IT Queries: Computer problems answered

I recently purchased a new computer with Windows 7 operating system installed. I have since installed Office Professional 2007 and now enquire if I am able to install Lotus Smart Suite 9.5 or is this a lost cause?

If you are running the 32 bit version of Windows7 then it should be no problem as IBM’s Support Site describes in their post Information about SmartSuite and Organizer working on Microsoft Windows 7

When you insert the Smart Suite disk, you may have to run setup.exe directly from the disk rather than run the installation program automatically.

To do this, open the CD in My Computer and find the setup.exe file and double click on it.

You may find some of the Smart Suite functions won’t work, but most of the program’s features should be fine.

Can you please help me with the safest way to revert the Outlook Express spelling checker to English as it can’t be changed from French!

This is a problem that came along with Microsoft Office 2007 which changed the various spell checking and document proofing functions in Windows, Outlook Express itself doesn’t come with a spell checker.

As you can see from other sites’ posts – such as Jay Lee’s Chron site and Joe Duck’s Travel Blog this has caused a lot of angst for many computer users.

You can easily fix this by downloading the free Spell Checker For OE program we describe in our Outlook Express Doesn’t Have A Spell Checker post.

There are a number of registry fixes as well that can resolve this or you can reinstall the older versions of Office proofing tools but overall the simplest solution is to add the free program.

In your other site, 101 Free Business Ideas, you mention Open Office. I’ve installed it but I’m finding my friends can’t open the documents I send them. How do I set Open Office up so Microsoft Word can read what I create in Writer?

Open Office uses its own formats which Microsoft Word doesn’t recognise. You can fix this with a setting in Open Office.

Launch Open Office and create a new Writer document, then select Tools, then Options in the menu.

Once in the Options screen, select Load/Save the General from the menu on the left. In the Load/Save – General screen you’ll find towards the bottom the Default File Format in the options there select text document as the document type and Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP under Always Save As.

This will save the document in a format that most versions of Microsoft Office can read, although keep in mind that there are some advanced features in each program that won’t work on the other.

I’ve a received a file which ends in .rtf and I’m not sure if that type of file is safe to open or what it does?

An RTF file is a document saved in Rich Text Format; a basic computer standard that allows documents to have formatted text like italics, bold and bullet points. Because RTF files are simple compared to files saved in Microsoft Word’s format or those of other sophisticated word processing programs, it’s a fairly popular way to send files.

You can open RTF files in most word processing files including Wordpad, the basic free programs included with Microsoft Windows, and TextEdit, Apple’s free word processor that comes with OSX.

Generally RTF files are safe to open although it is possible that when opening them with Microsoft Word you could be caught by a macro virus, although these are rare at the moment.

If you open the file in Wordpad or TextEdit you should be fine.

I purchased a new computer 3 months ago with Windows 7.  It had a trial period of 3 months for Microsoft Outlok 2007 (Office Professional).  It is about to expire on 31st March and I can’t afford to my the complete pogramme.  My husband has Office Professional 2003 but when i try to load it it says it is not compatible with Vista 7.  Could that be correct?  I now also discover that Windows 7 does not have windows mail.  We have Bigpond account with a proxy server.  Can you suggest an email program for me.  PS I really hate Windows 7.

Office 2003 is compatible with Windows 7 however you have to uninstall the Office 2007 trial edition before installing 2003. Follow our instructions on uninstalling software on doing this. The Office 2007 trial edition does have a reputation for being difficult to remove so if you are having problems you may need to contact your local computer technician.

As far as the email options for Windows 7 go, you can download the free Windows Live Essentials pack which includes an email program.

What is indexing?

Indexing is noting the names and contents of files so it’s easier to find them later. It’s like the index of a book where you can quickly look up which pages a word, name or phrase appears rather than reading the whole book.

In the computer world and on the Internet, indexing speeds up looking for things as the process of searching through millions of websites or folders for your search would be painfully slow.

On Windows computers, there is the Indexing Service which was designed by Microsoft to speed up search. Unfortunately it never really worked that well and we recommend disabling it.

Overall, Indexing is a good thing as it makes life easier for us in the Information economy. It isn’t foolproof though and if it’s poorly done it can cause problems.

I have a Laptop running Vista Home premium 32 bit and keep getting this message when i try to load a new program There is another installation occuring, please finish the existing before continuing.

For some reason the Windows Installer function has become confused, probably by an incomplete installation of another program.

The first thing to do is check your Add/Remove programs function and remove any programs you aren’t using or are giving you problems. If you have the replacement disks, then removing and reinstalling Microsoft Office is a good idea.

If that doesn’t work, then downloading and running the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility may well fix the problem. Note that while Microsoft discuss Office in the linked article, the clean up utility works for all programs.

After running the installer clean up, you may want to clean up your hard drive to flush out any left over nasties before attempting to install the new software.

I keep receiving PPT files from friends, but I cannot open them. What are they and are they dangerous?

PPT files are PowerPoint presentations and normally they are perfectly harmless although it is a good idea not to open any email attachment from people you don’t know.

Powerpoint is the Microsoft presentation program which comes with some versions of Microsoft Office. Just because you have Microsoft Office, it doesn’t mean you have Powerpoint.

If you want to open ppt files, then you can download the free Powerpoint Viewer from Microsoft. This allows you to read and print ppt files but not edit them.

Should you want to change them, the free Open Office program can deal with most Powerpoint presentations.

I’m using Word 2003 which won’t open docx files. Could either tell me how to fix, or point me to answer somewhere.

Docx files are Word documents created in the newer Office 2007 system. To read them you’ll have to download and install the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack as we describe in our I can’t read Office 2007 documents post.

Once you’ve installed the compatibility pack you’ll be able to read Word and Excel 2007 files.

I bought office Small Business 2007, I wanted Publisher, & now Outlook won’t load without the Business Contact Manager. I unistalled BCM & bought just outlook 2007 & tried to load that, same problem when I try to open it, a message box comes up it is trying to configure, migrating data & connecting to Microsoft.

I have only my home computer. The rest of the disc updated my 2003 version perfectly. I have no idea what to do next. I use Outlook Express at the moment. Do I just give up??? Hoping you can help no-one else has a suggestion. Thanks. Marg

Business Contact Manager has always been a problem in Office 2003 and we recommend turning it off to avoid exactly the sort of problems you are encountering.

Normally, you’d simply uninstall it but with Outlook misbehaving you’ll need to start in safe mode which disables all of Outlook’s accessories and add-ins including Business Contact Manager. Hold down the ctrl (control)key while clicking the Outlook icon and you’ll start Outlook in Safe Mode.

Once you’re in safe mode, you’ll need to disable Business Contact Manager. To do this select the Tools menu and click Trust Center.

Along the left hand side of  the Trust Center panel is a list of features, the second one will be add-ins. Click this and look for the Manage box in the bottom right hand corner. Select COM Add ins and click Go.

In the COM Add-ins box you’ll now be able to turn off  Business Contact Manager by taking the tick off everything relating to Business Contact Manager and any references to Microsoft SQL Server.

Once you’ve taken the ticks off the boxes, click okay, exit Outlook and reboot your computer.