Category Archives: Microsoft

Post specific to Microsoft / Windows O/S.

XP – Removing Read Only For Files Or Folders Copied From A CD

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When you copy files off a CD you will have to remove the read only attribute, before you can edit the file.

There are a few ways to do this, but I will show you what I think is the easiest:

  • In Windows Explorer, find the file / folder you copied from the CD.
  • Right Click that file / folder and select Properties.
  • Uncheck the Read-only box in the Attributes section.
  • Click on OK.

Of course there are utilities out there you can use and commands that can be entered in DOS mode, but this should be the cheapest and easiest way for most people. If you do a lot of copying from CDs you might want to look for the alternatives.

If you want to make a file read only, so you don’t make a change by mistake for instance, follow the same basic procedure outlined above, but place a check in the Read-only box, instead of unchecking it.

XP – Lost Window?

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For some reason, known only to the computer gods, every once in a while a window disappears. This tip should get it back for you.

  • Hold down the Alt key and keep tapping the Tab key until you get to the icon of the program you want.
  • Hit the Alt key and the Spacebar at the same time.
  • Press the M key and use the arrow keys to position the window to the right place and the Esc key when it is where you want.
  • Drag on the window edges to resize it as you like. (Caution: Do not use the Maximize button for this.)

Now the next time you open the window it should work correctly.

Actually, there are no computer gods of course, at least to my knowledge, somehow or other we must have inadvertently dragged the window beyond the accessible area of the screen. This doesn’t happen often thankfully but can be really frustrating when it does happen.

I have only used this myself in both XP Home and XP Pro but, I believe it works the same in older versions also.

Word – Random Text Generation

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I sometimes have to generate some random text to test how a new layout looks for a newsletter or website. I know there are easier, and probably better ways to do it but, here are two methods I have used in Microsoft Word.

The first is to simply locate a document and copy what looks like the right amount of text and paste it into the new layout as plain text.

The second method I use is to randomly generate a number of paragraphs in Word and then copy them and paste them into the new layout as plain text.

To do the generation of random text paragraphs in Word:

  • Create a new blank document.
  • Type =rand(#) [insert 1 for 1 paragraph, 5 for five paragraphs, etc. in the place of #, inside the parentheses].
  • Press enter.

This will insert the following paragraph the specified number of times:

“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

This is another of those little things, that I seldom think about but, have been asked by others “How do you do that?”.