New computers increasingly come with the Windows Xp operating system (Home or Professional Edition). Those used to the older Windows OPs might be shocked to find that Windows Explorer, which opens up the machine’s folder/system tree, seems to have disappeared. Fear not – it’s still there; just more hidden than before.

		Click on Start at the foot of the screen.
		Move the mouse arrow to the All Programs green arrow.

This brings up the list of programs on your machine.

Scroll up to highlight Accessories at the top of the list.

A side Menu appears. You’ll see “Windows Explorer” near the foot of the side Menu’s program list.

		Scroll down to highlight this option.
		Left click the option.

You’ll find the familiar folder/system tree in the left-hand frame of the launched “My Documents” Menu.

Another irritation of Xp PCs is that they often come with an array of desktop Icons which link to programs or Internet Service Provider offers which you will rarely, if ever, use. They merely sit there making your desktop unnecessarily cluttered. But rather than delete these, play safe – in case you want easily to find them again – by putting them in an “Unused Desktop Shortcuts” folder.

		Left click Start at the foot of the screen.
		Left click Control Panel.
		Left click Appearances and Themes.
		Left click Display.

This opens the “Display Properties” dialog box.

		From the Tabs at the top of this box’s screen, select and left click Desktop.
		Left click the Customise Desktop bar.
		On the next dialog box, first clear by left clicking any tick in the white box beside the “Cleanup Wizard every 60 days” unless you want this utility to run automatically.
		Now, left click on the Clean Desktop Now bar.

This launches the “Desktop Cleanup Wizard”. Follow the Wizard’s instructions, essentially:

		left click the Next button;
		left click the white boxes to put a tick in the boxes beside those Icons you want to put in the Unused Desktop Shortcuts Folder; and – if necessary – to untick those you want to stay on your desktop.
		Once you have made your selection, left click Next again.

The wizard will show you a list of those you have selected.

		If you want to change your mind, left click Back and change your selection.
		Click Next again.
		If the list is what you want, left click Finish.

Once you have closed down all the dialog boxes by left clicking the “X” in the top right-hand corner of each screen, you will find a new folder called “Unused Desktop Shortcuts” on your desktop and spaces where the selected Icons used to be.

Left click the “Unused Desktop Shortcuts” folder and it will open to show you what it contains. This should be the same as the Icons you selected during the Cleanup process.

Even accurate typists make occasional mistakes. You can, of course, find and correct these literals when you’ve finished your document by using the Spell Check. But this is a rather long-winded process in Word. Alternatively, you can correct as you go along.

Place the cursor over the misspelled word – it will be underlined by a wavy red line – and right click the mouse.

A drop-down Menu appears which offers some suggested “correct” spellings in bold at the top of the Menu.

If you agree with one of them, move the mouse arrow to highlight your selection and left click the mouse.

The word will be changed automatically.

If you agree with none of the suggested alternatives, simply left click the mouse on a blank part of the document and the drop-down Menu will disappear.

If you use the same phrase – or phrases – again and again, you might find it useful to have Word automatically complete them after you’ve typed the first few letters. An example might be: Yours sincerely.

At the top of the screen, left click to select Insert.

A drop-down Menu appears.

Scroll down to highlight AutoText.

A side Menu will appear.

		Move the mouse arrow over to highlight AutoText in the side Menu and left click.
		Left click AutoCorrect among the tabs at the top of the dialog box.

You will see a blinking cursor in the blank field on the left called “Replace”.

		Type here the beginning of the phrase you want Word automatically to complete: eg, Yours sinc
		Move the cursor to the blank field called “With” on the right – either with the mouse or by hitting the Tab key – and type in the full phrase: in this case, Yours sincerely

So, the next time you begin to type Yours sincerely, you can hit the return key or space bar after Yours sinc and Word will automatically fill out the rest of the phrase to Yours sincerely.

You can also use this function automatically to correct words in which you commonly transpose letters when you type: eg Greame to Graeme.

Budding authors too busy to go to the bookcase to find the Thesaurus will find Word’s Synonym utility a bonus.

		Place the cursor immediately before, within, or immediately after the word for which you want to find a synonym.
		Right click the mouse and a pop-up Menu appears.

This launches a side Menu in which you will find a list of suggested synonyms and a link to the full Thesaurus.