Digital Workshop

Hello to all,

I hate starting my posts with problems but this is what I have . I have downloaded the evaluation version of Opus Pro 6. It seems like a very nice program and I am in the process of deciding whether to invest on it or not. It has numerous features that totally cover me as far as I can tell. However I have found several glitches with the interface that could render the software almost unusable. I explain:

1. I am building a publication. As it grew bigger, the right click (context) menu of the interface started vanishing with no obvious reason. At the beginning restarting Opus would solve the problem. However, I am now in a state where no matter what I do (even restarting) the context menu does not display. This holds true for both the organiser and the design area. If I right click five or six times on an object I get the properties/actions page but not the context menu. Any ideas as to what is happening?

2. Selecting objects that overlap is not very easy to do and it does not work as explained in the help files (which by the way are quite nice, although there is room for improvement). When I select a text object that is within a frame of a multiframe for example I cannot select the edit text option from the right click menu (which now I cannot see alltogether). I have to double click on another page of the publication and come back to the one that I am currently editing in order to "reset" it and be able to select specific text objects. Alt clicking doesn't seem to work for selecting overlapping objects. Furthermore, the property of "initially hidden" seems to make things more complex as it interacts with the visibility of the objects in the editor window (Show/conceal options).

Could you please shed some light into these issues? I might be doing something totally wrong (with the selection) but the right click menu seems to be problematic for some reason. Anybody else with a similar problem?

Best regards and my congratsulations on a very nice and complete product.

George

George,
Welcome to the forum. Generally Opus is well behaved, but like most software, sometimes strange things happen.
If I have problems like this:-
1. I reinstall Opus. Doesn't take long and it doesn't affect any of the settings. Normally this fixes strange problems for me.

If that doesn't help,

2. I reset the Opus registry settings. (Click the shortcut/icon for OPUS, then immediately hold down your ALT and CLT keys until you see a window which asks if you want to RESET the OPUS Registry)
This will reset all the Opus settings to default.


Selecting objects--- Select the top object, then press ALT, click again and the selection goes to the object below and will keep going down a level each click.
--when all else fails, I select the object in the object panel, then right click---select view---show selected only(CTRL W)

You should persevere, There is nothing quite like Opus for versatility and ease of development. I have quite a few problems with strange things happening in Opus---just as you are seeing, but I also work for months with no problems.


Sandy

George

Let me work through points on which I feel I might be able to comment.

My first comments are a couple of questions:
1. What operating system are you using? I've been using Opus for almost 10 years using Windows versions from 98SE to XP SP2, but have refused to change to Vista. I have never experienced this issues you describe. If you are using Vista, I can only say I that while I can't help you, I would not be surprised.

2. Do you experience these issues while you are: (a) developing your pub; (b) previewing your pub; or (c) in the published pub?
------------------------

Now to your issues

1. ... the right click (context) menu of the interface started vanishing with no obvious reason.

I have never experienced this, and commend the idea of re-installing Opus.

Does this happen with any object, or only with an object that is hidden beneath another object? If the problem object is always hidden, perhaps placing these objects in different layers might help you.

2. Selecting objects that overlap is not very easy to do

Again, I've not experienced this. I've always found selecting objects that are below other objects works perfectly provided I select and hold down ALT before I attempt to select the object.

Again, I suggest that you might find working in layers more effective.

Do you still experience these issues when you make your selections from the Organiser rather than from the workspace?

Furthermore, the property of "initially hidden" seems to make things more complex as it interacts with the visibility of the objects in the editor window (Show/conceal options).

I know I'm becoming repetitious, but try working in layers.

My comments are very general, but I hope they might give you some alternative ideas. A lot of bright people frequent this forum, so you might well receive an answer that helps you.

If you plan to post regularly, please go into your profile (access found at the top of a forum page) and in the Signature section, provide hardware and software details similar to what appears in my signature. This information makes it much easier for us to help you.

George
Welcome to the forum.

I'll try not to repeat info others suggested.
'Yes' generally Opus is a very well-behaved program. The context menu has not been a problem for me.

If you are running on Vista, you can avoid some 'little' issues by turning off Aero. Also, when you install Opus on Vista I suggest:
* the logged on user have administrator type (during the install process you can check the box for use by all users)
* disconnect from the internet and turn off AV protection (temporarily for install)
* when initiating install, Right-click and launch as 'run as administrator'
* shutdown and reboot should not be necessary, but I suggest the extra step as a good practice
* another step that may not be necessary, but I have done... is find the opus.exe file and change Properties under 'compatibility tab' to "run as administrator"

The above may not solve your problem, but can remove some doubt. Once installed, any User type can run Opus (I have to type a password for admin, then proceed).

Whether Vista or WinXP, you may try using Opus without wireless mouse and keyboard to see if those are a factor. My USB/wireless mouse is very sensitive to its mouse pad.

- - - - - - - - -
"initially hidden" should not affect an object's visibility in the editor. (if you are stacking objects, then 'layers' in the editor may help. An alternative is to place an object off page, and use actions or script to move it into place at runtime (e.g. Preshow trigger). You can also put multiple objects in Frames, and hide/show frames. When you get to it, check out multi-frame object (nice for sequencing thru 'stacked' objects).
"conceal in editor" will not change visibility at runtime.
Hint: Customize your toolbars to add the icons for some of these controls.

First, try creating a new pub or editing a sample pub... to see if the Rt-Clk context menu is a problem there. If it is just your one 'large' pub, check to make sure you do not have two objects (on one page??) with the same name. Avoid other "conflicts"... such as naming a variable and an object with same name. Try not using MasterPages temporarily (easy to test this on a copy of the pub)... again to find conflicts.
Check for 'resource conflicts' (selection under Publication menu)

hope that helps.

Another hint: If you get into scripts or need to type in a reference to an Object... OpusScript does not like 'blanks' or 'parens )(' in names. So an object like Frame (12) --- will need to be typed Frame__12_

Morning Lar,

Given your love for scripting you might want to set the use only script compatible names box in the options.

Tools Menu, Options, General Branch, More

Mack

Good point, Mac.

Hope we hear back from George... some progress.

Hello again,

Sorry for the late answer, I was trying to find out what's wrong and I am finally here with an answer. Thanks to everybody for the insight and advice which I am sure will be using in the near future.

The problem was a process that was somehow screwing the windows interface (the machine I was trying Opus on is an XP machine, although I will be using it on Vista soon, since I have decided to go for it) by eating away cpu time (although it didn't show up as doing show in the usage chart of the task manager). So my advice to anybody seeing strange behaviour of this kind is: "check your system for malware or badly written applications that may interfere with the multi tasking time slicing nature of windows XP/Vista" . I just killed this app and everything went back to normal without having to reinstall Opus or touch its registry settings.

Thanks once more
George