I wondered why I was writing to myself

Getting a couple of e-mails from oneself is usually a bad sign. I do tend to talk to myself but seldom e-mail unless it's some kind of last resort method to transfer a file or make a note of something. It is 99% certain to mean that there's a trojan operating on one of my pcs and goodness knows who it's sending spam out to. I discovered the trojan by taking Google's Spyware Doctor for a spin. This free little application found it (as well as a few harmless data collectors) and zapped it in a flash. The full scan (which I'd recommend as these things don't always hide in what even this application thinks are the most likely places) does take a while but it's still faster than Windows One Live Care and a lot less intrusive. Currently trying to run it on Windows 7 but so far no luck - more on that later.

The link will take you to a Google 'pack' of goodies, many of which you may well either already have or not particularly want now. Just remove the ticks as necessary. Even if you think, like me, that you have all the protection you need, this can do no harm and if it all comes up clear that's good to know!

There's another wave coming

Microsoft also tend to be a little backward in coming forward sometimes. I've mentioned the brilliant deal on Office 2007 available to many and time is running out for the most quietly announced Windows 7 cut-price offer too. Now I discover they have a Wave of their own, obviously hoping that this will prevent Google claiming the word as their own!

An attractive site (Google still have a bit to learn there) sets out in reasonably plain English what they're up to and links to various betas, trials etc. Worth dropping in from time to time.

Microsoft Wave

Google goodies: Spy Doctor

Many of Google's goodies are well-hidden. Just found this good spyware and nasty things identification tool amongst their Google Pack offering. The pack includes a bundle of other stuff that you will either have or maybe not need but it is simple just to tick those that you want.

Interestingly, their SpyDoctor found a couple of items that Avast and CCleaner had missed. Hmm.

when = doesn't = equals in Excel 2007?

Just for a change, it's me that's looking for an answer. Something strange happened during a recent Excel 2007 course when I was demonstrating how to make one cell use the content of another one and compare it then put a statement in a box depending on what the result was. For years I have been using something along the lines of =if(A1=0.01,"right","wrong"). Pretty simple stuff but it didn't work!

Investigating, it appeared that instead of A1 containing something like 0.01 which was the result of some basic adding and multiplying it actually contained something like 0.0099999913. So I was getting wrong when it should have been right.

We looked at other numbers on the sheet and lots of them were similarly odd. Even though we'd entered just numbers with at most two decimal places in cells and none of the calculations could have led to intermediate steps in the calculations (just adding or subtracting or multiplying by whole numbers) some had lots of extra decimals and were nearly the right number and when rounded showed the right number but weren't stored by Excel as the right number.

Now, unless I have been really silly or the coffee and biscuits had a detrimental effect on not only my sanity but also that of some pretty talented delegates, this is bizarre to say the least. I guess I should do a search for the answer but thought I'd share it with you just to show that there are questions I can't answer! No doubt there'll be more on this soon!

I don’t want people to see my formulae (and may also want to prevent editing of some cells)

To hide formulae in Excel2007 select the cell(s) with the formula or formulae and right click. The Format Cells panel has a Protection tab. In there check Hidden (and locked if you don’t want people to edit the cell at all). Then return to the sheet. On the Review ribbon, click Protect sheet. Be careful if you set a password to make a note of it somewhere!

In older Office all cells are locked by default, so ‘protecting’ the sheet will prevent any changes which may not be what you want. So you need to uncheck the ‘locked’ setting first for whichever cells you want people to have access to. I think it’s the same for Office 2007. To protect a sheet in Office 2003 and previous versions use Tools>Protection>Protect sheet after clearing cells as necessary.

Similar principles apply to hidden cells (‘hidden’ seems to mean formulae only rather than anything else)

My language setting is Welsh! How do I change it?

Use *Tools menu > Language > Set Language

In the panel select just English (UK) and click on Default then click Yes to change Normal template for Word

If this doesn’t work try using *Tools > Options >Popular options and change language settings

It is more likely that your default language may have been set as English (US) instead of English (UK) which you’ll spot by things like color, dialing with one letter l and organization with a z instead of an s etc.

*see other post to locate Tools in Office2007

How do I stop overwriting in Word?

This happens in older versions because you have (usually accidentally) hit the Insert key.

Use *Tools menu > Word Options > Advanced

On that panel uncheck the Use Insert key to control overtype mode

In Word2007 this is off by default but may be on in older versions

*see my other post for the new Tools location