Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2014 July 10

= July 10 =

print something that can't be scanned
I've seen a document that can't be successfully scanned or photocopied. Is there an easy way to print something (at home) that can't be scanned or photocopied? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 05:44, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * The paper, here, won't copy correctly. This paper, here , erases itself after 16-24 hours (not sure exactly what you need this for, thought I'd mention it). This typeface, here , claims that it will mess up OCR (again, not knowing the need, this may be something to look at).Phoenixia1177 (talk) 07:34, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Another way would be to use a very light color, like yellow on a white background. StuRat (talk) 15:26, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks to both of you. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 17:02, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

With the first paper. with the "void"s going diagonally, does that cover up black text well enough that a person can't read it? Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 20:33, 10 July 2014 (UTC)
 * My understanding is that the 'void's will make it more difficult, but not impossible to read the text. Think of tamper resistance, compared to tamper-evident packaging. The former resists entry, while the latter just makes it apparent. In the case of paper documents, if someone can photocopy the original, they can presumably also read the original (or even re-type it, etc). The point is not so much to prevent copying, but to prevent a copy as being passed as the original, by making it evident that it is a copy (I also wonder if the 'void' markings would show up if someone took a photo of the page...) SemanticMantis (talk) 21:04, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 17:41, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Some graphic designers and print editors use "non-repro blue" (aka 'non-photo blue') ink pens for making margin notes etc. but i'm not sure if it's a special ink, or just the certain color which photocopiers can't read well... nonetheless i think you might be able to achieve a similar effect with normal inkjet/laserjet, using certain shade(s) of light blue. And you may know this already: any capable photoshop pro can get around most deterrents like this or the others mentioned above. If you're talking about protecting images (e.g. minimizing potential of unwanted reporduction), I suggest reducing the image's resolution. i do this with some photos i post online. El duderino (abides) 21:05, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Win 7 Windows Explorer wildcard search by file name
FWIW, I hate the Windows 7 file searching facility. Everything it does is awkward or not possible.

I have many folders full with mostly numeric filenames, eg 123-4567-8.pdf. I have discovered the name: tag and can search for "name: 123-45" or "name: 123-45??", both of which work. A few of the files also have a couple of extra characters, eg 123-4567AB-8.pdf, and both "name: 123-45??AB" and "name: 123-45??AB*.*" find no files.

If I shift-rightclick the folder and type into the command line "dir /s 123-45??AB*.*" it lists the files, so they are there.

How can I find such files?

BTW, in an idea world I'd just type "AB" and it would return all files whose names include the sub-string "AB", but that is an unachievable desire!

-- SGBailey (talk) 08:54, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * I hate the search too. I use an alternative search, Super Finder XT (if I want a gui) or more usually Cygwin find and/or grep --TrogWoolley (talk) 13:41, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * I recommend FileLocator from Mythicsoft. There's a free "lite" version and/or you can try the full "pro" version for 30 days. I just checked and even the lite version will if you  as the search criteria. Ie "AB" is interpreted as *AB*.*. You can do specific wildcard searches as well, if you need to. Mitch Ames (talk) 08:40, 13 July 2014 (UTC)

Creating images automatically with information from an Excell document
I need to create some graphics for display on monitors hanging in our factory. They need to be automatically generated from Excell files at regular intervals. What I need is some method of automatically putting Excell data into a graphic form. I've never seen anything that can do this, and I'm hoping one of you has a suggestion for me. Thanks in advance. Zzubnik (talk) 21:25, 10 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Can you specify what you mean by "graphic form" ? Pie charts, bar graphs, etc. ?  Also, are you a computer programmer ?  Here's an outline of the steps needed:


 * 1) Keep a background job running running continuously (you might need to restart it, manually or automatically, if it crashes or the system is rebooted, but an automatic restart could potentially crash the system). At the specified interval, it will do the following:


 * 2) Export data from Excel in a usable form, such a CSV file.


 * 3) Kick off a program to read that data, convert it to whatever type of graphic form you want, then save it as a file.


 * 4) Kick off a program to distribute that file to the computers hooked up to the displays, and display it on them, or, if they all have access to the same directory, store it there and have them all display from the same file (although this might cause a file contention issue, so you might want to stagger the intervals at which each monitor updates it's display).


 * Something else you might want to consider is screen screen burn-in. That is, with certain display technologies, displaying the same thing on a screen continuously will degrade the display.  So, for example, if the X and Y axis on a graph are always the same, those may be burnt into the screen at some point.  To reduce this, you might want to draw them at slightly different locations each time, by offsetting the entire image a bit in the X and Y direction with each run.  StuRat (talk) 13:33, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi StuRat, and thanks for the input. These are pretty much the steps I was envisioning. What I lack is the software that can take in data (excell, CVS, etc) and render it to a graphic. The software would be scheduled to re-create the graphic at specific intervals, and would be saved at a central location, which the various PC's driving the screens would be connected to.


 * I've got a half-way solution involving two spreadsheets and a macro in Powerpoint sucking in the data as an embedded object, but I can't format the text in the way I'd like to yet.


 * I used to be a programmer, so I am capable of light programming. If I had time, I'd knock something together in VB or similar. I'm going to have a re-think over the weekend. Thanks again for the help. Zzubnik (talk) 14:31, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Can't this be done in Excel itself with VBA? -- SGBailey (talk) 14:58, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Quite possibly, but I'm not so good with VBA in Excell. I will do some research over the weekend. Thanks for the suggestion. Zzubnik (talk) 15:09, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * I would do this with gnuplot or packages for the R_(programming language), or perhaps NumPy depending on what I needed to display. The type of images/charts/graphs etc that you want may dictate the most convenient tool, as will the other tools that you are already familiar with. E.g. if you are already familiar with R, that's the best bet. SemanticMantis (talk) 15:59, 11 July 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure I understand the question. Excel itself has plotting functions that allow you to create graphs of a spreadsheet that update automatically when the data in the spreadsheet changes.  If those aren't sufficient (they're kind of primitive), you can get add-ons such as SigmaPlot that give you greatly enhanced graphing capabilities. Looie496 (talk) 21:21, 11 July 2014 (UTC)