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Thankyou for purchasing the AlphaBlox OfficeBlox component suite. We have listed below some known problems and also some useful hints and tricks to enable you to become more proficient Blox users!
While every effort has been made to create a user friendly and robust product, AlphaBlox realises that we could not include everything in this first release. However, we would love your feedback for enhancements,suggestions or problems you are encountering. Please email your suggestions to
BetterBlox@Blox.com
General Notes
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As part of our drive for Microsoft Office Compatibility, some late changes to the user interface were made in order to make the Blox even more intuitive for Office users. This was too late to make the documentation so some very slight inconsistencies may be noticed.
Known Bugs / Problems
1. Unsupported features:
i) You cannot drop objects onto the printer icon on the Windows 95 desktop in this version of OfficeBlox.
2. Known problems with other 3rd party applications
i) Microsoft Word version 6 - When editing the Blox in place in Microsoft Word, they size and render correctly in Normal view (and this is the view we recommend you edit them in) but cannot scale correctly if you work in Page Layout view at anything other than 100% scale.
ii) Dragging and dropping from ToolBlox in the Shareware version will not work when some 16 bit applications are running (specifically, Forest and Trees from Trinzic Corp).
3. Running under Windows NT 3.51
i) You need some DLLs to run under NT which are available free of charge from Microsoft.These DLLs are the following:
MFC30.DLL
MFCD30.DLL
MFCANS32.DLL
MFCO30.DLL
MFCUIA32.DLL
MSVCRT20.DLL
Please note that AlphaBlox OfficeBlox will not run on Windows NT 3.50 because the Windows 95 common controls are not supported. Please contact your local Microsoft reseller to obtain Windows NT 3.51.
Installation
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1. Known Bugs
i) The Install program leaves a ghost task on the Windows 95 taskbar. Clicking on the ghost task on the taskbar removes it.
NoteBlox
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1. Known Bugs
i) File Save As dialog may pick up a shortcut name in the filename if you click on a shortcut when deciding where to save the file.
ii) An embedded object can be moved around the screen and so far off it, that it can't be seen again without doing a lot of scrolling and moving about. This will be fixed when we go to an RTF control. If you put in text into the NoteBlox between the end of your text and the beginning of the object, you will be able to scroll to it.
2. Requested Enhancements
i) Rich text in a NoteBlox.
3. Not Supported
i) You may not set the background color to all of the colors that are displayed in the dialog. This is because the background needs to be a pure background color and not a dithered color. This will change when the Rich Text version of NoteBlox is released.
4. Late breaking documentation
i) You can drag a file into NoteBlox. If you drop it into the body of the NoteBlox, it embeds it as an object. If you drop it onto the toolbar, it opens it as a text file.
ii) The size limit of a NoteBlox is 64K. This is reduced if you have some of the options set, for example word wrap.
WorkBlox
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1. Known Bugs
i) Moving as opposed to linking an item e.g. a NoteBlox from the Windows 95 desktop doesn't work. It does embed the document into WorkBlox but does not remove it from the desktop. We believe this is a Windows 95 issue rather than a WorkBlox bug.
ii) Objects sometimes end up off the top of the WorkBlox page but no scroll bar appears. This usually happens when you have been working in fit to page mode and arranging objects in a large area and then go back to normal view. Some objects then end up off the top of the page and there is no scroll bar to get them back. There is a simple workaround to this - put the view back into fit to page and then move one of the objects slightly and then toggle back to normal view - this generally fixes the problem.
iii) You can link documents from one WorkBlox to another, but you cannot link documents within the same WorkBlox.
2. Not Supported
i) You cannot change a tab directory once you have created it.
3. Late Breaking Documentation
i) If you create a new tab with the same name as one that you previously deleted, the new tab inherits the deleted one's subtabs, without prompting.
ii) To delete a tab or subtab and its contents, click on the subtab (or top level tab) and choose File/Remove Tab and contents from the menu. This deletes it from the disk.
iii) In the "Settings" options, when asked for the "Default minature size", you need to "Enter a positive integer". The word "Integer" means a positive whole number.
iv) The number of days left for the Preview Edition decreases by the number of elapsed 24 hour periods. This may seem to jump down if you leave long periods between using it (we're sure you won't be able to stay away from it for that long!).
v) If you make changes to the sample WorkBlox and then un-install OfficeBlox from the Control Panel, your data in the sample WorkBlox will be lost.
ListBlox
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1. Known Bugs
i) Resize / autosize operations do not take the position and size of the Windows 95 AppBar into account.
ii) If a ListBlox is inserted into another application with Edit|Insert New Object|Create from file (and not linked), then the metafile will not render correctly until the list has been activated at least once.
iii) Saved links will not be restored. Watch out for a new release which fixes this one.
iv) When doing an Insert Object, the linked/inserted file appears different dependent on whether the selected file is open or closed.
2. Not Supported
i) Only dates from 1970 - 2038 are supported currently in the date column types.
3. Late Breaking Documentation
i) Pull-down edit field displays may be too small to edit when the column width is very narrow. You will need to resize the column in order to display the pull-down.
ii) When dragging OLE objects in a list, you may only drag one object at a time. You cannot multiply select OLE objects for dragging. This also applies if you have an object in a cell and you select multiple cells which include an object - the object will not be dragged with the other selected cells.
iii) Using Select All (and clicking in the corner box) will select all of the CELLS. This means that row and column operations (e.g. resize / collapse) can not be undertaken until rows and/or columns are selected.
iv) If there is a template called 'Default Template' in the directory that ListBlox is running from, then this template will be loaded when ListBlox starts and when 'New' is selected.
CalcBlox
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1. Known Bugs
i) With some screen drivers, a problem with the scaling of the KeyBlox fonts may become apparent. This does not happen consistently and we believe it is a problem with the screen drivers in question.
ii) Dragging CalcBlox off ToolBlox into an OLE container for the first time does not work but will work every time thereafter.
iii) If you set the number of decimal places to zero, you will only have that rounded value stored in the calculator, which may affect the accuracy of the final answer. To be safe, ensure you have some decimal places showing.
iv) If you are adding up some numbers and place an extra line in between on of the rows then the calculation will become invalid. Either delete the blank line, add some values or take out the operator on the row preceding the blank line.
2. Requested Enhancements
i) Shortcut keys for all the CalcBlox functions, to make them useable from the keyboard
ii) Use of the calculator for constant calculations, of the form 2+4+= = =, where each = performs the calculation again.
3. Late breaking documentation
i) If you set the font too large in Blox/Options, it will be truncated in the display area.
ii) When you apply some narrow KeyBlox, buttons to the right of the toolbar are not available unless you re-size the window to make it wider.
iii) If you close a floating (detached) KeyBlox, you need to choose KeyBlox from the View menu (on right mouse button or from the Blox menu) in order to bring it back again.
iv) When referencing labels, if the label includes operators (e.g. +,- etc) then CalcBlox will place ampersands (&) around the label so it can treat it as a label rather than an expression. So, if you had these two labels:
Investment - %
Container (empty)
the expression =Investment - %+Container (empty) would not evaluate, but
=&Investment - %&+&Container (empty)& would.
ToolBlox
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1. Known Bugs
i) If you set the ToolBlox as vertical there is a large area to the right of the buttons which is left blank. This is because Windows 95 will not allow the window to go below a certain width.
ii) Dragging CalcBlox off ToolBlox into an OLE container for the first time does not work but will work every time thereafter.
Hints & Tips for the AlphaBlox OfficeBlox suite
ALL Blox
1. Create new Blox on the desktop using the Right Hand Mouse Button and select NEW-> and then choose a Blox.
create them as documents in Notes that open automatically (eg per this database)
2. Create shortcuts to Blox and drag them in the WorkBlox for tracking - eg annotations.
WorkBlox
1. You can drag shortcuts to folders in to WorkBlox to give quick access to commonly used desktop items.
2. If you are a Lotus Notes user, you can pull shortcuts to .NSF files into WorkBlox and use WorkBlox as a front end to your Notes databases.
3. If you use a presentation package, such as Power point you can copy slides into your WorkBlox and visually see presentations before you run them and use it as a good scrap book for work in progress.
4. Drag and drop (links) of paragraphs in Word into WorkBlox - again as a scrapbook for work in progress.
5. Copy Excel spreadsheets into the WorkBlox to compare and contrast different values very visually.
6. Point tabs to network drives which means users can share information very easily. Use the WorkBlox as a staff noticeboard or in combination with an IN/OUT list for noting where people are.
7. Use the WorkBlox as a great place to store Multimedia files. Drop .AVI, sound or other multimedia files right into the tab and see them represented visually.
8. Fit to page and auto arrange is PER TAB - therefore you can be quite specific on how you layout each tab.
9. Remember you can show objects as icons AND change their title - this may be useful if you have lots of objects or little screen real estate.
10. You can have multiple WorkBlox "books" open . Create new shortcuts on the desktop and make the command line:
c:\blox\workblox.exe c:\data\My new workblox.wtx
this means you can load different workblox configurations straight from the desktop.
NoteBlox
1. Send a shortcut to a NoteBlox annotation via email to tell someone where to look at annotations and keep a link to this in your WorkBlox in order to track the progress
2. Use an annotation / shortcut link to mark your progress in reviewing a document and get you right back to where you finished and track your thoughts about how to continue when you take the review backup.
3. Put other objects into NoteBlox templates, to create standard ways of working
- eg a trip report NoteBlox with an exchange Rate CalcBlox and an expenses ListBlox and a WP template for the trip report
- or a Meeting Attendance Note with a Todo List in it for taking a note of follow up actions which can then be mailed off to people after the meeting or tracked in a shared WorkBlox Tab
4. If you are annotating a document with NoteBlox and you find that you cannot make the annotation an icon (this is a limitation of the container - eg Word cannot do this) then you can simply size the note down to the point where the content is not visible and all other aspects will function. Use the right mouse button on the Note to edit it out of place for convenient full sized editing.
5. Make a note of various points quickly during a phone call and then float it (using the pushpin) in front of your WP when you are typing up the full document or fill in the detail later and mail it off to whoever needs to know about it. Perhaps drop a Todo list into the Note to define follow up actions.
6. When taking a note remember you can insert the date and time at any point by pressing F5 or the icon on the toolbar.
CalcBlox
1. Drag NoteBlox into CalcBlox to explain how to do a calculation
2. You can hide some text in calc with BLOX | hide cells
3. You can link two calculations together by Dragging with CTRL-SHIFT. Remember
to save both calculators. When you load them up, they automatically load the relevant calculators that they get their data from.
4. The font of the LCD and its colour can be changed from the BLOX | OPTIONS menu and then KeyBlox tab.
ListBlox
1. Distribute templates with pre-defined views so that when people import new information eg monthly sales, they automatically get updated views of for example the top 10 sales people etc
2. Drag and drop tables in and out of word etc to search sort and filter them
3. Use traffic lights to graphically highlight your interest in things eg how much you like a bottle of wine
4. Use two or more sets of traffic lights next to each other to refine your priorities or stack them.
5. Use CTRL return when entering items to break the line of a text entry, then use double click on the row border to automatically size the row to fit the multi-line text entry.
6. If you want to store multiple OLE objects in a single OLE column or cell, then first embedd a NoteBlox and then embed as many items as you like within the NoteBlox
7. Office 95 gives the option to install various ODBC drivers - we recommend you install any that you have data for, because these data sources then instantly become available as import / export options for list
8. Highlight several rows and then resize - all rows that are highlighted will resize.
9. If you copy some data from another application - just paste it in.The list will extend automatically to fit your data in!
10. Use templates and just modify them for your liking instead of starting from scratch.
ToolBlox
1 Put all the windows applets that suppot OLE 2 onto your toolbar so that you can drag things like sounds into your NoteBlox!
- From Windows: Sound recorder, MediaPlayer
- From Office: WordArt, Orgchart
2. Drag shortcuts to your favourite documents or presentations, right onto the ToolBlox, for instant access to your favourite items
3. Create your own template folder and keep a shortcut of it on the desktop or in your WorkBlox so you can easily access it or drag and drop items into it for access from the ToolBlox template button
4. Drag templates directly into your toolblox.
5. To quickly close toolblox - click the right mouse button on the toolblox icon on the task bar and select close.
