PagePlus X4: Patch Announcement (14.0.1)

[Patrick Connor]

Serif (Europe) Ltd. is pleased to announce the release of a patch for PagePlus X4 (build number 14.0.1.020).

The main purpose of the patch is to resolve a specific issue discovered after the release of PagePlus X4 14.0.0, for which we apologise. A list of the changes/fixes in this patch is provided below. Some are phrased in the negative from our database, but are nevertheless fixed in this patch.

• Table column widths uneven after changing Gutters
• Pasting footnotes can crash Tables
• Calendar AutoFormats can appear in "Table AutoFormats" dialog
• Custom Border preview incorrect
• Custom Borders do not "Publish to Web"
• Border properties are not pasted correctly
• Artefacts on resizing "Resource Manager" dialog
• "Resource Manager" details shown in wrong column
• "Resource Manager" doesn't show all details for PhP images
• Bad scrollbar behaviour in Gallery
• "Rename Category" in Gallery doesn’t work
• Adding a large number of categories to the Gallery results in some of them being un-selectable
• Gallery>Picture Frames - Some do not permit pan, zoom or rotate
• Drag/Drop from Styles tab doesn't work as expected
• Style > "Attributes Editor" dialog needs an Icon
• File > "Open PDF" doesn't remember folder
• Fix for missing text in PDF files under some circumstances
• Picture Frames don’t output to PDF with "flattened" and/or "stripped" transparency
• Stopped crash with PDF Output with gradient fill
• Inconsistent behaviour of Auto-Level
• PhotoLab crashes if the bitmap fill thumbnails point to files that are unavailable
• Crash with WDP made in PHPX3
• Crash Placing very tall or thin bitmap
• Crash undoing delete of Placeholder text style
• Endnote forced into overflow for no apparent reason
• Crash on "Find and Replace" under certain circumstances
• Shortcuts for styles in "Text Editing" context disappeared
• "User Details" dialog - 120 DPI & large fonts truncated labels
• "Picture Frame Properties" - Text faulty 120 DPI & large fonts
• Toolbar customisation renaming problem
• Tools > Options loses state when switching pages
• "Create Object Style" context button doesn't work for warped objects
• Superfluous MessageBox when closing documents with closed OLE links
• "Failed to Launch Help" from help button on "Edit Database" dialog
• Filter Effects lost on “Merge to New Publication”
• Crash with Filter Effects and Convert to Curves pasted from DPX3
• Convert to curves on a HotSpot can cause crash
• Select Tool object rotation is opposite to expected
• Click and drag a Picture Frame in a Theme Layout causes PP to freeze
• Start from Scratch > My Templates loses colour scheme
• Odd Zip file in “My Templates” folder causes crash

We would recommend that ALL users of PagePlus X4 download and install this patch. Serif recommend that patching should be done within the program, by using the "Check for update from web" option in the Help Menu. This will always get any available patch for your version of Serif software (CD or download) and install it too. The downloads page www.serif.com/downloads.asp has the patch also, which is 6.0 MB. The patch for the download PagePlus X4 is the same as for the CD version.

Helpfully the software checks for updates the first time it runs, so for those yet to install a CD, the latest patch will be found on first use.

To work out if you need this patch choose "About PagePlus" in the help menu and if the version number is 14.0.0.017 then you need this patch.

Technical Info:

File name: PAGEPLUS1033_14.0.1.020_Patch-Setup.exe
Size: 6.02 MB (6,321,416 bytes)
Digital Signature: Confirmed
Sig Date/Time: 30 September 2009 18:30:58
MD5: EAD336519FC63BD18BFC327D65C05AE4
Removable: Yes.

Please report any problems updating PagePlus X4 in this thread.

[jacksjacobs]

Two things alarmed me about this update.

1) It asked for the PPX4 disc. This is the first time I have had this since forever with serif. A Tech Support phone rep told me it was OK, so I won't worry about it.

I called the update from the Help menu, downloaded the file, to where I don't know. The installation stopped about 4 tenths of the way through on the thermometer, just under a "d" in the text, and I restarted the PC.
I downloaded the file from the serif site, via the link in the announcement post, put it in my preferred location, and it installed OK except for the disc request as above.
There was a Trend request to allow/block one file, a duplicate of an existing windows system file. Could that be an overwriting of the PPX4 last update same name file?

All of this is not what I expected, so I am unsure if all is well.

2) After this, I had to log in to the forum again, and having forgotten username and password, there was quite a palaver about recovering these. Succeeded, though, with the help of the Serif rep.

So the upgrade installation wasn't without its problems. I will have to wait and do lots of jobs before I find out what is now working better, for me.

By the way, it asked me if I wanted to allow the update to change the menu bar. As I have customised the, I entered No. Anyone comment on this?

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Holy YourChoiceOfWords
I go to Lunch come back, download and install the patch and now for the first time I can edit and save after importing my 365 page, 65 Megs PDF. Let me edit the first 8 pages so far.
But the whole PC is dragging after the patch, screen draws, browser opening, page switching in web browest, and how long to save after correcting a misspelled word.
I have almost 1.8 gigs free memory after loading os, desktop, browser and Serif PPX4 and almost 200 gigs of free hard drive space. So some kind of memory error recognizing my System Resources and how much memory is free.
The only thing I can think of to try is increasing page file size. Although I do a lot of audio editing and audio files are much bigger than PDFs.
Thanks for the patch.
Happy Sounds
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[pmcleod]

For wjat it is worth both, I had no issues with installing and PC runs fine afterwards, but not used in anger yet though

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi All,
I worked on editing and updating my pdf for 9 hours straight. No PPX4 crashes after the patch but I still had a lot of problems.
1. I checked the file when I first imported it. All the pages were there. But sometime during the evening while I was editing the first half of the PDF. Serif erased the last 40 pages of my PDF.
2. One page on import it stripped out all the spaces between each word and each paragraph.
3. One 20 page section, on import Serif replace all the paragraph indent spaces, with *****
4. After page 50, the create a border around a text frame would not work. Got an Serif Error message box, could not load , name of border png, all the border files were erased, or at least PPX4 could not find them. I had only been using one border. Basic Simple Black, but none of the other borders would load into the border box either.
So at least for my PC, still need another patch. It might be my PDF is simply too large for the software and has too many pages. 65 megs, 363 pages. I would sure like to know why the software erased the last 40 pages of my PDF and what happened to the Borders Box. I had some Borders I wanted to add to the last 40 pages.
Almost A Happy Camper
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[Geoff Blanthorn]

Originally Posted by TeachYourselfSinging Hi All, I worked on editing and updating my pdf for 9 hours straight. No PPX4 crashes after the patch but I still had a lot of problems.

Tim,

It is pointless your listing all your problems if you will not provide example documents that someone else can check. I have no trouble importing a 262MB PDF. I have never seen, nor can I reproduce, any of the problems you list, here or for that matter, elsewhere on the Forums.

All the evidence seems to point either to your system, or to your inability to operate the program correctly. Maybe your problems are genuine, maybe there are bugs in PPX4 causing them, but nobody else has found them, and you seem unwilling to give a recipe for their reproduction. Without such evidence, I'm afraid you are beyond help.

Geoff

[Adam]

Timothy,

Your editing strategy is very high risk. I'm not sure what you wish to do with the document once you have completed your editing, but I would be tempted to split up your 365 page document into multiple smaller documents which should be much more manageable.

We generally can't investigate specific problems without a precise recipe to reproduce, but if you can supply us with one your problem will be logged and investigated.

Cheers, Adam

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi Adam, Geoff
Adam, I already sent in a copy of my PDF to Tech Support yesterday. So what is the limit in PDF size and page numbers for PPX4? Since when I edit an imported PDF I am in ppp mode, then it is the software itself where the errors are happening. Not because I imported a PDF first. I am editing a book, I need to be able to access the entire book at once, for many reasons. IF PPX4 really only works with small documents, then you should let people know that. What the page limit is for a ppp.
Geoff, why do you continue to personally attack me in the forums? Why do you bother even posting at all, if you just assume all problems do not exist unless you have had the same problem on your PC.
I am tired of all your personal attacks and insults. blaming any software errors and bugs in this new program on me. Clsiming I do not even know how to use a mouse and select a program menu or icon. According to the Forum Rules I and all other Serif users are allowed to post any problems or questions we have on the software.
If I did not post any PPX4 errors I am getting while using this new software, I would have no way of knowing if anyone else is having any of the same problems.And if no one reported errors, there would never be any patches or updates to the software at all.
Serif advertises that PPX4 supports the creation and edition of long documents, including books and long PDFs. They do not advertise that you Gepff. have to approve every post and that software errors do not exist unless you have had the same errors.
I am not working with small documents that I can attach or post to forum members. You will have to live with me actually listing the errors I am having.
If that upsets you, then please to not reply to any of my posts unless you have something useful and helpful to say. If you had used PPX4 as much as I have, you would know its impossible for me to somehow erase the last 40 pages of a document while working on the beginning of a doc and its impossible for me to somehow cause all the border box presets to get lost and not load. Same for the program errors when importing the PDF. There is no import PDF box option to strip out spaces between words or replace spaces in paragraph indents with *****.
Happy Weekend
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi All,
When I went to open the ppp file I was editing last night. And this is after 9 hours of both manual saves and auto saves, and not once getting an error message that the file was not saving, a serif error pop up box said, this is not a valid ppp file. If you are trying to open a photo use the insert picture command.
This is the only forum I have ever been in where even the software developers refuse to even investigate and log in your error reports on their new software, When you report program bugs, its not helpful to be told our software is so buggy you should not be using it to create and edit documents because its too risky to use our software. What kind of answer is that?
No other software developer in the world would call its users liars just for reporting bugs in their software. I am sure I am not the only PPX4 user having problems simply getting the new version to work. Look at how long the list is of the errors the first patch is trying to fix and the sheer variety of the error types.
I have no way to email my computer so someone can spent 9 hours editing a file and see if they get any of the same errors. I am used to being in software forums, where if you report a software bug, people believe you and see about fixing the bug.
So much for posting that PPX4 users should report any errors here or any problems with the software.
Whats the point of putting out software if one is not willing to investigate, highly detailed, bug reports.
Not Happy At All At This Kind of Request For Help.
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[moontan]

well,

one bug i can reproduce is when i double click a .ppp file is that PagePlus launches but the workspace is blank.

i have to select Files/Open manually.

btw, how does one send a bug report?

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi All,
Well, I looked in the ppx4 autosave folder and its empty. If the PDF Import Box was updated to let you import a range of pages, that might give me a work around. I almost want to scream but I have been using computers for 30 years so software not working I have seen before.
Before the PPX4 patch, I could not save or edit anything better than 1 page. Now after the patch PPX4 lets you edit all I want tells me it is saving everything via the auto saves and also when I manually save, but them is not really saving anything or if it does the save file is corrupt.
So I have gone back to my older program which has never crashed in years. The ironic thing is it is a Serif program just sold under a different name in the USA. Lets you create, edit, save, and import and export PDFs.
I can not find any differences between it and ppx3, except it came with 8 discs of clip art and more templates.The onscreen interface, menus , tool layours are identical.
So I will just have to wait for the next PPX4 patch.
Happy Weekend
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[Geoff Blanthorn]

Originally Posted by TeachYourselfSinging Geoff, why do you continue to personally attack me in the forums? Why do you bother even posting at all, if you just assume all problems do not exist unless you have had the same problem on your PC.

Tim,

You seem to consider every comment on your posts to be personal attacks. Why, indeed, do you bother to post at all if you refuse to read others comments as they are intended, instead of regarding them as personal attacks.

Just how do you expect the developers to investigate errors that they cannot reproduce, and seem to be experienced by only one user?

Your reports are analogous to someone writing to Fords saying their car broke down, and would they please modify their production to correct it.

Geoff

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi Geoff,
As you would say , what rubbish your post is. I only use the words personal attacks when someone like you actually does personally attack me. There is nothing wrong with my PC nor with my PC skills. When you blame every PPX4 error I have posted about on me, that is a personal attack. In the week I have owned a copy of PPX4, obviously I have used the software more than you have and in ways you have not either. No brag, just facts.
I do not go around the forum like you do, attacking anyone who has had a software error you have never seen. I am experienced to understand that all users of a PC software package do not all get the same errors and for the same reasons. If you had ever done any programming or worked tech support you would understand this.
Most software errors are not user errors, but software developers errors in how they wrote and tested the software. That's just the way the software industry is. It's the users, especially the power users like me, that discover the errors and report them so they can be fixed. Its not Rocket Science, certain kinds of errors are caused by users screwing up their PCs, others by the way the software interacts with ones HW and SW. Others are caused by bugs in the program that usually can be fixed once they are reported, or no one would buy and use software.
Maybe when you get more real PC Experience you will be able to tell which errors are software bugs, which are how the software interacts with everything on the users PC, and which very few are actual user errors. Then maybe you will quit attacking people just because they find bugs you have never seen.
And I ask again, please do not post in any of my threads just to attack me. I make it a point to naver get involved in pointless forum debates or useless flame wars.
The world is never going to see a time when all computer users have the exact same computer with the exact HW and SW on it. You may wish it so, so you can play worlds greatest PC expert. But it will never happen.
Happy Weekend
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Originally Posted by TeachYourselfSinging As you would say, what rubbish your post is. ... In the week I have owned a copy of PPX4, obviously I have used the software more than you have and in ways you have not either. No brag, just facts. ... Maybe when you get more real PC Experience ... I make it a point to naver get involved in pointless forum debates or useless flame wars.

For someone who makes a point of never getting involved in flame wars you sure post a lot of hot air and abusive remarks.

Since you're allegedly an expert user how come you're completely clueless on how to report bugs?

[Adam]

Timothy,

Thanks for sending your PDF to Technical Support. We will take a look at it when it filters through to the development team.

[TeachYourselfSinging]

Hi Adam,
I appreciate Tech Support taking a look at it.
And since Other forum users are speculating that I am using some kind of hacked Page Plus program to make the PDF in that is not so.
Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.O was sold in the USA for 4 years. It is a fully legal program, sold at all the big retail chain stores in the USA and also sold online.
It has full import, export, creation, and edit of PDFs.
The Publish As PDF pop up option boxes, are identical to those in PPX4. As is the entire program interface, down to the menus the Studio Tabs, ete.
The only visual difference are the new features of PPX4 like the Image Cutout Studio, the roll over font ability and some of the other new features are not in the older program.
Art Explosion Publisher Pro 2.0 even supports PDF X1, PDF X1a and PDF Forms.
The older versions of AEPP did not have any PDF Features. And the even older Art Explosion programs back to Win 3.1 and Win 95 were just graphics chip art collections just as they are today.
Happy Week
Timothy Kelly
Teach Yourself Singing

[tevets]

Can someone please tell me why the serious printing issue, the out of memory error, has not been resolved yet and when it will be fixed?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Originally Posted by tevets Can someone please tell me why the serious printing issue, the out of memory error, has not been resolved yet and when it will be fixed?

Quite simple really — because it was reported too late to get into the patch. There is a simple work around — deselect the stripped transparency option on the Prepress tab.

[tevets]

Originally Posted by Bhikkhu Pesala Quite simple really — because it was reported too late to get into the patch. There is a simple work around — deselect the stripped transparency option on the Prepress tab.

Thank you for your reply and clarification.

I accept the work around is ‘simple’ but not necessarily practical in all instances. In my case I have created a lot of my company documents in PagePlus over the years and have several people who print them. It is just not practical to try and explain this workaround. I will delete X4 and revert to X3 until such time as X4 has been made usable.

Once again thank you.

[Ali]

Originally Posted by tevets Thank you for your reply and clarification. I accept the work around is ‘simple’ but not necessarily practical in all instances. In my case I have created a lot of my company documents in PagePlus over the years and have several people who print them. It is just not practical to try and explain this workaround. I will delete X4 and revert to X3 until such time as X4 has been made usable. Once again thank you.

I do understand your frustration, but I hardly think two clicks from the initial print dialog presented is difficult to explain (click the prepress tab, check the stripped transparency box), especially if accompanied by one or two screenshots. I have to deal with this sort of issue almost daily with a staff of around 150 of very differing levels of PC competence (from zero to hero).