Viewing QST CDROMs on a Mac

[W1UJR]

With hard-drive space becoming much less expensive, and large drives now the rule rather than the exception (I'm running a 500G drive here in the iMac), it just makes sense to copy the complete collection to the HD rather than keep switching discs.

So to that end I've been playing around this weekend with the Mac "Preview" tool and found a slick way to be able to sort, view and read the QST collection.

The simple way to go about this follows:

1) Create a folder on the HD, let's call it QST.

2) Insert a QST CDROM into the drive, and copy all the folders from the CDROM, they will be labeled by the last two digits of the year, say "17" for "1917", into the QST folder. Only copy the folders, not the extra files found on the first disc of each set as those additional files are for the "Aview" program which we do not need. Repeat as needed for the remaining discs, it takes about 5 minutes per disc on my 2.33 GHz iMac.

3) Now open the QST folder and select the year you wish to view. Inside the year will be another set of folders, labeled 1-12, for each of the months. Open the month you wish to view.

4) With the month now open, select all of the files inside the folder, they are labeled with the following nomenclature: year, month and page. For example 1512009.tif is really 1915, December, page 9.

5) With all the files selected, now right click and choose "Preview" on the menu bar. Once Preview opens you will now have the first file on the screen in front of you, and the remaining files will be listed in a column on the right side of the window.

6) To read the open first page, you can select Zoom In or Zoom Out to resize as needed. Then just use the arrow key to scroll down and see the succeeding pages, it is like reading a book!

7) If you want to really be lazy, and do this handsfree, you can select "Slideshow" and have the Mac turn the pages for you!

One more trick, and this only works if you are a ARRL member.
You can search the QST index for year, month, topic by using http://www.arrl.org/members-only/qqnsearch.html

Enjoy!

[N3DRB The Derb]

Macs rule. my Dual 1.8 G5 I got in 2003 is still a fast workhorse.

[k4kyv]

I have the 1915-1929 CD set that I purchased in Windows 95 era.  It uses a program called "QST View," which works on Windows NT, but it never was terribly user-friendly.

I wonder if they have updated the software for the CD's sold today, and if an upgrade or a better viewer program is available that would allow for easier use of the older CD.  I haven't used it in a while, but I recall the search function required jumping through some hoops, and browsing through an issue was a pain as well, as it took several clicks and a substantial wait to bring up each article.

The files in my CD are the .tif format.  I find it easier to browse by simply putting in the CD, clicking on the "take no action" in the menu that appears when the computer recognises the CD, then using Windows Explorer to view the folders and simply double-clicking on the ones I want to view.

I have access to a Mac at work, but have never tried to view QST on it.

[W1UJR]

I have the 1915-1929 CD set that I purchased in Windows 95 era.  It uses a program called "QST View," which works on Windows NT, but it never was terribly user-friendly.

I have access to a Mac at work, but have never tried to view QST on it.

I wish they did Don, the ARRL offers something called "Aview", but it is not much better.
The interface, given the cost of the CD sets, is rather lame.
It would be nice to have someone write an app which did the search and returned visual results, but that's not likely.

73 Bruce W1UJR

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Quesss they never heard of PDF.

I have the 1915-1929 CD set that I purchased in Windows 95 era.  It uses a program called "QST View," which works on Windows NT, but it never was terribly user-friendly.

I have access to a Mac at work, but have never tried to view QST on it.

I wish they did Don, the ARRL offers something called "Aview", but it is not much better.
The interface, given the cost of the CD sets, is rather lame.
It would be nice to have someone write an app which did the search and returned visual results, but that's not likely.

73 Bruce W1UJR

[W1UJR]

Couple of things -

Hi Derb,
How's it going OM?
You have been in my thoughts and prayers, hope all is well.

Steve,
I wish the files were PDFs, then you could search for words, names, etc.
I guess the technogloy was not there when the project started.
Can tif files be converted to PDFs?

-Bruce

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Can tif files be converted to PDFs?

As far as I know, any just about any image or text file can. The trick with making things keyword searchable is to do an image to text conversion/OCR scan. That's more time consuming than just doing an image scan (ask Bacon, he's doing it with the back issues of AM P/X).

Any file you can priint on your Mac, can easily be converted to a PDF. Just select the PDF option under the print menu. Been that way since 2000.

[W1UJR]

Any file you can priint on your Mac, can easily be converted to a PDF. Just select the PDF option under the print menu. Been that way since 2000.

Yep, tried that, it does not allow searching, for the reason you mentioned about OCR.
Its a slick trick, PDFs are the way to go!

[WBear2GCR]

 
Is there anything that the ARRL does that isn't pretty lame??

Inquiring minds want to know.

              _-_-bear

[W1UJR]

Is there anything that the ARRL does that isn't pretty lame??

Inquiring minds want to know.

              _-_-bear

As always, you have a helpful comment.
Talk about lame...