Q. In one of your wonderful newsletters, you explained how to change the size of scroll bars. I'll now prove to you how little I know about computers, Mr. M: What is a scroll bar and where is it located? I’m sorry to waste your time with such an elementary question, but thanks for your patience with people like me. Rev. M.B., Dallas.

A. Fear not, kind reader! No question is too basic or too silly here in Mr. Modemville, so no apologies are ever necessary. As a subscriber of my weekly newsletter, if you have a question, send me an email and I’ll be happy to personally respond.

A scroll bar appears at the right side of a window and often at the bottom. Using a scroll bar, you can view what can't be seen on a Web page or document that's too large to fit on screen. These bars are sometimes called elevator bars or “those little slidey things.” To use a vertical scroll bar, while holding down the left mouse button, drag the slider bar up or down to see what's hidden from view.

For example, if you go to my Web site at www.MrModem.com, the entire first page will not fit on the screen. If you look to the right, you'll see the scroll bar that you can drag down towards the bottom of the screen. As you move it, the rest of the page will come into view. If you click the up or down arrows located at either end of the scroll bar, you’ll move a screen at a time, which has the same effect as pressing the PgUp or PgDn keys on your keyboard.

Q. When I look at my XP Desktop, there used to be a ruler at the top of the page, but it’s gone. How can I get it back? Thanks for being there, Mr. M. If it weren’t for you, there are times I’d throw my computer out the window.

A. I think we've all shared that feeling at one time or another, but let’s leave computer tossing to the athletes at the Summer Olympics. It’s one of my favorite events along with Synchronized Downloading.

Turning to your question, there is no ruler associated with the Windows Desktop as you described, so dollars to donuts you're referring to Microsoft Word or another word-processing program, which does have a ruler toolbar. That being the case, click View > Ruler to toggle it on, and you’ll be ready to rule the roost once again.

Mr. Modem's Sites of the Week:

Colorado’s Historic Newspaper Collection
This fascinating collection is a joint project of the Colorado State Library and the Colorado Historical Society. The publications in this collection span 1859-1923 and cover more than 100 newspapers from 60 Colorado cities. More than 350,000 digitized pages are available for your viewing pleasure. I found this site to work best with Internet Explorer.
www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org

Etymology Dictionary
Etymology is the study of the origin of our words and how they sounded hundreds or even thousands of years ago. Searchable by language, single term, or any term within a phrase, the dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word. If you're a fellow verbivore, you'll love this site.
www.etymonline.com

For plain-English answers to your questions by email, plus useful PC tips, subscribe to Mr. Modem’s Weekly Newsletter. For information, visit www.MrModem.com.