PL Pages suggestion.

[John Fitzsimons]

It seems to me that "conversions" of one type or another are almost
FAQs here. In graphics, in audio and in video.

It is also evident that there are a small number of people here that
understand what they are doing in these areas.

Perhaps we could have a page added to the PL site with info on
conversions ? With at least one example of a freeware converter that
could be used ? I am sure many would appreciate such a page.

Even if it took six months to create it would IMO be worthwhile.
Something like ;

Graphics Conversion :

Gif to JPEG - Try IrfanView

Tiff to JPEG -

etc.


Audio Conversion :

Wave to mp3 - Try .....

Mp3 to .....


Video Conversion :

AVI to MPEG2 - Try ......

etc. etc.


Opinions ?


Regards, John.

 

[Mike Bourke]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Mike

 

[Susan Bugher]

It seems to me that "conversions" of one type or another are almost
FAQs here. In graphics, in audio and in video.

It is also evident that there are a small number of people here that
understand what they are doing in these areas.

Perhaps we could have a page added to the PL site with info on
conversions ? With at least one example of a freeware converter that
could be used ? I am sure many would appreciate such a page.

Even if it took six months to create it would IMO be worthwhile.
Something like ;

Graphics Conversion :

Gif to JPEG - Try IrfanView

Opinions ?

Hi John,

I think it's a great idea. I'm all in favor if someone else is does the heavy lifting.

I suggest you look at REM's text editor page:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/TextEditorReview.php

We could do something very similar that just showed formats. IOW - list an app and table the formats
it can open/import and save/export. If an app is no longer available (as Freeware) it could be
removed from the list.

IrfanView and XnView both open and export a huge number of formats and they keep adding new formats.
I think it would be difficult to keep a complete list of formats up-to-date. IMO we should focus our
attention on the formats that are most commonly asked about in the newsgroup.

ISTM one page for each type/group of formats would work best: graphics formats, multi-media formats,
text/PDF/spreadsheets etc. etc.

FWIW - a little info is "flagged" now. Some of the apps that do "special" conversions are noted in
the subcategories on the ACF pages now. See:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/P_CategoryIndex.php

Use the edit/find menu and search for "convert" to find the subcategories.

What's needed is app and format info. If people post about that and someone assembles that
information in a table (tab or comma delimited format) I'll create the web pages.

Susan
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[John Fitzsimons]

John Fitzsimons wrote:

Hi Susan,

Hi John,

I think it's a great idea. I'm all in favor if someone else is does the heavy lifting.

I suggest you look at REM's text editor page:

http://www.pricelesswarehome.org/acf/TextEditorReview.php

Yes, dynamic sorting etc. could be an excellent way of listing all the
apps that open/convert a particular format.

We could do something very similar that just showed formats. IOW - list an app and table the formats
it can open/import and save/export. If an app is no longer available (as Freeware) it could be
removed from the list.
Yep.

IrfanView and XnView both open and export a huge number of formats and they keep adding new formats.
I think it would be difficult to keep a complete list of formats up-to-date. IMO we should focus our
attention on the formats that are most commonly asked about in the newsgroup.

Well, my priority is "Does it work ?" Can a specific format be changed
to another. "Common" is a fairly subjective word.

ISTM one page for each type/group of formats would work best: graphics formats, multi-media formats,
text/PDF/spreadsheets etc. etc.
Yep.

FWIW - a little info is "flagged" now. Some of the apps that do "special" conversions are noted in
the subcategories on the ACF pages now. See:

Use the edit/find menu and search for "convert" to find the subcategories.

What's needed is app and format info. If people post about that and someone assembles that
information in a table (tab or comma delimited format) I'll create the web pages.

I will think a bit more about this. Ideally someone here who knew
something about conversions could contribute. IMO however we could
even start each page with only one entry and build it up over a period
of months. Everything doesn't need to be done at once.

Regards, John.
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[Susan Bugher]

I will think a bit more about this. Ideally someone here who knew
something about conversions could contribute. IMO however we could
even start each page with only one entry and build it up over a period
of months. Everything doesn't need to be done at once.

I agree - and since apps come and go this *will* be a long term project (perhaps especially in
MULTI-MEDIA). Please do think on. I'd like to see your idea become a reality.

Susan
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[miskairal]

I think this is a brilliant idea! I often do searches like "convert xxx
to yyy" and still take ages to find what I am looking for. Otherwise I
read through lots of app's info to see if it will do what I want.

I'd volunteer to assemble the info but I don't know how to make the
table required. Sorry - it would have been nice to give something back
after "taking" from acf for years.

 

[Susan Bugher]

I will think a bit more about this. Ideally someone here who knew
something about conversions could contribute. IMO however we could
even start each page with only one entry and build it up over a period
of months. Everything doesn't need to be done at once.

Hello John,

I've been playing around with your idea. ACF's pbwiki has a search feature. I've created a page
here with a few search terms:

http://acfwiki.pbwiki.com/index.php?wiki=ViewConvert

and I added new wiki pages for a few apps - those pages will show up if you search on the Keywords.

New keyword phrases can be added to the ViewConvert page when someone asks about opening/converting
another format and apps that can handle that format can be noted on their own wiki page. ISTM this
should be an easy way to "grow" the information and make it readily available. What do you think?

Susan
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[John Fitzsimons]

John Fitzsimons wrote:

Hi Susan,

Hello John,

I've been playing around with your idea. ACF's pbwiki has a search feature. I've created a page
here with a few search terms:

and I added new wiki pages for a few apps - those pages will show up if you search on the Keywords.

New keyword phrases can be added to the ViewConvert page when someone asks about opening/converting
another format and apps that can handle that format can be noted on their own wiki page. ISTM this
should be an easy way to "grow" the information and make it readily available. What do you think?

Well, I hate web forums so I have no desire to add/alter info to the
pbwiki pages myself. You have however made a very nice start on the
above link to providing conversion info.

Regards, John.
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[John Fitzsimons]

Hi miskairal,

I think this is a brilliant idea! I often do searches like "convert xxx
to yyy" and still take ages to find what I am looking for. Otherwise I
read through lots of app's info to see if it will do what I want.

I'd volunteer to assemble the info but I don't know how to make the
table required. Sorry - it would have been nice to give something back
after "taking" from acf for years.

Making a table isn't hard if you have got a spreadsheet. Preferably
one that can save info to a C.S.V. (comma separated values) file.

If you don't know how to do this then you could probably even send
Susan the spreadsheet and she can convert it.

Let's start with IrfanView. It opens and/or converts to about 40+
formats. We only want to know which formats can be saved to a
different format so the 40 list may go down to 20.

Here is the sort of thing I had in mind ;

List each format as a column header eg.

AIF,ANI,ASF,AU,AVI,B3D*,BM*11,BMP,CAM*,CLP,CPT,CRW/CR2 etc. etc.

Then, put each of those down again. This time as rows eg.

AIF
ANI
ASF
AU
AVI
B3D*
BM*11
BMP
CAM*
CLP
CPT
CRW/CR2

You can then put eg. "x" where something can be converted. Here is a
small example ;

JPEG, GIF, TIFF
JPEG x
GIF x
TIFF x

The final column (or first ?) has the program(s) that allow the
conversion eg.

JPEG, GIF, TIFF, Conversion program
JPEG x Irfanview, Xnview, Pic2Pic etc.
GIF x Irfanview.
TIFF x Xnview

So the hard part is going to a graphics program and sorting out what
formats can be opened and what formats can be saved. We want the
second. The latter usually being much smaller in number than the
former.

Regards, John.
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[Susan Bugher]

On Tue, 30 Aug 2005 13:07:30 -0400, Susan Bugher



Well, I hate web forums so I have no desire to add/alter info to the
pbwiki pages myself. You have however made a very nice start on the
above link to providing conversion info.

Thanks John. FWIW - I'm not a fan of web forums either. The wiki isn't being used as a forum (and I
doubt it ever will be). It's a place to create ACF web pages.

The web pages on the Pricelessware site are collaborative web pages. The content on the PL and ACF
pages come from newsgroup posts by ACF participants. Pricelessware selections are made in the
newsgroup. The wiki let's us carry the collaborative effort one step further - it lets newsgroup
participants create some of the ACF web pages. IMO that's a step in the right direction.

Susan
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[Susan Bugher]

Let's start with IrfanView. It opens and/or converts to about 40+
formats. We only want to know which formats can be saved to a
different format so the 40 list may go down to 20.

40 is low - it's closer to 100 - see:

http://www.irfanview.com/main_formats.htm

XnView reads about 400 formats - exports around 50:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enformats.html

Susan
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