OVER 2 YOU, 160 (16/12/03)

CARDBOARD BOXES

I need to create around a dozen small cardboard boxes with lettering and graphic designs on four of the six faces. I’ve made a prototype blank template and it fits easily inside the area of an A4 sheet of paper so I can print it on thin card using my PC printer. Can anyone recommend any software that will help me with the layout and printing?

Penny Taylor, via email

The layout and printing may be done using Tables in Word. In landscape view create a table with 3 rows and 4 columns. All the middle row cells and one from each of the other rows will form the box after folding.  Adjust row heights with Table > Table Properties > Row. Analogously for column widths. Add a narrow column at the right and a row at the bottom to provide tabs for gluing.

The six essential cells of the template may now be outlined, patterned and/or coloured via Format > Borders and Shading.  Then, text or graphics (clipart, pictures, photos etc), or both, may be entered directly into the cells, or alternatively into text boxes (Insert > Text Box) within the cells. Merge cells (Table > Merge Cells) to allow content to extend around two or more faces of the finished product. Use Format >Text Direction to rotate text.
R. L. Sunley, via email

May I suggest that Penny Taylor uses a label-printing program such as DesignPro by Avery. Using a label size of A4 and the inbuilt ruler and grid, she could place graphics and text within her template. Resizing graphics and altering text (font, size, colour, curved etc.) are straightforward. Both text and graphics could be rotated to get the correct orientation on each face of the carton.

The line drawing tool could be used to draw a complete outline of her template or alternatively could be used to draw small marks to show where cuts or scoring should take place. Printing these marks on the back of the card would mean that they would not be seen.
Mike Batson, via email

Attached to the latest pack of Epson A4 photo paper, is a 'Finding Nemo' CD-ROM and this includes software for creating cardboard boxes that I am sure could be adapted to Penny Taylor’s needs.

James Gibson, Quorn

No problem. Use Serif's PagePlus desktop publisher program, I have been using it since version 3.1, I am now on version 8, but all of them will do the job. Set up the page format to A4 - portrait orientation. Use the ruler facility to mark your fold positions or make dotted lines for them. Open text frames and type your text into them. With luck three of these frames (top, bottom and one side) can be used without further messing about. For the remaining three sides, open a text frame the right size in the area off the page) and type the text in it. Then click on the frame, click on the Rotate tool. Click again on the bottom right hand corner of the frame and hold the mouse key down while you move the mouse to rotate the frame. If you are using an earlier version of PP you will first have to convert the text to picture format - a one-button job off the Tools menu - then rotate.

When you've got it to the exact angle - +90 degrees, -90 degrees and 180 degrees, move the frame to where you want it and Bob's your uncle!

Brian Favell, via email

I have found that the easiest way to do this is to use a spreadsheet. Make a 3 x 3 table, size the boxes as required, enter in the top and bottom middle, left and right middle boxes, the information required. In the bottom middle box, invert text etc, and in the left and right middle boxes, turn the text etc through + or –90 degrees so that the net result is that when the table is printed on a sheet of A4 and cut out, the text etc will all be the right way round.
David Dawson-Taylor, Fareham, Hampshire

At www.trivista.com there is a program called Paper PhotoCube for printing boxes, there’s a trial download and the full program costs $15. Alternatively try using Paint Shop Pro's 'Print multiple images' facility; this can also create boxes and cubes though this takes a bit more patience.

Brian Stephens, Penarth. Via email

If your correspondent has a Mac then Nova Developments Print Explosion includes templates to create boxes within an A4 sheet. Available at: http://www.printexplosion.com/

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Adair Robson, via email

Penny's problem has, no doubt, a hi-tech solution but most DTP or Drawing programs will cope quite easily. Her template is, presumably, a set of rectangles. If the design itself does not indicate the fold lines, each 'face' can be prepared horizontally by drawing a box using a fine line. The type and graphics are inserted and most programs will enable this to be locked as a single element. When all faces are complete they may be copied, one at a time, on to a new page where they can be rotated and moved into position with a little trial and error. Any necessary glue flaps can be added at this stage with further empty boxes. The fine lines will be barely noticeable after folding although any unwanted lines may be hidden by covering with white rules using a thicker line. 

David Stacy, via email

LEARNING JAPANESE

I want to be able to correspond with Japanese colleagues. Can anyone recommend teaching software that will help me to learn the language or Japanese text recognition programs that work under Windows 98?

Nick Hughes

Japanese is incredibly difficult to learn without help and I doubt very much if there are any online tutorials that will speed the process. Even the home teaching courses can be hard going; I know I’ve tried several of them. If you really want to learn Japanese the quickest and surest method is to be taught by a professional. Check the language courses at your local college and library or seek expert tuition.

Miles Crawford, via email

You will find a list of commercial Japanese OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software programs that can turn Japanese writing into a text document and from there into English at: http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/

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Ken Nomura, via email

FAMILY TREE PROGRAMS

I have started to research my wife’s and my own family histories. I would be grateful for recommendations for suitable software, for a complete beginner to use, particularly when researching information obtained from Public Records Offices etc.

Robert Russell, via email

I have been doing family research with and without computer aid for a very long time and I am a firm believer that a pencil and notepad are the best aids to taking records from original sources in Public Record Offices. They are also just as quick to use, for extracting data from documents and the ability to make additions or changes, on site, with a pencil and rubber outweigh the use of this sort of modern technology.

Please, do not forget that noisy computer devices can be a nuisance in a small room and invariably occupy more than their fair share of space.

Walter Hetherington, Whitney, Oxon

PASSPORT PHOTO PRINTER

Can anyone suggest software that will automatically generate for printing, a set of 35mm by 45mm passport size photos? My Adobe, Coral, and Ulead programs do not seem able to do this.

Colin Harris, Rugby.

The Passport Office requires a printer resolution of 800 dpi or better and specifies the quality of paper to be used. It is quite straightforward to use the "automate" and "actions" functions in Adobe Photoshop to record the right sequence of actions to produce 'macro' for the required result and for future use.

Neil Tulip, Sheffield

CAN YOU HELP?

I am involved in a golf society that runs a knockout competition involving upwards of 180 participants. I am looking for a database application that can handle the random draw for the competition as well as participants’ historical performances and statistics, so I can build league tables based on different criteria, e.g. number of entries, matches played, number of wins, biggest wins, etc.

Andrew Stracey

Having slightly high blood pressure I regularly check my own blood pressure using an Omron monitor. To minimise "White Coat Syndrome" I take five readings, getting a Systolic and Diastolic reading each time. I then enter these readings on an Excel spreadsheet. I disregard the highest and lowest readings, average the other three and enter this value in the last two columns of the spreadsheet. This is all done manually and I am hoping that someone could provide me with a formula so that the final figures are generated automatically.

Mostyn Wheeler, via email