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CrossMagic for Windows Frequently Asked Questions
This document attempts to answer some of the frequently asked questions
regarding installing and using CrossMagic for Windows. Please read it
before sending email to Model Systems, as your question may well be answered
here.
Installing CrossMagic for Windows
If you're having some trouble installing CrossMagic for Windows, try
the following:
- Have you downloaded the program correctly? After the download you
should end up with a file called "Xmag4win.exe" (approx 3.33MB
in size) which you should then run. This will unzip the CrossMagic
for Windows Setup program which will then automatically run and prompt
you through the installation process (i.e. ask you which disk drive
you want to install CrossMagic to, create short-cuts, etc).
- Before installing CrossMagic for Windows you should disable any virus
checking software that you may be running. Virus checkers may cause
the CrossMagic for Windows Setup program to exit with a Not
Enough Disk Space error message.
- Make sure you're not running any other programs while you install
CrossMagic for Windows. Do this by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del and then clicking
on a program and clicking the "End Task" button. Keep doing
this until the only items in the list are "Explorer" and "Systray".
Now run the Setup program again.
- Your download of CrossMagic may be corrupt. Try downloading CrossMagic
again, preferably from a different site to the one you first used.
Check that the file size of the Xmag4win.exe file is approx 3.36MB.
- Make sure you are installing to the C drive, CrossMagic may not be
able to install to other drives (i.e. D).
If you still can't get CrossMagic to install then you may be out of
luck. CrossMagic for Windows was written using the Microsoft Access 2
database and the Access Run-Time module. Unfortunately it appears that
Access isn't compatible with all systems and yours may be in the 1% that
it won't run on. No amount of programming on my behalf will get it to
work on all systems, it's Microsoft's fault that their program won't
work on all computers. You can verify if it's your computer at fault
by trying to install CrossMagic on another computer (of course make sure
it's not of the exact same make and model as yours!)
Windows XP
I've had varied success with CrossMagic and Windows XP. Some people
have reported having no problems with the combination, and others haven't
been able to get it to work. I'm not sure why it works for some and not
others, although I think that the people that got it to work tended to
be more experienced users that knew how to turn on XP's Compatibility
Mode and were thoughtful enough to install and run CrossMagic as a user
with Administration access rights.
Until I find out for sure what the problem is, I don't recommend running
CrossMagic with Windows XP unless you're an experienced user.
If you really want to try CrossMagic and Windows XP then please read
this information provided by Microsoft about running older programs
with Windows XP.
The following instructions were given to me by a CrossMagic user that
got CrossMagic working ok with Windows XP:
Install CrossMagic normally. Then find the shortcut icon for CrossMagic
and right click on it. Click Properties. Click the Compatibility tab.
Click on the 'Run this program in compatibility mode for' box to put
a check mark in it and select Windows 98/ME from the drop down list.
Click OK to back out of the menus, and it will work fine now.
Windows Vista
The same issues with running CrossMagic with Windows XP (see above)
also have appeared with Windows Vista. It seems that some people can
get CrossMagic to work ok with Vista while others can't. I suggest you
try Windows Vista's Compatibility Mode. For more details please read
these articles from Microsoft:
Using CrossMagic for Windows
Question |
Answer |
| If I delete a chart and then add a new chart, the
old chart number isn't reused. Can I reuse old numbers or get the
program to renumber my charts so that there are no missing numbers? |
No. When adding a new chart CrossMagic looks to see
what the highest number used is and then adds one to it. It can't
go back and look for unused numbers that may have belonged to deleted
charts. In fact you wouldn't really want deleted numbers to be re-used
as this may be very confusing to some people. |
| Why aren't the materials listed numerically? i.e.
Why do the DMC numbers go 307, 3072, 3078, 309? |
This is due to the way that computers sort text. The Material
Code field is a text field, not a numeric field, because
some Material Codes contain letters as well as numbers (i.e. DMC
has the codes "WHITE" and "ECRU"). Therefore
the database must sort the Material Codes using an alphabetic sorting
method, which results in 309 appearing after 3078. |
| I am sick of clicking through my charts one by one
until I get to the one I want. Is there a way I can quickly jump
to a certain chart? |
Use the Find facility
to quickly find any chart, project, etc. You can bring up the Find
window by either clicking on the binoculars on the toolbar, by click
on the "Edit" menu and selecting "Find", or by
pressing "Ctrl-F". You can search on any field (i.e. Reference,
Chart Title, Author, etc). For further instructions see the on-line
help within CrossMagic for Windows. |
| I've made a mistake when entering in the materials
for a chart. How do I delete a material line? |
Each material line has a grey button to the left of
it, and one of the buttons will also contain a black arrow. The black
arrow signifies which is the current line. To delete a line just
click on the grey button to the left of the line you want to delete
(the black arrow will move to that line and the whole line with turn
black to show that it's been selected), and then press the Delete
key on your keyboard. |
| How do I add new Materials (i.e. new DMC colours)? |
- Select Materials from the Main
Menu. This will take you to the Materials window.
- At the Material Type field, type in the material type you want
to use (i.e. DMC, Anchor, etc), or select the material type from
the drop-down list.
- Jump to the last item on the list (either drag the scroll bar
on the right hand side of the list to the bottom, or click on
the small button at the bottom of that list that looks like a
right pointing triangle pointing towards a vertical bar).
- Beneath the last item will be a blank line with an asterisk
next to it. Click in the Code column of this blank line.
- Type in a Code, Description, and Qty. If there is an alternative
material for this item, you may select the Alternate Type and
Code. If you want to flag this item to be purchased then click
on the Re-Order box to place a cross in it.
- Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each new Material you want to enter.
|
| Can I enter different types of threads other than
the ones that come with CrossMagic? |
Yes! One of CrossMagic's features is that you can
enter as many types of materials (threads, beads, etc) that you like.
To add a new Material Type just go into the Materials window
and click on the "Add Type" button at the top of that window
and you'll be asked to enter a Material Type and Description (i.e.
the Material Type you enter may be "NN" and the Description
may be "Needle Necessities"). After doing that you can
enter all of the Codes and Descriptions for all the threads that
belong to that Material Type. |
| Why can't I enter two Fabric / Tools with the same
Description? |
The Fabric / Tools Description must be unique, you
can not have two Fabric / Tools with the exact same Description.
To get around this by entering a number after each Description (i.e. "Aida
16 White #1", "Aida 16 White #2", etc). |
Moving CrossMagic From One PC To Another
| How do I move CrossMagic from my old PC to my new
one? |
You will need to download and install CrossMagic on
your new PC using the same method you used when installing it on
your old PC. Once this is done you can then copy the file called Data.mdb (which
you will find in the Crossmag folder)
to a floppy disk. This file contains all of your data and can safely
be moved from one PC to another (see Backing
Up CrossMagic below for step-by-step instructions). |
| I purchased a new PC and tried copying all the CrossMagic
files from my old PC but it didn't work! |
You can't just copy the CrossMagic files from one
PC to another as CrossMagic installs some special files in your Windows
and Windows\System folders. Instead you should download and install
a new copy of CrossMagic on your new PC (see the question above for
more details). |
| Can I run CrossMagic on both my home PC and my work
PC? |
Yes you can. You will need to install a new copy of
CrossMagic on your work PC using the same method you used when installing
it on your home PC. Once this is done you can then copy the file
called Data.mdb (which you will find
in the Crossmag folder) to a floppy
disk. This file contains all of your data and can safely be moved
from one PC to another (see Backing Up CrossMagic below
for step-by-step instructions). Of course you can only work on one
copy at a time, otherwise your database will get out of sync. |
Error Messages
| I get a strange error message and the program aborts.
What's wrong? |
If you are not already using the latest version of
CrossMagic, try downloading and installing the latest
version of CrossMagic. |
| I get an error message saying: "Cannot find MSAIN200.DLL. Windows
needs this file to run C:\CROSSMAG\Msarn200.exe" |
Have you recently installed Microsoft Office? Office
has a nasty feature where it will seek out any old copies of the
Access Run-Time module that may be on your PC, which CrossMagic makes
use of, and try to upgrade it. This can stop CrossMagic from working.
You have two options to fix this problem:
1. Download a new copy of MSAIN200.DLL and place it in your Crossmag folder
on your hard drive. To do this click on the link below to download
it. Important! If, after clicking
on the file link, you receive a message asking if you want to open
the file from its current location or save the file to disk, select
the "Save this file to disk" option. Then click on the
Ok button and select the Crossmag folder
on your hard disk to put the file in.
Download
MSAIN200.DLL
2. Try re-installing CrossMagic (you
may have to download the install program again if you didn't
keep it). Before re-installing you should backup your Data.mdb file
(see Backing Up CrossMagic below for
step-by-step instructions). This file contains all of your data,
so you don't want to lose it! After re-installing CrossMagic
copy the Data.mdb file back into
the Crossmag folder, overwriting
the default copy that comes with the installation program. |
| I get an error message saying: "MSARN200 caused
a general protection fault in module NVDISP.DRV at 0001:00006a01." (Note
that the module name may be different on your PC). |
This error may occur when you're trying to open the
Materials form and is usually related to your video driver. Some
users have reported that updating their video drivers to the latest
version fixes this problem (if you don't know how to update your
video drivers then please contact your computer manufacturer). One
particular video card that seems to cause this problem is the NVidia
TNT2 (as supplied in some Gateway and Dell PC's), but there may
be others. V2.60 of CrossMagic has a fix in it that should stop this
problem, download it from here. |
Backing Up CrossMagic
| How do I backup my data? |
I recommend you backup often to avoid losing all your
valuable data! Insert a blank, formatted diskette into your floppy
disk drive, then start the Windows Explorer (click on Start, go up
to Programs, then across to Windows Explorer). Look for a folder
called Crossmag and within you will
find a file called Data.mdb (if you
installed CrossMagic to a folder different from Crossmag then look
there for your Data.mdb file). If you can't find a file called Data.mdb,
but do see one called Data, that's probably your database file. Right-click
on the Data.mdb file, point to Send To and click on 3½ Floppy (A:).
After a few seconds the copy should be complete. Click
here for a sample screen shot. |
| How often should I backup my data? |
You should backup whenever you would not mind doing
all of your work over again. For example, if you spend two hours
entering new charts, would you want to invest that time all over
again? Of course not! Make a backup copy and protect your investment
in time. |
| How do I restore my data if I need to? |
Insert your backup disk into your floppy disk drive,
then start the Windows Explorer (click on Start, go up to Programs,
then across to Windows Explorer). Click on 3½ Floppy (A:) near the
top of the left-hand window pane. You should see a list of the files
on your floppy disk, and there should be a file called Data.mdb (or
possibly just Data). Click on this
file with the left mouse button and keeping the button held down
drag the file over to the left-hand window pane and onto the Crossmag folder.
Let go of the mouse button and a warning should appear advising you
that the folder already contains a file called Data.mdb. Click on
the Yes button to tell Windows you want to replace the existing file.
After a few seconds the copy should be complete. |
Cross Stitch Books
Are you interested in books about cross stitch? I've gathered together
what I think are the best currently available, all available at discounted
prices! Click here to view them.
Cross Stitch Links
There are many interesting cross-stitch sites on the Internet, here
are a few that I recommend. |
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