I’m interested in hearing from anyone running PageFour - whether the Free Edition or the licensed version - under Windows Vista. There are a couple of known bugs when running with Vista, but most users should not encounter them as they only manifest under unusual circumstances.

The issues all relate to changing the Location of Notebook Pages to a folder where you do not have full write access - one of the areas that Vista has ‘improved‘ on XP.

I never thought I’d be looking back on XP as a model Operating System, but there you go. Halcyon days, and all that.

So, if you are experiencing any issues running PageFour under Vista, or even if it’s running perfectly well for you, I’d appreciate an . I’m trying to get a picture of the proportion of Vista users who are having issues, and if they are for the same reasons.

A common question from PageFour users is how to go about moving PageFour and all their Notebooks and Pages to another PC. It’s a relatively straight forward process, though there are a few steps that need to be followed.

1. Download and install the latest version of PageFour to your new PC.
2. If you are running a licensed version, open the License dialog from the Help menu and enter the product key you were given when you purchased. This will have been sent to you via email, but if it has been lost or misplaced, contact me with the name you used when making the purchase, and I’ll track it down for you.
3. Did you set a PageFour password on your old PC? If the answer is yes, open the Password dialog on your new PC by selecting the ‘Tools | Change Password’ menu, and set the password so that it corresponds to the one on your old PC.
4. On your new PC, open the Options dialog from the ‘Tools | Options’ menu, click on the Miscellaneous button, and make sure the Location of Notebook Pages value is the same as your old PC. (This step is not critical, but it will make the moving process less prone to human error)
5. Close PageFour.
6. Locate your PageFour files folder on your old PC. An earlier blog post outlines how to go about finding this folder, which may or may not be named ‘PageFour’.
7. Copy this folder in its entirety from your old machine to the same location on your new machine. When prompted by Windows, simply agree to overwrite any existing files or folders with the same name.
8. Reopen PageFour on your new PC. All your old Notebooks and Pages will appear, and all customised dictionaries and archives will be in place.
9. Two default Notebooks, ‘First Novel’ and ‘My Notebook’ will have been created when PageFour was installed on your new PC. These can be deleted at any time.

If you still cannot see your PageFour Notebooks, the problem will almost certainly lie in the Location of Notebook Pages. This should be checked again to ensure that you copied the PageFour folder to the correct location, as it is very easy to inadvertently drop or copy into the wrong folder.

The above image demonstrates the correct structure of your PageFour folder.

A few weeks ago, Adobe announced that it would be relinquishing control of its PDF format to an outside body, and in doing so probably did more to ensure the long term future of Adobe Acrobat than any other single act. Nobody likes proprietary formats, and despite the almost universal acceptance of PDF files, and the multitude of software applications that utilise it, the PDF file structure was still under the control of a single company.

This is one of the main reasons PageFour files are saved as RTF, rather than a unique format of my own devising. When the very first beta was released, a proprietary format was used. Feedback on this point from early beta testers was negative, as no one wanted to be tied forever to a single piece of software, or to have their months or years of work exist in files that could only be read by one program. There was also the fear, as with any new product, that the company responsible could fail, or the product be abandoned due to poor sales.

Similar arguments were made against the use of any kind of database by PageFour.

By saving the files as RTF, these problems were bypassed, as Rich Text Files can be read by virtually ALL word processors. There was therefore no reliance on PageFour, or on the timely answering of support emails from a small company, should a problem occur - PageFour files could simply be opened and edited in MS Word, Open Office, or some other program.

Moving back to PDFs. Though PageFour itself does not contain any built in PDF capabilities, it is possible to use other PDF software with the product, and there is a multitude to choose from, many of them free.

Some time ago, I recommended PDFCreator, and I still stand by it as the simplest free product to incorporate a PDF writing feature into PageFour. It installs itself as a printer driver, which means that to convert a Page to PDF, you simply set PDFCreator as the Default Printer from the Print menu, and print the page.

Those of you with only a single printer linked to your PC will never have come across the Set Default Printer option on the Print menu, as it only becomes visible when two or more print devices have been installed. When PageFour is opened, the default printer is ALWAYS set to the Windows default, but this can be changed by simply selecting another printer or print device from the list. This changes the default only for PageFour, and only for the current session. Other programs will happily carry on using the Windows default.

If you do choose to install PDFCreator, you will need to close PageFour and reopen it for the changes to take effect. A point worth mentioning, is that the installation of PDFCreator also attempts to install an Internet Explorer toolbar - the reason for which escapes me. This can be prevented by unclicking the appropriate option on the final page of the installation wizard.

There are other, more sophisticated PDF programs out there, many of which offer far more options, such as merging multiple pages into a single PDF document - ideal for novels. These should be tested thoroughly - especially if you plan to hand over money - as not all are as capable of handling multiple pages and merges as they suggest.

The most frequently asked question by PageFour users is “Where are my files?” And the usual reason for asking is that they want to back up their data to CD or thumb drive. Though PageFour does archive your files automatically, this does not help you in the event of a hard drive failure, or your house burning down.

When you run PageFour for the first time, all your Notebooks and Pages, archives, and customised dictionaries are written to your own user-specific Windows Application Data folder. This location can be changed by you at any time. To identify the exact location of your files, open the Options dialog from the Tools menu, and click on the Miscellaneous button. The value stored under Location of Notebook Pages is where all your files are stored.

In the above example, my files are stored in the “C:\Documents and Settings\Darren\Application Data\IMBT\PageFour” folder.

If there are many user accounts on your PC - say one for yourself, another for your husband, and children etc. - and each of you runs PageFour, there will be multiple PageFour folders, all in each user’s Application Data folder.

Depending on your Windows file settings, this folder may not always be visible when browsing. If this is the case, open Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Folder Options, open the View tab, and make sure the Hidden Files and Folders setting is set to “Show hidden Files and Folders“.

Your Notebook Pages should NEVER be stored in the “Program Files” folder of your PC. This location is normally used by software as it installs itself, and often contains files that are needed to run the software. PageFour will by default install into this folder, and many of the files it writes here are used when setting up new PageFour users, so this folder should be left untouched and does NOT need to be backed up.

So which folders and files should I back up?

That depends on how often you back up. There are four separate folders, along with many sub-folders within your PageFour folder - Archive, Data, Dictionaries, and Temp.

The “Archive” folder contains ALL your existing archives, in some cases going back as far as a year. If you back up frequently, or to a location without much memory (a thumb drive for example), you may decide not to back up this folder. The Archive folder does not contain your most current work.

The “Data” folder MUST be backed up. This folder contains all your current Notebooks and Pages. In the example above, there are seven Notebooks - Blog, Business Blog, Journal, etc. The best way to back up these Notebooks is simply to copy the entire Data folder.

The “Dictionaries” folder is quite small, and only contains your own customised dictionaries, along with any auto-correct dictionaries you may have updated. This is not a critical folder, and you may choose to back this up only rarely.

The final folder, which may or may not exist depending on which PageFour features you have been using, is called “Temp”. You do NOT need to back this folder up, as its contents are temporary and of no great importance.

Do remember to close PageFour before performing a backup.

Is there a quicker way to back up?

Yes, there is. If all you wish to do is take a copy of your existing Notebooks, the quickest method is to go to the Tools menu and select Export Notebooks. This will copy all your current Notebooks and Pages to a location of your choosing for easy backup. In the case of a thumb drive, it will perform the entire backup for you, whereas if you are backing up to CD, exporting to a recognised backup folder on your local machine may help speed up the process.

Backing up your PageFour Data folder IS important, as hard drive failures and corruption can occur at any time. How often you decide to backup, is of course, up to you.

I always love receiving emails from PageFour users. Usually, these emails begin with a small compliment, quickly followed by a suggestion for improvement or a question about a particular feature. Occasionally (from those with a more troll-like disposition), the email takes the form of a rant about how PageFour is just like Product X, which is free, but if I added ALL the features of MS Word, they might consider buying it.

The suggestions for new features and enhancements I immediately add to my list, being careful to increment the common ones that pop up over and over again; the questions about existing features I answer by explaining the feature in question, and drawing attention to similar features that may also be incorrectly understood; the troll-like comments I do my best to answer politely, without letting my more sarcastic side come to the fore.

I’m planning on utilising this blog more fully over the coming months, and have decided to begin by talking about some of the features in PageFour that users often question. I’ve come to the conclusion that many existing users are not fully aware of all the features within PageFour, and that their use of the product could be improved by describing them, and the reasons they were implemented, in more detail. Commonly asked support questions will also be addressed in detail.

In terms of feedback, I always welcome comments about the product. Every time someone points me to the lack of a particular feature, or suggests a method of improvement, I add them to the future releases spreadsheet, and it is from this list that upcoming work is decided upon.

Recent suggestions and queries that caught my interest come from Tammy, who suggests expanding on the word count feature to encompass entire Notebooks rather than just individual pages, one of my new French users who suggests configuration files to allow the menus to appear in different languages, and from Mike, who brings up one of the most commonly asked questions - Where exactly are the PageFour files on my hard drive?

I’ll be starting with this question.

Over the past year, there have been a number of enquiries about the possibility of a Mac version of PageFour. My response has always been that the probability of releasing a version for the Mac is very low. I’m a Windows developer, and have been for many years. Despite having a lot of respect for the Mac software community, I have never been tempted to join. My training and working life have been focused primarily on Big Business software - an area that tends to impinge little on Mac users.

Every time someone queries me on the Mac, I point them to Scrivener, a neat piece of software, written - like PageFour - for creative writers. For many months, Scrivener was available as a free beta, as the product was still undergoing development, but version 1.01 of the completed version has just been released.

Definitely worth checking out if you’re a Mac user, as it does share some features with PageFour (the use of Snapshots being the most obvious). You can download it here, or check out the authors blog here.

Most of the referrals for PageFour come from the actions of other people. Now, this may be simply because we’re more inclined to believe something if the person talking about it does not have a vested interest. If you hear someone saying ‘Buy my product, it’s the business,‘ you’re not going to believe them, are you? Why would you? They want your money. If, on the other hand, your favourite blogger or best friend says to you ‘Check this out, it’s cool,‘ you probably will. I know I do.

I’ve bought books, CDs, DVDs, even kitchen appliances, because strangers I’ve never met raved about them on their blogs. I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything in response to an add in a newspaper or magazine. I take Amazon reviews far more seriously than the blurb on the back of a book, or the ‘expert‘ opinion in a newspaper, and I do this because these people have no reason to lie to me. Similarly, user reviews on www.download.com mean far more to me than ‘What our users say‘ pages on software web-sites.

The last television I bought was a 26″ wide screen Panasonic. It cost almost £200 less than the equivalent Sony model, and I bought it because all the user reviews I found online said it was better than its more expensive (though stronger branded) competitor.

Like all small web businesses, I track my referrals religiously. Dodgy Warez sites aside, most incoming links come from blogs and message boards, both of which I have little or no control over. Of course, as soon as new links appear, I’m faced with the question of whether I should actively participate in the discussion of my own product, or simply step back and let nature take its course? When anyone speaks about PageFour, chances are I know about it. Searches on Technorati, and Google Alerts, make this a simple, even daily process.

NaNoWriMo is kicking off next month, and registration has already opened. For the next two months, the NaNo message boards will be the most active writing community on the web, with hundreds and even thousands of users online at any moment. In situations like this, I’m always faced with a dilemma. Taking part in the discussions, starting and participating in threads etc, is not allowed for commercial reasons, and this is as it should be. Should I pretend to be someone else and drop links, or wait until a PageFour user does it for me?

I see opportunities like this all the time and ask myself ‘Should I really do that?‘ or ‘Is it quite ethical?‘ And the answer is no. But does everyone else play by the same rules? Am I just being naive, and should I grow a thicker skin? Are all marketers really liars?

I’ve never written a review for PageFour, which in a way makes all the genuine user reviews that much sweeter. But would I make more money if I were less honest? I’ll be watching the NaNo boards carefully over the next couple of months, but I might be watching in vain.

The new release of PageFour has just gone live. Thanks to all the beta testers who caught those last few annoying bugs that always seem to creep in no matter how much pre-beta testing takes place.

The Smart-Edit feature is looking good, and there haven’t been too many disparaging comments - no doubt that will come later - so overall I’m happy with the result. Most of my own testing of the new feature was done using downloaded copies of Jane Austen novels from The Gutenberg Library, and a few other downloads via Kazaa that I have no intention of naming due to questions over copyright, that if I came clean I would have to admit are not really questions at all. All I have to say after looking at the results is that Jane Austen really is a superior writer to many of the cheap and cheerful Sci Fi scribblers currently on the best seller lists, and let’s leave it at that.

I spent about an hour one evening last week over a bottle of wine scanning the results for her crutch words in Pride & Prejudice and Emma, and the best I could come up with was two uses of ‘obtruded’ and an over fondness for the word ‘mortification.’ The contemporary novels I ran the same tests on … well, let’s just say the report card would read something along the lines of: ‘Needs work, must try harder.‘

Anyway, version 1.5 is live, so check it out - all 30 Day trial restrictions have been removed, so there really are no excuses!

The next version of PageFour is complete and ready for testing. Having said that, the release of the beta will have to wait until my new telephone is installed and my internet connection back up and running - next week hopefully.

In each release of PageFour, I’ve tried not to add any extra complexity to the product, preferring to leave out little changes that may benefit small numbers of people, if they make the product as a whole more difficult to understand. I’m a firm believer in the ‘less is more‘ and the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) schools of thought when it comes to software design, and my aim has always been to keep PageFour firmly grounded in simplicity and not get carried away designing features for the sake of it.

Changes and enhancements in the upcoming release include:

1. Smart-Edit. This is a built in tool to scan pages for common phrases and words, and is my first attempt at incorporating editing features into PageFour. I’m still unsure as to the wisdom of even making the attempt, and I’ll expand on the functionality later. All opinions will be more than welcome.
2. Improvements to the Auto-Archiving feature. Having used PageFour for a year now, I’m working with fifteen Notebooks and about a thousand pages. Backing up this number of files is time consuming, so the Auto-Archiving has been changed to allow the user to select which Notebooks should be auto-archived. This does not impact archives made by the user, which will continue to backup all Notebooks.
3. Changes to the word counter. This little change gave me a big headache! Originally, the intention was to have a rolling word count on the status bar, incrementing as you typed, but this proved overly ambitious. Though possible, such a feature would have used far too much memory, turning PageFour into a cripplingly slow application like many Norton products. The solution was to approach the problem similarly to MS Word, with a little dialog sitting on top, out of the way, and easily refreshable when you want a word count update.
4. New feature to allow top level folders and pages to be added from the Notebook list. This is necessary when a Notebook has so many pages and folders that no free space can be found in the tree, preventing new pages from been added directly to the Notebook.
5. Superscript option added to text formatting.

Minor changes include:

1. When importing and rolling back Notebooks or pages, only the relevant Notebooks are automatically backed up before the changes are applied. This makes a big difference when you have a large number of Notebooks and pages.
2. Corrections to scrolling and display problems in the main Notebook tree under certain Operating Systems.
3. Multi select enabled for Notebook roll back.
4. Correction to indentation issues in numbered lists.

As I said earlier, if all goes well with Eircom (yeah, right!) I hope to have a beta version available for download next week, which I’d love people to try out. I’ll be giving a fuller description of the Smart-Edit feature shortly, and again, feedback will be a big help. Even though the work is complete, I’m still of two minds as to whether I should even release it.

Finally, I’m contemplating changes to the way the trial version of the product works, in the hopes that more downloads can be turned into dedicated users and sales. Again, I’ll write more on this closer to the release date.

Last weekend saw another PageFour review on www.download.com, and would you believe it, she got a whopping 5 stars. The download figures may be low, the sales figures lower still, but the feedback from where it really counts is still as positive as ever.

So a special thanks to trystwiththemoon for posting such a favourable impression of PageFour on a public forum. And no, it wasn’t me writing under one of my many aliases. I’d be far too afraid of being found out to pull off something like that, not to mention the negative publicity that would surely follow. But then, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity…