Ok. So I am the iExpert?
Scenario 1
Neighbours kids come to me for help on their new iPod to redeem a $20 voucher. The catch: kid is twelve and has no email yet and no credit/debit card. Oh, and its Saturday afternoon when I should be mowing or watching America's Cup!
Payment: 1 bottle of cheap red.
Scenario 2
iMac, iPad, iPhone, setup with 7 (yes seven) email accounts from 4 different providers must all be visible on all devices including the sent, trash and drafts, oh, and must work overseas, oh, and a new assistant must be able to use one of the accounts.
Payment: $60 hourly rate
Scenario 3
Retired gentleman is tired of his old Windows7 stuff, but likes his new iPad and iPhone, so gets me to help him order the latest greatest iMac and AppleTV. Now "just" have to it all up so he can "do" stuff like photos, music and so on.
Payment: $60 hourly rate
Which would you prefer.. And how would you go about it?
Lessons
1
An AppleId is required, and user must be 13 years old (so amend accordingly the first time you try, or it will fail when you try again!)
A credit card is NOT required. However to get past this step during the AppleID sign up, you MUST do it on the iPod by selecting a free app to install from the App Store. (The option is missing if try from iTunes on iPod or on the computer) horror
2
Patience, perseverance, perspicacity. Get a new gmail account. Use this as the main coalescing point, and use the Chrome interface exclusively. No more trouble. Oh, and never change passwords again ;)
3
Read up on what AppleTV can do ahead of the job. Oh, and use all your cunning obtained from past experience mixed with enthusiasm for the product, hubris for the wonderful outcomes.
Saturday 6 October 2012
Friday 15 June 2012
Outlook 2003 cannot open this email
This generic error has a host of possible causes and therefore suggested solutions.. the most tempting of which was to go "Open Source" ;) removing Add-ons, safe mode, repair install had no effect.
I even tried changing the default viewing and composing fonts. Desparate, eh?
However the fix was simply taming that terrible excuse for a program that is Macafee. Still, the customer has just made the mistake of shelling out online for it, so no chance of demanding a refund...
THE SOLUTION:
I disabled the parental control and safe surf components leaving the main antivirus bit running, and voila, I could once again see the body of emails without having to first reply in plain text! Grrr (Not sure which of the two components was the culprit, but I would suggest the surf part.. due to the attempt at web'ing everything back in 2003.) How well did that work out?!
I even tried changing the default viewing and composing fonts. Desparate, eh?
However the fix was simply taming that terrible excuse for a program that is Macafee. Still, the customer has just made the mistake of shelling out online for it, so no chance of demanding a refund...
THE SOLUTION:
I disabled the parental control and safe surf components leaving the main antivirus bit running, and voila, I could once again see the body of emails without having to first reply in plain text! Grrr (Not sure which of the two components was the culprit, but I would suggest the surf part.. due to the attempt at web'ing everything back in 2003.) How well did that work out?!
Dreaded Office XP 1706 error - The SOLUTION
You will have found this post searching for Office XP or version 2002 and the error 1706 which pops up every time you load Word or Excel. It prompts for the installation files, in my case PRO.MSI, and gives no clue as to whether these are expected on a fileserver, a CD or some local path.
No doubt you will have somehow located an old copy of an Office XP pro cd, resourceful IT guru that you are, but despite pointing the dialog to all the possible folders on the cd, it refuses to find or open the files it needs.
Next, you make sure it's patched up to date [how much longer will patches be available for these old versions?]
Then you tried a Repair install - rather than an un- and reinstall...
All that accomplished for me was to loose the profile in the accompanying Outlook 2003 installation, meaning the I had to fix the nickname file (more on this below).
Oh, and of course you tried running the app in safe mode, and the repairs etc as admin?
You even got desperate and tried the reg file fix Tip 171 (from memory).. here http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
But this alas made no difference either.
THE SOLUTION:
Copy the PRO.MSI file onto the hard disk somewhere and point to it there instead of on the cd. I chose the same folder as the Office exes were located, not sure if that made a difference, but seemed to work for me.
This got me past the now well-known first hurdle locating the file, but two new dialogs popped up prompting me to install some ttfs, (I forget which as I was certain I was not getting any further), yet I just chose "Ignore" to these two, and, Voila, the error did not reoccur!
Regarding the Outlook Profile issue, it seems that a repair install of Office 2002 affects Outlook 2003 by renaming the profile from Outlook to Copy of Outlook.
The most marked effect of this is that the autosuggest feature (when typing an email address) is reset to empty - ie no entries in it at all
Needless to say, this can result in very grumpy customers if they rely on it heavily. (Especially where the addresses are a combination of those in the Contacts folder address book, and the Windows address book, heaven knows why that particular mess never got sorted out over the many version of Outlook even to parent day!?)
THE SOUTION: rename the .NK2 file to match the changed profile name, in my case "Copy of Outlook.NK2". Fixed!
A user on Kelly's corner reports the following fix:
What did work:
Make the limited user an Admin gp member
Open Word, respond do the installer prompt
Remove Admin gp membership from the limited user acct
No more install prompt
Problem scenario:
Win XP Pro, SP1
Standalone computer (no domain involved)
Office 2000 SP3
Admin gp member did initial install of Office, SP1a, SP3
Create a limited user acct
Reboot, logon as that user
Open Word
Error 1706 dialog displays
No doubt you will have somehow located an old copy of an Office XP pro cd, resourceful IT guru that you are, but despite pointing the dialog to all the possible folders on the cd, it refuses to find or open the files it needs.
Next, you make sure it's patched up to date [how much longer will patches be available for these old versions?]
Then you tried a Repair install - rather than an un- and reinstall...
All that accomplished for me was to loose the profile in the accompanying Outlook 2003 installation, meaning the I had to fix the nickname file (more on this below).
Oh, and of course you tried running the app in safe mode, and the repairs etc as admin?
You even got desperate and tried the reg file fix Tip 171 (from memory).. here http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
But this alas made no difference either.
THE SOLUTION:
Copy the PRO.MSI file onto the hard disk somewhere and point to it there instead of on the cd. I chose the same folder as the Office exes were located, not sure if that made a difference, but seemed to work for me.
This got me past the now well-known first hurdle locating the file, but two new dialogs popped up prompting me to install some ttfs, (I forget which as I was certain I was not getting any further), yet I just chose "Ignore" to these two, and, Voila, the error did not reoccur!
Regarding the Outlook Profile issue, it seems that a repair install of Office 2002 affects Outlook 2003 by renaming the profile from Outlook to Copy of Outlook.
The most marked effect of this is that the autosuggest feature (when typing an email address) is reset to empty - ie no entries in it at all
Needless to say, this can result in very grumpy customers if they rely on it heavily. (Especially where the addresses are a combination of those in the Contacts folder address book, and the Windows address book, heaven knows why that particular mess never got sorted out over the many version of Outlook even to parent day!?)
THE SOUTION: rename the .NK2 file to match the changed profile name, in my case "Copy of Outlook.NK2". Fixed!
A user on Kelly's corner reports the following fix:
What did work:
Make the limited user an Admin gp member
Open Word, respond do the installer prompt
Remove Admin gp membership from the limited user acct
No more install prompt
Problem scenario:
Win XP Pro, SP1
Standalone computer (no domain involved)
Office 2000 SP3
Admin gp member did initial install of Office, SP1a, SP3
Create a limited user acct
Reboot, logon as that user
Open Word
Error 1706 dialog displays
Sunday 13 May 2012
Moving email and contacts from OE to Outlook
Moving from XP to Win7?
One of the tricky bits is getting email from Outlook Express to Outlook proper.
Copying the dbx files to the new pc is easy enough.
Then from WLM simply Import OE v6 Mail and Contacts (altogh the contacts don't come through).
An important step is to MOVE the imported mail from the Storage Folder called Imported Files into folders you have created in WLM. This takes time when there are a lot of folders containing large amounts of email.
Then from Outlook, you import mail and it detects the WLM store.
I don't bother exporting or importing the Mail Account settings, even when there is more then one. A few screengrabs of the various config screens copied across to the new PC are all that is required (along with the password/s). Make sure you look at all the screens, especially if the Outgoing "Logon Using" is ticked.
Contacts is almost as simple (when you know how:)
Copy the wab file to the new pc. Double click it, which will [somewhat presumptuously] import all the contacts into Windows Contacts folder.
Then from Outlook you can choose the Open > Import Messages & Contacts (choose contacts only) in the WLM format.. as described correctly here:
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/382
This process took longer to import than the messages, but may have been because Outlook was "preparing to Send and Receive"...
A tip therefore is to force all the Email clients to work offline, by either disconnecting from the network, setting the clients to Work Offline, or in my case, leaving the passwords blank until the work was done.
One of the tricky bits is getting email from Outlook Express to Outlook proper.
Copying the dbx files to the new pc is easy enough.
Then from WLM simply Import OE v6 Mail and Contacts (altogh the contacts don't come through).
An important step is to MOVE the imported mail from the Storage Folder called Imported Files into folders you have created in WLM. This takes time when there are a lot of folders containing large amounts of email.
Then from Outlook, you import mail and it detects the WLM store.
I don't bother exporting or importing the Mail Account settings, even when there is more then one. A few screengrabs of the various config screens copied across to the new PC are all that is required (along with the password/s). Make sure you look at all the screens, especially if the Outgoing "Logon Using" is ticked.
Contacts is almost as simple (when you know how:)
Copy the wab file to the new pc. Double click it, which will [somewhat presumptuously] import all the contacts into Windows Contacts folder.
Then from Outlook you can choose the Open > Import Messages & Contacts (choose contacts only) in the WLM format.. as described correctly here:
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/382
This process took longer to import than the messages, but may have been because Outlook was "preparing to Send and Receive"...
A tip therefore is to force all the Email clients to work offline, by either disconnecting from the network, setting the clients to Work Offline, or in my case, leaving the passwords blank until the work was done.
Thursday 12 January 2012
Sending photos by WindowsLive email is now near impossible... SOLUTION
It was a great leap forward once the ability to downsize any selection of photos directly from explorer was included in Windows (without having to find a separate down-sizer). Even Nanna and Poppa could do it..
XP and OE come to mind. They had their issues, but eventually were ironed out over the years.
Then came WLM
Windows Live Mail 2011 has caused a lot of users to tear their collective hair out trying to the simplest of things.. send a few down-sized photos as an email attachment...
The most succinct post (of many) describing the solution is:
http://www.winvistatips.com/re-sending-pictures-wlm11-t830132.html
In summary - WLM sends just a thumbnail of the images you want to send, and uploads the full high resolution image to the user's Skydrive - available to all Windows Live accounts. The recipient of the email can then view the "Slideshow" by clicking on a link to look at the online version of the full size images stored on Skydrive.
We all know NOT to click on links in emails....
The SOLUTION?
Right-click on the selected photos as usual, select send to mail recipient and re-size as wanted
Once it comes up as a photo e-mail – here's the trick - hit view slideshow in the e-mail window
A Photo album tools tab will now appear. Hit the format tab. Click on the paper-click (attachment) icon, and they will now be switched to attachments, at their re-sized resolutions
Here's the kicker:
You need to have a WindowsLive account setup and logged in once for this to work.
[caption id="attachment_378" align="alignright" width="575" caption="Click on the paperclip once you have logged in to WL to attach photos the old fashioned way :)"]
[/caption]
To use the plain WindowsLive email program, no Windows Live account is needed, but without signing up to yet another service, sending photos becomes near impossible - to the point of completely jamming up the outbox - with an error that requires you to delete the "Email Photo and try again"!
Grrr..
XP and OE come to mind. They had their issues, but eventually were ironed out over the years.
Then came WLM
Windows Live Mail 2011 has caused a lot of users to tear their collective hair out trying to the simplest of things.. send a few down-sized photos as an email attachment...
The most succinct post (of many) describing the solution is:
http://www.winvistatips.com/re-sending-pictures-wlm11-t830132.html
In summary - WLM sends just a thumbnail of the images you want to send, and uploads the full high resolution image to the user's Skydrive - available to all Windows Live accounts. The recipient of the email can then view the "Slideshow" by clicking on a link to look at the online version of the full size images stored on Skydrive.
We all know NOT to click on links in emails....
The SOLUTION?
Right-click on the selected photos as usual, select send to mail recipient and re-size as wanted
Once it comes up as a photo e-mail – here's the trick - hit view slideshow in the e-mail window
A Photo album tools tab will now appear. Hit the format tab. Click on the paper-click (attachment) icon, and they will now be switched to attachments, at their re-sized resolutions
Here's the kicker:
You need to have a WindowsLive account setup and logged in once for this to work.
[caption id="attachment_378" align="alignright" width="575" caption="Click on the paperclip once you have logged in to WL to attach photos the old fashioned way :)"]
[/caption]To use the plain WindowsLive email program, no Windows Live account is needed, but without signing up to yet another service, sending photos becomes near impossible - to the point of completely jamming up the outbox - with an error that requires you to delete the "Email Photo and try again"!
Grrr..
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