New user (I hope). Purchased (from the L&L site) the Windows version, yesterday.
Running XP 5.1 (SP3)
Install process completes with no errors. However, when I start the application, it ignores about 80% of my mouse clicks. It’s totally hit-or-miss whether a click will activate a control. Affects menus, buttons, you name it. The edit window, however, seems to understand clicks that move the cursor just fine.
I’m assuming I have some dll file that isn’t compatible.
I tried searching the forum directly, and via google, and also the web, and apparently no one has reported this problem with the words “does not work” “broken” “XP” or “interface.”
You’re on version 1.2.5.0, right? And you’re not trying to run on top of some virtual machine or with your files off in the cloud at a site that’s having performance problems or with a lot of other stuff running. And your anti-virus software is up to date and running and you have lotsa RAM?
Interference outside Scrivener would be my first guess on this issue.
If the following doesn’t help, and I don’t expect it will, then an email direct to Scrivener support is in order as I think this is something unique to your machine.
Try doing Help/Check for Updates
This might maybe download a different library and make it all better.
Reboot
XP requires a reboot every month or two and it gets goofy in various ways the longer you go without. This is probably why the Microsoft updates are once a month and almost invariably require a reboot.
What do you mean a reboot-- other than shutting the computer down nightly?
Leaving a computer on 24/7 builds up a tremendous amount of temp files, not to mention using a wasteful amount of power.
– Off Topic –
By reboot I mean an OS restart either from power off or a programmed restart. I do not mean anything like standby or hibernate.
I don’t know that there’s any relationship between continuous run time and temporary files. Perhaps you can justify your statement. Most temporary files result from apps not cleaning up after themselves.
As to power use, my laptop with external hard drives and external monitor requires about 250 watts (I have one of those Kill-a-Watt things) which in my area works out to about 1 to 5 cents per hour. That would seem to from 24 to 120 cents per day but it’s probably half that because I turn the big monitor half off at night and other times. I don’t consider that wasteful.
I leave my computer running for several reasons. I run the virus scan at night, different drives, different nights, because I don’t like it hogging cycles during the day. I don’t like the time wasting shutdown procedure in XP which has to be watched to make sure it actually happens. I don’t like the startup procedure in XP because I have to wait for it to get to a state where I can start my favorite applications and move them to their proper places (hibernate doesn’t put everything back where it was). And worst of all, Windows update deciding to install 13 updates while you’re trying to shut it down, put it in a box and get out the door. This in spite of the setting to only install when I say so. So I only shutdown when absolutely necessary.
Ever since WIN98 SP3, most Windows platforms are stable for leaving them on several days or weeks in a row–provided you aren’t running some flaky program like Excel 2000, which just likes to blow up now and them, just to make your day (memory leaks). Power management and (properly rated devices) will take care of the vast majority of “wasted” power situations from leaving it on and plugged in. Also, “hibernate” is used by folks to eliminate the power problem, and restore-from-hibernate usually works fine. It does take some fiddling with settings to get it right, though.
You are right about temp files, but those rarely interfere with anything. Back in the days of 350MB hard drives it was a real problem. It might still be a problem on laptops. On my desktop, with two, relatively tiny 500GB drives (compared to what folks buy nowdays), I would never notice it.
I realize hard drives are pretty big (we have 4 in one desktop-- one of them being a 1 TB USB — the other 3 also fairly large )
I have a small free app from PC Connection called CC Cleaner, which I check once a day–just the AVG program routinely leaves 100-200 mgs a day in temp, as well as other temp files from different programs.
Perhaps it’s not necessary anymore, but it seems like our desktops runs better with this practice. We’ve had them for several years, and work them like pack mules-- specially photoshop where I generally work on large multilayer 300DPI photos. My husband’s music software and video editing software also seem to run much better when we routinely delete temp files.
I think he uses Excel for his invoices. I’ve never even opened that horrible program-- dealing with numbers hurts my brain.
A hair dryer, curling iron, or toaster uses more power than a computer, even one with a big PSU (which you need for good graphics cards these days.) Modern operating systems are designed to be up several days at a time. Linux, UNIX, *BSD, and OSX are built with that in mind. For what it’s worth, I’ve seen computers act a bit wonky if they’re shut down frequently.
I think mine had about 3 weeks of uptime when I shut it down Saturday due to a lightning storm. (Before that I rebooted because I changed a kernel module. Didn’t need a reboot, but I wanted to be sure modprobe was actually loading it at boot.)
I still can’t seem to figure this out. By searching, I found instances online of folks claiming they use a Wacom tablet and Scrivener, so I doubt that’s my problem.
My version of XP is fully updated, I have no problems with any other programs.
Scrivener’s keyboard commands seem to work fine, including navigating the interface via tab key (when the edit window is up, that doesn’t work, since the tab key is treated like an actual tab).
Clicking on controls and buttons is the problem. Clicking around the edit window seems to be okay.
I was hoping it was a problem with the tutorial, but once I got rid of that by opening a new project and closing the tutorial, the bad behavior persisted.
I’m wondering if this is related to the “sluggish cursor” others have reported.
No doubt. Those are 3 of the most energy wasting appliances in an average home. (other than our 110 air conditioner, which-- fortunately in LA-- only has to be used infrequently)
I’m not trying to convince anyone; we all have different ways of working.
I’m one of those green nuts that turns off lights moment I leave the room, and shut off anything that that is not being used. Doesn’t mean I turn off the computer every three hours, but if I’m done for the night, it goes definitely goes OFF. And my present “heavy- work mule” has been in operation for 5 years. My husband replaced the power supply once but other than that, runs great
Striving to keep this thread on topic, I thought I’d update it to include the fact I now have emailed Customer Support at windows.support @ literatureandlatte.com
Sorry for not catching this in the forums earlier; it’s been a little crazy. The problem is almost certainly that Scrivener doesn’t yet support Wacom tablets, so the clicks just aren’t being registered properly. Using a standard mouse or trackpad should work fine. (I know you did mention that you’ve seen some other users mentioning successful use of the tablet, but on the whole most users are not able to do this and we have not yet been able to add specific support for the device.)
All I’ve ever used is a Wacom tablet, never a mouse.
Scrivener has always worked perfectly with it, even the beta versions.
It is,however,a very old tablet-- (WACOM DIGITIZER II) , which I’ve adapted to the newer all-USB computers with a SERIAL-to-USB adapter. Perhaps that makes a difference? Or that, combined with my WIN XP OS?
Thanks for hitting it here and in the email, Jennifer!
I suspected the driver all along. You just can’t trust them fancy gadgets.
Is there a way to flag “resolved” on thread tropics?
(EDIT: I forgot to add, for closure here, that reverting to a basic mouse is a fine workaround, as far as I’m concerned. I probably have six of the things laying around in boxes. I may get a trackball, so I can have it available at the same time as the tablet. That ought 'ta do it.)
It does make a difference. I used to write drivers for mice and tablets. After WIN95 or so, they all pretty much seemed the same, as far as basic pointing and clicking goes. You only had problems with “extras” like tablet buttons and settings for the device in Control Panel. But if you gave up on the frills, you could hook up a tablet to any PC and get it to work like a bog-standard, two-button mouse.
(Usually. There were plenty of exceptions.)
The new generation of Wacom’s use a different protocol (I think Logitech has done something like that, too with all of their devices).
This should be the last item in this thread. (Please don’t respond further)
This issue is closed. I bought a cheapo, standard, two-button mouse and it all works just fine. Also, I get to keep my tablet connected; I just have to switch pointing devices when running Scrivener.