John, One more thing that you can do to help yourself for any future problems with the SUMMARY window - would be to be sure and INCLUDE thefollowing files when you do a BACK-UP of your DXbase files :
Sviewhf.hgt Sviewhf.wid Sviewvhf.hgt Sviewvhf.wid Then - if you ever find yourself with the Summary Window rows/columns problem - just copy-back those saved files (noted above) ... this will get you back in service quickly. 73 Joe wa6axe > Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 05:00:52 +0000 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Dxbase] Desk Top Suggestions, losing rows and colums, > time-synching, etc.. > > Neil, my suggestion for the desktop, is to start by fixing an annoying > problem with the current one. That is, something that I have stumbled into > several times in the last few years: hitting something on the keyboard > without realizing it, and losing a window, and not knowing how to get it back > again. Sometimes I manage to stumble my way into finding out how to fix it, > sometimes not. I would appreciate either the ability to find help on that > issue more easily than you can now, or even better, make it very hard to get > into that situation in the first place. Yeah, I know, it is operator error, > I admit that, but it is often not obvious what I did to get into that > situation in the first place. A very specific instance of this comes to > mind: I will lose all the rows and columns of the DX window and/or the > Summary window. I have done this several times, yet I have never figured out > what I did to get into that situation, and had to ask, on the reflector, what > people did to bring back the lost rows and columns. The usual suggestion I > receive from the group is to right mouse click somewhere in the window and > pick the Unhide Columns command which is supposed to bring them back, but it > never works for me. Then I tried all the other suggestions that people sent > me, which also do not work, and in the end, and I have had to do this at > least a half-dozen times in the last five years, I have to reinstall the > whole program to get those specific Windows to work correctly again; one Big > PITA. I realize that by writing this, will bring comments like, "You should > not be doing whatever it is you are doing to get in that situation in the > first place, John." Those kinds of comments are not helpful. I do not know > what I am doing to get into the situation, so I do not know what to avoid > doing-Hello! But I really have received comments like that in the past from > folks on this reflector. It also appears I am not the only one that gets into > the situation. I do not know if it's being excessively tired when I operate, > consuming too many "cold ones", or just being non-attentive when I am using > the program. I am sure I have done all those things, at one time or another, > and quite possibly several of them at once. I still think that it results > from a weakness in the program, since it is all too easy to get trapped in > that situation. If it happens during a contest or a heavy DX weekend, it is > quite serious. > > As far as general desk top aesthetics go, I would not mind having the option > to run the Windows 7 Aero scheme, in addition to other layouts, as options, > but not be forced to use any specific one. Most of us are pretty concerned > about wasteful use of PC resources, such as RAM, and we generally turn off a > lot of those superfluous little programs that we really do not want, or need, > such as the Windows Side Bar programs, available in Vista and Windows 7. > About all I ever run when I am running DX base, is a neat little program > called DS Clock, from a place called Duality Software. It's free, highly > configurable, can be placed anywhere on your desktop or a second monitor, and > every hour, if you choose, it will synchronize your PCs internal "real-time > clock", which often times is pretty unreal, to any one of maybe 100 or so > time reference stations around the world. I believe the clock's accuracy > results from the NIST, the National Institute of Science and Technology, > keepers of the time standard, a Cesium-based atomic clock. My long-time > buddy Walt, AJ6T, turned me onto that neat little program years ago, and I > make a point to put it on every PC I own. Of course, the obvious suggestion > at this point should be: why not include that function, the ability to sync > to one of these NIST time standard stations, be built into the next version > of DXBase? > > I have been keeping up with the reflector and reading all the suggestions and > complaints and the general chitchat. My thoughts are: it works pretty well > now, but certainly could be improved in several areas, and I made my pitch > for one above. Another nagging problem I have had with DXBase is the help > files. Often it seems hard to find exactly what topic you are looking for. > And then if you do manage to get close to the topic you are looking for, > often times they do not seem to be of much help. The third thing is– the > problem with running under Vista or Windows 7, if I remember correctly, is > the help files do not work at all, unless you go to Microsoft and download > some fix for it. I did that for several Windows 7 64-bit machines, and I > believe every time I tried to use the help function, I would get a pop-up > window that said that function is not available, yet the help file topic > listing would be there anyway, but again, the advice given was either too > arcane, at least for me, or it just seemed to be usually not too helpful. I > usually get things figured out, when I get stuck, by asking the folks on the > reflector. > > Okay that is my three cents worth. Happy Holidays and have a great New Year, > and work lots of new DX. > 73, John > ______________________________________________________________ > Dxbase mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Dxbase mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/dxbase Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
