I am in the midst of the euro currency changeover, and in Autignac, population 723, the switch seems almost complete. Our butcher, the barman, the baker, the pharmacist and shopkeeper now look a little askance at some folks who still attempt to ferret out those last francs.

Meanwhile, the kindly polic?a in Madrid, where I spent New Year's, struggled past the language barrier to write out a report about my stolen camera (alas, the Olympus 2000). After a rash of coordinated thefts at the New Year's cum euro launch at Puerta del Sol, the station was already up to report number 128 late on January 1 and so he was pleased to discover how to make the euro symbol on his keyboard.

Most keyboards by now should already have the symbol, or "glyph" as it is called, directly on the keyboard. Apple already introduced software support for the euro glyph back in Mac OS 8.5.

For those without a glyph on their keyboard, Apple instructs users to hit the "Option", "Shift" and "2" keys if the symbol is not on the keyboard.

If you try the above key sequences and you're not running Mac OS 8.5 or greater, you will get what Apple calls the "international currency symbol", best described as a small starburst. Earlier versions of the Mac operating system do not support the euro, although according to Apple's technical note on the subject there are third-party fonts containing the euro symbol, which can be used with earlier versions of the Mac operating system.

In Windows applications you may have to press the "Alt" or "AltGr" key, the "Ctrl" key and the euro symbol. If the symbol is not present, try the "Alt", "Shift" and "e" keys at the same time or the "Alt" and "5" or "Alt" and "4" keys. Some people may even have to resort to the "Alt" key and typing "0128" on the numeric keypad.

Some versions of Windows may not have had the correct updates. Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98 provide you with the option of directly selecting the euro symbol for most of the font types and currency user settings.

Additional euro enabled fonts can be downloaded from Microsoft's Internet site.

However for Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 3.x, you will need to install the product updates at the Microsoft site so as to input, display, and print the font correctly. You may also have to download updates for your printer, depending on the manufacturer.

In some cases even with operating system support you may have to use built-in printer fonts that do not support the symbol. If you have not updated your printer fonts a box will be printed instead of the symbol. You can try adjusting your printer setup options to the "print fonts as graphics" rather than the default resident fonts. Printer fonts that will support the euro symbol include Times New Roman, Arial, and Courier New.

You may have to update other software as well. For updates to Adobe postscript fonts, go to the download page on the Adobe site. The updates for euro friendly fonts are under the "Type" heading.

Handheld organisers, such as Palm, may need to be updated. On the Palm Internet site, there are detailed instructions and graphics on how to make the euro symbol.

A Wall Street Journal article a few weeks ago also noted that providers have produced new software allowing good flexibility on doing euro conversions on old documents with the legacy currencies.

EuroPrice from Trilox Software (www.trilox.com) allows you to type a currency in a Microsoft Word document and automatically replace the sum or put the euro conversion in parentheses after the original amount.

Another package, HelloEuro (www.helloeuro.com) can convert currencies in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

A reader of last week's column pointed out that my wariness to an e-mail to 'Sharon' I received was justified. The e-mail, which confirmed Sharon's hotel reservation, was in fact packing a virus payload, he said, as a way of warning to other readers.

He received the e-mail but his Norton anti-virus software prevented the e-mail attachment PageantbApril.bat from launching the W32. Magistr.39921 mm virus.

'The attachment had not shown with my email as Norton is set to remove any virus infected attachments when it receives them,' he said. His story is a good example of keeping your anti-virus software updated.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. You can contact Ahmed at editoroffshoreon.com or ((33) 467901474.