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FAQS!
FACTS! FAX! 184 (28/10/99)
SCREEN TEST
On the subject of Trading Standards and 'Tricky Pixels' (F!F!F! October 14th.),
here's one that has always puzzled me. The advertised size of both TV and
computer monitor screens is accepted as being the distance between the two
diagonally opposite corners. On a TV these are the corners of the glass i.e.
the actual viewing area. However, on a monitor, it seems they have re-written
the rules and they measure it across the corners of the plastic box. And have
you noticed how some of these boxes, especially in comparison with TV sets,
have extraordinarily large borders? Now, far be it for me to appear cynical,
but given that they are pretty much the same thing, are the monitor
manufacturers guilty of pulling some rather large woolly frames over our eyes?
Michael Dempsey
A
It's
even more confusing than you suggest. Since the introduction of FST (flatter
squarer tubes) screens on televisions in the mid 70's TV manufacturers have
adopted a 'visible screen' measurement – i.e. the length of the diagonal of the
actual picture area. Prior to that, TV sizes related to the external dimensions
of the picture tube (again measured diagonally). For reasons that no one can
satisfactorily explain, monitor manufacturers continue to use this system and
quote the size of the picture tube, rather than the display. The only advantage
we can see is that it makes them sound bigger but like you we don't want to
appear cynical... However, this only applies to CRT monitors; LCD monitors and
laptop screen measurements relate to visible picture area, so we have the
absurd situation where a 15-inch LCD monitor can actually have a larger screen
area than a 17-inch CRT monitor.
CUTTING
EDGE
Does
anyone know how to create a scissors
sign at the beginning and/or end of a dotted line to indicate to the reader to
cut along the line?
Bob Brewis
A
It's
probably staring us in the face but a swift trawl through the standard Symbol
font sets and Drawing Objects in Word failed to turn up any scissors so we'll
turn this one over to our ever reliable army of F!F!F! readers.
SMASH
AND GRABS
I
must be an even greater FreeCell addict than Dennis Coote (F!F!F! 14th October) or maybe I've just been playing this game longer. My statistics show: Won 16059, lost 3122 (84% wins) with a longest winning streak of 52
games. Unfortunately, I missed the "screen grab" tip in F!F!F! - what
a wonderful resource this column would be for a web site. How about it? Finally
a question - how does one get rid of the program names that appear under
Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs when the program has already been
deleted using Windows Explorer?
Greg Rickford,
A
When
I'm not playing FreeCell, then I'm reading Connected! Sorry to be a bore, but
I'm intrigued to find out what this "screen grab" thing is about
(F!F!F! October 14th). Ought I to be able to find it in your paper,
or are my eyes deteriorating because of too much FreeCell? Anyway, what is a
"Screen Grab", and how does one "make it". Sorry, but
you're dealing with a pretty ignorant fellow here. Who knows, I might be able
to send you my "Statistics" file one day?
Hilary Leaper
A
screen grab is a way of taking a snapshot of your PC screen. Pressing the
PrintScreen button on the keyboard creates a Bitmap image file of the display,
which is sent to the Windows Clipboard, from there it can be pasted into a
document or graphics program, to do with as you will. Pressing Alt +
PrintScreen captures just the active window rather than the whole screen. To
paste from the Clipboard you can use the application's Paste command (it's
usually on the Edit menu), or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + V. Incidentally
don't try sending Bitmap files as email attachments, they can run to several
megabytes and will take forever to send. Instead paste the image into a
graphics program and use the Save As command to save it as a compressed JPEG
(extension .jpg) file.
The
easiest way to get rid of redundant entries in the Add/Remove Programs in
Control Panel is to use a Microsoft program called Tweak UI, which is part of
the PowerToys suite of utilities. If you are using Windows 95 it can be
downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows95/downloads/
contents/WUToys/W95PwrToysSet/Default.asp
Windows
98 users will find PowerToys on the CD-ROM; it's in Tools/Reskit. Full
instructions are included in the Readme.txt file. Incidentally, F!F!F! is on
the Internet, it's in the Connected section of The Electronic Telegraph web
site at www.telegraph.co.uk/connected.
Just fill out the registration form (it's all free) and you can search the
archives.
LAP
OF LUXURY
Could you please tell me the easiest way to download data from one PC to another. I am thinking of getting a new system and would like to be able to transfer a large number of files to the new PC, perhaps even to use it for occasional backups. I don't possess a Zip drive but wonder if something like LapLink could be used with an appropriate connecting lead? Speed of
transfer is not a crucial factor.
David
Aston,
A
If
you enjoy a challenge try the Direct Cable Connection utility in Windows 95 and
98, all you need is a suitable Parallel datalink/LapLink cable. We covered this
topic in some detail in Boot Camp 68, it's in the Connected archives on the
Electronic Telegraph web site (see above). Once set up it works well; programs
like LapLink are easier to use but they can be quite expensive.
FATTER
FLOPPIES
Using
a family history program called Generations by Sierra, if you have more than say 4000 entries, then the program cannot save that file, as there is too much for one floppy disc. I have a yield-mapping program for my farm,
which copes with this by storing data on as many floppies as required. It tells you that a disc is full and to load another. I have tried dragging the file and
dropping it into the floppy, with Explorer but I get the same response "
you need a larger capacity disc". Is there a way round this other than a
CD writer, or emailing it to a friend with a CD writer?
Peter
Sheardown.
A
You
can't modify the program's disc handling features so eventually you will have
to invest in some kind of high capacity storage system, however, you can almost
double the capacity of a standard floppy using the disc compression program in
Windows. Right click the floppy disc icon in My Computer, select Properties,
then the Compression tab. The only point to watch out for is that you may find
the compressed disc can only be read on the machine it was created.
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