Hi folks, I'm back (devonwoody)

[Tasky]

One program still will not recognise me after 6 days of new passwords when it finds I am not on the same computer as registered? STEAM (train simulator)

Do you use Two-Stage authentication, whereby logging into Steam requires you to check either your email or the Steam smartphone app for a security code that they send you?
If not, it's worth doing and alleviates the need for all this same computer stuff - I use the phone app personally.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks Tasky and all.
Pleased to report that steam played ball this morning, I now have train sim & flight sim running on the new Pc.
The last problem left is I am now running Thunderbird email but I cannot get a second email address into thunderbird.
Did Robbo get my return Pm this morning?

 

[devonwoody]

I have found IMAP for emails, how can I change my existing mail at Thunderbird to IMAP format at present it set for POP?
(virgin accepts imap)

 

[Tasky]

Pleased to report that steam played ball this morning, I now have train sim & flight sim running on the new Pc.

Do set up the 2-Stage authentication anyway, as it serves to further protect your account/personal data and provides an alert in case someone tries (or even manages) to hack your account!!

 

[thetyreman]

Pleased to report that steam played ball this morning, I now have train sim & flight sim running on the new Pc.

Do set up the 2-Stage authentication anyway, as it serves to further protect your account/personal data and provides an alert in case someone tries (or even manages) to hack your account!!

+1 it makes your account more secure

 

[Eric The Viking]

Libre Office is VERY close to old-style Word (and I still have a full set of Ford Prefect on 5.25" floppies in the attic, I think!). It'll cost you nothing to try it on Windows or Linux (it's genuinely free - no ads or other nuisances).

I've never yet found something it doesn't do that I need it to, with the odd exception of building YouTube videos into presentations (but Google's equivalent does that and imports acceptably from Libre Office..

 

[Tasky]

I've never yet found something it doesn't do that I need it to

Does it use the same shortcuts as Word?
OpenOffice had the same claim, but I found it really failed when it came to useful daily-user functions like that.

 

[AES]

OK guys, sorry if I've inadvertently "stirred the post"! NOT my intention (to myself ---- (hammer) (hammer)

As already said, just about the one and only "softwary" thing I really can do is "drive" Word - e.g. insert pix where I want them, in front of/behind/around text, re-size them, build data tables, print mirror image texts, print text in "un-straight" lines, etc, etc.

So the only reason I would have for changing from my present Word (even if I think it's not that good really, AND IMO worse in at least some respects than it was 3 iterations back) would be IF whatever new OS I'm forced to change to after Win 7 dies will not drive my Word any more/is incompatible with my many existing .doc files. Then and only then would I consider changing word processor software, even if the new one is free and "better". (Yup, "Chief Luddite" me)

 

[Robbo3]

FYI : Libre Office (& presumably Open Office) will read & write doc & docx files.
My understanding from more experienced users is that Libre Office Calc isn't totally compatible with the more complex Excel macros & that those who are competent in Word fear that they can't transfer their acquired knowledge across to Libre Office Writer.

 

[Eric The Viking]

It all depends on definitions.

There are slight differences in the way some things work. There's also an excellent ability to assign keys to macros and shortcuts (so you can, if you wish, match Word). You can also quickly set up key functions either specific to Libre Office Writer or to the whole suite together. I haven't used it for ages, but Libre Office Writer seems much easier than when I last did use Word. And I'm paying nothing to Microsoft, and I'm not required to use a web browser or link to internet (office 365, etc.).

The only downside is that outline numbering is awkward, but then it is also in Word anyway (and was notoriously broken/crash-inducing for years if not a decade). Greybeards will remember how good WordPerfect was at this sort of thing (and indexing, ToC, etc.). Libre Writer does ToC very well, and Word has probably been fixed by now, but I can make all that stuff work for me, so I'm not bothered by any differences. I use styles a lot (I like structured documents), and those are good and easy to use.

There are a few, mainly display/party tricks in Excel that aren't in Libre Office Calc, but for those I use Google Sheets. For example, you can fake Gantt charts in Google Sheets (using "Sparklines"), and it's hard or impossible in Libre Calc. But even in that case there's also an Open Source project planner that'll do them, it's a bit limited (e.g. no resource levelling), but free is a _lot_ cheaper than MS Project nowadays!