ShowMan Show Manager Suite, Mailing Labels, SaveRefs Database

Frequently Asked Questions

Q) Email Problems - When I try to email you from the link on your 'About CB Software' page I get a message like 'no email programme set up', or an Outlook Express 'New Message' dialogue box appears ?

A) Many sites, including this one, no longer show the email address of contacts. Instead they show something like 'email the secretary'. This is necessary to 'hide' the email address in order to try to reduce 'junk' email.

If you try to use such a link, and it doesn't work properly go to 'Start', 'Settings', 'Control Panel', 'Internet Options' and click on the 'Programs' tab.

Check the setting against the 'E-Mail' drop-down and make sure it is correctly set to use the correct email programme. If you are not sure which setting, experiment until it works OK.

Q) In 'Showman', when I try to use either 'Insert' or 'Import' when using the Schedule/Catalogue Editor to place external data or file into the document being edited , the program crashes with an error message 'Run Time Error 482. Printer Error' although I am not issuing a command to print anything?

A) When the 'Edit S/Cat Files' program inserts or imports some external files into a file being edited, it carries out some background calculations, so that it can compute column alignment and indentation. These computations use the page size and margin settings for the current printer. If NO Printer has been installed on your PC, these calculations will fail, and the program will crash.

You should install a Printer. Preferably this should be the one that you intend to use for output. If you have no printer, you should install a 'dummy' one, by choosing from the list of printers that Windows will offer you when you open Printers in Control Panel. Once you have installed a printer, use 'Printer Setup' from within the program to set it up for the SAME page size that you have set up the editor to use. The program will then use the parameters for that printer when it carries out the computations, and will format the screen for that size of page.

• N.B. For TEST purposes and to satisfy the need for some sort of Printer, I suggest that you install a pseudo-printer that creates PDF files, eg 'pdfFactory'. Adjust the settings so that they match the paper you will eventually use.
• This will satisf the programme, and allow you to make test prints without wasting paper.

Q) When I try to print Labels, NOTHING gets printed. The Printer fails to Print

A) Occasionally this peculiar problem has occurred. A user chooses to print something - Labels for example, and goes through the dialogue boxes and finally chooses the ‘Print’ option - but the printer doesn’t respond.

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive solution to this, which occurs from time to time with various other programmes as well. It may be due to a problem with the ‘Printer Driver’. Try to ensure that you are using the latest printer driver for your printer and operating system.

I have found that the one of following actions usually cures the problem -

a) Open ‘Printer Setup, then close it again.

b) Close the Programme, Restart the computer.

c) Print something small from some other programme eg SchedCat Editor, Windows Wordpad or Windows Notepad, and then try to print the labels again.

Q) When I try to open the Trophies module, the programme crashes with an error message - 'Run-time error 5:Invalid Procedure call or argument'

A) If you get this error, it is usually caused because there are currently NO ENTRIES in the Database. A temporary work-around is to make at least ONE entry into a Class - this can be a dummy entry that you can later delete, once you have placed some 'real' entries into the Database.

This 'bug' has been fixed in the latest releases of Showman - see 'Bug Fixes' on the ShowMan Main page. Registered users who have ALREADY UPGRADED to version 2.8 DO NOT NEED to download and install the FULL 2.8 package to fix these problems.

Just download the file 'Showman.Exe' (4534272 bytes, 27th June 2011) and copy this file to the C:\Program Files\ShowMan 2.8 folder, replacing the file already there - this may need Administrator rights on Windows 7 or Vista.

Q) When I try to create Money Prize lists the programme crashes with an error message - 'Run time error 13: Type mismatch'.

A) This error can occur if you have allocated Winner positions to a class (or several classes) which ARE NOT defined in the 'Edit Info Files' records. The routine warns you about this potential problem when you click on one of the other three tabs. You may have a valid reason to omit classes from the 'Info File' records - but at present this is not allowed.

I will alter the code in the next release to cater for this. In the meantime allocate any missing classes to an existing record, or create a new record for those classes.

Q) When I try to create a 'Brief Catalogue' the programme crashes with the error message 'Runtime Error 9'.

A) This error can be caused if you have one or more Classes with MORE Entries than the 'Maximum Number of Entries per Class' set up in Section Setup.

I will alter the code in the next release to cater for this. In the meantime increase the 'Maximum Number of Entries per Class' value in Section Setup

Q) Printing Addresses - you may find that, when you try to print addresses, nothing prints.

A) I will alter the code in the next release to cater for this. To work around this 'bug' open 'General Setup', open the Enable or Disable Messages page, and make sure that the first item -'Address - Display Page Setup Warning ....' is checked. When you next choose to print addresses, you will get a pop-up warning. Choose 'Yes' to print, or 'Cancel' to CANCEL Printing.

DO NOT choose 'No' as this will require you to turn the Warning message ON again before you can print Addesses.