F.A.Q.

I don't have a scanner, how can I help?

2010-03-04T16:48:41Z

You don't need to have a scanner to help. Plenty of the documents on the site are still in image form. Just download one of these and run it through your OCR software.

Do you have any tips for OCR?

2010-03-02T21:31:36Z

OCR Tips

Over the years with BBCdocs.com I have learnt one or two things that some people may, or may not find usefull.

1) Make sure you set the page size to that of the original document before you start all your formatting.

2) Use headers and footers where applicable. Put the page numbers in the footer, and then use page breaks after the last paragraph to seperate the pages. Don't think it doesn't matter - it does, as different people use different printers / paper lengths, or for that matter don't use printers at all, they might view it on-line. If you don't use the page breaks it just comes out a mess.

3) If you are having problems with the page numbering - ie you want to start at page 1 but this is the 5th page, then look up "section breaks" in the help.

4) Try and use the paragraph spacing instead of a carriage return between paragraphs or headings. This makes formatting alot easier.

I use a little macro to help me with this assigned to ALT <P>. This basically toggles between 0 / 6 / 12 point spacing after a paragraph. This is for MS Word v7.

With Selection.ParagraphFormat
If .SpaceAfter = 6 Then
.SpaceAfter = 12
Else
If .SpaceAfter = 0 Then
.SpaceAfter = 6
Else
.SpaceAfter = 0
End If
End If
End With

5) When trying to format a contents list, to get the page numbers alligned down the right hand side you need to set a right tab stop. Look at the BBC User Guide to see what I mean. To set the right tab stop you must click the tab icon at the left hand side of the ruler until it displays a right tab. Then you can set it by clicking on the ruler with the left mouse button.

What is bbcdocs.com?

2008-08-11T00:42:31Z

What is it ?
Due to the popularity and advancements in emulators for the BBC micro, more and more people are rekindling their passion and indeed fondness for this much loved computer of the 1980's.

The problem then arises that many users (re-users) cannot remember how they did X and Y years ago. Hence the need for some documentation.

BBCdocs.com was born around 1997 from this need. I took the Econet Advanced User Guide to see how difficult it would be using a scanner and OCR software to get it in "electronic" format. 2 weeks later I had it finished. This prompted me to start hunting down some more documentation that I was in need of for some of the things I was doing.

Over the years many people have contributed and all are credited on this site, but I must give a special thank you to Chris Richardson of 8BS, and Mike Tomlinson who have contributed handsomely over the years. Also thanks to Dave for letting me use many of the cover scans from The Stairway to Hell.

Help
I have done rather a lot of documents so far myself, but I would like contributions from other people. There is still a lot of documentation to be added, and I cannot possibly get through it all myself. So those of you that have still got photocopies of manuals, installation guides for add-on X, even cheat's, adventure solutions.... etc etc... if you could possibly spare a little time, scan them in and get them to me. If you are looking for a good piece of OCR software, try Cuneiform, it is what I have used and I can recommend it. The more people that contribute the more we can put up on the web.

Hardware documentation is probably some of the hardest to track down.. e.g. fitting instructions for add-on boards, adapters, User Manuals etc.

Pete Robinson has also converted many of these documents into HTML format so that they can be viewed online or offline in your web browser - whichever takes your fancy.

Kade Hannson has converted the BBC User Guide into HTML format and it can be viewed online.

If you are working on anything then please tell me so that I can put your name and current piece of work to the site. This prevents anyone doing anything twice. Also let me know if you have any comments or even requests for documentation that you are trying to track down. No promises, but I'll try to help if I can.

and remember: Don't just download it, contribute to it !!!