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Plant Database - Font color changed to white


Jeff Prince

Question

The plant database had black text on a light tan background.

Now it is white on tan (see attached image) and useless.

I did not change anything on my system, Mac/Sierra

The only recent change to the computer was a Microsoft update of Office.

 

I can not see how or where to change this back to black.  I've tried using FORMAT -> TEXT COLOR, but all that has resulted is more of my hair turning grey.  I do not think this was the intended consequence.  Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Jeff

Screen Shot 2017-08-20 at 2.39.36 PM.png

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23 answers to this question

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I don't have any experience with Landmark, so I can't directly help with your plant database question, but here's a few general Vw troubleshooting tips:

1) Does this problem persist after restarting Vw and/or your computer?

2) Does it still happen if you log in using a different user account?

3) Does it happen in all files or just one? Try a blank file and see if the problem persists.

4) If it happens in all files you may need to Reset Vw User Preferences.

5) Have you contacted tech support using the link at the bottom of this page?

 

HTH.

Edited by rDesign
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1) yes, yes

2) no, I logged into my system using a guest account and the text was back to black

3) all files

4) that's a bummer

5) nope, I'm just running a trial copy and their form does not allow for me to contact them apparently

 

I'm going to delete the plant database and see if that fixes the problem. I still would like to know what controls the text color in the plant database.  This is a ridiculous problem to have.

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I reopened my custom plant database and suddenly all is back to normal after deleting it.  Interestingly enough, I had tried changing text color on a few plants back when they all when white.  That didn't fix the problem, however, those old custom plant databases that now look normal, have the colors I assigned to the names of a few of the plants now.  Seems like a software stability problem that I some how managed to set off.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
1 minute ago, jeff prince said:

No answer from tech support, no answer from the forum, no answer from sales.  Does this company actually exist?


You emailed tech@vectorworks.net and got no reply? When did you contact them? I can take a look and see what happened to your case.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
1 hour ago, jeff prince said:

Interesting, I post an update saying this issue has not been resolved and it gets deleted.  Meanwhile, my emails to tech support, Jay, and Juan, and a reseller go unanswered....  I'm starting to understand why some of my LA colleagues said it was a bad idea to consider the switch to VW.

Apologies, I did not see your reply yesterday nor delete it.

 

If you were referred to your reseller then that is the avenue you would have to go through, but did you not purchase directly from us? From your account it looks like you're in the US. The problem is that to verify your license, you must go through whomever you purchased from directly for technical support. What reseller did you use?

If I had seen your issue before or knew the resolution to it, I would simply send it your way. This font color issue is nothing we have any history of in support, which usually means its a software conflict. Your next best bet is to create a new admin user account and see if the issue persists there as well.

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Thanks for your comments.

About the only thing left at this point is to reinstall the software I guess.

 

I'm a US landscape architect working in the Middle East.   Our IT department was directed to purchase from a reseller in the region by this website, much to my dissapointment.  Jim, I will ask you the same question I posed to Jay and Juan of VW in a recent email... Am I to believge my experience with support would somehow be different if I personally purchased through VW in the USA?  I'm still waiting for support to materialize from our reseller and questions posed to your colleagues in the US (presumed) to be answered.  Tell Juan and Jay to check their email :)

Edited by jeff prince
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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee
18 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

Jim, I will ask you the same question I posed to Jay and Juan of VW in a recent email... Am I to believge my experience with support would somehow be different if I personally purchased through VW in the USA?

Correct, purchases through the US team directly are supported first party. Many/most of the distributors and resellers exclusively provide support to their users and would have full access to your license info. This may change in the future, but it is the current state.
 

19 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

 I'm still waiting for support to materialize from our reseller and questions posed to your colleagues in the US (presumed) to be answered.  Tell Juan and Jay to check their email :)

Once they saw you'd been referred, they likely would not reply directly since the reseller is going to be handling it, they'd be speaking with the reseller to coordinate support since theres been such a huge delay.
 

14 minutes ago, jeff prince said:

JimW are you giving people negative reputation points again for asking legitimate questions? Shame shame :)

No, that was another user. But regardless; please stop with the personal accusations, I understand you're frustrated but they will not speed things along at all. Let's forget that portion of this conversation here and focus on the tech problems.

What occurred after creating a new user account? Same issue with the text or did it appear differently? You should try an alternate user account (a newly made one) before a full reinstall.

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25 minutes ago, JimW said:

Correct, purchases through the US team directly are supported first party. Many/most of the distributors and resellers exclusively provide support to their users and would have full access to your license info. This may change in the future, but it is the current state.
 

Once they saw you'd been referred, they likely would not reply directly since the reseller is going to be handling it, they'd be speaking with the reseller to coordinate support since theres been such a huge delay.
 

No, that was another user. But regardless; please stop with the personal accusations, I understand you're frustrated but they will not speed things along at all. Let's forget that portion of this conversation here and focus on the tech problems.

What occurred after creating a new user account? Same issue with the text or did it appear differently? You should try an alternate user account (a newly made one) before a full reinstall.

Same issue.

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

The above is all assuming the text color has not been modified via Format > Text Color in the VWPlants application, correct? if you select a cell and attempt to edit it in that way to red or blue, it remains white and does not respond to color changes, correct?

If the same occurs after a preference reset, then a uninstall (make sure to uninstall first using the utility in the Application folder, avoid just installing overtop the original) and reinstall is warranted. However, if it still presents with that, let me know and I may get some diagnostic info from your machine.

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On 9/8/2017 at 7:18 PM, JimW said:

The above is all assuming the text color has not been modified via Format > Text Color in the VWPlants application, correct? if you select a cell and attempt to edit it in that way to red or blue, it remains white and does not respond to color changes, correct?

If the same occurs after a preference reset, then a uninstall (make sure to uninstall first using the utility in the Application folder, avoid just installing overtop the original) and reinstall is warranted. However, if it still presents with that, let me know and I may get some diagnostic info from your machine.

 

The text was not changed via format > text color

If I try to change it, nothing happens

The same happens, intermittently strangely enough, even after a preference reset per the VW instructions involving the deletion of numerous plst files and reentering the serial number.

 

And then this situation just gets better and better.  Having tried to get support directly from Vectorworks, I was referred to our reseller.

After waiting over a week for the reseller to respond, they have informed me that it has been referred to Vectorworks for resolution...

I can't help but feeling like this company is staffed by people who retired from long careers as DMV workers ;)

Probably get down voted again for that....

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On 9/13/2017 at 5:25 PM, jeff prince said:

Probably get down voted again for that....

 

Meanwhile, no solution to the above is forthcoming from the company that writes the software...

And of course, someone took the time to read my message and negatively impact my "reputation" for pointing out these issues.

Amazing company and community.

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Some help finally arrived via our reseller and possibly from VW over the past week.  I was instructed to do a series exercises in accessing the plant database in a variety of ways.  Just like taking a car into the shop with intermittent problems, the bug failed to materialize.  I had to get some actual work done at some point, so I gave up.

 

A few days later, the bug reappeared and today I made it a priority to figure it out.

 

If Outlook is active and is being used to write an email or has recently sent an email, the text in the plant database turns white.

This is repeatable.

 

Of course I do not know why Outlook has this effect, but perhaps the solution is easier to identify now?

I suspect it is a Filemaker Pro / Outlook issue, as there appears to be a long history of incompatibility between those two.

 

Perhaps I will avoid this issue if I don't run Outlook while running the Plant Database. Time will tell...

Maybe I can use this as justification for having email programs removed from my computer :)

 

**edit - I just read an email from VW tech support that also laid suspicion on Filemaker... so perhaps Outlook vs Filemaker is the culprit.

Edited by jeff prince
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