• Help with installation (under MS/Windows)
• Help! No help! (The program's Help doesn't work.)
• Answers to common start-up problems
• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
• Where to go for additional help

Starting with Volume 23, the program's Help system has been converted to a web-browser (HTML) format. This is because the Windows Vista no longer supports the older Microsoft forms of help. Therefore if you are running at least Volume 23, you shouldn't have problems with help (unless you also are having problems getting the AMPR program to start up a web browser, in which case look at problem #6 in the list below). If you are running an older version (Vol. 22 or earlier) of the AMPR and Help doesn't work, then read on.

Under Windows, the program's Help system, up to and including the AMPR Volume 22 edition, uses a particular format for the help files (referred to as WinHelp 2000).  If you are running on a much older version of Windows (either Windows/95 or Windows/98) and you have never previously installed an application that uses this new style of help, then you might get an error when you try to run the Help system.  This error would occur when you choose either Table of Contents or Quick Start from the Help menu, and the error will probably say something about not being able to find a file named roboex32.dll.  (Alternatively, the error message might just say that the Help file is broken in some way.)  This problem is due to a mistake in the installation program for the Antique Map Price Record: The installation program should have installed roboex32.dll if it was not already on your computer.

However, all is not lost!  You can download roboex32.dll by clicking on the following link: roboex32.exe.  This will download a self-extracting archive of the file which you should save anywhere on your disk.  After the download has completed, run the roboex32.exe program.  This will ask you where to place the extracted file, and you should choose the default system directory. This will normally be c:\windows\system (on Windows 95 or 98 systems), or c:\winnt\system32 (on Windows 2000, XP or Vista systems).  When you re-start the Antique Map Price Record program, the Help system should now work.

An alternative is to use the Help system that is available right here.  This is a web-based version of the help, which lets you view the program's help in your web browser.

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1) I can't find the start-up page for the program in my web browser.

The AMPR CD-ROM is not a browser application.  There is a separate program that runs the AMPR CD-ROM, and you must install the program before you can search the data.  Follow the installation instructions in the booklet that comes with the CD.  In simplest terms, you must run the setup.exe program that is on the CD-ROM to install the program.  This will create a desktop icon ("Antique Map Price Record") which you can double-click on to run the program.

If the AMPR CD-ROM program will not over-write an existing (and possibly older) copy of the program, you must first uninstall the prior copy of the program before installing from the CD-ROM.  To uninstall the older version, use the Start menu and go to Settings>Control Panel.  In the Control Panel window, double-click on "Add/Remove Programs".  In the window that comes up, scroll the list until you can see "Antique Map Price Record - Electronic Edition".  Click on this line to select it, and then click the Add/Remove button.  You will be asked to confirm that you really want to uninstall the product.  Answer "Yes".  After the uninstall has completed, you should be able to install the new version of the program from the CD-ROM.

If you are installing a relatively recent edition of the AMPR CD-ROM (Vol. 21 or later), then you shouldn't have this problem, since the installation program is willing to over-write an existing version.

Note: If you are installing Vol. 23, you must uninstall any prior version before installing Vol. 23. A note regarding this requirement was shipped with the Vol. 23 CD. But if you are seeing errors ("Uncaught error ...") when trying to run the program after you have installed Vol. 23, this is probably because you did not uninstall the prior version. Please uninstall all installed version of the Antique Map Price Record program and then install (run the setup.exe program) from the Vol. 23 CD-ROM. Detailed uninstallation instructions are provided below.

The setup program uses a fairly recent version of Microsoft's Installer software.  On some older systems the setup program may find that certain system software is not present and may put up this message.  Though you can try to find and download updates to the Windows Installer, a much better solution is simply to do a manual installation.  See below for a step-by-step description of how to perform a manual installation.

The desktop icon (or "shortcut") that is used to launch the program uses a new Microsoft installation services technology (called "MSI").  If the necessary components of the MSI services are not correctly installed on your system, then the shortcut may fail to work.  To fix this, create an old-fashioned (non-MSI) shortcut, by taking the following steps:

1) Click with your right mouse button on your desktop (the background screen).  In the menu that pops up, select to create a New Shortcut.
2) In the window that comes up, enter the following text as the command-line.  Be sure to include the quotes and spaces exactly as shown here.  To make sure that you have it right, just copy and paste from here into the command-line text box:

"C:\Program Files\AMPR\cgpp.exe" -nz -pd"C:\Program Files\AMPR\Home" AMPRLookup.dll

3) Click Next.
4) As the name for the shortcut, type in: Antique Map Price Record
5) Click Finish

Note: If you installed the program to a location other than the default one (C:\Program Files\AMPR), then change what you entered in step #2, above, to reflect the actual location where you installed the program.

After testing that the new icon works, you can safely delete the non-working desktop icon.

When you install the program, only the program - and not the data - is copied to your hard disk.  The program always reads the data from the CD-ROM, so when you get this message, it means that the program did not find the AMPR CD-ROM; probably because it isn't in the CD-ROM drive.  Make sure the CD-ROM is inserted in the drive, and click Retry.

When the program wants to display something using your web browser, it looks in the Windows Registry to find out how to launch your browser.  In general, the common browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox and Netscape) correctly set up the needed Registry information for this to work, but in rare cases this information may not be present or correctly specified in the Registry.  You can work around this problem by taking the steps described here. You can also use this procedure to tell the program to use a different browser (other than your default browser) when opening a browser window to display anything (dealer's web site, Information Menu pages, reference images).

1) Locate the full pathname of the executable program that launches your web browser (or, if you are telling the program to use a non-default browser, the pathname of the non-default browser).  You can usually do this most easily by locating the shortcut used to launch the browser and looking at its properties to find the "Target" command used to start the program.  Though the exact pathname will depend upon where the browser is installed on your system, common locations are as follows:

For Intenet Explorer (IE):

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.exe"

For Netscape:

"C:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\netscape.exe"

For Firefox:

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

2) Find the AMPR preferences file. This file is named prefs.cgl. If you are running Vol. 22 or earlier, this file will be located in C:\Program Files\AMPR\home. Starting with Vol. 23 of the AMPR, this file is stored in a system-defined directory, which varies from one version of Windows to the next. This file will be somewhere on your C: drive, in a sub-directory name AMPR. Some possible locations are:
  C:\Documents and Settings\user_name\Local Settings\Application Data\AMPR\prefs.cgl
  C:\WINNT\Profiles\user_name\Local Settings\Application Data\AMPR\prefs.cgl
(There is also a copy of prefs.cgl in the C:\Program Files\AMPR\Home directory. This is not the copy you are looking for. Use the Search capability of the Windows Explorer to find the copy of prefs.cgl that is the active one. One way to be sure you have found the right one is that its modification date will be whatever time you last exited from the AMPR program. So if you have just exited from the AMPR program, you will be looking for the copy of prefs.cgl that has a modification date of just a few moments ago.)

3) Run notepad, and navigate to the directory you found in the previous step and open the prefs.cgl file.

4) Add a line at the bottom of this file, with the following form:

AMPR_browser_command : "<full pathname of the browser executable>"

For example, if the pathname for your browser is the Internet Explorer path shown in step (1), above, the line you would enter would be:

AMPR_browser_command : "C:\Program Files\Plus!\Microsoft Internet\IEXPLORE.exe"

Note: You must enclose the name of the command in double-quotes, as shown.  Also, the first part of the line, AMPR_browser_command, must be spelled exactly as shown, with upper-case AMPR, underscores, and all the other letters lower-case.

5) Save the prefs.cgl file and exit from notepad. Re-start the AMPR program and see if launching of the browser now works.  If you still are unable to get the browser the launch, contact user support.

This strange bug is due to a problem with Firefox (bug #263701 in the Firefox bug database maintained by Mozilla.org), which in some cases doesn't properly open and display local files (as opposed to files fetched from remote web sites, which it does handle correctly). All of the choices on the Information menu are local files, since they are on the CD-ROM on your own, local, computer. The U.S. Census Bureau tab is a bizarre side-effect caused by the fact that the Information files are in a sub-directory named data on the CD-ROM. (Try typing just the word data into Firefox's location window and hit <Return>. Guess what? You will be taken to the U.S. Census Bureau's home page!)

You can avoid this bug by making sure that a Firefox window is already open before invoking the Information menu from the AMPR program. As long as a Firefox window is already open, this bug does not occur. If you have just hit the bug, simply leave the empty Firefox window there (the one with the U.S. Census Bureau tab in it), and go back and choose the same item off the Information menu again. This time it should work.

Note: This bug appears to be fixed in the latest release of Firefox. The bug was seen in Firefox 5.0 rev.1.7.5, but it did not appear when tested in Firefox 5.0 rev.1.8.0.6. Therefore, if you are seeing this problem, I suggest that you update to the most recent version of Firefox.

This problem has only been seen running under Windows 98 or Windows ME with HP inkjet printer drivers (800 or 900 series).  Though the cause of the problem is still mysterious, the fix is pretty straightforward, and is suggested by HP's support pages: Switch your printer spooling format from EMF to RAW.  To do this, select Start>Settings>Printers from the taskbar.  When the Printers window comes up, right-click on the icon for your HP printer and select Properties.  The next step depends upon the version of operating system you are using:

• If, in the Properties window, you see a tab labeled "Details":

Select the Details tab. Click the Spool Settings button.  In the Spool Settings window there is a drop-down list below the spool settings radiobuttons, and this list lets you choose between EMF and RAW.  Select RAW.

• If, in the Properties window, you see a tab labeled "Advanced":
  

Select the Advanced tab. Click the Print Processor button. Select WinPrint in the left-hand (Print processor) list. Then select RAW in the right-hand (Default datatype) list.

Click OK as many times as necessary to close all the windows you have opened and re-start the AMPR program.  Printing should now work.

9) I installed the program under Windows/XP using an account with system privileges, and I specified that I wanted the program to be available for All Users. When I log in as a non-privileged user, the Antique Map Price Record icon is there on the desktop, but when I click it I get an error message (Uncaught error: Address exception error - probably caused by an
uninitialized pointer Running procedure Top Level).

This bug is caused by one particular file (the preferences file) being installed in an area that is only accessible to privileged accounts. The best way to get around this problem is to do a manual installation while logged in as the non-privileged user. Note: If you don't do an uninstallation from the system account (prior to doing the manual installation from the non-privileged account), there will still be a desktop icon named "Antique Map Price Record". In this case, you will want to slightly vary the Manual Installation instructions, and give a name to the new shortcut that you create that is different (e.g. "AMPR Program").

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FAQ - Frequently asked questions

* Can I copy the entire database to my hard drive, so I don't always have to have the CD-ROM inserted to run the program under MS/Windows?

Prior to Vol. 22, the answer to this question was "No". But as of Vol. 22, the instructions are available here for running the program with your data files copied to the hard disk. Once you have followed these instructions, you no longer need to have the CD-ROM inserted in the CD-ROM drive to run the AMPR program. Even though the CD-ROM is no longer needed, please store the CD in a safe place in case you should need to re-install the program in the future (for example, if you buy a new computer and want to move your programs and data there). Please also remember that the AMPR program is licensed software, and that just because the CD is not needed, it cannot be legally passed on to an unlicensed user.

* I want to run the AMPR program from a memory stick (flash drive) since my small portable computer does not have a CD-ROM drive. Can I do this?

Yes, you can copy the program and data to a flash drive and run it directly from there. The instructions for doing this are available here.

* Will the CD-ROM run on my Macintosh?

As of Volume 24 (2009), only a Windows version of the CD-ROM is being produced. The Macintosh version that had been available up through Vol. 23 was a "Classic" Mac (OS/9) application. Fewer and fewer Macs are running OS/9 these days, since OS/X has pretty much taken over, and for some time now Apple has stopped shipping OS/9 software with new systems. (During the early years of OS/X, Apple shipped OS/9 software, as well as OS/X software, with their Macs, so that users could run either Classic Mac or OS/X applications on the same computer. That is no longer true.)

If you have a fairly new Mac that has an Intel processor, then you can run the Windows version of the AMPR CD-ROM on your Mac. To do this you will need some additional software. The simplest and least expensive solution is to get CrossOver Mac (from Codeweavers). This software lets you run Windows programs without requiring the installation of a Windows operating system. Not all Windows software will work under CrossOver, but the AMPR CD-ROM has been found to work successfully. Click here for more information and set-up instructions for using the AMPR program with CrossOver.

A more elaborate solution is to install a second operating system on your computer (e.g. Windows XP) and then use virtualizing software such as Parallels. This approach will let you run any Windows software on your Mac (including the AMPR program), but this is a more complicated and more expensive approach than using CrossOver.

* I have a very old PC that is still running Windows 3.1.  Will the CD-ROM run on mys system?

No.  The CD-ROM only runs on the 32-bit versions of Windows, starting with Windows/95.

* How can I do "fuzzy" searching for names like "pascaart", "paskaarte", "pascaert", etc. in map titles?

You can use wild-cards to approximate a fuzzy search, though you may have to think for a moment as to the best way to do this.  For the example given in the question, the common element in the word being searched for is the first three letters ("pas"), so you might try just searching for pas* (the asterisk means match any word that begins with "pas", regardless of what comes after it).  However, this will find more than you really want, since this wild-card pattern also matches "passages", "passim", and other words that have nothing to do with "pascaart" and its variants.

Since the next letter in what we are looking for is "c" or "k", we could search for pas[ck]* (which means words which begin with "pas" and then are immediately followed by a 'c' or a 'k', and then anything else afterwards).  This does a much better job of finding just the titles with one of the "pascaart" variants.

You may be aware that sometimes this word is represented in map titles in a hyphenated form, e.g.: Pas-Caert, or in a two-word form, e.g. Pas Caert.  A more complicated search pattern could do a pretty good job of catching all of these cases:

pas[ck]* OR "pas c*" OR "pas k*"

The double-quotes around "pas c*" and "pas k*" mean search for the word "pas" immediately followed by a word beginning with 'c' or 'k'.  You may wonder, why not just combine the last two sections of this search and do:

pas[ck]* OR "pas [ck]*"

Logically, this is correct, but it violates the restriction that any single word can't begin with a wild-card symbol (an asterisk, an open-square-bracket or a question mark).  If you try to do this, the program will tell you it is not allowed.  So you need to break it into the two separate patterns.

Also, you may be wondering how this search request finds names with hyphens between a pair of words such as "Pas" and "Caert".  No hyphen was included in the search pattern.  The answer is that hyphens are treated like all non-alphabetic and non-numeric characters: They are treated as word separators, just like spaces.  So "Pas-Caert" and "Pas Caert" are handled exactly the same way, as two words, so that "pas c*" will match either of these.  There is no way to explicitly say that you want to search for a phrase that contains a hyphen.  In fact, if you searched for "pas-c*", this would be treated just like "pas c*" and it would find both the hyphen-separated and blank-separated variants.

* Will I have to pay full price to receive the next update of the AMPR CD-ROM?

No.  Once you have purchased your first copy of the AMPR CD-ROM, you are eligible for updates at the subscription rate, which is $50. We will contact current users each spring, to announce the availability of the next update, which will be published each April.  You will remain eligible for the reduced subscription pricing for as long as you purchase the updates.

The first place to look for help is the on-line help that comes with the program.  (Though see the topic on non-functioning help, above, if you have problems running the program's Help facility.)  If you can't find the answers you need there or on this page, please get in touch with me (Jeremy Pool) at:

e-mail: JeremyPool@comcast.net
tel: 617-661-3718
fax: 617-868-1229
snail mail: MapRecord Publications, 60 Shepard St., Cambridge, MA 02138-1523, USA