FrameMaker Wish List, Pt. 3

[Tony Rocco <tony_rocco -at- NAVIS -dot- COM>]

Mail*Link(r) SMTP               FrameMaker Wish List, Pt. 3

Last but not least, pt.3 of the reply to our FrameMaker wish list. Thanks
again for input from everyone. You might email Diane Burrows at
darthur -at- frame -dot- com and thank her for her timely response. Put the case number
273142 in your subject line.

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Date: 4/9/96 14:35
From: Diane Burrows
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For follow-up to this mailing, refer to TS Case: 273142

Dear Tony:

You write:

        From: Sarah T. Harris...
        I've been reading your wish list thread.
        I'm responding to you privately so as
        not to junk up the listserv. However, in
        reference to Diane's response on the issue
        of ghosting images, we have that problem
        here at my office, and CTL+L does not work.

        If you're in correspondence with Diane,
        please let her know. Our fix is to
        View the Reference Page for the document,
        click on an element on the ref page,
        then View the Body Pages again. The ghost
        image is then gone.

        Here at Sunquest Information Systems in
        Tucson we have about 15 writers on IBM-
        compatible machines with Frame 4.

If Ctrl-d didn't fix the problem, we will need to open a new case for
you regarding this as it appears to have progressed beyond the
'enhancement request' stage. Since I don't have Sarah's email address,
will you please ask her to send email to comments -at- frame -dot- com with this
display problem? We'll assign it to a Technical Support Engineer to
work on in her behalf.

                I get random crashes of Frame on my machine, which
                Frame Support suggests is Windows 32s's fault, but I
                say if crashes happen, the application needs work. It's
                the software developers' responsibility to ensure that
                the application works on _whatever_ OS the application
                is sold with, period. Why should I have to call my MIS
                people and get them to waste time complying with all
                the configuration issues outlined in those lengthy
                "troubleshooting" faxes?


Win32s is comprised of files that provide a subset of 32-bit
capabilities for the Windows 3.1/DOS 16-bit environment. These files
are written and provided by Microsoft. FrameMaker comes bundled with
these files. Unfortunately, system configuration is sometimes necessary
for the win32s files to work error-free. The list of troubleshooting
steps we have provided you in the past (tnote 1848) is comprised mainly
of recommendations that come directly from Microsoft for win32s-based
crashes and problems.

You will need to run through these steps to begin troubleshooting your
win32s problems. We are happy to speak with you, or directly with your
system administrator, to help with any questions you may have on these
troubleshooting steps. If the problem persists, I will take the
information from these steps and assign a different case number to it
and Technical Support will continue troubleshooting it for you as a
separate issue.

        Warning when application is starting to run out of memory
        instead of just suddenly quitting when it does FrameMaker for
        Mac usually does provide a warning before quitting.

FrameMaker for MS Windows does provide messages, through MS Windows,
when there may not be enough memory to complete a task. In addition,
graphics may display or print gray before an out of memory message
appears. tnote 1108 (attached below) addresses this graying graphics
behavior and troubleshooting steps.

Although, it may be that the problem you are experiencing may not be
directly related to a memory issue. What exact behavior do you see?
What are you doing in FrameMaker at the time the problem behavior
occurs? Does this relate to the win32s errors you refer to above? We
are happy to troubleshoot this further for you if you wish to provide
some additional information. I may need to open another case for you on
this as it doesn't appear to be just an enhancement request issue.

If the tnote 1108 does not solve this problem write me separately on
the issue and I'll see it gets logged and assigned to another Technical
Support Engineer.

I think I've now addressed all the issues that you originally wrote me
about, but if I missed any let me know.

If you have any questions about this particular issue, please feel
free to contact me directly. All other inquiries should continue to
be addressed to comments -at- frame -dot- com -dot- 

On 10/27/95 Adobe's acquisition of Frame Technology became final.
We have not yet begun to integrate Frame's product support
operation into Adobe.  Until further notice, please continue
to obtain technical support for Frame products via telephone,
email and online services using the existing "Frame" phone
numbers and addresses.

Regards,

Diane G. Arthur
Adobe Technical Support - Frame Products


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     Adobe Systems, Inc. - Frame Products Technical Support Numbers
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Technical Support Hotline:  408.975.6466  Frame Products BBS: 408.975.6729
Technical Support Faxline:  408.975.6611                           or 6730
FrameFacts FAX system:      408.975.6731          BigMac BBS: 408.975.6738

Frame Products Web Site: http://www.frame.com (includes a link to FTP site)
Frame Products FTP site: ftp.frame.com (or 192.111.118.8)
                         login: anonymous &  password: your email address
FrameFile: listserver -at- frame -dot- com: send an email to this address with
                        'SEND HELP' as the body of the message.
Compuserve: Section 17 of the Adobe Forum, type GO ADOBEAPP

Internet EMAIL: comments -at- frame -dot- com    (Canada, U.S., Pac Rim & S.America)
                intltechsup -at- frame -dot- com ( other international queries)

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 Corporate numbers below, use the information ABOVE for technical support.
333 West San Carlos, San Jose, CA 95110   Tel:408.975.6000 FAX:408.975.6799
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#KEYWORDS resources memory display swap video pc
#DATE Fri Sep 24 14:05:26 PDT 1993
#VERSION 3.x ms
#TOPIC Why do my graphics sometimes appear as gray boxes?

Technical Note 1108
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QUESTION:

Sometimes when I open a FrameMaker document with imported graphics, the
graphics appear as gray boxes. Why does this happen?

ANSWER:

This problem is usually related to the Windows system resources, SWAP,
TEMP, RAM, VIDEO, and HEAP.  Microsoft recommended settings for SWAP,
TEMP, and VIDEO follow below.

RAM is the most "misused" of the system resources. How your RAM is
working depends on the Memory manager you use and the way you configure
it.  As a default, DOS 5 and 6 are not setup optimally to manage memory
for Windows in 386 Enhanced mode. Before EVER buying RAM to solve a
Windows problem make sure you have checked everything else.  More RAM
will not solve "graying" problems if Windows is not setup correctly.
Also, some third-party memory managers are not as good at handling
memory as the Microsoft HIMEM.SYS driver.  When in doubt, ALWAYS try
HIMEM before you consider adding RAM.  HIMEM has also been tested to
operate faster than any non-Microsoft memory manger.

Since Windows is a task-switching environment, the software has to have
a place to keep a list of "what" is going on.  These lists, called
HEAPS in Windows, is limited to 128K(two 64-K segments)! This means that
you can have 4 GB of RAM and 20GB of diskspace, but if Windows and DOS
are not configured right, you can appear to be out of "resources".
Many things can corrupt the Windows heap. The biggest offenders of HEAP
corruption are bad OLE, Object Packager, and incomplete video drivers.
One of the steps that follow is to remove the video driver from the system
and remove its "load" from the Windows heaps.

1. Go to Control Panel/386 Enhanced/Virtual Memory. Microsoft recommends
   at least 5 megs of swap space. Creating a PERMANENT swap file
   improves performance bacause it is a contiguous file. Accessing a
   contiguous file takes less time than accessing a noncontiguous file.
   If you are working with graphic intensive files it may be a good
   idea to increase the size of the swap file. If diskspace is an issue,
   one can create a temporary swapfile.

2. Go to File/Run and type in "sysedit" in the command box. This will open
   4 system files (autoexec.bat, config.sys, win.ini and system.ini).
   In autoexec.bat, search for the line that begins with "SET TEMP=".
   Windows writes files to the "TEMP" directory based on "SET TEMP"
   variable. It should not be set to the root directory or any
   directory with files. It should also not be set to a RAM or
   COMPRESSED drive.  Example: SET TEMP=C:\WINDOWS\TEMP. If the
   directory doesn't exist, you will have to create one. You will
   notice that files will accumulate in the temp directory if an
   application doesn't exit gracefully. Make it a habit of erasing the
   files in this directory. To do this, FIRST exit Windows and go to
   "C:\WINDOW\TEMP" and enter "ERASE *.TMP".

3. Run CHKDSK /F outside of windows.  If lost allocation units are found,
   type "N" (do not save lost units in files).  This cleans up your hard
   disk, freeing space to make it available to temp and swap.  For more
   information on "chkdsk", refer to the MS-DOS Manual.  After making all
   the changes, reboot the system and try to open the "PROBLEM" file.

4. If the problem persists, change the video driver to "VGA". Go to
   Windows Setup\Options\Change System Settings and select "VGA" for
   display.  You can also try using Microsoft's SuperVGA driver.  If
   the driver is not on the system, you will have to insert one of the
   Window's diskettes to install the driver.  If you don't see the
   problem after changing the driver, get the latest video driver from
   the Windows Library at 206/637-9009.

It is also recommended that Chapter 14 of the Microsoft Window's
User Guide be referenced for more information on "Optimizing Windows".

If you continue to exhibit the same behavior, we will have to examine
your system files. They are config.sys, autoexec.bat, win.ini and
system.ini.

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