Digital Workshop

I have a serious problem with Opus. My computer was running very slowly so I had to clean the disc and reinstall WinXP.

Trouble is Opus will only run minimised and when maximised there are no pages (it says page 1 but there is no page on the stage). If I try to open an existing document all options in the minimised state are greyed out! So at the moment I cannot use Opus at all.

I have tried unistalling and reinstalling a couple of times but there is no change.

All my other programmes (Word, Outlook, etc.) work fine.

Help please.

Would like to help but you haven't given us much to go on
I've never seen anything like what you describe in 5 years of using Opus, and Opus is unlikely to be the problem, even if it looks like it is.

A few more questions::
How old is the PC you are running XP on, and what version of Opus are you using?
Are your video drivers up to date?
Does Opus install and run ok on another PC?
Problems like this usually come back to hardware setup or drivers.

cheers
Paul

I've not come across this exact problem, but once had something with some similar aspects.

The cause of my problem was a corrupt element on a page in the Opus publication. It took me ages to work this out. The only solution for me was to delete and rebuild this page. This might not work for you.

Some more questions/suggestions:

Note: I don't expect the following to resolve your problem, but they might help us better focus on its cause.

1. Do you have an Opus pub that actually worked? Please try to open it in the Opus editor. Does it still work? If it still works, this suggests to me that your problem might lie within your current pub.

If this once-working pub no longer works, this indicates to me that the problem is not caused by Opus, but by your system. Have you recently added (i) new or upgraded software; (ii) new or upgraded hardtware; (iii) new or upgraded drivers.

2. Try: Tools > Options > Startup > and uncheck each box. Close Opus and try to manually Open the problem pub. If this opens, it suggests to me that you have a problem(s) with the pub, a gallery, or some resources.

3. To possibly identify where the problem lies, re-run the steps in (2), but select the options one at a time and see if Opus will work properly for you. If the problem surfaces after you check a box, your problem might be related to one of these groups.

Sometimes I have had problems if I have too many galleries open at any time. I always make a new gallery for each new project -- unless projects are closely related. I only keep open galleries which I use in a project. I don't know why this practice has reduced the problems, but things work nore smoothly since I reduced the number of galleries open.

I have to agree with Paul. Only rarely have problems similar to those you describe been traced back to Opus. Mostly they are related to hardware, drivers, conflicting software (less common since Win XP) or corruption within the resources you are using.

A general suggestion: The more information you can give us when you have a problem, the better chance we have of helping you. To save repesting yourself, select Profile (at the top of the screen when you log in) and enter details in the signature panel.

Regards

Thank you for your help,

I have got round the problem. Unfortunately I am not sure of the cause, I tried reloading the program again with still the same result.

Because it appeared that I had a chapter with an invalid page (i.e it appeared in the editor but not on the stage) I thought the best thing to try was to delete the default chapter and reload it. Huge relief! Page 1 appeared on the stage and it works fine.

Also, I closed the programme with file save rather than just exiting and it now opens properly.

Thanks for your help,