OVER 2 YOU 184 (08/06/04)

C4 PRINTER

I want to print directly onto C4 envelopes (the ones which take unfolded A4 sheets).  My own printer won't quite take C4.  I've measured the apertures of every printer on display in PC World and I can't find one there! A4 is the standard paper size; surely lots of people must use C4 envelopes.  Yes, I know you can print onto labels but does anyone know of a fairly simple printer (laser or inkjet), which goes the extra centimetre?

Charles Nevick, Norwich

May I suggest the HP Deskjet 1220C. It is not cheap but will print A3, which is why I purchased it, and it should easily cope with C4 envelopes.

Colin Salt, via email

They do exist and one example is the Brother HL-1070 twin bin laser printer but this is an expensive office model and I suspect that it costs several times as much as Mr Nevick's PC. It is possible that he may be able to find a reasonably priced one on the second hand market, and it is always worth looking out for bargains on the ebay (www.ebay.co.uk). There's more information on this printer on Brother's web site at: www.brother.com/eu-printer/info/hl1000/br_1070.html

Steven Hill, via email

I was asked by my employer to investigate this very problem a few months ago and my conclusion was that the company, and your reader, should stick to address labels. They are a lot cheaper and label printing is a much faster, more convenient and flexible solution for large quantities of mail. Printers capable of handling C4 envelopes are very thin on the ground in fact the only one that I could find during the course of my research was the Lexmark C912 wide format colour laser printer. When I last looked the price was around £2,800, which isn't too bad for an office machine but far too much for most home users.

Brian Collins, via email

I was intrigued by this problem and whilst I cannot claim to have found any actual printers I did come across a very useful web site that managed to demystify the whole business of paper and envelope sizes. This is something that has always confused me. I urge anyone who doesn't know their ISOs from their DINs, or needs to know the size of the transparent windows in envelopes sold in Switzerland, Germany and Finland, to have a look at the following web site: www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

John Stockton, Hemel Hempstead

VAT RATES

I'd like to find an inexpensive expert system to lead users though a set of rules or choices to decide on whether to charge UK or other VAT on export sales -- despatched from the UK and Ireland -- to a variety of customers and destinations. Any suggestions?

Alex Koscica, via email

I am not aware of any expert systems or applications that can do the job automatically but if you need to find out the local VAT or Sales Tax rates for almost any country in the world then go to the following web site, with apologies for the length of the address:

www.deloitte.com/dtt/article/

0,2297,sid%253D2959%2526cid%253D5028,00.html

Helen Keene, via email

This is a problem that my company has been grappling with for years. It is a complete minefield and I sincerely doubt that any computer program could handle the intricacies, let alone keep up to date with all of the changes involved in charging VAT on export sales. There is some useful information on the web, if you know where to look and the best advice I can give is to set aside a day or two for some serious reading and do your homework. I suggest that you start with the Customs and Excise web site and look at the following article: www.hmce.gov.uk/business/importing/

euenlargement/eue-vat-treat-exports.htm, which deals with the changes to VAT following the enlargement of the EU on May 1st this year. The page has links to other useful articles, dealing with exporting goods on a more general level.

Pete Green, via email

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

I want to make a comprehensive inventory of the contents of my home for insurance purposes; I would also like to know what I have and what it is worth! Can anyone suggest a program or web site for such a purpose and is there a resource that can calculate average values for ordinary personal and household articles, such as clothes, DVDs, cutlery etc.?

Allan McRae, via email

I would like to draw your correspondent's attention to MyHomeInventory from Secure Inventories Ltd (www.secureinventories.com/). I have used this package and found it totally suitable and very user friendly. Although I have not compared it with all of the others that were mentioned I did test the Times Home Content Tracker and found it somewhat lacking.

Behi Barzegar, via email

WINE LABELS

Can anyone suggest a way of making labels for bottles, including clip art and text, to make my home made wine look more professional?

Carol West, Welwyn Garden City

There's an even easier way to set up a table for labels in Word than that described in Over 2 You May 25th. Select the preferred label size by starting a new document in Word then via Tools > Envelopes and Labels > Labels > Options, select the preferred label size, OK and then click on New Document.  A table with correctly sized cells and margins will be created.  Create the desired label in the first cell and copy it to the rest of the sheet and you are ready to print.

David Mack, via email

COMPUTER COLLECTION

It is my intention to start a modest collection of personal and home computers. Needless to say it will include early IBM and Apple models (which I already have) and simpler machines like the Sinclair Spectrum, but I would like suggestions for other less obvious but equally historic models, preferably ground breaking machines that were the first, fastest or most advanced of their day.  

Will George, via email

Simon Webb is wrong (Over 2 You 179, May 4th) in saying that the ZX80 was first sub £100 computer. It was preceded by the Sinclair MK14, based on the SCMP CPU chip. This came with 128 bytes of RAM, and you could build a cassette interface, which, according to the sales literature 'would read 128 bytes of data in less than one minute'. It was certainly much quicker than the alternative - typing it all in again.

It all sounds a bit laughable today. Programming by SCMP machine code only, no BASIC, but when you added a bit more RAM, a keyboard and a TV interface it was, for me at the time, unbelievably marvellous! 

John Wheater, via email

CAN YOU HELP?

I am working on our parish history and am collecting old photos and postcards from residents. These are being scanned into a computer and archived on CD. However, some older residents refuse to allow these photographs out of their house. Is there such a thing as a self contained portable scanner or can anyone suggest an alternative, capable of storing high quality images?

Mike Temple, via email

Is it possible to convert a PC to emulate an ECG machine?

C. Burgess, Hemel Hempstead