Getting Text into your Computer
Preparation of text for use in Digital Philatelic Studies is a must. With prepared text as your building blocks, the assembly of your work will go a lot smoother and result in a much more presentable DPS.
Word Entry
Most text is put into digital format by typing it into a computer using a word processing program like Microsoft (MS) Word. There are two additional ways to get your text into digital format: scanning typewritten or printed pages and subsequently using optical character recognition (OCR) software to convert the scan into text or by dictation using voice recognition software.
We’ll stick with a word processing program, ‘MS Word’ for this exercise, as that’s what most people will be using. Three major reasons for using word processors are their spelling, thesaurus and grammar checking functions. Once you have your text entered into your word processor, use these tools to ensure your text is as correct as you can manage.
Word Tools
If your word processing program doesn’t know a specific word, look it up in a dictionary before pressing the ‘add to dictionary’ button. Once you’ve added a misspelled word, it will continue to accept the misspelling until you edit the ‘user dictionary’ of your program.
In addition to spell check, the thesaurus can be a very effective tool in your arsenal of word processing functions. Ever get stuck for just the right word? Enter a word you might use and see what turns up – it’s often the word you had on the tip of your tongue but couldn’t remember.
Grammar checking is another standard function that may prove valuable. Leaving grammar check active during your text input will point out things the computer believes may be wrong word usage. You can ignore it of course, but it often makes suggestions you should think about.
Text should be double-checked for spelling or grammar mistakes and saved in the proper format – before being inserted into the study.
Using some of the other word processing tools such as grade level analysis, word count, etc. could be interesting, but in the short term, we’ll stick with the big three.
Invisible Formatting Code
Each program uses ‘formatting code’ embedded in the document to make your text display the way you want it to – that’s formatting. The information you enter is not simply text, but rather text with invisible ‘formatting code’ attached that you normally don’t see or think about. You’ll only see some of it if the ‘Show Code’ function is turned on in your word processor.
MS Word is notorious for including formatting information when text is cut from a Word document and pasted into a document generated by another application such as PowerPoint. The invisible formatting code is to blame.
Saving the file in text only format
To prevent this aggravation, save the document in a ‘Text Only’ format (.txt). This action will strip all the invisible formatting code from the text and leave only the words. Cutting and pasting sections of text from a .txt file allows it to be formatted by the other program, PowerPoint in this instance, and introduces no surprises to figure out or frustrate us.
Enter all your text, spell and grammar check it, and then save it as a ‘Text Only’ file. Formatting the text will take place in the PowerPoint template and the final document. 
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Tags: text formatting, word processing
Choosing a Scanner
Many stamp collectors and dealers are interested in creating digital images of their stamps, covers, and other philatelic material. There are many uses for these images, including computerized databases, Web pages, and on-line auction listings. The process of creating a digital image from a paper document is called scanning. The procedure is not all that difficult, but it can be a bit confusing to the newcomer. I have gathered some basic information to help you get started creating digital images of your stamps and covers.
Selecting a Scanner
If you do not already own a scanner, the information in this section will help you select one that is suited to your needs. I do not recommend specific models because it is impossible for me to keep up with the constant introduction of new units. I suggest that you use this information to determine the type of scanner you want and the specifications you need, and then go shopping.
Types of Scanners
Scanners come in a variety of configurations. The type you should consider depends on both your planned scanning needs and your budget.
- Drum scanners. This type of scanner provides the highest level of image quality. They are typically found at professional printing businesses. In a drum scanner, the original is attached to a cylindrical drum and rotated past the sensing elements. These scanners are very expensive, with capabilities that go well beyond the needs of desktop scanning.
- Flatbed scanners. This type of scanner provides a flat glass surface onto which the original is placed. The illumination and sensing elements move under the glass to scan the image. Flatbed scanners are available in a wide range of sizes, prices, and capabilities. Some flatbeds offer a transparency scanning adapter as an option.
- Single sheet scanners. This type of scanner is designed for single sheets of paper. You insert one edge of the paper in a slot and the scanner grabs it, feeds it past the sensing array, and passes it out the other side. Some single sheet scanners are even integrated into keyboards. Such scanners were originally designed for digitizing documents and images for archiving, and many models are not suitable for creating high-quality images.
- Sheet-fed scanners. These scanners take a stack of pages and scan them in sequence while you get coffee. Some even do duplex (2 sided) scans. They are very useful in some situations but not much use to the philatelist.
- Photo scanners. This type of scanner is designed to scan snapshots up to approximately 4´6 inches in size. Some are separate desktop units, others install directly into a computer much like a diskette drive.
- Hand scanners. This type of scanner requires the user to manually scan an image. Hand scanners look something like an overgrown mouse. To scan, you manually drag the unit over the original document. Handheld scanners are suitable only for small originals that are no wider than the scanner itself. In theory, most hand scanners permit you to scan a wide original in two or more passes and “stitch” the scans together into a final image. This, however, never works as well as the manufacturers claim.
- Slide scanners. This type of scanner is designed for scanning slides (transparencies) rather than opaque originals, such as photographic prints. While rarely relevant for scanning philatelic material, a dedicated slide scanner is the best choice for scanning slides. Some flatbed scanners come with transparency adapters but they do not provide top quality results, particularly with small slides such as 35mm. Slide scanners have very high resolution, typically a minimum of 2400 dpi, required for getting all the details out of your slides. Many slide scanners also have the ability to scan color negatives and to convert the negative image to a positive image.
For philatelic purposes, a flatbed scanner is undoubtedly the most versatile. You can scan anything from a single stamp to an entire stockbook or album page. A hand scanner may be a viable alternative, particularly if your budget is tight, although the prices of flatbed scanners are so low that this is rarely a real consideration. The width limitation of hand scanners does not matter so much for stamps and covers. I have also seen single sheet scanners and photo scanners used successfully for philatelic purposes, although they require that the item being scanned be sandwiched between clear plastic sheets for feeding into the scanner.
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DPS Page Size and Layout
As is often said, but rarely practiced, “Planning is Everything.” In developing a DPS, that quote is an invaluable piece of advice. If suggestions in the preceding articles have borne fruit, you now have a reasonable subject, goal and outline. Our planning process can continue with some basic formatting concepts.
By incorporating this basic set of formatting rules, designed to complement each other from the beginning, your study is much less likely to end up as a non-functional collection of electrons.
Please note: Rather than experimenting and possibly coming to the same conclusions as outlined hereafter, the following criteria are suggested as a starting point for your new DPS. There’s no requirement to follow every detail strictly, or even at all, but points in this portion of our ‘DPS Cookbook’ may save you time in getting your study up and running quicker.
Rules of Engagement
We’ll begin with a guiding principle for our DPS:
- The DPS should be ‘viewed comfortably’ on computer screens (this is what digital is all about).
So, how do our ‘formatting rules’ ensure our DPS is viewed comfortably and available to most everyone regardless of computing platform?
To realize comfortable viewing, our DPS must have consistent presentation.
Consistency quickly provides viewers a feeling of ‘familiarity’ and the document’s ‘ease of use’ factor increases. To develop consistency, we’ll define a common layout, text and graphic styles for headers, paragraphs, etc. for use throughout the study.
Page size and viewing area.
Physical Size
Beginning with a physical format often helps me to ‘see’ what I’m doing. To help you ‘see’ what you’re doing, take a standard sheet of writing paper and turn it horizontal so it’s 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches high.
In general, computer screens are capable of displaying horizontal documents better than vertical documents. We’ll take advantage of that real estate and develop our ‘Formatting Guide’ with this in mind as it’s also a common format for PowerPoint presentations.
I’m going to get a slight bit ‘techie’ here, so please don’t let your eyes glaze over immediately.
Computer screens use a display measurement known as pixels per inch (ppi). You may have also heard the term ‘dots per inch’ (dpi) which is a printing measurement. Although not precise, let’s simplify things and use these terms interchangeably.
Windows computer screens display a standard of 96 dpi and naturally, the larger the screen, the more dots are displayed. To accommodate most everyone’s computer monitor we’ll use a presentation size of 1024 pixels wide by 768 pixels high. 1024 pixels wide is approximately 10.6 inches wide and 768 pixels is 8 inches high. (Macintosh screens display at 72 dpi. The 1024 x 768 screen equals approximately 14.2 inches wide by 10.6 inches high.)
Page and Screen Size
Thinking in terms of that writing paper we used previously, we see we’re dealing with a screen display roughly the same size as our sheet of writing paper turned sideways - electronically!
Super. Now that we can visualize the screen area we have to work with, we can even sketch some things out by hand or make notes to remind us of what belongs on which page.
Page Margins?
To keep it simple as well as getting the most space out of our computer screen real estate or 1024×768 pixels, we’re not going to use fancy colored or graphic page outlines in our study. They can reduce the available area quite a bit and we need that area for our overall page.
The page margin will be a minimum of 0.5 inches on all sides, ensuring headers and footers are within the main content area. This gives us a working area of roughly 9.5 inches wide and 7 inches high.
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Tags: Digital Philately, dps planning, DPS Studies
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