Technology Q&A

Q. Many of the CPAs in our firm divide their work time between our office, clients’ facilities and their homes. As a result, we share desks—and computers—in the office. When you launch Word, Excel and Access, the applications reveal the last few files that were used. While that’s a good idea when you’re the sole computer user, I’m uncomfortable with the arrangement when I have to share the machine. It’s not that I have secrets, but there are times I’d rather not broadcast which files I recently opened. Is there a way to override that function?

A. Here’s a case where a software convenience can not only intrude on privacy but can also create an inconvenience. Actually, the Windows operating system and each of the Microsoft applications contain separate functions that track which files were last opened—all designed so users can easily access frequently used files. There are ways to disable some of the functions, but not permanently; another user can easily re-enable them. First I’ll tell you how to disable them and then I’ll tell you a really neat, undocumented way to selectively erase from Windows’ memory the fact that one or more files were ever opened. Ssshh, it’s very cloak-and-dagger.

System history. If you click on Start, Documents, you’ll see a list of the most recently opened files in all your applications. It’s an easy way to open any of those files with a click. You can clear that list in one step by clicking on Start, Settings, Task Bar & Start Menu, Start Menu Programs, then selecting the Start Menu Programs tab and clicking on the Clear radio button.

Caution: That step will clear only the list of the most recently opened files; it will not turn off the function that will continue to collect that information in the future. If you open a file after you clear the history, the function will record that file. If you want to be sure no one knows what files you opened, you must clear the history, as described above, as the last thing you do before leaving the computer.

Application history. Each of the Microsoft Office applications contains a function that stores its most recently opened files. Those functions can be disabled or told to remember up to nine files. To view the recently opened files in Word and Excel, click on File. At the bottom of the menu that appears is a list of the most recently opened files.

You can turn off that function, in part or entirely, by going to the toolbar and clicking Tools, Options, and then opening the General tab. In the middle of the screen will be a Recently used files list: option. Uncheck it, and the next time the computer is booted up, the list won’t appear.

Now for the stealth way to remove one or more recently opened files that show up when you click on the File menu in Word. Mind you, it works only in Word.

Start Word and press Ctrl+Atl+– (that’s Control and Alt and the minus key, the key to the left of the equal [=] key.) You’ll notice that the cursor changes into a very thick dash. Click on File. Then, when the recently opened files appear at the bottom of the menu, click on the document you want to remove from the list and its name will vanish—not the file, just the listing. You can remove as many as you wish that way. To clear the dash, press the Esc key.

When the next Word user clicks on File, all the recently used files except those you removed from the history list will appear. But be aware that any file you remove will still show up when you click on Start, Document; to prevent that, you must clear the Document list as shown above.

Q. How do I copy an image that’s on my computer screen? I notice there’s a key on my keyboard that says Print Screen, but when I strike it, nothing seems to happen.

A. Actually something does happen, but it happens off screen, so to speak. When you press Print Screen, the image on the screen is saved in the system’s Clipboard, which is where copied (Ctrl+C) or cut (Ctrl+X) material is temporarily stored. If you want to copy an image of the entire window that is currently active, press Print Screen. Then go to where you want to place the image and press Ctrl+V or click on Edit, Paste, and it will appear. If, on the other hand, you only want to copy the image—not the entire screen—press Alt+Print Screen. Once the graphic is in your document, you can crop or trim any part of the picture.

This function works for any application and anything on the screen since it captures the image, not the underlying data that makes up the image.

If you are using Word 6 or Word 95, and you want to crop a graphic, follow these steps: Click on what you want to crop; that generates eight boxes, called handles, which appear around the graphic. If you hold down the Shift key and click on a handle, the mouse pointer becomes a cropping tool. Drag the handle to the center of the graphic and stop when you’ve cut away the desired amount.

If you are using Word 97 or Word 2000, follow these steps: Click View, Toolbars, and select Picture from the menu. You should then see the Picture toolbar (see below), which contains a cropping tool.

Now click once on the graphic and a box with eight handles will appear around it. Click on the cropping tool on the Picture toolbar and on one of the handles next to where you want the graphic cropped. Then drag the cropping tool, stopping when you have cut the desired amount.

If you do lots of screen captures, you may want to invest in a special application that does the job in more sophisticated ways—such as saving the image to various formats or copying only parts of it. One popular program is SnagIt. For more information go to www.snagit.com.

Q. When I’m scrolling deep into a large Excel worksheet, I often forget the title of a column or row at the beginning of the worksheet because I can’t see the column heading—it’s buried either on the top or the left side of the screen. Is there a way to see the column or row headings no matter where I am in the worksheet?

A. Excel’s Freeze Panes tool allows you to freeze rows and columns on the screen. If you freeze the headings, no matter how far you scroll down or to the right, those headings remain visible.

To freeze a row, choose the row number or the cell that’s immediately beneath the last row you want frozen. Then go to the toolbar and click on Window, Freeze Panes. Excel inserts a thin line to show you where the frozen pane starts. To freeze a column, pick the column letter or the cell in the row immediately to the right of the last column you want frozen. You can engage the Freeze Panes tool anywhere in the worksheet.

To freeze horizontal and vertical headings at the same time, select the cell that’s in the upper-left corner of the range you want to remain scrollable and then invoke the Freeze Panes feature. To restore the workbook to its standard view, click on Window, Unfreeze Panes.

Q. I know that I can adjust a column width in Excel by dragging the right side of the column heading to the desired size. I know, too, that I can automatically adjust the whole column to fit the widest cell by double-clicking on the boundary on the right side of the heading. But how can I do that for the whole worksheet?

A. You apparently don’t know about the Select All button. That’s not surprising, since Microsoft doesn’t clearly label it. The Select All button is the gray box to the left of the A column and right above row 1. When you click on it, you highlight the entire workbook.

Now you can automatically size all the cells—either by width or height. If you want to fit width, go to Format, Column, and click on AutoFit Selection; if you want to fit height, click on Row and then AutoFit Selection. If you want to AutoFit only selected rows or columns, hold down the Ctrl key while you highlight those rows or columns.

If you use the AutoFit Selection method, the width is based on the width of the cell you have selected. If you use the double-click method, the width is based on the widest item in the column, not what you have selected.

Q. I know there are loads of Excel shortcuts that allow me to avoid using the mouse. Maybe you can help me find a shortcut for deleting individual cells and for highlighting a column or row.

A. You’re in luck. There’s help for both. To delete a cell, put your cursor in the cell and press Ctrl+– (that’s Control and the minus key in the numeric keypad). It’ll instantly bring up the delete cell menu.

To highlight a column without the mouse, move the cursor anywhere in the column and press Ctrl+Space Bar and the entire column automatically will be selected. To highlight a whole row, put the cursor anywhere in the row and press Shift+Space Bar.