Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

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micho57
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 am

Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by micho57 »

I have a template in which the date is inserted in the following format: DayName, DayNumber. MonthName. YearNumber.
After upgrading to Mellel 2.8 this is displayed as follows: %67758006, %3. % (example for today's date).
What can be done to solve the problem?
micho57
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by micho57 »

Hm. Four days without ANY reply... Must be a very complex problem.
donb
Knows everything, can prove it
Posts: 326
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:43 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by donb »

I have no difficulty inserting the date as you describe: Insert Menu > Date (Long Date : Name of Day, date month year). So I do not think your problem is a bug in Mellel 2.8, but something to do with your setup.

Don Broadribb
Reiner
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Location: Germany

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by Reiner »

I've got the same problem with dates inserted in already existing templates since Mellel 2.8. It seams as if the problem can be solved if I save the templates again using Mellel 2.8. You should send a bug report to the Redlers by email - best with a template attached so they can reproduce the problem.
micho57
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by micho57 »

donb wrote:I have no difficulty inserting the date as you describe: Insert Menu > Date (Long Date : Name of Day, date month year). So I do not think your problem is a bug in Mellel 2.8, but something to do with your setup.

Don Broadribb
Which element of my setup could possibly cause such a bug?
micho57
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by micho57 »

Reiner wrote:I've got the same problem with dates inserted in already existing templates since Mellel 2.8. It seams as if the problem can be solved if I save the templates again using Mellel 2.8.
Okay, this is an idea. I will give it a try.
Reiner wrote:You should send a bug report to the Redlers by email - best with a template attached so they can reproduce the problem.
I tried already. The first attempt resulted in an automated answer that mails from my service provider (web.de) were all banned by their service provider.
I tried it again through another mail account (googlemail) which worked at least. But I didn't get any answer from Redlers so far. Since two weeks or so.
Therefore I posted it here hoping they might read it now. But it seems that the Redlers are very slow in answering – if they answer at all. Until now I didn't need special attention from them since everything worked fine but now that I need help I find this attitude towards the customers very disappointing and I begin to doubt whether Mellel is reliable enough to be my favorite word processor.
micho57
Got the styles thing figured out
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Jan 28, 2011 8:27 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by micho57 »

Reiner wrote:I've got the same problem with dates inserted in already existing templates since Mellel 2.8. It seams as if the problem can be solved if I save the templates again using Mellel 2.8
I have more than 600 documents created with Mellel 2.7 and earlier in one folder (and many more in various other folders). I checked all the documents in this one folder only. Some of the documents I actually created with MS Word and later converted and saved them with Mellel. All documents contain only text, no tables, no graphics etc.
I tried your idea. It does not work. It works in some cases and in others not. All documents created until November 28, 2007, work fine with Mellel 2.8, all other documents not. Maybe that these are the documents I created with Mellel. I bought Mellel in August, 2007. Maybe there is another reason for this. I don't know. And as long as the Redlers don't care and meet their responsibility I will probably never find out.
donb
Knows everything, can prove it
Posts: 326
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 7:43 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by donb »

A possibility has occurred to me that might be involved in your problem. With 2.8 Mellel changed its method of saving documents. Up until now, documents were saved in a “package” form, which has become the standard in OS X and has confused many people. One problem with the “package form” has been that large documents are excessively big in their saved form. 2.8's new method of saving documents is a zipped form. The result is that saved documents are considerably smaller: for example, 9 MB instead of 36 MB, when dealing with a very big document such as my Tutorial.

When the beta of 2.8 came out, Ori warned us beta testers that there could be some confusion and problems connected with this and we should pay special attention to the change that had been introduced into Mellel. However, Ori does not seem to have publicized this change when publicizing the new 2.8.

The point here is that documents saved in versions of Mellel before 2.8 can be opened by 2.8, but the reverse is not true. In other words, documents made with 2.8 cannot be read by Mellel 2.7 or earlier.

To make the situation simpler, however, in the Mellel Preferences, Open and Save section, there is a new option which you can tick to save your new documents in the old package format if you so wish. This option is not ticked by default. I suspect that probably a lot of Melville users are unaware of this major change.

In theory, any document made before 2.8 can be opened and read by 2.8, but if re-saved it will be saved in the new zipped form.

Ori asked us beta-testers to take special care in checking that the new save method in Mellel has no bugs in it. I have taken considerable pains in checking the innovation, and have personally found no faults with it but that does not mean that no bugs do exist in it.

Although I have been able to open all my Mellel documents made with Mellel versions 2.7 and earlier, including templates, it is possible nevertheless that some problems went unnoticed during the beta testing.

I think your problem needs to be brought up with the Redlers as soon as possible. I am puzzled that you have not been able to get in touch with them. They usually take such matters very seriously and I know that they do read this forum regularly.

Have you sent your message to redlex@redlers.com? Or to mail@redlers.com? Those addresses should reach them.

Don Broadribb
Reiner
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Posts: 475
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:48 am
Location: Germany

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by Reiner »

micho57 wrote:And as long as the Redlers don't care and meet their responsibility I will probably never find out.
From the fact that we don't know what the Redlers do cannot be concluded to "they don't care" or to "they do nothing". My experience in long years as Mellel user is that they care and will come up with a solution as soon they managed to fix the problem. This can last longer as we like it. But that's life.
Reiner
Eyal Redler
Co-founder
Posts: 692
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:15 am

Re: Automatic Date Insertion Buggy

Post by Eyal Redler »

It seems that Mellel 2.8 has a bug that's causing garbled display of dates inserted using previous versions of Mellel. We are working on a fix and at the moment the only workaround to this problem is to delete the old date and insert a new one using Mellel 2.8.

Please note, however, that the forum is not a good or the right place for reporting such issues, if something is malfunctioning, please contact us directly to ensure both a speedy solution for you and to ensure that we will notice and take care of the problem.
Eyal Redler
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