Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

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Problems Solved

71

Havingaproblemwithourrecommendedsoftwareorexperttips?

[email protected]’lldoourbesttohelp

labelled‘Overwrite existing files’, but

we’d avoid thetemptationtotickthisjust

in casesomething goes wrong. When

you’re happy, clickConvert (see

screenshot belowleft).

CanIpreservemyold

email address?

Q

FollowingIssue’s 620’s news

item (page7), aboutthe rumoured

closureofPlusnet’s email

service, I’mwondering about my own.

Fordecades,I’vehad [email protected]

emailaddress.This wasoriginally

providedbyMadasafi sh,but that company

wasboughtbyPlusnet –which has

continuedtosupportmyaddress,despi te

me not beingabroadbandcustomer.

IknowIcan changemyemail provider

but Ihavealotofhistory with th is

address, making it practically

indi spensable. If Plusnet doescloseits

ownemail servi ce andmy@totalserve.

co.ukaddresswithit, is ther eanythingI

cando? Or will messages sent to my

addressbereturnedtosenderasaddress

not known?

SteveFadden

A

We’vechang ed your name at

your request. We don’t know

Plusnet’s plans forits ownemail

service, norany asso ciated ‘legac y’ bran ds

–[email protected]

imagineit’sunlikelythe companywould

closesuchservicesovernight, without

warning.We’dalsobesurprise dif

Plusnet didn’t offer aforwardingservice,

at leas tfor adefinedperiod.

If thePlusnet rumoursdoturnout to

be true –and [email protected]

addressisa ffected –thenit’slikely

you’ll eventually have to bidfarewellto

your oldemail address. Plusnet owns the

domainandifthe companydecides to

disableite ntirelythenthere will be

nothing youcan doabout it.Iforwhen

that happensthen, yes, sadlynew

messages se nt to thedeadaddress would

be bouncedback to thesender.

Do Ineed to conv ertDOC

files too?

Q

IfollowedCliff Grover’s

sugg estio ninIssue 619’s

Readers’ Tips (page41), and

converted allmyExcelXLSfiles toXLXS.

Is thereadangerthatDOCfiles might

causeproblemsinf uture? If so ,would it

be wiseto convert allmy.docfiles to

DOCX?How canIdothisinbulk?

Francis Wood

A

There’s certainl ynoimmediate

need to do this,ast he DOC

format is stillwidelysupported–

includingbyall recent editionsof

Microsoft Word andrival word programs.

Howeve r, ther ehavebeenmanyobsolete

fileformatsthatwerewell-supported...

untiltheyweren ’t.So, yes, it makessense

to considerupdatingDOC files to DOCX.

Thisisnot leas tbecause theDOC format

is proprietary,meaning it’s wholly owned

andcontr olledbyMicrosoft,while DOCX

isopen source.

Word offersnosimpleway to batch-

convert aload of oldDOC files butthere

arefreetools that’lldothe job. MultiDoc

Converter (www.multido c-converter .com)

is oneofthe easiestwe’ve tried. In the

Input section,click theSelectbutton

alongside ‘Sourcelocation’toc hoosethe

folder containi ng your DOC files.Then,

underInclu de,click theDoc tab(so that

*.doc)appears in thebox below. Thenin

theOutputsection,openthe ‘Convert to’

dropdownmenu,thenselect ‘MSWord

(*.docx)’.Notethatbelow this is abox

Canyou useanother sound

outputforhearing-aid problem?

Q

In Issue620’s ProblemsSolved

(page64) Gerald vanZwieten

described hisproblem

connecting hishearing aids via

Bluetooth.You explainedthatdifferent

generations ofthis standardmightbe

theculprit. I’msureyou’reright, but

your solution won’tworkfor everyone.

The problemwithmostdevices is

that as soon asyouplug something into

theheadphonejack it cuts out the

speakers.

In most households with adeaf

person, someone with unimpaired

hearingwants to listen too. The solution

is to findanothersound output.On

olderTVs that mightbeaSCARTsocket.

Or,onnewer sets,you coulduse an

optical or AudioReturnChannel (ARC)

output.

There aresmall converter sthatprovide

audiooutputfromthesesignals that can

be fedintosuitableBluet ooth devices.

Roger Munt

A

Mr vanZwieten didn ’t suggest

that he mightbeviewi ng or

listening with someoneelse, but

we’renot goingtosplit hairs, because

your poin tisaverygoodone.Thedevices

yousuggest existand, whiletheydoadd

complexi ty,theywould be thebetter

option forthose whowanttoshare the

experiencewithother s.

Thistransmitter/receiverfromElectric

Giant(£30fromwww.snipca.com/40366,

picture dbelow), forexample,has a

variety of inputs andoutputsand

supports Bluetooth5.0 –so, depending

on thepartic ular TV andsetup ,its hould

allowMrvan

Zwietenor

anyone else to

directthe

audiooutput

pretty much

anyway they

need.

Issue 623 •19January–1February 2022

Use MultiDoc Convertertob atch-convert

olderDOC filestoDOCX