This F.A.Q. should help you to solve problems and answer question which usually occur when working with PaleoTax. The F.A.Q. in English was installed with version 2.1, therefore you may not find many entries which deal with version 2.0. The list is kept up to date and questions send to the author will be answered here. Do not hesitate to send your comments and questions to the author; they are welcome since they help to remove errors and improve the program. See this F.A.Q. sorted according to subjects. F.A.Q. (51 entries) (05/19/2022) The data acquisition form of the Age boundaries looks anyhow strange. Please copy the file AGEIUGS.FRM from the folder \VOR_SR17 in the current folder and overwrite the existing file. (12/06/2020) I have the Windows toolbar at the left hand side of the screen. This conflicts with the data acquisition forms. I have to move the form always a bit to the right to be able to see it. If you are working with an application library (PaleoTax, PalCol, Oliva): open the database. Move the main menu to the desired position. All forms will use the left top position of this windows for their left top position. If there is not enough space, reduce the form size. (05/27/2018) When freshly installed, no empty structures are seen in the application box. This is a problem we could not trace. The programme did not find the working directory. Please take the following steps: (1) Hdb2Win/Application library/Options/Tools (2) Select the working directory (must be c:\Users\"your name"\Documents\Hdb2Win\) (3) Click on OK (4) Leave the program (5) Start again (05/30/2015) When opening the a database, all buttons are disabled, I cannot even append new items. This may happen if in a new and non-standard database no service release is indicated. Just put the line mov sr,1 in the corresponding PTX file. (02/14/2015) I restored a database from a backup succesfully but when trying to open the database, the programm says "Cannot open file.". You probably restored the database in the program folder (C:\Programs\Hdb2Win). This is not allowed anymore from Windows 7 on. You should restore the backup in your personal document folder. Be sure the rename the name of the data folder to its original name, otherwise images and references appear to be lost. Once restored to the program folder you can also just move the whole folder into your document folder. In newer program version, there is anyway a Hdb2Win folder within the document folder. (10/06/2013) When I try to make a backup copy of the database, an error "7 1 5 0 Buffer overrun" is generated. Close the database. Go to Application Library / Options / Tools / Extended Options / Application page. Increase the value of [22] PaleoTax: Maximum archive size. If this does no work, you probably try to compress an already compressed file. This could be another archive or any JPG or PNG files. The backup function is not designed for this cases. (11/28/2011) Any problems running Hdb2Win in a Virtual Box under Mac OS? Generally not. Hdb2Win can be installed in any Windows Virtual Box. Large databases with large files often cause problems reading large blocks of files from Shared Folders which are on the Mac OS partition. You may limit the size of the internal cache for each table (Paleotax/Options/Tools/Extended Options/File/[110]). A good value is 8 MB. Not doing so, may show empty tables and finally result in severe loss of data. (04/17/2011) In the Internet cataloge created by PaleoTax, the name of the author below is "nn" instead of my name. The program is properly registered and the hdb2win.dat file has the correct name info. Titles, subtitles, creator etc. of the Internet catalogue are kept in the file HTML_DEF.PRF. So, start Hdb2Win, choose Interpreter, search the file HTML_DEF.PRF, change the texts and save the file. You may check the file concistency clicking on Compile. (11/03/2009) Editing certain records I get an error message "Angefordeter Datensatz uebersteigt Dateilaenge oder ist <= 0". The database was not correctly closed which results in data inconsistency. Open your database, choose Reorganisation, deactivate all options except "Repair after system crash or power down". In a second step activate only the first four options and start again. (12/27/2008) When I try to show a colour image file with CMYK colour table, the image looks strange or Hdb2Win displays an error message. This is related to the used compiler version which cannot handle CMYK files. Try RGB files. (01/23/2008) When starting the Internet Catalogue program, I receive the error: PTXIC203.PRF File/line = MLIB21.PRF @1065 Compiler = Maxline reached Error = 7 The number of maximum program lines are limited. Since the programmes are larger in new versions, this value has to be modified Start HDB2WIN Choose Paleotax Options Tools Extended options (Switch to the Interpreter file card) Change the data field "[56] Maximum number of lines " to 4000 [Save button] (08/23/2007) I have changed my monitor. The new one has a higher resolution and therefore the font in the masks is very small. Have I to modify the font files ? No. Choose PaleoTax/Options and increase the value 'Adapt character size' in small steps. (08/14/2006) Do you offer any courses ? There are regular courses offered in Mexico. If you wish a course outside this country, contact the support. (07/03/2006) The following message appeares in CITATION: Unbekanntes Datenfeld [CITLASTSOURCE @ line 253 in CITATION.FRM]. CITLASTSOURCE is a symbol which is created when a database is opened via PaleoTax. If you try to work with the command line version, the symbol is not created and you get this message. It is not serious. (07/03/2006) When I try to edit a genus I get the message "Connect-Datei muss geoeffnet sein [...\GENSYN.DBF @ line 296 in GENERA.FRM]". Any table ('pictures of reords', 'reference of records') is not opened and when the program tries to create the appropriate buttons, it failes since the tables are not opened. In this case the program failed to create the "Junior synonym of..." button. Open the database with PaleoTax ! (05/16/2006) It is easy to provide a multiple access to the DB over a LAN. Is it somehow possible to ensure "view only" rights for some users? HDB2Win does not support record locking, so various users cannot work at the same time with one and the same database. It is possible to grant only view rights. See the manual 2.1, page 136 (command OPEN). The appropriate mode must be set in the concerned PTX file. A normal OPEN command in the PTX file looks like open occurr,7 Bit 1, 2, and 3 are set. To make the table occurr (and all subsequent table which occurr may open) read only, bit 6 need to be set: open occurr,39 (05/16/2006) Will the concept of "nomen protectum" as introduced in IRZN Article 23.9 (Reversal of precedence) find any expression in the structure of the data base ? Nomen protectum means only that a later established taxon has the priority over a earlier established taxon. The database consistency check will critizise a nomen protectum since it is guided by the law of priority, but this can surely be ignored. If you want, you may add to the species status 'nom. protectum'. (01/23/2006) I get an error message when importing literature data with IMP_REF1 (from PaleoTax SR7 on). It is very important that the source file has no line breaks. Some text processors (I do not tell which ones ...) do not produce clean text files. Long lines (as the title) are often subdivided in various lines. The programme cannot understand this and will report and/or cause errors. (01/01/2006) The folder "pictures" is not created under the "html" folder. I just created it manually within the "html" folder, and copied the picture files in this newly created folder. Is that OK? Yes, this is OK. Normally your files are stored in a specified folder on your harddisc, and the folder /pictures is only the address when you will upload your picture files into the Internet. If you intent to use your created HTML-database as a offline-version, you better modify the picture folder in the appropriate program HTML_L25, let's say to MOV outpathg,'c:\Documents and Applications\[User]\My Documents\Forams\pictures\' (for Windows XP) or MOV outpathg,'c:\Users\[User]\Hdb2Win\Forams\pictures\' (for Windows from version 7 on). (12/26/2005) What is about all this SR1, SR2 etc. folders ? They can be deleted if the concerned Services Releases are successful installed. Never delete the folder of the last installed SR. (12/26/2005) I have the feeling that it is very difficult to work with PaleoTax. Yes. This is true. Palaeontology is difficult. Live is difficult. And it is more difficult if you have not much experience with taxonomic work. Read the English manual, it explains a lot. (07/05/2005) When restoring a backup copy from a CD I get the error "3/7070101". Any idea ? Yes, please copy the file before unpacking to your harddisk. The procedure try to open the file in the read/write mode which failed. Should work properly from Hdb2Win 2.2 on. (01/04/2005) What indicate "der index der liste uberschreitet das maximum" ? That's an inoffensive error message which can be ignored. To help to avoid it futurely, please report to the author the exact position ("I try to edit a publication"; "browsing specimens"; "editing field list"). (09/10/2004) The "font 0" becomes default for all other font numbers regardless of specific settings reflected in HDB2WIN.DAT. Likewise, a change of the font number in a table's font field does not lead to any changes. The problem can be related to application ("screen") fonts and print fonts. Fonts should be selected using the option panel. If just the font name is changed manually in the hdb2win.dat or through extended options, and Windows has no corresponding screen font, it does take a font which is just similar. E.g. in German WinXP installations there is a font "Times New Roman CE" which is a normal Times font, which has just in the upper part of the font set (>127) more East European characters to write Czech, Polish etc. This font cannot be selected in the option panel, since it is no screen font for applications. When this font is set manually in the hdb2win.dat, Windows selects any available screen font with East European characters. In cases where no such font is available, it may use the standard MS Sans Serif font. (10/17/2003) It is explained in the manual how to import literature. But how can I import data obtained from a printed Fossilium Catalogus, scanned and treated with an OCR program ? It is possible to import also this data. An appropriate programme is available and will be released on request. (09/05/2003) I have got the feeling that I made some mistakes changing the configuration of PaleoTax. How may I return to the original state ? Close the database. Go to the Options, third page. Click on 'Reset all settings'. Finish the programme. Start it again.

© Hannes Löser, Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico.
Updated : 05-19-2022.