FAQ

I'm having a problem!
Why can't I use <tab> to leave the text field?
How do I delete unwanted Types from the drop down list?
Graphviz does not show up as System Service!
I get a message that the number of words must be greater than number of slips!
When I delete a slip, new slips don't reuse that number!
The application does not start!
How can I report a problem?

I'm having a problem!

While I try to make SlipBox as error-free as I can (I'm using it myself a lot after all), it is not commercial software and it is not tested as much as it would deserve. Here is what you should do if you encounter a problem:

1. Read the documentation.
2. Make sure you are using the latest version.
3. Read this FAQ.
4. Send me an error-report (see the last FAQ item on how and where).

Why can't I use <tab> to leave the text field?

You can use ctrl-tab for this. Otherwise you could not use tabs in the text field. (No, I don't want to modify the Mac OS X key event loop.)

How do I delete unwanted Types from the drop down list?

Currently, you cannot delete a Type explicitly. If there is a Type you defined yourself, which you don't want any more, you can close the document and reopen it. This gets rid of the unused Types, i.e. the Types that are used nowhere in the document (except for the predefined ones).

Graphviz does not show up as System Service!

The Graphviz System Service shows up when you log out and log in again or when you reboot.

I get a message that the number of words must be greater than number of slips!

This occurs during the computation of the slip similarities. This means that the number of words that are in the slip-box must be greater than the number of slips that are in the box. (This is a limitation of the algorithm computing the similarities, particularly annoying with toy-boxes, but it won't be a problem with real ones.) Note that:

1. This restriction holds for keywords as well as for texts (ie the number of keywords must be greater than the number of slips, and the number of words in the texts must be greater than the number of slips).
2. The algorithm throws out all words with 2 letters or less as well as a couple of function words like prepositions (eg from, with).

When I delete a slip, new slips don't reuse that number!

I see the point about being neat. However, there are reasons why numbers of deleted slips are not reused:

1. Consistency: as there are no programmatic means (yet) to insert manual references between slips, renumbering would invalidate manual references that you may have inserted into the text.
2. Trash: The slip is not really thrown into the all-consuming bit-vortex. Instead it is moved to the Trash, ie it actually remains in the SlipBox document. You can view deleted slips by switching to the Trash View and actually restore them. Currently, there is no way to really remove a slip from a box. The only thing you can do is to void all slip fields, before moving it into the Trash or reusing it.

The application does not start!

Sometimes (infrequently) the preferences file seems to cause problems on startup, but this is very erratic behaviour, so I don't know really what to do about it. The preference file is called net.markusguhe.slipbox.plist and is located in the folder /Users/<Your Username>/Library/Preferences/ (yes, you have to insert your own username). This file can be edited – if you think you know what you are doing. If not, just delete it, and the application will start with default settings. It's not guaranteed to solve your problem, but it often helps.

How can I report a problem?

You can report a problem by going to the forum (see link in the top right) or sending an email to: slipbox [at] markusguhe [dot] net. Please describe the problem in as much detail as possible. If you email, it will help me addressing your problem if – where appropriate – you also send

1. The crash log (if the application did crash). You do this by starting the application Console, which is located in the folder /Applications/Utilities/, selecting the SlipBox entry and copying the last report into your email.
2. The SlipBox document (your slip-box), if you think that it contains something that causes your problem. (I'm not after your data, nobody except me will see your file. If you can, just create a new box that causes the problem but does not contain any data you don't want to see me.)