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NOTA BENE TECHNICAL SUPPORT
(FOR USERS OF CURRENT RELEASE [NB14])
Please email technicalsupport@notabene.com, or call (718) 382-1500


When You Write to Us...

The following suggestions will help us help you more quickly and efficiently. Please include those that are applicable. (Note that the numbers do not indicate some necessary sequence—they are numbered so that we can refer to them as necessary in our email responses to your emails):

1. GIVE US THE SERIAL NUMBER AND RELEASE VERSION
If we have not had recent email contact, and we don’t already know you well, please include your serial number (Help, About Nota Bene) and your “release” number (at the lower left on the same Help, About Nota Bene screen)

2. GIVE US ENOUGH INFORMATION TO KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN
Don’t just say, “when I tried installing it didn’t work,” or “I got an error message when I was trying to run the program” (that’s all that many people actually write). Instead, tell us what you mean by “it didn’t work,” and tell us what error you got. Getting this information the first time often lets us respond with something useful right away, rather than having to write another email asking for further details, and then awaiting that response, all of which means that it takes longer to address the issue that is preventing you from working.

3. BUT DON’T WRITE A TREATISE THE FIRST TIME
In general, the more information you give us, the better—we can track down and fix problems that are described fully more easily. But at the same time we don’t want to waste your time having you write a very full description when we might have a solution for you if you just gave us a general overview of the issue. If we need more information, we will always ask.

So if you are in a hurry, as most people understandably are, you’re more than welcome as a first step to just give us the basics, and not worry about anything that follows below. In most cases, we can in fact resolve most problems right off, even with sketchy details. But if you want to speed the diagnostic process, you can proceed with the relevant points below.

4. SEE IF THE PROBLEM IS REPEATABLE
While we want to hear of anything that is serious, even if it happens only one time (we make note of it, in the hopes that we can find a pattern from what at first might seem to be a fluke), a problem that happens only once is both very difficult to diagnose and fix, and also could be caused by factors in the system environment, and not in NB proper.

A reproducible problem is the easiest problem to fix. If you encounter a problem, you should try to repeat the same steps again, to see if you get the same results (if the problem is a “crash” or a “freeze,” you may need to first restart NB. If you can:
  • Send us the file (see below)
  • Describe the steps (including, if appropriate, the exact location of the cursor when the operation that leads to the error is invoked, as well as the precise steps (mouse clicks, keyboard operations, etc.)
  • Run the debugger, as described below

5. IF THE PROBLEM IS NEW ("IT SUDDENLY STOPPED WORKING") CHECK
    WHAT ELSE CHANGED WHEN THE PROBLEM FIRST PRESENTED ITSELF
    (DID YOU JUST INSTALL A NEW PROGRAM, FOR EXAMPLE?)
We often get reports saying that "this used to work fine, but it suddenly stopped working." When we respond with questions trying to help isolate the problem, we are often eventually told that "This problem began immediately after I downloaded x." That's a tell-tale sign that you need to start looking at this other program, to see why it is causing Nota Bene not to work. (It's often a matter of that other program stealing keys that NB uses. The solution in such cases is to find out how you can change the keyboard shortcuts used by that other program.)

6. SEND FILES
Since Nota Bene for Windows has been in use for two decades now, most of the time problems we hear about now are specific to a single file, and getting the file is necessary in order to diagnose and fix it.

We understand that anything you send to us is your very valuable (copyrighted or copyrightable) work. We use it only to diagnose and fix whatever problems are related to it. In the process—and thereafter—nobody other than people doing technical support or the programmers ever see your files.

For over twenty-five years NB users have been trusting their files to us. We’ve never violated that trust, and never will. To paraphrase a popular saying, “what gets sent to NB technical support stays in NB technical support.”

The best way to send a file is to attach it to the email that describes the problem — Nota Bene files are regular files, and can be attached to any email program just as you would a PDF or DOC or DOCX file.

If you have a file that is too large to attach, you can upload it directly to our web site. But you must also send an email to technical support telling us that you are doing so, or we will not be able to respond. (Be sure to describe the problem in that email.)

7. INCLUDE SCREEN SHOTS IF YOU THINK THIS WOULD BE USEFUL
As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Although that is often not actually the case, sometimes it is. Indeed, sometimes we’ve had lengthy exchanges about an issue only to have it clear up instantly upon receipt of a screen shot. Particularly if you are reporting something that is difficult to describe clearly, sending a screen shot is a good idea. (For most versions of Windows, you can use the Snippet Tool. For other options, or if using other versions of Windows, click the Windows Start button, Help and Support, and type in “capture screen.”)

8. IF POSSIBLE, SEND US YOUR DESCRIPTION IN THE BODY OF THE EMAIL
    OR IN AN NB FILE
Nota Bene files are just easier to work with (and we have Nota Bene open all the time). It’s even easier to simply read about the issues in the body of the email than it is to open another file to get any sense of what the issues are. (Of course, you should send a separate file if necessary, as described in #6 above.)

9. IF YOU ENCOUNTER A CRASH, SEND US THE NAME OF THE MODULE
    AND THE ADDRESS
If you have encounter an “Exception” or an “Access Violation,” please include the module name (for example, “SWSYS.DLL”) and the “address” (such as “7:0DAF”) of the error (this will usually be shown on the screen that reports the “GPF”).

10. ALSO FOR AN “EXCEPTION” OR “ACCESS VIOLATION” (OR—UPON
      REQUEST—FOR OTHER ERRORS WHICH PRODUCE MESSAGES)
      RUN THE REGULAR DEBUGGER, AND SEND US A LOG FILE
Running the debugger is actually quite easy:
  1. Quit Nota Bene
  2. Quit Archiva/Radius
  3. Start the NB debugger
    • Windows — You can either click on the NB 14 debugger shortcut on your Desktop (if you chose to set that up during install), or go to Start, All Programs (All Apps on Windows 10 or 11), Nota Bene 14, Debug NB 14
      • If for any reason you do not see that option:
        1. Using File Explorer, browse to the folder where you installed Nota Bene
        2. Double click the Debug folder to open it
        3. Double click nbdebug.exe to start the debugger
        4. When the debugger starts, click the Debug menu on the top line, and then select Start Nota Bene
    • Macs — Go to Applications, right click (or Control + click) on Nota Bene, choose Show Package Contents, then open Contents, and double click on "debug_notabene"
  4. While NB is starting, you will get a message saying that the virtual printer has not been configured, and that you should install again. You should IGNORE this message, and simply continue:
    • As indicated, the virtual printer, which lets you create PDF files from within Nota Bene, does not work when the debugger is running (thus, in that mode, you cannot create PDF files)
    • This message will not reappear when you later restart Nota Bene for regular use while not running the debugger, and you will thus be able to save to PDF again
  5. Once NB starts, work as you normally do:
    • If the problem is reproducible, go through the steps that lead to the error
    • If the problem is not reproducible, use Nota Bene as you regularly do until the problem appears (if it doesn't happen during the current session, simply quit, and restart NB through the debugger the next time, continuing until you capture the problem)
  6. If NB crashes:
    1. If you are prompted to send an email to Nota Bene, it is our (updated) recommendation not to do so; instead, go to the next step
      • Whether or not this option works for you depends on how your email system is configured on your system; if you are not offered this option, or if it does not work for you for any reason, simply proceed to send the file(s) manually, as described in the next point
    2. In either case, close the debugger (NB will already have closed), and send us the LOG.TXT file as described below
      1. Note: If you saved the contents of the debugger window before closing it, ignore that — we need the file itself, which contains more data than what is shown in the debugger window
      2. Open your email program
      3. Browse to the location where the debugging files will be found:
        • Windows
            New Install — Browse to the SUPPORT folder that is underneath the Nota Bene home folder that you chose when you installed (this is normally a folder called Nota Bene, either on your local machine [c:\Users\YourUserName\Nota Bene] or in the sync folder in the cloud)
          • Legacy Install — If you selected the legacy option, this would likely be c:\nbwin\support
        • Macs — Browse to the SUPPORT folder that is underneath the Nota Bene home folder that you chose when you installed (this is normally a folder called Nota Bene, either on your local machine [Users\YourUserName\Nota Bene] or in the sync folder in the cloud)
      4. Attach the following files:
        • LOG.TXT (assuming that it has a date and time that matches your capture of this problem)
          • Attach the actual file written to disk by the debugger — again, do NOT simply paste what you might have copied from the open debugger window before you closed into an email or another file, since that does not contain essential debugging information that is written into the file on disk
        • Unless we explicitly ask for it, you do NOT need to send the DUMP....ZIP file that you will also likely find in that folder
      5. Tell us briefly (in the body of the email) what you were doing that led to the problem
  7. If NB does not crash (there are quite a few non-crash situations that can be diagnosed using the debugger):
    1. Make sure that you have gone through the steps that produce, or fail to produce, the result in question, whether this includes an error or not
    2. After you have done so, close NB as you regularly would
    3. Then close the debugger
    4. Finally, continue with 6.2 (immediately above), but you only need to send us the LOG.TXT file (there should NOT be any current DUMP....ZIP file to send)

Note (for Windows users only): If you do not capture the problem the first time, and did not let the program create this for you automatically during installation, you may want to create a shortcut for the debugger (Go to Start, All Program (All apps on Windows 10 or 11), Nota Bene 14; right click on Debug NB 14, and choose Send To, and then Desktop [create Shortcut]) which you can use to start Nota Bene the next time.

11. IF THE CRASH DOES NOT HAPPEN UNDER THE DEBUGGER, TRY
      RUNNING THE DEBUGGER AS A SECOND STEP
Sometimes a problem rather magically disappears when running under the debugger. If a problem that is otherwise reproducible when running in regular mode does not happen when starting under the debugger, there is a second way to access the debugger which might capture the problem:
  1. Quit NB
  2. Start Nota Bene the regular way
  3. Once Nota Bene is running
    • If running under Windows, go to Start, My Computer, and browse to the DEBUG folder under the NB 14 program folder (on Windows, likely in a Nota Bene folder under Program Files (x86), or in C:\NBWIN for a legacy install), and double-click on NBDEBUG.EXE to start it
    • If running on a Mac, contact us for instructions
  4. After the debugger starts, click on Debug, Attach to Nota Bene
  5. Continue as described under point 4 under #10 above

12. IF YOU ENCOUNTER “FREEZES,” OR “LOCKUPS” (AS OPPOSED TO A
      CRASH)
Lockups require running the debugger in a slightly different way:
  1. Quit NB
  2. Start the debugger, as in #10 above
  3. Try to reproduce the problem (or simply work as you normally do)
  4. When you get the lockup, return to the debugger, and select Debug, Send Current State
  5. Quit NB, and the debugger
  6. Send us the files as in described under 10.5 or 10.6 above, depending on what you encounter
Note that this process may not give us enough information the first time around to diagnose and/or fix the problem. But it will hopefully let us suggest how to proceed.


13. SOME NON-CRASH/NON-FREEZE PROBLEMS THAT OCCUR AFTER
      STARTING NOTA BENE IN REGULAR MODE CAN BE CAPTURED
      BY THE DEBUGGER
Sometimes a problem shows up — and persists — after you started Nota Bene the regular way (that is, not under the debugger). In such cases, you can "attach" the debugger to an already running version:
  1. With Nota Bene already running, go to Start, My Computer, and browse to the DEBUG folder under the NB 14 program folder (on Windows, likely in a Nota Bene folder under Program Files (x86), or in C:\NBWIN for a legacy install), and double-click on NBDEBUG.EXE to start it
    • If running on a Mac, contact us for instructions
  2. After the debugger starts, click on Debug, Attach to Nota Bene
  3. Continue as described under point 4 under #10 above

14. IF YOU HAVE MADE MAJOR CUSTOMIZATIONS TO YOUR PROGRAM, SEE
      IF THESE CHANGES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROBLEM
As noted above, Nota Bene for Windows has been available for two decades now. Such lengthy use has led to a program that is, overall, very robust (judging from reports we receive from users, and our own experience). However, each user uses the program differently, with different default settings (Nota Bene is extremely customizable). In many cases, it is these differences that turn out to be the source of the problem. To see if this is the case:
  1. Using My Computer, browse to the folder that contains your user settings:
    • New Install — the Settings folder under your Nota Bene Home folder (see setup for details)
    • Legacy Install — c:\nbwin\users\default
  2. Find the file named NB.INI (or—depending on your view—simply NB, with a File Type of "Configuration File"), and right click on it to rename it (use any name)
  3. Get the clean/shipping version of that file:
    • New Install — Open the Initial folder under this Settings folder, find the NB.INI file in that (see above), click Ctrl+C (Command+C on the Mac) to copy it (or right click and choose Copy), back up one level to the Settings folder, and then use Ctrl+V (Command+V on the Mac) to paste it in (or right click and choose Paste)
    • Legacy Install — Back up one level to the USERS folder, and open the INITIAL folder, and then find the NB.INI file in that (see above), click Ctrl+C to copy it (or right click and choose Copy), back up one level to the USERS folder, open the DEFAULT folder under that again, and paste the file you copied in using Ctrl+V (or right click and choose Paste)
  4. Try to reproduce the problem
    • If the problem persists, go on to step #5; if you are returning here after having tried that, go to step #6
    • If the problem disappears, go to step #6
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the NB.DFL (as opposed to the NB.INI) file
  6. Determine what the issue was caused by:
    • If the problem disappeared after step #3, before trying step #5, send us the renamed version (see step #2) of the NB.INI file
    • If the problem disappeared after step #5, send us the renamed version (see step #2) of both the NB.INI and NB.DFL files
    • If the problem persists after getting clean versions of both files, contact us at technical support
    If the issue is in one of your customization files, once we have those, and your data file (see “Send Files...” below), along with a description of the problem, we’ll try to see what particular custom setting is causing it
    If you would like to restore your various customizations, you can delete the new NB.INI and/or NB.DFL files (the ones pasted in from the INITIAL folder), and rename the original ones (which you renamed in step #2 above) back to their original names. (But note that if it turned out that your customizations were the source of the problem, the problem will reappear, at least until we can diagnose and fix it as described in #6.)
15. REMEMBER THAT THE PROBLEM IS NOT NECESSARILY IN NOTA BENE
Computer systems are becoming increasingly complex—there are more and more programs trying to do useful and interesting things, and sometimes these can conflict with each other. The environment in which NB works is no exception. Sometimes that environment—or even the hardware you are running on—is the cause of the problem you are reporting.

Two recent cases are representative:
  • USER REPORT: “I have recently installed a new Lexmark Pro 205 printer. It prints Word documents and Internet pages without a problem, but when I attempted to print a 9-page NB document in outline format (first time using Lexmark printer with NB), it stopped cold at the top of p. 6 with the following error message:
      NBEDITOR caused a General Protection Fault in module WIN87EM.DLL at 0001:02C9. Choose close. NBEDITOR will close.
    I clicked on Close and the entire NB program shut down.”

    OUR RESPONSE: Among other things, we noted that WIN87EM.DLL was a Windows program, and that the issue was almost certainly in the printer driver.

    USER FOLLOW-UP: “I was able to correct the WIN87EM.DLL problem by purchasing a Uniblue program that fixes Windows errors, and the Nota Bene file now prints properly.”

    AND LATER: “I have recently been able to print all NB documents on my Lexmark printer; the printing problem previously written about seems to have ended, perhaps as a result of registry ‘fixes’ done by Uniblue.”

  • USER REPORT: “I am now unable to do anything with Nota Bene: the program starts, but after I select something from the menu (opening a file; saving as RTF) the computer freezes. I tried reinstalling LWS 9, but this made no difference. I would appreciate any help, since I urgently need to use Nota Bene for the research I am doing here in Berlin.”

    USER FOLLOW-UP: “I don’t want to be too hasty, but I might have solved the problem. I did a memory check with PC Doctor, but no problems were identified. By chance I noticed on the Lenovo Thinkpad users forum that some people had a lock-up problem when starting the computer and that this could be ascribed to the Nvidia graphics driver. I downloaded the most recent driver from the Nvidia website and installed it. Since then I have not yet had a lock-up with Nota Bene (after starting 3-4 times). This is probably too soon to declare victory, but previously I had not able to manage a single session without a lock-up.

    AND LATER: “I think I can now confirm that the problem has been solved. I have used Nota Bene for a week without any lock-ups. Thanks for your support.”