Cleaning Your Windows

Continued from page 3

By Simson Garfinkel

January 28, 2004

Next, click on the tab that says "Start Menu." If you like the Microsoft XP start menu, leave this tab alone. But if you would like to see all of the programs that are actually installed on your computer without having to click "All Programs," select the "Classic Start menu" radio button. Next, click on the button that says "Customize"

Windows XP actually gives you a tremendous amount of control over the Start menu. By checking the boxes on the Customize menu, you can turn the Start menu into a general-purpose control over everything that's happening on your computer-sort of the way it was originally intended by its creator. (I know; I've spoken with him). On the Customize tab, I like to check the following options: Display Administrative Tools, Display Favorites, Display Run, Expand Control Panel, Expand My Documents, Expand My Pictures, Expand Printers, and Show Small Icons in Start Menu. Make sure that "Use Personalized Menus" is not checked.  Here's how my customization settings look:

Office Madness

If you're running Microsoft Word XP, or Office XP, you can make similar usability improvements.  Start up your copy of Word XP, right-click on the File menu and select "Customize" When the Customize menu appears, click on the "Options" tab.

If there was ever a program that's been crippled by Microsoft's Personalized Menus, it's Word-a program whose menus carefully evolved over many years of trial, error, and usability testing, only to have the confused philosophy of "customized menus" throw a monkey wrench into the works. Find the check box that says "Always show full menus," and make sure that it is clicked. While you're there, make sure that "List font names in their font" and "Show ScreenTips on toolbars" are also checked.  If you find that your menus are appearing with annoying visual effects rather than just popping instantly onto the screen, make sure that "Menu animations" is set to "(System default)"-and make sure that the system default is simply to have menus appear the old-fashioned way, without effects.

You can also click on the "Keyboard" button and assign any Word command to any control character that you might like. For example, I like having my cursor move up when I type control-P and having it move down when I type control-N; here's where I program that in.  (I keep hoping that somebody will do this as a Microsoft Word template, but so far no luck.)

For the last set of Word customizations, select "Options" from Word's "Tools" menu.  (Don't ask why Microsoft hides some customization features in one place, others in another place.) Select the tab that says "Save."  Many people are surprised that text deleted from Microsoft Word files actually stays in the file long after the text is deleted. This can be a real embarrassment when files are sent by e-mail outside of your organization. The reason that this happens is because of a Word feature called "fast saves." When Word does a fast save, it doesn't actually overwrite the old document. Instead, it simply leaves the old document on the disk and writes out the changes that you made while editing. As a result, it's possible to recover the old information by simply using the "undo" command. Minimize the chances of this happening by unchecking the "Allow fast saves" box.

While you are here, you should set Word to save AutoRecover files every minute, rather than every 10. Make sure that "Prompt to save Normal template" is checked; this decreases the chances that a virus will infect your Word document template. Checking "Make local copy of files stored on network or removable drives" will increase the reliability of Word in a networked environment. Finally, on the "General" tab, increase the number of entries in the "Recently used file list" from the default of 4 to 9.

Become Your Own Usability Expert

I used to tell people that the best way to learn how to use their computers was to read the documentation from cover-to-cover. Back then, Microsoft shipped a user's manual with every copy of Word or Excel. After reading these books, even nontechnical users could do amazing things with the software.

Times have changed. These days, few of us ever see the manuals that have been written for these programs-our programs come pre-installed on the computer, and the manuals are sold for $50 or more in technical book stores.

Fortunately, there is a good way that you can learn the ins-and-outs of most programs. Just pull up the "Properties" or the "Options" panels whenever you see them. Whenever Microsoft adds new features in its programs, it creates a checkbox on one of these panels to turn it off-or to turn on a new feature that's still considered "experimental." It was by looking at the "Options" panel in Outlook Express that I discovered that I could program the thing to automatically spell-check every e-mail before I sent it. You would be surprised what you can learn, if only you look.