Hallmark Card Studio 2005 Version 6.0 ReadMe File August 20, 2004 *********************************************************************** About This Document: Thank you for purchasing Hallmark Card Studio 2005. This document contains last-minute information about Hallmark Card Studio 2005 and other information about the program not found in the Help Files. This ReadMe file includes information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have concerning the program or your computer. Should you experience any problems with Hallmark Card Studio 2005, please refer to this file for additional help. *********************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES III. GENERAL PROGRAM ISSUES IV. CONTACTING SIERRA HOME I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS ----------------------- Windows® 98/Me/2000/XP Pentium® II 300 MHz 64MB RAM 550 MB of HD space (1.2 GB recommended for full install) 8X CD-ROM 800X600 16-bit color Mouse & Keyboard Sound card for audio e-cards Printer required to print Microsoft® DirectX® 8.1 may be required (See GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES note 7) II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES ------------------------ 1. As with all applications, you may experience difficulties using Hallmark Card Studio 2005 with some hardware configurations. In almost all cases these problems can be resolved by obtaining the most recent drivers for your hardware or by changing your screen resolution or other settings. Hardware that we have experienced difficulty with while testing includes: Hewlett Packard 692c printer; Maxi Gamer Phoenix video card; ATI Rage Pro video card; Matrox G 200 video card; 3dfx VooDoo 3 2000 video card; Diamond Multimedia Fire GL 1000 Pro video card and the Xerox DocuPrint C11 printer. 2. If you install Hallmark Card Studio 2005 into the folder of another Sierra application, you will experience problems when you uninstall it. We recommend installing to the default location. 3. You may experience program slowdowns or freezes if you are running Hallmark Card Studio 2005 in conjunction with Norton anti-viral software. To correct this, either disable Norton (right-click on the icon on the task list and choose Disable) or add Hallmark Card Studio 2005 to the Norton exclusion list (refer to the documentation that came with your Norton utility). 4. Hardware Video Acceleration: On certain video cards, setting Windows 9X to the maximum video acceleration level may cause your system to crash. We do not recommend overriding any hardware settings that Windows automatically sets. 5. If your Internet Service has difficulty sending or receiving attachments, you may not be able to effectively send or receive the e-cards in Hallmark Card Studio 2005. Please contact your Internet Service Provider for technical assistance. 6. Please be advised that you will need to have Internet Explorer 4.72 or newer installed for Hallmark Card Studio 2005 to run. 7. Please be advised that the manufacturer of your video card may require you to install DirectX 8.1 or later in order to correctly display the printer animations associated with the Hallmark Card Studio 2005. You can obtain DirectX 8.1 or later from Microsoft Inc. on their website www.microsoft.com. III. GENERAL PROGRAM ISSUES ------------------------ 1. Hallmark Card Studio 2005 does not support resolution of 640x480, and will not redraw correctly to fit that size. Additionally, the program requires at least 16 bit color to display accurately. 2. Hallmark Card Studio 2005 does not support the use of large system fonts. If you are currently using large fonts, open your Control Panel. Double click Display, then choose Settings to set your font preference to small/normal fonts. 3. If you choose not to install Adobe Acrobat Reader or the Event Planner initially, you may install them at a later time from the Hallmark Card Studio Launcher screen. This screen will appear when the Hallmark Card Studio application CD (CD #1) is inserted into the CD-ROM drive (if autoplay is enabled). 4. When printing cards, using Windows ME, please be aware that some printers do not have current drivers. This may result in the Traditional Card layouts being printed off-center. Should this occur, please make sure you have the most current printer drivers for Windows ME installed to your system. 5. When using the Event Planner Import to access CSV file format data, be aware that some events (such as Birthdays) associated with a file (person) may not translate. You may have to re-enter that information once the file has been imported into the Event Planner. 6. When importing names to the Event Planner, names should not begin with a number, as that information may not be imported correctly. 7. While the majority of cards in the Hallmark Card Studio 2005 have text that is easily modified by the user, there are a few cards that feature text that cannot be edited. If you cannot select the text of a card to change it, you can add your unique message by creating a new text box in Art Studio. 8. In order to provide the most appealing layout possible, some of the cards in Hallmark Card Studio 2005 were created with two text boxes for one sentiment. If you are trying to edit the sentiment of a card, you may need to select text in more than one text box to have all the elements changed. 9. Hallmark Card Studio 2005 does not support printers with automatic duplex (2 sided) printing. You will need to print your layouts one side at a time on these printers. 10. Some graphic files cannot be imported through the Hallmark Card Studio 2005 Art Book. Not all TIF or GIF files will import correctly, however if you save those files as JPG or BMP files, they should be usable by Hallmark Card Studio 2005 without problem. 11. When sending an e-card, should pressing the "E-Mail" button not work, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may not be MAPI compliant. You can either set up your system for MAPI compliance, or you can save the e-card as an attachment, and manually insert it into an email. 12. All address book data from Hallmark Card Studio 2, Hallmark Card Studio 3, Hallmark Card Studio 2003, Hallmark Card Studio 2004, Comedy Card Studio, Holiday Card Studio and Christian Card Studio is automatically made available within Hallmark Card Studio 2005, without the need for conversion. To access the address book data from Card Studio 1, simply use the "Import" function, which has been incorporated into the Event Planner. 13. When uninstalling the Event Planner, the reminder tray shortcut may remain visible after the program has uninstalled. To remove the icon, reboot your computer, or right click on the icon and choose "Close". 14. Please note that there may be slight variances between the screens displayed in the Manual and Tutorial and the actual appearance of the screens in the product. 15. When applying the Curved Text effect in Art Studio, please note that the font size display box and arrows may be non-functional. To increase or decrease the size of curved text, please use the handles at the corners of the text box. 16. When attaching a sound to an e-card, the application may appear to freeze. After several seconds, it will return to normal operation. IV CONTACTING SIERRA HOME --------------------- Please refer to your user guide for company contact information or technical support. You may also visit www.hallmarkcardstudio.com.