Sorcerer Software Users Newsletter Issue 0406 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 30, 2004 CONTENTS: 1. The Abacus 2. Envelope Printer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Abacus http://www.TheAbacus.biz A few issues arose over the last month -- regarding both version of Abacus -- so I thought I should address them now. First, let's take on Abacus SE. I recently received this email from an Abacus SE user: "I just set the Abacus SE up on my computer and ran the first batch of files to count. It worked ok, but when I tried to have it count both batches, it came up with this error message when I asked it to create an invoice: Access Violation at address 0040A974 in module Abacus.exe. Read of address 2E3B4670. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program and continue to get the same error message. I am counting a total of 2676 files." Investigating further I discovered that I had written Abacus SE to accept no more than 2,000 log entries at a time when creating an invoice. I suppose it never occurred to me that someone would create an invoice with so many filenames! I inspected this user's ("Pam") log file, and discovered futher that she had generated over 7,000,000 characters in creating this logfile. (I assume she had some help.) I have since corrected the problem in the program, and posted the updated version on our web site. If you plan on creating huge invoices like Pam, I suggest you download this new build from our web site. And just to be complete, I discovered that the Word add-in version of Abacus has the same limitation. So I updated it also, and the new build can be downloaded if you need it. Another problem with Abacus SE was reported by 2 users over the last month. This only applies to SOME users who count gross lines and use Word 2000 or 97. I received this email from "Linda": "I am using Word 2000 and Abacus SE. It was working fine and suddenly quit working. It counts 0 lines. It started out just counting what seemed to be only page one of my document, then it just stopped counting lines all together. We uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and it still is not working. All the settings are correct, as I have been using them all along. (I do not change them very often). Please advise." I found this a rather astounding description. Since first developing Abacus SE 3 years ago, I have never seen this myself. So I consulted with Microsoft and here's what they told me: "Yes, it's a known problem with Word 2000." I asked them what the solution was. And they said: "Buy Word 2002." Assuming that our users would not be real happy with this solution, I worked out another approach that I tested with an MT who just happens to live in my home town (sort of) and was one of the 2 users with this problem. Our solution seemed to work like a charm, so I applied this fix to the newest build of Abacus SE. If you count gross lines and you have Word 2000 or Word 97, you should definitely download and install this newest build of Abacus SE. (Note: this problem has not been reported with the Word add-in version of Abacus, and according to what Microsoft told me, it never should.) And now the problem that popped up when using the Word add-in version of Abacus. Alert user "Julie" noted that since upgrading her computer to Windows XP and Word 2003, the feature "Maintain case in filenames" no longer works properly. Perhaps this is not an issue for most users. But it is for her. So once again, I dove into the program's code and made some changes to fix the problem. It seems that Word 2003 (at least when used with Windows XP) doesn't like to use capital letters when we tell it to. But now it does. Again, you can download this new build from our web site if you need it. The current version 3.0 Abacus build is 040621. 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 040623. If you have an earlier build of Abacus SE, 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 One of the most frequent questions I get is about printing POSTNET bar codes (or any other kinds of codes) on envelopes. Prompted by the latest inquiry, I decided we should talk about this. Hard core user "Gregory" sent me this question last week: "If I submit ZIP+4 CASS-certified addresses, will the barcodes be accurate for the delivery point and check digits? Do accurate barcodes print for PO Boxes, STE #'s, and other CASS-certified addresses in less common formats?" Whoa! The program is pretty simple, and so are its capabilities. So let me tell you what it can and can't do. Envelope Printer can print 5, 9, or 11 digit US POSTNET bar codes. This is the series of bars that appears either just above or just below the address on an envelope, and is just a bar code representation of the zip code. It cannot print Canadian, British, or any other nationality's postal codes. It also cannot print FIM or any other kind of bar codes (at least not yet, and possibly not ever). In order to print the POSTNET codes, you must have a valid zip code entered with the rest of the address, and it must be on the bottom (5th) line on the program's main screen. Remember -- you can leave lines blank. You could, for example, Use lines 1 and 2 for the name and first line of the address, leave lines 3 and 4 blank, and then enter the city, state, and zip code on the 5th line. The current Envelope Printer build is 040125 of version 7.0. If you have an earlier build or version, you may want to download and upgrade to this build. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.