Technology Q & A

Several questions on how to create a super-safe password that's easy to remember; archive Outlook safely, effectively, and swiftly; and how to fix corrupted Microsoft Office files are answered. To create a super-safe password, it should be complex -- a mix of letters (upper-, lowercase), numbers and even a sprinkle of punctuation marks. There is a Microsoft tool for recovering an Outlook.pst file that exceeds the maximum size for the application. You can download the free tool from support.microsoft.com/kb/296088. There are many possibilities why Microsoft files are corrupted, but the most common is a virus. Check to see that your antivirus software is current. If that uncovers nothing, then the corruption might have been caused by the file's age, an application snafu or an electrical spike; or you may have saved the files when your computer's resources (RAM) were very low. Fortunately, you have built-in tools for all your Microsoft applications to address that concern.