General Troubleshooting FAQs

Q. My Meadows XTensions are not working, what should I do?

A. Anytime that our software does not run correctly, or seems not to be working, there are a few possibilities that need to be ruled out prior to making a decision as to where the problem exists within your copy of QuarkXPress.

There are a couple of standard QuarkXPress debugging routines described below, as well as instructions for submitting documents to us for review when an actual problem with our XTensions is determined to be the cause of the issue. Please read all instructions carefully in order to ensure that we are able to address your problem in a straight-forward manner.

Do not send any documents to us until you have submitted a description of the problem you are encountering, along with a description of the workstation(s) involved and the versions of our software, QuarkXPress, and Mac-OS or Windows that you are currently using. The QuarkXPress Collect-for-Output and the Apple System Profiler will generate this information; please use both or either of them to gather the required information for the workstation on which you are experiencing the problem. Please submit all such information to support@1meadows.com

If you have not purchased a Priority Software Support Agreement from Meadows Publishing Solutions, then any issues that are submitted to us will be handled in the order in which they are received. We attempt to address all issues with our software as they are reported to us. If you have a current Priority Software Support Agreement, then you may call our offices directly at 888.983.6746.

We never distribute software that has not operated correctly within a basic-install of QuarkXPress. As new versions of QuarkXPress are released, our software may require updates and revisions. Our software is not guaranteed to work with any other third-party XTensions to QuarkXPress. In order to get your issue addressed properly, we need a detailed report of the problem and the situation under which it occurred. We will then attempt to duplicate the issue at our offices.

1. Please be sure that you are familiar with all procedures and operations with regards to the software you have purchased. Read the manual. Read any emailed instructions that may have arrived with the software that you received from us. Please read any applicable portions of the QuarkXPress manual that may relate to the issues you are having.

2. Please be sure that your computer is healthy and operating correctly. We cannot fix problems that have to do directly with the software configuration of the system on your workstation, or the hardware that comprises it. Please consult your technical support administrator or the vendor of your operating system or workstation if you have questions regarding the configuration or performance of your machine on a system or hardware level.

3. Sometimes the order in which the XTensions are loading into QuarkXPress can cause or resolve conflicts between them. If you have determined that you have a conflict with a particular XTension, please try changing the name of the XTension in question and relaunching QuarkXPress. Usually this would involve adding a spaceband or tilde character to the beginning of the name of the XTension from the Finder, or Windows folder. QuarkXPress loads the XTensions into memory in alphabetical order and it is possible that changing the load order in this manner may resolve the issue for you.

4. Testing for an XTensions conflict can be done by unloading all XTensions except for the ones that you suspect are not working correctly, restarting QuarkXPress, and testing the operation that had previously generated the error. The current QuarkXPress configuration includes the contents of a folder called XTension, located inside of the folder that holds your copy of the QuarkXPress application.

If the problem happens again at this point, then you can submit a report to us that describes the problem you are experiencing. If the problem does not happen, then you should add the previously-installed XTensions one or two at a time, relaunching QuarkXPress each time, and trying the operation until the problem occurs again. Through this admittedly tedious process you should be able to determine which, if any, of the XTensions running within your copy of QuarkXPress is conflicting with our software.

If you have determined that you are experiencing an unresolvable XTensions conflict, please check the website of the vendor of that software for updated versions and download and install any that would apply in your situation.

5. If all this fails, send details of the problem encountered to the vendors of both XTensions, along with workstation, QuarkXPress, operating system and workflow specifications. When possible, include a Stuffit archive containing all the necessary pieces of the job that is exhibiting the problem. In the case of AutoPrice issues we need a copy of the QuarkXPress document, the data-source text file, and the Database Definition that the document is using. If the problem has nothing to do with the graphics that are in the document, then we recommend deleting the placed images within the Quark document to reduce the file size and make transferring of the document easier. Please included detailed information about the version of QuarkXPress you are running, the version of the operating system and hardware, the exact wording of errors that you are getting, etc. The more questions that you anticipate and include answers for, the better your responses will be from us. Since XTensions are designed for a particular purpose within QuarkXPress there may be instances when a conflict with our software and another XTension is unavoidable or unresolvable.

When testing our XTensions, it may be necessary to unload software currently running on your machine, or boot with a configuration that is different from what you would normally use. This is to provide a control-test running our software on a bare-bones copy of QuarkXPress on your machine.

For instance: if you are attempting to troubleshoot Batch Print, and starting QuarkXPress with the XTensions unloaded disables your printer, then print the document to a disk file instead. This is only a test to determine if the XTension, when running with all third-party XTensions disabled, will work correctly. If it does run correctly under a clean copy of Quark, but will not work correctly with your standard group of XTensions loaded, then there is a problem with our XTension conflicting with other software you are running. In this case, adding your standard XTensions, one-at-a-time back into the XTensions folder, restarting QuarkXPress and testing the condition will allow you to determine which XTension it is conflicting with. If you can determine which piece of software that is, you can attempt to rename the XTensions in the Finder to see if affecting the load order will resolve the conflict.

Occasionally there are XTensions that will have an irrevocable conflict with one of ours. In some cases, there is nothing that can be done about it other than to have different XTension Sets entered in the XTension Manager within QuarkXPress, and boot into the different configurations as they are needed. In certain cases it is possible for us to fix the problem with the software, if we have a copy of the third-party software that is involved in the conflict. In order for this to occur, you must determine which XTension is having the conflict, and submit a copy of that to us, along with detailed information about your system and setup. A Quark Collect-For-Output report will suffice in this case.