Nota Bene Technical Support Policy
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It is our practice to provide technical support—whether by email or by phone—at no cost to any licensed and registered user who is running the current version of the program.
The current version of Nota Bene is:
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If you were directed to this page by an auto-response to an email sent to technicalsupport@notabene.com, it means that according to our records you are not already using the current version of Nota Bene. If you feel that that is a mistake, please contact us at either customerservice@notabene.com or sales@notabene.com, or call us at 1 (718) 382-1500.
To check which version of Nota Bene you are currently running, start Nota Bene and then click Help, About Nota Bene.
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IMPORTANT NOTES
While in many cases installing the latest version of the program will, by itself, resolve whatever problem you may be encountering (perhaps, for example, because the current version includes fixes/adjustments for the constant changes in Windows), in some cases you may continue to encounter the same problem even after installing the current version. If that proves to be the case, contact us, and we’ll tell you how to resolve this issue. (If you upgrade just to resolve a problem, and doing so does not do so, even after our help, we’ll issue a refund on the upgrade.)
The point of upgrading is not to insure that you will never have any problems of any kind (although in each version of the program that becomes more and more likely), but to put you in a position to let us help resolve the problems, which we are almost always able to do. (With the current version of the program, we have an active code base which we can properly debug and support.)
If you are running on a 64-bit version of Windows 7, please see the Windows 7 page. (Note that in addition to following the instructions on those pages, you will need to upgrade to the lastest version of Nota Bene, since it includes, among other enhancements, some Windows 7-specific fixes.)
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We can also provide, if necessary, technical support for older versions on a fee basis. But since the fees would likely be larger than the always modest upgrade fees (generally $99 or less when moving up from the previous version), most users prefer to upgrade—they get the support they want along with a wide range of useful new features.
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An Overview of Our Policies
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It has been our commitment—something we have done from the day Nota Bene was first demonstrated at the MLA Convention in the winter of 1982—to provide courteous, prompt, and knowledgeable technical support to registered Nota Bene users who are running the then-current version of the program. When an NB user has problems or questions, they can write or speak directly to somebody who possesses not only first-hand, detailed, technical knowledge about the program, but who also shares similar academic interests. We know the program, and we know the kind of work users are engaged in.
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Unlike other companies, who only offer 30, or 60, or 90 days of free technical support, and who even then often limit that support to installation-only issues, Nota Bene keeps offering free support for all aspects of the program for the entire duration of a version’s product life. (We offered such support for Version 9.0 for the five-plus years that it was our current version.)
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Because we know many NB users by name, either from our past academic lives, or from contact at academic conventions, and because of the quality and nature of this support (users understandably respond favorably to courtesy and competence), many Nota Bene users have become, quite literally, friends, not only with us (and we with them), but with each other. It’s not simply a metaphor to speak of a Nota Bene community.
That there is a real Nota Bene community, and that many of us are friends, however, sometimes makes it difficult for us to say, to somebody who writes or calls with a question related to an older version, “you need to upgrade to the current release in order for us to help you.” But it’s only the on-going support of Nota Bene by those who use it—concretely evidenced by upgrading to the current release—that makes it possible for us to continue to provide the kind of support that you deserve and we want to give. Put directly, upgrade monies help cover the costs involved both in supporting the program and developing enhancements to it; they help insure that we are around in the future when you need us to be.
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Further Details About Our Policies
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You need to be running the current version of the program
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The first thing we do when we receive an email is to check whether you are a registered user of our current version. If not, you’ll receive an automatic response that will direct you back to this page. (In order to free us up to serve the needs of those who are running the current version, and insure that we respond promptly to them, and to avoid having friendship influence the decision, we don’t spend time trying to figure out the nature of the problem described in the email—whether it is simple or complex, whether you are a friend or somebody we don’t yet know, we can only provide free support if you are running the current release. This rather simple—and, especially given the extent of our support, we think very fair—rule helps you understand the requirements and saves us from agonizing over every request for “just a little help” on a “small” issue.)
There are a few exceptions:
- While we have historically offered support for the previous version for a short period of time (usually a month or two) after a new version is released in order to give people time to upgrade, because NB 10 has been available in a very usable pre-release version for well over a year (to which most NB users have already upgraded), with the formal release of a completed NB 10 we will—effective immediately—no longer be able to support NB 9.
- Depending on the circumstances, we may choose to offer support to somebody who has upgraded to the current release, but who is, for various reasons, still using an older one. (Sometimes, for example, users are at the very last stages of getting a manuscript off to the publisher, and don’t want to install a new version right at that time. If you find yourself in this position, and need support, you can purchase the upgrade, but not install it.)
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Support is provided only to the original licensee
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We have, by all accounts, a very generous user license. Since only simultaneous use by others is restricted, not use by somebody else when you are not using it, we sometimes get support calls or emails from the assistants, spouses or partners, etc., or the licensee. Given the level of the support that we provide, we are simply not able to provide that to a second person, primarily because the second person is almost always an occasional user who has had no incentive to learn on their own how the program works. This means that in most cases we end up explaining the same thing twice (once to somebody who doesn’t really care that much). And this takes time away from the time we can give to other users and which we would otherwise be able to devote to improving the program.
Again, there are some exceptions:
- If the other person is your assistant, who regularly uses your copy (again, only when you are not using it—see our user license), and is more knowledgeable about the program than you are, we’ll (at our discretion) talk to them, but only after receiving a request from you, the primary user, that we do so.
- We will of course talk directly to any IT person or computer professional who is helping you get the program set up. But again, you need to initiate the first contact.
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Technical support involves fixing problems in the program or explaining how users can do something
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In technical support, our goal is to help you resolve problems (including with installation and with system-compatibility issues), diagnose and fix bugs, give appropriate suggestions, and otherwise help you get past the issues which would prevent you from using Nota Bene to accomplish what you need to be doing.
While our focus is always on providing as much help as we can, rather than telling you what we cannot do, the following, among other things, are not normally considered part of regular technical support:
- Training you how to use the program
- Repeating what is already described in the help system or tutorials
- Actually making the changes to your files that need to be made (we tell you what to do; we do not, except in unusual circumstances, actually do it for you)
- Creating customized style-formats or data-capture rules
- Figuring out why XPL (eXtended Programming Language) programs don't work
- Explaining how to write programs that convert data from one format to another
- Preparing camera-ready copy for submission to a publisher
- Offering detailed suggestions about how to organize your research or project
However, we can do any one or all of these for you as part of a consulting arrangement. (Please write to technicalsupport@notabene.com.)
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