Odds & Ends
Odds & Ends
OmniPage and USB scanners Barry Levine found that OmniPage (LE and Pro) will not work with USB scanners - at least not the Agfa 1212u and Microtek X6 ones that he has tested so far. He was told that the problem only occurs in Mac OS 8.6, although he has not verified this.
Update: Several readers claim that this report is in error and that Omni Page works fine with USB scanners. A reader adds: "OmniPage Pro will work with UMAX USB scanners, if you download the updated drivers from Caere (see also the Read Me file).
Fkeys on new PowerBooks Rick Glowe found a solution for those that complain about the "hard-wired" sound and brightness keys - in lieu of Fkeys - on the Bronze-keyboard PowerBooks: "If you open the Keyboard control panel in Mac OS 8.6 and select Options, you'll find the option to have your keys default to F-KEYS rather than brightness, sound, mute and numeric keypad."
QuickCam Pro and CU-SeeMe Henri Berger writes that the 3.1.1 version of the CU-SeeMe software included in the QuickCam Pro is not compatible with Mac OS 8.5 or higher. He adds: "I called Logitech Customer Support to find out what can be done and their response, in so many words was: 'In order to acquire a version that does work with 8.5, you must purchase an upgrade from White Pine. Besides, the version that we include only works for 20 minutes.'"
Update: Roy replies: "CU-SeeMe 3.1.2 works just fine with Mac OS 8.5 and is available free from White Pine Software if you purchased an earlier version in the last 30 days. You just need to send proof of purchase, serial number and address information." However, the problem is that the version of CU-SeeMe that comes with the QuickCam does not include a serial number. See this Logitech support document for details.
GCC printing problem remains in Mac OS 8.6? Apple has confirmed some problems with printing to GCC printers when running Mac OS 8.5.x (see TIL article #24830). The bugs have supposedly been fixed in Mac OS 8.6. The critical fix is to move up from LaserWriter 8.6 to 8.6.5 (see also GCC support document). However, Rick Gordon was still unable to print, even with the latest LaserWriter driver, "any document containing Adobe Minion Italic from any application to a GCC Elite XL 20/600."
SpaceSaver "disables" floppy drives on some Mac models? Larry Kahan was having problems mounting floppy disks on his Power Mac 6116. He believes it is due to a conflict with StuffIt SpaceSaver 5.0.2. He located two other posts on Apple's Tech Exchange (a and b) - involving a Power Mac 5400 and 6400 - that reached a similar conclusion.
Sequence Navigator and font conflict Jonathan Greenberg found that Sequence Navigator 1.0.1 (a DNA sequence analysis package) quit with a Type 2 error when running Mac OS 8.6. Disabling Adobe Type Manager (ATM) 4.0.3 eliminated the crash. The problem also occurred with ATM Deluxe 4.5. He adds: "When I ran Corrupt FOND Fixer, it found Sequence Navigator as having the damaged resources, fixed it and now its running with ATM 4.5 as good as ever."
Snapz Pro and the 3 key Ian Boussy claims that there is an odd bug in Snapz Pro 1.1.1. The "3" key on his keyboard does not work when the control panel is enabled. Well, actually, it is only the plain number 3 that does not work; using the key in combination with Shift and Command keys etc. does work. Brad Messer reports that the same problem occurred with Snapz Pro is 2.0.1, the latest version. Also note that the 3 on the numeric keypad is not affected by this glitch.