OVER 2 YOU, 009 (14/12/00)

SENIOR CHAT

I am a sixty-year old woman who has just started using email but I have not entered the Internet as yet. I live in central London where socialising and meeting has become increasingly difficult. I have heard that Internet chat rooms might be helpful towards meeting others of a similar age and interests. I have no idea where to begin, can anyone help?

J.R.H, via email

May I recommend www.retirement-matters.co.uk? This site is aimed at the over 50's and was launched in April 2000. If the lady joins the retirement-matters club (via Home Page), she can elect to become an e-mail pen-pal - this section is password protected and divided into 'female' 'males' and 'couples', and each e-mail pen-pal provides a short description of themselves and their interests

Melanie Jacobs,

ICQ (I seek you) is easy to use, very popular and free to download (www.ICQ.com). Once up and running, you can either find chat rooms, they have many age groups and different subjects, or you can build up an "address book" of friends and send messages, like email. I have been using it for about 3 years, and I have made friends from all over the world, from the US to Australia.

Jim Filby, Oakham, Rutland

Try www.vavo.com, a site for those over 45.
David Gratton,   

University of the Third age supplies courses and a meeting ground for the older users. One of their sites is www.u3a.org.uk
A.J. Robinson,  

A chat room to meet people of similar age and interests can be found on AOL under the heading....'Fifty Plus Romance'
John Wyatt, 

VOCAL SUPPORT

I write novels. I have a problem with my hand, so keyboard use is increasingly uncomfortable. Can you recommend voice recognition software that copes with dialogue? Are there any which is compatible with the WordPerfect word-processing programme, which I much prefer to Word?
J. Mann, 

I have been using the Dragon voice recognition programmes for several years now, and until recently they were the best on the market.  This is being dictated in Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred version 4. It is quite good, and I think it would also permit dictation in Word Perfect, as it will in several other programmes.  However many of the correction etc. facilities do not work in programmes other than the Dragon window. Dragon has now introduced a version 5 which will almost certainly be an improvement.However Dragon have a nasty habit of demanding the largest possible price for updates that they think they can get away with.

Recently I tried a trial copy of IBM Via Voice Pro.  It proved to be far simpler to train than Dragon, and even in the early stages was very impressive. Amongst other advantages it tried hard to associate one word with another - deciding which of two or more words with similar pronunciation but different spelling was most suitable, and with some success.  It also, admittedly on brief acquaintance, seemed to be more versatile than Dragon and it worked with Windows Millennium whereasDragon version 4 would not. 

Harry Rothwell, 

CALL TO ACCOUNTS

I have changed from an Apple Mac to a PC. On the Mac used a program called Ritz to keep the accounts of two small associations of which I am treasurer. Can anyone suggest a simple accounts package for a PC that can be used for this purpose? I do not require payroll or VAT.
M Gotheridge

Money Manager 2000 (Personal Edition) from Money Soft (www.moneysoft.co.uk) would probably suit. I have used this program for some years. It’s easy to set up - good reports, graphs and charts – and the manual written in English!  Includes VAT entries but there’s no problem if this feature not required.

Roy Owen, 

I keep two different church based accounts on Microsoft Money Standard Version. VAT is available but can be ignored if not required.

Bob Barker, 

I have used Quicken for keeping accounts for a small religious charity for a couple of years.  I find is excellent for recording transactions, finding information, reconciling with bank statements and producing a report each year.
Reg Osborne, 

LOSS ADJUSTERS

Following a disastrous loss on one of our Investment Club share holdings I was asked to devise a Stop Loss Program covering the twenty equities held.  I have devised an Excel program that works quite well but is time consuming, requiring manual loading of maximum prices each share has reached to date and daily loading of all the latest prices. 

Is there a web page or software program that will do all the necessary calculations, highlighting any shares that have from their maximum price achieved since the date of purchase?

Mike Pattison,   

Try Fairshares at http://www.fairshares.com  this will do everything you want to keep track of your shareholdings, without being over complicated.

J Walker, 

The ideal web page for Stop Loss notification is www.iii.co.uk. Register free then set up your portfolio. You can put an Alert on each investment and you will be notified by e-mail when your preset value has been reached.

Roger Brewin, 

I saw your help request in Thursday's Telegraph.  If you go to www.Sharepages.com and join them as a member (totally free) they have a system of alerts by e-mail, which you set for whatever you want, high or low price, percentage etc. I've found them very useful. 

Daphne Duffield,  

CAN YOU HELP?

I do some investigations concerning road accidents. I cannot find a program that lets me draw roads, pavements with all the other paraphernalia. Someone suggested one of the garden planning discs but I haven’t found them very helpful.

Dave Lewis, 

As a dentist I am frequently required to write letters that include the notation of teeth, describing their position within the mouth to other colleagues. There are three methods, one is type the laborious - 'upper left first molar', another is by international code - '26', and the third is the UK convention ‘ /6', which requires keyboard skills but is by far the most easily understood.  Whilst underlining in Word works for upper teeth notations, is there a way to overline a number - needed when lower teeth are described? I have found nothing in the 'Symbols' library. It would also be useful to have a vertical ‘slash’, but using the letter ‘I’ can be confusing.

Malcolm Valentine, Hartfield, East Sussex

Is there software available that will enable me design pages for my diary? My Quo Vadis planning diary has been declared obsolete, but I am still very attached to it and would like to print my own pages for 2001 and beyond. Nicholas Hall,  

Every year a group of 12 of us have a week playing play golf. We play in fours (3 groups of 4 each day) for 5 days. Ideally we would like to get it so that everybody plays with (within the group of) everybody else. No matter how we arrange it we cannot achieve this goal. Does anybody know a program or a formula (using Excel) to achieve our aim and make 12 old (ish) men very happy?

Robin Dent,