FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 244 (04/01/01)
Q.
I have produced some Macros and AutoText, which I
want to share with other people. I don't know how to separate them
out, is there a way of doing this and saving them as separate files onto
the A drive?
Gail Jenner
You can
certainly move copies of Macros and AutoText entries between the same versions
of Word but you may experience problems – especially with Macros -- if you try
to do it between Word version 97 or earlier and Word 2000. All of your
customisations, including Macros and AutoText are contained in the ‘normal’
document template, in a file called Normal.dot, which is usually stored in
C:/Windows/Application Data/Microsoft/Templates. Open Windows Explorer, right
click on the file and select Send to Floppy Disc. Copy it into the same
location on the other PC.
Q
What you told Janice Gowland about spell checking
emails in Outlook Express (F!F!F! 14/12/00) is of course correct but also she
should be advised in the Outlook Express window menu Tools > Options >
Spelling to make sure that the box is ticked that is labelled `Always check
spelling before sending'. For unknown reasons spell checking of my new
messages stopped working and I found that ticking this box restored a very
useful facility.
The following MS Knowledge Base articles refer to
spell checking problems in Outlook Express:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q232/9/50.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q220/5/12.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q224/1/76.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q253/3/51.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q178/2/38.ASP
http://support.microsoft.com/support/
kb/articles/Q191/7/94.ASP
Malcolm Walker
A
Many thanks for that useful advice
Q
Is there any way I can drive a Macintosh monitor
from a PC.
J.Meadows
A
It depends on
the age and model number (please note that it’s always useful to have this
information), but if it’s a reasonably recent design you need a PC to Mac
adaptor module or cable. They’re readily obtainable from most PC specialists
and Maplin Electronics, part no. DG30H, £5.99
(0780 264 6000, www.maplin.co.uk).
By the way, a
couple of weeks ago I mentioned a video card, stocked by Maplin, I understand
that this is no longer being stocked, however an alternative card, with similar
facilities (video output for displaying PC screen on a TV) is available from
Eclipse computers (www.eclipse-computers.com), part no.GC-ASISTV8, and what’s more it
only costs £25.85. And whilst we’re on the subject, two sort of related
queries:
Q.
Your articles about sound
on PCs makes me wonder whether it would be possible to buy a TV card and record
sound and video (i.e., TV programmes) from it onto the hard disc drive. If so, how does one do it and how much could
one get onto an empty slave HDD of around 10GB?
Giles
Pinnock
And…
Will the video card that
you wrote about also enable me to play back video which has been edited to the
hard disc in digital to be played back to a standard VHS recorder?
At the moment the only way I have of doing
this is to output to the digital camcorder which will have to be converted to
DV in by the use of a widget and this would mean that the conditions of
guarantee would be broken.
Eric Naylor
A.
Most TV cards
come with ‘video recorder’ utilities, which let you record TV programmes on a
PC. They generally use the AVI or QuickTime recording formats, which compresses
the data in order to maximise recording time. At the highest compression rates,
which gives picture quality similar to a budget VHS video recorder, you get
around 8 to 10 minutes per gigabyte of hard disc space, (assuming you want to
record sound as well) so an empty 10Gb drive will give a little over one an a
half hours recording time.
PC video cards
with a video output facility will indeed allow you to copy digital recordings
stored on your PC to VHS tape, though the quality can be a bit variable and the
cards I have suggested are not probably not the best choice for serious
applications. Something like Fast DV Now, may be better suited to your needs,
it sells for around £400 and you can find more details at: www.dvnow.co.uk
Q
In F!F!F! (14/12/00) a reader asks how to exclude
quotes from word counts in MS Word. I usually have a separate style assigned for direct quotes.
If you then change the font definition of the quotation style so that the text
is "hidden", then the quotes will no longer contribute to the word
count.
Richard Holland, Newcastle upon Tyne
As a mature student
frequently faced with the need to word count an essay and exclude all the
quotations within it, I have found, after much trial and error, that the following
method works well for me: I copy the entire essay onto a new document,
delete all quotations, and count the remaining words. I save this version
using the same title as the original essay, simply adding the words 'without
quotes'. As I update, re-write or change the essay, it is a
simple matter to delete all the old work and paste the new version in instead.
Since trying this method, several other students in my year have adopted it so
it seems to be successful.
Barbara
Jefford
A
Thanks for the suggestions
but I still think my method is easier…
Q.
I had the same problem as
Frank Russell (F!F!F! December 21st), copying a large number of images into a
PC but mine were medium format negatives. I used a digital camera to photograph
the negs and this was good enough to print to A4. It was also very fast. It
does assume you have a digital camera with close-up facility. I have also tried
this with transparencies and it works fine.
Keith
Felton
If you really want high quality reproduction then I
advise you to buy a top rate scanner - i.e."Epsom 1200 with
attachments"- these are
specially for slides etc. Use Resolution setting at 600 d.p.i. Cost
circa £250. You should also use PaintShop Pro software (shareware) for improving
and cropping the pictures. I have successfully recovered and improved slides
taken as long ago as 1954.
Len Dowsett
A
Some useful tips, thanks
Q
Having set my
modem to display the actual connect speed (as per a previous F!F!F!) I find that the best speed achieved with my 56K modem onto FreeServe is
44000 bps. Should I expect better or is this par for the course?
Also, in normal Internet use there will be "bits received and bits
transmitted" but during a file download what proportion of bits sent
should there be? For example during a recent batch of MP3 downloads I received
25,900,520 bits and sent 1,846,972 bits, roughly 7%.
J. Hall
A
From the sound of it you have a fairly typical connection, 56Kbps is very
rarely achieved on a normal analogue landline. The ratio of bits sent and
received is also about right, remember, most of the time when you are connected
to the Internet you will be receiving a great deal more data than you send.
There is no fixed proportion of bits sent to received, when your PC receives
data from the Internet it comes in the form of short bursts or ‘packets’. The
PC confirms that each packet has been received in good condition then signals
the server computer, where the data is stored, to send the next packet, or
repeat the last one if was incomplete or corrupt, hence the two-way traffic.
|