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Upgrade A4V7 to A4V8

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    #16
    Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

    Grant,

    This may sound trite, but I don't mean it that way.

    I have not seen the problem you are experiencing, but that doesn't mean that others aren't. You might want to do a search on the messageboard and see what pops up. There are quite a few other A4 users, and hopefully one of them will spot this thread and chime in with some help.

    I know that Alpha's main focus (some might say only focus) is on the current and next version of A5. I think you are correct that they use someone else's PDF creation utility, but I'm not sure. I have a call into someone at Alpha that (hopefully) will know the correct answer for us.

    I don't think I'd blame you if you returned the program and asked for a refund, based on your experiences. Let me know what happens.

    Dave
    Dave Jampole
    www.customalpha.com

    Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

    Comment


      #17
      Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

      Dave:

      I have poured over the message boards and found several people who had a similar problem without ever getting an answer on the board. I talked to someone at Alpha in customer service and they basically said "Sometime it doesn't work" and he was stumped. The thing that's peculiar is that it worked for a little while and then stopped. They do use a PDF converter from a French company and they offered to sell me the latest version of their program at a discount. Enough already just to try to email invoices. After all this I could have bought an awful lot of stamps!

      I'm waiting for Alpha to okay returning it.

      Grant

      Comment


        #18
        Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

        Grant,

        No one can convince my that DOS and Windows are 100% compatible. A lot of what goes on between these two operating systems borders on black magic.

        Since the PDF issue is important to what you are doing, I think you're making the right move.

        Good luck.

        Dave
        Dave Jampole
        www.customalpha.com

        Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

        Comment


          #19
          Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

          Dave:

          Alpha asked me to delete the V8 folder and reinstall the software along with the two patches. Now I'm getting a popup error in LANpack (A4V8.net) which I think is because the reinstall didn't ask me for my key and I think it assumes I'm trying to install it for another user. (I have the one user version.) I'm also getting a message that WPTRINFO.A4 can't be found when I try to configure a Windows printer.

          This just goes from bad to worse. I just want my money back! I think this is great software when it's setup and runniing okay, but getting there is a nightmare of the nth degree. Alpha is no Microsoft!

          Grant

          Comment


            #20
            Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

            Grant,

            Did you use the Windows Control Panel/Add or Remove Programs, or did you just delete the A4V8 folder? I'm not sure, but I believe that Alpha 4 writes to the registry and if that is in fact the case, just deleting the folder won't do it.

            Dave
            Dave Jampole
            www.customalpha.com

            Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

            Comment


              #21
              Default Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

              Dave:
              It would not uninstall from the Control Panel or from the UNWISE in the program.
              Alpha told me to just delete the folder. They obviously aren't too sharp when it comes to giving advice.
              Grant

              Comment


                #22
                Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                Grant,

                I have to disagree with that.

                The folks at Alpha know their stuff. When the question asked is application-based, the users have more experience on that side of Alpha; when the question is on the Alpha side, the Alpha folks are the experts, hands-down. The company folks know more regarding what Alpha can do; the users are much more inventive from the 'how to make the program do something' approach.

                Dave
                Dave Jampole
                www.customalpha.com

                Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                  Dave:

                  So are you telling me that they should be able to figure out what's wrong? I had absolutely no problems with V7 running on XP Pro. They assured me that the V8 would install seamlessly. They didn't tell me that I would lose so much in the way of custom setup. I also think that new versions should take you to the path of old version where scripts reside, or at least ask you if you want to do it, or a a minimum give you some documentation telling you what to do.

                  My problem with the email is not a problem with my computer or application....in my opinion. I think it's with the PDF converter not being compatible with XP or maybe my Adobe Pro 7.0. They apparently have no way to upgrade the converter software that's imbedded in V8.

                  Grant

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                    Grant,

                    Understand that I'm speaking strictly for myself . . .

                    If I was Mr. Alpha Software and I released A4V8, it would be incumbent upon me to make sure I addressed the compatiability issues between V8 and the current versions of Windows available at the time of release. Now let's skip forward from when A4V8 is released to the present. There is no way Alpha can anticipate what issues will pop up between when A4V8 shipped (on my system, the A4.exe shows a date of 12/24/2002, which means that it is presently 3.5 years old) and what Microsoft does with its future releases of Windows. Alpha switches to a reactve mode after V8's release and tries to find ways to work around any problems that manifest themselves down the road. The same holds true with Adobe. In fact, A4V8 was released to specifically address the issues of a DOS-based program trying to print to a Windows-only printer and I believe this was done to support those of us that still use A4.

                    I would think that A4V7 and A4V8 are essentially the same, with the exception of the fax and printing functionality. If, as you say, someone at Alpha assured you that V8 would install seemlessly, then it is incumbent upon them (Alpha) to make sure it does that.

                    The PDF issue brings another dimension to the problem. Now you have to add Adobe to the mix and what is involved between Alpha, Adobe, Windows and the end user is anyone's guess.

                    Long ditribe to say this: I feel that if Alpha sells it, they should support it, or at the very least, advise a customer of all the known pitfalls and potential traps.

                    Dave
                    Dave Jampole
                    www.customalpha.com

                    Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                      Dave:

                      I restored the original copy from the recycle bin and that got rid of the problem of getting the LANerror message, but I'm still getting the message that it can't find a wprtinfo.a4 file. That is apparently a file to list the available printers. All my printers are showing up in the Printers in Windows, including the ones that Alpha originally put in like the PDF converter. I have no idea what the missing file is and can't find any info on the internet.

                      Grant

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                        Grant,

                        On my system, the wptrinfo.a4 file is in the ALPHA4V8 folder. From the date, it looks like the file is created when you go into Other, Configuration, Printer Configuration, select you available printer/printers and then save what you've done.

                        Dave
                        Dave Jampole
                        www.customalpha.com

                        Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                          Dave:

                          I don't have such a folder and maybe that's the problem why it's not proceeding beyond the spool folder. It can't find anything to print to! My version is 2-6-03 build date. I'll have to let Alpha know that the file is missing.
                          I would assume that when you do the upgrade, it looks at Windows and finds out what printers are on the system and creates the folder with data in it.

                          Grant

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                            Grant,

                            The file wptrinfo.a4 is NOT provided by Alpha; it is created when you go through the steps I enumerated in my last note. Also, the folder that, on my system is named ALPHA4V8, might be named A4V8 on your system. I just don't remember if I used the default name when I installed V8, or if I made up a folder name. Let's forget the specific name and just say that the file should be in the same folder as A4V8. When you run the printer configuration from with A4V8, the program sees all the printers available to Windows and offers them to you.

                            Also, A4V8 on my system does not show a 'build date', but I have 'Version: 8.0.0' .

                            Dave
                            Dave Jampole
                            www.customalpha.com

                            Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Upgrading from A4V7 To A4V8

                              Dave:

                              My version is also 8.0.0 but there were patches made and the build dates vary.
                              I found that by reading about it in the "readme" files in the area that I found the patches. Apparently 2-6-03 is the latest date and prior to that you need the patches. When I go to Other, Configuration, etc. that's when I get the message that it couldn't find WPTRINFO.a4. Apparently that folder gets populated by whatever printers Alpha finds on the system.

                              Grant

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Grant,

                                Originally posted by intewedm
                                When I go to Other, Configuration, etc. that's when I get the message that it couldn't find WPTRINFO.a4. Apparently that folder gets populated by whatever printers Alpha finds on the system.Grant
                                I believe you're right, except that it looks like the file is created when you choose a printer/s from what Alpha finds on the system. What I'm saying is that I think the file is created in response to what printers you select, but not before. If you don't select a printer from the Other, Configuration, Printer Configuration, then the file won't be created.

                                Dave
                                Dave Jampole
                                www.customalpha.com

                                Women and cats will do whatever they want. The sooner men and dogs realize that, the happier they will be.

                                Comment

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