Troubleshooting

• Known Bugs ...
• Miscellaneous Points ...
• Diagnosing the Problem
• Using Printer Drivers to create Postscript
• Paper Size
• Notes on Web Browsers

Known Bugs ...

• The script cannot currently handle file names containing blanks (spaces). Please use contiguous names. Use hyphens if you wish to improve readability.
• More coming ... No I'm not adding bugs, just trying to document them!

Miscellaneous Points ...

Nota Bene:
• Files MUST have either .PS or .ZIP extension.
• For Best results the .PS file you send should be in DOS &ltCR>&ltLF> format. If the source of the file is a Macintosh or UNIX platform, use the appropriate utility to convert it to a DOS text file.
• This is NOWHERE near a production serivce, but I'll try to keep it going the best I can. Please send me some mail if you are experiencing any difficulties.

Diagnosing the Problem

If you've uploaded a file and you expect to see output in the OUT box, but it's not there, you can also now check distiller-YYYYMMDD.log in the outbox. This file is a log of the actions of the script. You can see when it unpacks your ZIP file and when it moves stuff from the INBOX to the watched directory. If you see it deleting your files, check the extension! It only moves .PS files into the Watched directory.

I have recently had several severe system failures. So many in fact that the service has ended up being unavailable for hours or in some cases over a weekend. When something major goes wrong I will try to update the system status page so that you can check it for the current state of affairs. If you check the system status and don't find any problems reported, then fire me a mail message.

Using Printer Drivers to create Postscript

If you have used a printer driver to create your postscript code, you may run into a few difficulties.

Synopsis

1. If you don't have a postscript printer, add one to your printers config.

   It doesn't have to exist in reality, so just assign it to a printer port that dosen't exist on your machine (LPT3: is usually good and the Apple Laserwriter II NT printer driver is just about the best).

2. When you want to create a postscript file, choose the postscript printer and select the "Print to File" check box.

3. You'll be prompted for a file name. Give it one! That's it! (See notes below)

• If your printer driver prompts you to create a file with a .PRN extension, don't panic. Just change the extension either in the prompting window or after the file has been created. It's safer to do it after so that you know it has the correct extension.

• Enhanced postscript printer drivers sometimes add printer specific code to the output. This sort of thing will screw up the converter. The best way to avoid these problems is to use an Apple Laserwriter II NT driver. These are very clean.

Paper Size

I use Microsoft Word with an Apple LaserWriter II NT printer driver in general. The Apple driver seems to deliver the best results. It puts all the appropriate codes into the PS file. For an example, have a look at:

Domain Planning A4 and,
Domain Planning US Letter

where I printed the same document twice. Once selecting A4 and then US Letter.

Web Browsers

Upload with your browser using the Postscript Upload page. You can pick up completed .PDF files from the OUTBOX using your web browser. My server sends a MIME type of application/pdf so if your browser is Acrobat Reader enabled, you should be able to view the doc in situ!

Please note, I would love to enhance the site's features and am looking for anyone interested in contributing code to the effort. I want to make upload/download as easy as possible for computer novices as well as experts. Anything that makes the service easier to use is a good thing! If you're interested please contact me.