OVER 2 YOU, 085 (18/06/02)

SCAN AND SAVE

Can anyone advise me how to scan thousands of photographs to CD in the least time consuming way possible? I have done a few hundred but I may not live long enough to complete the task at this rate. Also a good filing reference system at the outset may forestall 'I wish I'd done it differently' later.
Brian Ellis, via email

The best system we have found thus far is to scan the photographs using a flatbed scanner with a document feeder. HP make a fine unit for less than £450. Scan using software such as Adobe Acrobat 5, which costs less than £180. The advantage of the document feeder is self-explanatory; those for Adobe are features such as indexing and hyperlinking within pictures as well as the ability to group photographs in a logical order, as one would do with a photograph album. One other rarely used feature is the ability to add notes to the file details. The result will be readable with any PC which has the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed (most do these days), and it can be downloaded for free from the Adobe website (www.adobe.com).

Dominic Olds

TECHNICAL DRAWINGS

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

I use a program called Scan2Cad from Softcover International Ltd in Cambridge. A trial version is available on their Web Site at www.rastertovector.com.  This program creates a raster file and, which can be "smoothed" to deburr lines, despeckled and automatically rotated to give true vertical/horizontal lines.  This is then converted to a vector file and saved to a CAD program such as Autocad (any version) in which it can be finally cleaned up and any damaged or incomplete lines can be corrected. It has the additional facility that any drawing too large for one's scanner can be scanned in sections as separate files, which can then be stitched together. The manual and built-in training videos are excellent as is technical support, which is readily available by Email.

John Williamson

Richard Danik should take his problem to those wonderful people at Kinkos. Not cheap, but very competent, outstanding quality and customer service to die for: www.kinkos.com

Graham Brown

My company specialise in scanning large drawings to CD-ROM. One of our first customers was The Lincolnshire Lancaster Association for whom we scanned several thousand war bird drawings from paper and microfilm. For more information, please visit our website - www.copyzone.co.uk.
Ian Hudson

We distribute scanners: including high-speed production models, entry level and work-group scanners, large format and book scanners. We also have close relationships with companies offering scanning services. I doubt if your correspondent will want to buy state-of-the-art professional scanning equipment, but we would be very pleased to offer any advice we can based on considerable experience in this field. Anyone who is interested in the equipment might like to visit our website at: www.imagingbusiness.co.uk.
Roger Ellis

PARTYWARE

Does anyone know of a program that helps in the preparation of a table plan for formal dinners for large numbers without the need to cut up little pieces of paper to move people around until you get it right and then having to write it down?
Richard Hopkinson-Woolley, via email

I have had to arrange table plans in the past and find that Excel works very well as follows: Count the number of guests and divide by two (for example 20 guests would have 10 on each side of the table).  Using Autoshapes draw a circle or oval 10 rows long.  Type in your guests' names on each row down each side of the oval, you can then fine tune the seating using cut and paste until you are happy with the arrangement.

If you then want to have typed placed cards, export the names into Word and do a mail merge, select the font you want, put your cards into your printer and off you go.

Helen Lutley

If all else fails try a genealogical programme such as Family Tree Maker. Open a new file and set up a parent - say John S. Then give him as many children as there are diners, Alice Brown for example will show up as Alice Brown S. Allocate each one their proper sex and give them a fictitious birth date starting from 1901. Now a descendent chart can be printed with the male boxes filled blue and the female yellow which will show a straightened out seating plan. To rearrange, alter the birth dates and "sort children by ages". As a further refinement show one side of the table as children and the other as grandchildren to show two sides of the table.

Bill Saunders

An inexpensive DTP package such as Serif's PagePlus, would allow Richard Hopkinson-Woolley to draw his seating layout to scale, lock these components in place, type up each name as an object and then drag-&-drop the name-objects to his heart's content. PagePlus 8 (£99.95) is the latest version; a previous but more than adequate (full) version can often be found on magazine cover CD-ROMs

Guy Attfield

AIR TRAFFIC ON THE WEB

Does anybody know how the real time air traffic control map for the Heathrow area can be accessed for display in an iMac?

Barry Hill, via email

Your correspondent may find the programs available from www.airnavsystems.com of interest. The latest program, AirNav Suite 4 , does contain ACARS Realtime Interface, Selcal Realtime Interface and Internet based Flight Trackings.

G.W.Swift, Newcastle-under-Lyme

SAILING LAPTOP

Later this year I will be off on a sailing adventure lasting approximately five months. The accommodation on board will be fairly rough and ready, with a damp salty atmosphere. Can anyone recommend a laptop or portable PC that will be able to endure this kind of hostile environment?

Janet Leslie, via email

Another option is to buy a waterproof case such as a Pelicase www.peliproducts.com, which has an advantage that you can put your camera, videos and any other electronic gadgets in. It has a pluck foam interior you can shape to fit snugly round the items. It won't protect an exposed laptop but will keep it 100% protected and transportable. Specialist laptops are expensive and will still need safe storage when not in use. This worked fine for me and several other crewmembers on a similar trip.

Gary Bower

KEY QUESTION

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

In the past I have simply photocopied a PC keyboard, detached from the computer and placed on the photocopier, on to A4 paper using the A3 > A4 reduction facility. Function labels can be written in by hand and the resulting sheet recopied.

Alternatively, and much more slowly, she can scan the keyboard in two halves and join them together with a graphics package such as PaintShop Pro, or if her college has such things, simply scan it on an A3 scanner. The resulting image can be imported into Word and labelled using text
boxes and arrow lines.
Alan Bridgewater, Oxford

Another solution could be to make use of the Cell Border Facilities of Excel, building up a "Keyboard" from scratch. In combination with omitting some borders for long keys such as the Space Bar, the Centering over two or more Cells facility could also be used; and would probably have taken less time than the "hours trawling the Net". If a graphics version is needed, exporting as HTML etc can produce a basic graphics file.

Using my method, I produced the keyboard diagram, limited to the scanner A4 length, in about three minutes. Obviously a second scan for the missing segment would be required, I estimate about 10 minutes maximum.
Alex Dow, Cowdenbeath, Fife

CAN YOU HELP

With so many airlines now operating out of the UK, it would be very useful to know whether there is a website (available not just to the travel trade) which tells you which airlines go where.

Chris Cleland, Farnham, Surrey 

I am desperately looking for the J.W. Spear & Sons version of Scrabble for the PC. I find the Mattell/Ubi Soft version quite awful, Mattel bought out Spears Games and no longer publish the old one, can anyone help?

Neil Brodie, Great Bookham, Surrey

Can anyone suggest a reasonably priced computer program that can be used for mapping historical sites, the distribution of artefacts and places. I particularly need the ability to place a symbol at a precise spot on the National Grid reference and the facility to draw in and colour features such as rivers, roads and escarpments etc.

Ann R. Elton, Sevenoaks, Kent