General

1. I'm having trouble downloading your software. What should I do? Answer
2. Why doesn't my registration code work? Answer
3. I had to reinstall a Snowmint product and now my registration code says it's expired. What should I do? Answer

Budget (Common)

1. When I try to delete an envelope, I get an error message saying "There are unbalanced transactions," and it won't let me delete the envelope. What does this mean, and how do I delete the envelope? Answer
2. Budget is giving me an "Integrity Error". What is that and how do I fix it? Answer
3. Does Budget come with any documentation? Answer
4. I use a Windows PC at work and a Mac at home. Is there any way that I can use one Budget file on both platforms? Answer
5. Is there a Palm or Linux version of Budget? Answer

Budget (Mac OS X)

1. Does Budget support different currency and date formats? Answer
2. Why does Budget for Mac OS X say I have an "Invalid date format"? Answer
3. The Budget help files don't show up in Help Viewer. What should I do? Answer

Budget (Windows)

1. Budget for Windows requires "the .NET framework". What is .NET? How do I tell if it's already installed? Where do I get it, if I don't have it? Answer
2. Does Budget support different currency and date formats? Answer

Ultimate Pen

1. Can Ultimate Pen work on top of Keynote presentations? Answer
2. Does Ultimate Pen work on top of PowerPoint presentations Answer
3. Does Ultimate Pen work on top of classic Mac OS applications? Answer
4. Is there a Palm, Linux, or Windows version of Ultimate Pen? Answer

General

If you have trouble using the download links, please use your browsers contextual menu to save the contents of the download link(s) on your computer. For example, in Internet Explorer right click (or control-click on Mac OS) on a link to show the contextual menu and choose "Download link to disk".

Other common names for the relevant command are "Download linked file as...", "Download link as...", "Save linked file as...", and "Save link as..."

Here are a few things to note:

1. Make sure you enter the registration name and code exactly as it appears in the confirmation email (capital letters if needed, no spaces in the code). eSellerate calls your registration code a "serial number"; it's still the code that you have to put in to the software. To avoid errors, you can use copy and paste to put the number into the registration fields.
2. Make sure your system clock is set to the correct current time.
3. For registration codes purchased through eSellerate, your computer must have internet access when you enter the code. The eSellerate system needs to "phone home" to activate the code.

Contact Snowmint Creative Solutions tech support if your registration code still does not work.

First, be sure you enter the registration code exactly as it's given to you; some letters/numbers look very similar. We recommend you use copy and paste to get the registration code into the proper field.

Once a registration code has been entered on a particular computer, it is good forever. However, the code has to be entered within a certain time period or it will expire. This is one way that we combat software piracy.

Contact Snowmint Creative Solutions tech support to receive a current registration code.

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Budget (Common)

You can not delete an envelope until all the transactions in the envelope have cleared the bank, and you have marked them as "Balanced." When all the transactions have been balanced you can then delete the envelope.

You could also delete any unbalanced transactions in the envelope, and then delete the envelope.

This error was more common in the first versions of Budget, but it is very rare now. The program double checks everything it does and both answers must agree. If not, you get an "Integrity Error." Quit the program without saving and contact tech support. Please describe the situation in as much detail as possible.

Yes. There is extensive HTML documentation available from the Help menu. There is also documentation in PDF format available as a separate download from the products' Documentation page. For registered users, there is also a PDF format file that allows you to print the documentation as a booklet.

No. The Budget files are platform specific; a Budget document file created on the PC can not be read on the Mac and vice versa. Cross platform document files are on our wish list, and we'll try to have them available in the future.

No. We have versions of Budget for Apple's Mac OS X and for Microsoft's Windows. We do not have a Palm or Linux version, and have no plans to create them at this time.

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Budget (Mac OS X)

Yes. Budget allows you to set the currency symbol to use for each document that you have. To set the currency symbol, use the Currency pane of the Budget preferences.

Budget supports any date format you can set using the System Preferences application. Use the International pane of System Preferences to set the language and date format you prefer.

Fresh installations of Mac OS X sometimes have a bad default short date format. This applies to new computers sold within the U.S., computers sold in other countries, and computers that have had Mac OS X recently installed. Our software detects this bad short date format and asks you to correct it. Apple Computer, Inc. is aware of the problem and is working on a fix for a future version of Mac OS X.

Follow these steps to fix your date format:

1. On 10.1 - 10.2.x: Open System Preferences, select the International pane, and switch to the Date tab.
   On 10.3 and later: Open System Preferences, select the International pane, switch to the Formats section, then click the "Customize..." date button.
2. On the Short Date section of the view, select a different format than you have now. Any different format will work.
3. Quit System Preferences to make sure that this change percolates through the system.
4. Open System Preferences, select the International pane, and set whatever date format you prefer to use.
5. Quit System Preferences; Budget and Budget Planner should launch with no warnings.

This is caused by showing Budget's help at least once, then moving the Budget application to a different location on your hard drive. Help Viewer is not following the moved application, and needs to be told to update it's list of application help.

You need to delete the Help Viewer cache files (which Help Viewer will rebuild as needed). Follow these steps to delete the cache files:

1. Make sure that Help Viewer is not running. If it is, quit Help Viewer.
2. In the Finder, open your ~/Library/Caches folder. The tilda (~) means your home folder.
3. Find and delete the folder named com.apple.helpui.
4. Run Budget and try the Budget Help command from the Help menu. The help files should display correctly.

Apple Computer, Inc. is aware of this problem on Mac OS X 10.3.x and earlier. You can read more about it on Apple's support web site:
Mac OS X: Can't access Help content, or content is blank or missing links

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Budget (Windows)

From the Microsoft web site: ".NET is the Microsoft Web services strategy to connect information, people, systems, and devices through software." It essentially lets developers build software that will work on Windows based computers and access a wide variety of services when needed. The .NET framework can be installed on Windows 98 and later systems. Most new computers come with .NET already installed.

You can easily check to see if you already have .NET installed. Go to the "Add/Remove Programs" Control Panel. The required piece will be listed there as "Microsoft .NET Framework" followed by a version number. Our Windows products require version 1.1 or higher of the .NET framework.

If you do not already have .NET, you can download it from Microsoft for free. Visit this web page and look for the "Download" button near the top right corner. Once the download is complete you will have to install the .NET framework by double-clicking the downloaded file (or by running the downloaded file). If you have any trouble installing or downloading the .NET framework, please contact Microsoft.

Yes. Budget uses the currency symbol and date format from the Regional and Language options Control Panel.

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Ultimate Pen

The short answer is "No, Ultimate Pen does not currently work on top of Keynote presentations."

During a presentation, Keynote takes over the entire screen using low level OpenGL calls. This locks out an entire class of applications that want to draw anything on screen as helpers or utilities including accessibility applications, alternate input managers, and apps like Ultimate Pen. Apple Computer Inc. is aware of this issue and should be making a change to the operating system and Keynote in the future to allow this class of applications to work with compliant full-screen apps. When the operating system supports it, we'll make any changes needed to Ultimate Pen to allow it to work properly in these situations.

There are other presentation applications available that do not lock out other apps, and Ultimate Pen does work with those.

Unfortunately, PowerPoint drops out of presentation mode when any other application is brought to the front. This makes it impossible for Ultimate Pen to allow drawing on screen during a PowerPoint presentation. You can activate Ultimate Pen's Click-Through mode to have your drawing visible on top of a PowerPoint presentation.

There are other presentation applications available that stay in presentation mode when Ultimate Pen comes to the front, and Ultimate Pen does work with those.

On 10.3 and later, Ultimate Pen works great on top of classic Mac OS applications. On 10.2.x, classic Mac OS applications sometimes fail to redraw their windows properly when Ultimate Pen is above them. If you want to use Ultimate Pen on top of classic Mac OS apps, we highly recommend updating to Mac OS 10.3 or later.

No. Ultimate Pen only works on Apple's Mac OS X v10.2 and later. We do not have a Palm, Linux, or Windows version, and have no plans to create them at this time.

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