Usable all-in-one offers a lot of options

By MARA GULENS

I'm still trying to figure out exactly why this all-in-one intimidates me. • It could have something to do with the size. This looks and feels way more comi menial than other units I've reviewed led overwhelms my work area in ways ethers have not. At 5800. it also could have something to do with the price. HP Officejet 7130 is intended for than just typical home office use has517 :.!written all over it

But their:. trail business? The nursery daughter attends uses a similar HP all-in-one. and there are only one people — mom and pop — using it. It's definitely a booming small business — hundreds of kids resolve in and out the door each week. But when it ;:a-nine and faxing. as no more anyene . the technolog:. . -...._robe amble by ar.y zr.e.

Does the HP G'' 7:3Q meet those sites? Basics - : the nursery. their unit. ta su- t.7:eu esery thaw,-

That may well explain the intimidation factor for me. too. This machine lets you do so much that you really need to expand your wants and desires — and know-how — to keep up with it all. There are all the standard items — fax. scan. copy and print, but you can also print double-sided. print directly from digital camera memory cards and print high quality colour prints.

How it does all that may leave the user slightly perplexed. What's also initially quite mind-boggling — and is explained by the fact the unit is so allout digital — is that it plays around with up and down in ways I've never experienced. For example. put a piece of paper on the glass facing east-west. but the copy comes out north-south. Insert a stack of new paper. but place it good side down. Ditto the original when you're planning to copy double-sided. In fact. it rakes a while to feel comfortable wnh the carious openings and ins-and-outs of this unit. all because it's doing so much in the confines of one relatively little box.

Like virtually all all-in-ones these days, the HP Oflicejet 7130 allows you to do what you want either via the computer or via the front panel. In a weinl way. this both lets you appreciate how far we've come since the days of dotmatrix printers and is a reminder of how nice it is to just push a button without logging on. Initially, I lost a week of review time while the unit was hooked up to my work machine — a Mac. On the Mac, the interface was a boring box that left me with more questions than answers, and scanning was a chore.

When I moved the HP Officejet 7130 over to the PC.1 started to get a feel for what this all-in-one is truly capable of. Up popped the cheerful HP Director with its live interconnected balloons that let you view images, fax, scan pictures, copy or scan documents.

I started scanning 100 -year-old postage-size photographs in super high resolution (scanning these was only something I considered once I received the unit). Soon I had a beautiful, glossy sepia print of my grandmother when she was younger titan I ant today. Not a reason for a small business to buy this machine, but a definite advantage.

Given the smarts of this machine, readers still probably not be surprised to discover that the two scan settings — scan pictures and scan documents — really mean what they say. My favourite test document is the Enbridge gas bill. Scan it as a picture and print It out, and you get an absolute reproduction. Scan it as text and send to Wonlpad, and you get a desperate attempt to make sense of the letters and numbers. Oops — not quite. Scan in a regular text docuMent, on the other hand, and you get pretty much what you put on the glass. •

MP Officejet 7130 5799.99 Ilistlett.Pachard

www.hp.ca

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