Rose Vines finds bugs and provides fixes and workarounds for your favourite applications.

If you've been wanting to add the latest bug fixes and add-ons to your copy of WordPerfect Suite 8 or WordPerfect Suite 7 but been deterred by the multi-megabyte downloads, now you can grab the updates directly from the PC User CD-ROM.

This month, the CD-ROM features a complete collection of Corel updates, including:

• Service Pack 3 for WP Suite 8
• CorelCentral Update 2
• QuickArt Database Converter for WP Suite 8

• The File Replacement Patch for WP Suite 7 File replacement patch: wp7oz_2f.exe File Update Patch: wp7oz_2p.exe	Click here for more information about these patches.
  For these patches to work, you must have Corel WordPerfect version 7.0.2.19, 7.0.2.24 or 7.0.2.26. The patches will update Corel WordPerfect to 7.0.2.41, Corel« Presentations™ to 7.0.71.1, Corel« Quattro« Pro to 7.0.2.21 and PerfectFit™ to 7.0.2.10191.

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Service Pack 3 includes a dozen megabytes of patches, improvements and additions to WP Suite 8. The Service Pack is cumulative, so you don't need to install Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 before installing Service Pack 3. A few highlights include:

Bug fixes and improvements for WordPerfect:

• Template macros now save properly.
• Tables with text boxes in the header rows no longer corrupt files when saved to a floppy or opened on another machine.
• File size problems encountered when you save files containing compressed bitmap images have been addressed.
• Lines now appear properly when you paste a link chart from Corel Quattro Pro.
• White text now appears properly when displayed in front of a graphics image.
• BMP files now open with the correct colours.
• Graphics copied from the Clipboard will now paste to the correct location in the document.
• Automatic kerning now prints properly under Windows NT.
• Template editing has been improved.

Bug fixes for Quattro Pro:

• @Subtotal and @Total now correctly ignore hidden rows.
• When you select different blocks, the Print dialogue now updates correctly.
• Dragging a page containing a quick filter to a new notebook now works correctly.
• The horizontal scroll bar no longer covers text.
• The start-up and shut-down routines have been improved.
• Quattro Pro is more stable when you edit links.
• The process of inserting columns or rows with contiguous multiple joined cells has been improved.
• Improvements have been made to the @XIRR function.

Bug fixes for Presentations:

• ATM fonts now display.
• The sizing problems in the Print Status dialogue have been fixed.

Additions:

• Microsoft Office 97 filters for Word and Excel files are now available.
• A new Reveal option on the Quick Menu shows hidden rows or columns in Quattro Pro.

The CorelCentral Update adds files that didn't ship with the original version of WP Office 8, including the special Netscape version designed for the product. It also updates the rest of the communications and contacts features in WP Office.

The File Patch for WordPerfect Suite 7 improves the way WordPerfect, Quattro Pro and Presentations interact with the document manager. Please make sure you read the release notes before installing the patch. It describes which version of the patch to use and which versions of WP Suite 7 in the patch updates.

The QuickArt database converter converts WP Suite 7 QuickArt database files (QAD) to the Scrapbook (SCB) files used in WP Suite 8. You'll need WP Suite 8 installed to use this utility. You can use it to convert any QAD file; in particular, you can convert the premium.qad file to SCB format to gain access to some 5400 graphics.

If you want to get your system working again, remove 386Max and use Microsoft's own extended memory manager (himem.sys) instead.

To do this, you'll need to edit your config.sys file:

• Load config.sys into a text editor.
• Remove any reference to 386Max (or you can put rem at the beginning of such lines to turn them into remarks).
• Add this line to the config.sys file:

device=c:\windows\himem.sys

• Save and close your config.sys file and restart your computer.

If you change a value in the Access link table then open the workbook in Excel, and if one or more formulas in the workbook refer to the changed values, you may get recalculation errors.

You can get around this by opening the workbook in Excel and pressing Ctrl+Alt+F9 to recalculate all the workbook's values. However, you have to repeat this process each time you change table values in Access.

There's a problem with one of the baby announcement templates in Microsoft Greetings Workshop Deluxe Edition. You may find you can't reopen an announcement after you've created and saved it using one of the multimedia templates. In addition to being unable to open the file, you may get the message "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. GWORKSHP caused an invalid page fault in module QD98.dll."

The problem occurs in the "Once upon a time, the stork delivered . . ." template. You can get around it by using a different template, or by re-creating your greeting using the same template (however, make sure you print out your result, as you won't be able to reopen it).

The problem has been corrected in versions 2.0a. You can check your version by opening the Help Menu and selecting the About option.