OVER 2 YOU, 033 (07/06/01)

WOODCUT SOFTWARE

I am a member of a society that deals with the English Civil War period. I have an excellent 17th Century typeface from Crazy Diamond, which allows me to write in the style of the time, but the pictures are causing me a problem. I want to take a photograph and convert it into something approaching a woodcut or engraving. I am not trying to satisfy academic purists, but merely trying to provide a compatible illustration to go with the words. I could do a drawing to be scanned in, but my hand is not good enough. Can anyone help?
Charles White, via email

For a number of years I have taken photographs at re-enactment events and tried to make them look authentic. I suggest that if you haven't Photoshop 5.5 or 6 get it. Then try converting the images you have scanned in to sepia tone using the colour balance control, then use use the filter Post Edges (adjustment by trial and error).

Mike Lindsay, ARPS ECWS (Devereux's), NA (9th Foot),

Adobe Photo Deluxe has the means to turn them into black & white sketches, which might serve his purpose. Having loaded the photo he should use Special Effects - Artistic - Sketch. The quality of the sketch will depend on the detail in the photo. Ones with lots of sharp features come out best and he will need to experiment.

Elisabeth Jordan,

I have had great success with PaintShopPro7. This is available shareware and demo from www.jasc.com

David Fenton, Newburyport, MA

SWIMMING CLUB

I have an interest in swimming and it is a fact that the vast majority of our inter-club galas are recorded and scored by hand. It seems to me that this is an ideal application for a spreadsheet, but the problem is formatting the individual cells to handle time in the format hh.min.sec AND tenths/ hundreds of seconds, i.e. 1hr 06mins 23.54secs. Although most events would only use minutes and seconds (i.e. 6mins 23.54secs). One possible solution would be to split the time into two cells but that would give a number of other problems. Can anyone suggest a solution?

Alan Philips, via email 

Have you considered any of the purpose made software packages such as those offered by http://www.sportsystems.uk.com/ ? You'll find that many clubs Counties and the ASA themselves use this, meaning there is plenty of help out there, it also allows a direct link to timing systems to eradicate errors from typing, misreading timekeepers cards etc.

Simon James,

My solution is to enter the data in the form: '1:6:23.54'. The secret now is to apply a number format to the data. Select Format, Cells, Number Select Customfrom the Category List Under Type on the right-hand side enter: 'h:mm:ss:00' Choose OK. The result will now display as: '1:06:23:54' and can be applied to any cell on the spreadsheet. If he would like the words 'hrs', 'mins', 'secs' to be included, he could adjust his number format as follows: h"hrs" mm"mins" ss.00"secs"

Judy Withyman,

CRICKET SCORE

I'm a member of Baildon cricket club in West Yorkshire and I'm training some youngsters to do the scoring which is quite complicated at first for them in the traditional score books. Is there a computer program
that can do the same job and print out a page, which
looks like the old books?
Andrew Fold,

The first program is BICS at http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/bill.irvine/, which is a DOS package (remember DOS?) but is very easy to use and set up and could be run happily on any old PC you can find - ideally an old laptop for use at the club and on the road.  It has printing facilities but I can't vouch for the quality as the feature is disabled in the free trial version. Full version costs US$50 and it's from New Zealand.

The second program is Willows Scorebook from http://www.ants.com.au/software.htm - another program from the antipodes -- this time Australia. This is a full Windows package and has just about every feature you can think of. There is a free trial version (about 5.8Mb in total so prepare for a long download unless you've got broadband access). It also integrates with a number of other cricket statistic packages and has a comprehensive set of printed reports.  Willows Scorebook is a bit more expensive - A$145 which is about £60 - but looks like the real McCoy.
Bob Boffin,

FILOFAX PRINTER

Can you tell me if you know of a PC software diary/schedule package, which will specifically produce a hard copy of a diary that can be printed off in hard copy format suitable to be put into a Filofax (Personal size paper)?  What I am looking for is a diary that I can maintain on my PC, but print off to update a hard copy every now and then.

Nigel Morton, via email  

In another life I used a superb program called Portex by a company called Showerings. I haven't used it for nearly 5 years so I am not sure if they are still in business (they moved from South London to near Beaulieu in the New Forest around this time). I regularly used my computer to hold the address and contact details along with a calendar and To Do list then printed (easily) the Filofax paper both the large and small varieties. It had loads of other features including diallers etc - in fact I should find the box and try it out again! If Nigel wants to contact me directly I am more than happy to help him further.
John Slatem,

RANDOM NUMBERS

I use MS Access database to hold a list of names and addresses/phone numbers for a club. Using a query I produce a list of qualifying names each month for a publicity list. I would like to randomise the order to prevent the same names appearing at the top each time, but the best I can manage is to alter the alphabetical ordering A-Z or Z-A. I can also vary it by ordering different fields e.g. first name, telephone no. Etc but this is clumsy. Does anyone know of a way of truly randomising the order produced by a query each time it is run?
Duncan Cumberlidge, via email

To randomise a list of names in Access:

1.add to existing table 2 new fields - [rec no] autonum and [random no] number single.

2.create an update query, which updates the field [random no] to Rnd() , and for field [rec no] criteria 1.

3.copy this query as many times as you have records in your table, changing the [rec no] criteria to 2, 3, etc.

4.add the field [random no] to your existing query, sorted ascending.

5 create a macro, which opens all these queries, including your modified existing one at the end - the names will appear in random order, and different each time you run the macro.

Andy James,

Try the following. First make sure the table that holds the list of names has an Auto-Number field (Access usually adds one called ID). In the query that creates the list add a new column and enter the following in the field box "Random : GetRND([Tablename.ID])" (without the quotes). Tablename is the name of the table that holds the list and ID is the name of the Auto-Number field. Set the Sort field to Ascending for this column only. If the query is bound to a report makes sure that there are no sort options set on any field in the report. In a module (you will need to create a module if there isn't one) add a function called GetRND like this:

Public Function GetRND(vID As Long) As Long

    GetRND = Int((Rnd * 10000) + 1 ) * vID

End Function

Peter Hibbs,

COPY ORDERS
As a good salesman but poor computer operator I am looking for a published software package that would allow me to produce copy orders from my laptop quickly, ideally so I may leave a copy with my customer before leaving his premises. What I need is a program that would allow me to build a database of customers connected to a program of product codes, descriptions and prices so by inputting a customer code, product code and quantity I would be able to produce a complete order with a few key strokes. I can't find anything at the likes of PC World, can any one out there help please?

Mike Boon, via email

Mike Boon might find it worth his while to have a look at the program Office
Manager produced by Moneysoft, 3 Blanchford Rd, London W12 9ND, tel 02087439792 - www.moneysoft.co.uk.
Peter Wakeman,

STOCKS AND SHARES

I need, ideally, to run a spreadsheet (Excel) with all my stocks and shares listed on it, and be able to download (off the net) daily or more often prices so it can update automatically. Can this be done without getting tied up with a portfolio with an on-line company, and having to be registered with a supplier of said prices?
Chris J Catton, via email

Why bother going to all the trouble of downloading stock information from the Internet to an Excel spreadsheet when you can have your own free portfolio shown online through the Investors Chronicle.  I would recommend you go to http://investorschronicle.ft.com/IC/home.
John Dowson,

A company called Microtext, 7 Birdlip Close, Horndean, Hampshire, PO8 9PW, Tel 01705 595694, makes a Teletext card and software which will download your choice of shares from Teletext into a text file which can be copied into Excel.
Rory Wilson,

CAN YOU HELP?

I am being constantly plagued by junk fax calls late at night. I have tried getting through to the companies concerned but they are invariably on high-cost premium rate lines. I want revenge! I'm looking for a PC fax program (or a fax machine) that I can configure to work very slowly – preferably taking an hour or so to receive a fax -- so that it will cost the company sending it a small fortune.

John Russell, via email

Does anyone know of a procedure or piece of software for producing positive prints from scanned Kodacolor negatives? The 'invert' command does not work as the negatives have a strong orange-coloured caste, which is difficult to counter.   

Fred Holmes, via email

Does anyone know of an electronic diary program with a search by keyword facility?

Ken Bridges, via email

Does anyone know a bank that could collect moneys from email customers?

There must be many people who have small cost items for sale yet cannot sell on their web sites without involving fees for implementing secure credit accounts that are beyond most small businesses. At one time I could sell a painting at Uncle Tom's Shop down the road and he would give me my money, less his percentage. Why can't banks run a similar system?

Anne Dyson, via email