FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 122 (13/08/98)

PRINT FOR POSTERITY

I have produced collections of local interest photographs for the County Records Office and Libraries for over 30 years. As the photographs are for record purposes it is essential they will not fade. For this reason I have used monochrome rather than colour photography, to take advantage of its superior light-fast properties. I now have a PC with a scanner and desktop publishing facilities. This ought to make my work much easier. However, I am concerned about the quality of the ink supplied for home printers. How permanent are they, compared with monochrome and colour photographic emulsions?

Kevon Thompson, Barrow-On-Soar, Leics.

Your apparently simple question opened a real can of worms. The one thing we can say for certain is that nothing is permanent! According to a Kodak spokesperson, a photographic print, processed in a professional laboratory and kept in ideal conditions will last 'many decades'. Prints processed in high-street 'minilabs' are less durable and will deteriorate even faster if stored in PVC pouches or under PVC film in albums; (PVC gives of chemically reactive fumes). Black and white images outlast colour ones by a significant degree.

PC printer inks also fade with time. When asked Hewlett Packard came up with an 'Archivability Statement' which basically says the black inks used in consumer printers lasts for 'decades', provided the paper is stored in a dry and dark place. The best they could say for colour inks is that they will last for 'years' under the same conditions. Specially formulated UV resistant inks are also available for some printers, that will not fade for at least 20 years, when kept in a normal office filing system.

To make matters worse a high proportion of the paper manufactured in the past 50 years -- including that used for photographic prints -- contains acids that slowly but surely cause it to self-destruct. Depending on how its kept this can happen in less than 100 years.

Digital data, stored magnetically on disc and tape fares no better. There's evidence to suggest that magnetic recordings can survive for at least 50 years when stored properly. However, that assumes the equipment needed to replay or read the recordings is still available. Optical and magneto-optical storage media (CD-R/RW, DVD-RAM, MiniDisc) etc., should also be good for at least 50 years but again, they are prey to format obsolescence. It seems the only way to guarantee longevity is to ensure your material is constantly copied!

PASSED OFF

All right Windows, I give up! How do you stop the Windows password screen from appearing each time you boot-up your PC? I am sure you've covered this item already in your column, but I've just searched through the last God knows how many issues and still can't find it.  Help me please.  

Michael Urwin

We get steady stream of enquiries on this subject. It must be about a year since we last dealt with disobedient password screens so once again, here's the cure. Select Find from the Start menu and in the Named field type in *PWL. You should find at least one occurrence in the Windows folder; they contain the password details of all of the users of your PC. You can either delete it (or them), or rename, using the extension *.OLD. Restart the computer and when the password box appears enter your user-name, but leave the Password field empty. Press Return and restart the computer and that should be the last you see of it.

NUMBERS UP

How do you permanently turn off the automatic paragraph numbering and indentation in MS Word Office 97 Word? I have tried the obvious, by going to Bullets and Numbering on the Format menu, and selecting None, but they continue to haunt me and are driving me to distraction.

Julian Carosi, Hawthorn, Wilts

Paragraph numbering is normally only enabled by clicking on the '123' button on the Formatting toolbar; clicking it again switches it off. Make sure the toolbar is visible (check the Formatting box on Toolbars on the View Menu) and ensure the button is not highlighted. We're not aware of any other way it can happen other than by using a document template containing paragraph numbering field codes, which seems unlikely in your case.

BREAKING WINDOWS

Occasionally my computer won't automatically switch off when I shut down. I have to turn off manually but I am told this damages Windows. Is there anything I can do?

Sue Coombes

There is a chance that system files may be corrupted or incorrectly updated if Windows doesn't shut down properly; later versions of Windows 95 automatically go into a brief diagnostic routine and run the Scandisk disc checking utility, when the PC is next switched on. The best way to avoid a lock up is to properly close all of the programs you have opened during a session, make sure there are no icons still lurking on the Taskbar. If you want to be ultra cautious check there's no applications running in the background on the Close Program window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete, before you go to Shut Down.

DISC DECISIONS

As a retirement project I am thinking of getting a computer with a view to storing and indexing the contents of a large number of photo albums. As this would entail large quantities of data, one of the new DVD-RAM drives, in conjunction with a PC and scanner, would seem to be suitable. However, this is likely to be a fairly expensive project so any comments or recommendations would be welcome.

Geoffrey Shannon, Bracknell, Berkshire

DVD-RAM drives are coming down in price -- the new Panasonic LF-D101 drive can be found selling for less than £470 -- but you will probably find that recordable CD-ROM is a more cost-effective alternative. CD-ROMs have a 600-megabyte capacity, which means you can typically store between 500 and 1000 JPEG compressed colour images on one disc. CD-ROM recorders can now be found selling for less than £150. Blank discs are cheap -- from around £1.20 for write-once (CD-R) discs, to around £12 for rewritable (CD-RW) blanks. If you decide to upgrade at a later date you will still be able to read your CD-R/RW discs as all DVD-RAM drives will be backwards compatible.

DATE GRATE -- FINAL UPDATE

I was very interested in your solution for adding ordinals to the date (Update Grate F!F!F! July 23rd). This procedure works fine, in that it inserts the present day's date with ordinals. Unfortunately if you insert a date in a letter and save the letter to file, you will find that on subsequent days the date has been updated the next time you load your file. Perhaps you would be kind enough to set me on the right path.

Rod Lassetter

Somehow we knew this one wouldn't go away… Several readers asked how to print ordinals in Superscript; we haven't managed to crack that one yet, so if anyone knows how to do it please tell us and we'll pass it on. However, unlinking the date, so that it becomes plain text is quite easy. We have to thank Vivian Dunn and Marjorie MacVicar for sending in solutions so quickly. Vivian suggests adding 'Control + Shift + F9' to the end of the macro. Marjorie's tweak is equally simple: towards the end of the macro, when AutoText is highlighted and you press F9 to update the field, immediately afterwards press Ctrl + 6 to unlink the field.  Finally, a number of readers have asked how to remove accidental or faulty macro buttons from their toolbars. That's easy too. Left click on the errant icon and select Customise from the menu. Right click on the icon to highlight it and either drag it onto the desktop, or click Delete.