Technology Q&A

Q. I love my PalmPilot, but I just can’t get used to writing in that unusual Graffiti script. More often than not, when PalmPilot converts what I wrote on the screen, it comes out gibberish—a mix of letters and numbers that in no way resembles my original. The PalmPilot is great in every other way, and I want to keep using it—if only I can get it to handle my messages. Any suggestions?

A. You’re not alone. Many PalmPilot users complain that they can’t get comfortable writing in Graffiti. While the latest script program is better than the first version, it has a long way to go. In the meantime, you’re in luck: A company with the unlikely name of Think Outside has come up with keyboard that plugs into the PalmPilot. The 7.9-ounce, 69-key Qwerty keyboard folds up to a size no bigger than the Palm Pilot itself. The finger-friendly device costs $100. For more information: www.thinkoutside.com.

Q. Often, when writing on the computer, I use phrases or long technical names over and over again. Isn’t there a way for me to make that task easier, so I don’t have to retype all the letters every time?

A. There are several ways in Word, but by far the easiest is AutoCorrect—a function you’ll find under the Tools toolbar. Click on AutoCorrect and then, in the middle of that screen (see screen shot, below), under the With field, type the phrase, name or a full sentence (or even a paragraph) you’d like to store in the program’s memory. Then, in the Replace field, type some abbreviation for the words. For example, if you want to store the phrase “Statement no. 34, Basic Financial Statements—and Management’s Discussion and Analysis—for State and Local Governments,” enter something like bfs in the Replace field. Then, every time you type bfs, the full text of Statement no. 34 will appear. It’s a big time-saver.

Use the AutoCorrect feature in Word to save typing time.

Q. My laptop has a two-gigabyte (Gb) hard disk, which I used to think was ample for my needs. But now I’m discovering I probably can use twice, and maybe even quadruple, that size. Short of buying a new laptop, what are my options?

A. You’ve got several options. Let’s begin with the no-new-hardware one. You can zip, that is, compress, files which you don’t use often. Pick up a copy of WinZip; it’s one of the best file-compressing applications you can find. It crunches a file to between 25% and 50% of its original size. You can download an evaluation copy at www.winzip.com. However, if you want more than file compression, consider ZipMagic. Not only does it zip and unzip (compress and uncompress), it does so on the fly, which means if you click on a file that has been compressed by ZipMagic, it will unzip automatically; you don’t have to stop and “uncompress” it before viewing it. For an evaluation copy, go to www.zipmagic.com.

Your other option is to buy an auxiliary hard drive that can plug into your laptop and any desktop. One of the most popular is from Iomega (www.iomega.com). The company produces several such drives. But the one I think is the most practical (because of its capacity) is the Zip drive. It’s about the size of a portable CD player. The model that’s been around for a few years can hold 100 megabytes (Mb) on a cartridge about the size of a floppy disk. Iomega just came out with a new slimmed-down Zip drive that can hold 250 Mb. Don’t worry about compatibility because the new 250 Mb Zip can read and write to the older Zip cartridges.

Q. Some of my Excel spreadsheet files have so many sheet tabs it’s tedious to scroll through them all to find the one I want. Isn’t there an easier way.

A. As you know, you can switch from one sheet tab to another by pressing CLT + Page Up to activate the previous tab and CTL + Page Down to go to the next one. But if you have so many tabs it is cumbersome to scroll through them, use this trick to evoke a pop-up list of all the sheet tab names in a file: Right click on any one of the tiny arrows on the bottom of the left side of the screen (see the screen shot, below). Then click on the tab of your choice and it will pop right up.

A fast way to sort through many Excel sheet tabs.