Graphic Workshop Frequently Asked Questions March 14, 1997 Copyright (c) 1996 Alchemy Mindworks Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of Alchemy Mindworks Inc. No fur-bearing animals were harmed during the creation of this document. Allergy alert: may contain nutmeg, but we doubt it. Return for refund where applicable. Not recommended for persons with sugar-restricted diets. Batteries are included -- best of luck finding them. Proud sponsor of the 1934 penguin olympic games at McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. May cause irritability, sleeplessness or warts after prolonged use. Contents under pressure. BHT added to preserve freshness. Caution: this product has caused some laboratory rats to rip through their cages, fly across the room and brutally murder hundreds of innocent people. Shake well before using. No vacuum tubes or other user-serviceable parts inside. Not to be combined with other radioisotopes except under the advice of a physician. Avoid prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light. The truth is out there. Use no hooks. Not intended for use by children or liberals under the age of five. Printed on unrecycled endangered dead trees and we're proud of it. This document contains the following sections: SECTION 1: Downloading, Installation and Shareware SECTION 2: Technical Support SECTION 3: Running Graphic Workshop SECTION 1: Downloading, Installation and Shareware -------------------------------------------------- Q: Is there a Macintosh version of Graphic Workshop? A: Not as yet. One is in the works, but no release date has been assigned to it at this time. Macintosh development is relatively slow and confusing, something they don't tell you when you buy one of the damn things. Q: I've been trying to download the current version of Graphic Workshop for days but your server is always busy. Can you e-mail me a copy? A: Sorry, we are unable to e-mail large binary files over our present mail server. Our main server has been the recipient of an ongoing program of expansion, but each time we increase its capacity, the demand seems to increase to match it. It's usually more readily accessible before noon, EST. We do have a number of mirrors around the world, accessible through the Mirrors link at the top of each of our web pages. The Coast to Coast mirrors are especially useful. Q: I've downloaded Graphic Workshop but it will not install - - it tells me that I must run it under Windows, even when I do. What's wrong? A: You have a damaged download. Download it again. Q: I have downloaded Graphic Workshop, but when I try to install it, it tells me I have a damaged archive. What should I do? A: Here are some things to check. - Compare your downloaded file size to the file size listed at the web page or FTP site you downloaded it from. If they're not the same, you really do have a damaged download and you need to download it again. - Make sure you have at least five megabytes of free hard drive space. - Make sure you're not trying to install the 32-bit version on a sixteen-bit system. - Make sure you are installing through Start->Run, not Add/Remove Programs or Explorer. - Reboot your system and try the installation again with nothing else running. Q: I have a web page. Can I have a free registered copy of Graphic Workshop in exchange for advertising your software at my page? A: 'fraid not. Most of the civilized world has a web page, and were to swap software for links, we'd quickly have no money and lots of links. At such time as we're able to barter some of these links for groceries, we'll reconsider this policy. Q: Does using an unregistered copy of Graphic Workshop to translate a few files without registering it constitute a fair use of the shareware? A: In our opinion it does not. The shareware release of Graphic Workshop is provided for you to evaluate. If you find it to be good enough to do any productive work, we feel that it is good enough to register. If you don't agree -- that is, if you find it to be unsuitable for your needs and as such not worth registering -- please delete it and accept our thanks for trying it out. Q: Should I install Graphic Workshop in Windows 95 or NT through Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel? A: Absolutely not. Use the Run item of the Start menu. Q: Can the 32-bit version of Graphic Workshop run under Windows 3.1 or Windows 3.11 if I have WIN32S installed? A: No, it uses several DLLs not supplied with WIN32S. Use the sixteen-bit build. Q: What are the functional differences between the sixteen- and 32-bit builds of Graphic Workshop? A: Not much. The sixteen-bit version supports HPGL and CGM rasterization, which the 32-bit build does not. The 32-bit build does much better WMF rasterization. Other than that, they're identical. You're probably wondering about now if Windows 95 might not have just been a really sneaky way to sell everyone 32-bit versions of perfectly good sixteen-bit applications. Q: What files does the downloaded shareware Graphic Workshop installer add to my \WINDOWS and \WINDOWS\SYSTEM directories, and what changes does it make to my registry? A: None. We feel that shareware should not mess with your system files, and none of ours does. Everything the installer writes to your hard drive goes in Graphic Workshop's private directory, and no system files are altered. Q: How can I uninstall the downloaded shareware version of Graphic Workshop. A: Simply delete its private directory and everything in it. Q: If I register Graphic Workshop by phone, can I get a registration code immediately? A: We can e-mail one to you if you request it. This usually takes about 72 hours. Please note, that's actually three business days -- weekends don't count. This can take longer still if we get swamped. Q: How can I register Graphic Workshop? A: You can pay by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or by a cheque drawn on an international bank having the address of a North American clearing office and a bank transit number printed on it. Cheques must be in US dollars -- no other currency can be accepted. Please do not send us Eurocheques -- they cannot be cleared outside Europe. Our present bank cannot accept payments by wire transfer. We ask that you use the order form provided with every copy of Graphic Workshop to place your order. It's stored in a file called ORDER.WRI in the Graphic Workshop directory, which can be opened with Windows Write or WordPad. You can register over CompuServe at GO SWREG. The registration code is 10495 for the 32-bit build and 1403 for the sixteen-bit build. You can FAX the order form to 1-905-936-9502, e-mail it to alchemy@mail.north.net or snail-mail it to Alchemy Mindworks Inc., P.O. Box 500, Beeton, Ontario L0G 1A0 CANADA. For the fastest service, please call our order desk at 1-800-263- 1138 or 1-905-936-9500. They take all major plastic, and are open 24 hours a day. We are unable to send you Graphic Workshop COD. Q: Can I pay for Graphic Workshop by purchase order? A: No. If you want to buy 100 or more copies, please get in touch with us and we'll consider it. Sadly, the purchase order system has seen considerable abuse in recent years -- while few institutions issuing purchase orders flat-out refuse to honour them, we have found that many purchase orders are accompanied by extensive documentation requirements, lengthy waits for payment and the need to follow up and beg for money multiple times before a cheque actually gets cut. This probably makes sense if the purchase order has been issued to pay for a Cray supercomputer or a couple of B1 bombers -- it's not workable for a $20.00 shareware registration. Q: How long does it take to get a registered copy of Graphic Workshop? A: Barring unforeseen delays -- post office strikes, mice in the disk copying machine, an unscheduled apocalypse -- we will ship your software within 72 hours of receiving your registration order. Note that it usually takes two to three weeks for a package to get from Canada to the United States, and at least three weeks for one to get from Canada to overseas destinations. We have no control over this. The only other shipping option we can offer at present is Federal Express. As of this writing, this costs $28.00 (US) to the United States and $45.00 (US) to other parts of the world. We cannot ship by UPS, Airborne, DHL or other couriers at this time. Q: I already have the shareware version of Graphic Workshop. Can you just e-mail me the registration code and not charge me shipping. A: We certainly can. Just be sure to state that you'd like this done when you register. You'll get no disks by snail-mail, and we'll deduct the $5.00 shipping charge. Please note that you must state that you want your registration code e-mailed to you at the time you order. We are unable to locate and amend your order after it has been received. We are unable to provide this option to users who register through GOSWREG on CompuServe. Q: I'm writing a book and I'd like to include Graphic Workshop with it. Can I do this? A: Please see http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/bookdisk.html for complete information. Q: Do you offer an educational discount for Graphic Workshop? A: No, we don't. We feel that the fairest price is one which applies to everyone equally. Q: Does the registered version of Graphic Workshop come with a printed manual? A: No, it comes with complete documentation on disk which can be printed out if you require a paper reference. A paper manual would have about doubled the cost of the package -- we feel that software should be affordable, and this extra cost didn't seem to make sense for an application as simple as Graphic Workshop. Q: Are you guys in league with the devil? A: Don't laugh -- we get asked this one frequently. Some of the people who work at Alchemy Mindworks have pagan beliefs, and some vaguely pagan iconography has appeared in some of our literature and example graphics. The most overtly pagan images arguably turn up in the "click me" advertisements for Steven William Rimmer's novels, which are themselves fairly pagan. This document being about Graphic Workshop rather than about comparative theology, we won't get into the distinction between that which is pagan and that which is occult or satanic, save to note that there is a really huge difference between them. We have been surprised -- or perhaps more correctly, disturbed -- to find that some fundamentalist christians seem to equate pagan traditions with worship of the christian devil. Our reply to this is "not even close" -- and their reply to our reply is very often "that's just what I'd expect the devil to say." Well, we aren't. If we were, we'd no doubt have a much more convincing rebuttal. Should the pagan graphics trouble you, you can convert the distribution version of Graphic Workshop into a politically correct, culturally neutral Graphic Workshop. Delete the "click me" advertisements and this bit of the Frequently Asked Questions document. Q: If I register Graphic Workshop and the leather-winged demon of the night comes by to rip out my heart before the registration key arrives, what can I do? A: Running away isn't an altogether bad idea. Painting its nose with Keen's extra hot mustard has been known to work as well. Keep in mind that the leather winged demon of the night has been lunching down those still-beating hearts in record numbers of late, and is getting a bit porky. It can't move like it used to. Do not attempt to use high explosives or small tactical nuclear weapons against leather-winged demons of the night, as this just irritates them. Q: Can I bundle Graphic Workshop with my commercial product. A: Possibly, but please read the Shareware Distribution document that accompanies Graphic Workshop first, and then get in touch with us before you proceed. Q: How much do upgrades for a registered copy of Graphic Workshop cost? A: As of this writing, upgrades cost $20.00 (US) (plus $5.00 shipping if you'd like a copy sent to you on disk.) However, please note that we only ask that you pay for upgrades which you find genuinely useful to your applications of Graphic Workshop. Download the current shareware version from our web page and install it on your system. It will find your existing registration number and become a registered copy. If you find that none of its new features are of much use to you or if you just downloaded it to deal with bugs in an earlier edition, please treat it as a free maintenance release. When you do order an upgrade, please be sure to quote your current registration number. You can find it in the Setup/Registration dialog. Note that 65535 is a dummy number. Q: I registered Graphic Workshop for Windows 3.1 recently, but I've upgraded to Windows 95. How much will the 32-bit version cost me? A: Nothing. We sell functionality, not platforms. You can download the 32-bit build from our web page. The same registration code works in both versions. Please see the previous question about upgrading as well. Hands up all Windows users who consider 95 to be an "upgrade". Q: I live outside North America -- how much more must I add for shipping? A: Nothing. The $5.00 (US) shipping charge for Graphic Workshop will get it anywhere on earth by air mail -- prices for the Martian colonies are slightly higher. Q: Why does the downloadable shareware version of Graphic Workshop not come with an installation function with a blue gradient background and an uninstaller? A: Many 32-bit applications are installed using a package called InstallSheild. While a very well-executed installer, having it install Graphic Workshop would have about doubled the size of its download. In addition, Install Sheild makes changes to the system files and registry of the system it runs on -- among other things to enable its uninstaller. We feel that shareware shouldn't mess with your system, and our installer does not. See the question elsewhere in this document about uninstalling Graphic Workshop. Q: What is the Unisys GIF tax and does this mean that I must pay a royalty on GIF files I create or convert with Graphic Workshop? A: The GIF format was originally created by CompuServe. The image compression algorithm used by GIF files is called LZW. At the time GIF was created, back in 1987, CompuServe appears to have assumed that LZW was a public domain entity -- at least, there's no indication that they did a patent search to find out whether LZW was owned by anyone. CompuServe announced the GIF format in 1987 with the following grant of rights to developers: "While this document is copyrighted, the information contained within is made available for use in computer software without royalties, or licensing restrictions." As it happens, CompuServe didn't actually have these rights to grant -- LZW is a patented entity which is currently owned by the Unisys Corporation. Unisys actually acquired the LZW patent in 1985. They didn't make much noise about it until December of 1994, however, leaving sufficient time for GIF to be widely adopted as a graphic file format. Among other things, it became the defacto standard for lossless graphics on the web. At the end of 1994, Unisys announced that it would be demanding royalties from any developer who created for-profit software which can read or write graphic files using LZW compression -- for practical purposes, this includes GIF and some TIFF files. Our understanding of this situation, as explained to us by our trademark and patent attorneys, is that Unisys can demand a royalty for software which uses its patented algorithm to read or write GIF files, but not for the data the algorithm creates. As such, while we must pay Unisys a royalty on each copy of Graphic Workshop registered, you're safe in using GIF files without any interference from Unisys. Our attorneys have also recommended that we not say what we think about Unisys' conduct in this situation, so we'll leave it to your imagination. Note that Unisys would now like to sell us all Internet-based services and hardware. Ya, right... Q: Can I use some of the images at the Alchemy Mindworks web page on my own page? A: If you are a registered user of Graphic Workshop, you are welcome to use the animated moving red ball graphic and the animated spinning compact disk graphic on your page. There are two conditions to this: 1. Your page must include a link back to ours, and credit for the source of the images. 2. You must download these files from our page and reference copies of them on your server, rather than referencing the files on our page. From time to time we change the links and the file names for frequently "borrowed" files, replacing them with something else entirely. You probably don't want to see what "something else" looks like. If you'd like a graphic to use for a link to our page, please check the link at the bottom of our main page to download one. Q: If I have a registered copy of Graphic Workshop, do I have to pay a royalty to Alchemy Mindworks if I sell the files I create? A: No. Your intellectual property is yours to do with as you like. You also don't have to acknowledge the software you used to create 'em, although you're welcome to do so if you like, with our thanks. Note that this includes the self-displaying EXE pictures created with Graphic Workshop -- if you have a registered copy of the software, you're welcome to distribute all the EXE pictures you like. Q: I've heard that Graphic Workshop used to be bookware, and that I could get a registered copy of it by reading one of Steven William Rimmer's novels. Is true? A: Only slightly. Back in the mid-eighties, you could register Graphic Workshop for DOS by reading Steven William Rimmer's novel Coven. This arrangement ended when the original Ballantine edition of Coven went out of print. Q: I have a registered copy of the DOS version of Graphic Workshop. Can I update to the Windows version? A: We do not offer an update path from the DOS to the Windows version of Graphic Workshop. The latter was effectively a new application to write, sharing none of the original DOS development. SECTION 2: Technical Support ---------------------------- Q: Can I get technical support for Graphic Workshop even if I'm not a registered user yet? A: We will provide limited technical support to unregistered users at our discretion to help you evaluate the software. Please note that we reserve the right to discontinue technical support to specific unregistered users if we feel that your requests on our technical support facilities are excessive, or if your questions are answered in the Graphic Workshop documentation. Q: Is there a limit to the amount of technical support I'm entitled to as a registered user? A: We would like your use of Graphic Workshop to be as effortless and productive as possible. As such, we do not impose specific limits on technical support -- if you're genuinely having a lot of problems, we're here to get you through them. However, technical support is not a talking manual. We reserve the right to refuse to provide technical support to users with questions which are answered in this documentation, or in the Graphic Workshop documentation. If you're really new to computers, to Windows or to the net, you might need to read up on these areas before we can assist you with specific problems in Graphic Workshop. We consider that the question "which one of the plastic things on my desk is the mouse?" is a good indication that you have some way to go before you need to talk to us. We usually will not be able to help you with applications from other developers, even if you're using their files with Graphic Workshop, or Graphic Workshop's files with them. We cannot direct you to books to read or places on the web to find out about things other than our software. We cannot provide technical support in languages other than English. That's contemporary English, by the way, rather than, say, Chaucerian English. Neither jive nor val-speak constitute English for the purposes of this discussion. Inserting the word "blimey" into another language at regular intervals doesn't qualify as English either. Finally, we will hang up on, shred or delete requests for technical support from users who are rude or abusive. Q: How can I contact the technical support desk for Graphic Workshop? A: You can get technical support by e-mail at alchemy@mail.north.net -- questions sent to this e-mail address are usually answered within 48 hours, and often within two or three hours. You can also call us at 1-905-936-9501 between 10:00am and 5:00pm EST, most working days. If you get the voice-mail machine, all our lines are busy. We will not under any circumstances return calls for technical support. Please do not call the 800 number for technical support -- this connects to our order desk, which knows nothing about software. They cannot transfer you to someone who does. Please read this document in its entirety and the Documentation file for Graphic Workshop before you call technical support. Q: What's the best time to call the technical support desk. A: Before noon EST is usually somewhat quieter, as the west coast hasn't come on line as yet. Noon to one EST is dodgy, as it's lunch time. Afternoons can get fairly busy. Friday is particularly heavy, as Sprint gives some of its customers free long distance calling on Fridays. Some of them call us just to chat. Thanks, Sprint... We are often able to provide technical support on weekends and after hours -- if anyone is working here during this period, they'll be happy to assist you as best they can. Note that after- hours technical support cannot help you with questions about order status or software registration codes. If you call after hours and get voice mail, there's no one about. Q: Is there any way to call technical support without my paying for the call? A: Aside from relocating to beautiful Adjala township in central Ontario to raise potatoes and drink warm, flat beer, no. Unlike many software developers, we do not impose a per-call fee on technical support, nor will you find yourself on hold for fifteen minutes listening to elevator music if you call us. However, the only way we could provide toll-free technical support would be to increase the price of our shareware to cover the phone costs. This would, in effect, impose the cost of technical support on everyone who uses Alchemy Mindworks' software, even though only a few users would actually be calling for technical support. We feel strongly that people shouldn't be required to pay for services they don't actually get. We believe that this would be fundamentally wrong. We further feel that if our various governments felt the same way, our various economies wouldn't be melting down as you read this. Q: What information should I provide if I wish to report a problem? A: This varies to some extent with the nature of the problem -- some common sense is called for. If the problem you have described is not addressed in this document, please tell us: - Which build and version of Graphic Workshop are you using? This can be found in the About dialog. An example of this information would be "Version 1.1X, 32-bit build". - Which version of Windows are you using? This might be Windows 3.1, Windows 3.11, Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 or Windows NT 4.0. - How much memory is in your system? - Were any other applications running at the time the problem occured, or had any other applications run earlier in your current session? What were their names? This includes alternate task managers. - What exactly had you done prior to the appearance of the problem? - What error message appeared? - Do you play the oboe? As a rule, problems which cannot be reproduced in house can't be fixed. Please don't quote the sea of numbers that Windows provides when an application terminates unexpectedly -- they're not much use nailing down these sorts of problems. Q: I'm having difficulties with a particular file. Can I e-mail it to you so you can see what's happening? A: Please query first -- your problem may be something we've heard of, and we'll be able to recommend a solution for it immediately. Under no circumstances should you e-mail us a file which is over 20K in length. Our mail server automatically deletes files bigger than this, as well as the messages they're attached to. If you do e-mail us a file, please send it as a MIME-encoded attachment. Do not uuencode it, or try sending the binary file as a text message. Q: What is the longest recorded flight of a chicken? A: Thirteen seconds. SECTION 3: Running Graphic Workshop --------------------------------------- Q: Why do I see a coarse dithered image if I'm viewing images under Graphic Workshop for Windows when I have a super VGA card in my system? A: Graphic Workshop for Windows displays its images by handing them to the Windows screen driver. As Windows comes out of the box, it's often set up with a sixteen-colour screen driver on VGA and super VGA systems. As such, even if your card can support 256 colours or better, Windows thinks you have a sixteen-colour card. In this case, Graphic Workshop can only display images with up to sixteen colours. It must remap or dither images with more than sixteen colours down to sixteen colours to display them. You can correct this problem by obtaining and installing the 256-colour Windows screen driver for your display card. Q: Why do JPEG or FIF images displayed by Graphic Workshop look coarse and dithered even on a system with a 32,768-colour or better driver installed? A: You must turn on Read JPEG/FIF as RGB in Setup to enable true colour JPEG and FIF reading. Q: Why won't Graphic Workshop print to my Hewlett Packard colour inkjet printer? A: This was a bug in earlier versions of Graphic Workshop which has been fixed as of release 1.1n. It should print correctly to all Deskjet printers. Q: Why do I get black and white hard copy when I print colour pictures to my colour printer from Graphic Workshop? A: You have the Expand Printed Halftones and/or the Dither Printed Halftones options in the Print dialog switched on. They should be disabled for colour printing. Q: Why can I perform functions in the list box mode that I can't perform in the thumbnail mode? A: The thumbnail mode requires significantly more memory to maintain its window than the list box mode does. If you're short on available memory, this might be enough to keep some functions from operating. Q: If I save an image file of scanned text to a TXT file from Graphic Workshop, will the text file I create be the words from the scanned image? A: No. This requires an optical character recognition package. Q: Why will some WPG files read under Graphic Workshop and some won't? A: The WPG format can support both bitmapped and vector graphics. Graphic Workshop will deal with the bitmapped ones only. The Get Info function will tell you which files contain bitmaps and which one only have vector graphics in them. Q: Will Graphic Workshop read Corel CMX, CDR or BFM files? A: Mostly not. It will display previews and bitmaps from CDR files, but that's about it. These are proprietary formats created by Corel Systems, which has thus far not disclosed their inner workings. Q: Why does attempting to read some EXE files fail? A: The extension EXE is normally used to indicate actual application files, that is, programs. Graphic Workshop uses it to indicate pictures which it has converted into programs as well... which it must do, such that DOS will recognize them as programs when you choose to run them. Unfortunately, one file name looks pretty much like another when Graphic Workshop is assembling its file list, and it can't tell which EXE files are programs and which are pictures. Q: Why won't Graphic Workshop read some TIFF files? A: The TIFF standard is a huge, fairly confusing thing which allows applications which create TIFF files to do so in an almost limitless variety of ways. It's probably technically impossible to write software that will read all of them... at the very least, such an application would be huge. Graphic Workshop attempts to read a sensible range of TIFF files, and we improve on its TIFF handling frequently. However, there will probably always be unusual TIFF files it won't be able to handle. In creating TIFF files to be read by Graphic Workshop, we recommend that you begin by trying the simplest defaults, such as no compression. Q: Why can't I use the Details and Search functions of the Thumbnails menu with a Photo-CD. A: When you create a thumbnail for a normal file, it's written to the current directory as a THN file. Photo-CD thumbnails are actually handled totally differently, and because a CD-ROM is read-only, it's impossible to write the updated details to the directory where your image is. Q: Why do I encounter an error message when I attempt to view or convert AVI files? A: You probably don't have version 1.1 or better of Video for Windows installed in your system. Video for Windows must be available for Graphic Workshop's AVI functions to work. Q: What are the THN files created by Graphic Workshop, and do I need to keep them? A: THN files store the Graphic Workshop thumbnails and the image file database keywords and comments, and are only used by Graphic Workshop and other Alchemy Mindworks applications. You can delete them if you wish. Doing so will remove the thumbnails for the associated images. Q: How did you create the moving bullet graphic, the spinning compact disc graphic and the slide show graphic at the Alchemy Mindworks web page? A: They were all created with GIF Construction Set, another one of our applications. Q: When I try to run Graphic Workshop, I see a message from Windows which says "The AVIFIL32.DLL file is linked to missing export NTDLL.DLL:memmove", or Windows complains that it can't locate or can't load AVIFIL32.DLL. Did liberals steal my DLL file, or is the problem more serious still? A: Always blame liberals, even if they're not at fault. It makes up for all the things they get away with. You have an old or incorrect version of AVIFIL32.DLL on your system, or it's missing all together. Check to see if this file exists anywhere on your hard drive other than in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM, and reload it from your Windows 95 master disk or CD-ROM if necessary. Having done so, delete any other copies of AVIFIL32.DLL on your system. This can also happen if you have two versions of Windows on your hard drive -- say 95 and NT -- and both SYSTEM directories are on your command path. - THAT'S IT -