Windows Vista Hints

Internet & Technology

This column does not have a single author, but is submitted by a number of experts that contribute regularly to our news source.  Some are in Canada, some in the UK and one is in the far east

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If you have upgraded to Windows Vista, you will find that all the bad hype about it is exaggerated.  It works quite well.  One problem you might find is that some of your very old programs may not work.  They are good model T's, but.....

For example old versions of MS Office (1997) don't like Vista.  What to do?  If you are a professional user of MS Word, Excel or Power Point, you may want to buy a new version.  I have a 12 year old Office that I keep running on a Windows XP machine.  On that machine it works fine.

Is it Microsoft's problem?  No, after all my Office Version is over 12 years old.  I may get around buying a new set.  I have purchased MS Publisher 2007 that I use all the time.

If you are not a power user, chances are that your machine came loaded with MS Works which is a 'free' lower function version of the popular and dominant MS Office.

Works contains a word processor, spread sheet and other programs like a database that is a lower function MS Access.   Now here comes the possible savings for  you. 

The MS Works word processor will READ AND WRITE files with the extensions for old and new versions of MS Word.  For example, it will handle:

 

Program	File Extension
MS Works	.wps
MS Word 2007	.docx
MS Word 1997-2003	.doc
Text	.txt
Rich Text	.rtx
HTML	.htm & .html

So as you can see from the chart, you can read and write files that are sent to you or you wish to send to others.  Don't just try to send .wps files to people, they might not read them with an old version of MS Word.   In reading files, some fancy stuff might not work, but usually you will be ok with Works and it may save you some money.

Now it can be awkward when a file comes to you as an attachment that is in .doc format and you can't read it.  You can change what programs opens what file quite easily and this will take the tedium and frustration out of your day.  How do you do that?

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If you get a .doc file or .docx file as an email attachment, you will want to automatically open  it with MS Works Word Processor because you don't have MS Word 97.   Vista looks up what program should read what file, but you don't have the proper version, so failure looms.

To change this you have to go to the Control Panel.  Here are the steps:

1. Click the MS Start Logo at the bottom left of your screen.
2. Click Control Panel.  If you are not in 'Classic View', you will not see icons.  There will be a link to change you to Classic view which consists of a lot of Icons.  Look for an icon that is the default program indicator as shown above.  Click it
3. You will see "Associate a file type with a program" This will allow you to change what program automatically opens a file.  Make the changes you want and save them.  This is helpful for review of picture files or audio files too.