Viewing Images on SP

[JustJean]

I know I've read posts about setting which method to best view the online images at SP but a search just now is not finding me what I'm looking for...so....for the umteenth time let's talk about this process again. Being somewhat persistent (alright make that stubborn!) I sat last night trying for hours to purchase and view a death certificate. I finally got to see it but I can't for the life of me understand what happened and what I could have done to simplify the process.

Here's the story. I bought credits no prob. I ran a search and found the death I was looking for no prob. I click on view this image..up comes the little warning that this is costing me 5credits...i say...go for it....no prob. Then nothing happens. NOTHING. No view...no loss of credits(fortunately considering how many times I reran the whole process and hammered on that key!!!! ) So I go looking and reading. I run the test and find my Active X is working fine. I also have removed block popups on this site so WHY WON'T IT VIEW??? [-( In desperation I go back into my details and change preferences to Direct Download and then go back and click for another purchase. This time the credits disappear from my account and then I get a warning message that my computer running Windows XP probably won't work well with the Direct method and just to be on the safe side they are not sending me the image!!!...Now I'm getting really ....right I say...go ahead and take my 5 credits!!! So I think...well....go back and look at it again...so a return trip to "viewed images" at least has it in my list....GREAT!! I click on the item and it pops up on my viewer with no problem. Why Oh Why wouldn't it do that in the first place??? I would love to avoid this process in the future and thought I might just help some other poor soul who has hit the same snag!!

Any thoughts???

Jean

[Laura]

All together now,

Did you send in a contact form?

Laura

[JustJean]

Thanks Laura....I was tempted to send in the proverbial contact form but I honestly don' t think it was something SP was doing....I felt it was more of what my computer was not doing....hence the choice to post it on the computer forum. Any other ideas folks??

Jean

[DavidWW]

Thanks Laura....I was tempted to send in the proverbial contact form but I honestly don' t think it was something SP was doing....I felt it was more of what my computer was not doing....hence the choice to post it on the computer forum. Any other ideas folks??

Jean

Regardless of what your computer may or may not have been contributing to the situation, that is no reason at all for not raising the matter via a contact form with GROS/Scotland on Line, as it's in their very best interests to understand such problems, even if they are related solely to the member's own computer set-up !!

Go for it!, in terms of a contact form, would be my advice, with the backup of my GROS and other TS posters' User Group membership as the reassurance that any lack of a sensible response will be a matter of interest to several members of the ScotlandsPeople User Group........

wkr

Davie

[Linda Malpass]

Hi Jean

I don't know if you saw this, but I just noticed that on SP site the FAQ's have been reproduced, =D> it must be just recently, it was shut down when the Discussion Group shut down, they have some info there on images and of course other topics, like David said, I would definately submit a contact form

[Guest]

Here's the story. I bought credits no prob. I ran a search and found the death I was looking for no prob. I click on view this image..up comes the little warning that this is costing me 5credits...i say...go for it....no prob. Then nothing happens. NOTHING. No view...no loss of credits(fortunately considering how many times I reran the whole process and hammered on that key!!!! ) So I go looking and reading. I run the test and find my Active X is working fine. I also have removed block popups on this site so WHY WON'T IT VIEW???

As I have stated many times, I most strongly recommend that NO ONE use either of SP's two versions of proprietary image viewer. Without TOTALLY unrestricted network access to ALL of your computer's resources - including read/write/modify and delete of ANY FILE on your computer (as well as complete control of your display, printer, keyboard AND making redirection of your information to a third-party server) - the viewer does not function properly.

Depending upon which of your resources remain protected, you might be able to view, but not save the file, or be able to print it.

Any use of a firewall or harmful-code "filter" program (such as Proxomitron or any of the many pop-up "stoppers") can fatally cripple your use of the SP viewers, either Java or ActiveX versions.

And no one at SP will tell you that - or even acknowledge the problem exists.

I'm guessing about your particular situation, but it is possible that your "pop-up stopper" functioned as designed, anyway. SP likely sent you the information just fine - but was prevented from forming the pop-over. Your machine then dumped the info into the bit-bucket. (Since you couldn't see the pop-up, I'm amazed you were able to exit back to the website. Normally, your keystrokes and mouse position/clicks are sent off to SP (or its image contractor) then "echoed" back to your machine before your computer sees them. But that's only if your security settings permit totally unrestricted access for the viewer...)

In desperation I go back into my details and change preferences to Direct Download and then go back and click for another purchase. This time the credits disappear from my account and then I get a warning message that my computer running Windows XP probably won't work well with the Direct method and just to be on the safe side they are not sending me the image!!!

Hmmm. The "activeX viewer" info was probably still reigning for your login session, if it hadn't been ended by logging out of SP, then back in again. (No, they won't tell you that, either...)

However, that does not relieve them of responsibility for the arrogant mistake of presuming to override your conscious decision to obtain a direct download of something you have paid-for, TWICE!

Win XP is itself a hinderance to pleasant internet experiences, but there is nothing that prevents it from permitting direct download of an image file. Any presentation to the contrary is pure Bovine Scatology.

Contact forms? By all means - even though they don't seem to answer those pointing to problems which demand fixing the problem's root cause.

.

[Malcolm]

Just Jean
When this happened to me i assumed it was something i or the computer had done. The problem was resolved for me by clicking on the last entry of the history navigator window. That's the column of information to your left of the screen. Click on history shown at the top of the screen first. All this assumes you are using a version of windows.
Hoping this works for you.

Malcolm

[tishgibbons]

I've had a similar problem but I have noticed that if I'm on-line using Internet Explorer it's okay but then I have to contend with other annoying popups. If I use Mozilla Firefox I have no annoying popups but no images from SP either! Getting a new machine tomorrow and would love to be able to avoid this problem.

Tish

[DavidWW]

I've had a similar problem but I have noticed that if I'm on-line using Internet Explorer it's okay but then I have to contend with other annoying popups. If I use Mozilla Firefox I have no annoying popups but no images from SP either! Getting a new machine tomorrow and would love to be able to avoid this problem.

Tish

Tish

Please keep us posted on how it goes with the new m/c.

Davie

[Johnnys149]

I am new to this site and also SP. But when I am viewing anything on the SP site I always try and print it out, and also save a copy of it to my local drive so that I now have two copies, one hard and one soft. This also gives you the chance to change the file name to something a bit more regognisable than sample.tif. I then view them using either Paintshop Pro, or Windows Image and Fax viewer in XP. It also lets you import these files into a family tree aplication if you like.