Q: I couldn't find any columns on products you recommend for monitoring kids' Web access and installing parental controls. I recently purchased a new computer for my 9-year-old daughter. I want to make sure she can only access specific Web sites and I want to protect her from inappropriate spam and chatting.

    A: If you have a computer running one of the newer versions of Windows or the Macintosh operating system, I recommend using the extensive parental controls that are now built right into those operating systems. While you can never underestimate the ingenuity of computer-savvy kids, these built-in controls, if properly used, are generally harder to evade than the ones provided by third-party software.

    I did recently review these built-in parental controls, which appear in Windows Vista, and in the Tiger and Leopard editions of the Mac's OS X operating system. You can find that column at: ptech.allthingsd.com/20070614.

    Q: I want to switch to a Mac, but my life is on Microsoft Outlook, which is only available on Windows. Is there a simple way to convert all of this data to programs on the Mac?

    A: There is a $10 program that performs this task. It's called O2M (Outlook to Mac) and is from a company called Little Machines. It can be downloaded at littlemachines.com, where you also will find details about the Mac programs with which it works. This is a Windows program, which transfers your Outlook data into files you copy to your Mac. You then manually import these files into your Mac programs.

    According to the company, the program exports Outlook email, email attachments, contacts and calendar appointments and allows you to import this data into Apple's built-in email, address book and calendar programs, as well as into Microsoft Entourage, and other third-party programs.

    Another approach is to install Windows on your Mac, and keep running Outlook. If you do this using the Parallels or Fusion virtualization programs ($80 each, plus the cost of Windows,) you can run Outlook simultaneously with your Mac programs.

    Q: Does the new version of Microsoft Office for the Mac work on pre-Intel Mac models?

    A: Microsoft says it does, though I didn't test it on one of these older machines. According to Microsoft, the new Office 2008 runs on any Mac 'with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (500 MHz or faster) processor.' However, you also need a relatively recent version of the Mac operating system, either the new Leopard edition, or the latest update (called 10.4.9) of the Tiger edition.

    專欄作家莫博士就有關電腦和其他電子設備的常見技術問題答讀者問。

    問：我發現你并沒有在任何專欄中談到你對監控兒童上網以及安裝父母控制軟件產品方面有何建議。我不久前剛給我九歲的女兒買了臺電腦，我想要確保的是她只能登錄某些特定網站，并能讓她遠離不當垃圾郵件以及網絡聊天的影響。

    答：如果你家電腦運行的是較新版Windows或Macintosh操作系統，我建議使用這些操作系統內置的各種父母控制功能。盡管不能低估這些小電腦迷們的悟性，但如果合理使用，操作系統內置的控制功能通常比第三方的軟件更加有效。

    我在不久前評測了Windows Vista和Mac Tiger及Leopard版操作系統中的內置父母控制功能。你可在ptech.allthingsd.com/20070614中找到具體內容。

    問：我想改用Mac操作系統，但對我至關重要的Microsoft Outlook卻只能在Windows操作系統下使用。有沒有個簡單的辦法將所有數據轉換到Mac程序中？

    答：有一款售價10美元的軟件能完成這項工作。這款軟件名為O2M (Outlook to Mac)，為一家叫做Little Machines的公司所開發。你可以在littlemachines.com網站上下載，還可在這里詳細了解能與之配套的Mac程序。這是一款Windows程序，能讓你將Outlook數據轉換為文件，拷貝到Mac電腦中。然后你可以將這些文件手工輸入到Mac程序中。

    據該公司稱，這款程序能夠輸出Outlook電子郵件、郵件附件、聯系方式和日程安排，使你能將這些數據輸入到蘋果(Apple)電腦內置的電子郵件、地址簿和日程安排程序中，也能輸入到Microsoft Entourage和其它第三方程序中。

    另一個做法是在你的Mac電腦上安裝Windows操作系統，繼續運行Outlook。如果用Parallels或Fusion虛擬程序（售價都為80美元，外加Windows的成本）安裝Windows操作系統，你就能夠與Mac程序同時運行Outlook。

    問：新版Microsoft Office for the Mac能在采用英特爾(Intel)芯片前的Mac電腦上運行嗎？

    答：微軟(Microsoft)稱可以，但我沒有測試過這些老電腦型號。微軟表示，新的Office 2008能在配置英特爾、PowerPC G5，以及PowerPC G4（500MHz以上）處理器的任何Mac電腦上運行。不過，你還需要較新版本的Mac操作系統才行，如新版Leopard，或Tiger的最新升級版（10.4.9版）。