Z-Write Troubleshooting FAQ

Created: Thu, Jun 08, 2000
Modified: Mon, May 31, 2004


Contents

Introduction

Z-Write has been relatively free of major problems, but users have reported a few issues which are addressed in this document. We are attempting to resolve these issues in future updates to Z-Write.

Please read through this document to find potential solutions to problems you may be having.


Question: When I quit Z-Write, I get a crash or the Finder quits on me.

This happens with Z-Write 1.3.x under newer versions of Mac OS X. We aren't sure why it happens, but it doesn't appear to hurt anything. Z-Write 1.5 does not have this problem.


Question: I had some text in a Section and it vanished after I saved and/or switched to a different Section! What happened?

Z-Write depends on Sections being named. If a Section has no name, it can cause Z-Write to lose track of the text you've input. If you see a Section name that is blank, rename it immediately. If Z-Write regularly creates documents with Sections with empty names, go to Preferences to the Document panel and make sure the "Default Section Name" field isn't blank. Click OK to save your preferences.

There was a bug in Z-Write 1.0.x that did not properly load the Default Section Name when Z-Write was first installed. (Going to Preferences even once solves the bug.) This bug was fixed in Z-Write 1.1 so new users should never see a Section without a name.


Question: Lowercase accent characters are being converted to uppercase when I export to HTML. There's also an extra space in front of each letter. What is wrong?

This was a bug in Z-Write 1.0.1. Update your copy to 1.0.2 or better and the bug is gone.


Question: Why doesn't the Other option on the font size menu work?

This bug was fixed in Z-Write 1.3.


Question: My copy of Z-Write just quit with an error of "NilObjectException" -- what is that?

This is a generic message REALbasic generates when it encounters an error it can't handle. Generally this is due to a programming error and you should let us know about it. Please tell us exactly what you were doing before the error occured so we can try to reproduce it. Under Mac OS 9 (Classic), you can get this error if Z-Write doesn't have enough memory (Mac OS only).


Question: I'm a registered Z-Write user -- so why does the Mac OS X version say I'm not registered?

Different operating systems store their preferences in different places, so you'll need to re-enter your registration code when you run the Mac OS X version. Depending on how your computer is set up, you may need to re-enter the code in Classic as well (if you have a separate version of Mac OS 9 installed for Classic).


Question: Typing is horribly slow in Z-Write. What on earth is going on?

Some people experience what we're calling the "Slow Typing" bug. For some typing is simply sluggish, for others so slow as to be unusable. Upgrades to the OS and Z-Write have fixed this for most users, but in some rare cases people are still having problems. Unfortunately this appears to be a system-specific problem, so we cannot fix it. You should definitely test Z-Write to ensure it works well with your system before purchasing a license. Hopefully future upgrades to Mac OS X will fix the problem permanently.

There are some things we've found that seem to effect typing speed. Keeping Sections shorter is a good idea. Long paragraphs also seem to be problematic. Different fonts and font stylings (bold, italic) can significantly affect typing speed. Within Z-Write's Preferences, you can turn off Glossary Auto-Expansion, External Glossaries, Live Stats, and other settings that monitor what you are typing.


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