Software Problems and Solutions
I have some files on a floppy disk that I can't
open!
From time to time, accidents happen, especially with computers and software.
Suggestions are always made to save your files to a disk so you have a
backup copy. Then disaster strikes and you can't open the files
on the disk.
One of the most frequent occurrences at the HelpDesk is that users are
unable to open files that they have saved to floppy disk. We can usually
help with this problem.
We have special software installed that can generally fix damaged files
and restore them to their original state. This is not a guarantee of restoration,
but we do make every effort to assist.
All you need to do is bring the disk to the HelpDesk window located
in room D200 at the Batavia campus and please be specific
with the problem. Include file name(s) and what type of software you used
to create the files.
What software is installed on the
computers at GCC?
Genesee Community College has licensed versions of Windows 2000 Professional
installed on all student computers in classrooms and labs. Along with
this operating system software, the college has installed Microsoft Office
XP Suite as their choice for word processing, database, desktop presentation,
and spreadsheet utilities.
Some of the utilities we install on all of our campus computers are
WinZip 8.0, with file extension .zip, which a file compression tool
used for sending large files over the Internet, Adobe Acrobat Reader,
which allows users to view Portable Document Format, .pdf, files
from the Internet. This also is a file compression tool used mainly
by government offices and those individuals requiring Internet posting
of large text documents.
The few exceptions may be in the library on computers installed for research
purposes only.
Should I use the same software
that the college uses?
One of the most common problems we've using the Microsoft Office
suite of utilities is that is incompatible with Microsoft Works.
This means that a document that was created and saved as a Works
file (with the extension .wks) will not open properly through Microsoft
Word. Although many people make the assumption that just because
it is designed and written by Microsoft, it must be compatible, it is
not.
Many computer manufacturers install Works on new PCs these days as a
low cost option to Office 2000 or XP. Students buy these lower cost computers
with the pre-installed software only to find out later that it "doesn't
play well" with Office.
The HelpDesk staff suggests the following steps when creating documents
using Works:
- Once you've created the document, click the File
button on the Standard toolbar and from the list, choose
the Save As… option.
- This will open a dialog box where you can type the name of the file
and choose from the drop down list, the file format you want to save
the file as, for example, Microsoft Word (.doc).
- Once you have saved the file as a Word document, you will have no
problem opening it on any campus computer.
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