Q. You wrote recently about how to save the address book in Microsoft Outlook Express. This is something I’ve been quite concerned about so I was very interested in the column, but I need to know how to do this same thing in the more complicated Microsoft Outlook. I want to make a backup CD of my address lists, but my computer expertise is quite limited and I need help here.
Gayle Snyder @pacbell
A. Regardless of whatever level of computer expertise a person might have, the longer our lives play out using mundane digital tools like computerized calendars, address books and to-do lists, the more crucial it becomes to have a safe and solid way to back up our information. So from here on the backup questions you raise will only get more important, Ms. S.
I have become all but evangelical about getting people to become comfortable with making backups in whatever software they use for keeping track of the people and the time in their lives.
In Windows there are several ways of backing up the address books in Outlook Express and the Contacts list in Outlook. You can either drag and drop them all together into a backup folder or you can use the Windows Explorer to find the files in question and make copies for storage on a backup device like a CD or a flash memory thumb drive.
Dragging and dropping takes less fuss and works fine. Right-click on the desktop and select New and Folder from the pop-up menu that appears. Give it a name and then use the Maximize button in the upper-right corner of either Outlook or the address book in Outlook Express to move the displays so you can see both the address lists and the new folder at the same time to permit dragging from one and dropping into the other. Now move the cursor arrow into the list of names in either program and press Control + A to select them all.
Then move the cursor to the first name in the list and give it a right-click and drag it into the new folder. When you release the mouse button, a copy of the names will be created in the folder, which you can save someplace safe.
Outlook is much more complicated than Outlook Express for using the software itself to back up files. Click on File and New in Outlook and then select the option to make a new Outlook Data File. Give it a distinctive name and save it to the desktop using the next two boxes that appear.
Now open the Contacts item. Then click on Go in Outlook’s toolbar and select Folder List. In that list find the new backup folder you just made. Right-click on that folder and select New Folder from the pop-up that appears. Select Contacts from the next display and an icon for that will appear in the Folder List.
Finally, open your Contacts and press Control + A to select them all and then drag them to the new folder to create a copy ready for backup.
Outlook Express makes things far easier. Open the OE Address Book and use Control + A to select all the names. Then click on File and Export and you will find a choice to sent all of the names into a WAB (Windows address book) file ready for backing up.
Q. Here’s a dandy for you; one I haven’t seen in your column: Our printer does not print off the computer approximately every other day. This pops up when it won’t print: “There was an error (underscore)(underscore)(underscore)to EPUSB1: for the printer (EPSON Stylus CX5400): There was a problem printing to the port. Check to be sure your printer is configured to use a valid port.”
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We have taken it to two different repairmen, and they say if it happened all the time, they would know what to do, but as it is sporadic, they don’t know what to do. I would appreciate your input.
Dot Wegner @aol.com
A. Because the glitch is on and off, those repair experts should have suspected that your problem lies with the ink cartridge on that Epson all-in-one printer/scanner/copier, Ms. W. If the nozzles that spray the ink onto the paper become clogged the printer will stop printing on one day and then sometimes work again the next day because the clog clears up for a while. If you click on the Menu button on the Epson you will find a “Nozzle Check” option. If the test fails, your fix is just to buy a new cartridge.
Next be sure your printer connects directly to the computer rather than going through an external expansion hub. These hubs add extra ports but sometimes they cannot produce the power needed to communicate with printers. Also try a new USB cable.
If your problem continues the culprit must be the drivers, which can become corrupted or lost over time. To reinstall drivers you must first uninstall the old ones and then unplug the printer from the USB port so that the computer is forced to find the printer and reinstall the needed software.
Click on Start and Programs and then Epson and you will find the uninstall module that came with the printer. After it is uninstalled, remove the USB cable from the computer and then restart. Now reload the software and then plug the USB cable back in.
Q. I’ve been using Quattro Pro 10 for years and I am suddenly having problems trying to print the results. When I want to print a box appears that says “page count over 1000–print block too large–use smaller print block.”
I am only trying to print one page. I know my printer works because I can print other material. It is only the QP10 that won’t print. I’ve looked everywhere under the help section, search, advanced search, but I cannot find any thing that mentions “page count” or “print block” or anything that can tell me how to reduce the page count or the block size.
Bob Freund @aol.com
A. Like Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet, Corel’s competing Quattro Pro uses a default template to set up its display, including things like text size, width of rows and columns, screen colors and, of course, the size of each spreadsheet. Most likely you’ve got a corrupted template set for your version of this highly regarded Microsoft alternative program that usually comes bundled with WordPerfect, the word processor that competes with Microsoft’s Word.
Quattro Pro fans like to boast that Corel’s program can handle far larger spreadsheets than can Excel. QP can handle documents as large as 1 million rows and 18,000 columns, while Excel’s maximum is 65,000 rows and 256 columns. As your problem hints, the million-row columns make documents far too large for a printer’s driver software to handle and so users get a “print block” message. Your Quattro Pro can’t find the end of file marker any longer, thus making even a single page seem like it’s the maximum size permitted–those 1 million rows.
Both Excel and Quattro Pro have little-known routines that will let a user restore the programs to their original settings out of the box, and if you do this a new template file will be created to fix the glitch. In QP one holds down the left Shift key while the program is starting. You will get a message reading: “Are you sure you want to overwrite the current workspace with the factory default?” Click the Yes option and your software will be restored to include the missing file length setting.
Excel users might note that Microsoft’s spreadsheet works almost the opposite way. Excel will create a new factory settings default file each time it is opened. Users must set up a new default file if desired. If one opens Excel and makes a bunch of changes in things like fonts and row sizes and such, these can be set as the default for future times when Excel is opened.
With the settings changed as desired, click on File and Save As in Excel. Next select the My Computer icon and then the C: drive. Next go to Documents and Settings and then open the Owner folder. There, open Application Data and then Microsoft.
Finally, select Excel and then open the folder called XLStart. Save the new default there under the name of Book.xls and the software will open using it on the future. If you remove the Book.xls file, the default settings will return.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/askjim.