Category Archives: Microsoft

Post specific to Microsoft / Windows O/S.

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?”.

XP – Reset Default Printer

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This is for those who have more than one printer attached to their computer or who are accessing multiple printers through a network.

The following instructions will show you how to set or reset one of them as the default.

  • Left click on Start.
  • Left click on Printers and Faxes.
  • Right click the printer you want to make the default.
  • Left click on Set as Default Printer in the drop down menu.

That is all there is to it.

You should now see a little black circle with a check mark next to the printer icon of the printer you selected as the default printer.

If you now have the correct printer set as the default, you can now close the Printers and Faxes window.

Now any time you want to change the default printer just follow the same process.

This applies to all accessible printer drivers including Adobe Acrobat Distiller, FinePrint, etc.