It’s frustrating. Something you have used for years stops working. It is not just that the process has changed. Sometimes it becomes more complicated. What am I talking about?

Today someone asked me how to fill in a form inside Microsoft Word 2007. This was not a document formatted as a form. The person who sent it had just put rows of __________ where the answers should go. As you expect typing on the lines caused the formatting to go all wacky. The solution is to press the “Insert” key on the keyboard and “Overtype” the underlines. Except my Insert key was not working.

A bit of quick research revealed that Microsoft decided to override the entire Insert/Overtype process. Why? Nobody knows. We just have to file that under unsolved mysteries.

Here is the way to replace the functionality of your “Insert/Overtype” in your copy of Microsoft Office 2007.

There are actually two changes you will want to make. First right-click on the status bar inside Word 2007. A menu will appear. Locate and click on the word Overtype. It looks like this:

Your status bar will show the word Insert or Overtype depending on which mode you are in. To change between the two all you need to do is click on the word Insert or Overtype. Word will toggle between the two modes each time you click.

Now you have an easy way to toggle Overtype mode but your Insert key still does not work. To enable your Insert key click the Office Button in the top left corner of Word. A menu will appear. Click the Word Options button at the bottom of this menu:

On the left side of the Word Options box chose Advanced. On the right side you should now find a check box labeled Use the Insert key to control overtype mode. Check that box then click OK.

Now the Insert key on your keyboard will toggle between Insert and Overtype.

A lot of work to replace some very basic functionality that has existed since the very earliest use of computers. Thank you very little Microsoft.

Are the labels fading or vanishing on your keyboard? Here is a tip I found on how to protect them before it happens.

Coat the top of each key on the keyboard with clear nail polish…I use Hard As Nails.

You can read the original post and thread at the Seeds of Wisdom Forum.

I personally don’t care when my keys wear off. I already know where the keys are to start with. But this may help you. I would also *not* try this with a laptop. Too easy to slip.

A few days ago I sent you a strategy for leveraging your signature file. Do that and you will save time with every email you reply to. If you missed that email I’ve put it on the blog here:

http://www.tnpcnewsletter.com/blog/2009/05/24/how-is-your-signature/

A few people wrote and asked if this only worked with Outlook. Every email program I’m familiar with will let you edit your signature file. I have edited the signature inside Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Pine, Gmail, Kmail, Eudora and several others I’m sure. Those are just the ones I have experience with.

Some email programs let you use multiple signatures with is very nice. Set one for replies and one for new mails. Then make a nice one to use with your friends. If your program does not let you use multiple signatures there is still a solution. I’ll tell you about that in the near future.

Finally here’s a tip that helps me reply to emails quickly. As soon as I see an email that I plan to reply to I hit reply. I mean before even reading it. Then I’ll read and reply at the same time. Before I started doing this I would see a longer email and think “I want to reply to this” but because it was long it would get put off. Now I just hit reply  and answer that email as I go.

If you have tips or comments please leave them below.

My friend was typing this anyway. Now she simply copies their
question, hits reply, pastes the question inside the ” ?”.  Now she
is off and running.

Expanding your signature file may seem like a small thing that only
saves you a few seconds. That is true. But those few seconds spread
over all the email you reply to day after day add up.

It’s a hit! Two quick things. A reminder about the Internet Archive

and an easy fix to a perplexing Firefox issue.

Yesterday I told you about the Internet Archive. Based on the
emails that are coming in it is quite popular.

If you visited the Archive or used the WayBack Machine why not
share what you found by commenting below.

The second item involves the Mozilla Firefox web browser and the
AVG anti-virus product. Three people who call me for help were
having problems launching Firefox. They would launch Firefox and it
would promptly crash without starting.

After talking to all three it turned out they had all installed AVG
recently. After the install of AVG Firefox no longer launched.

It turns out that AVG is using some called it calls “AVG Safe
Search”. Basically AVG adds a button to your Internet search
results telling you if the site is safe or not. I noticed this Safe
Search while trying to fix my Dad’s machine. We looked in the AVG
preferences, turned of the Safe Search feature and Firefox started
right up like it always did.

If you are having a problem launching Firefox and you use AVG try
disabling the Safe Search. It was the solution for all three of the
people calling me for help.

Have you run into this issue? Leave a comment below and let us
know your experience.

Thought I’d share a website that I find super useful. It is easy
for me to assume that you already know about all the cool useful
sites but as I talk to other people I find out that just isn’t the
case.

This week Archive.org came up as a solution to several challenges
we encountered. Any way you look at the site is just plain
interesting. Movies, pictures, audio, text, software, and more. All
of it free and all of it legal. You can spend a lot of time just
getting acclimated to the place. You will find the site here:

http://www.Archive.org/

The last time I visited the site it was highlighting the
commercials for the family computer – the Commodore 64 and video of
Carnival at the 1941 Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Those topics may
not be of immediate interest to you. They are an example of the
variety of content you will find at the Archive.

Maybe the coolest section of Archive.org is the WayBack Machine.
Here is what T.J. Lee wrote in TNPC about the WayBack Machine back
in 2001

“Sherman, set the WayBack Machine to Version 1.0 and hang on! Gee,

Mr. Peabody, look at that old Web page! Okay, the Rocky and

Bullwinkle references may be lost on a lot of you but by golly

this is just something you don’t see everyday, Chauncy.

The WayBack Machine page by the Internet Archive. This page relies in

part on Alexa Internet to serve up pages from the past. Type in a

familiar URL and you can look at what was displayed at this address

in days of yore. I tried it with The Naked PC site and cracked up

to see some of the old formats we used as we tried to come up

with a look we liked that was easily maintained. Or take a look

at Microsoft’s home page circa 1996. Fun stuff.”

One of my favorite uses for the WayBack Machine is to locate lost
web pages/sites. You know how it is. You are clicking through a
site and start coming across “File Not Found pages. Next time that
happens to you head over to the WayBack Machine. Most of the time
you will find exactly what you are looking for.

You can find the Internet Archive at:

http://www.Archive.org/

You will see the WayBack machine near the top of the page.

What do you find useful at the Archive? Share your finds below.