Writer's Café FAQ

Writer's Café FAQ

About Writer's Café
Licensing and Support
Technical Issues: All Applications
Technical Issues: Writer's Café Desk
Technical Issues: StoryLines

About Writer's Café

Why was Writer's Café created?

Story-writing tools tend to lie near the ends of two poles: the word processor at one end, which has minimum support for creativity, and at the other end, more complex theory-driven applications. The latter can be far too prescriptive (and frankly, baffling) in our opinion. We wrote a set of tools to help fill the gap in the middle for freer, less structured story planning, and we believe it's the best way to work with, and not stifle, your creativity. We also wanted to provide tools to help make writing fun.

Does Writer's Café replace word processors and screenplay formatting software?

No. Writer's Café works with these tools, supporting the stage when ideas are flowing but the structure has not been fully (or even a little!) defined. Writer's Café StoryLines takes you to the stage when you're ready to make your story linear, and then exports it in a suitable file format for importing into formatting software. However, if you're writing a screenplay and you don't have specialised formatting software, you'll find that Writer's Café can go a long way to format your script for you when used alongside a conventional word processor. StoryLines recognises dialogue, cues, action and other elements and formats them according to the current report style, which you can customize.

Is Writer's Café just for screenwriting?

Although the multiple storyline ability is great for screenplays and soaps that have complex interwoven plots, Writer's Café is also suited to prose fiction: you can have a storyline per relationship, for example, or just have one storyline, and enjoy the freedom of recording your bite-sized ideas in StoryLines cards. Writer's Café helps get those ideas flowing, whatever the story form.

What platforms are supported by Writer's Café?

All recent 32-bit desktop Microsoft Windows platforms - that's Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.
i386 Linux with GTK+ 2 installed and libc 2.2.9 or greater.
Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above. You can also run the Windows version on the Mac under Virtual PC.

It has been reported that Writer's Café runs under Windows 95 OSR2 on a 50MHz 486.

What hardware is required by Writer's Café?

Hardware requirements are modest: a high colour video card, 128MB RAM, 30MB hard disk space, and for the boxed product, a CD-ROM drive.

What tools were used to develop Writer's Café?

Writer's Café is programmed with the popular open source (free) GUI toolkit, wxWidgets, created in 1992 by Anthemion Software director, Julian Smart. wxWidgets is being used by organisations large and small all over the world.

Where can I get more tracks by Jay Goldmark?

You can order Jay's album "Jay Goldmark" in a nice box for £15 (UKP) by ringing this number and ordering by Switch or credit card:

+44 (0)1572 821 424

or sending a cheque to:

One-0-Eight Records 14 Orange Street Uppingham Rutland UK LE15 9SQ You can contact Jay by email at jgoldmark (at) hotmail.com. His web site is here.

Licensing and Support

How much does Writer's Café cost?

Please see the purchase page for pricing information.

Will upgrades be free?

Upgrades and bug fixes for each major version of Writer's Café will be free. You can download new versions of Writer's Café as many times as you like. We will make a small upgrade charge for major new versions, usually denoted by a change to the first version number (for example 2.0 will require an upgrade). The first upgrade charge will be made when version 2 comes out in 2008.

Why is the Mac version free?

Because of work on the new version of Writer's Café scheduled for release in 2008, we have unfortunately not been able to make good on our promise to bring the Mac version up to the user interface expectations of the average Mac user. Therefore we are currently offering 1.x free of charge, while we concentrate on version 2. We will be charging for the Mac version of Writer's Café 2, but as a concession to our Mac users we will waive the upgrade fee for the Mac version, for registered (i.e. paid-up) users of version 1.

Do I pay for each operating system I run Writer's Café on?

Each separate user must buy a separate copy, one copy each. But if you want to run Writer's Café on both Windows and Linux, for example, then you only pay once. The licence is not tied to a particular operating system.

Can I use the same registration key for Writer's Café both at home and at work?

Absolutely. You can use the same registered copy of Writer's Café on multiple machines so long as only one copy is being used at a time. In fact we'd very much encourage you to install Writer's Café wherever you can take a few minutes to do some writing.

Do I need a registration key for the CD-ROM version?

No; the CD-ROM installs a registration key. You can uninstall the CD-ROM version to upgrade to a newer download version, and Writer's Café will use the registration key previously installed from the CD-ROM. Uninstalling Writer's Café does not remove the registration information. If you are using an upgrade, and you have to reinstall Writer's Café after reinstalling Windows, install from the CD-ROM first, uninstall it, then install the upgrade.

How do I register to unlock the demo?

Exit StoryLines if it's running. Run Writer's Café Desk, and click on the Help menu, followed by Register Writer's Café. Now find the user name and registration key that you were sent when you paid for Writer's Café. Copy and paste (or type) the information into the user name and registration key fields, and press OK. (Note that any '0' characters in the registration key are zeros, and not letter 'O's.) Your copy of Writer's Café Desk should now be registered, and when you run StoryLines, it will also be registered.

What do I do if Writer's Café doesn't accept my registration key?

Normally this is due to a typo. The most reliable method is to use copy and paste to transfer the user name and key (on Windows: select the text in the email, then Ctrl-C, then Ctrl-V in the registration dialog). If typing manually, please note that there are no letter Os in the key: only zeros. If your user name contains an accent, this could be a cause of registration failure. In this case, please email us for another user name and key. If all else fails, please email writerscafe@anthemion.co.uk for further help. If you're using Windows I can create a registry file for you to run that usually solves the problem.

Note that if you want to register with a different key, and the registration dialog is not available, you will need to reset the applications as detailed below.

What do I do if I've lost my registration key?

Email writerscafe@anthemion.co.uk and we'll find your key. Please quote your order reference number, name and preferably the email address you used when ordering Writer's Café or StoryLines.

What happens to my work if I uninstall Writer's Café in order to upgrade to a new version?

Before upgrading, please check whether you have made changes to the default scrapbook (called Scraps) in the Writer's Café Desk installation folder. You can find out where the current scrapbook is stored by showing the Settings dialog and clicking on Scrapbook. The full path of the scrapbook is shown in "Scrapbook filename". If this is in danger of being overwritten by installing a new version of Writer's Café, use File/Save As to save it to a new location, such as My Documents (Windows) or Documents (Linux/Mac).

When Writer's Café 1.18 and above first runs, it will copy the sample scrapbook to the user's document folder (My Documents or Documents) and will not replace the files if they already exist. This will reduce the likelihood of future installations overwriting your data.

If you created new StoryLines files, they won't be deleted even if they were saved in the Writer's Café program folder (except on Linux and Mac, where uninstalling means deleting the whole program folder). The default journal and notebook are created in My Documents or Documents, so will not be deleted when uninstalling, or overwritten when installing.

How can I get support?

Please email us at writerscafe@anthemion.co.uk if the Writer's Café help and FAQ don't answer your query.

Does the CD-ROM always contain the latest version?

Unfortunately economies of scale dictate that we can't manufacture a new batch of CDs for every bug fix release, and we wouldn't want to feel inhibited about releasing updates because of this. So we do release updates that anyone with the CD-ROM (or a registered download) can use; this is standard industry practice. However don't feel that the presence of downloadable updates invalidates the variety of reasons for buying a CD-ROM. As well as containing extra software such as Open Office, the CD-ROM makes a great gift with its colourful and unusual packaging, and acts as a key for future updates.

Are you responsive to suggestions?

Yes! Anthemion Software is a small, friendly company and we are delighted to receive feedback from our users. We strive to build the best-of-breed tools so getting back 'reports from the field' helps us to serve you better.

Technical Issues: All Applications

Why does the Writer's Café CD installer give security warnings?

When you insert the CD-ROM on Windows XP (SP2), you may be presented with a message "Are you sure you want to allow CDs to run active content on your computer?"

It is safe to press Yes at this point, but if you want to have XP give the warning in other situations, clear the checkbox In future, do not show this message.

Next, when clicking on the installer, you may get a further security warning, and again, it is safe to click on Run.

You then get yet another warning The publisher could not be verified. You should press Run.

Since the CD-ROM was manufactured, Windows XP has beefed up its security and is ultra-cautious. This doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the software on the CD; it's simply that Anthemion Software is a small company and has not yet acquired digital signatures for its software.

Note that if you were to browse the CD-ROM with Windows Explorer (perhaps starting from My Computer - the d: drive is often the CD-ROM drive), you can double-click on WritersCafe-1.16-Setup.exe and there are no security warnings. The web-based installer is falling foul of the increased security of recent Internet Explorer and XP releases. We will consider a different kind of CD-ROM interface next time, that doesn't pop up scary security messages!

How do I reset Writer's Café?

On rare occasions, for example if one of the Writer's Café components starts behaving strangely, you may wish to try resetting the application back to the installation state. How you achieve this differs according to operating system. First, quit all Writer's Café applications.

On Microsoft Windows, you need to delete the relevant registry entries.

click the Windows Start button, click on Run, type regedit and hit the return (enter) key.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Anthemion Software, and select the Writer's Cafe entry. Press the Del key and confirm the deletion.
Also delete the StoryLines entry in the same way.
Quit regedit.

On Linux, you need to remove one or more of the files ~/.WritersCafe and ~/.StoryLines.

On Mac OS X, you need to remove one or more of the files:

/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/WritersCafe Preferences
/Users/YOURUSERNAME/Library/Preferences/StoryLines Preferences

Using Finder, you can click on the Home icon and then navigate to Library/Preferences.

Will Writer's Café run on the new Intel iMacs and MacBooks?

Writer's Café for Mac OS X is a universal binary and runs on both Intel and PPC machines.

On Mac OS X, I can't save to certain filenames. What's the problem?

You may have accented characters in your filename; try choosing a name with no accents.

How can I improve small text display in Writer's Café and StoryLines?

If you see badly spaced text for small fonts, you can switch on antialiasing (smoothing) for these fonts. Go to the Mac OS X System Preferences, click on Appearance, and in the item Turn off text smoothing for font sizes ... and smaller, select 8. Now fonts at 9 point and above will use antialiasing which vastly improves spacing, and gives dialogs a more consistent look too.

How do I install Writer's Café on Linux?

Writer's Café supports three distribution methods under 32-bit Linux:

Debian package (.deb);
RPM package (.rpm);
Tarball (.tar.gz).

Each of these methods will install suitable desktop entries and MIME types, adding a menu entry to the KDE or GNOME menu in the Office or Word Processor group. Writer's Café will also be available by typing writerscafe in a terminal window. The application is normally installed to /usr/share/writerscafe, and the 'writerscafe' startup script to /usr/bin.

Debian packages

To install a .deb, you may be able to simply double-click it in the file manager. If this doesn't work, you can use the dpkg command-line tool. Type something like the following in a terminal window:

dpkg -i writerscafe_1.27-1_i386.deb

You need to have root permissions to do this, so either type su followed by the root password, or prefix the command with sudo and type your own password when prompted.

To remove the package, use:

dpkg -r writerscafe

See also the instructions for installation on an Eee PC.

RPM packages

To install an RPM package, you may be able to simply double-click it in the file manager. If this doesn't work, you can use the rpm command-line tool. Type something like the following in a terminal window:

rpm -i writerscafe-1.27-1.i386.rpm

You need to have root permissions to do this, so either type su followed by the root password, or prefix the command with sudo and type your own password when prompted.

To upgrade the package (if an existing one is already installed), use -U instead of -i.

To remove the package, use:

rpm -e writerscafe

Tarballs

The tarball method is the only one currently supported on FreeBSD and Solaris (and 64-bit Linux distributions). With this method, you run a script in a terminal and you will be prompted to install either system-wide or locally. If installing system-wide, you may wish to login as super user (type su) or run the script with sudo, for example sudo ./installwc.

First, unarchive WritersCafe-x.xx.tar.gz to a suitable location in your filesystem. This will create two files, WritersCafeData.tar.gz and installwc. Run installwc and follow the instructions: it will install Writer's Café in one directory, and a script 'writerscafe' in another, so you can invoke Writer's Café without having to set the WRITERSCAFEDIR environment variable. The script will install the appropriate MIME types and desktop entries, and if installed locally, will also add a Writer's Café icon to your desktop.

With the tarball method, you can uninstall by running the uninstallwriterscafe-x.xx script generated by the installation process.

How do I install Writer's Café on an Eee PC running Xandros?

Writer's Café has been adapted for the Eee PC screen, and installation is easy on a standard Eee PC setup running Xandros.

Using your web browser, download the .deb archive and save to My Documents.
Either:
1. Navigate to My Documents using the File Manager (available from the Work tab).
2. Right-click on the Writer's Café .deb file and select Install DEB File.
3. When prompted, enter the password you gave when first setting up your Eee PC.
4. Wait for confirmation that the installation worked.
Or:
1. Open a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T.
2. Type these two lines:
```
  cd My\ Documents
  sudo dpkg -i writerscafe_1.28-1_i386.deb
  
```
  Substitute the correct file name for the name given above, depending on the version downloaded. To save typing, you can use command completion: for example, type cd My and then press the Tab key for the rest of the line to appear.
Now Writer's Café should be installed, but how to run it? The next step will create a start menu if there isn't one already, and add Writer's Café icons to the menu. In the terminal window (Ctrl+Alt+T), type the line, using command completion with Tab if you like:
```
/usr/share/writerscafe/WritersCafeDesk/eeepcinstallwc
```
Finally, you need to restart the desktop for the Start menu to appear: press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and wait for the desktop to come back, this time with a Start menu.

Now you can click on Start and click on one of the Writer's Café icons, waiting a few seconds for the application to appear.

If you are running the full KDE desktop, the procedure is much the same as above, but you don't have to run eeepcinstallwc because the icons will appear automatically in the Office or Word Processor menu group.

If you have already enabled the Start menu in the standard Eee PC 'easy mode' environment, you can still run eeepcinstallwc; the menu will simply be updated to include the icons. For information, the menu is contained in /home/user/.icewm/menu.

To help you make the most of the Eee PC screen, Writer's Café Desk and StoryLines both have full-screen modes. Press F9 in Writer's Café Desk, and F11 in StoryLines; press the key again to get back to normal mode. You may need to click on an application window first if the key appears not to be working.

Technical Issues: Writer's Café Desk

On Windows, why does Writer's Café Desk not always find Adobe Acrobat Reader?

Sometimes there is a problem with the PDF file association, resulting in advice from Writer's Café Desk, despite the fact that Reader is installed on your system and PDF files can be launched from Explorer. This is caused by the absence of certain registry keys and can usually be fixed by re-installing Acrobat Reader.

If the problem persists, you can still read the PDF files by locating them on your system either from within Explorer or from the Reader file dialog.

On Windows, why do Writer's Café shortcuts sometimes use different programs from those used by Explorer?

When you choose a document in a shortcut and launch it, sometimes the application that opens the document is not the one you expected (or the one used by Windows Explorer). This is because you have overridden the standard associations with different associations in Explorer - but this is not reflected in the basic association that Writer's Café uses.

You can fix this by making the association more pervasive. In Explorer (while browsing a drive, for example), go to the Tools menu and select Folder Options. Click on the File Types tab and scroll down to the extension you're interested in. Click on the extension. If there is button Restore, click it, and it will change to Advanced. Now click on Advanced and you will be able to select the application you want to associate with the extension. Click on open in the list of actions, and then click on Edit. Enter the program path in the second text field. If you browse for it, don't forget to add %1 to the end, to represent the data file to be opened. Press OK to confirm the changes, and then OK again to confirm the association changes.

You may wish to make a note of the original settings in case you want to restore them.

The thesaurus needs msvcp60.dll, where can I find that?

You may need to copy msvcp60.dll to your windows\system32 directory to run the thesaurus on some versions of Windows.

Printing pages from the Bookshelf e-book produces gibberish.

This is due to the encryption method used; please print the PDF e-book instead.

On Mac OS X, the Quit menu is sometimes greyed out. How can I quit Writer's Café?

We are looking into why this sometimes happens. In the meantime, you can use File | Quit, or press Alt-Apple-Esc and choose WritersCafe from the list of applications to quit.

Technical Issues: StoryLines

How many storylines and cards can be created once StoryLines has been registered?: There is no limit to either the number of storylines or the number of cards in registered copies of StoryLines.
How can I reduce flicker in the Content Editor?: By default, the Content Editor highlights your text assuming that it is screenplay dialogue, changing the text colour and properties accordingly. This can cause a small amount of flickering that might be noticeable on some machines. You can switch Content Highlighting off by clicking on the toolbar button that looks like a switch (or going to View/Preferences.../Content Highlighting) and unchecking 'Highlighting for new projects' and 'Highlighting for the current project'.
When I click on a card, the editor is still greyed out. What's going on?: Make sure that the menu item View | Edit in place is off (not checked). Also, single-click on a card, don't double-click.
On Mac OS X, the Quit menu is sometimes greyed out. How can I quit StoryLines?: We are looking into why this sometimes happens. In the meantime, you can use File | Quit, or press Alt-Apple-Esc and choose StoryLines from the list of applications to quit.
On Mac OS X, text in reports prints out too large.: We are still working on printing support on Mac. Meanwhile, you can export to HTML and use your browser to print, or you can export to OpenOffice.org Writer to print.

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