WJC

Roger that.

Pauls and Patrick: Are you guys ready for me to try to send my file, again?

Patrick, You need not be sorry. Beat, Beat, Beat ... Ah, I feel so much better now, and you? Also, on your investigating, stop apologizing or I'll beat you again. Yes, I am frustrated! I NEED to get my book out. But I haven't become uncivilized; we are all in this together. Apparently, some more than others. I have been called a liar for saying I was one of the first to sign up as a beta tester. Although I'm sure Serif's records could back me up on that. I have been called a liar for saying I had sent my file to Serif—TWICE—when you could easily, and did, verify my comment. I wonder what other accusation awaits me as I just try to get some valid answers. Oh, where is that "Serif of Nottingham" when you need him? 'Lil Robert Hode humor ... sorry, I meant "humour."

Oval, Please before calling me a liar, you might want to check with Serif's "Callum." he is the one who requested the file and was sent it, TWICE., as Patrick—after this reply was started—verified. I am many things, but a liar isn't one of them. If I were willing to bend the truth, I would not be hurting for money. Pauls, I have related several issues. Please, before I ATTEMPT to send the file again, tell me what you/I hope to gain from it. R C-R, I knew about the blue border and the pages I THOUGHT I was selecting were grayed out as well, indicating to me that I was about to delete THOSE pages not those 70 pages later—at the end of the book. Thomaso, It seems "delete" would have been more helpful than "delete pages." Patrick, I keep seeing how my book was "truncated" and did not make it to Serif. At the bottom of this page, it says I can attach files up to "1985.64MB" in size. My file was 89.1 mg in one mode and reduced to 39 mg when zipped. Even at its largest, it is still a fraction of what I am told will be accommodated. What's happening? Finally, I can't be the only person working with books. Are all my concerns assinine because everyone else on the planet has it it all figured out or are using AP to make 2-page fliers?

191113 Hi, ALL: I have done as requested ... at least mostly; the rest will come, tomorrow. I downloaded beta 1.8.0.502 and put an experimental copy of my book into it. As a beta, I must first say there should be a way for the end-user to know his program is being downloaded. Most other programs offer that simple feature. When I finally went to look in my downloads, I found 4 copies being downloaded. When I got rid of the last 3, I found that the program stopped downloading at odd times. It seems trying to work on anything else during the download process, the download timed out. For most other programs I’m familiar with, this wouldn’t have been a concern. Next, I was told that auto-repagination would have probably been corrected by 1.8.0.502. It was not. Apparently, I am going to have an unnecessary blank page here and there to get pages situated where they need to be because this critical part of page layout has so far been omitted. I did learn why the program refused to remove those FOUR duplicated pages. When I selected the pages from the “pages” sidebar and saw they were highlighted, I pressed the “delete 2 pages” option. I did this several times, thinking something would eventually happen. It did. Each time I chose that option, TWO PAGES WERE DELETED ... FROM THE END OF THE BOOK which was totally unintuitive, given the text and graphics at hand. Which brings me to: Where do I find a way to delete pages within the document? I would have thought “deleting pages” would have been a topic in the “HELP” section. Alas, no. Deleting or cutting the text box just makes the text go to the next page and deleting the highlighted page just removes a page from the end of the document. In so many ways, I am impressed with the program and I hate to think I may have to recreate the whole book again in InDesign. However, if it’s going to be the “InDesign killer” some IMPORTANT things are going to have to be more intuitive. I’ll be back at it tomorrow, doing as Pauls suggested. In the meantime, I hope someone will please tell me how to delete, cut, burn, or bomb those unwanted pages in such a way they can’t show up somewhere else.

The following does not roost with the problem. It for general communication only. Oval: Please don’t stay out of the problem. Almost everything I am learning is coming a piece at a time from users. The attached is all I have left to show I signed up as a beta tester. I’m confident Serif would have dates to show I signed on as early as possible. This town has a grand total of ONE Mac geek. The last time he “helped” me with a problem, he deleted 3,100 documents and images! Some help, huh? My next iMac problem will cost me a 200-mile round trip. Within what he deleted was, I’m certain, the icon for the beta was among the disposed of images. I had just switched from PC (where I had been using Serif’s PagePlus 7) to iMAC and learned the PP 9 was a “legacy” program that wouldn’t work on the Apple format, anyway. After Installing AP 1.7.3, the beta only worked sporadically and finally wouldn’t start at all. I just figured the programs were conflicting. Whether programmed that way or something I did, I don’t know. I thought testing on 1.7.3. was adequate. But, then as now, I couldn’t give a lot of time to it. Even at this moment, I have material owed to Sky & Telescope, Southern Boating, Times of the Islands, and my new book. Thus, I have little time for pleasure. R C-R: I put too much stock in what my iMac helper said on his first visit. I have 8 Gb of RAM and a terabyte of storage. Pauls: I must spend some time away. But when I return, I will try to do what you say and provide the info requested.

Hi, Connor: First, to Oval. Yes, I am a purchaser. However, I signed up as a beta tester the day that option became available. Thus, I can’t understand why pointing out these anomalies seems to be taken in a negative light. Isn’t that what beta testers are supposed to do? Connor: There can be no doubt that I am as frustrated as a fellow can be. But while at least one has taken me to be verbose, it seems when I am succinct two bad things happen. 1) I am short on explaining THOROUGHLY what I mean, and 2) I am taken to be terse when it is certainly not warranted. — I guess the primary question for me is: Am I the only person using AP on the planet having these problems? I have a late model iMac with a terabyte of memory. As I see it, that is a critical piece of the puzzle. — Also, why have I sent the ENTIRE file containing the mangled first file above to Serif (TWICE) without being told what the problem is or how to solve it. I assure you that’s not being snotty. But I have invested a lot of time and think I deserve an answer, just as with the other two graphics problems. AP is new enough that I wouldn’t expect even the senior engineers to have all the answers. However, when “I don’t know” is the honest answer, I expect to hear or see it. I am not the enemy here and know we’ll reach workable answers faster if all our cards are on the table. Yes, I’m frustrated. But I’d rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. Honest communication can make it so. — Finally—and this is tied to my first point—if putting my book/file into beta v499 will help, I am eager to do so. Just tell me what to do—simply, computer program style—how I am to accomplish this, without SUPPOSING I know anything. I’ve been up for hours and this stroke victim needs to head for the sheets for a while. PS Thomaso: I understand your thinking. Please try to understand mine. A great career in optics and a good salary are behind me and I could use the money my new book will generate.

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS CLOSED-CIRCUIT FOR THOMASO. Hi, Thomaso: I’m sorry if my communication offends you; I certainly didn’t intend to do so. But was I NOT being succinct when I first mentioned “shifting pages,” and did it not take a month for someone at Serif to admit that there is no way in the current version to logically correct the problem? That may not be “wasting time” for you. However, it is for me. You may also note, I have not been the only one vexed with this problem. Please look at the first jumbled page attached. I have sent the file to Serif as requested—TWICE. Still, to this day, I have not been told the cause of the problem or what can be done to correct it. Yes, there have been many words, but few answers. Having to do a hard shutdown on the computer and bring it back up—7 or 8 times a day—is, to me, a waste of time. Having sent the file to Serif twice, I would have suspected a solution; alas, no. Then, we not only have pages shifting, but items shifting ON THE PAGE (graphic 2) with no logical reason why. They shifted on THIS page and others. Text and graphics switched sides on the left page and graphics switched sides on the right page. The final attachment (graphic 3), shows a duplicate image that I was not able to DELETE or CUT in more than half an hour of trying. To me, this was, again, a waste of time. Would it not be for you? When I sat down at the computer the following day, the errant image had just disappeared. Finally, when learning of beta v499, I was also told that it was not a working program, the file could not be imported into the current professional version, could not be used for publication, and Serif’s Patrick Connor said it could be MONTHS before that upgrade is ready. And I remember being told that InDesign will not import AP files. Please, Thomaso, don’t I have a right to be a little verbose? Perhaps if I were getting more straight answers, I would not need to be. I freely admit, that I have seen some wonderful things in the program; I have said this from the start. Yet, the shortcomings in programming I’m dealing with has been pegging out the needle on my frustration meter.

I did as Bruce told me. I am so new to the program, I am just grasping at straws. I hate to bother the people at Serif directly, especially since it took a month to learn that the current version of AP does not have an auto-repagination feature and there would not be one for months. I went to the tutorial section and typed in "deleting pages," which I thought was a valid query. But I only got the "Sorry" reply. Boy, I sure wish I could import my book into InDesign. There is no doubt this program has a great future. But the here and now is causing me massive headaches with answers to simple questions hiding under rocks.

Hi, Bruce, The original file was 89.1 mg. After compression, it is 39 mg. According to instructions on the page, even full-sized, it SHOULD have fit into a TINY fraction of the allotted space. This has turned into a comedy of errors that is not in the least funny! Anyway, it's HOPEFULLY attached. I just want the pages that I want deleted ... TO STAY THAT WAY so I can get to OTHER assinine problems. FINAL_The_Concise_Guide_191105_copy_2.afpub.zip

Wosven: I'll see what I can do. As you can see, my file is a fraction of what this program SAYS it can deal with. I can see I should have done one more book in InDesign. But, I believed.

Hi, Wosven: Attached you will find the entire book. On a page numbered “1,” you will see a DUPLICATE page from the of my PREFACE followed by a DUPLICATE of my 2 ½-page INTRODUCTION from several pages earlier on pages numbered “2” through “4.” As mentioned in my previous post, I have repeatedly tried to delete the text AND the pages themselves only to have those things continue to show up later. I have even tried to stop the text flow that I might be able to discard them; nothing has worked. Please teach me. FINAL_The_Concise_Guide_191105.afpub

I've already sent the whole book to Serif employees, twice. However, I will send it to you, tomorrow. My "get up and go" has "got up and went" for today. It appears to accommodate my file size, but I have my doubts.

Hi, Again: I’ve long been of the belief, that I was going to have to shift the pages of the whole book and insert my own page numbers. Yet, every time I think I am out of the woods, some other non-intuitive problem jumps before me. That being the case, I can finish neither my table of contents OR glossary. T he last piece of the puzzle I was waiting on was the foreword. I have it now and inserted it. Without auto-repagination, I have had to add an EXTRA page; it looks foolish, but I have to get this thing to press. I started going through the book page by page. After my table of contents (still lacking page numbers), I find an orphaned page that has been duplicated from my preface ... Seven pages earlier. After that page, we have a 2 1/2-page duplicate from my introduction. Trying to delete the text failed. Trying to delete the pages failed. Trying to unlink the text flow, thinking that might help, failed. No matter what I remove, the pages I don’t want just reappear later in the book. This should not be “rocket science.” To stay alive—and keep my doctor happy—I’m going to walk away for a few hours. Please help if you can.

Yo, yer Waltness, thank you so much! Every piece of the puzzle is helpful in putting together the whole. I hope the NEW version will come with a manual as the first two programs did. For the reasons described, I have a hard time learning by osmoses and a manual would allow for trial and error, watching the results in real-time. “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” — Winston Churchill Have a great day.