If you need support:- Before you compose an e-mail or reach for the phone please make sure you have looked through the Help File first. If you have a question that the Help File doesn't answer, or are reporting what appears to be a bug then we will be pleased to hear from you. But if it is a question that is answered in the Help file then all we will do is point you to the relevant section, and you will just get an answer a little bit slower. This is not meant to be awkward, but we try to keep our costs down to allow us to produce this high quality software at value-for-money prices, and answering support queries is an expensive undertaking. After all, some of the major software companies either charge for support or provide it on premium-price phone numbers. We don't want to have to do that. OK, so the answer is not in the Help File or you've found a bug. What now- Check the latest FAQ Some products have an FAQ (Frequently-Asked-Questions document) which we update from time to time as common questions arise. Sometimes it is a separate document that you can read in your browser. For others it is contained inside the product Help File and there is an individually downloadable copy of the latest version of the Help File (with version details, so you can check if you already have the latest). Check the software pages to find the product in question and see if there is an FAQ there. Make sure you have the latest version Check the software pages to find the product in question to make sure you are running the latest version. If someone else has found the same problem before you then it may well have already been fixed. Refer also to the Upgrade Policy topic of the product if it has one for an explanation of how to upgrade a licensed copy (if that is what you have) to the latest version. That didn't help, what now? You can contact us by e-mail or by phone, or you can write to us. The quickest way to get an answer is by e-mail to , we can guarantee the message will get to somebody who has in-depth knowledge of the product, probably one of the authors, for attention. But please review the section on "helping us to help you" for an idea of the sort of information we are going to need and what to send (and not to send) along with your query. Alternatively you can call your local distributor (details from Help/Order Form), or us directly, but if you choose to contact us directly please remember we are located in the U.K. so if it is 10 a.m. where you are it may be the middle of the night in the U.K. and nobody is going to be here to answer! Our normal office hours are 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. U.K. time. We may not be able to answer your question immediately by phone but if not we will take an e-mail address to get back to you with. Also, please don't call off-hours and just leave a message asking us to call you back - so many people have abused that in the past that we simply don't call back any more. Or you can write to us (address details on the contact page). This is obviously the slowest mechanism. Helping us to help you To help you quickest there is some information you should send along with your query. We need to know at least the following:- In the case of error messages the complete content of the message. Saying "I got an error message", or "I got a GPF" is not enough. We need to know exactly what the error message said, and in the case of GPFs, IPFs or other fatal errors we need details of the module involved and all those other funny numbers that appear (In Windows 95/NT4 you can use copy/paste from the error box to save you writing them down). Details of your system configuration. We don't need enormous detail in the first instance, but will probably need to know at least what Operating System you are running (Win3.x, 95, 98, NT?) and anything else you think might be relevant. The version number (and if present build number) of the product you are running (from Help/About) A way to reproduce the problem, basically a list of steps that you took, what you expected to happen, what did happen and (if it wasn't a crash) why it isn't what you expected. There are also some things we don't need. Please don't send large attachments, copies of data files, the zipped up contents of your Windows directory, huge true-color screenshots of four word error messages and the like. Our mailing system will simply reject them. If we need copies of anything we will let you know, and let you know how to get them to us.