TWAIN (Not Mark)

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Last night I attended the Boca Raton Computer Society, Inc. (BRCS) Hardware / Software SIG. (http://brcs.org/)

One of questions, related to scanners, was: Can someone explain what TWAIN is?

There was no internet access during the SIG, so it could not be looked up. There was a lot of speculation, the consensus being it is a machine language, used to communicate between a scanner and the PC.

I ran a Google Advanced search: what is twain -mark -mark site:.com

Here are some of the results that made some sort of sense to me:

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/1209

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/f/twain.htm

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213232,00.html

I also found the following through Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWAIN; they are a little more technical:

http://www.twain.org/

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I hope this helps anyone needing more knowledge about TWAIN.

If you know of any other information, that may help in understanding TWAIN and what it does, please leave a comment with a link below.

Four Technology Tips Feeds to Check Out

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The list that follows contains some of my favorite Google Reader geeky tips feeds (not necessarily MS Windows only).

Check them out and let me know what you think.

TinyHacker

Site: http://tinyhacker.com/
Feed: http://feeds.howtogeek.com/tinyhacker

This is part of the How-To Geek network http://www.howtogeek.com/, which has been mentioned here numerous times before. The difference is that TinyHacker shows only a very short tip summary, with a link to a more in depth posting.

Usually has several posts each day.

I usually check this feed every other day or so, to see if there is anything interesting.

Online Tech Tips

Site: http://www.online-tech-tips.com
Feed: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/feed/

“Welcome to Online Tech Tips – a blog that provides useful computer tips in an easy to understand format.”

In my experience the above tag line contains the essence of why it should be added to everyone’s favorite tips feed list.

Usually one or two posts each day.

FriedBeef’s Tech

Site:
Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Friedbeef/

The main feed includes all categories such as: Firefox, Freeware, Productivity, and others.

Usually a couple of posts a week.

ghacks.net

Site: http://www.ghacks.net
Feed: http://www.ghacks.net/ghacksnet-feed-list/

Once again a variety of categories, so something should be of interest.

Several posts each day.

Styles and Word Processing

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A Manual Word Processor (A typewriter)

Manual Word Processor

At the January 2010 Broward Personal Computer Association, Inc. (BPCA) general meeting Q&A session the subject of using styles in word processing came up.

The actual question was: In Microsoft Word, how do I stop it from capitalizing the beginning of each line?

In answer to the question, it was suggested that the reason for capitalization of the first letter of the new line is that she is using the Enter key as a carriage return, just like she would if using a typewriter. Upon opening a session of Microsoft Word on one laptop, and one of OpenOffice.org on another laptop, a few lines were typed in each using the Enter key as a carriage return, and another few paragraphs only pressing the Enter key as a carriage return at the end of the paragraph. Sure enough, once we turned on Show/Hide Paragraph Marks it showed that was exactly what was happening.

Now the thing is how to get her to stop using her word processor (it doesn’t really matter which one, as long as it supports styles) like a typewriter, and use it as it is intended, a way to process words.

Suggestion

Here is a suggestion, as well as some links to information regarding using styles.

Instead of worrying about what the document looks like, try using a plain text editor, such as Notepad, to just put down all your thoughts. Just write until you have everything out of your head and into the document. Once you have all this, I call it my very rough draft, copy and paste it into your word processor, and now apply your formatting (bold, italic, etc.), rearrange and edit your sentences and paragraphs, and apply your styles to make it look pretty.

Links

Some Links to check out regarding styles (mostly for Microsoft Word, but with minor adjustments should work with any word processor or desktop publisher that supports styles):

delicious.com search for microsoft word styles result:
Delicious has been shut down, as of June 15, 2017.

Results for style search at Tips.net:
http://www.tips.net/results.html?cx=003792548944738135704%3Am_k9gka3qx0&cof=FORID%3A11&q=styles&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Search&siteurl=www.tips.net%2F#722

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Photo courtesy of: http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b12objects052.jpg