DP8 Help Menu: PDF manuals won't open (solution)

[johnnyvince]

I just installed DP8 on my new-ish MacMini, and the Help Menu would load some basic help documentation (the .html ones), but not the 'User Guide', 'New Features...', (all .pdf files). It looked like it had tried, but nothing happened...no error message or anything. I found them using Spotlight, but they wouldn't even open when I double-clicked them in the Finder.

The fix was pretty basic: downloading and installing Adobe Reader. Kind of weird though, that DP8 wouldn't open them using Preview...which was my default .pdf reader. I'm just mentioning this because I didn't see it posted anywhere, and thought it might help someone.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

You can open and edit PDFs in Apple's Preview as as well, often bypassing editing restrictions by using "save as" from the app.

[Shooshie]

That's odd. Mine works fine. The manual is actually a part of the DP8 application package, so if you've installed DP8, there's no way you don't have the manual in the right place. It's inside the app.

Are you looking at the right place in the Help menu? Pull down the Help menu to the User Guide. Open it, and it opens in Preview, assuming you've got a recent version of OSX.

It's kind of hard to know what to say without being there to see how you're accessing it, and to watch what's going wrong (or right), but the only thing I can think of right now is that somehow you don't have Preview installed (or it's not working), or else you're just not selecting the right menu option.

One other possibility is that you don't have the English Language selected, but that seems unlikely.

Shooshie

[bayswater]

The association between a document type (PDF) and an application (Preview) sometimes breaks. Maybe try using Open With directly on the DP manual document and select Preview and set it again as the default.

[johnnyvince]

Thanks, guys! Just to be clear, as I mentioned in the post, I got it working by installing Adobe Reader, so I'm posting more for reference, as I figure others will probably run into this.

@Shooshie, yeah...I'm accessing it directly from the DP Help menu, and the pdfs are in the default location (Applications > Digital Performer > Contents > Resources > English.Iproj > Digital Performer Help > pdfs). I'm using OS 10.7.5 and Preview 5.5.3. Preview does work fine for all non-DP pdfs. Oh yeah, I'm using OS 10.7.5 Server, with the 64-bit kernel and extensions...maybe that's a thing?

@Bayswater: that's a good point. I followed up on it, and made Preview the default application for opening pdfs, and it broke the DP8 (and only the DP8) pdfs! I switched the default application back to Adobe Reader, and they work. Weird.

Thanks for taking the time to reply...I'm someone who failed an attempted transition from PT to DP years ago. (Well, I did some small projects, and mixed a couple of records in DP5, but writing with it was whole other learning curve for a ProFool like me!) One major reason I'm digging in for real this time is that this forum is so darn helpful! Especially to Shooshie, MIDI Life Crisis, James Steele, but really to all of MOTUNATION:
YOU ROCK!!!

[Shooshie]

Doncha just love software? It is the weirdest thing that we all use Macs, which Apple has produced with so little variables between them that developers can write one app, test it on one or two machines, and assume (fairly reliably) that it will work on all Macs in a 5 year spread. So, along comes a file that opens fine on some Macs, but which refuses to work on others, or in some cases one specific other. We've all experienced it; I'm not being sarcastic or making fun of the original poster. And you've gotta ask yourself, if this happens on Macs, how do they EVER get Windows apps to work, considering the infinite variability of the hardware and OS. And true to form, that seems to be the rumored reason why MOTU hasn't release DP-Windows yet.

It's a crazy world.

Shoosh

PS: Oh yeah, @johnnyvince: thanks, man. I appreciate your faith that this time you'll be able to make the leap to DP with our help, and I totally believe you can, too.