Moving taskbar around screen less than a snap

Help Line

Originally, the Start button and icons for Microsoft Windows were at the bottom of the monitor screen.

All of a sudden I realized they had shifted to the right-hand edge of the screen, and I cannot find the key to return them to the screen bottom.

There is no key. The mouse moves the task bar in Windows from the bottom to either side or the top.

To move the bar, you put the cursor in a spot on the bar without icons and, while holding down the left mouse button, use a sweeping motion to move the whole thing to a different edge of the desktop. It's easier to do than to read about it.

I am having no luck with getting the universal serial bus feature on my IBM laptop to work with my Iomega ZIP drive. I have Windows 98 Second Edition installed, which is required for USB devices.

But when I first installed the ZIP, I got a screen saying my computer wasn't USB-ready. I have uninstalled the Iomega software and reinstalled it.

I have tried several suggestions from Iomega tech support, all with no success.

I even got a replacement drive from Iomega, and the problem still occurs.

Apparently, something has changed in my ThinkPad. Can you point me in the right direction?

My own bad luck with ThinkPads tells me that you probably are the victim of one of the most annoying features of the otherwise superb IBM ThinkPad line: a control panel called MyThinkPad that lets a user activate and deactivate input-output ports on these laptops.

The settings were designed to prevent software/hardware conflicts and to take advantage of various settings that one can create for devices like printers and infrared devices.

Click on Start and then Programs and then MyThinkPad to call up the panel, where you can fiddle with changing settings one at a time to find the ones your laptop needs to talk to that Iomega drive.

Even though I am a Mac user, I really enjoy your column. I am an estate planning lawyer, and I use the following software: Microsoft Word 5.0, Microsoft Works 4.0 (spreadsheet and database), QuickBooks Pro 4.0 and Quicken 7. I have thought about switching to a PC because of the greater software availability, but I have been reluctant to do so because of the thousands of files I have created on the Mac. If I were to go with a PC, is there a relatively easy way to convert the files I created on the Mac to files that can be read and edited on the PC?

I must warn you that it can be a bit dicey to move the QuickBooks Pro and Quicken data across platforms. The other stuff, however, can easily be shifted by using the superb $70 Conversions Plus (www.dataviz.com), which makes quick work of converting dozens of types of files. Sadly, Quicken is not among them.

Both Quicken and QuickBooks have a Save As option that lets users export data into a format called QIF (Quicken Interchange Format) designed to move stuff across platforms.

But my own experience has been that this process can get pretty complex.

To get a picture of how daunting the conversion process for Quicken gets, check out this Web page: www.intuit.com/support/quicken/faqs/win/1657.html.

For my money I'd stick with the Mac in light of the renaissance the platform is enjoying, with ever more software coming out and with prices and power at respective all-time lows and highs.

Send e-mail to [e-mail].