OVER 2 YOU, 080 (30/04/02)

HOUSE ON THE LINE

I would like to make a simple line drawing of my house to use on headed paper.  As I'm not artistic enough to do this freehand, is there any way that I can create an outline by tracing this from a digital photo?

Simon Foster, via email

Unless Simon Foster is determined to trace the outline of his house from a digital photograph, he may be satisfied with the "Graphic Pen" effect within Microsoft Photo Editor (may be hiding at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\PhotoEd\PHOTOED.EXE if it's not on the Desktop).
Bill Welland,

If the digital photo is placed into PowerPoint or Word and 'sent to back' the drawing tools can be used to trace over the image, delete the picture and then 'select all' and 'group' leaves you with a scaleable line drawing.

Alan A Armstrong

Using a digital imaging program, such as Adobe Photoshop, the operation is fairly simple as follows:

1.  File/Open  (import your digital photo)

2.  Image/Adjust/Image Size (check that your image size is approximately as required on the notepaper although adjustments can be made in Word)

3.  Image/Adjust/Desaturate (to turn image in grayscale)

4.  Filtre/Stylize/Trace Contour (your choice of upper or lower and level)/OK  (There is a huge choice of other filters and you may like to investigate some of these, particularly in the Sketch and Stylize menus)

5.  The job is now finished if you are happy with black image; however, the colour can be changed by adding a new layer in the layers palette (making sure that the house is on a proper layer, not a background layer) and flooding the colour into your new layer, which should be at the bottom of the layers stack.  Then, with the house layer active, adjust the blending mode to 'Screen' (also try other blending modes for different effects).  Flatten the image.

6.  File/Save As/JPeg.  The file can then be imported into Word.

Creina Stanton, via email 

To create an outline drawing from a photo: Choose a strongly contrasting photo or give your photo some contrast. Open the photo in Corel Photopaint. Open Effects menu and select "sharpness" In "sharpness" menu, select "find edges". This will produce an approximate result, which can then be tidied up - pixel by pixel if need be - in Microsoft Paint (copy it via the clipboard). Finally copy the result (at this stage a .bmp file) via the clipboard back into Corel Photopaint and use one of the blurring or soft focus functions under "effects" to get rid of the jagged edges which are bound to occur on all diagonal lines. A slight blurring looks more authentic anyway. The whole thing can be done in Paint, but it is very laborious, and the final authentic blur will be missing.

Michael Scuffil,

When looking at a digital photograph in MGI Photosuite, clicking on the 'Fun', 'Special Effects' and 'Coloring Book' options will give an artful image, which can then be Cut and Pasted into a Word document...
James P O'Neil

Having taken a digital photo of your house, use photo-editing software such as Paint Shop Pro 5 or Ulead PhotoImpact to produce an embossed image. This image will then be shown as grey image, from which you will be able to trace an outline of your house.  In Paint Shop Pro the procedure is Image / Other / Emboss, or try Image / Edge / Trace Contour. In Ulead the procedure is Effect / Special / Emboss.

R.M.Ellis,

NOISY PCS
The noise coming from the fans and whirring motors in my PC is really getting on my nerves. Is there such a thing as a totally silent PC – I have very acute hearing – or is there any way of muffling the noise?

Jean Taylor, via email

There is an excellent article in Computer Active issue 106 (7 to 20 March 2002), which outlines different products, costs and effectiveness.
Peter P Hyde, via email

QUESTIONS FOR QUESTIONAIRRE

I would like to be able to scan questionnaires, received through the post, into my computer and then use this to write the answers so that they will print correctly into the boxes on the original questionnaire.  This is possible with an ordinary typewriter but I have been quite unable to achieve this with MS Word.  As soon as I try to make the scanned in questions hidden or deleted, all the answers that I want to print loose their position and spacing.  Surely there must be a program for printing to spaces on a form, which will solve my frustration and save my ballpoint?

Peter Stovin, via email

A perfect solution exists to this problem, much simpler than that suggested by your previous correspondents. It is a piece of software called PaperPort from Scansoft, see http://www.scansoft.com/paperport/features.asp

One of the features within PaperPort is called FormTyper. PaperPort finds the fields so users can just tab and type, saving tedious retyping when filling in multiple copies of a form. I use it, it's simple and it works
Nick Adams, via email

GETTING A BEARING

It should be possible to compute bearings and distances on Ordnance Survey maps by just entering the six figure map references of start and finish points.  Does anyone know how?  Do I need a program or just a formula?
Cliff Mallinson, North Somerset

As a professional photographer, now retired, I was undertaking many aerial assignments. I found it a laborious task estimating costs after calculating distance and angle based on OS map references. My son used my basic calculations to develop a programme to do this for me. Cliff Mallinson is able to enter the start map reference and target map reference to determine distance and angle in miles or Km and time, based on a standard he can set. It is now freeware and can be found on www.wordsrfun.com

Roger Charters,

EROTIC BUT NICE

Recently I have been investigating some of the erotic sites on the net and they are unsatisfactory. As an elderly and housebound widower in need of entertainment I would like to find something gentler, in the way, perhaps, I might visit the Follies Bergere or similar if in Paris, but going to Google on such a search gives reams of crudity. Can anyone recommend anything, which has class and style?  The cost of entry is of little importance.

Richard W., via email

Eolake's Domai (www.domai.com) is by far the nicest nude clean tasteful site on the web and has even better pinups too - and very easily accessible with lots for non members.
A. Y. Camberley

USING OLD PCS

I have a small collection of four PCs, from 386 to Pentium 1, all of them perfectly serviceable but woefully out of date by current standards. I have promised them to my son’s school and a local charity shop – not that either seemed terribly impressed -- but I was wondering if anyone could come up with a suggestion for using at least one of them in a practical way, doing something around the house, even if it’s only switching the pump in my fish pond on and off? I would like to get back just a little of my initial investment

Doug Steele, via email

Another suggestion is a local University or college. Students may have access the Internet in Uni/college, but could really use a computer for word processing at home/in halls so wouldn't need one able to give fast Internet access etc. University computer rooms can be crowded have time pressures which make it is especially hard for students who are slow at reading or typing. Maybe a local Uni/college Head would be able to make them available to students in this situation.
Ruth Shepherd,

N.B. if your Dough Steel or any other reader cannot find anyone to utilise their old PC, do contact me! I am due to become a student again and don't have any sort of computer!

CAN YOU HELP?

I recently read a news story concerning a program for a Palm PDA that calculated nutritional and exercise information from basic dietary data inputs to help with balancing your diet. I would like to know if such programs exist for a PC?

Jamie Crossland, via email

I have been trying without much success to construct heraldic shields on screen.  Some of the devices shown on them (lions rampant, etc) are extremely tedious to draw 'freehand' and the results are appallingly amateurish.  Does anyone know of a software program that will enable me to reconstruct the image of an armorial shield in accordance with its correct heraldic blazon - i.e. the technical description?
Peter Davies, Reading

I teach part-time at an Adult Education College and need a diagram (not a photo) of a Windows Keyboard that I can distribute to my students. It needs to either have descriptions of key functions - or space where I can add my own.  The drawing or diagram must show the Windows keys, Application key, Function keys, number pad, etc in addition to the alphabet keys. I've spent hours trawling the net - with no result.

Christina Williams, via email