Staying Anonymous in MS Word 97

[Weird Harold]

Originally posted By WhisperSecret in the Editors forum:
I downloaded his story to WORD 97 and edited it ... The only problem is that the licensed owner of the program is listed as the default author, so when I sent his edited story back, he found out some info I didn't want him to know.

A recent wrangle with Windows 98 reminded me of the solution to WhisperSecret’s problem. In the process of upgrading hardware, I was forced to reload Window and am still trying to clean up the changes it made to my configuration. Things like correcting my obvious mistaken choice to turn cookies off, and not having Explorer on my desktop, etc.

Especially vexing, is the assumption by the windows install program that every user of my computer needs to have Internet access.

You see, I have several user accounts set up on my computer. Each has access to only the programs and drives needed for what I will allow them to do on my computer. (I have my two hard-drives partitioned into seven logical drives. Each with it’s own class of files.)

My granddaughters don’t need Internet access from my computer, and they most definitely don’t need access to the drives where my dirty pictures and stories are saved. It was while cleaning up their desktops and start menus that I remembered WhisperSecret’s complaint.

All she needs to do is set up a user account on her computer for ‘WhisperSecret’.

The first time she calls up MS Word 97 logged in as that user, it will ask for the name and initials to use, just as if she was using it for the first time.

As long as she edits from that user account, the name saved by MS Word as ‘last saved by’ in the properties/statistics tab will be ‘WhisperSecret’ and the information she provided that user will be what is available to the person she’s editing for when she returns the file.

Any authors concerned about the information MS Word saves from the default author information should take note. Windows 98 has the capability to customize accounts for individual users. Programs like MS Office (Word/Excel/Binder/etc) are compatible with the capability, and can be personalized without changing the preferences of other users.

So, just give that little voice in the back of your head that forces you to write dirty stories it’s own password protected user account. It can even have it’s own home page in Internet Explorer along with it’s own My Documents, Favorites and Temporary Internet Files folders. When you are writing naughty stories, just log in as the little voice, and it will take you right to the directory where you store them and you won’t have to remember to save them away from prying eyes.

If you’re interested but don’t know how it’s done, I’ll help as much as is possible via e-mail.

 

[Patryn]

Or you could always get a Mac. Best thing I ever did...no really, it was. Doesn't make you configure anything, simple as hell, total GUI interface so no more typing c:\\windows\user\this\sucks

Just a thought.

 

[Weird Harold]

Originally posted by Patryn:
Or you could always get a Mac. Best thing I ever did...no really, it was. Doesn't make you configure anything, simple as hell, total GUI interface so no more typing c:\\windows\user\this\sucks

Just a thought.

Mac computers are OK. Mu neighbor has an iMac that I'm always helping him with.

The flip side of 'it doesn't make you configure' is "It doesn't LET you configure." Especially when it comes to multiple users.

Since I have grandchildren that I don't want using my favorites menu, Multiple User configurations are a must for me.

I'm seriously considering giving some of the voices in my head their own user accounts too.

 

[Patryn]

Mac OS 9 DOES let you configure. There are password protects for multiple users, as well as limiting access by certain users to certain folders, which means you could let your grand daughter access some files and folders while keeping your 'nasty bits'

away from here young impressionable eyes.

 

[ANiceGuy]

But don't ferget!!!

But don't ever ferget the password!!! Duh talk about can't get there from here hell! Yipes!!!

 

[KillerMuffin]

I don't run Word97, or any Word, I have WordPerfect. Okay, no comments from the peanut gallery, I happen to love WP. I do all my editing in Wordpad. I can change the color of whatever I add to the document so it's set apart and I don't have to worry too terribly much about going cross platforms. Additionally, there isn't any fun additional stuff added, like my name.

 

[shadowsong]

Call me crazy, but I'll just stick with Wordpad and forget all the rest of it... My personal preferences are definitely of the "less is more" variety, and Wordpad gives me pretty much that. For any sort of spellchecking/editing/etc... Copy into Word 97, put up with it changing the margins and swapping into a totally unreadable font, and then spellcheck the bugger. Paste back, and Wordpad pays no attention to any font size or type crap that '97 slaps down, and boom! You have a story... 8)

 

[Weird Harold]

For any sort of spellchecking/editing/etc... Copy into Word 97, put up with it changing the margins and swapping into a totally unreadable font, and then spellcheck the bugger. Paste back, ...

Why not just open the WordPad file with Word 97, Spell check it, and click NO when it asks if you want to update from Word 6.0 Format.

That's a whole lot easier than cut and paste.

Of course, if you're using Word to spell check, then it might be worth your time to use the options menu to customize your copy of Word so it doesn't do stupid things like add bullets to new paragraphs because it's default configuration is for business documents instead of fiction.