Digital Workshop

I'm doing an annual update of a client's project which started years ago, so we've been through several versions of OPUS with this project.

I noticed when I did a test Publication, OPUS was stopping on a single Page for a long period of time, but it always completed the project in less than 2 minutes. I couldn't understand why that one Page was taking so long to Publish. It was a simple Page with one short Text Object on top of a Master Page with 6 hypertext links.

After many changes and test Publications, OPUS suddenly stopped dead on the problem Page while I was Publishing. Using the Windows Task Manager, I learned "OPUS is not responding." I re-started the computer, and opened OPUS where I was given the option to open my Backup copy. I successfully opened several Pages, but when I tried to open the problem Page, OPUS again locked up. I am sure this Page was corrupted. I believe I caused the corruption by going too fast from doing SAVEs into running Previews. My 3.2GHz computer couldn't keep up.

Solution:
The solution was easy. I opened the Publication, highlighted the problem Page in the Organizer and deleted it. I ran a successful test Publication, so I knew that one corrupted Page was the problem. I created a new replacement Page, connected it to the Main Menu of my project, and I was back to "business as usual" in only a few moments.

I'm sharing this, especially with anyone new to OPUS. I recommend taking a short pause after doing a SAVE. OPUS makes a Backup copy and an AutoSave version when you SAVE, so there are muliple files being written. Give OPUS a chance to "catch up" when you are POWER programming.

I am going to easily meet my deadline with a successfully revised Publication project. This could have been a disaster IF I didn't have backup copies AND I didn't know about which Page was the culprit (plus knowing how to delete it using the Organizer).

Fred, thanks for the timely reminder.

Over the years I have encountered problems similar to yours, and eventually also determined that these mysterious random corruptions were neither random nor mysterious. Like you, I was causing these by being too trigger happy in moving from saving to previewing or by working on a different Opus pub while saving or publishing.

These days, with powerful and fast computers, we come to expect immediate results. Unfortunately, as Fred and I (and perhaps others) have discovered, that instant gratification can come at a cost -- possible file or page corruption.

I endorse Fred's comment that we wait between saving and previewing. However, to that I would add an additional caveat: while saving one publication, do not switch to and work on a different pub.

I have done this and managed to screw up both pubs. This only happened rarely to me, and only when working with large pubs: one of my pubs takes between 5-8 minutes to save, and around 20 minutes to publish. I have learned the hard way to walk away from Opus and have a cup of coffee, browse the Internet, or open an application unrelated to Opus.