OVER 2 YOU 198 (21/09/04)

GARDEN DESIGN

I have recently bought a house with a very boring garden that is almost all lawn. I would welcome suggestions for a good garden design program that will allow me to play around with various designs before actually digging?

Peter Marshall, via email

The cover disc from Computer Shopper, dated Sept 2003, contains a copy of 'Ultimate Deck and Landscape', which says you can design your garden in minutes. I had a quick go and it certainly seems to cover most of Peter Marshall’s needs. The program is still available (though not for free) from the publisher’s web site at: www.punchsoftware.com/deck.htm

Malcolm Youd, via email

You correspondent should have a look at the comments relating to a range of garden design programs at: www.tmac.clara.co.uk/urgring/faqsoftw.htm. In the main the reviews, from people who have actually used some of these applications, is less than flattering. They tend to be difficult to use and time-consuming and there is a suggestion that in the end it is quicker, easier and a lot cheaper to use the tried and tested pencil and paper method.

Geoff Taylor, via email

I recommend that Peter Marshall downloads the 30-day trial of SmartDraw from:

www.smartdraw.com/index.htm. This program has a number of templates for landscape design and it is very easy to use.

Tom Williams, via email

I have used 3D Garden Composer from: www.gardencomposer.com/ with some success. There are a few things that I don’t like about it and it takes a while to get used to its ways of working but the range of features, especially the plant encyclopaedia, are most impressive.

A. Leyton, via email

Just because you can do all these wonderful things on a computer it doesn't mean its always the best way to do them. How does he think Capability Brown managed all those years ago, and those gardens look okay, don't they...?

George Parr, via email

MUSIC SOFTWARE

Can anyone recommend a simple PC program so that my Father (who is 80 years old) can compose music on the treble staves, the program will insert appropriate bass notes, and then listen to the composition on the PC before printing it out.

Dorothy Wallis, Chester

Look no further than Easy Music composer from: http://www5f.biglobe.ne.jp/~mcs/emc.html. This program is freeware and will do most, if not all, that Dorothy Wallis’s father is looking for, especially if he is a PC novice. It is enormous fun to use, simply select the notes then add them to the staves using the automatic composer. You can play your masterpiece straight away with a variety of effects, to change the instrument, tone, tempo and much more besides. It may not be as sophisticated as some of the other programs on offer but it is a great introduction to PC music and above all it is absolutely free.

Mary Green, via email

Dorothy Wallis might like to consider Noteworthy Composer for her father. This program is relatively inexpensive as music programs go. It is available from www.noteworthysoftware.com and it can be purchased for $39 (US Dollars).

David F. Haslam, via email

I have been very impressed with a free program called Finale Notepad, which Dorothy Wallis can download from: www.finalemusic.com. It is very simple to master and you can compose on screen, using standard music notation and hear your tune at any stage by pressing the spacebar.

Peter Clements, via email

FORM FILLING

I am the Chairman and acting Clerk for the Parish Council. Various agencies send me forms, returns and questionnaires etc. by email in PDF format. Currently I have to download, print and complete the form by hand, take a photocopy for my files and then return it by post. I would prefer to complete these forms on screen, store a copy on the computer and return them by email. Can anyone recommend a cheap software program that would enable me to easily fill out PDF forms? I am using Windows XP and Word.

Alan Jury, via email

There are a number of relatively cheap shareware programs available for download via the Internet that can convert pdf forms to Word documents. However, the conversion is quite a complicated trick to pull off, and often the graphics and formatting will need some manual adjustment after the software has done its stuff. Complex forms with lots of tick boxes etc. may therefore take quite some effort to convert - possibly more trouble than it is worth?

PDF2Word (www.verypdf.com/pdf2word/) is pretty good for simple documents but Solid Converter PDF (www.solidpdf.com) is even better. There is a free full version of the latter on the October 2004 PC Pro cover CD.

Vivian Dunn, via email

A solution that requires no special software to be installed on a user's PC has been developed by small UK software house, Evenlogic. An ‘electronic forms’ server software package together with the master PDF forms is installed on the form provider's web server. When a user fills in (or partly fills in) a form, he or she can save the content to a protected area on the web server and can later retrieve the form with the content and continue working on it. If required, a PDF copy of the completed form can also be emailed back to the user. See www.evenlogic.co.uk/eforms/FAQs for more information.

John Jarvis, via email

CAN YOU HELP?

My great grandfather and grandfather both wrote music, mainly hymn tunes and anthems, but all in Tonic Sol-Fa. It there such a thing as a program or web site that will help me to transfer their compositions into staff notation for modern performance?

Ed Elsey, via email

I use a now obsolete database program called Paradox and would readily consider moving to current software such as Access. My difficulty is that although it is easy to export records containing text and numbers there seems to be no route to export graphics, (bitmaps), which get stored in a separate file to a Paradox table. I have searched the net and found utilities that reformat one form of database program table into another, but they do not appear to work with graphics.

Ian Newton, via email