How to get rid of weird code in email
Q: I am using Outlook for my email, and all of a sudden, I am seeing strange text in my messages. This is mostly around my signature information which includes a link to my website at the bottom of a new message I am composing. The text says hyperlink which I am guessing is a reference to the embedded link. How do I fix this?
A: Both Microsoft
Word and Microsoft Outlook are very powerful text authoring tools which give the user the ability to format text and images that make the document or email message look exactly the way they want it.
For most of us, we don’t really care how this happens, so long as it works.
But for others, the underlying code in the document can prove useful when creating and formatting documents.
What you are seeing is known as a hyperlink field code and it is showing the underlying hyperlink in your email signature. Chances are, this option was enabled by mistake as it’s a setting that is easily activated by a simple key combination on your keyboard.
To enable or disable field codes on Word or Outlook, simply press Alt and F9 and the same time and this will toggle the setting.
I had one of my readers tell me one time that the field codes started showing up after their cat jumped on to their computer keyboard.
Q: When using File Explorer with View set as extra-large icons or large icons, I sometimes get a generic PDF symbol displayed. Other times, File Explorer with the same View settings shows a thumbnail image of the first page of the document. I would prefer the thumbnail at all times, but cannot figure out how to set this up. Can you help?
A: This is a setting that is controlled by Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Reader. This means that the changes you need to make are not in File Explorer. They must be made in the application.
Open up Adobe Acrobat or Reader and click on the Edit menu and select Preferences.
In the General section, put a check in the box that says Enable PDF thumbnail previews in windows Explorer. This will cause PDF files to show the thumbnail preview in any folder that has a PDF and the View set to large or extra-large icons.
Keep in mind this will only work if Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader is set as the default app for PDF files. If you have this set to Microsoft Edge or something else, you may not see thumbnails consistently.