OVER 2 YOU, 132 (27/05/03)

CAN YOU HELP?

E-BOOK MAKERS

I would like to create an e-book. I have the text and illustrations to hand, and seek software that will enable me to create a "turning page" effect.

Ronald Reardon, via email

I have just downloaded the free version of PageWhiz and I think it would be ideal for your project. PageWhiz is an amazingly easy to use tool that creates 3D page turning digital catalogues, eBrochures, eBooks, manuals, photo albums, quizzes, surveys and more - in a digital web book format. Download the free version at http://www.pagewhiz.com/

Alf Haggers

There is a program called FlipAlbum that will create an album of photos and text with automatic or manual page turning.  Self-booting albums can be burnt to CD. Mr Reardon will find trial software at http://www.flipalbum.com/

Terry Worthington

If you look at the Zinio reader (that came bundled on my tablet PC, see also www.zinio.com/main), this has a "page turning" animation.  It's designed for electronic distribution of magazines, and includes zooming, page turning, tables of contents etc.

Tony Mudd

I have made an executable file (program) which, when run, displays in a window a 'book' of my poetry and points of view. It is not an e-book, I don't think, because it requires no 'reader' software for the user. The program I used to create this package is called Illuminatus version 4 and was included as fully working demo ware (with an option for a paid upgrade) in the cover disc CD of PC Magazine July 02. Page templates are provided and I used the 'turning page' type in my 'ebook'.  Sounds, pictures, motions and mouse effects are available as well as text.

Bill

SITES FOR SORE EYES

I suffer with AMD or ARMD which stands for Age related Macular Degeneration and wonder if any of your readers know of a suitable website where I could get advice? I am prepared to take part in research and would be grateful for the help.

D Golten, via email

I too have just been diagnosed with ARMD and after a private consultation in Winchester I was referred to a Professor Andrew Lotory at Southampton University Hospital, who is doing research into ARMD, I gave a DNA blood specimen whilst I was at the hospital.  Despite there being no cure as yet for ARMD I was advised to start a course of Vitamins called Occuvit, it is hoped that this may help to slow down the degenerative changed which one gets with ARMD  I would like to say how very impressed I was with all the care and attention I received at the Southampton General Hospital (Eye Dept)

Barbara Venn

The following sites maybe of help: www.maculardisease.org  (The Macular Disease Society)

www.rnib.org.uk/info/macdegen.htm  (Factsheet from RNIB).

Dr. D. N. Grainger, Throckley Surgery Newcastle upon Tyne

I suggest www.moorfields.co.uk/EyeHealth/

MacularDegeneration as a good place to start. A report of some research in the USA by the National Eye Institute is at www.nei.nih.gov/amd/pr.htm. There is also information from the AMD Alliance International at www.amdalliance.org

C. Hacklett

You can get good information from Judith Delgardo (judith.delgado@cshs.org) who organises American society devoted to this topic. They publish a newsletter via e-mail every fortnight or so. Ms Delgado answers e-mail enquiries. One can read up on "dry" and "wet" AMD and what treatments are applicable (if any) to their own complaint. Macular Degeneration can be very serious. AMD is a complicated topic. Naturally one should see a doctor without delay.

Jack Palmer

Informative sites for Age related Macular Degeneration include: http://amd.convio.net/

and http://seniorhealth.about.com/

J Harrison

D Golton should try the following: www.eyesight.org/,  www.csmd.ucsb.edu/ or  www.nutricentre.com/. The Nutricentre site is in the UK and you can find the extra vitamins and supplements recommended for sufferers of AMD although you can get the supplements from the local health food store.

Mike Williams

MAKING SENSE OF GOVERNMENT

I am interested in government. When documenting laws, principles, policies and procedures it is very hard to make them clear so that people reading them will understand them and get the same meaning. The result is often a great waste of effort in executing the government's wishes. Is there such a thing as a program that will take a document and force its revision so it is as clear and unambiguous as possible?

Brian Gilbert, Hampton, Middlesex

I don't know of any specific 'de-gobbledegooking' software but I would certainly try running any verbose document through Microsoft Word's Auto Summarize feature, which you can find on the Tools menu. It does quote a good job of highlighting salient points, you can set it to reduce the original text in size by a particular amount and produce a digestible summary.

Jenny Childs, via email

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

Classical CD's are notoriously difficult to catalogue, as unlike pop music, each CD may have works by a number of different composers and artists. Therefore, each work on the CD has to be catalogued individually as it is often not really possible to catalogue each CD by an all-encompassing title. For a simple solution, which is available on a lot of computers, Microsoft Access can be used. On the surface, this looks very much like excel, but it is a much more powerful tool, especially for search purposes. If money is not an object, and your library is

very large, then go for what most commercial radio stations use - Selector. As you can imagine, Radio stations often have to find pieces of music very quickly to respond to a request or a technical emergency. Selector, is designed partly as a music cataloguing system (it does much else besides which I won't go into). Each track/work on a CD is inputted onto individual song cards, onto which you can put details of the composer, title, artists (including

orchestras/choirs), conductor, record label. If you want to go into great detail, you can even put in moods, runtimes, eras - the list is endless. The search tool is very powerful, so for example, you could look up a piece of vocal Scarlatti that is happy in mood, and which is not longer than 35 minutes long. Or you could simply find all of Beethoven's symphonies. Selector is DOS based, and is made by Radio Computing Software (www.rcsworks.com/).

Philippa Abrahams

In the answers to this question as well as a number of specialist database tools several correspondents recommended the use of Word or Excel. As an experienced database programmer I would recommend your questioner to treat both of these options with extreme caution. I fully understand that many users find a generalised database such as Access unwelcoming and look for something more obvious in its use. Hence the number of dedicated programs people recommended. The use of Word or Excel, which many people have on their machines, is immediately obvious and so people resort to these. The problems come when they reach the limits of the program they have chosen to use. One of my regular jobs is porting something from the program it was started in to something more suitable. I also unfortunately often find myself having to tell Excel users that due to sorting errors their data is now unrecoverable. Excel will quite happily sort one field in a record while leaving the other fields in their original order.

I really do not recommend Word for anything beyond the tiniest amounts of data. Its functionality is very limited unless you resort to VB code and performance drops very quickly. Excel is viable for small databases up to a couple of hundred records. Over

this performance becomes poor. It provides a basic range of search and sort functions though some care must be exercised in its usage.

I do not know the size of your correspondent's collection but I have seen several collections that would be clearly too large for Excel to be a serious option. In these case an actual database program must be used, either a generalised one such as Access or if this represents too much of a challenge one of the dedicated programmes that have been suggested. Of course desktop databases such as Access are themselves limited in the amount of the data they can handle. However I doubt that an individual CD collection would require the 10's of thousands of records that would require the consideration of tools such as Oracle.

Richard Curry

CAN YOU HELP?

I organize an annual Safari Dinner, 48 people attend and are divided in six groups of eight (4 couples) for each course.  We have three courses, and for each course each couple must sit with a different set of couples.  I've tried to find a formula or method on both Access and Excel, without success.  Can anyone help, please?

Trevor Waddington, via email

The display on my aging Toshiba laptop has been growing steadily dimmer over the past year or so. I've been quoted a ridiculous amount (£350) for a complete new LCD screen but surely all that needs replacing is a small light bulb or bulbs inside the screen? I can't believe they're not replaceable, if so can anyone recommend a source or someone who can carry out this sort of repair?

Mary Paton, via email

A few weeks ago, whilst visiting a relative in Hull we visited a local computer fair. One stall had a lot of exotic PC cases with lights etc., but one in particular caught my eye, it was designed to look like a fish tank, with artificial fish swimming around inside. I regret not buying it at the time but now I cannot find a source of these cases, can anyone help?