FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 147 (04/02/99)

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

I use Word 6 with Windows 3.11.  If I type two upper case letters and a lower case letter as a string, then press the space bar ready to type thenext word, the second of the two upper case letters changes to lower case. While this can be corrected it is very irritating.  How can it be cured?Bernard Vaughan

A

Word is trying to be helpful by assuming that the second capital letter is a mistake. You can switch this facility off by going to the Tools menu, selecting AutoCorrect and unchecking the box next to 'Correct Two Initial Capitals'.

E-MALL SPOLLING

My pelling is trrific but my typing is less so and I would dearly love to spllcheck this message before sending oit to you. However Outlook Express Help tells me that it only supports spellcheck if I have MS Word, Excel or Powerpoint. As a Lotus fan I don't. Is there any way in which this can be fixed? I don't want to get into MS politics but this does seemmisuse of a quasi monopoly.

Peter m Reiss

A

We know of at least two spellcheckers that will work within Outlook (and a good many other E-mail programs). They are AutoSpell and Speller, both of which are available as try-before-you-buy shareware on the Internet. A brief description and links to file downloads can be found at:

http://www.spellchecker.com/mscscfi/overview.html

HANDY SCANNER

I've been using my scanner to scan my baby's hands and feet, which seems a marvellous method, and prevents getting paint on the child's hands. However I can not get a 1:1 scaled imaged. Even if I put the scanner into photocopy mode, the printout is a little smaller than the original. How can I print out full size image?

David J Price

A

It is not unusual for scanned and photocopied images to be a slightly different size to the original. There should be a way of compensating for this in your chosen (or supplied) paintbox/graphics software, usually under the print preview menu. Most programs have a sizing facility, to alter the dimensions of the image as it is printed. You can easily calibrate your set-up by scanning a small ruler, print it out and adjust the image size accordingly.

PANEL BEATER

Regarding the Boot Camp Tip of the Week for 7th Jan (Control panel on Start Menu), I seem to recall you published another, even simpler method some time ago but I cannot remember how it was done but guess that may be a facility of PowerToys.

John Scott

A

The procedure outlined in the recent Tip of the Week puts Control Panel and an arrow leading to its contents on the Start menu. The other method simply puts the Control Panel icon on Start; you have to double-click the icon to open the window. Open My Computer then click, hold, drag and drop the Control Panel icon onto the Start button.

THE WRITE STUFF

I have been searching for software for calligraphy but without any luck. Can you help?

Ron Bentley

A

There are two ways of producing calligraphic script on your PC, the easiest is to use a calligraphic font, you can find a good selection of samples and download links at: http://www.fontage.com/calligraphy.html

and

http://www.snap.com/download/item/pc/

0,22,home-17887,501000.html

The alternative is a program such as ByHand. This is basically a word processor but instead of using off-the-shelf fonts it replicates a calligraphic style script from your own handwriting. Handwriting samples are entered into the PC using the mouse or a touchpad. A trial version of the program can be obtained from:

http://www.sagittal.com/index.html

FAMILY DISK

I have recently begun to research my family history using Family Tree Maker software on my ageing 486 DX PC. The Boot Camp article on Genealogy (December 31st) and references to hard disc space (F!F!F! same issue) coincided with my thoughts on updating my PC. Before I consider the specification, is there any way of calculating the amount of disc space required for, say, a scanned 7 x 5-inch family group photograph, and thence the space needed for a bag full of pictures that I have, covering the last 100 years?

J.R. Cottrell, West Bridgford, Nottingham

A

This is one of those it-all-depends type answers… The main determining factor is file format, if you save scanned images as 'Bitmap' files (extension *.bmp) you can reckon on between 2 to 3Mb per picture. If you use the far more economical JPEG (extension *jpg) format, which uses data compression to reduce the amount of space required, then the size of files will be reduced by a factor of 10 or so, to 300Kb per picture, say, without any significant loss of quality. So, for example, a thousand JPEG image files would occupy up to 300 MB of disc space, the same number of bitmaps would need around 3 gigabytes.

HIDDEN FAX

Some time ago you wrote that Windows 98 has the Microsoft Fax programs, but they are hidden in a remote file. Can you tell me what the file name is?

Ian Clancy

A

It is on the CD-ROM, go to Tools > Oldwin95 > Intnl and click on Wms.exe and Awfax.exe to install the Windows Messaging and Fax components

ANOTHER TWEAK

Add/Remove Programs allows the removal of unwanted software on my computer. However, often when attempting to delete a program through this

facility, I am frustrated in my efforts by an Uninstall Shield. Perhaps you could explain how this could be overcome. Furthermore, many of the programs displayed on the Add/Remove menu are no longer on my machine, can you please offer suggestions as to how I may be able to edit this menu.

Jim Barrell

A

Uninstall Shield is the program's own uninstaller utility and generally speaking this is the best option as it should have details of the whereabouts of all the files and changes made to your machine. When a program is deleted by means other than Add/Remove in Control Panel the entry can be left behind. The simplest way to edit the Add/Remove list is to use a simple little utility in Tweak Ui, the indispensable Windows 95/98 toolkit. It is included on the Windows 98 CD-ROM (Tools > Reskit > Powertoy), otherwise it can be downloaded for free from the Mircrosoft web site: www.microsoft.com

LOOSING WAIT

I have only one telephone line.  If a caller rings me while I am on the Internet my phone rings and my net connection is broken off.  Is there a way of preventing this?

M.G.L.Foster

A

You can temporarily disable Call Waiting by keying in # 43 # on your phone before you go on line, and switch it back on again afterwards using * 43 #.

THE LOTUS POSITION

Can MS Word read Lotus Word Pro files? (F!F!F!, 21/1/99). I had Word Pro and recently started using Word. In order to transfer Word Pro files I first saved the .LWP files as .DOC files as I could see no way of using Word itself to access them. Word Pro is not listed in its 'Files of Type' list.

Pete Clark

A

We suspect someone somewhere has developed a file converter for Word, to allow it to read Word Pro documents directly, though we haven't found one yet. If anyone knows of such a utility please let us know and we'll pass on the details.