OVER 2 YOU, 131 (20/05/03)

PACK A PC

In early July my son and I are doing a sponsored bike ride around the circumference of Essex in aid of the Air Ambulance Fund and we are anticipating taking a laptop computer with us so that we can update details of our progress on a couple of web-sites. What would be the best, most reliable way of transporting the laptop? Take out the hard drive, carry the unit in our back pack, or securely suspended on a bike rack? Has anyone else gone down this road?

Peter L. Parker, via email

For three years I used a Toshiba Tecra 8100, I travelled with it worldwide on 40 plus flights a year. I also commute over our dreadful village roads small country lanes and motorways on a motorcycle. My laptop always accompanies me; I have dropped it from the saddle and have fallen off on our diesel-ridden roundabouts. The laptop was carried in a standard soft laptop case and never failed.

Your biggest worry is being knocked off by car drivers ensconced in their vehicles with mobile to ear and brain in neutral. Good Luck from an endangered species!

Mike Whitbread, Northampton

Many cycling tourists tend to avoid wearing a backpack, and leave the bike itself to take the weight. Ortlieb and Altura, to name but two, make a wide variety of both hard and soft panniers, which would suit your needs. Try one of the online stores such as www.evanscycles.com for a good choice. Good luck with the battery life!

Bryan Mills

I commute by bike and regularly transport my laptop to and from work - a journey of up to an hour. I use a standard computer case and put that in a pannier and that seems to work well. I do not do anything special to protect the hard drive and have only suffered one failure over a period of several years, which is probably no more than anyone who transports it by car. The only special precautions I take are that when it is really wet I put the laptop in a carrier bag inside its carry case to prevent it getting soaked.

Grant Addison,

You might try using a handheld or palmtop PC, as both could fit in a pocket, and also in a backpack while you are cycling, and be quite safe.  They are also easy to hook up to a mobile phone, and get online, reasonably quickly. If that is not an option, I have seen backpack bags for laptops, specifically for that purpose, try: www.caseplace.co.uk/acatalog/

Targus_Backpack_Laptop_Cases.html

Laura-Ann Wells

CLASSICAL DATABASE

Does anyone know of a database program to catalogue a collection of classical music CD's in such a way that I can than access any piece by:composer/conductor/orchestra/soloist, etc.
Allan Morriss, via email

I have been using Classical Collector from Elk Software (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/lion_elk/) for several years to record all my CDs, classical, jazz etc.  Access available via composer, conductor, orchestra, soloist, title, type of work, instrument, class of music etc., plus the ability to record details of purchase cost and history, label details and so on. It’s very flexible, very intuitive and thoroughly recommended.

Alan Carcas

We have catalogued our music collection, tapes, opera videos, records as well as CDs for the last 10 years, firstly on Quattro Pro and now in Excel. Type all the information into a spreadsheet using columns, e.g. column A, name of piece, B, composer, C, soloist, D, conductor, E, vocal, F, orchestral etc. This master sheet can then be copied to other sheets and sorted by any column/s. We have one section by composer, which is headed up with the composer's name and the composer column deleted. You can delete or hide any column not required for a particular listing. We have an alphabetical listing by name of piece, which of course shows if you have the piece by more than one performer. We also have a list of songs/arias by performer, 1st sort, and piece 2nd sort. The combination is flexible according to your needs. Ours is printed loose leaf in a folder and guests are visibly impressed! Be consistent in your terminology or the sort will show up inconsistencies, and do take back ups, I have 2 floppies in case anything goes wrong.
Mrs Thelma Huggett, Tunbridge Wells

Allan Morriss could try "Music Collector" (http://www.collecterz.com/music/index.php) It allows various layouts and
searches according to your own needs.
Stephen Worth

There is no need to buy software to make a simple catalogue for classical music CDs. Just use the MailMerge Wizard in Word to set up your records. Select the Directory option. Delete the default categories and replace these with, for example, Composer, Name of Music Work, Date, Conductor or whatever headings you require.   You can add to the records at any time and sort them alphabetically or numerically, as you require.  You can then select, for example, all music written by Beethoven and produce a list including only his works.
Hilary Kemmett

I'm in the middle of cataloguing our book collection in the same manner and, having looked at Access and Excel, have settled for the easiest method of all, using Word tables. This provides exactly what Mr Morriss is looking for, with all the advantages of using a word-processing program.

1.  Click on Table - Insert Table.  In the dialog box specify the number of columns and rows (as new rows can be created by pressing TAB in the last cell of the table, it's not necessary to be precise about the number of rows).   Click on "Autofit to Contents" before clicking on OK; this creates a table with narrow columns, which expand to fit the text.  Use "Table - Insert - Column" to add extra columns, if necessary.

2.  Click on "Table - Heading Row Repeat".  The column headings will be printed automatically at the start of each new page.

3.  Type the data (pressing TAB moves the insertion point to the next cell).

4.  Click on "Table - Sort".  This displays a dialog box enabling the table to be sorted alphabetically by any of the column headings.

Word automatically inserts a border round each table cell; "Table - AutoFormat" gives a choice of border styles.  Items can be spaced vertically by clicking on Format > Paragraph and specifying a before and after space (3 pts gives a good result, spacing the items nicely but still allowing a lot to be typed on each page).

Jean Elliott

I suggest he gives PC-FILE by Jim Button a try.  I am using an old DOS version with great success.
http://www.umich.edu/~archive/msdos/database/ for the DOS versions
http://www.atlantic-coast.com/pcfile/b003.htm for Windows versions

I copy the data file into Sun StarOffice or OpenOffice and create queries with in these programs.
Jeff Milan

If you go to Downloads at www.zdnet.co.uk and search for 'databases’ in the Audio category you will find lots of such programs.  Some are freeware, many shareware, ClassiCat comes to mind as one that's designed specifically for classical music but it is quite expensive at $50. Most of the better programs have a plugin that allows you to search the CDDB database, which saves typing in all the tracks!

Peter Allison, peter@allison.gioserve.com

I have prepared exactly such a database for my own CD collection using Lotus Approach. If Allan Morriss gets in touch I will be very happy to send him a copy of my database.
Terry Mitchell

AppleWorks includes a database, which is easy to learn and simple to operate. He can put composer, conductor, orchestra, soloist, instrument, musical form, date or whatever in individual fields and produce alphabetical (or reverse alphabetical) catalogues under any of the fields he chooses.  AppleWorks also contains word processing, spreadsheets, drawing, painting and presentation facilities and is one of the wonders of the modern world. Of course he may not be able to use it on a PC.  We modern Mac users can accommodate most PC material but the reverse is, sadly, not always true.
Hazel Talbot, hazel.talbot@macunlimited.net

CAN YOU HELP

I am scoring for an athletics meeting where the athlete’s performances are awarded points from a table. Using the LOOKUP function there is no problem in formulating the points column in an Excel Spreadsheet for Field Events where the points increase with the greater distances. However, I cannot get an accurate result for Track Events where the points are decreased as the time increases. Can anyone tell me how to get it right?

Anna Grinonneau, via email

I am looking for a way of producing multiple copies of the same MS Office document (Word/Excel), but each with it's own unique serial number. I can do this in Avery DesignPro but have been unable to find a way of doing it in Office. Can anyone help?
Ian Johnson, via email

Whilst clearing out a deceased relatives house recently I came across a small collection of six ‘CVC’ tapes, apparently containing home video movies. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything to play them on, does anyone know anything about these tapes and are players still available?

Kay Little, via email