Your web questions answered

Send your WebWorld queries to pcollins@irishtimes.com or by post to Padraig Collins, The Irish Times New Media, 4th Floor, Ballast House, Aston Quay, Dublin 2

Many people have asked questions about what wallpaper is (in relation to computers of course, this is not a DIY page) and how you can turn a picture into your wallpaper. There have also been some questions about screensavers and there has been a bit of confusion between the two.

First of all, what are they? Wallpaper is an image that comes up on your computer screen when you turn it on. It is on the same screen with all the icons that allow you to click into the web, e-mail, Word or whatever. You can set most images found on the Internet as your wallpaper by simply hovering the cursor over it, clicking the right button on your mouse and choosing the Set as Wallpaper option.

It really is very simple to do. As long as the image is being saved for personal use on your own computer and not to be resold, there should not be any copyright issues. It really is just a modern version of cutting out a picture you want to save from a newspaper.

Many websites even have specific areas allowing you a wide choice of pictures to download. The Boston Globe's site, www.boston.com, generally has a good choice which changes with the seasons, e.g. Christmas scenes in December, fireworks around US Independence Day.

For a more personal touch, try scanning a family picture in or having it e-mailed to you and saving that as your wallpaper.

A screensaver is an image that comes up on your computer screen when you have not used any keystrokes for a while (like when you've gone away to make a cup of tea or answer the phone). Its purpose is to act as, literally, a screen saver, to prevent any possible damage from the same unchanged text being on screen for too long. Whether this is strictly necessary in modern computers is debatable, but any home PC will come with a choice of several in-built screen savers anyway.

One of these will be set automatically, but changing it to one of the others is generally a case of following the instructions after clicking Start and then Settings.

When you are ready to work on a document again, touching any key will immediately bring the screen back to whatever document you were working on before.

Some good, free, screensavers can be downloaded from the web at www2.gorp.com/ gorpapps/screensavers/refuge.asp.