.
5. How to troubleshoot damaged Word documents Microsoft Word documents can become damaged and behave strangely. Your computer may stop working or you get strange error messages or other strange behavior. Use Microsoft’s troubleshooting procedures to determine if your Word document is damaged.
6. Missing toolbars, menus or personal settings Sometimes when you open Microsoft Word, you may discover that your toolbars or menu bar is missing. You can try these remedies to restore your toolbars, menu bar or personal settings.
7. How to clear recently used file list in Word Microsoft Word keeps a list of recently opened documents. You may from time to time need to clean out the list. Use this tip to clean out the list.

Bonus Tip

Cheat sheets or quick reference cards lists shortcuts. Use a cheat sheet as a reference so that you work in Word faster.

Related Article

• Excel Tips for Help Desk

Microsoft Excel is a popular application used by many companies for tracking and storing data. As a Help Desk Professional, you may be called to fix problems with Excel. Here is a list of problems and their solutions that you may find useful:

1. Remove Passwords on Excel Password Protected Sheets and Workbooks
   You may need to open an Excel spreadsheet that has a password. Passwords can be lost and forgotten. When that happens, you can follow the steps described in Remove Passwords on Excel Password Protected Sheets and Workbooks to help you open a password protected spreadsheet.
2. Solving Common Excel Setup Problems
   When you are having trouble getting Excel to open or working correctly, you have to fix a setup problem. Solving Common Excel Setup Problems describes a few setup problems and their solutions.
3. Removing Add-ins
   Microsoft Excel allows you to install Third Party Apps that extend the functionality of Excel. ASAP Utilities helps you to automate frequently used tasks in excel. You may be having a problem with an Add-In. Microsoft Excel doesn’t have an obvious way of deleting the Add-In. Excel.Tips.Net explains how to remove the Add-In.
4. Excel Formula Errors and How to Deal With Them
   When you create formulas in Excel, you can cause errors to occur. In order to fix an error, you need to know what it means. Learn what #NULL!, #DIV/0 and other error message mean and how to solve them.
5. Repairing corrupted files in Excel
   Files can become corrupt and require repairing. Microsoft Excel has an automatic recovery which attempts to repair that file. Sometimes, you may need to manually repair the file in order to get your data. Try to manually repair an Excel spreadsheet by following Microsoft’s tips.
6. Top ten ways to clean your data
   Sometimes a spreadsheet can have empty rows, misspelled words or extra spaces. You need to clean up the spreadsheet in order to get it to work correctly. Try this tips from Microsoft on cleaning your data.
7. Troubleshoot Errors When Saving Excel Files
   When you save an Excel spreadsheet, an error may occur and you can’t save the file. Microsoft provides common save errors and their solutions.

Bonus Tip

Cheat sheets or quick reference cards lists shortcuts and functions. Use a cheat sheet as a reference so that you work in Excel faster.

Allow me to share a little story about what not to do with a computer.

A few years back, a girl I was dating told me that her mother had a computer.  I was thinking, “Great, who doesn’t.  What do I have to fix now.”  She went on to tell me that the computer was running slow, making a lot of noise (fans constantly running), and it would suddenly turn off from time to time with an error message stating that the CPU reached a critical temperature.  Oh boy, I have to see this.

Her mother’s home was inhabited by two cats, and a white-haired English Setter that shed so much, it looked like it was snowing in the house.  The computer, a small HP desktop, sat right on the floor in the living room.  This is NOT optimal placement for a PC; it was sucking hair in like crazy.  I immediately asked her mother when was the last time it was opened and cleaned.  I could have called it, but I had to hear it: “Never.”  Of course.  Never.

I proceeded to open the case of the PC.  Oh my goodness!  It looked like an entire small animal was stuffed inside that computer!  I have never seen so much hair and dust in a computer, and trust me, I have seen a lot.  We had to use a vacuum cleaner to suck most of the hair out, and follow it up with air dusters cans.  Turning the system back on and using it exhibited an immediate performance improvement.  Well of course!  I then told her mother to please place that PC up on a table or something to get it off the carpet.

About a year later, long after the girl and I stopped dating but still talked, she called me to say that her mother’s computer was having problems again.  I first asked if she ever moved it like I said, and of course the reply was “No.”  I then asked what happened, and she told me that her mother said she heard a “Poof!” from inside the PC, and then it would no longer turn on.  Obviously, something finally gave up, probably the processor or power supply.  She asked if I could look at it again, and I simply said “Nope.  It’s done.  Get a new computer.”  I know that I could have probably fixed it, but I didn’t even want to bother, as she never listened to me before.

I really don’t have to emphasize the point in this article.  Take care of your computers.  It’s that simple.

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