Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2010 March 6

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March 6

Retaining fonts across Word Documents

I am constantly writing documents using Microsoft Word Version 12.1.5 (081119) on an IMAC, and I am constantly copying text from one word document and and pasting it into another. The pasted text often does not retain the font the document I copy it from, despite that both word documents are in the same font. To illustrate, I'll grab a few paragraphs from one word document that is in Times 14, paste into another word document also in Times 14, but the text pastes as [[|Courier (typeface)|Courier]] 14. The size seems to retain but the font does not. Weirder to me still, sometimes it pastes in one font and sometimes in another, and sometimes there's no problem; the font will be the same. Anyone have a fix?--173.68.39.77 (talk) 01:25, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

One thought is that the Word docs really have hidden tags in them which set the font and size. When you cut, you may or may not include those hidden tags. If not, they likely default to whatever tags were in the target doc where you pasted it in. I'd try putting maybe 1 character with a different font and size before and after the text to copy, then cut and past the whole thing. Hopefully, the size and font of the two filler characters would be messed up, but the text in between would have all the tags it needs and display correctly. (If they don't use closing tags, perhaps you only need the leading filler character.) Let us know if this works.

I think there may also be a way to display Word docs with all the tags shown, but that wouldn't necessarily help, since the tags you need to copy might be far before the text you want. StuRat (talk) 03:28, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Try this: When ready to past right click where you want to past and hit 'paste special'. Or choose 'edit' from the menu and choose 'paste special' there should be an option in there somewhere that would allow you too choose to keep the source's formatting. Hope this helps. – 

Elliott(Talk|Cont)  09:21, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I believe that Word pastes text keeping the same Style setting in the new document as was used in the old. So if Normal paragraph formatting in the old document is Times and in the new is Courier, it will change Times to Courier. Try modifying the Styles so they match. --Phil Holmes (talk) 11:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

When I do a lot of pasting across documents or from the web, I map Paste Special onto Shift+Control+V, so that I can use it just about as fast as I use the regular Paste command. (There's something else by default mapped onto Shift+Control+V but it's not something I ever used, if I recall.) One of the more annoying things about Word is that it is exceptionally bad at things like this (9 times out of 10 a user more likely wants pasted content to pick up the style of where it is pasted, not to carry the style of its original position). The only downside of Paste Special is that you lose all formatting so bold/italics need to be re-keyed. --Mr.98 (talk) 04:34, 11 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikis and Version Control Software

Most wikis have some sort of version control, but, for example, MediaWiki apparently "rolls its own" version control, rather than going through (external) revision control system. Is it possible to set MediaWiki up to use an external revision control repository (like svn), or are there other (potentially MediaWiki-like) wiki systems which can use an external revision control system? (Rationale: I'd like to be able to easily synchronize the contents of an existent svn repository with a wiki - e.g. so I can easily say "this was the state of the wiki when the state of the repository was this") -- 174.21.226.184 (talk) 04:25, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

JAMWiki —Preceding unsigned comment added by VCRVLC1010 (talk • contribs) 17:25, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Nothing I saw on the JAMWiki website indicates that it can be integrated with an external revision control system like Subversion or Git. From what I read, it uses the same "purpose-built (internal) version control schema stored in an SQL relational database" system that MediaWiki uses. -- 174.21.226.184 (talk) 19:42, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Q: Java bytecode from same USB-flash-disk on various OSs?

If I have a program (text editor, web-browser, audio/video viewer etc.) that is stored as Java bytecode on a USB-flash-disk. Is it possible to use it, that same instance of the program (including all of my user-set preferences, my saved macros, templates and work files), under both Windows and Linux?

I would be moving unpredictably back and forth between multiple workstations. I would have no administrative privileges and no possiblility to make any permanent changes, or make any preparations before, or do any local storage between each work session.

The operating systems would be varying types and versions of Windows and Linux, whith only one thing in common, namely that they all would have installed some Java Runtime Environment (Or is it a JavaVirtualMachine ?).

In other words: Could Java and a USB-flash-disk, combined with kind people who let me use their computer, be a possible solution to my no-budget portable need-for-computing problem?
--Seren-dipper (talk) 04:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Would it be possible to make a shortcut that opens the program and points it to a (INI?) file containing a predetermined set of parameters? Or, how about installing a portable visualization program like virtualBox on your flash drive for both windows and Linux, having it point to the same virtual hard drive enabling you to run your own OS containing your own programs. I apologize if i was not helpful, i am not a programmer, merely a lonely SH script-kiddie. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  08:01, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I can't think why it wouldn't work (ie it definately should) - after all that is one of the key ideas behind java. (that a java .class file works on all machines with a JRE). The primary issue I can think of is not a java problem - having a disk structure (ie File system) that can be read from all the different machines - someone else should be able to give advice on this point.Shortfatlad (talk) 10:41, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

(I don't think a 'universal file system' exists as yet (Boo!), Formatting the USB as NTFS looks like a good bet for cross compatability (except Mac which would need some extra software installed).)Shortfatlad (talk) 10:48, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

If compatibility over different operating systems is required, you should definitely go with FAT32, which is supported on basically everything (if you buy a usb-stick, it almost always comes preformatted with FAT32). The one big limitation on FAT32 is that your files have to be smaller than 4 gigabytes, but if we're talking about java bytecodes, that shouldn't be a problem. Belisarius (talk) 15:21, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

(There are also issues if the programmer has used system specific paths - rather than infering the paths from java operations - I'd assume this hasn't happened though)Shortfatlad (talk) 11:31, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

force higher resolution in ubuntu

Okay, what i am really asking is if i can make my entire desktop smaller, as if i was on a computer screen that supports a higher resolution. I want the mouse curser, programs, menus, desktop icons and everything to be smaller. Is there any way to do this?

I am running a dell latitude D610 with 2g ram, ubuntu installed as 9.04 and upgraded to 9.10. and i am running at the highest supported resolution (1024x768) on this laptops standard 14" display. Thanks. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  08:27, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

To try to fiddle with the screen resolution see testing different resolutions Shortfatlad (talk) 11:11, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm thinking that 1024×768 is the physical maximum on a typical 14 inch LCD screen, meaning that's how many pixels it has. However, there still might be some things you can do:

1) Attach a larger external monitor. Windows supports this, but I don't know if Ubuntu does.

2) There is some Windows software which allows a "virtual screen", where the resolution is higher than the screen supports, but you only see part of the screen at a time. As you move the mouse around, the screen pans to show that part. I'm not sure if Ubuntu supports this, either. I've also noticed a "feature" with my Windows 98 laptop, that you get this behavior automatically after you disconnect a larger external monitor.

3) There may be options to change the sizes of specific items, like icons and pointers, as there are under Windows. StuRat (talk) 14:46, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately the location of my laptop prevents me from attaching any external monitors. I have been able to utilize the 'zoom' feature of my web browser to mimic the effects of a higher resolution. Is there a way to do the same thing to the rest of my OS? – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  19:55, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

[1] suggests 'windows' key plus mouse scroll wheel - for a permanent solution I think you should look at the ubuntu site if you don't get an answer here.87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:08, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

In windows the setting you'd use to change this is "screen DPI" - searching for "Ubuntu DPI setting" seems to give possibly useful results - I'm sure this is what you really need - eg [2] it's an Xwindows setting you need to change for sure.

I'd follow that last link I gave you. Altering the Xwindows settings is just editing a text file, whether it works (fingers crossed) or even if there's a wizard that does this for you is something I don't know.87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:15, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Java

Did old computers have a version of java different from the current supplier, made by an entirely different company? Why? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Arblottion (talk • contribs) 11:07, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Windows machines used to have Microsoft Java Virtual Machine now you need to download Sun's Java for windows if you want it. For the reasons why read the article.

It's also quite likely that Windows PCs from different manufacturers come preinstalled with different versions of java - eg versions from IBM for IBM manufactured machines. There probably are other examples too.Shortfatlad (talk) 11:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

right click taskbar

I'm often wanting to "minimize all windows", so right clik on the taskbar, but then accidentally click "cascade windows" or "tile windows horizontally" or "tile windows verticaly". This is complete pain in the arse. I don't ever use any of these options, and can't see why anyone would. Can I therefore remove them from the right click so i don't accidentally click them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.188.93 (talk) 12:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know of any way to remove those options, but since Windows XP you can press the Windows-Key + "D" to minimise everything to the desktop (and press everything again to get it back). Hope this is of some help? ZX81 ^talk 13:16, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

And if you prefer to use your mouse (rather than your left hand), you can use the "Show Desktop" shortcut on the taskbar. Dbfirs 14:01, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Please notice that there is a difference between Win+D (show desktop) and Win+M (minimize all windows). --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 14:12, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

As for why anyone would use the "tile windows" options, I have been using them quite extensively this weekend for comparing the contents of an excel spreadsheet with the results from a web-based genome analysis tool. I agree that they are only useful if you have quite a large monitor though. 131.111.185.68 (talk) 13:14, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Windows 7's snap feature is great. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:48, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Deepblue?

How many more times faster is the worlds most powerful computer compared with the computers you can buy in the shops? —Preceding unsigned comment added by W359 (talk • contribs) 13:51, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

So the worlds most powerful supercomputer is IBM Roadrunner @ >1 petaflop (10^15flops) performance , a typical home comupter CPU gets around 8 gigaflops (10^9 flops) per core , using a high end home PC (core i7) would give about 70 GFlops the difference as a ratio is ~10^15/7x10^10 = over 10,000 times faster. If you use the GPU in a home PC that can be around 1TFlop making the supercomputer only 1000 times faster by just comparing numbers.87.102.67.84 (talk) 15:04, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

On the other hand, Deep blue, now 13 years old, was getting 11.4 gigaflops, comparable to a modern PC. Buddy431 (talk) 19:44, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

If you think of the BOINC grid as one computer (which is not too unfair, as supercomputers are made up of lots of smaller nodes themselves), it averages 4.6 petaflops (according to FLOPS). (The BOINC grid is made up of the spare computing power of lots of personal computers.) Note that gloating point operations per second (the metric we've been talking about) has very little to do with computer speed, as we perceive it while using computers. That is more a function of the size of the various parts of the memory hierarchy (cache, RAM, etc.), and the bandwidth between those parts. Paul Stansifer 21:29, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

"gloating point" - is that intentional or freudian? - I like it anyway and will use it in future. 87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:40, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

CDROMS

Are CDs outdated? Everything is on DVD and blu ray now. Have they gone the way of the floppy disk? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jainanie (talk • contribs) 17:04, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

No, music is still sold on CDs, and computer applications and documents are still distributed on CDs. In many, many cases the capacity of a DVD is far more than is necessary for the application. Currently I distribute a software application on CDs. I only use 20 MB of the 750 MB available on the CD... In addition, all (as good as) DVD and Blue-Ray players can read (and write to) ordinary CDs. Also, it would be a small catastrophe if we were no longer able to read all millions of CDs produced during the last 30 years or so. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 17:39, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Replacing text in text editor.

Hi, I have a webpage with a gallery of images and I want to edit the HTML so that I can have the images open full-size in a new window. I know the HTML to do that but I have 83 images and I don't want to have to replace the code on each line, as obviously each line has a different image filename and that would be tedious. Each line looks like like this:

<p style="text-align: center"><a href="large.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="whatever/p1010327.jpg" border="0" width="100%" /></a></p>

The whole page is lines like that, but of course with differing image filenames.

Is there any way I can replace (in this line, for example) 'large.jpg' with 'p1010327.jpg' for the whole document quickly? I am using TextWrangler on a Mac so I can use PCRE (Perl-Compatible Regular Expression) - I think this may be the best way to do it but I have no experience with PERL or regular expressions. Can anyone advise? Cheers, Joe^Talk_Work 18:49, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Yeah it's easy, replace <a href="*.jpg with p1010327.jpg. Note the "*" also known as a wildcard, it tells the replace function to take any value between the " and .jpg. —Preceding unsigned comment added by FireSkys888 (talk • contribs) 19:52, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, I've already worked out to do that, but I want to do it for multiple lines at once. So in the line above the filename is p1010327.jpg but on the next line it could be p1010328.jpg (in fact they are mostly not consecutive). I need (I think) an expression that will do what you, FireSkys888, have suggested, taking the filename from the 'img' tag and put it into the 'a' tag, for every line of 83 at once. To be honest I don't know if it's possible to do multiple lines at once but just thought I'd ask. Cheers, Joe^Talk_Work 20:50, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Yes it's possible with regex - but I'm buggered if I can give you the expression - perhaps someother kind soul will?

Any good at python (or similar language)? - if so why not try using that to scan your text line by line and do the replace. Probably easier than learnin regular expressions. :) 87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:20, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

If it allows your replace to do wildcards, see if this works: a href="(.+?)(" .+?img src=")(.+?)" replaced with a href="$3$2$3 Shadowjams (talk) 21:19, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

A seemingly obvious alternative would be to use javascript to create the html in situ - then all you need is a list (array) of the image names, a for next loop and some document.write("bla ...</blah>...etc... "+... ) - is that an option?87.102.67.84 (talk) 21:32, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know any programming languages so I don't think javascript is an option. I will try Shadowjams' suggestion as I can try that out in the editor. Cheers, Joe^Talk_Work 22:00, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Altering the appearance of Firefox tabs

Resolved

 – decltype (talk) 00:01, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

What would be the easiest way to alter the appearance of Firefox tabs based on the address or page heading (programmatically, if need be). I want to be able to more easily distinguish between tabs for different language versions of Wikipedia. For example, changing the background color of the English Wikipedia tab to blue, Norwegian to red, and Swedish to yellow. Thanks, decltype (talk) 19:10, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The extension engine's probably going to be the easiest. I've never done it myself, but the documentation is here. Here is some documentation about the skin engine which supports javascript and some other ways to make the skin dynamic to the content. Of course, ideally you'd find someone who already did all of this. I don't know if this would do what you want (I'm not recommending that app either; I've never used it myself). Shadowjams (talk) 21:10, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

There are several addons which do what you want, see here —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartender, bloodwine! (talk • contribs) 22:25, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, both. Found an addon, "ColorfulTabs", that seems capable of doing exactly what I want. decltype (talk) 00:01, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Information Request

A friend of mine said a disk exploded in his computer, and the manufacturer said that old disks can't withstand the speed computer drives spin them at. How can you find out if a disk is likely to be at risk of this before you use it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dalcone (talk • contribs) 19:14, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

The disc packaging will say something like "4x" or "10x" or "40x" which is the multiple of the standard read speed it can be used at - above this speed the disc may shatter. The disc drive will also have a similar figure somewhere on it, or in the instructions - so you can tell what speed it will go up to.87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:52, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

more info here CD-ROM#Standard 87.102.67.84 (talk) 20:54, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I had never heard of a disc "exploding". The Wikipedia article link that 87 provided says that they could shatter if they already have cracks or other damage; so to answer your question, I think the answer is "if it is cracked or otherwise damaged, it's of risk of getting damaged further." Comet Tuttle (talk) 00:40, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

@200 revolutions per second the outside is doing 24pi m/s (80m/s?) - that's over 250km/h (160mph) - so if it breaks - I think it would be quite exciting ! 87.102.67.84 (talk) 02:01, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Are we talking about CDs/DVDs ? StuRat (talk) 05:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

The Mythbusters tested this. See this page for more information. 217.43.163.165 (talk) 08:23, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Back in the nineties when CD-R drives were a new thing we found (at a store here in Poland) a batch of Chinese brand X CD-R discs which actually did shatter when spun for the first time in the drive - they turned into something like powder and fragments. But that was something like fifteen years ago. --Ouro (blah blah) 10:17, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Custom XML Functionality Restoration Plugin for Word 2007

Is there a (freeware) non-i4i plugin somewhere for Word 2007 that I can use to restore "custom XML" functionality to Word 2007? --Melab±1 ☎ 21:11, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

I don't know, but OpenOffice has this feature, and it's free. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartender, bloodwine! (talk • contribs) 22:22, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Vista (only!) computer not connecting to internet....

From time to time (not very often), my wireless-connected Vista laptop suddenly disconnects from the internet ('local' only), and won't reconnect for quite a while. I've performed the diagnostics and it blames my router, however it cannot possibly be my router's fault because, at the time of writing, the problem is still here and I am writing this thread from my Ubuntu laptop, my brother is in the other room on his XP desktop, and my mum is using her XP laptop upstairs. Even though the Vista computer says it is connected to the local network only (via wi-fi), in actual fact it is not, because it cannot access any of the other computers on this network and vice-versa. Does anyone know what should be done? --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 22:43, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Are you networked wirelessly or via cables? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bartender, bloodwine! (talk • contribs) 22:47, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

OP edited his question after I asked.

I actually get the same thing with a wired connection, and other than rebooting my router or waiting fifteen minutes or so, nothing seems to help (including rebooting the vista machines and ipconfig /release or /renew). —Korath (Talk) 00:19, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Well, actually, after rebooting the machine so much I'll be needing new steel toecaps, I rebooted the modem to see what would happen, and hey presto, everything is fine and back to normal. Defies logic to me. --KägeTorä - (影虎) (TALK) 00:22, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Routers do seem to do odd things like this. Mine quite often stops me accessing the BBC homepage, whilst allowing everything else through perfectly. Turn it off and on again and all is well. --Phil Holmes (talk) 11:09, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

educational learning games

I have searched for 3d educational science learning serious games. But I found only some suitable games as "immune attack". How can i get and download such games free .Can any body guide me . True path finder (talk) 22:58, 6 March 2010 (UTC)

Search download.cnet.com, they have lots of free games. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ApplePie456 (talk • contribs) 11:35, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia has a list of free games, have a look at that. – Elliott(Talk|Cont)  00:20, 8 March 2010 (UTC)