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OVER 2 YOU 213 (11/01/05)
BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOFTWARE
I am a final year student at university and yes I have to do my
dissertation, oh joy! I was wondering
whether I could get decent (and easy to use) Bibliographic software off the net
(and if it cost nothing that would be even better!)? At University they have
Endnote but only on their networked PC's and if I am honest it's a long walk to
library. Any help would be fantastic!
Lizzie Tait, via email
For researching the works of individuals or references for topics try http://scholar.google.com/. This is a beta version and
concentrates on more academic/technical searches than Google. It is easy to use
and I found 12 pages of references for an individual biochemist in a few
seconds. It also worked well on William Wordsworth.
Bill Barnes, Pewsey
It depends on your requirements.
A free program may end up just tempting you to upgrade to the commercial
version. However, Lizzie should be sure
to look at Jay Tate's compendium of information, ‘Software for Research’ at
http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~jaytate/software.htm.
With any database there's a period at the beginning when you seem to be
doing an awful amount of typing, but producing a database with far too little
in it to be useful. Bibliographic software can eliminate some of this by
sucking references out of library catalogues over the
Internet, and so on, but any software that does this seems to be
commercial, and expensive.
BiblioExpress, downloadable from http://www.biblioscape.com
is probably the program to try of the freebies and it may be possible to write
some kind of macro, or funnel the references through somebody else's industrial
strength bibliographic software.
Jeremy F. Parker, Barnet, Herts
I have successfully used ProCite bibliographic software for about 4
years. I originally started using it when I was writing my own dissertation for
an MSc. It is easy to use, reliable and meshes with MS Word without difficulty.
You can input references by hand or download them directly into the program if,
for example you are doing searches online. You can have a month’s free trial
and it is possibly to purchase the software at considerably reduced cost if you
are a student. For more information go to: http://www.procite.com/.
Claire Asker, via email
E-BOOK PUBLISHING
I wish to publish as an e-book something I have worked on for very many
months. I have used Lotus Word Pro for my work, as in the past I have found MS
Word to be somewhat unstable with very large files, and then converting to PDF
using Adobe Writer as up until now the ‘book’ has been given away. I wish to
use the advantages of e-book publishing, namely password protection, blocking
of printing, copy and paste etc when it appears on the Internet. However I do
not relish the prospect of either transferring to MS Word as a precursor or
HTML as this seems to trash all my layouts and far from looking
"better" it looks horrid. Does anyone know of any e-book publishing
software, with the utilities I have mentioned, that will work quite happily
with a PDF file?
Bob Kimber, via email
It is possible to set up security features in Adobe Acrobat to make
PDF's unprintable, uncopyable (apart from screen prints). You would need a full
copy of the program, though beware the new version has multiple options and you
may have to check before purchase. You can get a demo from Adobe at www.adobe.com
David Wall, via email
The best software I know of for this purpose is Natata E-Book Compiler
at: www.natata.com. They have a free ‘lite’
version, which can be used to create simple e-books. To use PDF files, the
reader would have to purchase the Gold version, but this is only $39.99 US.
This would give him the ability to compile practically any sort of text,
graphic, or sound files into e-books, which he could either distribute freely
or sell. The finished e-books are also fully compiled, so no one can look at
the original files or copy them separately.
Roberta Davies, via email
Serif's Page Plus, now up to version 10, should fit the bill. It will
output in PDF to the web or in PDF/X for printing. Version 10 now has BookPlus
utility to link pages into a book. Contact www.serif.com.
David De Burgh, Kingstone
FELINE DETERRENT
Whenever I sit down at the computer my cat insists on jumping on the
table and plonking herself down in front of me, resting her backside on the
keyboard, with predictable results. Has anyone any advice or suggestions for a
humane deterrent, perhaps something that smells bad to cats (but not to humans,
or damaging to computer keyboards) that will keep her away?
Violet Keys, via email
Cats walk on keyboards because they want our attention, not because
they are writing their autobiography. We tend to give them attention when they
misbehave, not when they behave. Thus you must withdraw your attention every
time they do it by getting up and walking out of the room. Be careful not to
touch them or talk to them while doing this. (Rebukes and punishments are
attention, visit my website - www.celiahaddon.co.uk).
Simultaneously reward them for being in the correct place -- their cat
box. This should be somewhere nice for them either on the desk itself or below
a radiator. Lure them to it with cat treats and deliver the treats when they
are standing in the box. Then hold the treats and deliver some more when they
have put their backside on the bottom of the box.
Continue rewarding them for being in the box not near the keyboard -
i.e. when they are snoozing go over and pet and every now and again deliver a
food reward. When you both go into the office, remember to reward the cat for
going to the box. Continue to walk away if the cat comes near the keyboard. If
you do this consistently in a couple of weeks, you will have a cat that sits in
the cat bed and keeps away from the keyboard.
Celia Haddon, via email
CAN YOU HELP?
In Excel 2000, when copying contents and formats from one spreadsheet
to another sheet or workbook, it is possible to copy column widths by using
'Paste Special'. Is there any way that one can copy row heights? I can copy
merged cells, and expanded row heights when containing wrapped text, but not if
the rows are blank and/or more than the default 12.75 high.
Joy Newman
The battery pack on my three-year old Sony Vaio laptop now barely holds
a charge. I can find replacement packs on the net but they are stupidly
expensive, probably more than the PC is worth. I’m quite handy with a soldering
iron so I was wondering if anyone knows of any web sites or companies that can
tell me what type of cells it uses, and where I can obtain replacements?
George Marshall, via email
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