Q. I use my iPad during business meetings and the clicking sound it makes when I unlock it is distracting. Is there some way to silence that noise?

A. Having invested years perfecting the art of stating the obvious, my best recommendation would be to unlock your iPad before the meeting begins. However, if the sound your iPad or iPhone makes when you lock or unlock it is ruining your life – or perhaps annoying others around you – you can turn the sound off by going to Settings > Sounds > Lock Clicks. You will also see the option to turn off deafening keyboard clicks, as well, if you wish.

Q. I’m using Windows 8, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out how to boot into Safe Mode. Can you help me with this?

A. Safe Mode, which is typically used to troubleshoot computer problems, is buried deep within Win 8’s Recovery options. While repeatedly pressing the F8 key will boot into automatic Recovery Mode, the trick to booting into Safe Mode with Windows 8 is to hold down the SHIFT key while repeatedly pressing the F8 key during the startup process. This will boot you into Advanced Recovery Mode where you will be presented with Advanced Repair options. Click the Troubleshoot option, followed by Advanced Options.

Choose the Windows Startup Settings option and at the very end of the list you will see Enable Safe Mode. Select that, then click the Restart button. When your PC reboots you will be able to boot into Safe Mode by making your selection from the familiar-looking Advanced Boot Options screen.

Q. I can receive my email but can’t send any out. What do you think the problem is?

A. Something is wrong with your outgoing server (SMTP) settings. It can be something as simple as a typo in the address or password. I would suggest going to the account settings section of whatever email program you are using and checking those outgoing server settings. If you aren’t sure what they should be, you can look them up on your Internet service provider’s website or call its Customer Service number.

Q. I would like to know if I can save one or two paragraphs from a document to a thumb drive without saving the entire document? Thank you for the many times you have helped me, Mr. M.

A. To save text to another drive – and it doesn’t matter if it’s a thumb drive or any other type of drive – you first have to save the excerpted text as a file, then copy the file to the drive. To do that, first select (highlight) the text you would like to save, right-click and select Copy.

Go to your word processing program, or you can use WordPad (under Programs > Accessories > WordPad), and click once to place your cursor in the new document, right-click and select Paste. The text you copied will pop right onto the page.

Click File > Save As, and save this excerpted text as a file. You will be prompted to give the file a name and you can save it anywhere you wish, including to your Desktop.

Once it is saved, copy it to your thumb drive. To do this, right-click the file you just saved, select Copy, then go to your thumb drive by opening My Computer, right-click the thumb drive’s icon and select Paste. The file containing your document excerpt will be copied to your drive.

Mr. Modem’s DME (Don’t Miss ’Em) sites of the month

Book Seer

Have you just finished reading a great book and are in a dither about what to read next? Behold, the Book Seer! When you arrive on the site, all you need is the title of a book you recently read and the name of the book’s author. Enter that information into the appropriate fields, then click the arrow to generate recommendations. The site polls Amazon.com to generate book recommendations, complete with links to the titles. This is an interesting and unique way to obtain reading recommendations, so if you’re an avid reader, check it out! http://bookseer.com/

Sacred Text Archive

Religion, mythology, legends, folklore and the occult, from alchemy to Zoroastrianism (huh?), all intersect in this archive of original texts. World religions, traditions and mysteries can be explored here from such diverse sources as the Hypertext Bible, the predictions of Nostradamus, Gothic texts about vampires, and translations of Shinto texts. Surprisingly, none of the works of acclaimed philosopher and renowned deep-thinker Mr. Modem are included. Probably just an oversight. http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm

TvRadioCat Project

The objective of TVRadioCat is to enable searching for TV and radio stations throughout the world. Its database includes more than 90 percent of all TV and radio stations worldwide. Every record listing contains a station’s Web address, geographical location and one or more links to online broadcasts. http://www.tvradiocat.com