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Shareware Tracker Tips and Questions and Answers

Go here for the Q&A

View the latest readme file.

Have you seen our Shareware Tracker How-To Viewlets?

TIPS

  • Did you know you could have more than one browser open at a time, working on more than one site, and more than one project?
  • If a date field is empty and has focus, press 't' to fill today's date.
  • Enter the word SEARCH in Project/Site "Listing URL" field if the only way to see your listing is to do a search. Or, you can accomplish the same thing by checking the "Must search to view listing" checkbox in the "Confirm Listing Details" dialog box when you are marking your program as listed from within the submission browser.
  • Double-click the "Site Name" field in Project/Site Submission Control to view/edit details of your listing, including your own notes. Double-clicking "Site Name" in Site Manager and "Name" in Project Manager has the same effect.
  • Checking the "Submitted" checkbox in Project/Site Submission Control will not only mark a project as submitted, but also auto-fill the date and version as though it is current. If submitted is already checked and you want to update it, click it twice to clear and check it again. The same is true with "Listed" and it's respective date and version. You can also mark a project as submitted in the browser by clicking on the "Mark project as submitted" button or pressing Ctrl-Alt-S, which both have the same effect as checking Submitted in the Project/Site grid.
  • Can't see all the buttons or drop-down lists on a toolbar? Grab the left edge of a toolbar and try dragging it to a better spot. Shareware Tracker remembers the position of toolbars whenever a window with a toolbar is closed, so when the same window is opened next time the toolbar(s) will be in the same place.
  • If you have to copy/paste login information, open up a PAD Info window (F10 or click "PAD" on the toolbar) and go to the "Other" tab, where you will see the login information for the current site.
  • If you want to see different fields on the PAD Info "User" tab, click on "User Fields..." in the PAD Info window and rearrange them however you want.
  • When you search for your project on a site, the "Last Checked" date is updated when the search results page completes loading. If it is slow to load but you can see enough to answer your query, click on "Set last checked to today's date (F12)" in the browser window.
  • If you've just downloaded new sites from the server database, but you don't see all of them in the Site Manager, press Ctrl-R from within the Site Manager to reload the sites from your local database.
  • To see all Notes in one place for the selected record in Project/Site Submission Control, click on "Notes" either on the toolbar (picture of a red notebook) or the "Project/Site" menu. This will display your own notes about this site, the server notes about the site (read-only), and your notes regarding submission of your project to this site. You can leave the Notes window open and position it wherever you want. Moving to another record will update the notes display accordingly.
    Searching or submitting to a site that's really slow to respond? Leave the browser open and move on to the next record in Project/Site Submission Control and search or submit from there. You can come back to the original one later by finding it's window caption on the main toolbar. We often will search several sites at a time by clicking the "Search" button of several sites one right after the other. After about six or so, we'll then start going back through the browsers and checking each one in turn.
  • Use filters to reduce the number of sites in your working list. Click on the drop-down arrow in a column header and choose a value from the list. To establish a more complex filter choose "Custom" from the list and enter your filter criteria in the dialog. To remove a filter for a column select "All" from the drop-down list. To remove filters for all columns click on the checkbox at the bottom left of the grid where the filter status is displayed. You can save a set of filters for later use by selecting "Filter/Save Filter" from the grid's main menu. Retrieve a previously-saved filter by choosing "Filter/Load Filter".
  • Want to view a list in a different order? Click on a column heading to sort by that column's values. Click on it again to change the sort order to the reverse direction, which is shown by the arrow-shaped sort indicator in the column heading. To sort on multiple columns, click on the second and subsequent column headings while holding down the shift key. To cancel sorting on a column click on its heading while holding down the Ctrl key.
  • Tired of scrolling through a list to find the record you're looking for? Try out the incremental search feature -- just start typing the name and quit when you're at the record you want. Works in Site and Project Manager and Project/Site Submission Control.
  • Annoyed by all those popup windows on some sites? Try Shareware Trackers built-in popup blocker. To activate it select "Popups" from the main Tools menu or click on the "Block new windows/popups..." toolbar button or press Ctrl-Alt-B. This function will toggle popup blocking on and off. To override the blocker when clicking on a hyperlink hold down the Ctrl key. To open a new window for any hyperlink hold down the Shift key while clicking on the link.
  • Having trouble navigating among lots of open windows? Try using Ctrl-Tab to navigate through them one by one.
  • Set the 'Track' flag easily for a new project. If you already have a project set up that has the 'Track' flag set the way you want for all of its sites, you can import those settings into your new project. Select "Tools/Import Tracked" from the "Project/Site" menu.
  • Want to save a step when marking your program as listed, right after you submit it? If the site you just submitted to has listed your program immediately, there is no need to mark it submitted and then mark as listed in two distinct steps. Just select "Site/Mark As/Listed" (Ctrl-Alt-L) and when you click on OK it will mark the submitted version and date for you, along with the listed fields.

 

Q&A (Questions and Answers)

I've registered Shareware Tracker. Now how do I enter my registration code?

You can either start/restart the application and then click on "Register" when the reminder screen appears, or, from within Shareware Tracker, click on "Help/Enter License" and enter the name and key in the appropriate fields.     Q&A Top

My key doesn't work! What should I do?

Registered users keys will not work in the evaluation version of the software. If you are a registered user you must download the full registered version from MyAccuSolve. You will need to login with your key, and then you will be given access to the registered download area.

If this doesn't resolve your problem please contact us.     Q&A Top

What is a PAD file, and how do I create one?

PAD stands for "Portable Application Description"; it is a standard developed by the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP) in 1999. It is being adopted by more and more shareware archives, and we have found it to be a useful way to store your application descriptions in Shareware Tracker. Many archives require that you submit a PAD file to them, but for those that don't, we use the information in your PAD file to fill in their submission form fields.

At this time, Shareware Tracker is not able to create a PAD file for you, however there are several freeware PAD editors available. We recommend the use of PADGen, developed by the ASP with a lot of help from us.     Q&A Top

I try to click on one of the drop-down list boxes in the Submission Browser and nothing happens -- it's frozen.

This problem has been fixed in version 1.6. In earlier versions you can unfreeze the list box by clicking any other control, such as the URL address text box.    Q&A Top

What does "Listing URL" mean?

This is the web page address of your program's listing on a site. In some cases your listing doesn't have it's own page and you have to do a search for it. In this case, enter the word SEARCH in the Listing URL field so that whenever you press F8 or click "View project listing on this site" on the toolbar it will take you to your listing. The easiest way to fill in the Listing URL is to do a search for your program and if you find it navigate to it. Once you are there, select "Listed" from the main Tools menu or press Ctrl-Alt-L or click on the "Mark project as listed..." button on the toolbar. Doing this will also ask for a confirmation of the version and date of the listing, which you can edit if needed.     Q&A Top

Does Shareware Tracker generate any reports?

Well, sort of. Shareware Tracker has an export facility that will allow you to export any of the data in a number of formats, which exported data can then be imported into your favorite reporting software. Please see the " Export Function Changes" section of the included ReadMe file for instructions on how to export your data.    Q&A Top

What is the Track column used for?

The following instructions pertain to version 1.6 and above. If you have an earler version of Shareware Tracker the method of setting the Track flag is slightly different.

The Track column can be used to flag the sites that you want to track for a given program or project. You can then filter or sort the Project/Site records based on the status of the Track flag. You can set the flag on or off for all sites for the current project by selecting "Track" from the "Project/Site" menu and then selecting "Track All" or "Track None".     Q&A Top

What does "Editing Disabled - Incremental Search is Active" mean?

The following instructions pertain to versions earlier than 1.6. For instructions on how to use incremental search in version 1.6 and above, please see the ReadMe file for your version.

When this caption appears on the Project/Site Submission Control status bar, highlighted in red, it means that anything you type into the grid will incrementally search for a site with the closest matching name. Incremental means that it will search each time you press a letter. For example, if you type the letters EZS you will be taken to EzSoft.Net. Don't type too fast, and don't delay more than 1.5 seconds in between letters or it will reset. Incremental searching capability is disabled by clicking anywhere in the main part of the grid other than on the Site Name column. To re-enable incremental search, click anywhere in the Site Name column.     Q&A Top

How do I sort by column in the Project/Site Submission Control grid?

You can sort on any column by clicking on the column heading. Clicking it once will sort in ascending order -- clicking again will sort in descending order. See "Want to view a list in a different order?" for more information about sorting.     Q&A Top

What is the "Site Status" column for?

When new sites are added or updated when downloading from the central database they are flagged with either "Updated" or "New". This is so you can easily locate sites that may need special attention. If you sort on the Site Status column in descending order all such sites will be at the top of the list.

Once you have inspected a new or updated site you can clear the status by clicking on that site in either the Site Manager or Project/Site Submission Control and selecting "Clear Status". You can clear all sites status flags by selecting "Clear All Status" in the Site Manager. Keep in mind that clearing the flag for a site will clear that sites update status for all projects.     Q&A Top

Where IS the "Site Status" column?

This column was newly added in version 1.4. If you have version 1.4 or later and can't see the column readily, scroll to the far right of both the Project/Site and Site Manager grids. Once you've found it you can easily drag the column and place it anywhere you want it and its position will be remembered the next time you start the program.     Q&A Top

Should I create a new project whenever I release a new version?

While this is possible we don't recommend it. If you make any changes to your PAD file Shareware Tracker will pick up on them automatically as long as the PAD file path is the same. This way you will be able to easily keep track of which version is listed with each site and only submit to those sites who are out-of-date. You can use filters to list only the sites you need to submit to. You will also preserve any information stored from prior versions in your submission notes, number of downloads, ratings, etc.

If you do choose to add a new project, make sure you name it differently in the PAD file or Shareware Tracker will have problems and probably complain.     Q&A Top

Why does Shareware Tracker say it's unable to load/parse my PAD file?

It is probably because you don't have any encoding specified in your PAD file. We recommend you use "UTF-8" encoding if you have any multibyte characters in your descriptions.. To change the setting in PADGen, select "File/Options", make sure "Include Encoding" is checked and select "UTF-8" in the "Encoding" field. Rebuild your PAD file(s) and they should load just fine into Shareware Tracker. "UTF-8" encoding is a good general purpose encoding, which will work fine whether you need it or not. If you don't use any multibyte characters, but have languages such as Italian with diacritical characters you must use either "Windows-1252" or "UTF-8" encoding.    Q&A Top

There are some sites that I don't want to ever bother with in Shareware Tracker. Is there a way to hide or delete them?

At this time, "you can hide but you can't delete" a site (sorry, that was a play on a popular English saying :) ). In the Site Editor (press F2) click on the Features tab and check the box "Hide". Click OK to save the change and in the Site Manager right-click and select "Show Hidden Sites". Selecting this option repeatedly will toggle the option on and off. When it is not checked, you will not be able to see the hidden site in any of your lists.     Q&A Top

When submitting by email a new message is created in my email program with the recipient and subject filled in , but there is nothing in the body of the message.

First of all, we hope that you are only using this method of submitting via email because you could not get the internal outgoing mail client to work, or you have another compelling reason.

From the ReadMe file: "When submitting via email a new message will be created in your email application and the message body will be copied to the clipboard. You can then paste it into the body of the message. This is due to the limitation with many email clients of how much text can be passed with the mailto: url."

If you haven't already done so, you should try using the internal mail client for email submissions. To enable this go to "Options/Submission/Outgoing Mail" and clear (uncheck) "Use system default". Fill out the information below the same as it is in your regular email program. This method will save you a couple of steps over the alternative. If you want to keep copies of outgoing messages enter your own email address in the Bcc: field.     Q&A Top

I'm using Windows 98 and when I maximize a window in Shareware Tracker the system menu controls (minimize, restore, close) disappear.

This applies only to Windows 98 users using versions prior to 1.6. The problem has been fixed in version 1.6.

The toolbar component we are using is the culprit and we have added buttons to the toolbars to allow you to minimize, restore and close the window if it is maximized. We have recently seen evidence that these toolbar buttons are not always appearing. In that case you may have some luck using the "Window" menu items Cascade, Minimize and Restore.     Q&A Top

A site I browsed to had a script error and the Microsoft Development Environment opens up to enable debugging. When I shut that down Shareware Tracker closes as well.

We believe we have fixed this problem in version 1.7. If you are still using a previous version, the following may help:

The only thing we know at present to avoid this problem is to disable script debugging in Internet Explorer. From the Tools menu of Internet Explorer go to Internet Options/Advanced/Browser and make sure "Disable script debugging" is checked. Since version 1.5 you can now access the Internet Explorer Options dialog from within Shareware Tracker. When a submission browser window is active select "Internet Explorer Options" from the main "Tools" menu.    Q&A Top

Is it possible to change a Shareware Tracker project name to something different than its program name in the PAD file?

Yes. When the PAD file is first loaded it will set the project name to the program name of the PAD file. You can change this to anything you want and it will not be reset when the PAD file is reloaded, as was the case prior to version 1.4.2.2.     Q&A Top

I am getting the following error when trying to submit via email: "501 syntactically invalid HELO argument(s)".

This usually happens when your SMTP (outgoing mail) server requires something in the "Outgoing mail server User Id" field. If your SMTP server requires authentication, enter the appropriate value here. If it doesn't require authentication, but you are still getting this error, enter anything in this field and try again. This field can be changed in "Options/Submission/Outgoing Mail/Advanced." If this doesn't solve your problem you may have to tell Shareware Tracker to use your default external email client to send email submissions. To turn on this option select "File/Options/Submission/Outgoing Mail" and check "Use system default..." When this option is used an email message will be created with Outlook, or whatever your email program is, with the recipient and subject filled in, but a blank subject. All you have to do is paste (Ctrl-V) in the body of the message, which has already been placed in the system clipboard. We are not able to reliably send the body with the execution command because we have found that many email clients don't support very long mailto: URL's.

We will soon have more advanced options available for SMTP server connections so if you have to use your external email client now you probably won't have to forever.     Q&A Top

What do "Track All" and "Track None" do?

Sorry, but this function does not initiate a search of all sites. We hope to have that functionality eventually. Selecting "Track All" will set the "Track" flag for all sites in the Project/Site Submission Control to ON. "Track None" turns them all OFF. The "Track" flag can be used for sorting and/or filtering records within the list, and is intended to specify which sites you want to include in your searching and submitting. Some sites are not appropriate for your type of software so you may as well not have them cluttering up your list. Clear the "Track" checkbox for such sites and then apply a filter which includes only "Tracked" sites. If you don't plan to ever use a site for any of your projects you can set its "Hide" flag on the Site Editor Features tab (press F2 to open the Site Editor). Then make sure you uncheck "Show Hidden Sites" on the Site Manager menu.     Q&A Top

Is it necessary to uninstall an old version of Shareware Tracker before installing an upgrade to a new version?

No! In fact, it is not recommended at all as it will create extra work for you because Shareware Tracker will lose some important registry settings and you will have to set up your environment the way you like it again. Please don't do this unless we specifically instruct you to do so if we are working on a support issue with you.

See also this FAQ.    Q&A Top

What is the ReadMe file and where can I find it?

The ReadMe file contains a lot of information related to what Shareware Tracker does and how to use it, along with a revision history and other important information. It is in rich text format (RTF) and can be opened in any modern word processor, including WordPad. If you downloaded our zip file distribution you will find the ReadMe.rtf file included in the archive. Following installation there will be a shortcut to the file in your Shareware Tracker start menu program group. It is also available online.    Q&A Top

I try going to the Home Page of a site from the Site Manager and I get an error message that says, "Sorry, the requested action could not be performed: WebActionExecute/Other." What did I do wrong?

You didn't do anything wrong! This is our fault. It is a known problem that occurs when the site you are trying to navigate to is filtered out of the Project/Site Submission Control grid. We will soon be combining the Site Manager and Project/Site Submission Control windows into one window, at which time this problem will no longer exist.   Q&A Top

How/where do I record my product's RegNow or RegSoft Id so that it can automatically be filled in on forms that request it?

Shareware Tracker does this by allowing you to set up relationships between your payment processor(s) and their affiliate sites. If you have a vendor account with Register Now!, for instance, open up the Site Editor (F2) for this site and click on the "Pmt.Processor" tab. Add the products you have for sale with them in the database table by entering the product name, vendor product code, and match (it/them) up with the projects you have set up. Now, for each of your projects, go to the sites in the Project/Site Submission Control window who are affiliates of RegNow (e.g. Topdownloads). Open up the Project/Site Submission Details dialog (F4) and click on the "Affiliate" tab. Drop down the Product list, and if you set them up correctly in the Site Editor Pmt. Processor tab, you should see a list of vendors (Payment Processors) selling this program for you. Select the one that is requested on the submission form of the site (e.g. Topdownloads asks for either a RegNow Code or RegSoft Product Id - you can select one or the other). Click on OK, then while this site is still active, open up the "Pad Info" window (F10) and click on the "Other" tab. If the Pad Info window was already open you will probably need to click the "Refresh" button and you should see your affiliate information filled in, ready to be copied/pasted, or for those sites that are supported, the submission form will be filled in automatically for you!  Q&A Top

What do the column headings Freeware, Login Reqd, Host, PAD and PPS in the Site Manager mean?

If you open up the Site Editor (F2) and click on the "Features" tab you will see the 5 features listed in less abbreviated form. "Freeware" means the site only accepts freeware submissions. "Login Reqd" usually means the site requires that you register and login before you can submit. "Host" means the site will or can host your file(s) on their server(s), which can save you a lot of bandwidth on your own web site. "PAD" means that PAD submissions are accepted, and "PPS" stands for "Payment Processing Service", which is a site that can sell your program for you, i.e. a registration service such as RegNow or SWREG.  Q&A Top

I'm evaluating Shareware Tracker and it seems that nearly everything I click on results in the message, "This function is only available to registered users. Would you like to register now?"

In the evaluation version there are about 20 sites that are fully-functional, while the rest will give you this message when trying to perform a submission-related function. The sites that are functional are not grayed out, or appear in darker, bolder text in the Site Manager and Project/Site Submission Control lists. If you're not yet ready to fully commit yourself to a permanent license then try our one-month subscription plan for only $15.00 US and unlock all functionality of all sites for 30 days. You'll be able to get a lot done and will then have a much better feel for the power and ease of use of this sophisticated submission tool. You can choose from several licensing options on our registration page.  Q&A Top

From the Project/Site window, if I right click and select "Customize/ Add/Remove Columns", an empty "Customize" window appears with no indication of how to use it to customize the columns.

If the window is empty then it means that all available fields are already visible in the grid. This window enables you to add any columns that have been hidden. You can do so by dragging the column name to the point in the grid where you want it to appear.

To see how it works, click on a column heading in the grid and drag it up and off of the grid, which effectively removes that column. If you already have the "Customize" window open you will see this column appear in it. To add the column back, simply drag it as described above.

Remember that columns can be easily resized or moved by clicking on the column heading's border and dragging it narrower or wider, or by dragging the column heading to another position within the grid. Watch the green arrows for an indication of where the column will be placed when the mouse button is released.  Q&A Top

In the submission browser window, the "Fill Submit" entry often does not appear in the Fill menu.

If one or more functions appears to be missing from a menu, select "View/Customize Menu" from the applications main menu. Click on the "Commands" tab and look for the function, then drag it from the list of commands to the menu and position of your choice.

With a toolbar you can click on the down arrow at the far right of the toolbar and click on "Add or Remove Buttons". To reset everything to factory settings click on "Reset Toolbar". If a button is listed in the list but not checked, click on it to make it visible. You can click on "Customize" and do the same thing with your toolbar that was described in the preceding paragraph with menus, allowing you to completely rearrange them if you wish.  Q&A Top

Pressing Ctrl-L when the Project/Site window has the focus does not seem to bring up any filters.

You're right - since version 1.6 was released Ctrl-L is no longer used, however, we inadvertently left a reference to it in the ReadMe file.

Filtering underwent a major change with version 1.6, and beginning with version 1.6.2.2 a drop-down list was added to the Project/Site Submission Control toolbar which allows you to easily select any filter you have previously saved. See "Column Filtering" in the ReadMe file for a detailed description of the new and improved filtering features.  Q&A Top

I moved the location of my PAD files on my computer and of course Shareware Tracker doesn't know where they are now. How can I tell Shareware Tracker the new locations?

Go in to the Project Manager and double-click on each "project" in turn to edit and enter the new location in the "Pad File" field. If it is not a valid PAD file it will let you know! Click "OK" to save the change(s).  Q&A Top

I cannot seem to check the Track boxes or submitted boxes, or any boxes actually.

Starting with version 1.6 you have to explicitly enable editing in the Project/Site Submission grid in order to change anything directly. For a good tutorial on this and many other things we highly recommend you view our viewlet, "Your First Submission".

To edit the grid directly you must select "Edit in Place" from the menu, or activate the "Allow editing..." button on the toolbar. It will automatically deactivate itself when you move to another record, unless you hold down the shift key while clicking on it, which activates direct editing in the grid until you turn it off by clicking the button or selecting the menu item again.  Q&A Top

I marked a site as submitted in the Project/Site list and when I clicked off the record it disappeared! Where did it go, and why?

If you have a filter active that only shows sites that haven't been submitted to, then mark a site in the list as submitted, it will disappear from the list as soon as it is saved, or you move to another record. If you don't want that to happen, you can either change or remove the filter.

This will be happen anytime you change a record so that it no longer satisfies the filter you have selected or configured.  Q&A Top

I added my new project but nothing is listed in the Project/Site Submission Control window. What did I do wrong?

You probably haven't done anything wrong. Check and see if you have a filter applied whose criteria aren't satisfied by any of the new records. For example, if you have a filter set to show only those sites with (Track = True), then none of them will show up because you haven't yet set the track flag for any of them.  Q&A Top

Some sites won't accept my PAD file, especially Pauls Picks! I think it has something to do with encoding or something like that. How do I set the proper encoding for my PAD file?

This isn't really a Shareware Tracker issue, but since all users of Shareware Tracker are affected by this, we've decided to include some information about it here.

As you know, PAD files use XML to define and differentiate the various fields of information comprising your application description. XML is a text-only, or "low-ASCII" character standard, which means that only readable characters in that range (32-126) can be included in the output. However, it is also designed to accomodate high-ASCII (128-255) characters, as well as multi-byte characters used in languages such as Chinese. To be able to accomodate such characters there are various encoding schemes available which translate any characters in the range outside of single-byte and low-ASCII into something meaningful to the parser.

If you don't use any characters in your PAD fields outside the low-ASCII readable character range then you don't need to specify any encoding for your PAD file. A common encoding standard used on Windows is "Windows-1252", which translates any high-ASCII characters into something a "Windows-1252"-compatible XML parser can understand. The problem with using this is that parsers hosted on Unix/Linux servers often don't understand this type of encoding, which is the case with Pauls Picks. There is another common encoding standard which you can use, if necessary, that will encode both high-ASCII and multi-byte characters, and which is known to any XML parser that has followed the XML standard, and that is called "UTF-8" (the 'U' stands for Unicode).

We recommend that you only use encoding if you need it, but never use "Windows-1252", which unfortunately, happens to be the PADGen default at this time. If you need encoding for high-ASCII characters (such as those in European languages) or multi-byte (for Asian languages) then use "UTF-8". 

If you are using PADGen, you can change the encoding used by going in to "File/Options". "UTF-8" is only available as a choice in version 1.6 or later of PADGen. The default choice will be changed in the next version of PADGen, probably to UTF-8. You must change the encoding before you generate your PAD file for it to take effect. You can't just change the encoding directly in the header of your PAD file, unless there are no encoded characters included.

There is a caveat when using UTF-8 in PADGen version 1.6. If you use any multi-byte characters in your descriptions PADGen does not store them correctly in its local files, and therefore does not generate proper encoding when generating the PAD file. This is a major problem that will be fixed in the upcoming release 2 of PADGen, which will be entirely Unicode-compatible. If you don't use multi-byte characters then you have nothing to worry about.

If you use a PAD generator other than PADGen check its documentation for instructions as to how to change the encoding used.   Q&A Top

I changed machines, or reinstalled the OS on my machine, or have changed my regional settings and now Shareware Tracker is unable to open my database. What do I do?

No matter what you do, Shareware Tracker will be unable to open your database files if they were created (or last used) in an environment with different regional settings than you now have. The soloution is easy, though. Go to the folder where your Shareware Tracker database files are contained, and delete all files with an extension of .ai or .adi. Be careful not to delete any others. Now start Shareware Tracker up and it will be able to open your files and will recreate the index files you deleted, with new regional settings.   Q&A Top

I am new to Shareware Tracker and I have already submitted my program(s) to a number of sites.What should I do to get started?

This is information Shareware Tracker doesn't know about, so you will need to enter it by hand into the Project/Site Submission Control list for each site. Before doing so we recommend you enable editing in the grid by selecting "Project/Site-Edit in Place". That way you can enter the information directly and quickly using the grid. The other alternative is to double-click each applicable site and edit the information in the Project Submission Details dialog.

While Shareware Tracker has no way of knowing what and when you submitted, if you do a search for your software and find it, you can then select "Site-Mark As-Listed" or use the corresponding toolbar button in the Submission Browser. If you haven't already marked the project as submitted to the site, Shareware Tracker will by default mark it submitted as of the current version and date. You can then easily change the date and version, if necessary, either in the Project/Site Submission grid or in the Project Submission Details dialog.   Q&A Top

Is there a way to clear the "site status" field of all sites at once?

There sure is. In the Site Manager, right-click and select "View/Clear All Status". You can also select "Clear Status" to clear the status for the selected site only. The site status field is an attribute of the Site record, so clearing the status will clear the field for all projects you can view in the Project Submission Control list.

The "Site Status" field is for your convenience and is set by the program whenever a "New" site is downloaded, or an "Update" to an existing site is downloaded as part of the database update routine. You can filter or sort on the column, but it is a good idea to clear the status once you have reviewed the status of your submissions and/or the notes associated with the site.   Q&A Top

If I install a new version, will it remember all my passwords and settings from the old version?

Yes it will. You will never lose any data by installing a new version over an older one. The only way you might lose any preference settings is if there is a major change in the way they are implemented and leaving the old setting makes no sense. In such a case you will be clearly told what the effect of such a change will be. We take great pains to ensure installation, including upgrades, is a very simple and straightforward process.

It is always a good idea to stop and read the brief setup notes displayed during installation, in case there is anything you need to be aware of to make the upgrade go smoothly. Very important notes are displayed in bold red. In most cases there is nothing to worry about - it's a simple matter of pushing a few buttons and you're ready to run the new version.

See also this FAQ.   Q&A Top

I moved to a new computer and want to know the best way to move Shareware Tracker to the new machine.

1. Copy the data files from the old to the new, or if you have a backup file, unzip it on the new computer to the desired directory. Data files have the following extensions: .add, .adt, .adm, .am.

2. If you care about retaining many of the UI settings such as menu and grid customizations you should copy the entire "Settings"
folder, under your Shareware Tracker program folder, to the new computer.

3. Start Shareware Tracker on the new computer. If you don't have your license key handy you can retrieve it from MyAccuSolve.

4. The Database Setup Wizard should appear the first time you run the program. Under "Action to Perform" select "Use a different,
existing database" and click on "Next". Enter the path (or browse to find) of the strack.add file that you copied from your old computer. Continue through the wizard and follow the instructions.

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How can I add my own sites?

If you are a licensed user you may add as many sites as you wish, or if you are an evaluation user you may add one site. Here are the steps to add a site:

1. Click on the Site Manager window to bring it to the front.

2. Select "Site Manager/New" from the main menu, or click the "Add a new site" toolbar button.

3. In the Site Editor enter the site's name.

4. Fill in any known information on the rest of the Site Editor tabs, but especially fill in the "Home Page" field on the "URL" tab.

5. Click on "OK" when you are done.

If you want to set up Shareware Tracker to automatically take you to other URL's on this site, and to automatically fill in forms for you, read the section "Template Builder - how to configure forms for automatic filling" in the ReadMe file that accompanies the application.

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Is Shareware Tracker an automatic submission tool?

Please read a discussion of this topic here.   Q&A Top

I've got a question or problem that isn't answered here. Where do I go from here?

Please see the ReadMe file included with your distribution. Other sources of information are our support forum, where you can search for any posts that deal with your problem or question. You can also check out our How-to Viewlets. If that still doesn't do the trick, please contact us and let us know what the problem is. It is very helpful if you include your operating system and Internet Explorer versions, as well as any other information that you think might be relevant, when requesting support. The more information you can provide us the more likely it is we'll be able to provide a rapid resolution or response. You can easily include important system information by selecting "Help/Web Site/Copy Support Info" from Shareware Tracker's main menu, which copies the information to the clipboard so all you have to do is paste it into your request email. Whatever you do, don't just get mad and uninstall the program! Let us share your pain! :)     Q&A Top

 

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