OVER 2 YOU, 081 (21/05/02)

PHONE BILL COST CODES

For several years, I have used ‘cost codes’ on my telephone bill to allocate charges between business and personal calls, monitor Internet access, and analyse usage by different members of the household. This cost code service was originally offered by Mercury then continued by Cable & Wireless and ntl. Now the latest provider, NPower Communications, is discontinuing the cost code service. Does anyone know of any other companies offering a similar service - preferably with competitive call charges, too?
Lesley Webster, via email

If Mr Webster would like to get back all the detail he needs on his phone bill then be need look no further than Telecom Plus (www.telecomplus.org.uk/101593/services), where he can also see the savings to be made on his bills.  We have used them for four years and they have been voted Best Buy in "Which" on at least three occasions.  

Richard Neve,

Like Leslie, I used to use Mercury many years ago, together with its cost centre coding. Now I use the Phone Coop (0845 458 9000) who also offer cost centres and are competitively priced. They have a 1p minimum call charge, which suits me as I make lots of short calls, and they send me my itemised bills by email as an Excel spreadsheet, which I find very useful. As a cooperative they pay dividends to their members rather than to shareholders, and any customer can become a member. Thoroughly recommended.
Mark Rogers.

I have used a similar system with a company called Euphony Communications (http://www.uk.euphony.com/) and they are still offering this service (the customer has to request it in writing). By the way its call charges are extremely low compared to BT - I've had free local and now national calls for over 3 years! They are not well known but they have over 600,000 customers in UK and their customer service is second to none!
Jane Fulton,

WORD PERFECT SEARCH

As a retired typist, retrained as a word processor operator, I find Microsoft Word very limited, I know many will say it is superior, but you ask a typist (and there are some of us left) and they all agree: WordPerfect was more versatile for straightforward typing. Does anyone know of a source of WordPerfect 3.1 or 5.1 diskettes, I’ve tried downloading it from the Internet with no success, PC World said they stocked it until six months ago.

Pip Ward, Tadley, Hants

A big thank you to the huge number of Over2You readers who wrote in with kind offers of Word Perfect discs. Pat accepted the offer from reader Max Wright and at his suggestion has made a donation to charity.

TALKING NEWSPAPERS

We produce a talking newspaper for the blind and currently record these on cassettes. However this technology is rapidly being phased out and we need to establish a viable alternative as we are led to believe that tapes will cease being available in 2004.

Does anyone know have any experience of using CDs for newsletters or similar? Any help would be appreciated including the best way of getting the recordings onto the PC for editing and subsequent distribution.
Geoffrey Thomas, via email

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has been responding to client needs by producing media in preferred format.  This includes CDs and Talking books/Newspapers.  Other organisations offer the facility of producing CDs as an alternative to Audio Cassette on a limited basis.

Equally with a reasonable editing package and a disc recorder (widely available) linked to a PC, one can achieve one-off recordings. Most Desktop PCs are now sold with CD burners (recorders) and as part of the package they include appropriate editing software, which enables the user to produce their own personalised CDs.

Specialist recording companies can mass-produce the master disc that you have created if a large run is needed.
Nicky Brown,

We have a solution that will make CDs on-demand. Supplied through Sonopress it allows all of the audio articles to be supplied as audio files and then compiled onto a custom CD. Orders can be made through a web site interface direct to the Sonopress Unit. It is currently being used to make customised CDs for the music industry but can also use audio files. They can also mass-produce the CDs in the traditional way but in smaller quantities. For more information visit www.thedisckiosk.com.
Philip Arrowsmith,

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

Anthea Dore's solution, featured in Connected’s Over2You on May 1, is quick and easy, but not quite perfect. Do NOT scan the document to Word via OCR, which will inevitably require lengthy and unnecessary correction. Scan it in as a JPEG image, and format the picture wrapping as None. After you have typed your answers in the questionnaire boxes, just delete the picture. Then print the document you have left on to the original questionnaire.
Tony Rix,

HOMEWORK SCANNER

My 10-year old son is disabled and cannot hold a pen but he goes to a mainstream school. I would like to scan his class work and homework, mostly text on A4 paper, so that he can use either his laptop or the PC at home to complete his work. I have used the software that came with the scanner but I seem to spend more time correcting it than if I had typed it in. Can anyone recommend any other software or is scanning really only for photographs?
Mike Roe, via email

Our hardware and software is used by the public and private sectors, and private individuals, enabling people with disabilities to access computers. Our web site may be of interest: www.keytools.com

John Niven,

There is a software package that will copy almost anything - namely 'Buzzsoft'. It' a great idea and simple to use - costs about £10. Contact www.buzzsoft.com

J.D.,

CAN YOU HELP

Having recently discovered that I can listen to Radio stations on my PC, I would like to know if it is possible to ‘time-shift’ these programmes, onto the hard disc, like a video recorder, for replay at a future date. Can anybody help?
Roger Warwick, Stockport
 

I have a fairly large number of rare technical drawings, including blueprints, which I would like to archive. I suppose scanning them as line art is the obvious answer but I can see any number of problems, e.g. how to avoid jaggies, how to avoid losing thin lines in printouts. How does one maximise resolution and minimise file size, what about stitching? Are there any dedicated archiving programs with appropriate (one would hope - lossless) compression? A small number of the drawings are about A1 size and bordering on the impossible to scan on an A4 scanner. Are there any commercial operations that would scan these for me? 

Richard Danik, via email

Our family has developed a complex 'Transatlantic' family tree, using Family Origins software, but it resides on one PC in the USA, which is inaccessible to most of the family and a burden on the sole user to maintain. We would like to set up the software so that selected users only can securely access it, to update the one master database, for others to view. Can anyone suggest a way?
Raymond Simonds, via email

I have a document typed on MSWord of some two hundred pages and would like to print this 8vo (octavo) in order to then bind it myself as a book complete with photos and other references. Can anyone recommend a website or piece of software that would enable me to print the pages in their correct sequence?

Mike Whitehead, via email