Frequently Asked Questions

Assembled here are some questions we are commonly asked, in no particular order.

	How do I keep in touch with new releases?
	Pop to our Web site at http://www.smartcode.com for latest news. Shortly we hope to have in place a mailing list that you will be able to subscribe to. Once in place, whenever new releases are uploaded or we have other news we think will be of interest to you we will notify you. We won't pester you on a daily basis, just when there is something we think will be of genuine interest to you.
	I've got some good ideas for InfoCourier - do you want to hear them?
	Yes! Send them via e-mail to courier_ideas@smartcode.com. We can't always respond individually (although we often do), but we do look at and consider every one.
	The way HTML is displayed in InfoCourier is not the same as in Internet Explorer.
	This may be true, but it may not actually be "wrong". It is up to each browser to determine (within a set of general rules) exactly how to display things. You will find that Netscape displays things differently than Internet Explorer too. HTML is a markup language, not a precise page layout language. Bullets can be different, as can horizontal rules. And word wrapping can be slightly different too. That said, if it is actually doing something wrong, rather than just in a slightly different style, we will get it fixed. And if you want to make suggestions about different styles that you think would improve the way InfoCourier displays things then we will certainly listen and consider it. But please remember that one man's meat is often another man's poison, and what you prefer may not be universally liked.
	Within Windows 95 on my PC, when I invoke the InfoCourier File/Open dialogue, any Directories with long filenames are shown as 8 character ones - such a "progra~1" rather than "Program Files".
	Yes. It has to be really, because InfoCourier has to be a 16bit program (otherwise 70% of potential users would be unable to see the presentations). The long filename support is designed to allow Hypertext links with long names to work without needing all the HTML to be changed to 8.3 names.
	Can I speed up the display of the tiling of the background? It is noticeable on slow machines.
	Possibly. If for example it is currently a 40*40 image then use something like PaintShopPro or whatever to make a 300*300 size image containing the graphic tiled on it 5 across and 5 down. It should speed up the background displaying as it has 1/25 the work to do when tiling it across and down.
	We are extremely interested in InfoCourier, but we need to enable people to complete forms and then print them out?
	You can't print the actual form out, it isn't designed like that (well you can, but you don't get the filled in fields as you discovered). What you do is use the input to the form to replace variables that appear on *another* HTML page (that is probably otherwise invisible because there is no link to it). This process begins when the user presses a button on the page with the form on it - the button would probably say "Print Order Form" or something. Details of how to do this are in the demo web under the "PRINT" action which is chained off the "Processing Forms" page. It was designed this way to allow things other than simply printing the form to be achieved (like E-Mailing the input back to you, or saving the input data to a file etc.). It also allows some rather neater things to be printed because you aren't constrained by the way the normal form elements look.
	I'm getting a GPF in IMAGINE.DLL - what's that?
	IMAGINE.DLL is used to convert GIFs to bitmaps to avoid you needing a Patent license from UNISYS, who hold the patent on the LZW compression algorithm used by the GIF file format. The GPF usually signifies a duff GIF. Sometimes two-color GIFS (which people like to use to save space) can cause this too. The file that is causing the problem is the one logically after the one being displayed in the status panel at the bottom left when the GPF occurs. We are looking to tighten up this area. The IMAGINE.DLL is a bought-in conversion utility and we are attempting to get this GPF fixed by the suppliers, but haven't succeeded yet. We may eventually replace this with our own conversion code. In the meantime the work-around is to load and re-save the GIF using something like Paint-Shop-Pro, increasing the color palette if it is currently set to 2 color.
	Why no animated GIF support?
	If we included GIF code in the executable you create you would then need a patent license from UNISYS who hold a patent on the LZW compression algorithm used by the GIF file format. For non-animated GIFs we translate them to an alternative format before inclusion to avoid you needing a patent license (that is why it slows down during the compile when it comes across GIFs). Unfortunately there is no alternative format that supports animation. We are looking for a way around this, but haven't found it yet.
	Does it support frames?
	No. A future release will, but we have no timescale yet.
	What about Java/Javascript?
	No support. It simply isn't feasible to carry around a JAVA environment.
	What about plug-ins?
	No, no support. No plans either, it would just make it too big.
	What about a Unix version, or a MAC version?
	We have no version other than for Microsoft Windows, and we currently have no plans to produce one. This is simply a commercial decision, it just doesn't make economic sense for us.
	What is the maximum size executable that can be produced?
	Theoretically, 2 Gigabytes (larger than 3 CDs!). In practice the largest we have seen is 20megabytes. We have no reason to suspect that larger executables will be any problem.
	What about future plans?
	Current plans for enhancements include the following significant items:- User defineable splash screen (at startup) and program icon. Frame support. Foreign language support. The end-user will be able to translate the user-interface into any language required. Searching capabilities across the whole compiled web rather than just the current page.