Forums/ScreenSteps Desktop/Workgroup/ScreenSteps Desktop
Small glitches
Hal MacLean
asked this on November 18, 2007 17:24
As a veteran user of v1.2 for about 2 hours, I have a couple of comments about some glitches! It may be user error, but I don't think so.
1. Editing the preferences - I added a logo file and that appeared just fine. I needed to change it, but the app hangs when I navigate to the new location and file. I can't close the pref window or do anything with the app unless I force quit and re-start.
2. On PDF pages where a step heading is not at the top the logo floats left and hangs off the left hand side of the page.
3. Occasional pages see the footer text floated left and underneath the file title and page number text.
4. When spell checking I cannot add words to the library, or have them ignored. After I have done a spell check, if I then go to edit an image I sometimes get a white block over the top of all windows, preventing me from getting to some controls. Closing the image editor, re-launching the spell checker, moving it to a spare area of screen and closing it resolves this. It appears to be a screen re-draw issue.
I'm running OS X 10.4.10, 1.33GHz Powerbook G4, 1Gb RAM
Comments
Hi,
1) Does this happen every time you try to select a logo or was it just the one time?
I haven't seen a problem like this before and the file selection dialog is one provided by OS X. Does the lockup occur while the file selection dialog is still visible?
2 and 3) Would it be possible for you to email the text you are using in the footer as well as the logo you are using to support@screensteps.com? That would help troubleshoot this issue as I haven't been able to reproduce it on our end.
4) So when you click on the buttons in the spell check window ("Ignore", "Add", etc.) nothing happens at all? I can think of one change I can make that may help with the screen redraw issue but I'm at a loss as to why the spell check wouldn't work on your system. We have a very similar system we test with here, the only difference being that the processor runs at 1.5 GHz.
Would you mind confirming what happens exactly when you try to add or ignore words and verify that these problems all occur whenever you launch the app (even after restarting your system)? If the problems persist we will have to start looking for what is different about your machine.
Sorry I don't have better answers for you but all three are the first reports of their kind. Hopefully we can find some solutions quickly.
Yes - it hangs with the file selection window open. Each time I try to add a logo now (having added one and then removed it) I get the app hanging now. I've made a short screen grab video of this for you. When you play it back and see my pointer hovering over the close button (or any other) imagine that I'm making multiple clicks to try to get it working. You'll see that I can minimise the prefs window, I can use other windows in the system, but to close anything I need to force quit Screen Steps. I can't now add a logo at all.
Alongside the video I have added a simple pdf of the error with the logo hanging off to the left and the footer text moving to the left as well - this was one of my first attempts using the app and you can see what I have done with it. This is the only time I have been able to add a logo and you will see the problem - it is too large, and there is no way to scale it from within the app (another feature request?? Can you add logo scaling to the possible tools?). I therefore wanted to scale it in photoshop and re-choose a smaller version which I had created as a JPG.
Similarly, I've made a quick video of the spell checker issue - basically, when I click ignore or learn I would expect the spell check not to then pick up the same word in the same spell check session... and at least add it to the library. The video shows one of several spell check sessions on the same document which tells me that the 'Learn' feature isn't learning!
I haven't been able to repeat the white block over the image editor window, so that could well have been an error on this system. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know if I get it again.
Both videos and the sample PDF can be found online at:
http://www.halmaclean.co.uk/screensteps
The videos are mp4 and encoded to h.264... they are quite small, but I hope you'll get a sense of what is going on in each.
Thanks for the detailed movies and document. They are very helpful.
Ignore Word
When the spell check window displays a misspelled word it offers up a suggestion (field to the left of "Correct". The "Ignore" button was adding the text of the suggestion field to the list of ignored words rather than the current misspelled word. I've fixed this.
"Learn" also acts on the current value of the "suggestion" field which is by design. This allows you to modify the text in the field and then "learn" or "forget" the word.
PDF Logo
It appears the the code that checks whether or not the image you selected will work with PDF output is encountering a hiccup with the file you selected. Would you mind sending the image to support@screensteps.com so we can take a look at it?
PDF Output
Would it be possible for you to send that project to support as well? If you select File->Package Project then a single file will be created that you can email. We should be able to fix the issue quickly with a project to troubleshoot.
No problem - the files are on their way, hopefully!
I think I understand what you are saying with the 'Learn' function. I thought that it ought to be learning the word as highlighted rather than requiring my input to create a copy of the word to then learn. I'll try writing the word into the suggestion field and see what happens.
Thanks for taking the time with this.
OK - writing out the word into the text field and asking the app to 'Learn' does the trick. Is there any way to load the highlighted word into the text field as the default, saving the user a few moments typing it out?
Also, is it possible to edit the dictionary anywhere to remove the user added words in case a mistake is made?
Not currently. We will take a look at this though and see if we can't improve things in the future.
To remove words you can use the "Forget" button. The word in the suggestion field will be removed from the dictionary. On OS X we are using the Apple dictionary so any words you learn or forget in other applications will apply to ScreenSteps as well.
I've posted a beta of version 1.2.1. This includes the following fixes:
Fixes:
* PDF header logo will no longer draw on the left in some circumstances.
* PDF footer text will no longer draw on the right in some circumstances.
* Clicking ignore in the spell checker now ignores the misspelled word rather than the current word in the suggestion field.
* JPEG images with data stored at end of file rather than beginning of the file no longer lock up the PDF library. This will fix the issue you saw with the PDF logo in preferences.
Let me know if these fixes work on your end as well.
You can download the beta here:
OS X: http://www.bluemangolearning.com/download/screensteps/1_0/beta/ScreenSteps.dmg
Windows: http://www.bluemangolearning.com/download/screensteps/1_0/beta/ScreenSteps.exe
Cripes... that was quick work! Thanks Trevor. I'm downloading it now and will feed back as soon as I have had a chance to use the app.