FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS, SOME COMMON PROBLEMS AND
MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT THE DEBABELIZER PRODUCTS
2/9/96
SOME COMMON CONFUSIONS ABOUT DEBABELIZER AND DEBABELIZER LITE:
A user may think that our products actually allow them to transfer the files to and from the different machines. There is a difference between what DeBabelizer products do, reading and writing a particular program's graphics format (one that only may have been generated on another machine), and sending data to and from a non-Mac computer (which our products do not do). If you can see the file or device (hard-disk, floppy, network server) from the Mac desktop, DeBabelizer products will be able to access the files and open them if they were saved as one of our 60+ supported formats. There is some general information on "Getting Files to Your Macintosh" starting on page 24 of the DeBabelizer Lite Reference Guide. If you want more detailed advice on transferring files to and from non-Mac machines, please check with your local computer store; there are a multitude of choices including null-modem cables, modems, networks, removable hard-disk drives and tape drives; we do not market these devices and therefore cannot advise you about them.
SERIAL NUMBER DOESN'T WORK: First make sure you are using the correct number. If you are trying to use a number that starts with APB, you are using a serial number from version 1.2.15. All original owners of that version were given free upgrades to 1.4.02 and new registration numbers. Please contact a Sales Rep at Equilibrium to purchase a new version. There are no letters, only numbers, in the serial numbers for the 1.6x versions of DeBabelizer. All DeBabelizer 1.6x versions, whether shipped as an update to an older version, or as a complete new box, always have the serial numbers included.
DON'T KNOW THE SERIAL NUMBER: If you need to do a new installation of DeBabelizer or DeBabelizer Lite and don't know the serial number, phone Equilibrium. We will be able to look up your number in our database, assuming of course that you mailed in the registration card. Each software package comes with 4 serial number stickers, one of which is already attached to the registration card; you may attach the other 3 to the Reference Guide, the disk, and perhaps someplace near the machine where the program is installed. Again, please send in your registration card so that we may help you.
UNKNOWN FORMATS: When you're not sure whether our products will read or write a certain format, first refer to the File Format Specifications Appendix in the Reference Guide, and in the Translator Changes in the Addendums. If you're not sure what format you're going to need to read or write, refer to the documentation of the program that is generating or will be receiving the files. Equilibrium does not have a list of formats generated by other people's products.
GENERAL ADVICE WHEN DEALING WITH "WON'T READ FILE" PROBLEMS:
(1) Determine what kind of file it is...if you want to call us and ask, the name of the program that generated it is not important; the name of the format is important.
(2) Find out if the file was generated on a non-Mac machine, and, if so, find out how the file was transferred. Files transferred via modem, network or Apple File Exchange can get mangled (transferred as ASCII rather than BINARY, for instance) or have their Type/Creator information changed. If a file works correctly after you have used the Swap CRs and LFs in File function (found at the bottom of DeBabelizer Toolbox's Misc menu) then it was definitely transferred incorrectly. Please do not call us for advice on how to set your file-transfer software or hardware; remember, we do not market these devices and are therefore not expert with them.
VECTOR FORMATS: DeBabelizer products do not write any vector (AKA, object-oriented) format. They only read one vector format, PICT, and that one only because it is the native Macintosh format. Some presentation programs may be expecting a vector PICT, so if, in a program like this, you cannot get an image from DeBabelizer to come up with a transparent background, it is probably because DeBabelizer products only write bitmap images.
CMYK: At this time, DeBabelizer products don't read or write any CMYK-type file. Note that there are subsets of TIFF and other formats that contain CMYK information. There may be some Photoshop Acquire plug-ins that convert CMYK images into the RGB images that DeBabelizer can handle.
TIFF HALFTONE INFORMATION: Is not read in or written out by DeBabelizer or DeBabelizer Lite.
PICT PROBLEMS:
(1) One thing that happens to many people who are trying to do Batch Save operations on PICT's is that they'll get smaller pictures saved. What's happening is that DeBabelizer is first opening the big picture in the data fork and saving it and then opening the PICT preview in the resource fork of the same file and saving this smaller (and sometimes black and white) picture over the first one. Other symptoms of this: if DeBab continually asks to overwrite (replace) a filename that already exists; or if DeBab comes up with the Auto-Crop dialog after it's saved the first frame of an animation-style file. Check the box labeled "If data fork has a picture, ignore resource fork" in the dialog you get when you choose Misc:Preferences:Readers...:PICT, etc.
(2) Vector PICT's that come in with the incorrect number of colors or no color at all. Change the vector PICT Prefs (Misc:Preferences:Readers...:PICT,etc). There are a lot of options in the one dialog box, so refer to page 262 of the DeBabelizer Reference Guide.
QUICKTIME MOVIE (AND OTHER ANIMATION-TYPE FORMATS) PROBLEMS:
(1) You need to use the Batch Save function to create a multi-frame (animation) file. If you are doing a bunch of Opens and Saves by hand to one file, or if you have a script that does Opens and Saves, you will probably have a lot of trouble. Use Batch Save and refer to the Batch Save checklist on pages 101 to 102 of the Reference Guide.
(2) Writing QuickTime Movies using Batch Save gets you a Replace/Append dialog every time any frame after the first one is saved. This is because the Verify Replace checkbox (found in the Batch Save main dialog box) is turned on. PICS , FLI and FLC files will get the "File already exists" dialog. Remember, you are writing multiple images to one filename; that's what causes the dialog to come up. In other words, uncheck Verify Replace in the Batch Save dialog.
(3) Animation-style files being read in by a Batch operation that won't go past a certain # of frames. Make sure that you have not checked the Don't go past unit (or frame) # option on the dialog box that comes up when first reading in the file. Either hold down the option key during the beginning of the batch process, or Cancel All Skip Boxes (Misc:Preferences:Cancel All Skip Boxes), before restarting the operation, so that the reader's dialog box will come up.
(4) If you are converting a PICS file to another animation format and the auto-crop dialog comes up after the first frame, you should set the PICS reader preferences to Open as composite frames (Misc:Preferences:Readers...:PICT,etc).
(5) Only DeBabelizer 1.6.5 has the capability of carrying forward the sound from the original QuickTime MooV to a new one. Older versions cannot do this.
(6) DeBabelizer will only read "self-contained" movies, and will not read those with "dependencies".
PHOTO CD:
(1) On Power Macintoshes, the reading of PhotoCD files is accomplished through the Apple Photo Access extension. This extension must be active on these machines for DeBabelizer to read PhotoCD files.
SPECIAL HARDWARE:
(1) DeBabelizer products do not require any special hardware to work correctly. They will work correctly with major name brand video cards. They do not use or require floating point (FPU) co-processors. There are accelerators that are designed specifically to enhance Photoshop's internal functions: DeBabelizer does not access these cards for its internal processes. Accelerators, such as Storm Technologies', which are designed and sold with their own Photoshop plug-ins, will probably also run accelerated from DeBabelizer Toolbox or Lite. QuickTime compression & decompression accelerator cards should accelerate those QuickTime functions when executed from DeBabelizer.
(2) Import or Export Plugins that access special hardware like Abekas disks may not work correctly with DeBabelizer ToolBox's Batch operations. The Batch functions are always looking for file names when Opening/Importing and when Saving/Exporting, and DeBabelizer needs a mounted device that can be opened from a standard Mac desktop to make its Batch Lists from. In the case of Batch imports from devices, the user may be able to get around this problem by creating a "dummy" batch list of files that actually do exist for the number of scans (or whatever) he or she wants to do. In some cases, creative DeBabelizer scripting may allow repeated Acquires or Exports to and/or from these devices: considerable experimentation may be required to make these Plugins work correctly, as they were probably never designed with unattended Batch processing in mind.
DRAG AND DROP PROBLEMS: After Macintosh Easy Open has been installed on a Mac, you may find that some of the files you used to be able to drop on the DeBabelizer icon may no longer allow you to do so. Often, you will find that you cannot drag and drop folders. To allow drag and drop operations to proceed normally, Easy Open will need to be turned OFF and the Desktop will need to be rebuilt. Also, if you have just run one of our Updater modules (like the one that turns 1.6x versions into 1.6.5) you may no longer be able to Drag & Drop to the DeBabelizer icon; again, rebuilding the desktop will take care of this.
DISK COMPRESSION PROGRAMS AND DEBABELIZER TOOLBOX: Do not let programs like AutoDoubler compress the Custom Code Modules in the Custom Code folder. DeBabelizer Toolbox cannot run this way. QuickTime movies that have been compressed by programs like AutoDoubler may interfere with DeBabelizer's opening of these movies, in particular if QuickTime 2.1 is installed.
EXTENSION CONFLICTS: Keep in mind that any extension (AKA "init") that is old can cause problems, and that too many of them running at once can cause problems, and that even the order in which they are started when the Mac lights up can cause problems. The first thing anyone should do when they run into any problem with any program on any Mac, is to restart the machine with all extensions OFF (by holding down the Shift key on startup) and see if the problem still happens.
Below are known problems that are caused by the extensions listed:
(1) Directory Assistance II from Norton Utilities, especially the pre-2.0 versions, will cause error-sounds or crashes when Opening an image. It has been called "dirty" by some programmers, and that's referring to the way it handles RAM and the operating system...suffice it to say that the user will be better off using something like Super-Boomerang from Now Utilities. Please note that this Extension is no longer included with newer versions of Norton Utilities.
(2) ATM (AKA Adobe Type Manager) version 2.0 was almost immediately superseded by version 2.0.1; and there probably was a good reason for that.
(3) Custom QuickTime Codecs are Extensions that act as additions to QuickTime that usually allow either the use of special compression hardware or custom software compression. These will often interfere with other programs that write QuickTime MooV's besides DeBabelizer, so we must assume that these extensions may be at fault.
(4) The new drivers for the Wacom Serial Tablet, 2.4x, cause a "DeBabelizer requires your attention" message to appear. At the time of this writing, the only solution is to use an older driver, like 2.3.6. This has been fixed by Wacom in driver 2.4.4 and later versions.
(5) System 7.5.x: DeBabelizer's preferences settings for its Open and Save dialogs are in conflict with the General Controls control panel. DeBabelizer Toolbox version 1.6.5 was adjusted to account for the 7.5.x versions of the General Controls control panel.
MISCELLANEOUS:
(1) Make sure you have enough RAM assigned to the program. This is important for large pictures , doing operations other than just Opening and Saving, filters, Acquire modules, Export modules, and multi-frame (animation) file operations. Progressive JPEG writing requires more RAM than a Save to any other format, due to the special compression routines involved. DeBabelizer users should refer to Appendix C, pages 334 and 335 of the Reference Guide (Lite users will want to see Appendix B, page 143), so you can see how much memory is required.
THE FOLLOWING FOUR APPLY ONLY TO DEBABELIZER AND NOT TO DEBABELIZER LITE:
(2) If you've got an AV Mac or a new SCSI 2 hard drive controller, make sure you've also got the 1.5.5 version or later; earlier versions will not work correctly with these hardware configurations.
(3) Cancel All Skip Boxes (Misc:Preferences:Cancel All Skip Boxes). This is useful for "It used to work but doesn't anymore" problems; especially in Batch operations.
(4) Set Factory Default Prefs (Misc:Preferences:Set Factory Default Prefs). This is sometimes useful for "It used to work but doesn't anymore" problems in general.
(5) Toss Prefs: With DeBabelizer not running, move the file "DeBabelizer Prefs" out of the Preferences folder (which is in the System folder) to the Desktop, restart DeBabelizer, Import your Scripts-Palettes-Etc.. from the old Prefs file by using the function of the same name (Misc:Scripts-Palettes- Etc...Import), and then throw the old Prefs file away. This can be especially useful if you've had older versions of DeBabelizer installed on that Mac.
HOW TO GET THE LATEST UPDATES FOR DEBABELIZER 1.6X VERSIONS
Because DeBabelizer Toolbox has a modular design, all readers, writers and several specific functions are stored in the Custom Code folder and can be easily updated. As new versions of the Custom Code Modules become available, they will be posted on our BBS and our Web Site:
BBS Ph. #: (415) 332-6152
Web Site: http:\\www.equilibrium.com\
or you may call Equilibrium to request a disk to be mailed to you (note: there will be a minimal charge applied to cover shipping and handling costs):
