Ask away
I know you don't normally deal with general queries, but..." wrote Bill Garner. Pardon? Of course I deal with general queries, but few people send me any. This column is based on answering queries from real people. The only other principle is that I try to cover things that will help a significant number of people, rather than those specific to one machine.
If a question is answered in print, it's a safe bet that several people have asked similar questions. This tips the balance towards the most commonly used software, particularly Microsoft's Outlook Express, and I make no apology for that.
There's no point running a reader service that ignores readers' needs. But it would be nice to have more variety. Last week, the numbering of emails in the Ask Jack folder went over the 10,000 mark and I've decided to archive the whole lot and start again. This is bad news for readers who wrote towards the end of December, when I was on holiday but, I hope, good news for everyone else.
I still have a file of already answered questions waiting for space, but new ones are welcome. As long as the topic is digital, you can be as general as you like.
Jack Schofield
Sound tracks
Music copied from CD to hard disk using Windows XP is saved in a WMA (Windows Media Audio) sound format. My video editing software, Adobe Premiere, will only accept the AVI, MOV, AIFF and WAV formats, and will not do the conversion. Tony Thompson
JS: When it comes to "ripping" CDs to the hard drive, the obvious formats to choose are MP3 and WAV (waveform audio, developed by Microsoft). On principle I would try to avoid proprietary formats such as WMA and Sony's ATRAC. (MP3 is not free either but, like Windows, it is ubiquitous.) You can buy a plug-in that adds MP3 encoding capability to XP's Windows Media Player.
However, why not use a free program to rip CDs? There are many options, including CDex, which you can download from http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/download.php. CDex will rip to MP3 or WAV. When it comes to adding sound to video, I would expect most software to support both formats. I am surprised to hear that Adobe Premier does not support MP3, which is part of the Moving Picture Experts Group standards committee's MPEG-1 format.
However, many programs will convert files between audio file formats, including CoolEdit 2000, Goldwave and Audio Converter.
Shareware Music Machine has a huge list of software for Windows at www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95, and also has sections for Atari, Linux, Mac and other platforms. For a good guide to video tools, see www.vcdhelp.com/tools.htm.
Playing it
I have deleted Winamp but it seems to have hi-jacked certain types of video file, calling them Winamp Media Files. It won't allow me to play them in Windows Media Player. Nick Botfield
JS: "Winamp Media Files" are MP3 files. Go to Windows Explorer, select Tools|Folder Options, and click on the File Types tab. Scroll down to the file format you want to change - MP3, AVI, WMV etc - and see which program has been designated to open files of that type. It should say Windows Media Player. If not you can change it by clicking the Change button, then selecting the program you would prefer to use. You should have two versions of Windows Media Player available. One is shown by a triangle inside a circle (the latest version) and the other by a clapperboard.
That is the old WMP 6.4 ((MPLAYER2. EXE). If there is no Change button, delete the entry for the file format and close the dialog box. Next, double-click a file of that type, and Windows will ask you which program to use to run it. If you cannot see the three letter file extension that shows the file type, go back to Windows Explorer|Tools|Folder Options, and click the View tab. Untick the box that says: Hide file extensions for known file types and click OK to finish.
Picture it
I am interested in upgrading my PC so I can get started with photo imaging. I have been unable to find any reliable guide that will tell me the minimum/ desirable processing specification needed. Roy Sturmy
JS: There is no minimum processing requirement for photo imaging: you can do it on almost anything. It is just that on an old or slow machine, it may take a long time. It really depends on the size of your images, and what you want to do with them. Any PC, Mac or similar computer should have no problems handling small images (up to 250K), but manipulating multimegabyte files in a heavyweight program such as Adobe PhotoShop needs a fast processor and, especially, lots of memory. Professionals often go for 1GB of RAM.
Here are some comparison speed tests that may help: http://masl.to/?Z54B21A23. These show that even today's cheap PCs, with 1.7GHz or faster Pentium 4 chips, perform at professional levels if given enough memory. A fast graphics card with, for example, a GeForce 3 or 4 Ti or Radeon 9000, 9500 or 9700 processor would also be a big help.
Backchat
* Peter Wood asked about typing type French accents in Outlook Express. Last week, readers responded with numerous additions and alternatives to my suggested keystroke approach. Steve James adds that you can use a UK keyboard with a foreign language setting if you know where the keys are. If you don't know, there are images at www.sussex.ac.uk/USCS/Facilities/PC/Keyboards.
* Dudley Turner asked about recycling his old PC. Julian Davey complains that on the Tools for Schools website, supported by the Guardian, "the form for donations is set up for a corporate donor, not an individual, and imposes a charge if fewer than 20 computers are donated at one time". Norman Chapman advertised his ancient Amstrad in Simsbury's as a giveaway and had two applicants. Tammy Dickinson from the London Community Recycling Network in Bethnal Green says they recycle almost anything.
