WhereIsIt? version 2.15a
Copyright (c) 1997,1999 Robert Galle
All Rights Reserved

Last updated: July 25th 1999


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
================================

1. Registration and purchase
2. Installation
3. Using the program
4. Troubleshooting


1. Registration and purchase
----------------------------

Q: Why should I register?
A: WhereIsIt? is not a free software, a lot of time and effort has been
   invested in making of this program. WhereIsIt? is released as shareware,
   allowing you to test it for a limited period of time (14 days). If you
   plan to continue using the program after that period, you are required to
   register. Evaluation version also has some limitations that are removed
   when the program is registered and unlocked.

Q: How can I register WhereIsIt?
A: The fastest way to register WhereIsIt is to use the online registration
   form and pay with your credit card. Orders are handled by DigiBuy, using a 
   secure connection. You can expect to receive your registration code by 
   e-mail within the next 24 hours. More details and link to online ordering 
   form can be found on WhereIsIt's home page: http://www.whereisit-soft.com,
   in the help file, or in the Order.txt file, included in WhereIsIt package.

Q: I don't have a credit card, or don't want to use it. Can I still register?
A: Yes, some other ways are available, too. Most often used are sending a
   personal check (cheque, in some countries), or cash, via regular mail to
   author's address (not to DigiBuy!). You may also wire the registration fee
   directly from your bank to mine, but some banks in some countries may
   charge you their own processing fee. If you have WhereIsIt 2.0 or newer,
   you are advised to check out the "How to Order" wizard in the Help menu,
   describing in detail all available options for registering WhereIsIt.

Q: Do I need to re-register new versions of WhereIsIt?
A: No, you don't have to, registration codes are valid for all future versions
   of WhereIsIt. If I am in any way forced to change this policy, it will
   not be done without discussing it with currently registered users first.

Q: I'm a registered user of WhereIsIt 1.xx, but I can't find where to put
   my registration data in version 2.0.
A: WhereIsIt 2.0 uses a different registration system. All registered users 
   with valid e-mail addresses have already received their registration
   update. If you did not receive yours, please contact the author for more
   information.

Q: I'm working for a company and we would all like to use WhereIsIt. Are
   there site licenses available?
A: Yes, site licenses are available for WhereIsIt. Please contact the author
   directly to work out the details. Discounts are also available if you would
   like to purchase 5 or more licenses at once.

Q: Can I buy WhereIsIt? in my local store?
A: Yes, you can, if you live in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland. MitCom Neue
   Medien GmbH, Muenchen, is handling distribution of German version of
   WhereIsIt to stores all over German speaking part of Europe. If you can't
   find WhereIsIt in your local store, you can contact MitCom directly at
   sales@mitcom.com and let them know.
   Please note that version distributed by MitCom has lower price (29.95 DM) 
   than registered shareware version (50 DM), but it is not upgradeable to 
   (newer) versions found on the Internet. Author does offer a special upgrade
   program (15,00 DM) for MitCom buyers to receive a personal registration 
   code by e-mail, which is valid for all the latest WhereIsIt shareware 
   versions. Please visit the "http://www.whereisit-soft.com/mitcom.html" 
   for more details.


2. Installation
---------------

Q: Should I uninstall previous version of WhereIsIt? before installing a new
   one?
A: This is not necessary if you will install new version in the same folder.
   Just run the setup program, and program will upgrade itself. If you would
   like to install program to different location, then uninstalling is
   recommended. Please note that your catalogs will not be deleted while 
   uninstalling, but you will have to configure the program again since old
   settings will be removed.

Q: How can I uninstall WhereIsIt?
A: Just open the Control Panel, select "Add/Remove programs" option, and
   double-click WhereIsIt's entry on the list. If you have created program
   group for WhereIsIt when installing, you can achieve the same by clicking
   the "Uninstall WhereIsIt" icon in WhereIsIt's group.

Q: Can I be notified about new versions?
A: Yes, you can, if you have a working e-mail address. A free mailing list is
   available for all WhereIsIt users - notifications about new versions and
   current development news are posted there. You can add or remove yourself
   from WhereIsIt Mailing List at any time from WhereIsIt's home page,
   located at:  http://www.whereisit-soft.com .


3. Using the program
--------------------

Q: Does WhereIsIt run on Windows 3.1, or Windows NT 3.5x?
A: No, sorry, WhereIsIt? relies on technology not yet provided with these
   operating systems. You will need at least Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0
   to run WhereIsIt.

Q: How can change the order of disks, displayed in left tree pane?
A: The same way as you would change order of files or folders - by sorting
   them in the right pane. Select the parent catalog entry in the tree view,
   so your disks are displayed on the right side, and sort them by clicking
   the appropriate column header. Changes in disk order will be reflected on
   tree view, too.

Q: Can I delete specific files or folders from catalog if I don't need them?
A: Not in the older WhereIsIt 1.xx, but the new version 2.0 does support such
   modifications, too. Older WhereIsIt 1.xx honors the data integrity in
   catalog, always assuring that data as stated in catalog resembles as much
   as possible the real data on your media. The only exception are hidden
   files, or special items like Recycle Bin, that can be set to be skipped
   during the disk scan. Version 2.0 will allow you to freely remove any
   selected item from catalog, although over-using this feature is not
   recommended.

Q: How can one print an alphabetical list of all files in the catalog?
A: The easiest way to do that is to use searching in combination with report
   generator. First, you have to get a list of all items that you would like
   to print - searching for all files with "*.*" mask should do the trick in
   this case. Sort resulting list by file names, and click on report
   generator button. Be sure to selected the "Print data in list 'as is',
   no sorting" option, in order to preserve items order as they are in search
   results list (nicely alphabetically sorted). Just select the columns you
   want in report, and that's it.
   Searching in combination with report generator is a very powerful and
   adjustable tool for making all kinds of reports. You can do a lot with it,
   but you will need to get a bit creative. For some for examples you can
   check out the "How to..." section in the help file.

Q: Can I export my database to be used in some other program?
A: You can export data to either ASCII file (a few formats are available, 
   including comma-separated values supported in most database programs), or 
   directly to Microsoft Excel as a new datasheet. Exporting routines are
   part of report generator, meaning you can select yourself which data in
   what details will get exported. New version 2.0 can also export data to a
   few other formats, such as HTML, or rich-edit (Word).
   
Q: I have set the Description Assistant to import text files as descriptions,
   but this doesn't work.
A: Auto-importing descriptions is not what Description Assistant (DA) does. 
   DA is an interactive tool, designed to help you when manually editing your
   descriptions. For more details about DA, consult the help file and be sure
   to read the next question, too.
   A plugin to import user-defined text files as description as also available,
   however due to some considerations with this functionality it is not 
   distributed as a part of WhereIsIt and is not officially supported. You can 
   download it as a separate package from program's home page.

Q: How can I get the program to import my own descriptions during disk scan?
A: You can use WhereIsIt's open standard Description API to write your own
   description plugins. The following section describes some issues about
   auto-importing descriptions in some more details.
   ---
   Generally, importing specified text files as descriptions can be a bigger
   problem than it may seem on the first sight. If there are 100 users, there
   are also 100 different ways how each user is using text files to describe
   disk contents. Concepts of how and what is in such text files differs a lot.
   WhereIsIt 1.xx is limited only to well known and widely used description 
   formats that have at least basically defined format and purpose. Even these 
   supported formats can differ a lot - for example, I have here a collection 
   of 28 (!) index.txt and similar files, every one of them using a bit 
   different internal format, even if they are all used for the same purpose.
   Program has to do something close to magic to be able to decode out what 
   is a file name and what a description. Expecting the program to import a 
   custom text file and use it for a description source without some pre-
   programmed logic is close to impossible in many cases.
   
   Just importing a whole text file as a description for parent folder, for
   example, may be a problem, too. Very long item descriptions in catalog are 
   far from desired (WhereIsIt limits them to 4 kB for this reason, and even 
   this is far from the ideal 3-5 lines). Just importing the first 4 kB of text
   file would rarely do any good - you have good chances to be stuck with an 
   index, or a part of license agreement often included with such files at the 
   top instead of some useful text. Another problem is what to import if there 
   are more such files available - for example, a few *.nfo files. Only one of 
   them is usually "the right one", and importing the wrong one would just 
   waste space in catalog uselessly.
   
   The new version 2.0 of WhereIsIt addresses this problem with a new feature,
   called Description API. Basically, it is a way to provide users with ability
   to include or even write their own description plugins, extending program's
   ability to handle other, currently unsupported description sources. For
   example, if you would like to import your *.nfo files as descriptions, you
   could write a simple description plugin for this task. It will be plugin's
   responsibility, however, to decide what will be used for description and
   how to get it. As far as WhereIsIt is concerned, it will just say to your 
   plugin during the disk scan: "Hey, you said you can get me description for 
   parent folder from *.nfo files, so here is a folder with some .nfo file in 
   it, let me have up to 4 kB text for description then".
   ---
   
Q: What about importing and storing images as thumbnails in catalogs?
A: WhereIsIt's catalog file format is well capable of storing binary data such
   as images or even sound together with other file data, however there are
   some considerations. The biggest problem with thumbnails is their size.
   Currently average storage requirements per file are about 15 bytes, while
   still useable thumbnail should be at least a few kB. This would result in
   much larger catalog files, likely too large to still be manageable without
   a major change in catalog handling and database structure. Media scanning 
   performance would suffer a lot, too, generating thumbnails can be a very 
   time-consuming operation. Interactive graphic programs can effectively hide 
   such delays by handling only a few images at the time and counting on user's
   reactions to be slower, but WhereIsIt has no such ways out.


4. Troubleshooting
------------------

Q: Icons in Settings dialog and some icons in the main menu are missing. I'm
   using a Matrox display card.
A: There is a known bug in some latest Matrox video drivers (at the time of
   writing this, April 1999) that can cause some images to be missing in 
   WhereIsIt. It is recommended to use the latest *certifed* video drivers 
   that may be a bit older, but are at least known to work correctly and do 
   not have this problem. You can download the latest certified video drivers 
   for Matrox cards from Matrox's web site, at time of this writing located at:
   http://www.matrox.com/mga/drivers/certified_drivers/home.htm

   Addennum (July 1999): 
   The latest information I have is that Matrox has fixed this problem in 
   their latest drivers; reportedly the Matrox PowerDesk v 5.13 display driver 
   suite no longer exhibits missing icons in WhereIsIt.

Q: My computer locks up when I try to display the Settings dialog, and there
   are no icons visible in main menu's Settings options.
A: Please make sure you are using the latest final release of your video
   drivers - this is a known problem with an older beta version of ATI Rage
   Pro drivers.  It may occur with other video cards as well. For ATI Rage 
   Pro based video cards, the latest video drivers were reported to solve the 
   problem.

Q: I have problems with scanning certain media, what can I do about it?
A: Such problems are usually a result of damaged media that can't be read
   correctly (a scratched CD-ROM, for example), as well as of damaged,
   corrupted or otherwise invalid files on the media. In case of damaged
   media there is not much program can do about it, but with corrupted files
   you can temporarily turn off some advanced scanning features like browsing
   inside archive files and description plugins. You should be able to catalog
   any readable media, in worse case by turning off all advanced features and
   let the program do just a simple scan of media contents.
   
Q: No descriptions are imported when scanning my media, what can I do?
A: Check if description modules are loaded and enabled, and check if 
   description plugins are enabled and in suitable priority order. Also, make
   sure that you are not using any option that is reserved for special cases 
   only, for example "Import existing descriptions from other disks in
   catalog" should be disabled by default and used only in special cases.

Q: The CDDB plugin doesn't seem to be working, only generic description are
   imported.
A: There are two plugins that can handle Audio CD tracks, the CDDB plugin and
   generic Audio CD plugin. Make sure that CDDB plugin has assigned more priority
   than Audio CD plugin, or CDDB will never get to be used in the first place.
   Generic descriptions can also be assigned if CDDB plugin was not successful
   in retrieving descriptions - because of there is no Internet connection,
   your audio CD is being used by some other application and CDDB plugin can't
   access it, or just because it is not listed in CDDB database or results
   returned were not reliable. Please also note the fact that if you are 
   updating disk image in catalog, existing descriptions are always kept unless
   specifically instructed otherwise.

Q: I have just entered the registration code in WhereIsIt 1.xx and program has 
   accepted it, but when I run program the next day, it says it's unregistered 
   again.
A: You probably didn't shutdown your Windows properly the day before, and
   changes in made in system registry didn't have a chance to get saved. You
   will have to re-enter your registration code, and make sure Windows is
   shutdown properly this time. This only applies to older WhereIsIt 1.xx,
   new version 2.xx uses key files.
   
Q: I can't get the program to accept my key file for version 2.0. 
A: Make sure that your key file is named "WhereIsIt.key", and it is located
   in the same folder as program's .exe file (NOT, for example, in the same 
   group on your desktop where you have a shortcut to WhereIsIt...)   

Q: I think I have found a bug. Where and how can I submit reports about found
   problems?
A: You can e-mail description about any problem you find to the author
   (bug.report@whereisit-soft.com). Please be sure to check if you are using 
   the latest version of program, problem may already be fixed at that time. 
   When describing your problem, try to include as much information as 
   possible for author to be able to repeat the problem - reproducing the 
   error is the first and most important step to solution. Please also 
   include a short description of your computer, and WhereIsIt and OS version 
   that you are using.

Q: Can I make a suggestion for a new feature?
A: Sure, new suggestions are always welcome. All of them will be at least
   considered, and many have made it into the program already.

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