Meadows Product FAQs

Q. Quark or InDesign under OS X is crashing, but I do not know why? How do I get more information about what caused the crash?

A. In /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/ there is a "QuarkXPress.crash.log" text file. This file contains specific information about what was happening within the application at the time it experienced the crash. Since this file can be quite large, it should first be deleted. Then Quark restarted, and the crash should be made to happen again. This will ensure that only the most relevant data is contained within that log file.

Q. My exported DDF file is generating an error when I attempt to import it into another copy of AutoPrice for InDesign. What can I do about this?

A. Open a document using the DDF into another copy of AutoPrice for InDesign. The floating palette should say "Missing DDF: [DDF Name]" when the document is opened. Go to AutoPrice => Setup => Database Definitions in he menus. AutoPrice should inform you that the DDF is missing, and then give you a chance to re-create it. In AutoPrice for InDesign (Windows or Macintosh) the DDF is stored with each document. This feature has not been incorporated into the QuarkXPress versions of the software as of December, 2005. Cross-platform revisions should be updated sometime during 2006.

Q. I have downloaded and installed the MPS Page Printer for QuarkXPress 6.5. When I start QuarkXPress I never get an activation window to enter the code, there is no menu item, and nothing seems to be happening. What is going on?

A. MPS Page Printer v6.01 had a condition where it needed the "OPI.xnt" XTension that is part of the basic install of QuarkXPress. If that XTension was not present, then Page Printer would not load at all when QuarkXPress started. MPS Page Printer v6.02 includes a fix for this issue.

Q. If I purchase AutoPrice for InDesign CS and then I upgrade to InDesign CS2, will I have to buy another license for AutoPrice?

A. No, we are including both the CS and CS2 versions in our releases of our plugin software for InDesign. So, if you buy the software for InDesign CS, you also get the CS2 version.

Q. I filled-out the form for the Free Utility Bundle but I have no email from Meadows? What do I do?

A. The form for the download for the Free Utility Bundle sends an email that contains the free activation codes for the software and the download links. If something was not filled in correctly, the form would have asked you to complete the input. When the input on the form is proper, the email will be sent to you when it is submitted. The email messages usually arrive within less than five minutes from the time the form was submitted.

1) Our ISP's mail servers have been known to be slow occasionally, the email will be sent to you presently. 2) Even though the email we send contains to attachments, a spam filter on your email client or on your server could be flagging the message as spam. 3) The form input only checks to see if an email address is formatted properly. It does not have the ability to respond to a bad email address. If the email account name that was entered is valid, but was mistyped when it was entered, then the form would have no way of knowing that it was not correct.

Q. Your XTension software is asking me to enter the activation code each time that QuarkXPress starts. This is very annoying, how do I fix it?

A. One of the differences between OS X and previous OS 9 systems from Apple, is the multiple-user account aspect of the operating system. Different accounts on a machine can have different rights for where they can read and write data from.

This condition sounds like the directories that the XTension needs to write information to are not accessible to it, so the preference information is not being saved.

Check the ownership and permissions associated with a) the QuarkXPress application bundle on the hard-drive, b) the XTension files on the hard-drive and c) the XTension .prf and .ser file in the QuarkXPress preferences folder. The application should be owned by the account running QuarkXPress. The XTension and prefs files should be set to Read/Write access for Owner, Group (and All if you do not mind).

Q. I do a batch process to create the index with Index Builder. When I open the index file it creates there is a lot of garbage data around the index entries in the file. What am I doing wrong?

A. The file that the Index Builder creates is a text file with QuarkXPress Tags formatting. It is meant to be brought into a text box on the Quark document. To do this, put your cursor inside of the text box in the document, select Get Text from the File menu, make sure that Include Style Sheets is checked on the file open window.
This is dependent on the presence of an XTension inside of the Quark XTension folder called "XPress Tags.xnt". If this is not present, the index files from Index Builder will not format correctly when brought into the document. This XTension is part of the basic install of QuarkXPress.

Q. I am updating my Meadows software and I have removed all the old XTensions from the XTension folder. When I start QuarkXPress I get an error message that says "MPS [product name] failed initialization. There is a conflict with another XTension". What do I do?

A. This means that there are two XTensions present in your copy of the application that have the same resources, and are probably duplicate copies of the same software. XTensions that have been moved to the ‘XTension Disabled’ folder are not truly inactive, and can still have resource conflicts with other loaded XTensions in the ‘XTension’ folder. To get rid of this error ensure that all copies of our XTensions have been fully removed from the QuarkXPress application folder before installing the new versions.

Q. I am a current user of the Utility Bundle software, running a free or purchased copy and I just downloaded the Utility Bundle for QuarkXPress 6 and I do not see the Page Printer anywhere. Where is the Page Printer?

A. Early versions of the MPS Utility Bundle included a copy of the MPS Page Printer utility. Please note that the MPS Page Printer module is no longer included in the MPS Utility Bundle, and is now offered as a separate software product for QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. If you purchased a copy of the MPS Page Printer module for QuarkXPress 6.x prior to December 1, 2005, you may upgrade to the standalone new version at no charge. Please contact our offices at 847-882-8202 for more information.

Q. Our pages are set up as spreads in separate QuarkXPress documents Do we need to put all pages into one document to do the index for the entire catalog?

A. No. Index Builder batch processes through lists of QuarkXPress documents and builds the index from the tagged index entries in them.

Q. I am a registered user of your products in QuarkXPress 4 and 5. I have downloaded the new software releases for QuarkXPress 6, but my activation code(s) do not work and the software does not load. What am I doing wrong?

A. Activation codes for our XTension software for QuarkXPress 4 and 5 will not activate the new versions that are being released for QuarkXPress 6.x, please contact us by phone or by email for pricing information on upgrades. We appreciate your interest in our software.

Q. I am using Batch Print under QuarkXPress 6.5. My operating system version is 10.4.1-3 and I am attempting to save Postscript files from a Batch Print session, I either never see the final Postscript file or it always goes into the QuarkXPress folder. What am I doing wrong?

A. The Tiger updates (10.4.1-4+) introduced changes to how diskfiles were referenced by programs running in the operating system. This issue took a while to resolve, but was fixed in MPS Batch Print v6.06. Please see the downloads section of this website for the link to this update.

Q. I ran the installer for your software that I downloaded from this website. When I start QuarkXPress I do not see an activation window where I can enter the code, and/or I cannot see the new software from within QuarkXPress. What am I doing wrong?

A. The installers for our products only extract a folder to a specified destination on your hard-drive. They do not modify any existing applications on your computer.

The extracted folder will have the name of the product and the version number. This folder should contain other folders like Documentation, Tutorials, and Software. The Software folder will have Required Software and Optional Software folders. The basic installs of the software will only need items from the Required Software folder. The actual software for QuarkXPress itself is a XTension file. The name of this file will begin with MPS and have the .xnt extension. This is the file that should be copied directly into the XTension folder, that is within the QuarkXPress folder on your hard-drive.

Under Mac OS 9, the XTensions do not have to have a filename extension. Under InDesign, the Windows software will always be a Plug-In (.pln) file, but the Macintosh software will be a Plug-In (.pln) under CS, and a Framework (.framework) under CS 2.

Q. I have a Price Style applied to a placholder in AutoPrice, but it is not styling the price when it updates the document. Am I doing something wrong?

A. AutoPrice is strict on interpreting prices in the fields of the database. The format it looks for is digits/radix/digits (example:000.00). In order for it to see and style a price the field data must match that format. The first thing to do is check that the field contains only the expected data, if there are any other characters before or following the price in that field, then AutoPrice may just think that it is regular text-data.

Q. Any further or miscellaneous considerations on styling prices in AutoPrice?

A. 1. Prices occur in the database field as Euro format with a comma (000,00). So, since it does not find a decimal point, AutoPrice thinks that it is not a price.

2. Some prices occur as whole dollar amounts, not decimal values. So AutoPrice is looking for 000.00 in the database file, if it does not see a decimal value with trailing zeros, it does not recognize the data as a price.

3. The parenthesis-enclosed value also fools AutoPrice into thinking the field data is not a price.

Q. I am an international user of QuarkXPress and DesignMerge. Whenever I attempt to select a database file QuarkXPress crashes. What is going on?

A. We did run into a very rare condition where the Select Database dialog would crash QuarkXPress. We installed a workaround in the software to address this condition. Under the menu items DesignMerge => Preferences there is an option "Enable Database Box". Uncheck this option in the preferences and it should get you past that crash condition without an error.

The only drawback to this fix is that you will not be able to use database files that have been brought onto the pasteboard of the QuarkXPress document, you will have to select your database file on the hard-drive in the standard manner.

Q. I am an AutoPrice user running QuarkXPress 6.5 on OS X Tiger. When I attempt to do Get Text and bring copy into QuarkXPress, the application quits unexpectedly. I looked at the logfile and it seems to be mentioning AutoPrice, is there anything I can do.

A. You can remove the APTags.xnt file from that copy of QuarkXPress. This is an incompatibility that happens with AutoPrice 6.00-6.08 and the Tiger Updates. Removing the APTags XTension will stop the crashes, an updated version of this XTension will be available with a future release of AutoPrice.

Q. I have installed your XTension software into my copy of QuarkXPress. When the application starts it is telling me that your software is ‘Not compatible with this version of QuarkXPress.’ We double-checked compatibility before I purchased, what did we do wrong?

A. [This answer is slightly different if you are attempting to load AutoPrice, DesignMerge or the MPS ODBC Module into QuarkXPress. Please read on below.]

Some of our products require a USB hardware dongle key that must be inserted into an open USB port on the machine before the software will load. When QuarkXPress reports that the XTension is not compatible it means that the software driver for the USB dongle is not present in the workstation.

The archive that you downloaded should contain a folder called USB Security Key, or some variation on that name. Inside that folder will be an installer, drivers and documentation for the hardware dongle key that ships with the software. The installer for the security key driver will report if it was successful or not when installing that driver into the the system. If it is not sucessful you may not have privileges for installing system software and may wish to speak with the administrator of your machine.

If the software you were trying to load was the MPS ODBC Module than this same error message will come up if the system-level ODBC drivers have not been installed when you attempt to load the MPS ODBC XTension. Please ensure that you install the system ODBC components before attempting to use the MPS ODBC Module with AutoPrice.

Q. I am a current user of AutoPrice (single-user license) and have it installed on one workstation at this time, but I want to take work home with me. Can I do this?

A. Yes. AutoPrice needs its USB dongle key in order to activate and load. So you can install the software in multiple copies of QuarkXPress, and then move the actual USB dongle to the machine that you will be using it on.

Q. I am having trouble running the USB security key software installer on my Mac OS X machine. Is there another way to do this?

A. If that installer is reporting an error when it is running, then you may have to authenticate for administrator access before it will install correctly. However, you can try this another way.

The driver for the dongle is actually a very small frameworks file for the system, and you can try to just copy it to the correct place manually.

http://www.1meadows.com/downloads/autoprice/eve3framework.sit

Once this download is unstuffed it should create an "eve3.framework" folder. This folder needs to be copied into the "/System/Library/Frameworks" folder on your hard-drive.

Q. DesignMerge is running extremely slowly outputting disk files to Postscript/PPML/VIPP or spooling to the printer. These are similar to jobs that I have merged before with no problems. Any ideas as to why this is happening?

A. That can be a condition of attempting to run jobs whose assets exist across a network. The drivers that build the output disk files run at the speed of the local bus on the workstation. Since the network is never going to be that fast, this can slow the output process and cause DesignMerge to continually be waiting for a return from the driver. In order to avoid this, it is important that all portions of the job (documents, fonts, stories/articles and images) be copied onto the local workstation when doing a merge.