Replies

Do the computers each have (more than) the recommended amount of memory? That would be my first guess,
thx
Pat

I’m almost too embarrassed to mention this suggestion, in light of all the wonderful responses that you have gotten, but the very _first_ thing I visualized when you mentioned the problem was — slow screen refresh, network and/or monitor display problems. I have seen records “drag” information from a previous record or screen or not be quick enough about refreshing. Of course, that issue self-corrects after a few seconds. I just thought I’d throw this out, though. I have seen records present on screen not get included in a printed report because of memory problems. We should never under-estimate the amount of memory used for graphic interfaces, and I’ve often wondered if this hasn’t had serious effects somewhere down the line for someone.
Pat, DOS lover

Hi,
This may not be the best answer, but it resolved the problem: I was able to view it after setting “Allow Zero Length” to “Yes” in all fields. Since the Donor Name field was empty in one of the last records, I imagine that setting the “Allow Zero Length to “Yes” on only that one field will do the trick.
thx
Pat

Hi, Wendell,
Thanks for your suggestions — I usually split the database (after working out the kinks), and I agree — if one person corrupts their front-end, I can just replace it.
The difficulty I was having — interestingly enough, I duplicated today while working in the same database — and I found that if I up-sized the fields beyond a certain point, that caused them to “vanish” — so, I kept reducing and incrementally resizing, although that’s probably not the best way. Anyway, I immediately saw the reason for the “Vanishing” this time, and was able to recover — it’s possible that was the only reason for this occurence in the past. However, I _have_ remade some of these reports for this database enough, that I do keep up master backups, now . I also got to the point that I saved iterations of the report — so, if I got tothe point where it “blew,” I could just go back to the previous good iteration.
Thanks for the information on the .mde possibly being less prone to corruption, that’s also another good thing to keep tucked in my mind.
Appreciate the advice!
thx
Pat W.

Just to make you feel better, not that I can help, I’ve experienced this myself with one database — horrible thing. One day the labels are there, the next day they are totally blank and don’t work ever again. I have also had similar problems w/ headers in the reports in this same database. Of course, the formatting has been pretty worked over, the database was converted from 2.0 to 97, the printer that I am attaching to is an older model — several things that may cause grief. I have remade my labels and reports a couple of times.
thx
Pat

The file is named “adhoc.rcd” and you can find it (and view it w/ notepad) by searching your hard drive. It seems to exist in a hidden directory, which I can’t even find when I drop to DOS looking for hidden files: “dir /ah”. So, I ended up just copying it from the search window and pasting to my desktop and viewing the copy.

The articles that you will find information on this is Woody’s Office Watch (WOW) #7.53, and one later one (at least).

It’s so funny, because, what w/ all the information on adhoc.rcd, I did a google search and only found 7 instances on the web (limited to most recent 6 months) and then I did a search on this Lounge — just moments ago — and found no references to it. (There are _also_ no references to it on the Microsoft support site, that I could find.) My original quest was to see if adhoc.rcd could be deleted manually w/out blowing up Outlook — I just didn’t want to test that out . Also, if it was a file that kept getting resurrected if you did delete it — (if you were allowed to). I was just curious.

I have found that, or I think I have found that, if you open the document that was attached and then close it, the inserted information disappears. If you open up the document with a real text editor first, then you can see the information. But, I haven’t explored it — more than I should for my job description, but not really that much .

thx
Pat

Just wanted to say that I am using the “do not deliver before” option for the individual email, which might not have been clear in my long response to you .
thx
Pat

Hi, Robin.
Thanks for your feedback! However, as I mentioned in response to Steve, I am not using the computer’s Task Scheduler to send the emails out. I hadn’t thought to check it out, but I did after your and Steve’s messages.
I suppose the network hit really isn’t any different between SharkMail on the Banyan and Outlook on the Exchange server. Even though Shark messages were delivered into the individual mail boxes prior to that user being logged in, when everybody logs in at 8am, I imagine the network traffic is the same. Also, with Shark you could say “deliver _at_ this time,” I suppose the “don’t deliver until” feature is virtually the same …
thx
Pat

Well, I am using the switch for “schedule send/receive” (every 5 minutes, in my case) in the “Mail Setup – Send/Receive Groups” that you can get to off of the “Tools” -> “Options” selections on the Outlook toolbar — but I am not using my individual machine’s “Task Scheduler” (at least, not in my profile, and I was not the first profile on this machine .. hmmm — although that original user was installed before we upgraded to Office XP). ** Just a caveat: this machine’s particular setup has produced other anomalies, such as not being able to change printer names although I have admin privs on this machine, so I may be chasing a problem caused by a fluke.* I checked out the article that you pointed me to, and I find the information about requiring the Corporate/Workgroup installation, and I don’t seem to have that — nor does the Win98/Office XP machine I checked out. However, in KB 287496 (“New Features .. Outlook 2002”) I find the sentence, “Outlook is no longer divided into separate Internet and Exchange modes” … if that has any bearing to the conversation (I don’t know, I am so confuddled right now …) — Thanks for the response, and I will bounce this off the person I am discussing this with when he returns in the morning. — Pat

Hi, Mary,
I said I’d get back to you, sorry it took a few days.
It turns out that (although we are using Exchange server and I have the same settings on my 2000 machine as on the ’98 machine, both w/ Outlook XP), the scheduled send absolutely does not go out on my 2000 unless the machine is on, but it will if I issue it from the ’98 machine. I’m not going to spend too much more time, then — most computers here are ’98 computers, I’ve always had a flukey 2000 , so there’s no real issue for our worksite.
One difference from our earlier email (Sharkmail on Banyan) that bothers me, although I don’t know if it has any meaning network-traffic-wise: Although I issue a send for sometime after (say) 330am, it won’t actually be delivered into the email box until the user logs on ( or, I wonder if it gets delivered to all mailboxes when the _first_ user logs on …). This is okay, but the object was to distribute the sends during non-peak times. Once again, I don’t know if this means that there will be a server slow-down if a couple hundred emails get distributed around 8am, or if these are really already distributed, and just “show up” at that time.
Any, thanks to you and Dave for your responses to my email!
thx
Pat

You might have heard about “ClickYes.exe.” It seems to be a nice little utility, but it has it’s limitations (like, the workstation can’t be locked). Read about it at:

http://www.express-soft.com/mailmate/clickyes.html

And if you don’t want to go VBA right now, what you can do is split your macro into two — have one that opens the form, and another that runs the information after you have made a selection from the list (or, better yet, from a button that says “okay, process my choice now,” or words to that effect. You can call your macro from the “event” properties of the button (“onclick”) or list selection (“afterupdate”). I agree w/ everybody, though about how much more control you have in VBA, but this might get you by for right now.
thx
Pat

> Are you using Exchange server?

Yes, we are using Exchange server.

> If the sending time is important, leave your computer on and use task scheduler to send it at the appointed time.

Well, it’s a recommendation! I know you and Dave both made it, and in a pinch, I might do that — but that totally and absolutely blows network security, and one shouldn’t have to resort to that — so I won’t w/out kicking and screaming!
Actually, I’ve got some people here looking into it — and I’m doing some further testing on my part, and by tomorrow, possibly, I’m going to possibly direct a couple of people to this thread and also, perhaps, we might be making a call to Microsoft. Thanks for your reply to my dilemma! However, ignore replying to this one, it’s possible we don’t have something configured _exactly_ right here, and I will get back to this thread immediately upon resolving this issue, or not after some escalation locally .
Thanks,
Pat

Thanks, Dave. Actually, I have checked a bit w/ my email people, and turned on the switches recommended (I forgot to mention that I have “send receive immediately when connected” checked on, also). Outlook is fairly new to us, so my ranting may have been premature, however I didn’t feel so after browsing for solutions in this Forum and on Microsoft, and finding no switch settings, no easy answers to this problem. My network people assure me that our computers do not need to remain on. Possibly, however, there is something else going on, a couple of us are going to be testing more next week. So, perhaps I “pre-ranted.” Anyway, thank you so much for your input!
Pat

No, it isn’t, but the necessary mail information for my “user” self is on a Win2000 network — supposedly, that is all that is necessary? Someone mentioned that perhaps I have a local .pst, and I searched for that and do not have one on the local computer.