My question is about the Microsoft Word software that came with my computer. Whenever I use my word processor, it capitalizes my beginning sentence even when I don’t want it to.

Is there a way to turn off this feature, or am I stuck in the land of frustration?

-Dr. Clyde R Horn

Be careful what you wish for, Doc, because you might not be delighted when you get it.

The auto-capitalization tool is disabled with a single check box in the Word software, but a lot of folks find they miss it when it’s gone. After all, the great majority of us start more sentences with a capital letter than with a lower-case one.

So to shut the automatic capitalization down, click on Tools in the Word display and look for an item called Auto Correct Options. The on/off box comes up in the Auto Correct tab of a menu that appears.

A way to keep the convenient automatic caps feature and still start sentences with small letters when desired is to use a keystroke of Control + Z after the first word is assigned its unwanted cap. This undo command cancels the last operation and can be used in many programs to do things like recover accidentally deleted stuff.

After months of satisfactory operation, I suddenly cannot download stock prices using my Quicken software. When I start that function, I get a Norton note that Quicken is trying to reach the Internet. It suggests I allow it to do so. I hit OK.

Quicken locks up. (The Norton note had not appeared before when everything worked.) I have to restart the computer to do anything.

When I questioned Quicken via the Internet (through DSL), the response I got was to check with the firewall supplier. When I went to Norton, I could not get to anyone directly. From their list of answers it appears that I would have to reduce my level of security. By the way, if I turn off Norton for five minutes, I can then download as it used to work.

I am reluctant to turn off Norton even for five minutes, and I don’t like the idea of reducing the security level.

Any suggestions for what I should do?

-David Lieberman

Isn’t that just the bee’s knees, Mr. L? You have a problem that is clearly the fault of Symantec Corp., the maker of Norton products, including the firewall. But Norton won’t talk to you, and you’re justifiably worried about losing their security “even for five minutes.”

Norton won’t talk to you because this company, which creates a great number of the problems I get from readers, charges money to talk to its own customers. Your note indicates that you know the drill for calling up the Norton firewall software.

With Norton running the firewall module, look for the “permissions” area. There it is possible for users to list programs that can send stuff through their firewalls. Add Quicken. That should work unless the freeze-up problem is caused by Norton’s complex software. Since your machine works when Norton is turned off, there is a chance that something is wrong with the Symantec software.

One fix is to rely on the firewall built in to Microsoft Windows and drop Norton’s firewall altogether. You’ll still have Norton’s antivirus software, and the built-in Windows firewall is a powerful tool. At the very least you can shut down Norton’s firewall when using Quicken but still find protection behind the Windows firewall to allow this.

Click on My Networks in the Windows Start menu and look for the View Connections line in the pane on the left of the display that pops up. In the next display, click on the line for Firewall.

You will find a menu where you can check a box to allow exceptions. To do this you will get a browser box that will let you go through all of the programs on your machine so you can find Quicken and set it.

Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or via snail mail at the Chicago Tribune, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611.