Help with Newsgroup Screen

[Guest]

We just recently upgraded to MS XP Professional and to all of the MS 2003
programs. Since this upgrade, I have a problem reading the MS Newsgroup
answers. I open the newsgroup screen, where you can see all the questions
listed in a small square screen (on the left) and to the right of it is
another square screen that shows what is written in the question and answer.
In both of these squares I have a vertical scroll bar. For the sake of
clarity - I will call this the "opening screen".

Before my upgrade, I could double click on the question, in the "Opening
screen", and it would come up in a large screen so that I could view the
question and all of the answers at one time. There was a vertical scroll bar
on this screen. I could scrool through everything. Again for sake of
clarity, I will call this the "big screen".

After my upgrade, I double click on the question and the "big screen"
flashes by and all I get is a blank screen with no vertical scroll bar.
Sometimes I will get the "big screen" but with only the question or only with
one of the answers. I can tell that there is more there because at the
bottom of my screen I can see the box line or maybe part of the first line of
the next answer - but no scroll bar to see everything.

I called my IT department and they said they got the same results. Why
should this be? Why can't I see the questions and all of the answers at
once? Because the IT dept. got the same result, they said it was probably an
explorer problem. I have tried to reach MS on several occassions and explain
this problem, only to be told to present my problem to the newsgroup. But I
don't know where to go to on the newsgroup to get help with explorer, so I am
hoping one of the MVP people out there, can tell what my problem is and/or
where to go to get help. Does anyone else out there have the same problem?

Please help - Aurora

 

[John Vinson]

We just recently upgraded to MS XP Professional and to all of the MS 2003
programs. Since this upgrade, I have a problem reading the MS Newsgroup
answers.

I would suggest doing what most of the MVP's and other volunteers do -
abandon Microsoft's infuriating webpage newsreader interface
altogether, and use a real newsreader instead. Outlook Express if free
and reasonably competent; use View... News on the menu of OE or
Internet Explorer, and set your News Server to msnews.microsoft.com.

I actually use Agent (www.forteinc.com, you can get Free Agent for no
cost) as a newsreader instead.

John W. Vinson[MVP]

 

[Guest]

Hi, Aurora.

I called my IT department and they said they got the same results. Why
should this be?

This happens because your IT department's computer is configured the same
way yours is. Don't worry. This is a good thing. It means that whenever
there's a problem and they can fix it in on their computer, unless the
solution involves Administrator privileges, chances are very high that they
can fix the same problem on your computer, too.

Why can't I see the questions and all of the answers at
once? Because the IT dept. got the same result, they said it was probably an
explorer problem.

It's most likely an Internet browser problem, not an "Explorer" problem.
"Explorer" isn't an Internet browser application, but a file, directory, and
networking interface application commonly used for manipulating files and
directories on a Windows computer or Windows network without having to use a
command line interface, such as an operating system shell.

I have tried to reach MS on several occassions and explain
this problem, only to be told to present my problem to the newsgroup.

They can't help you. First, unless you're paying for tech support for
Microsoft's products, you'll be guided to the newsgroups for technical
assistance, where experts volunteer their time to answer questions posted by
other Microsoft product users. Second, the MS people you conversed with are
reading and copy/pasting from pre-written scripts on common help desk
problems that millions of other people have already had where solutions have
already been discovered, so YMMV on how helpful their assistance will be.
(Which is why they didn't even give you an URL to the Internet Explorer
newsgroup to post your question about how to get their Web site to work
properly again in your Internet browser. Your problem is not listed in their
scripts, and they have no idea how to find the correct Web page for the
newsgroups they recommended to you on their own Web site, even if they used
their own search page:
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?q=internet+explorer+newsgroup&mkt=en-US.)

I am
hoping one of the MVP people out there, can tell what my problem is and/or
where to go to get help.

Except for Tom Wickerath, the Access MVP's can't help you either, other than
to advise you to use a different newsreader to read and post newsgroup
messages. For the most part, the Access MVP's refuse to use Microsoft's Web
newsreader because it doesn't suit their needs, so they are generally
unfamiliar with problems you may encounter while using it. You can't really
blame them, either. It's buggy, extremely slow, the Web site is down far too
often, and, most importantly, it's difficult to track hundreds or thousands
of newsgroup discussion threads they may be interested in without additional
software.

But if you follow their advice and use a different newsreader, you'll forego
the features that Microsoft's Web newsreader provides that the other
newsreaders cannot. And since more than two-thirds of the questions posted
in the Access newsgroups are posted using the same Web newsreader you are
complaining about, as bad as it is, there may not be a better choice out
there for most newsgroup question posters. Yet.

Does anyone else out there have the same problem?

I've seen the problem several times, but it's most often because Microsoft's
Web site programmers have just posted the latest changes to their Web site
and haven't worked out the bugs yet. I've also seen it with older versions
of Internet Explorer, so even though your computer has recently been upgraded
to a new operating system and has new applications, it may not have a recent
Internet browser installed. Or it may even have an Internet browser that's
too recent -- in that it hasn't been tested thoroughly, or it's a beta
version of a yet to be released Internet browser, such as Internet Explorer 7.

If you're stuck with IE7 beta, then you're SOL until the next version is
posted for download. Internet Explorer
6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519 (which I think is the latest update
for IE 6) for Windows XP Pro SP-2 works correctly with the Microsoft Web
newsreader, so if your computer doesn't have this version, you may need the
most recent one installed. If so, let your IT department handle this upgrade.

The Microsoft Web site also has multiple newsgroup portals, which often
reuse the same code for the Web pages, but there are subtle differences in
the Web pages -- and they get updated at different times, as if they reside
on different Web servers. If you have a display problem with one of the
portals, one of the other portals may still be configured correctly until it
too gets fixed by Microsoft's Web programmers, so it often pays to check the
other Web newsreader portals when one of them isn't working correctly. Try
these:

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...3c3-c10e-4523-9213-cdfd537838f1&lang=en&cr=US

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...mspx?dg=microsoft.public.access&lang=en&cr=US

(The MSDN portal doesn't have a Web page for Access database general
questions, but here's one for the forms newsgroup, another commonly used
newsgroup.)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.access.forms&lang=en&cr=US

If these Web pages don't display correctly with a stable recent version of
Internet Explorer, then they probably won't display correctly on other
Internet browsers, either, since they're tested with Internet Explorer. But
you could also try other Internet browsers, such as Firefox, to see whether
that makes any difference.

If none of this helps, try posting your question from either of the
following Web pages and see whether any of the Internet Explorer experts can
help:

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...613-dfee-4b99-9378-839a15bef262&lang=en&cr=US

http://www.microsoft.com/communitie...3eb-7037-4d4f-bde1-d8efee1f1420&lang=en&cr=us

HTH.
Gunny

See http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips and tutorials.
http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/expert_contributors2.html for contact info.