FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 029 (15/10/96)

TYPING THERAPY

My son has recently been diagnosed as having dysphasia; doctors treating him have suggested that he should learn to type, in case he has to rely on keyboard skills, rather than his handwriting. Can you recommend any typewriter teaching programs for an IBM PC, that would be suitable for a 8 year old.

R.H.L, Derby

A

Mavis Beacon for Kids springs immediately to mind. It costs around £30 and is available on 3.5-inch diskette and CD ROM. Kid Keys, included in the Kids Fun and Learning CD Pack from Palladium Interactive is also worth considering, it includes a number of other fun educational titles and sells for between £25 to £30. Don’t just confine yourself to typing tutorial software though, any program that encourages your son to use the computer keyboard will help develop his abilities.

By the way, if you have Internet access on your PC you may be interested in the web site run by the Keck Centre and Rutgers University on language based learning disability, remediation and research. There’s plenty of up to date information on dysphasia, plus forums, support groups and details of computer hardware and software. Find it at: http://www.ld.uscf.edu/ld.pgm.html

OH BROTHER!

I’ve been using a Samsung SQ-W100 portable processor for some years and have built up a considerable amount of material on floppy disc. Now I’ve acquired a Brother Solo PC with printer, but of course the discs are incompatible. I notice, however, that magazines etc., now ask for contributions on disc, which suggests to me that some sort of interchange software, that would enable my discs to be read, might be available. If so I would be grateful to know what it is, and where it can be obtained.

A.J.Y., Holbury

A

Files created on the SQ-W100 can be read by a PC. However, you have to convert them to a plain text format first, using the ASCII utility disc, that should have been supplied with your machine. ASCII (American standard code for information interchange) format text on a standard 3.5-inch floppy disc, can be read by most popular word processor packages on Apple Macs and PCs. However, some characters may not be correctly translated, pound signs for instance, and any formatting -- bold, italics, underlines and tab settings -- will be lost.

PSION DOUBTS

I am considering buying a personal organiser, preferably a Psion Series 3a. However, I have some questions: Is it worth the money when I already have a desktop PC? It only has a 2 megabyte memory,  is this enough to store a reasonable amount of information, and how can I use it, so that it is compatible with MS Word and my desktop PC?

W.L. Maidenhead

A

Presumably you want an organiser because of its portability, so you can slip it in your pocket, and get on with jobs whilst you’re away from your desk. If so then the question of value for money, in relation to a desktop PC, is largely irrelevant. You needn’t worry about the Psion’s memory capacity. The 2Mb model can store around 500 pages of text, that’s equivalent to 20,000 or so words. In any case the memory can be easily expanded -- up to 16Mb -- with plug-in memory modules or ‘solid-state discs’.

PC connectivity is one of the Psion organiser’s most important  assets. You will need a specialised connecting cable, called a 3-Link, and Psion Manager software; they’re available as a package, called PSI Win for around £60. With it you can download files from the Psion into MS Word, and many other popular WP packages. You can also transfer files from the spreadsheet and organiser in the same way.  It’s very simple to use, with familiar drag and drop file manipulation. Files can also be transferred in the other direction just as easily, and the management software has a useful backup utility, that stores the entire contents of the Psion’s memory on the PCs hard disc. Incidentally, Psion have recently introduced a new model called 3c, which features a  number of improvements, including an IR data link to suitably equipped printers and peripherals. There’s also a new stripped-down version, called Sienna, still with PC connectivity but with a smaller display screen and simpler range of functions, it sells for £170.