OVER 2 YOU, 108 (26/11/02)

SHEET MUSIC

Apart from ebay does anybody know a source of old (probably out of publication) song sheet music?        

David Minor, via email

Try Express Music in London (tel. 208 5500 550), which provides a unique service. They have copyright permission to sell photocopies of original sheet music, and own a vast library of out of print music. They charge normal high street prices, and sometimes more due to rarity, and orders are taken by phone and despatched immediately.

Madeleine Cartwright-Hudson, Dublin

I suggest The Sheet Music Warehouse. They provided a 40-year-old piano solo for me when all other searches on the Internet failed. Their address is The Piano Shop, 2 Seaway Rd, Paignton, Devon, website:  www.sheetmusicwarehouse.co.uk

Brian Elliot, briwood@supanet.com

Try Amazon's shops. e.g. www.amazon.co.uk/shops/annkann

(annakannokko@yahoo.ca) or www.co.uk/shops/greatbookprices

I tried to search for "I love you moon"  -- an old drawing room ballad -- and

found it!

Arthur Robinson

I operate a mail order service and have a stock of many thousands of music sheets and scores all pre-owned and published mostly between 1850 and 1980.  To find out more visit my web site (www.musicbythescore.com)

or email.

Eileen Hooper-Bargery

There is a useful resource called the Choral Public Domain Library:

http://cpdl.snaptel.com/, which specialises in new computer-set versions of out-of-copyright pieces. Although the main emphasis is on choral works (understandable because it saves the expense of buying multiple copies), there are also arrangements for solo, duet, etc. These can be downloaded, printed and duplicated free of charge.

Colin Evans

I recommend Bygone Tunes. Mrs Jean Billington has been marketing pre-owned sheet music for over 25 years and sells by mail order. Her stock is all as sold in music shops in former years, i.e. originals. E-mail jean@bygonetunes.com

Ronald Kinns

At www.bibliology.com or www.bibliology.com/light, David Minor will find hundreds of items of sheet music listed.  Just do a keyword search for Sheet Music or Song Sheet Music. He can also ask Bibliology's music specialist dealers about items, which may not yet appear in their catalogues.

Tom Biro

Visit www.sheetmusicdirect.com for downloadable sheet music. A word of warning, though, you only get one chance to print the music when you have paid for it!

Peter Bentley, via email

LOOSING TOUCH

My 85 year-old neighbour has lost the sense of touch in his fingertips and finds it impossible to use a mouse.  He also has difficulties when using the keyboard. He has heard of a 'glove mouse', which sounds useful, but there does not seem to be in production any more. He is now confined to a wheelchair and would find the use of his computer now more valuable than ever. Has anyone any suggestions or experience of using a PC with this kind of disability?

Dougie Morrison, via email

Would the Genius Easypen tablet help? I found it on page 396 in the Littlewoods Index catalogue (Autumn/Winter 2002), priced at £29.99.

Catherine Walton, Newcastle upon Tyne.

I was reminded of my 83-year-old father, who also has little feeling in his fingertips and can't handle a mouse. We got him a large rollerball, then glued up the right-click button with superglue as his little finger kept catching it. We also slowed down the click rate. We also slowed down the keyboard click rate so he didn't get rows of the same letter whenever he pressed a key. To do this, go to Control Panel and double click Keyboard. Use the sliders to slow down the click rate. Ditto for "Mouse". We also drummed into dad the idea of "stabbing" at the keys rather than allowing his finger to stay on them!  He now uses his computer very satisfactorily.

Marcelle Douglas

WORD FOR BEGINNERS

I am in my eighties, my main use of my PC is to e-mail and write letters. Because of lack of use I have forgotten many of the intricacies of word processing that I was taught on a course a couple of years ago and so I am continually referring to manuals. Can anyone recommend a book with tests and exercises to keep me up to scratch?

N. G. B., via email

I can recommend "Learning to use Office 2000" by Angela Bessant, published by Heinemann.  This book has a wealth of knowledge and is very simply presented - one of the best IT text books I have come across.

Charles Cresswell

EXCEL CLOCK

Can anybody suggest how I can display a clock in an Excel 97 spreadsheet cell that always shows the current time? Updating by the second or by the minute would be acceptable. I would also need to be able to use the NOW function to do calculations based on the clock reading i.e. the spreadsheet would recalculate when the clock reading changed.

Paul Lavington, via email

You might like to consider this macro. It displays a clock but the snag is that whenever anything is entered into another cell, the clock stops until the user presses the Enter key or a Cursor key or whatever, to enter the new data into the cell. Once the new data has been entered into the cell, the clock restarts, catching up the time lost during the time the user was entering data.

I don't expect that you will open attachments so the macro is thus:

Sub Clock()

Dim MyTime, Pause

On Error Resume Next   

'allows the clock to restart after data has been entered into a cell'.

Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("B5").NumberFormat = "hh:mm:ss"

'Sets the time format'

Pause = 1  

'Pauses the clock for one second'

Do             

'Starts the procedure of continuously running through the code'

MyTime = Time

'Fetches the time from the computer's clock'

Range("B5") = MyTime   

'Writes the time to cell B5'

DoEvents               

'Hands over control to the operating system allowing the user to continue to use Excel'

Loop                

'Return to the Do command'

End Sub

'Macro stops each time the user types data into a cell but it will restart when the data is entered (press the Enter key/an arrow key/click another cell with the mouse). B5 is the chosen cell in this example but any cell can be used.

I should be surprised if somebody doesn't come up with something a bit more sophisticated, but this does work.

John Tarry

NURSING ROTA

I work as a nurse 4 days on, 4 days off. I would like to be able to see at a glance, which days I will be working in 12 months time for example. Is there a program available which would do this?

Helen Lundy, via email

Open Calendar in Microsoft Outlook. Go to 21 Nov 02 (arbitrarily chosen as the next date on which your correspondent might start a 4 day period of duty). Open a new Appointment. Enter the Start Time of the period of duty. Against 'Subject' enter 'On Duty'. Open 'Recurrence'. Tick 'Daily' and enter 'Every 8 days'. Save and close.

Against Mon 25 Nov 02 create another Appointment. The new subject is 'Off Duty'. Again arrange for recurrence every 8 days.

The desired overview of future commitments/rest days for any chosen period is then obtained by reading the calendar in '31 Month' mode. Using the scroll facility, you can quickly view any future period of your choosing. In the event of holidays/illness disturbing the pattern, the necessary amendments to the settings can be made in minutes few.

Paul Egan

SITTING COMFORTABLY

My physio has heavily criticised my sitting posture - which has added to the strain on my neck and the deterioration of my cervical vertebrae.  He suggests that I find some way of regularly reminding myself to check my posture when operating the PC.  Can anyone suggest a way of "posting" reminders to my screen at regular intervals, irrespective of software I am using at the time?

Tom Busby, via email

If we are serious about improving our posture when using our PCs, there is nothing to stop us placing them higher up, to be operated from a standing position. Shades of the old Victorian office desks used by clerks, now only seen in films about Dickensian times.

Eric White

CAN YOU HELP?

Does anyone know of or can recommend a software or instrument package that I can connect to my PC to monitor and record changes in the weather, such as air pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction?

Bill Halliday, via email

I have an old Phillips reel-to-reel tape recorder and quite a number of tapes but I can't play any of them because the machine's drive belts have perished.  Is it possible to buy drive belts?  If so, where?

Jeremy Quinlan, via email

I receive monthly information in terms of a date and a quantity for each day. It comes in the form of two columns; in order to present that information in chart form I am tediously rewriting the info into two rows. Is there a formula for converting from columns to rows? Alternatively is there a way of constructing a chart from two columns?

Tony Bryan, via email