XMetaL Troubleshooting 

If XMetaL begins to behave problematically...

A number of FACT/XMetaL bugs can be fixed by the same simple process of deleting local preference files.  If you experience an unusual problem with XMetaL, especially if it is while you are trying to do something that worked in the past, try the following:

• Close XMetaL Author.
• In Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\SoftQuad\XMetaL\4.6.

  [In most cases the username will be your netid.]

  [In Windows XP, the Application Data folder is usually a hidden folder.  You can access it by typing the folder name into the Windows Explorer address bar, or by selecting Tools --> Folder Options, selecting the View tab, and selecting "Show hidden files and folders".]

• Delete all files found in this location. 
• Close Windows Explorer.
• Reopen XMetaL Author.
• Readjust your local settings as needed.  Tips are available.

These steps are known to fix the following bugs:

• If the Element List disappears and you cannot turn it back on via View --> Element List
  • If you follow the steps above and still cannot turn on the Element list, try first turning on View-->Attribute Inspector, then selecting View-->Element List.  If this works, then toggle View-->Attribute Inspector off.
• If on saving or opening a document XMetaL encounters the error  "Error aligning document identifiers: object required.", followed by "Run-time error. Description: function expected."
• If you encounter an error about being out of context when attempting to Insert a Parallel Component

If the HTML Preview does not work...

When you select the Page Preview from the View menu or click on the little globe icon, the file should be transformed through an XSLT stylesheet and the view will switch to a page preview of an HTML version of the finding aid.  The following error may ocurr if you have invalid comments in the file: "XML: XML Error loading 'file:///filepath".  A name was started with an invalid character at line ###, character ##. "    To fix this, try the following:

• Switch to Plain Text view.
• Hit Ctrl-Home to go to the start of the file
• Hit Ctrl-F
• In the Find: box, type: <??>
• Click find
• If you find any matches, click replace all, being careful that the Replace with: box is empty.
• This will eliminate invalid processing instructions from the document and remove the cause of the above error message.

If when you attempt the HTML Preview you receive the error message, "XML error: Error parsing 'file:///.....' Whitespace is not allowed at this location.  at line #, character ##", do the following.

• Switch to Plain Text view.
• Hit Ctrl-Home to go to the start of the file
• Hit Ctrl-F
• In the Find: box, type: < ?
• Click find
• If you find any matches, delete the space, so that "< ?" becomes "<?".
• This will eliminate the invalid whitespace.

If deleting the local preference files does not work...

• For now, if the previous tip does not clear up your problem, please report it to Mike Rush.