You’ll need a flash player to view these, but if you’ve ever needed an excuse to download the plugin, here it is. According to the Turning the Pages Online website:

Using touchscreen technology and animation software, the digitized images of rare and beautiful historic books in the biomedical sciences are offered at kiosks at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Visitors may ‘touch and turn’ these pages in a highly realistic way. They can zoom in on the pages for more detail, read or listen to explanations of the text, and (in some cases) access additional information on the books in the form of curators’ notes.

Now we offer Turning The Pages for the enjoyment of home users with an Internet connection. This Web version has been created via Macromedia Flash MX.

Initially only available in kiosks located in the National Library of Medicine’s Visitors Center and the History of Medicine Division, the Turing The Pages (TTP) technology is now available online. TTP Online is only available, however, for six titles so far. The project has been in development since 2001.

If you’ve only got a few seconds, it’s worth your time to turn the pages on Robert Hooke’s Micrographia. You can do more than turn from page 1 to 2 with this title. You’re able to fold out the oversize pages for a full view. Awesome.

Additional Reading:

• http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp.php
• see body hyperlinks for other sites of interest

As you may have heard, both Microsoft and Apple released new versions of their operating systems this Fall.  Apple let the cat out of the bag with Snow Leopard, an update to the ever popular Mac OS X system.  Several weeks later Microsoft released Windows 7 in the hopes of reversing their stream of bad publicity following the release of Windows Vista.  Like many of our patrons, you may be wondering what this all means to you.  If you are looking for a new computer or are thinking about upgrading your old operating system to one of these new systems, CADL may have some of the resources that you have been looking for. 

CADL already has the following Windows 7 books in our collection and has some more on order.  For Snow Leopard, we currently have the Mac OS X Snow Leopard bible . 

And if that’s not enough, be sure to check out these articles on cnet.com and pcmag.com.

In a previous post, we outlined a method for achieving single line spacing in Word 2007, but here’s another method.

One of the changes made to Word in Microsoft Office 2007 was to the default line spacing (single-spacing, double-spacing, etc.). In simple terms, there is now automatically more space between lines and paragraphs in Word documents. In my experience at the CADL Computer Center, this isn’t what our patrons want to use. Many people I have worked with ask for assistance in changing the line and paragraph spacing to single spacing. You may begin by either following these steps before entering any text into your document, or you many highlight all of the text in your document (also known as “select all”) if you are formatting line spacing after writing your document.

• Select the “line spacing” icon in the “paragraphs” area of the Home tab in Word 2007.

 (a closeup of the line spacing icon)

• Left-click on the line spacing icon. Select “line spacing options” from the menu that appears.

• A new window appears on your screen. Click the downward-facing arrow under “Line Spacing:”.  Select “Single” from the options provided. Then, click the downward-facing arrow next to “After:” until the number in the box reads “0 pt.” In the image below, the “After:” box reads 10 pt, which is the Word 2007 default setting.

• Your window should look like this if you made the correct changes.

• Now your document is formatted with single line and paragraph spacing.

For further information on Word 2007 line spacing, see the Microsoft Support artice on this subject: “Default line spacing and default paragraph spacing in Word 2007 differ from the default spacing in earlier versions of Word“

These days, many job applications require that your resume and cover letter be emailed or uploaded in PDF format. PDF stands for Portable Document Format; this type of document is widely requested because it maintains its appearance both on-screen (of nearly any computer) and in print.
Software for creating PDFs can be pricey, filled with more functions than the average job applicant will ever need. An easier, cheaper alternative to buying PDF creating software is saving a Word 2007 document as a PDF. (If you want to know a little more about PDF creating software, you can read a previous post.)

Once you have checked your Word document for errors – making sure everything is spelled correctly, the formatting is the way you want it, all the contact numbers are correct – you can create the PDF. The steps are simple.

1. If you have not saved your document at all, you should first save it as a Word document, because Word documents are editable, while PDF documents generally are  not. (If you have saved your document, you can skip to step 2.) To save your document as a Word file, click on the Office 2007 button and hover your mouse over “Save As” in the drop-down menu that appears. Choose “Word Document” from the side menu by clicking on it. You will be asked to give your document a name. Do so, then click on “Save”.

Click on Office button and roll over Save As

2. Once you have saved your document as a Word file, you can save it as a PDF. Click on the Office 2007 button and hover your mouse over “Save As” in the drop-down menu that appears.

3. Choose “PDF or XPS” from the side menu.

4. Name your document as you normally would, then click “Publish”. 

That’s it! You now have a copy of your document in PDF format! It is ready to be sent as an email attachment or uploaded to an online application. Note that you cannot make changes to your PDF file, so if you want to make changes to your resume, you must do so in the Word format of your document, then repeat the steps for saving as a PDF.

Part 1: CBT Nuggets

Part 2: Learning Express Library & TypingMaster

PDF documents are a common occurrence on Job sites and when dealing with government agencies. Some sites require you to sumbmit PDFs but editing PDF documents requires the full version of Adobe Acrobat which is often not available.

Inzone Software offers a PDF converter which is free for a 15 day trial. The full version costs $89 which is still cheaper than a full version of Acrobat.

If you do decide to spring for Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Labs has tons of software and support for everything from making movies to publishing your own iPhone apps.

If you run into any snags,  Adobe Labs also has a Forums section that can provide fast and easy help.

If you are interested in learning more about our online resource, CBT Nuggets, that will help you learn Microsoft Office applications, please see the video here: cadl videos.

When copying and pasting text into Word, particularly from the Internet, you often do not want the formatting that comes along with it. The greatest trick I’ve found in dealing with “weird” formatting from the web is pasting unformatted text. Here’s how:

1. Highlight the text you want to copy.
   • 
2. Right click on the highlighted text. Select “copy.”
   • 
3. Go to the Word document you wish to paste your text in.
4. Under the “Home” tab click the downward-facing arrow under “Paste.”
5. Select “Paste Special.”
   • 
6. Select “Unformatted Text.”
   • 
7. Voila!
   • 

We are very pleased to announce the launch of CADL’s new YouTube channel, cadlvideos. Book Bytes, produced by our public services librarians, is a series of weekly adult book recommendations. In addition, our Computer Center staff are producing video blogs to help teach patrons about the library’s technology resources. Stay tuned!