#PageStream Blues
7 messages in this thread
To all novice PageStream Users: Am I the only person in the universe who
has trouble getting the program to save? I called SL; checked out the
pathway, etc. As of now, the program will save stuff I generate within it,
but WILL NOT save imported text. Or, more accurately, will save it
occasionally, about one time in four. It will also read it about one time
in four, as well–and any overwrite (such as when you save something with
Amiga-S) is fraught with peril.
I've wasted at least four working days formatting the same chapter over and
over, and getting things printed by some rather kludgy techniques; But I
can't get the program to work to my satisfaction.
Hard drive problem? All my other programs work fine.
I'm not about to retype my manuscript into PageStream when all 110,000
words of it are sitting there quite nicely in a ProWrite file.
I'm losing patience with this; if I'm doing something dumb, let me know!
Lee Grantham
addendum to last message: Here's what I've been doing: creating a master
page which has a page number on it (obviously, when you're creating the
master it shows "M") then getting off the master on to page one and then
changing the number with the Set starting page… command; then creating
columns to cover the length of the chapter, columns linked button on and
tthen importing text.
Here's the bug: if I don't touch the page number function (i.e.,let the
default of one be the starting number) the program seems to be able to
save the imported text. If I change the number (before importing or after
importing text) the next time I go to save it (either with A-S or Save
AS… command ) that imported text is blown into the Black Hole of
Soft-Logik.
I promise you out there that I am NOT crazy, or at least I wasn't crazy
until I started using PageStream. Any Ideas as to how I can get around
this admittedly wacko quirk?
It reminds me of a friend of mine whose house wiring was done by a rather
inexperienced handyman who managed to hook up the thermostat to the
doorbell circuit; everytime someone came to visit the house temperature
changed.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
–Lee Grantham
Yes, Lee, as far as I am aware, you are the only person to report a problem
with the Save command. (We'd never let something out of house with a Save
problem. Actually, come to think of it, we've never had a Save problem in
house either.) I know that's no consolation, but I have no idea what's
going on with your system. I think you should upload me a text file to test
for you. I'll test it in 2.1 and 2.2 and tell you how it works. If it works
fine for me, I'll tell you to re-install PgS. If that doesn't work, then
something in your system is wrong. We once had a problem with IMG import
which took forever to track down. One day someone noticed that all the
people having the problem had the same hard drive controller. I don't
understand how a controller could conflict with an IMG import, but hey, I'm
not a programmer.
Mike SL Tech
Michael: Thanks for the commiseration and the Email. I think I've tracked
down the quirk, and it makes no sense, but I think I can get around it this
way:
If I change the page number, the save function gets screwed up. No
Kidding. So here's my quick and dirty fix: I made a master page template
which has the page number on it (default to one) and then create the
columns on the pages I would be using anyway–say, page 250 through
300–and then go to that page to import text.
That's no big deal, but I still don't see how a page number change can
screw up a save function. So far it's working, knock on wood…:)
I admit I'm an inexperienced user, but these convolutions reminds me of the
joke about the tailor who makes a suit for this guy, and the sleeves are
too long–the tailor says, that's okay, just hold 'em in a little under the
armpits–and the guy does so, then says, hey, the left leg is longer than
the right, and the taulor sez, hey, that's okay, just walk this way… you
get the picture, it's a shaggy dog story, and by the time the tailor is
done with the guy the guy is walking in a horribly contorted posture, a
ridiculously awkward gait, and two little old ladies see him walking down
the street. First LOL sez to second LOL: "My, look at that poor person
with that terrible handicap, having to walk that way."
Second Little Old Lady says, "Yeah, but doesn't his suit fit nicely!"
—Lee 🙂
Strange, I use different page numbers sometimes. I haven't done it with 2.2
recently, but I know I've done it with 2.1. I don't usually exceed 100
pages though. Maybe with higher page numbers? You say you didn't have the
problem until you hit a high chapter? Try saving the chapter (just for fun)
with a lower page number. If that works, maybe we do have a page number
problem. I'll test that out too.
Mike SL Tech
Mike –
Don't be too surorised about the controller. When I was running PgS on
my Atari, I was using two RLL drives attached to an Adaptec 4070 SCSI
adapter. I had one IMG file that no way, no how would allow itself to be
saved on the drives attached to the Adaptec. It saved fine on my other
drive (I think it was a Supra). This was independent of program, even a
file copy through TOS would give errors if the destination was on the
Adaptec. All other IMGs I scanned were OK, just this one picture was bad
even though I re-scanned it severl times. One for Rod Serling …
Harry
Haven't had any save problems with Pagestream here. A-S works fine for
saving, including overwriting. I use Word Perfect, so I'm not familiar
with the ProWrite module. How much memory are you running? Pagestream
keeps everything in memory at once. You might try breaking down your
document into chapters, and then importing. 110,000 words would be a
fairly large document. Especially if you are running 1 or 2 megs.
The surest anwser to most Pagestream problems I've seen is MEMORY.
– Well Whap! Me Silly….