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Post by clivel on Aug 26, 2019 20:22:08 GMT
Moderator Note: A more general thread name was requested to facilitate making a wider range of posts on the subject of AlbumEasy
In the end, there were actually three separate threads on AlbumEasy, starting with its early trials in Aug-2019, and then others introducing new releases of the software. In agreement with Clive ( clivel ), all of these have now been combined into one comprehensive thread on the subject. Many thanks to all for your understanding.
After a number of requests, I am almost ready to release an Apple Mac version of AlbumEasy. As a first time Mac user, developing on a virtual Mac located somewhere in the cloud, I would feel a lot more confident if a few users could give the program a test run before I foist it on the unsuspecting public. So if you are a Mac user willing to give it a try, please contact me either through the forum or via the contact page on my web site - the link is in my signature. I am only looking for two or three people, preferably persons who are relatively computer literate, and even better if they are already familiar with AlbumEasy. If all goes well, barring any unforeseen circumstances, I am hoping to have a general release of the Mac version within the next few days. Clive
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 26, 2019 21:03:08 GMT
I'm game
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 26, 2019 21:25:48 GMT
Me too, I'l try it
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 26, 2019 22:28:01 GMT
I'm in if you need me, although I never used Album Easy.
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Post by clivel on Aug 26, 2019 23:13:13 GMT
Hi zipper, brightonpete and stainlessb Thanks for the offer, I'll message you each with the download link as I don't want to make the app public yet until it is ready for general release. I am going to assume that you all have a PDF viewer installed.
Please install the application and let me know if there is anything untoward about the installation processes.
After which there are a few things, in particular, I would like to have checked: - Click on the help button at the top right (you will first need to close the tip-of-the-day dialogue box if you have not yet done so). The help window should open up. This should have a main page with a tabbed column with "Contents" and "Index" at the left. Could you please confirm that none of those are empty.
- Click on the open button, you should find an AlbumEasy folder in your Documents folder. Inside this should be an examples folder, navigate to this and open the NewExamples.txt sample file. Press generate. Please confirm that the file generated correctly, the PDF button should now be enabled and you should be able to view the generated PDF.
- Do the same with the International.txt sample file - please check that the generated file appears to show the correct international fonts - incorrect would include a lot of question marks.
- Please, could you test printing, both from the help window "Print" button and the "Print" button on the mainwindow edit toolbar. No need to print more than one page.
- Please, could you press the Wizard button and use it to generate an album, hopefully, it is self-explanatory.
Please let me know of any other problems that you might find.
If you would like an introduction to using AlbumEasy, I have recently released an introduction/tutorial video, regrettably a little ponderous: Video
Thanks, Clive
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 27, 2019 0:31:07 GMT
Installation was easy- opened pages as requested, print function works!
Now to play with some layouts
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Post by clivel on Aug 27, 2019 1:19:20 GMT
Thanks stainlessb, I am pleased to hear that.
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 27, 2019 1:34:02 GMT
Oh ya, opened it no problem. My only issue with it, is that it is not WYSIWYG.
It looks like it would be a fair amount of work configuring pages. Presently, I use the app called "Graphic" on my Mac. I can see and easily measure what I want to add or change. It looks like I'd need to learn another language to use Album Easy. It seems easy enough to alter the border, the fonts though? Not many & I didn't see where to set them. Also, I use coloured paper, with different coloured fonts. Is black the only colour for everything?
You mentioned a file for items to test, but I can't find it. Being new too this I have many questions. I'll test it over the coming days though...
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 27, 2019 1:49:58 GMT
This reminds me of when I used to format HTML pages for a website.... it may take some practice to get the gist of this
I will need to study the help and commands to figure out how to justify Left/Right, and insert images and how to place text at a certain position
I have been using Scribus, and while the newest version has some bugs, it is easy to quickly get a visual as far as placement- but I can see where this would be much easier to edit a 'template" type layout for text and such
another tool in the box! It does seem to work without issue (given I input the correct syntax)
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 27, 2019 3:34:13 GMT
Install was easy. What do you mean by 'Press generate.'?
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Post by clivel on Aug 27, 2019 6:34:50 GMT
I appreciate that the non-WYSIWIG mode of working does not appeal to everyone. However, some people find it very productive in comparison to dragging graphics objects around on a screen, whereas others don't like it at all. You might find the AlbumEasy Introduction Video useful to help you decide whether it is for you or not. Please run AblumEasy from the Applications folder. once it is running, press the "Open" button, to open the NewExamples.txt file. No, you can set almost any item on the page to almost any colour you like. You can use almost any Truetype font installed on your computer. The available fonts are displayed when you press the "Font" button. As it can take a little while to search for all the fonts on your computer, and as most people only use a few fonts, to save time, only the few fonts copied to the AlbumEasy/fonts folder are displayed by default. To see all the fonts on the system, press the "Config" button and then select "Include system fonts when searching for fonts". Fonts are specified in the text file. Clive
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 27, 2019 12:57:08 GMT
Ah right. Fonts & colours. I hadn't looked too closely at the included files. I'll watch the video & see how it goes from there.
Thanks!
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 28, 2019 0:27:49 GMT
It's brilliant, sir. Must get new glasses to really play with it -- the small code characters and numbers are difficult for me at the moment. Will schedule an appointment with the ophthalmologist. Cataracts suck.
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 28, 2019 1:57:30 GMT
Amen! I have been advised on my last appointment that in the next 5 - 10 years plan for surgery fortunately, everyone I know who has undergone the surgery all say they should have done it sooner. Agiong is way over-rated
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Post by clivel on Aug 28, 2019 6:17:18 GMT
I have the same problem, although not from cataracts, just my eyesight deteriorating as I get older, and even with my prescribed "computer" glasses (I was getting a crick in the back of the neck peering through the bottom of my bifocals), I have to increase the font size:
Click on the "Configure" button, select the "Text Editor" tab, where you should be able to increase the font size.
A question for those that have the Mac version of the application installed: If you click on the help button, at the left of the help window you should see two tabs - Contents and Index, are these blank, or are you able to browse and search the help via these tabs?
Thanks, Clive
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 28, 2019 13:40:55 GMT
As you know, it is blank for me. I checked again, just to make sure. Still blank.
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 29, 2019 7:35:12 GMT
I also need new bifocals. Will do that after the surgery. Here's what I get in help contents: AlbumEasy V4.1 AlbumEasy - Free software for creating custom stamp album pages © 2005-2019 Clive Levinson Bundu Technology Ltd. www.theStampWeb.com Built with Qt® cross-platform software development framework Qt is a registered trademark of The Qt Company Ltd. and its subsidiaries. Note: Examples of the new and updated commands can be found in the NewExamples.txt sample album file located in the examples directory. This file is is updated with each new release. New in version 4.1 New: Apple MacOS is now a fully supported platform along with Windows and Linux Enhancement: The STAMP_BORDER_STYLE command now accepts a BLANK parameter to create a frameless stamp box. Enhancement: As of this release AlbumEasy will automatically detect and convert a range of Unicode formatted text files. This includes the formats supported by Windows Notepad and other text editors. Bug fix: Justified text generated by the PAGE_TEXT_PARAGRAPH_START command, that contained some international characters, could lose characters at line beginnings - fixed. Bug fix: Truetype font file extensions are no longer case-sensitive. Previously only files ending with .ttf or .ttc extensions were usable. While files with .TTF and .TTC extensions were ignored. Bug fix: The ALBUM_AUTHOR and ALBUM_TITLE commands now support internationalised text. See here for the Complete revision history Help Index is blank.
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 29, 2019 8:48:38 GMT
If you were referring to the Help button while working in Wizard, it works fine.
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 29, 2019 8:51:16 GMT
LOVE the configure button. Thank you.
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Post by clivel on Aug 29, 2019 15:33:36 GMT
zipper thank you very much for the great feedback. The Help Contents and Index circled in red in the image below should not be blank. These are blank for brightonpete. As a result, he is unable to access much of the help which is really necessary to be able to use AlbumEasy effectively. In trying to fix the problem, I would like to know whether his computer is an isolated case, or if it is a general problem that affects some or most people. I am wondering if you or anyone else is experiencing the same problem? Thanks, Clive
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Post by classicalstamps on Aug 29, 2019 18:20:33 GMT
As a MAC user I'm very pleased that AlbumEasy now runs on MacOS. Thanks!
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 29, 2019 23:08:45 GMT
Yes, mine is blank also.
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 29, 2019 23:29:53 GMT
mine is intact!
OSX 10.14.6 (in case that matters)
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zipper
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Post by zipper on Aug 30, 2019 0:20:59 GMT
Mine is 10.12.6
Can upgrade to High Sierra, but haven't.
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 30, 2019 2:44:58 GMT
mine is intact! OSX 10.14.6 (in case that matters) Nope, doesn't matter. That's what I am on too!
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Post by clivel on Aug 30, 2019 5:26:21 GMT
I am completely puzzled by this. I did a completely fresh install of OSX 10.14.6 - like a brand new machine.
The first thing I did was download and install AlbumEasy. Once it was up and running I clicked on the help button fulling expecting the "Contents" and "Index" to be empty which would at least give me the opportunity to try and debug the problem
Unfortunately, to my surprise, they were both fully populated.
I am at a bit of a loss as to what to do next. I have left messages on various programming forums, but so far there has been no response. I am going away for a few days, back on Monday evening, hopefully there will be some useful suggestions by then.
Clive
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 30, 2019 13:41:52 GMT
In the installer, what exactly is installed?
I see the app itself and the sample files. Are there any other files that are installed elsewhere?
If not, I'd just prefer a zipped copy of the app & files, that I can just drag to their appropriate locations.
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Post by clivel on Aug 30, 2019 15:40:24 GMT
All the installer really does is copy the app files into the Application folder, after which it creates the AlbumEasy/examples folder in the Documents folder and copies the examples there.
I was thinking about the issue and am wondering if it is related to whom the user is, I install and run logged on as Administer. Maybe this is not the case for others. Do you have a separate user account?
I am about to leave on a mini four day vacation - labour day long weekend. I will have to wait until Tuesday to get back to it.
Thanks, Clive
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brightonpete
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Post by brightonpete on Aug 30, 2019 16:31:00 GMT
I switched to the "ghost" user, installed Album Easy, but still an empty help file.
If someone on a Mac has all the Help files their copy of the app, can you zip up just the app & email it to me? Maybe that will work...
Hope you have a good weekend, Clive!
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stainlessb
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Post by stainlessb on Aug 30, 2019 18:30:24 GMT
brightonpete I looked, even at hidden files and I cannot find where they are stored, although I can see them when I run the app...
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