The current release of Scrippy is version 3.01. If you are having a problem with Scrippy and are running an earlier version, please start by upgrading to the current version. The upgrade is free to all registered users. Click here to go to the download page.
Please click on the choice below which best matches your question or problem:
Who can receive e-mail stationery created with Scrippy?
Who can view web pages created with Scrippy?
Received e-mail stationery isn't displaying properly
Scrippy isn't running correctly (crashes, display problems, etc.)
Questions about installing Scrippy
Questions about purchasing Scrippy
Questions involving Outlook Express
Questions involving Outlook 2000/2002
Questions about installing Scrippy:
What if I have to reinstall Scrippy?
Scrippy says the trial period is over but I didn't get 30 days.
Will I need to re-register if I upgrade to Scrippy version 3?
What if I have to reinstall Scrippy?
It should not be necessary to reinstall Scrippy unless you've had to reinstall Windows or you are moving to a new computer.
If you do need to reinstall Scrippy, you can do so by downloading and installing again. You do not need to uninstall your old copy first.
If you have reinstalled Windows or are moving to a new computer, after reinstalling Scrippy you will need to re-enter the registration key you received when you purchased Scrippy.
If you'd like to keep a copy of Scrippy on a floppy disk, click here for instructions.
Scrippy says the trial period is over but I didn't get 30 days.
There are two things we know of which can cause this problem:
1. Has Scrippy previously been installed and run on your computer? The trial period lasts 30 days from the first time Scrippy is run on a computer. Reinstalling Scrippy does not start over, except when we issue a new major release.
2. Was your computer's clock set to a wrong date when you first ran Scrippy? If this was the case, the only way to get the unregistered version of Scrippy to run is to reset the computer's clock to the same date as it had when Scrippy was first run on the machine.
It is not possible to reset the trial period. If one of the above things has happened, the only thing we can suggest is if you happen to have access to another computer, you could install and try Scrippy there.
I tried a previous version of Scrippy but did not purchase it. Is there a new trial period with version 3?
Yes, there is! You can download Scrippy version 3 and try it for a new 30 day period.
Will I need to re-register if I upgrade to Scrippy version 3?
No! Just download and install the latest version of Scrippy ( click here for the download page), over top of your existing copy. Your registration information will be remembered.
Saving a copy of the Scrippy Install Program
If you'd like to have your own safe copy of the Scrippy install program, you can download it onto a floppy disk.
To do this, put a blank floppy into your drive, then download Scrippy (click here for the download page) and after starting the download, pick "save this program to disk". In the "save as" box enter a "file name" of "a:\scrippy.exe". Then click "Save". When the download is finished you'll have a copy on the floppy disk. To reinstall at any time in the future, insert the floppy, run Windows Explorer, click on the "A:" drive on the left side under My Computer, and double-click "scrippy.exe" on the right side.
Questions about purchasing Scrippy:
Can I purchase by phone or by mail?
Can I use a currency other than US $ to purchase Scrippy?
Can I purchase by phone or by mail?
Yes! You can purchase Scrippy using a credit card online, a credit card by phone or fax, or by sending a check or money order in the mail. To use any of these options, please click here and follow the instructions on the web page.
Can I use a currency other than US $ to purchase Scrippy?
Yes: If you use a credit card, the credit card company will convert from your currency to US $ based on the current conversion rate. Most credit card companies charge only a small markup (typically about 2 percent) over the current "inter-bank" conversion rate.
If you use a check or money order, it must be made out in US$. Many banks charge a large fixed fee for clearing a check which was issued in a different currency than your own, so it may be better to use a money order or credit card than to write a US$ check.
Is Scrippy available on a CD?
No, Scrippy is only available as a download from the Internet. If you ever need to reinstall Scrippy, you can download it again (from our site or from dozens of shareware sites which also have it available) and reinstall it.
If you'd like to keep a copy of Scrippy on a floppy disk, click here for instructions.
Questions involving Outlook Express
Received e-mail stationery isn't displaying properly
Why don't my graphics display while I compose a message?
I don't have a "Preview" button in Outlook
Why does my signature display above every stationery?
My stationery takes too long to "load" when viewing it.
My pictures aren't being sent with my e-mail.
Sound files are getting attached to plain text replies.
Format > Background, or Format > Apply Stationery, isn't working.
File > Save as Stationery... isn't working.
Why does the font change while I type in "Edit" mode?
Questions involving Outlook 2000/2002
I don't have a "Preview" button in Outlook
My stationery takes too long to "load" when viewing it.
Received stationery doesn't display in preview pane.
Received e-mail stationery isn't displaying properly
Why don't my graphics display while I compose a message?
Why does my signature display above every stationery?
Why does the font change while I type in "Edit" mode?
My sounds aren't being sent with my e-mail.
File > Save Stationery... isn't working.
Everyone I send stationery to gets "runtime" errors.
Why don't my graphics display while I compose a message?
When you use a Scrippy stationery to create a message, or when you reply to a stationery, you are in "Edit" mode. Most of the graphics are hidden. What you will see is a "plain" representation of the stationery which resembles your actual stationery in its layout but is fixed in size, and has large colored areas for background and scrolling graphics. This display is ok! It is the way Scrippy stationery looks in Outlook's "Edit" mode. You can change the text parts of the stationery and do a spell check in this view of the stationery.
In Outlook Express you can see that your stationery is actually ok by pressing the "Preview" button at the bottom of the screen. If you don't have a set of buttons at the bottom named "Edit", "Source", and "Preview" then you should enable them in your Outlook Express options. To do this, click on the "View" menu and click on "Source Edit".
In Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 there is no "Preview" option. Until you have sent the stationery it will only display in Outlook's "Edit" mode, without the graphics.
If you are using Internet Explorer 5.5 or later, it is easy to click on and modify the text parts of the stationery in "Edit" mode - just click in the text area and type.
If you are using Internet Explorer 5, then to change any of the text in the text areas of the message, you can do so by slowly clicking twice (with a pause between clicks) in the box containing the text. This will change your cursor to an "I-beam" inside the box and then you can make your changes. You should not click outside the boxes in the main message area, nor delete the boxes - changing anything outside the boxes (there are some "invisible" things there) can cause the stationery to misbehave.
I don't have a "Preview" button in Outlook
In Outlook Express, if you don't have a set of buttons at the bottom named "Edit", "Source", and "Preview" (while you are composing a new message using a stationery) then you should enable them in your Outlook Express options. To do this, click on the "View" menu and click on "Source Edit".
In Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 there is no "Preview" option. Until you have sent the stationery it will only display in Outlook's "Edit" mode, without the graphics.
Why does my signature display above every stationery?
If you have enabled Outlook's option to insert your signature in every outgoing message, Outlook doesn't know where in the stationery to put the signature. So it puts your signature at the top instead of inside a message area.
You can either manually remove the signature from each stationery e-mail before sending it, by selecting the signature text in the compose window and deleting it, or you can turn off the Outlook feature to insert a signature in every message.
To turn off the automatic signature feature in Outlook Express use "Tools" then "Options", then select the "Signatures" tab, then unselect "Add signatures to all outgoing messages". You can still add signatures to messages manually by placing the cursor where you want your signature, then using "Insert" "Signature".
To turn off the automatic signature feature in Outlook 2000/2002 use "Tools" then "Options" then select the "Mail Format" tab, then beside "Use this Signature by default" select "<None>". You can still add signatures to messages manually by placing the cursor where you want your signature, then using "Insert" "Signature".
Format > Background, or Format > Apply Stationery, isn't working.
These functions in Outlook Express only apply to very simple stationeries. They don't work with advanced stationery, including stationery created with Scrippy.
To use stationery created with Scrippy you must start the message by using Message > New Message Using.
File > Save as Stationery... isn't working.
This function in Outlook Express only works with very simple stationeries. It does not work with advanced stationery, including stationery created with Scrippy.
To send other people stationery created with Scrippy, so that they can reuse it in Outlook, see the Scrippy help file under "Program Operation", "Creating Stationery for Others".
My stationery takes too long to "load" when viewing it.
The most common reason for this is that a small image has been used in a scrolling background. It takes Outlook a long time to make all the required copies of the image to fill the background area.
We recommend using images which are at
least 100 X 100 pixels for scrolling backgrounds so that the stationery will
load reasonably quickly.
My pictures aren't being sent with my e-mail.
This can be caused by the Options settings in Outlook Express.
Please check under Tools > Options > Send, click on "HTML Settings", and make sure that "Send pictures with message" is turned on.
Outlook 2000/2002 - my sounds aren't being sent with my e-mail.
This is a known limitation of Outlook. Unfortunately, unlike Outlook Express, it does not "embed" sound files in the sent stationery.
If you send a stationery from Outlook to yourself, it will seem to have the sound attached. But the sound file is still being played from your disk drive - it is not actually in the e-mail.
Note that
sound files in e-mail sent by Outlook Express to an Outlook user work fine
- Outlook can receive sounds in stationery, it just can't send them.
Sound files are getting attached to plain text replies.
This is a known problem in Outlook Express. If you reply to any stationery (not just those created with Scrippy) in HTML format, and then change the format of the reply to "plain text", Outlook Express removes any graphics used by the stationery but it doesn't remove sound files.
If you want to reply in "plain
text" we suggest that you set your Outlook Express options to this before
starting your reply. To do so, use Tools > Options, click on the
"Send" tab, disable the "Reply to messages
in the format in which they were sent" option, and enable the "Plain text"
option in the box labeled "Mail Sending Format"
Outlook 2000/2002 - everyone I send stationery to gets "runtime" errors.
This will happen if you are using Word as your default program to write e-mail. Word does not understand complex HTML and will cause this problem with many types of stationery.
Please check your settings under Tools > Options, click on "Mail Format", and make sure that "Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages" is not selected.
Why does the font change while I type in "Edit" mode?
In Outlook Express this will happen if the font specified in the stationery is not installed on your machine.
In all versions of Outlook this problem also seems to happen somewhat randomly.
We do not know of any way to avoid this problem when it occurs. The best way to deal with it seems to be to type your message beginning at the end of an existing sentence (which results in your sentence using the existing font), and then delete the existing sentence after you have typed your text instead of deleting it before typing.
Outlook 2000/2002 - Received stationery doesn't display in preview pane.
The "Preview Pane" in Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 will not show many types of stationery correctly, including stationery created using Scrippy. This is because Outlook does not run "Javascript" in its preview pane.
To view the stationery properly in Outlook 2000 and 2002, you must double-click on the received message to open it "full-screen".
Printing Problems.
Many stationeries created with Scrippy do not print well with Outlook Express.
We hope to improve this in a future release.
Scrippy isn't running correctly (crashes, display problems, etc.)
My animated GIFS aren't animating
My stationery runs very slowly
I get a flashing effect that looks like two objects are switching places at high speed
I'm getting red X's where some graphics should be
Images flicker badly or "slice" while scrolling
Error "Problem with file, cannot load image"
Scrippy crashes or runs badly
Note that if Scrippy is misbehaving, reinstalling it is unlikely to help. If the notes below don't help, then you might want to try reinstalling once, just in case. Don't worry about uninstalling first - you can just download and install the latest Scrippy on top of your existing copy.
The most common cause of problems running Scrippy is that something has gone wrong with Microsoft Internet Explorer or with Microsoft Windows Media Player. Scrippy uses a number of standard Microsoft components which are part of these programs.
Depending on how Internet Explorer was installed on your computer, you may have a "repair" option available. To try this, start your Windows Control Panel. (Use "Start" > "Settings" as one way to find your Control Panel.) Pick "Add/Remove Programs". Inside that, go down to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Select it and then press Add/Remove. At this point if one of the choices available is "Repair" then you can select and try this feature. It will check the installed Internet Explorer components and will attempt to fix any which have been damaged. Note that running repair may or may not fix a damaged Internet Explorer setup - the repair function does not identify all problems.
If you suspect that Internet Explorer (and/or Outlook Express) may need repair, but the "Repair" option described above is not available on your machine or didn't fix the problem, then you may need to reinstall Internet Explorer. At the time of writing, you can click here to download any of the versions of Internet Explorer currently available from Microsoft. (At the time of writing this includes Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, and 6.) If you are running an earlier version of Internet Explorer we highly recommend upgrading to at least 5.01 Service Pack 2 or 5.5 SP2 - these upgrades include some important security fixes.
If you don't have a fairly recent version of Microsoft Windows Media Player (more recent than version 5), this can cause problems in Scrippy. You can check by running Windows Media Player and clicking on Help > About. To run it, use "Start" "Programs" "Accessories" "Entertainment" (or "Multimedia" on some machines) "Windows Media Player". We recommend using Windows Media Player 6.4 or later. At the time of writing, both version 6.4 and version 7 are available for download from Microsoft at this location.
If Microsoft Windows Media Player is not your default sound player, this may cause problems in Scrippy. (Some other sound players are not fully Microsoft compatible.) To set Windows Media Player to be your default player:
Start by running it as described in the paragraph above.
If you are using version 6.4, select "View" "Options...", click on the "Formats" tab, click on "Select All", and click on OK.
If you are using version 7, select "Tools" "Options...", click on the "Formats" tab, click on "Select All", and click on OK.
It is also possible that there is a problem with the Microsoft "DirectX" installation on your system. To be sure that your DirectX setup is ok please download and install the latest version of Microsoft DirectX from this location.
A less common cause of crashes or running slowly in Scrippy are device driver problems, particularly the video device driver. Under Windows 95/98/ME, if you are getting apparently random crashes while running Scrippy, the following procedure can be used to check whether it is due to a display device driver problem:
Open the "Display Properties" panel. You can do this by right-clicking anywhere on your desktop wallpaper and choosing "Properties".
Select the "Settings" tab.
Press the "Advanced" button.
Select the "Performance" tab.
Put the "Hardware acceleration" control all the way to the left.
Ok to everything to apply this.
Now please try Scrippy again. If the problem still occurs, you should go through the steps above again and reset to full acceleration.
If the problem is fixed, we suggest that you check whether the manufacturer of your video card has an updated driver - that could fix the problem and allow you to use full acceleration again. In the meantime, you might want to check whether a higher setting of the "Hardware acceleration" slider works ok. Once you've found the highest setting that works, run with it for a while and see whether you mind running with reduced video acceleration. If you don't notice any visible change in computer speed, that's great - you can keep this changed setting until an updated driver for your video card is available.
My animated GIFS aren't animating
This happens in stationery (of any kind) which fully loads the computer with other work (scrolling, playing sound, etc.) The reason is that Internet Explorer (which Scrippy and Outlook both use to display stationery) treats these animations as a lower priority than all other work. So if a lot of stuff is happening at once and the computer is completely busy, animated GIFs slow down or stop completely. Internet Explorer never finds time to animate them.
We do not know of any way around this problem except the obvious: If you really want the animation to run, you'll have to reduce the other activity in the stationery. For some tips about some options which are particularly "expensive" in using up CPU time, scroll down to the next question.
My stationery runs very slowly
This is usually because the total amount of animation in your stationery is more than the computer can keep up with.
There are two combinations of Scrippy options which can especially increase the work which Outlook must do to display the stationery.
The worst combination in this regard is using a Background object with one of the "Stretch" options, and then either scrolling that background, or putting other scrolling objects in the same display area as the background. These combinations add so much work for Outlook that the result is usually unacceptable.
The other combination is not as severe. When you use Scrippy's "Transparency" option for any image (i.e. when you set Transparency to any value except zero), and there are any scrolling objects in the same display area, Outlook has to do extra work. However, this is a very useful combination and the result is often fine if the display area involved is not too large. But you might want to avoid combining transparency and scrolling in objects which fill the entire display area.
Error "Problem with file, cannot load image"
This message is displayed when Scrippy cannot read a graphic file.
The first thing to check is that the file is a valid GIF, JPG, or PNG type of graphic. Check whether you can view the image correctly with another program on your system, e.g. find the file with Windows Explorer and double-click on it. If it doesn't display properly then it is not a valid graphic file.
If the file is ok but you get the "problem with file, cannot load image" error in Scrippy, the problem is probably caused by an image viewer program which has taken over from the standard Microsoft routines and which has a bug. We've had reports of three programs which can cause this problem: "Serif Photoshop", "IrfanView", and "Corel Print House Magic". At least one release of each of these programs has a bug which interferes with viewing images in Scrippy, and may also interfere with viewing images from your hard disk in Internet Explorer.
If you have one of these programs installed, please check whether there is a newer version of that program available which has the problem fixed. If not, please try disabling the program as the system's default image viewer, if it has such an option. If that does not work or is not available, the only remaining suggestion we have is to try uninstalling the viewer program.
I'm getting red X's where some graphics should be
This can happen if you use Scrippy to open a stationery you previously created, and you have moved or deleted some graphic file(s) it uses.
Graphic files and sound files are not stored in the Scrippy save files. So if you move or delete them, the next time you use that Scrippy save file, it won't work. You'll have to click on the objects which have a problem and "Browse" for the new location of the graphic.
I get a flashing effect that looks like two objects are switching places at a high speed
This is most likely due to a problem with the Microsoft "DirectX" installation on your system. Please download and install the latest version of Microsoft DirectX from this location.
If that does not fix the problem, please see Scrippy crashes or runs badly and try the suggestions there.
Images flicker badly or "slice" while scrolling
One common cause of image flickering is scrolling a very large image. Scrolling generally works best with images which are not too large - we recommend using images with dimensions of 300 x 300 pixels or less for scrolling.
If a large image is not causing the problem, it may just be that the stationery is overloading your computer. It can be tricky to determine whether this is the cause. As a guideline please check whether Scrippy's samples scroll smoothly. On a Pentium 200 or faster computer, the Scrippy samples should all scroll fairly smoothly (though some will run slowly on a 200.) Some samples with a lot of movement may flicker or jump a bit. None of the samples should have a "slicing" effect.
If the samples don't perform as well as described above then it is not simply overload - something is going wrong. There might be a problem with video drivers or with DirectX. If you have not updated your software in quite a while, installing the latest version of Windows Media Player might also help. We've had one case where the WinAmp program caused these problems in Scrippy - removing it as the default sound program (using Media Player instead) fixed the problem. Click here for more notes about these possibilities.
If the samples behave properly then you may just be having a problem with a particular image. Internet Explorer (which is used by Outlook and by Scrippy for previews) just doesn't seem to "like" some images. We haven't found a common reason yet. Usually with these "difficult" images you can resize them in an appropriate utility to be a few pixels smaller or larger and then they work properly. As far as we know, the problem is not specific to Scrippy.
Questions about graphics
My animated GIFS aren't animating
I'm getting red X's where some graphics should be
Images flicker badly or "slice" while scrolling
My pictures aren't being sent with my e-mail
Questions about sounds
Where can I get more graphics and sounds?
Multiple sound files don't all play
Sound files are getting attached to plain text replies
Outlook 2000/2002 - my sounds aren't being sent with my e-mail
Multiple sound files don't all play
If you add more than one Sound object to a stationery, the sounds may or may not all play at once. If you want multiple sounds together you'll have to experiment to find out what works. Often the best bet is to mix different sound file formats (e.g. a ".mid" file with a ".wav" file.)
Received e-mail stationery isn't displaying properly
When a received e-mail created with Scrippy doesn't display correctly, the e-mail will include a message at the top saying that there is a problem displaying it and suggesting that the viewer visit www.scrippy.com/help/mail for more information. (Note: The displayed message is the same as the one you see at the top while composing a new e-mail. You can change this message by using "Tools" "Special Message Text" in Scrippy.)
The cause of the problem and the way to fix it depends on the e-mail program involved. For an up to date list of e-mail programs and solutions for common problems please visit www.scrippy.com/help/mail.
Who can receive e-mail stationery created with Scrippy?
E-mail stationery created with Scrippy works with Microsoft Outlook Express version 5 and later, Microsoft Outlook version 98 and later, and with Netscape 6.1 and later. (With Netscape there are two limitations at the time of writing: sound files will not play, and "ticker" text will not be visible.)
When the recipient is using another e-mail program, or is using one of the programs listed above but have their settings such that there is a problem with displaying stationery, they will see a message informing them that there is a problem and suggesting that they visit www.scrippy.com/help/mail for more information. (Note: the message displayed to them is the same as the one you see at the top while composing a new e-mail. You can change this message by using "Tools" "Special Message Text" in Scrippy.)
It is possible for users of online e-mail services (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo Mail) to use Outlook Express to access their e-mail from an online account - using this technique they can view stationery properly. AOL users can also use this technique by setting up an online e-mail account with a service which supports this type of access, e.g. Hotmail or Yahoo Mail.
Current information about the e-mail programs which display stationery correctly, and how to configure them, can be viewed at www.scrippy.com/help/mail.
Who can view web pages created with Scrippy?
Web pages created with Scrippy work with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and later, and with Netscape 6.1 and later.
When the visitor is using another web browser, or is using one of the programs listed above but have their settings such that scripting is disabled, they will see a message informing them that there is a problem and suggesting that they visit www.scrippy.com/help/browser for more information. (Note: you can change the message which is displayed when the visitor's browser has a problem by using "Tools" "Special Message Text" in Scrippy.)