Q: I use Microsoft Office at work, and when I start to compose a new document, the text alignment defaults to the center position. How can I permanently restore the alignment to the left? – Kathy Terzian
A: If I ran Microsoft Corp., I would force the programmers who create and maintain Microsoft Word to put a red button labeled “Repair Tip” at the top of the screen.
When a user clicks on that fat red icon, he or she would get something like this: “Microsoft Word often gets messed up because users do something wrong while creating a document and then mistakenly save those bad changes in the master template for Word, which is a Word document called normal.dot.
“Whether it’s a sudden change in the default font or an unwanted color of text or the appearance of a strange picture at startup or a jumbling of text alignment, the fix always is the same: Find and rename the normal.dot template.”
When you do that, Word will start up the next time and create a new normal.dot template file with the default settings that were created when the software was first installed.
The best way to find normal.dot is to click on Start and then select Search. Search All Files and Folders for “normal.dot.” Eventually, normal.dot will appear in the search results pane to the right of the display. When that happens, move the cursor to the normal.dot entry and right-click.
In the pop-up box that appears, select the Rename option. Change the name to xnormal.dot. Now reopen Word, and a new normal.dot file will be created and your problem will be gone.
Q: I have been looking for some time for a simple, flexible database program and can’t find one other than Microsoft Access. – Hill Hammock
A. A great many computer owners daydream about tracking all of their CDs or their books or their coin collections or the members of their Cub Scout pack using a database such as the ones down at the office.
Happily, a great many computers come with the home office-oriented Microsoft Works program installed. Works includes a nifty database creator, along with a rudimentary word processor, a passable spreadsheet and a calendar-making module. The Works database lets one quickly create a data entry display by laying out entry boxes for various fields such as Tune name, Album, Artist, Date Purchased and Price.
If you lack Microsoft Works, there are many shareware database programs such as the $19 AZZ Cardfile (azzcardfile.com) that handles most of the basics, short of performing arithmetic. For $59.99, one can acquire DatabaseOasis (databaseoasis.com) from MK Software Solutions, which works very much like the already mentioned Microsoft Works but makes it easier to design customized graphics for the data entry display.
Contact Jim Coates at coates@tribune.com.
