OVER 2 YOU 208 (30/11/04)

STAMP CATALOGUE

I am intending to catalogue a large quantity of postage stamps. These comprise both British and foreign stamps. The aim is for eventual valuation.  Is anyone aware of any software that might simplify this task?

J. S, via email

Your correspondent will find that www.allworldstamps.com can provide everything that he needs to catalogue his stamps.
Ron Negus via e-mail

There is a free download available from: www.contactplus.com/products/

freestuff/mystuff.htm, which is a general household inventory program. An avid philatelist friend of mine swears by it. It is easily adaptable for stamps and if you want to do away with the watermarks etc on the printouts it only costs $19.99 to register.

Malcolm Youd, via email

Several inventory programs, suitable for cataloguing stamp collections can be found at: www.pcsg.org/invwin.htm

Charles Lebus, via email

Whilst looking for something broadly similar a few weeks ago I came across a selection of useful looking shareware programs on the Final Download web site, which you can find at: www.finaldownload.com/products/philately.html

Gil Stevens, via email

I have no doubt that J. S. will find what he needs at the excellent database of philately software at: www.filesland.com/software/philately.html

Philip Peters, via email

CONTRACT COMPILER

I regularly have to compile several similar, but differing Contracts of Employment. Up to thirty contract terms may be selected from a library of about two hundred possible "master" terms and the resulting composite document personalised with an individual's name, job title etc.  At the moment I maintain the term library, copy and paste paragraphs of text for each term of each contract and then insert names, and other details. Apart from being extremely time-consuming and laborious, this procedure is prone to error. Can anyone suggest software, which will allow me to amend the "master terms", use a pro-forma to insert details such as name or job title, tick boxes to select specific terms and then compile and print a presentable document?

Mike Welby, via email

This is easily solved using MS Word standard features - Form Letters/Documents combined with conditional insert fields. The form letter is created with embedded IF..THEN..ELSE clauses, which insert or leave out text depending on the condition, which is usually set up with the contract owner's name. So:

IF surname=Smith AND firstname=Joan THEN "insert text for condition true" "insert text for condition false".

Unfortunately, the IF..THEN..ELSE clause has limitations with the inserted text - for example it is not possible to insert bold, italic or underlined text or change font and/or colour. These limitations can be overcome using the IncludeText command within the IF..THEN..ELSE field to retrieve the required text insert - which can either be a standalone Word document or a bookmarked section of text within a Word document.

Use of form letters and conditional fields will enable Mike to maintain the library of text inserts either as one Word document per insert or as one, composite, Word document containing all the inserts, each of which has been made into a bookmark - IncludeText accepts either a full filename or a bookmark as the target text insert.

While not difficult to use, the topic is too complicated to cover adequately in the space of an Over2You reply. I have written two training documents about setting up form letters/documents and using conditional clauses for the IT people at a charity I work with. If Mike contacts me, I will be happy to send him the documents electronically.

Brian Hart, via email

I have written a Microsoft Access application, part of which does what Mr Welby requires in that it creates a MS Word document and the user can insert pre-written blocks of text into the document from the database as well as any names, addresses, or whatever, etc. I would be happy to modify this program to do whatever else is required.

Peter Hibbs, via email

FLOWER SHOW SOFTWARE

We run a large Flower Show in our village and find that the task of determining who has won the cups for various vents quite time consuming. Can anyone recommend a program that will allow us to enter who has come 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each class (100 plus) and then calculate the winners in various sections? Also it would be advantageous if we could print the results for display.

Doug Martin, via email

I have developed a bespoke package (Erica), which runs on Microsoft Access. I am able to distribute this in run-time format, so there is no need for an end user to have Access pre-installed. Erica handles all the inputting of entries, calculation of scores and cups, printing of entry cards, prize cards and prize lists and just about all the stationery requirements of a Flower Show.

It is written around the demands for our particular show but, depending on how different Doug's requirements are, could probably be recoded to suit. I would be happy to enter into email correspondence with him to compare specifications.

David Thorpe, via email

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CAN YOU HELP?

We use Outlook on a Windows Small Business Server based network, with Windows XP on the client laptops. Can anyone suggest a way of automatically entering public holidays into the calendar?

John Moss, via email

I am working on some online archaeology courses run by Swansea University. Next year there will be a course on Science and Computing in Archaeology, and I have dreams of reconstructing a little bit of Pompeii for the course project. I have, however, one problem: I have never used a 3DCAD tool, and have no idea which program I should consider. I have a 3GHz Pentium PC running Windows XP and my funds are limited, to say the least. Could anyone recommend a program that would suit my requirements both technically and financially?

Stephen Whitehead, via email