Can't access VW2008 Help on Safari 3

[rDesign]

After installing the latest 2008 SP2 (Build 83388) updater I can no longer access the VW help file in Safari 3.04 (Mac OSX 10.4.11). I get a 'Failed to Open' page that says 'No file exists at the address ?/Applications/VectorWorks 2008/VWHelp/wwhelp/wwhimpl/api.htm?. '

In the Finder if I look at the VWHelp folder in the VW 2008 application folder, it has a 'No Access' sign through it and Get Info confirms this. Even after I entered my admin password in the Ownership & Permissions, I still can't get access to it for any users, I tried several different Owners and Group permissions combinations.

I have repaired my permissions (several times) using Disk Utility, restarted (several times), and zapped my PRAM (also several times). I still don't have access to this folder.

I would re-install the VectorWorks 2008 Help System Update, but the DL page says it doesn't help with Safari 3: VW2008 Help System Update

Any help would be greatly appreciated. (I'm becoming less than happy with my decision to upgrade to VW2008). In addition to these help problems - VW2008 is noticeably slower than 12.5.3 - at least for me.

[jbrhwy]

No problems with Safari 3.04 after updating & haven't noticed any slow down even with a 210 mb aerial photo as a background to my road design.

[rDesign]

Thanks for the feedback Bruce. I'm glad to hear that 2008 is no slower for you than 12.5.3.

I upgraded to 10.4.11 after I installed VW 2008 and the Help System Update, so I don't know if that is the problem with my Safari 3.

[billtheia]

I also have not had any trouble with VW help in Safari 3.

[rDesign]

Well I thought I'd be tricky and use Pacifist to try and install only the VWHelp folder from the installation DVD (since the VW installer doesn't give you an option to re-install only specific packages). I was able to extract the VWHelp from the Common1.zip package but the text is all garbled in Safari. I reapplied the SP2 hoping that would fix it, but no such luck. The help files appear to be all there in their correct folders, but they are completely unintelligible.

I also tried logging in as Admin and that user also had the same problems with the VW help files in Safari 3.

I guess I have to uninstall / reinstall VW2008 and see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks for all your help. Maybe a reinstall will also help with the slowness problems I've been having (I'll save that discussion for another thread).

[Pat Stanford]

What kind of install did you do of Leopard? Many people have reported problems with Upgrades to Leopard. An Archive and Install is the best option.

Since you did the update to Leopard after the VW install, I agree, the best bet would be to reinstall VW.

Pat

[rDesign]

Thanks Pat, but I haven't installed Leopard 10.5 - I'm still on Tiger 10.4.11.

The sequence that lead to my Safari 3 problems is this:

1) Running OS 10.4.10 - Installed VW2008 for first time (updated to SP2). I was using Safari 2 so I had to install the 'VW2008 Help System Update'. VWHelp files in Safari 2 worked fine at this point.

2) Installed OS 10.4.11 PPC Combo Updater which includes Safari 3. At this point the VWHelp files no longer worked in Safari 3.

So I think whatever Safari 2 fixes were part of the 'VW2008 Help System Update', ended up breaking the VW Help in Safari 3. (Maybe NNA should provide a way to uninstall the 'VW2008 Help System Update').

By uninstalling and reinstalling VW2008 and SP1 & SP2 I was able to fix it. The Help files are working fine in Safari 3 now.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Tim