Tips And Tricks:

DO try these at home (or in the office)

• Make sure that you have an antivirus program installed before you connect to the Internet. An antispyware program is a good idea, too, but choose your own, don't respond to pop-up messages saying that your computer is infected with spyware and inviting you to "click here to fix the problem".

• Don't respond to any email asking for your password or account details, even if it bears a well-known logo and looks convincing and even if it says "your account may be suspended". No reputable bank or building society will ever request such details to be sent by ordinary (insecure) email.

• Back up your data frequently (it doesn't matter about the programs - you have the disks for those). Try to keep your data within the My Documents folder so that you can backup My Documents in one go. A floppy disk probably won't hold everything and recording on CD, although cheap, is awkward. Many people now use memory sticks or external hard drives.

• In Outlook Express, you can only send and receive attachments if you uncheck the well-meaning "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus" in Tools-Options-Security.

• In Windows, use My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View to check "Display the contents of system folders", "Display the full path in the address bar", "Display the full path in the title bar", "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide file extensions for known file types". After all, it's your computer.

• If your laptop seems to have a mind of its own, you may be tapping the sensitive touch pad as you move the mouse pointer. This has the same effect as clicking the left button. Use My Computer-Control Panel-Mouse-Device Settings-Settings-Tapping to disable tapping.

• There are many keyboard shortcuts. Try Ctrl; which swiftly inserts today's date into most Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Access databases.