Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 January 21

= January 21 =

Finding specific Wikimarkup
Many people on Wikipedia use relative image sizing of thumbnails to respect logged-in registered user's preferences where they have bothered to set them.

Unfortunately, over at our sister project Wikivoyage the discussion about introducing this image syntax seems to have both been sidelined and stalled.

I'm trying to find occurrences of "|upright=" within 20 characters of "thumb" so that I can see the earliest use of relative image sizing of thumbnails in a Wikivoyage article to bolster the case for introducing this syntax more widely there. Does anyone know of a tool or simple method I could use to search with, please? --118.93nzp (talk) 04:23, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * You could download the complete edit history of every article and search it locally. The file is only 320 MB compressed, but expands to 65 GB, so you might be limited in the tools you can use. Here's a short Python 2.x program that will search for approximately what you're looking for.


 * You would use it like this:

7z x -so enwikivoyage-20140117-pages-meta-history.xml.7z | python find_thumb_upright.py
 * -- BenRG (talk) 08:54, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * One can alternatively use more elegant tools. → Σ σ  ς . (Sigma) 09:53, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Excel's incredibly annoying bounces to next page
I have been using Excel for years. I know lots about how to use it in complicated fashions but one thing I have never been able to find a solution for is that Excel is constantly bouncing me to the next page. What happens constantly is that any fast flick of the mouse (without any clicks) constantly pushes the page view to the next page over (to the right, without the cursor moving from where it was. It is consistent and always annoying and happens in no other program I know of. Please understand that this is consistent across different mac platforms with both regular and magic mice, as well as multiple PCs over the years with different mice, as well as a few different generations of Excel. Does anyone recognize what I a talking about and know of any fix?--71.167.166.18 (talk) 15:30, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * I've noticed something perhaps related in MS Word. I try to scroll down on a page so the part I want to read (the bottom of the page) is at the center of the screen, but doing so causes it to skip to the next page.  They don't seem to allow the bottom of the page to be on the center of the screen.  Not sure if Word still does this, as I don't use it very often. StuRat (talk) 22:22, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * In Excel 2007 for Windows, having the view on "Page Layout" (office bar, View category) produces this effect. You can either select "Normal" (right next to "Page Layout"), or click the area between the two pages (it is blue for me, and causes the cursor to change to two rectangles). -- 140.202.10.134 (talk) 18:22, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Test if Excel file is open using VBA
One of my VBA programs opens an Excel spreadsheet selected by the user. I want to see if the spreadsheet is already open, but all the online code examples use "On Error Resume Next", which I really don't want to use. Is there any other way to do this, short of writing an external COM function? Thanks! OldTimeNESter (talk) 15:55, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * You can do this by looping through the open Workbooks with a For Each loop:

Dim wb As Workbook, isOpen As Boolean isOpen = False ' not strictly necessary but adds clarity For Each wb In Workbooks If LCase(wb.Name) = "filename.xlsx" Then isOpen = True Exit For ' don't bother checking any more once we find it    End If Next One point to be wary of is the possibility that the workbook you want is not open, but another one of the same name (but in a different folder) is. You can check for this using the Workbook's FullName property. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 16:09, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, that is a good solution. Do you know if the loop will raise an error if the Workbooks collection is empty (that is, if Excel isn't open?).  My program opens the spreadsheet from Word as an Excel.Application object, so I don't necessarily expect Excel to be running. OldTimeNESter (talk) 18:41, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

Requesting "Even-Less-Than-Beginner's-Guide to an Old Scanner"
I didn't want to bug you with this, but the internet has not provided me with instructions at the basic level I need.

I have an old PC425 scanner from Canon and I guess I don't have much experience with really old scanners, because I cannot extrapolate how to make this thing even scan. Where does the paper go? Unlike the linked picture, mine is missing the two blue extensions on either side, so it's just box-shaped. Does that mean its unusable without buying further parts? 50.43.130.15 (talk) 16:49, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * From the picture, it looks like there is a hinged lid, so you would lift the lid and put the paper on the glass.   I tried a quick lookiat canon.com but could not find a PC425 copier model.  If you're more persistent you might be able to find info there.  RudolfRed (talk) 19:27, 21 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Ah! Wow, I'm staring at it, going "hinged lid? Where's the hinged lid he's talking about?" and my ten-year old daughter just opens it. Thanks to the both of you, I've figured everything else out. This question can be marked as resolved. 50.43.130.15 (talk) 21:25, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

StuRat (talk) 22:18, 21 January 2014 (UTC)