Snap time
I need a digital camera suitable for copying documents, such as pages from books that cannot be scanned. What sort of specification should I be looking for? Paul Breeze

Jack Schofield replies:
Digital cameras can be used for all sorts of close-range subjects if you can get them into a position where they are quite brightly but evenly lit, and the camera focuses close enough. Look for a three megapixel or better model with a good quality lens (poor ones distort the image) and a "macro" close-focusing mode. If you need to photograph a lot of pages, it is best to mount the camera on a mini-tripod or copy stand and take pictures using the self-timer or a cable release, to avoid camera shake. In that case, the camera should have a tripod bush and cable-release socket, and preferably manual exposure adjustment.

If the subject is not fairly well lit then you will need to light it, and on- camera flash probably is not going to work very well: it will produce the wrong kind of "hot spot". If possible, use a copy stand with arms for lights, or an off-camera flash (or two) with a large white card reflector or bounce-board. In that case, add a flash socket and manual flash control to the spec. Some of my fellow members of the Sharp-L (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing) mailing list also like cameras with rotating bodies, such as the Nikon Coolpix 4500: you can have the lens pointing down while the screen remains vertical. Mike Kelly from New York University uses his Kodak camera's time-lapse setting to take pictures every two minutes: "That's plenty of time for me to turn to the next page and leaves both hands free for handling the book." For help with lighting, see if your library can find a copy of Edward S Bomback's Manual of Photographic Lighting.

Print it
Is there any software that will enable me to print more than one photo on an A4 sheet of paper? Reg Jenkins

JS: This feature is built into Windows XP, and the Photo Printing Wizard will automatically rotate and crop pictures to fit a chosen layout. Graphics programs such as Paint Shop Pro can also do it, as will some of the software provided with cameras. However, you may get better results using a picture printing utility, which may do lots of other things, too. Examples for Windows include ACD FotoSlate 3.0, PrintStation, Qimage, PixPrint, Easy JPEG Printer (freeware), and PixPhotoLab - see links above. Finally, in Microsoft Word, you could use Insert Table to create a grid, then double click each cell and select Insert|Picture|From File.

Out Googled
As much as I love Google, it is becoming more and more a place for advertisers to get their product or service to the head of the queue. Is there any way to eliminate particular websites so that the search is not just a means of advertising for the company that paid the most bucks? David Dollman

JS: Google does not offer paid placements so the searches are real, it is just that too many companies have found ways to distort the results. You can usually block a site by putting it in the search box with a minus sign in front of its name, eg -kelkoo. Queries are limited to 10 words so you cannot block all of them. I have found that using -cheap -bargain removes a lot of Google-spammers, but I may be missing some cheap bargains as a result.

Shred it
The home page on my browser has been hijacked, to Lucky-Search. I tried removing it with HiJackThis but it always comes back. Francis Middleton

JS: You need to run CWShredder.

Backchat

· Kathryn Hampson asked for advice on how to store photos from a CompactFlash card while on a long trip, and I suggested the Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 with CompactFlash adaptor. Frances Allen had the same need, found Vosonic's X'S-Drive on the web, and would like to know if anyone has tried it. It supports Compact Flash, SmartMedia and Secure Digital (SD) cards, MultiMediaCards, and Memory Sticks.

· Martin Pratt wanted a way of getting RSS syndicated news feeds via Microsoft Outlook. I suggested NewsGator, and would now add IntraVnews, which is new, and free for personal use. Peter Lunnon says: "A free alternative product that may be of interest is PopHeadlines, which pulls in the RSS feeds and then delivers them to the mail client of your choice. It requires Windows 2000/XP to run, but it can accept connections from other machines, so you can also use it to pick up feeds on non-Windows PCs."

Roger Miller and Ian Winship suggested the Bloglines website. Ian adds: "The enquirer might also want to be aware of the existing engineering feeds at EEVL.