Here's a solution that may help others who find that their mics have curious static when calling folks on Skype. The problem really was limited JUST to skype, which is odd, and the solution was simple but not necessarily one that people would think of, so I wanted to share the tale, with just 3 paragraphs to lead up to the solution.

I was having a terrible problem (curiously, out of the blue) when trying to make a Skype call (Skype Out) with a USB headset I'd long had. The party I called would hear terribly loud static or buzz, unable to hear me at all. I tried the skype test call, and sure enough, I heard it on the recording too.

The strange thing was that the same headset was recording fine in all other programs (Windows Sound Recorder, Camtasia, Adobe Connect). It was only Skype that had the issue. Yet the Skype options for audio were all fine (pointed at the right device), and changing them (to automatically adjust) had no effect.

I then noticed (in the Skype Audio settings) that regardless of what I set for the mic it showed the green audio volume indicator as pegged to the right. OK, so somehow it was way over-amplified. Again, though, it was working fine in all other apps. I checked and was a couple minor point releases behind on Skype so did the update (to 4.1.0.179), to no avail. I also checked the Windows driver setting for the device and it reported that it had the latest version.

I finally punted and just pulled the USB connection from a 4-port (non-powered) splitter I have, and connected the headset directly to my laptop (in another free USB port). Sure enough, the problem was solved. I then connected it back to the splitter, in another socket, and again it worked fine. I suppose I could have connected it back to the original socket, but I was happy just to have solved it, and to have learned that sometimes it can be the little (unobvious) things that make a difference. Something to remember when trying to solve any IT problem. Hope it helps someone. That's why I call the blog TIPicalCharlie. :-) Maybe someone will find it months or years from now doing a google search. Drop me a comment if it helps you.

Ever found yourself wanting to modify a keyboard shortcut in Word 2007 or other Microsoft Office products? I just experienced extreme frustration due to mistakes in the online help, and I want to offer the solution to others.

You may find old references telling you to use the Tools menu, but there IS no tools menu in Word/Office 2007. Instead, hit the "Office button" (the colored one in the top left corner), then notice the "Word Options" button at the bottom right, under the list of "recent documents".  Then choose "Customize" on list of options on the left, then at the bottom of the screen shown, notice the "keyboard shortcuts" "customize" button. Phew.

From there, you can use explanations found even in old references.  In my case, I went to the "press new shortcut key" field and entered the keystroke for which I wanted to add a new combination (in my case, ctrl-y, to redo and undo) and it reported underneath the box for "current keys" that this was assigned to "EditRedoorRepeat".

Now if I wanted to assign a new key to that, I had to find it in the list of options under "specify a command" for "categories" and "commands". Rather than hunt all over, I chose "all commands" from near the bottom of the categories list, then found EditRedoorRepeat in the alpha-ordered list of commands. I then entered my preferred new (additional) keystroke for a redo (ctrl-shift-z). It showed me that it was already assigned to something, but I didn't care about that. I clicked "assign", and it added it to the list of keystrokes for that EditRedoorRepeat command.

Then I clicked "close" and "ok", and wrote this blog entry Hope it helps someone.

Here's yet another useful keyboard tip repository: Windows keyboard shortcut of the day

And today they happened to share something I didn't know about getting Windows (XP in the tip, and Vista in a comment I just left) to help you see underlined letters for doing shortcuts.

Despite the site's name, the tips aren't generally updated daily (last one was in April), but that's ok by me. Heck, you'll want to  troll the archives for past goodness. Plenty of gold in "them thar hills". :-)