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Page Preview Problems

Started by ostrowlaw, May 21, 2003, 08:21:59 PM

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ostrowlaw

I have my version of WS7 set up on a Novell Network V4.1.  I've attached a copy of my .cfg file.  The fontid.ctl file has the following fonts assigned:
BUTTON_COLOR=
;
VER=V5.00
01=NPSHLV1 ,100 050 4006 341
02=NPSHLV2 ,100 050 4206 341
03=NPSHLV3 ,100 050 4106 341
04=NPSHLV4 ,100 050 4306 341
05=COURIER1,120 072 4403 341
06=COURIER2,120 072 4603 341
07=COURIER3,120 072 4503 341
08=COURIER4,120 072 4703 341
09=UNIVERS1,180 093 C034 341
10=UNIVERS2,180 093 C134 341
11=UNIVERS3,180 093 C234 341
12=UNIVERS4,180 093 C334 341
13=TIMES1  ,180 082 C405 341
14=TIMES2  ,180 087 C505 341
15=TIMES3  ,180 079 C605 341
16=TIMES4  ,180 082 C705 341
17=BOOKMNB ,
18=BOOKMNI ,
19=BOOKMNJ ,
20=BOOKMNR ,
21=HEL850B ,
22=HEL850I ,
23=HEL850J ,
24=HEL850R ,
25=HELVNAB ,
26=HELVNAI ,
27=HELVNAJ ,
28=HELVNAR ,
29=NEWCNTB ,
30=NEWCNTI ,
31=NEWCNTJ ,
32=NEWCNTR ,
33=PALATNB ,
34=PALATNI ,
35=PALATNJ ,
36=PALATNR ,
37=ZAPFDBR ,
38=ZAPFCHI ,
39=SYMBOLR ,
40=AVGARDR ,
41=AVGARDB ,
42=AVGARDI ,
43=AVGARDJ ,

Numbers 17 - 43 were recently added (but don't appear to do anything).

When I try to use Preview, the program opens up but I simply get a blank white sheet.  I have another copy of WS7 on my home computer and it works just fine.  I think I have the drive mappings set up wrong for the Preview
files, but I can't find the problem.

Interestingly, I have the fontid.ctl program mapped to my personal f:\users\aro\ws7 drive.  When I attempt to use preview, the file just "disappears".   Weird.

I tried changing crt_type, and inverse 1 or inverse 0.  The screen looks different, but no characters appear.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?  Thanks.

Alan


 :( :(

deedee

#1
Hi Alan,

There are a number of things that Print Preview is touchy about. It insists on your system having graphics capability. I assume it meets that criterion.

Print Preview can't run with two windows open, unless you have at least 80Kb (~5 pages) of EMS memory available. Are you running WS using upper memory or standard memory? Did you change this recently?

Print Preview needs 512Kb of standard memory available when it runs. Are your memory-resident programs leaving enough memory for WS's preview? Have you installed any memory-resident programs recently, or started using any programs TSR?

You can type a question mark during the splash screen when WS is opening to get memory usage information. Or, you can type "mem" on the command line from the Run DOS command under File.

Phil noted in a similar case that it might not be a memory problem. One gets the same error if the FontID.ctl file has the wrong line  for CRT_TYPE=

The generic line is

CRT_TYPE=

i.e., leave it blank after the equals sign.

deedee  :)
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#2
Thanks for your reply.

I am showing a ton of memory as follows:

Conventional Memory In Use 337 Available 254
Expanded Memory In Use      256 Available 16128
Extended Memory  In Use      256 Available 65279

Here's how it breaks down:
Wordstar 220K
Text and Data 115K
Messages 2K
Printing 0K
Hyphenation, Thesauras, Spelling 0K each

Maybe I need reallocate some conventional memory to printing?  I haven't had any printing problems yet.

Between the 337 and 256K available for conventional memory, it looks like its not a memory problem.

Thanks.
Alan
 :( :(

deedee

#3
Hi Alan,

I guess you're not going to make this easy  :-/.

Your memory looks fine. WS doesn't report the upper memory accurately, but the important part is that you're using it. That's takes the burden off the conventional memory.

The fact that your printing, hyphenation, thesaurus and spelling were 0Kb merely means that you weren't using them at the time you checked on the memory.

I'm assuming that your crt_type in fontid.ctl is already equal to a blank.

Those fonts that you indicated recently appeared look like postscript fonts to me. Did you recently install a postscript printer driver? Any new printer driver? How were they added? The way you say it, it sounds as though they appeared out of the blue ;).

I don't think it should make a difference, except if you don't have a postscript driver installed, then maybe the blank sheet is that it's trying to access a screen font that doesn't exist and coming up blank. I'm just fishing here.

Have you tried simply copying the entire WS installation that's working to this machine? Or, reinstalling?

If the other installation is on a different drive, reinstall WS on the drive you want and then copy everything except ws.exe from the working copy to your new installation. Ws.exe contains the path information for finding everything. If you're using macros with path information, you will have to fix them as well.

Page preview basically creates a graphic of each of your pages -- so memory and the video card are two critical things that affect its function, and of course it needs to know how to draw the fonts.

deedee
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#4
Well, I removed the excess postscript fonts and left 1-16 alone.  Now, the fontid.ctl is the same as the file I have been using on my home computer which works fine.

I installed WS on my office computer copying ALL files verbatim from my home install -- works just fine.  So, the video settings, memory, etc., as well as the fonts are fine.

I think maybe its the drive mappings.  Do you happen to know which files are actually used by preview.  I'll check the drive mappings to see if they're going into the twilight zone.

Thanks.
Alan'
 ;D

deedee

#5
Hi Alan,

Preview uses three files, all of which should be in the root WS directory (e.g., c:\ws):

preview.ovr
fontid.ctl
*.crt

The temporary *.crt files should be created automatically by WS when you invoke Preview, and can be deleted when you're finished previewing the file.

I went through my fontid.ctl to see what I had. Mine works perfectly under DOS, win3.1, win98se, and Linux.

I only had the first 16 fonts of your list -- and I do have postscript drivers that I use extensively under all OSes.

Each line of fontid.ctl is set to the default value. I'm not using a memory manager (e.g., QEMM), so I don't specify anything for CRT_TYPE. I'm surprised that leaving it blank didn't solve your problem. That seems to be a common reason for a previously functioning Preview to start to malfunction.

deedee ???
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#6
Hi Deedee,

Well, I have this working on a Network, so the directories are alittle different, but I think I have all the Preview files together.  Here's what the Preview subdirectory looks like:


 Volume in drive F is SYS        
 Directory of F:\APPS\WS\PREVIEW

DELCRT   EXE         1,411  06-09-92  9:35p DELCRT.EXE
PREVIEW  OVR        53,174  08-03-92 12:02p PREVIEW.OVR
VESA1024 WGD         2,880  06-09-92  9:35p VESA1024.WGD
SHOWPCX  EXE        26,314  08-03-92 12:02p SHOWPCX.EXE
GRFPIX   EXE        13,991  06-09-92  9:35p GRFPIX.EXE
PREVIEW  MSG        10,227  01-31-92 11:50a PREVIEW.MSG
FONTID   CTL         9,004  10-17-94  9:41p FONTID.CTL
03670464 CRT   <DIR>        05-22-03  9:22a 03670464.CRT
         7 file(s)        117,001 bytes
         3 dir(s)     198,311,936 bytes free

So, I have all the right files in the right place, I think the drive mappings are correct, the memory is OK, I removed any offensive postcript references, what's next?

Thanks.
Alan


deedee

#7
I found all the files you list in d:\ws on my system (WS is on drive d:\) -- however, preview.ovr and fontid.ctl are the files that run print preview.

Did you check Preview's path in WSCHANGE?  If it's the default, you may be correct in thinking that it's not finding the *.crt files and therefore why you're not seeing anything.

Preview defaults to path 3 which is \WS (or c:\ws).  For a network you may have to set a primary path so that Preview can find its files.  However, check it first and see what it did.  For a single user, WS assigns all files to secondary paths.

You'll find the preview path information under WSCHANGE, C (Computer), then D (Wordstar files).  The definitions for all search paths are listed under A.  F, G, and H show the location of the Preview files.  The single-user default is (U/3).  U is the primary path and means uninstalled; 3 is path 3 which is \WS.  WS searches primary paths first and then secondary paths.

Your path is not f:\WS, but f:\users\aro\ws -- I don't know enough about Novell networks to say if that's the equivalent thing.  But, at first blush, I would think not.  It's not the same thing on Linux systems and it's not the same thing to DOS.

How are other files specified?  Choose something that you can easily check on -- try menu #4 the Spelling checker overlay.  It's on (U/2) for single users.  Is that where it is for your system and is it working?

deedee  :)
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#8
I just don't know, I keep fiddling with the drive mappings but to no avail.  Everything else is working fine, and my "standalone" version of WS7 which I installed on the same machine runs Preview file.  I even copied the fontid.ctl file verbatim into my f:\apps\ws and f:\users\aro\ws7 directories -- still no dice.

deedee

#9
Hi Alan,

When you say you've been fiddling with the drive mappings, what have you been doing? Give me an example so I can be sure I'm on the same page as you.

Thanks,
deedee
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#10
OK,

If you ever had a chance to look at a networked version of Wordstar,  there's a section in WSCHANGE to assign primary and secondary paths for wordstar files.   There are up to 16 search paths.  I've been moving these paths around, trying to get the right combination.  Preview.ovr and preview work files have been assigned primary search path of f:\apps\ws\preview and secondary path of f:\apps\ws (the bulk of my WS files are in f:\apps\ws.  The location of fontid.ctl is primary f:\users\aro\ws7 (my default work file directory) and the secondary is f:\apps\ws\preview.  There are copies of fontid.ctl in both directories and, yes, the files are identical (I was anticipating your question here).

What about WSSTYLE.OVR?  Is this essential to Preview? What about *.pdf or *.ps files?  Should they be in the same search path as Preview?  I really don't know which files Preview uses, so its difficult to determine which ones to put in the correct search path.

So, I guess I'm coming closer, IF this is the problem.

Thanks for your help.

Alan.

deedee

#11
I've never worked with a networked version of WS. However, looking at your file assignments, I do have a suggestion based on how WS checks on things.

Remember, it always looks on the primary path first. If it finds what it needs on the primary path, it does not look on the secondary path at all.

For networks, the manual clearly states that the primary path must be identified. In your case, it appears to be. However, your primary path for fontid.ctl is not the same as your primary path for preview.ovr.

Make certain that all the critical preview files have the exact same primary path. Those files are all the ones you have in f:\apps\ws\preview.

You didn't mention the *.crt files primary/secondary path. That primary path must also be the same as the others.

The files that run print preview are preview.ovr, fontid.ctl, and *.crt.

The other files in that subdirectory do other things. For example, delcrt.exe is the file that will get rid of the temporary *.crt files when you want to do some housekeeping and free up space by getting rid of unnecessary files.

Wsstyle.ovr is not a preview file, but is a critical file for running the basic WS program -- if WS is otherwise operating correctly, don't change it  ;).

Good luck,
deedee
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485

ostrowlaw

#12
Hi Deedee.

As I said, I played around with the drive mappings, etc.
I realize that you don't fiddle with Novell networks, and I tried getting some help from Novell -- no avail.

The solution, after fidding around and trial and error was very simple -- too simple.  I moved all the *.wsf files into the preview directory (f:\apps\ws\preview).  That's it.  End of story.

Keep it in mind for the future if some other poor soul has the same problem.

Thanks for your help.  I'll be back to you as I progress with other problems.

Alan
 ;D ;D

deedee

#13
So, Preview couldn't find your screen fonts. That's interesting. I guess those additional fonts it created (when you had the long list of them) was WS/Preview's attempt at getting screen fonts. But if it put those new fonts in the root directory (which is where they usually are found), Preview still couldn't see them and was in the same spot as before.

I'm glad you're now able to use Print Preview again. Good job on finding that.

deedee  :)
WordStar Users Group: http://www.wordstar2.com
WordStar Users Group Mailing Lists: http://wordstar2.com/mailman/listinfo
Reg. Linux User #327485