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Help forums such as forums.asp.net, daniweb, and CodingForums.com are valuable resources in any programmer’s arsenal. Whatever you’re looking for help with, there is likely a board out there for you. You should search for, and be familiar with, the boards that apply to your language(s) and platform(s) of choice so you don’t miss out on the (FREE) experience and advice of other professionals in your field.

I’ve learned so much from help forums. Not only from the people kind enough to help me when I have problems, but from lurking in threads and trying to help people who are having problems I haven’t encountered yet.

Like any social circle, each board will have its own set of rules, conventions, and norms that you should follow to build rapport with the other people there. What is acceptable in one place may not be acceptable at another. If you want people to help you, you need to show a willingness to play nicely. You need to show that you respect them and their time, and that you’re grateful for the FREE help.

How to play well with others

• Read the board rules, if there are any. They didn’t type them up for practice. Failure to follow the rules may result in a banhammer, so it’s in your best interest to follow them. You can’t follow them if you didn’t read them.
• Read the FAQ, if there is one. Here is an example. If you ask a question that’s answered right in the FAQ, it shows you lack either common sense or common courtesy. No one wants to help someone who can’t be bothered to do a little research of their own, because it implies they don’t respect the time and effort of others.
• Check for sticky threads that tell you how to get the most from the forum, such as this one. There may also be sticky threads that address common issues.
• Lurk moar. Really, lurk around, read threads, and get to know people. Pick up tricks, and even answer a question or two yourself. Post a thank-you reply to a solution that helped you, even if you weren’t the original poster.
• Don’t try to push your question as easy or difficult. After all, if you can’t solve the problem, how can you possibly know if it’s easy or not? If it’s so easy, shouldn’t you be able to do it? If it’s so difficult, less people may look at it, because they think they don’t have time to address it, or because they don’t want to help with difficult issues for free. You’re not doing yourself a favor by stating the difficulty level either way.
• Put a good subject line. “I need help” and other generic subject lines that indicate you have a problem are redundant. We know you need help or you wouldn’t be posting a question. Your subject line needs to get the attention of the people who know how to fix your problem, so make it descriptive so it doesn’t get overlooked.
• Give as much detail as possible. Show you tried to do your own work so we don’t think you’re conning us for working for free. Tell us what you did to troubleshoot a problem so we don’t post 10 things you did already.
• Post a working example to demonstrate an issue. If you want help debugging, pull out troublesome code into a full code sample that we can use to see the problem. The less work I have to do to get to where you are, the more likely I am to help you. Most people on forums also have full-time jobs. Make it quick and easy for us or we may just not have the time to replicate, much less fix, your errors.
• Say thank you. There are a multitude of reasons to thank the poster(s) who helped you. They’re giving you their time and effort for free. Let them know you appreciated it. Let others know you’re a nice person who thanks people. Let future people who read the thread know that the solution was the correct one. Just be a decent person and express thanks when someone helps you.

Are you sensing a common theme? The people helping you when you post on a board are just that — people. They want to help because it gives them something as well. A sense of pride, more knowledge and experience, and/or a sense of satisfaction in helping others in need. Treat them with the same respect and courtesy you want to be treated with.

Be good to each other, and happy coding!

When I right-click on an image that is displayed in my browser and choose “Set As Desktop Background”, my computer gives me a choice to select Tile, Center, or Stretch.

When I right-click on an image that is in Windows Explorer or a folder view, it doesn’t. It just sets it. My default was to Tile it, and it was driving me batty, because I’d have to go back into the Desktop properties and fix it.

I wanted the default to be to center the image as my wallpaper.

In order to do this, you have to change the registry setting. As usual, when playing with the registry, you are best off backing it up first, just in case. That said, bring up the registry editor with regedit and look for \HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. The keys WallpaperStyle and TileWallpaper set the wallpaper orientation.

Center

• WallpaperStyle = 0
• TileWallpaper = 0

Tile

• WallpaperStyle = 0
• TileWallpaper = 1

Stretch

• WallpaperStyle = 2
• TileWallpaper = 0

Note that you have to have administrator permissions on the PC to change registry settings.

CodingHorror posted about a service (called Yelp) asking for your e-mail password, and how terribly bad an idea that is. They pointed out that many people are not technically savvy enough to realize how much of a disaster that can be.

This is worth reiterating a million times over. As their article pointed out, your e-mail password is the equivalent to the keys to your house. You likely shove everything into your e-mail account. When you forget your passwords to other sites, the forget password / reset password usually goes to your e-mail address. You may have financial data in there, tax information, bank information, or even sensitive data for your job.

Depending on just how much you have stored in your e-mail and how many sites use it as their key to your identity, giving out the password to your e-mail account could be as bad as giving your social security number to someone you’ve never met, trusting that they will keep it safe, and not abuse it or let other people see the number.

NEVER GIVE ANYONE YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT PASSWORD.

NEVER GIVE ANYONE YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT PASSWORD.

NEVER GIVE ANYONE YOUR E-MAIL ACCOUNT PASSWORD.

Go read the article, and forward it on to anyone in your family who might be new enough at this whole internet thing to trust anyone with the keys to their house computer.

In older versions of Excel, you could allow macros using the Tools menu (Options, Security tab, Macro Security button).

Office 2007 is totally different from 2003 and earlier versions. Here is the link to their help document detailing how to enable macros to run without the prompt (Enable all macros).

Enable or disable macros in Office documents

Basically, they moved the security settings from the Tools / Options menu to the new Trust Center.

My parents are in their mid-fifties. Having a daughter like me, they at least are familiar enough with a computer to do the basics, such as e-mail, search the internet, use Word, and follow instructions that are work-specific.

They are nowhere near as savvy as my 60 year old uncle, who set up his own internet side business selling custom tee-shirts, but they get by.

Yesterday, my Mom was telling me about her neighbor. The woman was laid off from a job she’d had for a very long time. She has no other skills, and is completely baffled by, and frightened by, computers. She is just going to retire early now, because there is no job she can get (that she can physically do) where she doesn’t need to do SOMETHING with a computer. She can’t work in an office job at all, because even the most basic job needs to use e-mail and Word.

I watched my grandparents slide into oblivion because they retired too early. They sat at home and watched TV; having no extra money, and not being very into other people, they did nothing for years on end. Retiring early is a key to an early grave if you don’t volunteer or get out of the house. The brain fries and dies, fed by nothing more than a glowing tube of moving pictures and the drone of the newsman.

There is very little you can do these days, work or volunteer, that doesn’t require at least a very basic ability to use a computer. Yet I am astounded at the number of people in the 40-70 year old range that have no clue at all about them!

If you’re old enough to be reading this, and your folks are young enough to not be in assisted living care, it is your responsibility to help them if they need it.
(If you don’t know, LEARN. It is a required skill now.)

Here are things you can do to help your folks learn enough about computers to get a basic office job.

• Sign them up for a community learning program or a college course. Many suburban communities offer adult learning programs through their park district for a lower cost then a college would.
• Buy a cheap used computer to play with and learn on. You don’t need a speed-demon, top-of-the-line computer to learn to use the internet, e-mail, and a word processing program. People are always upgrading — get a used one from a trusted, local source. Ask your neighbors, family members, friends, and co-workers; someone will upgrade and have no clue what to do with the old computer.
• Don’t be afraid to play, and teach them not to be afraid to play. Set a system restore point in case anyone fries it. Half the barrier (if not more) to learning is FEAR.
• Buy Microsoft Office. I know, it’s expensive. Buy a student version if you can, or buy an older version, but buy it. It’s THE most commonly-used suite out there, and if they know it, they can learn others.
• Get them a tutor. Again enlist the help of friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers to find a young person who is trustworthy and looking to earn a little side money. Have them tutor your folks once or twice a week for a couple of hours.
• Talk about it with them. Don’t make them feel stupid or dated. This computer stuff is very difficult for many of our parents, as they didn’t grow up with computers. If they’re old enough, they were lucky to have a phone in the house, and a TV was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Be gentle.

These are the skills everyone should have if they hope to do even the simplest office job in today’s world.

• Basic terminology. Cursor, window, mouse, right-click. I’ve actually had people not understand what right-click meant. There is no “any” key. F5 is a function key, not the F and the 5 together. They can’t get help from tech support if they don’t understand how to communicate with them.
• Basic knowledge. What, and where, are files and folders, how you work with them, what file extensions are, how to find documents, how to navigate, what the desktop is, using the menus, using the Start menu, and so much more. Many of us already know all about these things, but don’t even think about them. Like driving a car.
• E-mail. The most common program is Outlook. Not Outlook Express — the real Microsoft Office version. They should be able to add, remove, and update a contact, compose and send e-mail, and get e-mail. Bonus points for the calendar, tasks, and notes functions.
• Printing. How to print documents / web pages, how to change the ink, how to buy ink, putting paper in, clearing a jam.
• The Internet. They should know what the URL bar is, other basic terminology, the difference between search engines and web pages, and all the things a more experienced user takes for granted. Internet Explorer is a browser, the internet can be accessed by many browsers, and Windows is not the Internet.
• Word. If you just can’t get Office, OpenOffice is an alternative, but realistically, some people are just never going to be able to do more than exactly what they are taught with computers. You may need to visit the library or a neighbor to get them the experience.
• How to get help. Tech support numbers, what to tell them, how to find versions and serial numbers of software and hardware, how to search for help on the internet.

Our parents need to have these vital skills.
If they should lose their job, they will be hard-pressed to get work without them, and if they are physically unable to stand for long periods, they can just give up now. If they are retired, they need them to stay in contact with the world, with you, and just to exercise their brains so they don’t get mushy.

Consider it re-payment for all the nasty shenanigans (and diapers) you got into when you were young — help them pick up these vital skills now.

Did I miss anything? Got a story to share or other helpful tips? Tell me in the comments!