Sorcerer Software Users Newsletter Issue 0308 Welcome to our monthly newsletter, covering the latest updates, tips and user questions about our software programs. If you have an issue or question you would like to see addressed in a future newsletter, either by me or by your fellow users, please email me and I'll include it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 31, 2003 CONTENTS: 1. The Abacus 2. Envelope Printer 3. If you liked the Bulwer-Lytton contest, you'll love this... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Abacus http://www.TheAbacus.biz Let's go to the mailbag this month. Here are a few notes I received, along with answers to the questions that they posed -- Trish wrote and asked: "I recently purchased the most recent version of Abacus and like it very much. My husband wants the same thing on his computer. Can he share mine? If so, our computers are not linked, so can he still do this and how? Is there an extra cost?" Trish, I'm glad you and your husband like Abacus. We put a lot of work into creating it. But we need to ask users to pay for each copy they have so I can afford my Jolt Cola habit. If you want to use Abacus on more than one computer at a time, please purchase a 2nd license. On the other hand, if you want to delete Abacus from an old computer and move it to a new computer that you just bought, there is no charge. And this should be true of all software. This is a fairly common question I receive. This time, it came from Roxann: "Does the Abacus work with WordPerfect, too? I've just completed some work for a doctor who used WordPerfect instead of MS Word." The answer is both yes and no. There is no version of Abacus for WP. However, Abacus can count lines in any document that can be opened in Word. Therefore if you have both Word and WP, and you can open your WP documents in Word, Abacus can count them. We actually have a number of users who use Abacus in just this way, and it works great for them. In addition, you can count plain text (ASCII) documents, RTF documents, WRI documents, and more using Abacus and Word. And finally let's do one more. This one came from Anne, and it's about counting headers and footers: "I just downloaded the trial program and would like to purchase; however, it doesn't seem to be counting my files with headers/footers correctly. By counting by hand for a comparison count, it appears it is only counting the headers and footers on the first page of the document and not subsequent pages." This gets just a bit complicated, but let me try to explain what's going on here. Abacus counts headers and footers (let's just call them HF) either once or twice for each "section". (A "section" is what Word calls a document that ends with a section break or at the end of the document.) If you select "Different First Page" in the HF setup in Word's Page Setup screen, Word lets you put one HF on the first page, and a different HF on the remaining pages. These remaining pages in that section will all have the same HF. That's because Word automatically inserts them -- whether you want them or not, and requiring absolutely no work on your part. If you DON'T select "Different First Page", Word puts the same HF on every page in the section. You type it in once, and Word puts in on every page. Therefore, the user (that's you) actually only types the HF once (or twice, if you select "Different First Page"). So Abacus counts only what you type. When this subject originally came up, we had several discussions with MTs, their clients, and their employers about how to handle this. We decided that the most fair way of handling this was to count what the MT actually typed, but NOT count what Word inserted automatically. I'm sure this makes a few MTs unhappy, but in addition to being accurate, we try to make Abacus fair to everyone. The current version 3.0 Abacus build is 030723. If you have an earlier build of version 3.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. This is the Word "add-in" version. To get your Abacus version and build number, start Abacus and click on the copyright message at the bottom of the main screen. The current Abacus SE build is 030720. If you have an earlier build of Abacus SE/4.0, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. This is the freestanding version. To get your build number, start Abacus and click on "Help- >About". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Envelope Printer http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/envelope.htm A few users caught me off guard last month when I reported that the latest build of the program was 030629, when in fact we still had an older build posted on the web site. My fault! I got a little ahead of myself, and apologize to anyone whom I inconvenienced with my inaccurate reporting. However we now have a new build available (030802), and all registered users of version 7.0 are welcome to download it and upgrade free of charge. And in case you're wondering where the build numbers come from, here's how we arrive at them. They are simply the date that the build is created. For example the latest build was finished on August 2, 2003 and the build number format is yymmdd, so it becomes 03 (year) 08 (month) 02 (day). Therefore that higher the build number, the more recently it was released. The current Envelope Printer build is 030802 of version 7.0. If you have an earlier build or version, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual Hemingway Short Story contest results! For those of you who pine for more competition like the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest which we explored in last month's newsletter, I have good news. In case you didn't know, there has been for several years a Hemingway parody contest. Legend has it that the contest was originally set up (perhaps authorized, or maybe just tolerated) by one of Papa's granddaughters. For the last few years the sponsor has been United Airlines, who publishes the results of the contest in its "Hemispheres" in-flight magazine. Here's a sample from one that I particularly liked: "The waitress looked at him. He looked at her. They looked at each other. 'Something to drink?' The man knew in his heart that the time had come to speak truly and well — to 'order,' as they used to say in Italy during lulls in the fighting. 'Prune juice,' said the man. 'With an umbrella. Because it is raining.' They laughed at his joke and then made love on the bar. Afterward the man sipped from his glass. I have known better prune juice, he thought, but this prune juice is strong and warm and good and will deliver its message. It tasted fine —l ike prunes, only more liquidy, which is how it should be when you are with someone you love." For the results of this year's competition, and to read the winning entry as well as the runner-up, go to: http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/contests/enter.htm But wait... there's more! Apparently, and unbeknownst to me, there is also a Faulkner parody contest, and its results are on the same web site at the Hemingway contest. So have a ball, but don't say I didn't warn you... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all, folks. Look for our next newsletter in about 4 weeks... -- Bill bill@sorcerersoftware.com Sorcerer Software http://www.sorcerersoftware.com To read all the old newsletters, go to: http://www.sorcerersoftware.com/archives.htm To be removed from our mailing list, send me an email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.