Tech Tidbits
Author: from AppleLink
Date: March, 1988
Keywords: update macwrite macpaint claris hyperdrive hypercard bug rgb monitor background printing olympics
Text:
Ed note: Tech Tidbits is published weekly by East Coast Tech Support, a division of Apple Computer. It is sent to us by way of a modem that connects with AppleLink. For more information, contact Kaaren Buffington, 822-4945, or write to Apple Computer Inc., 4130 Parkway Plaza Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28224, Attn: Sue Goodin, Tech Support. Important information about Claris ? Where can I get a list of Claris products? Which products have been transferred from Apple to Claris? * Claris products will be available from your authorized Claris dealer. To find your nearest dealer, call (800) 334-3535. The current Claris product line includes: Product Upgrade New AppleWorks 2.0 $ 75 $249 MacDraw II 1.0* $100 $395 MacPaint 2.0 $ 25 $125 MacProject II 1.0 $145 $495 MacWrite 5.0 $ 25 $125 SmartForm Designer* $395 SmartForm Manager* $149 * Available in the spring of 1988. ? How can I get a replacement disk for MacDraw/MacPaint or MacWrite? * Contact Claris Customer Relations at (415) 962-8946. ? I've heard rumors that Claris will be providing End User Customer Support on all their products? Is this true? What is their number? * Yes. Claris has a technical support phone number that can be called by any user. That number is 415/962-0371. Their technical support hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Pacific Standard Time. ? What systems will the Claris products support? * MacDraw II, MacPaint 2.0, MacProject II, MacWrite 5.0 and * MacDraw II, MacPaint 2.0, MacProject II, MacWrite 5.0 and SmartForms all will support Mac 512K Enhanced, Mac Plus, Mac SE and Mac II. For the 512K Enhanced, a second drive will be required to run MacPaint 2.0. Appleworks 2.0 will support the Apple IIc (with 128k), IIe (with 128k) and IIGS. ? I recently purchased MacWrite and MacPaint in the Claris packaging, but they were the old version numbers. Do I still have to pay for an upgrade? * If you purchased your product on or after December 14, 1987, you are entitled to a free update. Call (800) 544-8554 for an upgrade order form. You need to send the completed form, your original program disk, and a photocopy of your dated MacWrite or MacPaint sales receipt to the address on the order form. ? How do I upgrade to MacDraw II and MacProject II? * These are new products. Existing owners may upgrade at reduced prices (MacDraw $100 vs $395 new; MacProject $145 vs $495 new). Call (800) 544-8554 for an upgrade order form and instructions. ? I'm not sure I'm ready to upgrade yet. How long will the upgrades be available? * The upgrade offer expires September 30, 1988.
NOTE: All Claris upgrades come complete with new manuals. A bug in Hypercard? ? While working on a HyperCard stack, I believe I found a bug. I have several cards in a stack and scripted a custom "find" routine to take me quickly to the card in the stack I wish to access. In testing this routine, I ran into a problem attempting to search for a particular word: "Borland." After some time, I realized that I could type in "Bor" or "Borla" and correctly locate the card, but it would NOT find Borland. I realized that when I was entering the data, I had mistyped Borland as Borlad, and had gone back and, using the text option under tools, I inserted my cursor behind the "a" in Borland, and typed in an "nd" to correct the word. Since most editing is done in insertion mode and not a complete retype of the word, this is a serious bug since the card with the corrected name could not be found! * What you found is not a bug. When you initially entered data, you were in text mode. When you went back to edit the incorrect word, you selected the writing tool, which is graphics mode, and literally "painted" in the text letters "nd" into your data (text) field. Your find routine, therefore, searching for the TEXT string Borland, did not find it. To enter data, you must have the browse icon selected. Position your cursor in the text field and type. Selecting the text mode "A" from tools places you in Graphics Mode, NOT text mode, and it's an important differentiation to keep in mind. New phone number for Mac-Burroughs info In a recent issue of Tech Tidbits, we reported a Macintosh-to-Burroughs connection available from the Midwest Data Source. If you are interested in their products and solutions, please contact them at their NEW phone number: (513) 231-2023. Setup tips for HyperDrive owners HyperDrive FX/20 owners who reformat and load the Apple hard disk driver using the HD Setup SC utility will find that it makes their software non-functional. Herb Philpott of General Computers suggests they take the following steps to prevent this from occurring: 1. Boot from the HyperDrive FX Installation disk (3.10 is the latest) with the FX turned OFF. Note some versions of Mac ROM will not allow you to boot with a connected SCSI device turned off in which case boot the Mac with the FX disconnected from the SCSI cable.) 2. At the desktop, switch on the HyperDrive FX. If you had to disconnect it above, reconnect the SCSI cable VERY CAREFULLY. Ground yourself before touching the cables by touching metal on the back of the Macintosh. Any charge you impart to the SCSI bus could reset the Mac. When the FX is connected, power up. 3. Wait 15 seconds for it to spin up. 4. Double-click the FX/FI Manager 3.10. 5. The Manager will inform you of the improper format and allow you to correct it. NOTE: If the user only did an "Update" in the HD SC Setup application, then it will not be necessary to reformat the drive (lose data) with the Manager. You will be able to update the drive again with the HyperDrive software. Don't try to fix line on RGB color monitor With the recent Christmas sales of the Apple Color RGB Monitor for the Macintosh II, we would like to refocus your attention to the "grey line" issue. When a full white screen is displayed on the High-Res RGB Monitor, a thin horizontal grey line may be visible in the bottom third of the screen. This line is inherent to the Trinitron CRT design and is not a manufacturing, CPU, or video card problem. The line is due to a thin wire that is required to stabilize the vertical grid of fine wires that acts as a color mask in the Trinitron design. SINCE THIS LINE IS PART OF THE TRINITRON DESIGN, DO NOT REPLACE ANY VIDEO BOARDS (OR OTHER MODULES) IN AN ATTEMPT TO ELIMINATE IT. Problems with background printing ? After installing System Software Update 5.0 (MultiFinder) on my Macintosh* II system, I was all set to start background printing to the LaserWriter*. I opened up Chooser and was all set to click the background printing option ON, but it wasn't there. Any ideas on where it's gone? * In all likelihood you "installed" your system software by the drag-copy method. You must use the installer and actually install background printing in order for it to appear and become functional. ? I used the Installer program to install System 5.0 software with MultiFinder and all the printer drivers, including background printing. I next go into Chooser and try to turn on the background printing option, but I can't select it, though I can see it. I thought the whole trick was to use the Installer (I did!), and still no dice. * You're right. You do need to use the installer, but you also have to have a LaserWriter SELECTED as the print device before you can select background printing, since that features is ONLY available for LaserWriter printing, not ImageWriter* printing. Hard disk comes up 1.3 megabytes short ? When I use Version 1.4 of the HD20SC (hard disk) Setup, and format, I get only 18.7M. Why? * Version 1.4 of the HD20SC Setup (the version you should be using) always formats to 19,169K, which translates to 18.7M (19,169/1024K/M). The design logic behind this was to provide compatibility with all 20M devices, in particular, the 20M tape backup. Since the tape backup will only restore volume to a device of the same size from which it was taken, it is important for the sake of transportability of such data from one hard drive to another, to make all HD20SC's format to the same size. Thus, the format size was standardized to the lowest common denominator - 19,169K. The "lost" space is not truly lost, however. When bad blocks are detected on the hard drive, they are flagged as such and not used. However, your hard drive capacity doesn't "shrink" down in size since the bad block is replaced from the blocks held in reserve for this purpose (the storage space above 19,169K), and the volume size remains constant for the sake of compatibility. Apple sponsors telecast of winter Olympics Apple was the #1 personal computer sponsor of ABC's telecast of the Winter Olympics. Apple expected to reach over 600 million homes. In addition, Apple was the official sponsor to the US Bobsled Federation, and the company donated three Macintosh II computers, with various software packages and peripherals, for the studies and tests for support of the sleds for this year's Olympics and future competitions. The Macintosh also was being used on-site in other ways: A HyperCard* stack at ABC's hospitality suite provided visitors with a daily agenda of events, as well as historic background about Olympic medal winners and activities. Apple, using PageMaker software, was used to develop a daily newsletter for ABC VIPs attending the Olympics. The University of Calgary demonstrated the ice hockey coaching system they are developing on a Macintosh II at the International Zone of Athletes Village, utilizing laser disc technology and graphic output to demonstrate the coaching of athletes. Additionally, a group of 80 photographers have chronicled the activities leading up to this year's event, and have published a 208 page book comprised of 300 photographs using a Macintosh SE.
Copyright © march, 1988 by from AppleLink