InBox

When Steve tries to open a new Office document, he is advised that it is not installed. When he tries to follow the instructions to install it, he's told that office1.cab is missing. He can't seem to find this file, but followed Windows' advice that he download proplus.msi, but that doesn't seem to have helped.

What the message is saying is that you need a file from the Office installation CD. If you've placed it in the drive and it is still not available, there are several likely causes: the CD is damaged, the CD Rom drive has dirty heads, or the heads are misaligned.

If you have access to another computer you can try a different drive, and then transfer the required file across to the other machine via network, e-mail or floppy - but beware, as it's a large file at about 214 megabytes. If all else fails, you can try Microsoft - if you can prove legitimacy of your Office CD, the company may be able to supply a replacement CD for a nominal cost.

Mike wants to know if there's a website that will tell him what he can do with the large number of keys on his Dell wireless keyboard that don't appear to do anything, including all the F keys. He's sure there are lots of clever shortcuts he could be using but he can't find any information about them.

Any keys specific to your keyboard should be covered in the manual. The F keys and Ctrl keys, on the other hand, exist on all keyboards. Their functions are dictated by each program or hardware, most of which have shortcut instructions right in front of you - you just haven't noticed them. Try clicking on the file or edit menu. There are Ctrl or F entries to the right of some commands. An extensive, Windows-specific shortcut list can be found at support. microsoft.com by searching for Q301583.

* Email your questions to Don McAllister, including software name and version. The Inbox archive is at nzherald.co.nz/inbox