Facts and Frequently Asked Questions

Q: The file I downloaded is too small, one or more filters are missing, or I got a message like this when I downloaded:

• not a valid Win32 application
• not executable
• not a 32 bit file

A: The file you downloaded is corrupted. This can happen repeatedly and often does. The usual symptom is that the file has been cut short. How short is too short? See the Filters Download Table for the sizes of all versions of download files in bytes. For Windows DLLs, see the Windows DLL download table. If your file is smaller, it's corrupted. Use the Explorer file manager to locate the file, then right click the mouse on the file name. Select Properties and you will see the file size under the General tab. The number in parentheses is the size in bytes.

Usually downloading again takes care of the problem. But sometimes the file is corrupted no matter how many times you download it. It has been reported that download helper programs sometimes cause the problem themselves. If you have GetRight, GoZilla or a similar download helper program running, turn it off and try downloading again.

If that doesn't work or if you don't have any such program running, an alternative download method, FTP, is available for all of the files. FTP is more reliable than HTTP so try the FTP alternative by clicking on the file name in the above table.

If FTP fails too (and sometimes it does), as a last resort you can get a copy by email. So if you aren't ready to give up just yet try:

Q: The filters don't show up on the filters menu. What's wrong?

A: Several things can go wrong. Here are the known causes:

1. The files aren't in the plugins directory. Copy the filter files to the plugins directory. For Photoshop typically the directory is named PLUGINS and is under the main Photoshop directory (e.g. C:\PHOTOSHP\PLUGINS). See the Installation Instructions for more information about other graphics programs.

2. The plugins directory pointer is wrong. In Photoshop select File - Preferences - Plug-ins from the menu bar. You will get a dialog box which allows you to choose the plugins directory. Note that if you change the setting, it will not take effect until you exit and restart Photoshop. See the Installation Instructions for more information about other graphics programs.

3. Photoshop was running when you copied the filter files to the plugins directory. You have to exit from Photoshop and restart it for the filters to be seen.

4. The version of Photoshop or other graphics program you are running doesn't support 32 bit filters. Here's a list of which programs and versions are known to work or not work:

   Program	Works	Doesn't work / unknown
   Paint Shop Pro (JASC)	4.11 or greater	3.0
   PhotoImpact (Ulead)	6	5 or earlier unknown
   Photo Paint (Corel)	7.0 or greater	5.0 (6.0 unknown)
   Photoshop (Adobe)	3.0.4 or greater	2.5, 2.5LE
   Picture Publisher (Micrografx)	8.0 and 9.0	7.0 or earlier unknown

5. MSVCRT10.DLL is missing from your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory This applies only to BorderMania 1.0 running with PaintShop Pro or Corel PhotoPaint. See below for more information.

6. Sometimes an upgrade of Photoshop or Windows results in difficulties with the Photoshop intialization and preferences files. This can be fixed by deleting the files and restarting Photoshop which will then create new initialization and preferences files.

   For version 3 the files are in the Windows or Win95 or WinNT directory and the names are:

   • Photos30.ini
   • Photos30.psp

   For version 4 the files are in a directory named Prefs under the Photoshop main directory. For the 4.0.1 demo version the names are:

   • Photos40.ini
   • Adobe Photoshop 4.0 Demo Prefs.psp

   For version 5 the files are in a directory named Adobe Photoshop Settings under the Photoshop main directory. For the 5.0.2 version the names are:

   • photos50.ini
   • Color Settings.psp
   • Adobe Photoshop 5 Prefs.psp
   • Actions Pallette.psp

7. Problems with some Windows 95 and Windows 98 installations still occur sometimes even though everything above is correct. The cause is under investigation but not much progress has been made because the filters run properly on all of the NVR test systems with all of the officially supported graphics programs.

Q: The BorderMania or PhotoSwizzle name shows up on the filters menu but is greyed out. What's wrong?

A: For all versions of BorderMania other than BorderMania Pro, the filters only work in RGB mode. BorderMania Pro and PhotoSwizzle also support Grayscale, CMYK, Lab and Multichannel modes. If your image is in any other unsupported mode the filters will be greyed out on the menu. You can still use them by changing to a supported mode, applying the filters, then changing back to the mode you were using originally.

REGISTRATION AND LICENSE USER GUIDE

See also: Registration Help.

Q: My credit card number changed or I don't remember which one I used to buy my license. What can I do?

A: Use the Internet option in the Registration plug-in instead of Local. See Registration Help for more information.

Or you can get a new license number on-line using a different credit card number at no extra charge. See the secure New License Request page for more details and instructions.

Q: Should I restart my graphics editor program or reboot after regisration is accepted?

A: Neither of these are required and will have no effect. When the information is accepted by the registration plug-in, it is effective immediately and will work for the filters in the same session of your graphics editor that you are running.

Q: The registration information entered is not valid. Please try again.

A: If you are trying to register and you keep getting this annoying message, you have an old version of the filters. Download and install the latest version of the filters, then try registering again. The error messages are improved in the latest release and will help to identify the source of problem.

Q: License number not recognizable. Please try again.

A: Something is wrong with the license number that you entered. Here are the possible causes of this message:

1. Nothing was entered in the License Number box. This entry is required to complete registration.
2. There are invalid characters in the license number that you entered. Only numeric characters (0 through 9), spaces and at most one hyphen (-) are allowed.
3. There are not enough or too many spaces or hyphens (-) in the license number that you entered. The license number must be entered in two parts separated by one or more spaces and/or hyphens. The two parts must be all numeric characters (0 through 9).

Q: Name not recognizable. Please try again.

A: There is nothing entered in the Name box. This entry is required to complete registration.

Q: Credit card number not recognizable. Please try again.

A: Something is wrong with the credit card number that you entered. Here are the possible causes of this message:

1. Nothing was entered in the Credit Card Number box. This entry is required to complete registration.
2. There are invalid characters in the credit card number that you entered. Only numeric characters (0 through 9), spaces and hyphens (-) are allowed. All spaces and hyphens are ignored so it doesn't matter how many of them you enter or where you put them. Watch out for O's (capital o) instead of zeroes, they're not the same thing.

Q: License check failed. Please try again.

A: The basic format of the Name, Credit Card Number and License Number entries is ok, but the license number calculated from the Name and Credit Card Number doesn't match with the License Number entered. Use the following guidelines to identify and fix the source of your trouble.

1. Is this your license number: 2316683474 - 4122072726 ?

   Actually this is the sample license number from the registration example web page. Don't use that, it's only a sample and it's guaranteed not to work. What you really need is your personalized license number from the license and order status page.

2. Do you have the latest versions of BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle?

   Here's how to tell for sure. Run the registration plug-in. Does it have the Local/Internet select option at the top of the window? If so, you have the latest version. If not, get the latest version from the Download Table on this web page.

   Click the About button. Does the About dialog box start like this?

   Registration BorderMania Plug-in Filters Version 4.0

   OR

   Registration PhotoSwizzle Plug-in Filters Version 2.0

   Watch for the correct version numbers. BorderMania should be 4.0 and PhotoSwizzle should be 2.0. If you don't see this, you don't have the latest version. To get the latest version go to the Download Table on this web page.

   Note that it's possible to have the latest version of the filters and an old version of the registration plug-in at the same time. The most common causes of this are download file corruption (some of the files are missing, in particular the registration plug-in) or the registration plug-in file wasn't moved to the plug-ins folder after it was extracted from the download file.

3. Did you buy your license before Sep 1, 2001?

   If so, follow the instructions in this step. Otherwise continue to the next step.

   There were some reports in the past of problems that the registration plug-ins were not able to recognize very old license numbers. This should be fixed in the latest release, but if the problem persists then assuming that you now have the latest versions of both BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle installed, you have three options.

   1. The preferred option is to use the Internet registration method. See Registration Help for more information.

   2. The next option is to get a new license number (at no charge). Go to the New License Request web page for more details and follow the instructions there. Note that for new license numbers the latest versions of BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle must be installed.

   3. The last option is sort of a patch, using an old version (3.0) of the BorderMania registration plug-in to register. Download one of the following files, extract the plug-in and move it to your plug-ins folder.
      nvrbmr30.exe (self-extracting) or nvrbmr30.zip (manual unzip)

      This will appear on the Filters or Effects menu as NVR BorderMania. In contrast the latest version appears as just BorderMania. Both should show up on the menu. Use the registration plug-in on the NVR BorderMania menu to register. But be careful, the syntax rules are very picky. See the syntax rules below for more information.

4. Are you following the registration plug-in syntax rules?

   Here are the rules:

   • Name:
     • For licenses issued before Sep 1, 2001, the syntax is very picky. All upper and lower case characters must be exactly the same as they were when the license was purchased (case sensitive). Also all spaces and punctuation (like dots after middle initials) count and they must be exactly in the right place.

     • For licenses issued between Sep 1, 2001 and Aug 27, 2002 inclusive, the syntax is relaxed. Characters are not case-sensitive and all spaces are ignored. Punctuation (like dots after middle initials) is still observed and must be the same as it was entered when the license was purchased.

     • For licenses issued after Aug 27, 2002 the syntax is even more relaxed. Characters are not case-sensitive and all spaces, punctuation (like dots after middle initials) and non-printable characters are ignored.

   • Credit Card Number:

     Only numbers (0 through 9) are important. They must all be there in the correct order but any spaces or hyphens (-) mixed in with them are ignored.

   • License Number:

     All numbers must be there and in the correct order. The license number must be entered in two parts separated by one or more spaces and/or hyphens. The two parts must be all numeric characters (0 through 9). See the examples above for more information.

5. Are you still having trouble?

   Contact customer support at support@NewVirtualResearch.com and give any details that you can about the symptoms of your trouble.

Q: Do these filters work with other graphics programs besides Adobe Photoshop such as Paint Shop Pro and Photo Paint?

A: Yes. They have been tested successfully under Windows 95, 98, NT 4.0 and 2000 with

• Paint Shop Pro 4, 5 and 6 (JASC)
• Photo-Paint 7 and 8 (Corel)
• Photoimpact 6 (Ulead)
• Photoshop 3, 4 and 5 (Adobe)
• Picture Publisher 8 and 9 (Micrografx)

Other graphics programs are in the plans but have either not been tested yet or BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle still have problems with them. Those being considered include:

• CorelXARA (Corel)
• Fireworks (Macromedia)
• PhotoDeluxe (Adobe)
• PhotoDraw 2000 (Microsoft)

The following information is only for BorderMania 1.0. If you downloaded BorderMania from the NVR filters page see the installation instructions instead.

For BorderMania 1.0 it was common that the filters wouldn't run after installation. The most common problem was that MSVCRT10.DLL was missing from the WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. You can download MSVCRT10.DLL (107K bytes) here or from several other web sites. See the installation instructions, for more details or try one of the following URLs:

• JASC Technical Support and Services.
• PSP Tips and Tricks (Abstract Dimensions)

Q: I get weird colors or a reversal of the bottom right corner of the image using Photo-Paint 8. What's wrong?

This was a bug which occurred when the version 2.0 filters were used with Photo-Paint 8. The bug is fixed in BorderMania 3.0 and above.

Q: Paint Shop Pro crashes when I try to use any of the round button or ellipse filters. What's wrong?

This was a bug which sometimes occurred when BorderMania version 2.0 or 3.0 filters were used with Paint Shop Pro. The bug is fixed in BorderMania 3.1 and above.

Q: What does error -30101 mean?

A: This error happens with Paint Shop Pro if a BorderMania Pro or PhotoSwizzle license was previously registered on your computer but then the registration information was lost or corrupted. This can happen after a Windows upgrade or service pack installation, or for who knows how many other problems that might occur with the Windows registry. To fix the problem re-install the BorderMania or PhotoSwizzle license with the Registration plug-in on the BorderMania or PhotoSwizzle menu, respectively.

Q: Some of the filters do nothing. What's wrong?
Q: Notch corners does nothing. What's wrong?

A: Generally this is caused by one of the following:

• You have a different layer selected than the one you intended to select.
• Some of the filters modify the alpha channel, such as Notch Corners. This means that they must be applied to a layer, usually with transparent background, to have an effect. Make sure that you're working on an image layer, not a flattened image.
• The filter is trying to modify the color of your image but the area being modified is transparent so there is no change.
• Your graphics program doesn't support layers and transparency. Graphics programs that support transparency include Photoshop 3.0 and above, Paint Shop Pro 5.0 and above, and PhotoPaint 8 and above.
• Notch corners is intended to work on a layer with transparent background. The image must then be exported in GIF89A format to take advantage of the transparency.

Q: Will there be more filters?

A: Yes. The best way to find out about updates is to put yourself on the NVR Mailing List and you will automatically be notified by email of all updates, improvements and additions. Your feedback helps tremendously too, so please don't hesitate to let us know what's on your mind.

Q: Are older versions of BorderMania still available?
      (also FTP method and .ZIP file download alternatives)

A: Yes and no. BorderMania versions 1.0 and 2.0 are still available but are not supported. All other versions below 4.0 are no longer available or supported. All PhotoSwizzle versions below 2.0 are also no longer available or supported.

For the versions still available, you can download them here by either HTTP or FTP from the table below. Click on the file name in the HTTP column for the version you want. Try FTP if you have trouble downloading by HTTP, or go to the FILTERS BY E-MAIL page if you have trouble with FTP too.

Two file types are available, .ZIP and .EXE. The .ZIP versions are standard compressed zip archives. The .EXE versions have the same contents as the .ZIP versions except that they are also self-extracting. The .EXE versions are more convenient, but if you feel uncomfortable about running self-extractors because of worries about virus infection choose the .ZIP version instead. Note that the filters must be extracted manually from the .ZIP version.

If you choose a .ZIP version, be aware that the newer Web browsers have a bad habit of changing the file extension from .ZIP to .EXE when saving the downloaded file to your disk, and you may have trouble extracting the files from the archive. If this happens, either download again and change the file extension from .EXE to .ZIP when the browser asks you what to name the downloaded file, or change the extension with File Explorer after it is downloaded.

If you download one of the old versions, please use the form below to let us know why. We really do want you to get the latest version working and have tested it extensively, but if something else is wrong we have no other way of knowing about it. Include which operating system and graphics program you are using and a short description of any error messages you may have encountered trying to get the filters running.

Q: Do you have Macintosh support?

A: No. Mac owners, bear in mind that what you are about to read is kept as factual as possible and is in no way meant to fan the flames of the PC vs. Mac wars. After all, NVR is a Mac owner too. This is only an explanation of why attempts to create a Mac version of BorderMania have been unsuccessful.

Two attempts were made to port the filters to the Mac. First was with the Filter Factory. It failed because the Mac version of Filter Factory had lower limits on the quantity of terms it supported in the equations but probably more so because it was very unstable and constantly crashed the Mac operating system.

The second attempt was with a Microsoft cross compiler that targets PC software to the Mac. That failed too because the cross-compiled version crashed the Mac OS constantly and it was impossible to debug because the crash was inside the OS for which no symbolic debug information is available outside of Apple engineering. Both attempts persisted through upgrades to OS 8 and were not pursued any further.

The only remaining alternative is to support independent sources and development environments for the two platforms. This is the ultimate programmers nightmare for various reasons. Apparently this is what Adobe chose to do with Photoshop, as implied by the completely different behavior of the PC and Mac versions of the Filter Factory. But that requires vast amounts of extra and very expensive resources. Also keep in mind that at Adobe, the Mac version came first and the decision to dedicate more resources to capture PC market share was a very sound business move considering the relative market distribution of PC and Mac hardware.

So in conclusion, tight resources, the time already wasted in the first two attempts and the unwillingness to reach new dimensions of frustration mean that it isn't likely that a Mac version will ever happen.

Q: Which Programs does PhotoSwizzle Work With?

A: All of the PhotoSwizzle filters except Drop Shadow work with the officially supported graphics editors. Drop Shadow works with some but not all of them as shown in the following table.

Paint Shop Pro, all versions (JASC)	Yes
PhotoImpact 6, 7 (Ulead)	Yes*
PhotoPaint 7 (Corel)	Yes
PhotoPaint 8 (Corel)	No
Photoshop 3 (Adobe)	No
Photoshop 4 or higher (Adobe)	Yes
Picture Publisher 8, 9, 10 (Micrografx)	Yes

Q: Where's the free stuff?

A: The original BorderMania feature set is free. It's included in the BorderMania Pro distribution. All features including the Pro features are enabled when first installed and after 30 days the Pro features are disabled. The filters then continue to run with just the original feature set enabled, free, forever.

The Pro features are free for a trial period of 30 days and then require a license to continue use. The Pro features can be enabled permanently by buying a BorderMania license for $12.95 (USD) or a combined BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle license for $17.95 (USD).

PhotoSwizzle is free if you have a BorderMania Pro complete license purchased on or before Sep 1, 2001. Otherwise when first installed the filters run for 30 days and are then disabled. PhotoSwizzle can be enabled permanently by buying a PhotoSwizzle license for $12.95 (USD) or a combined BorderMania and PhotoSwizzle license for $17.95 (USD).

Buying any license is also called registration.