Technical troubles? Our digital doctor, Rick Maybury, has the cure. Send your digital dilemmas to houston@telegraph.co.uk
Ageing gracefully
Q: I would like to print some old monochrome pictures on sepia card or paper, but I'm not sure how. Can Photoshop do this, or will I need to buy sepia-coloured paper?
Peter Wright, by email
A: Most image editing programs have a "sepia" or "old prints" effects mode, to give modern images that old-fashioned feel, but in Photoshop you can do it manually, and retain more control, simply by decolourising the image. Go to Image > Adjust > Desaturate, then add some sepia tints from the Image > Mode > RGB controls; select Image > Adjust > Variations and experiment by adding a little red and yellow on the slider controls.
For a monochrome picture, simply skip the first stage and add a sepia tint to the image before printing. As for printing on sepia-tinted paper, I have no doubt it's available, but if you simply want to give the paper an aged appearance why not try an old trick and stain your paper using much diluted water-soluble wood stain or - the method favoured by forgers - soak the paper in cold tea.
Blind date
Q: I have a lovely Kyocera digital camera with a normal viewfinder and an LCD screen. I rarely use the monitor except to set up the camera date. However the LCD screen no longer works, possibly due to a recent shoot in torrential rain. As a result, I can't adjust the date. Is it possible to modify the date after the pictures have been downloaded to my PC?
Clifford Darby, by email
A: Yes, it is, and you can edit all of the ExIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) data contained within the image file. This includes the time and date information, as well as camera settings and other interesting things. I suggest a freeware utility called Quick ExIF Editor. A link to the download is at http://tinyurl.com/3gd2c3.
Disappearing trick
Q: Occasionally websites contain a "Contact us" option, usually a small blank box into which one can type a query, which is then emailed to the appropriate company. This usually works fine, but I am unable to save a copy of what I have written, should I need to refer to it in the future. Where is it stored and can it be retrieved and viewed?
Sandy Duncan, by email
A: Sadly not, and once you press the Send button it has gone forever from your PC. This is because you are not sending an email as such, but resending information on a web page, back to the website; it has nothing to do with your email program, so no record is kept. The only way to save your message is to highlight the text, then copy and paste it into an open word processor document, and save that.
Noise annoys
Q: I want to watch video clips online using headphones, but when I plug them into my PC, sound still comes out from the monitor. If I mute the monitor, it also mutes the headphones. What am I doing wrong?
Mr J Graveling, by email
A: I would be very surprised if your monitor didn't have its own built-in volume control, though sometimes it's just a pair of buttons, marked with plus and minus signs. On some models with very narrow screen surrounds they can be even harder to find as they're tucked away on the underside. I have also come across monitors where the volume can be set only from an on-screen menu, in which case you'll have to consult the manual to find out how this is done. Failing that, simply unplug the monitor's audio cable, which goes to a socket on the back of the PC, usually marked "line out".
Flash crash
Q: I have just installed the Firefox browser on my PC but I find that I can't view videos on YouTube. Every time I visit the site it asks me to install Adobe Flash player. I download the file and follow the instructions but it never installs. What am I doing wrong?
Martha Henley, by email
A: Probably nothing - Firefox 3 and Adobe Flash Player 9 do seem to have trouble getting on with each other. This has happened to me several times recently and in the end I found the simplest thing to do was to abandon Flash 9 and install version 10 instead. The add-on is still in beta form, so bear in mind the disclaimers about unexpected glitches, but I'm not aware of any problems. You'll find a link to the download on the Adobe Labs website at http://tinyurl.com/4st2va.
