Carla,

Unfortunately, it sounds like your project file has been corrupted. If you are able to open other projects with no problem, it does not appear to be an issue with the program. So, that really just leaves the project that you are trying to open.

You can try to boot the computer into Safe Mode and open the project file there. I doubt it will make any difference, but it is something else you can try. Other than that, there is not really anything that can be done to "force" the program to open the file if there is a problem with the file.

This is a problem that I have consistently with Print Artist Platinum 24.  For no apparent reason, a new project that I begin will crash the entire program when I try to save it.  The message is "Print Artist Platinum 24 has stopped working.  A problem has caused the program to stop working corrrectly.  Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available."  There is never any help offered.  I reopen the program, and then try to reopen the new project, which is listed, and it crashes again.  I am not importing anything new.  I am copying and pasting from other projects.  This is not acceptable.  I often have to start over from scratch and there is no guarantee it will save correctly the next time.  This is a bug in the program.  You need to correct it.  I have noticed many questions about this in my search through customer support.  It is not us, it is the program!!  do we need to switch to Adobe products??

Edith,

Though the end result is the same as Carla's the root of the problem is something else. It is crashing on her only when opening that one project. It is crashing on you when sometimes trying to save a project or when opening a project that caused the program to crash when saving. These are two separate issues.

I understand how this may appear to be a problem with the software. However, this is not necessarily the case. Problems caused by the program are typically ones that are repeatable. This means that if you performed actions A you end up with results B. No matter how may times you repeat actions A you end up with results B. If someone else were to try actions A, they would also end up with results B.

The problem you are experiencing does not match that scenario. From your description, the crashing when saving is intermittent. It is not happening each and every time you are saving a project. This means that something is different between the times that is does save properly and when it crashes. So some action by either you or the computer is different in those instances where it crashes versus when it does not.

Now, none of this is to say that there are zero faults in the program. There may very well be something in the program that is reacting strangely to something you/your computer is doing or some setting on your computer that is different from the norm. Even so, this involves only a few people that are experiencing this sort of problem. The majority of people do not have any problems saving projects or opening projects. So, yes, there may be an issue with the program, but if so, it is only showing up on rare instances. In this case, the instances refer to the installations and not the number of times each person has the problem.

As of this time, the developers have not pinpointed any sort of problem with the program. They are unable to duplicate this issue on any of the computers they have tested the program on. Without understanding the cause of the problem, they are unable to fix the problem.

So, can you think of anything that you may be doing differently between the times that it crashes on saving and when it does not crash on saving? This could be something that you are doing in the program or outside of the program. Can think of any other programs that may be running in the background, or not running, versus when it crashes? Is there anything at all that you can think of that is different? If we can pinpoint what may be different, it may help determine what is causing the program to crash on saving.

I am not concerned about the crashing when opening those projects because I am fairly certain they became corrupted when it crashed on saving it. The root cause of your issue is the crashing when saving. Once you get that resolved, any projects you save after it has been fixed should not crash when opening them.

I am having the same problems with crashing. At some point while creating a brochure, it will all of a sudden crash showing the message Edith described. I sometimes can continue to work on the brochure but will not save any additions or will crash when I click an area. I had to start over with a brand new brochure. While playing around to see if I could find what may be causing the crashing, when reopening a saved project, I immediately click save. Then clicking on the thumbnail pages to open, I came across one page that I was working on before crashing, and it is showing and outline the same size below the page I am viewing. A little more searching and if you click on the Layers link, you can click the check box to make the layer outline to not show. This does nothing to keep the software from crashing. I think that this layer outline is somehow sticking and causing the program to crash. I guess I will have to start over again!!!

The software has to have a problem or so many others would not be having the same problem.

I haven't tried it, but maybe renaming the layer and then deleting it might have some effect.

I finally got my brochure made after about the 4th try without crashing.

Jim,

As I mentioned to Edith, there very well may be something with the program running on your computer. However, by itself, this problem does not exist. When the software is tested by the developers, they start with "clean" computers. This just means a computer that has copy of Windows on it with all the current updates for Windows. There are no other programs installed on the computer. In this environment, the program does not crash. No matter what the developers have tried to do, they cannot get the program to crash randomly or when saving projects. So, the issue is not a "bug" in a sense that this is something solely to do with the program.

Of course, customers do not run the program on "clean" computers. This is where problems may start appearing. Perhaps the people that are experiencing identical issues all happen to have some other program installed on their computer. Or possibly, their computers were made by the same company and the company made some changes to Windows. Or perhaps they all had some sort of similar corruption/change made to their Windows installation. There could be a number of causes for problems like these. For those issues, we have to first identify those that are having an identical issue and then look to see what other similarities they may share.

I understand that it seems like a lot of people are experiencing the same problem, but this is not necessarily the case. The problem you are experiencing is different than the one that either Edith or Carla reported. Carla's issue is the program crashing when only opening one particular project. Edith's issue is the program crashing when trying to save projects. Your issue is that the program is crashing randomly on you while working with a project. Yes, the end result is that the program crashes, but the cause of the crash is the important point.

To put it a different way, imagine that you could not start your car one morning. Then, you go online and see other people have reported problems starting their car over the last couple of months. This does not mean that the reason you cannot start your car is the same reason why those other people could not start their cars. Perhaps one person's car battery died. Another person's car may be out of gas. For another person, there may be a short in their electrical system. For another person, maybe their starter went out. The end result for each one is that the car does not start, but the cause of the issue is not the same. It is not necessarily a defect with the car, it is something affecting the car's ability to start.

Regarding the additional information you provided, thank you for providing this. I do have some questions, though. What precisely did you mean by "it is showing and outline the same size below the page I am viewing"? I do not understand what you are trying to describe here. Could you re-word it for me?

Also, I am not sure how you reached the conclusion that the problem has to do with layers. Perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying about it. From what you wrote, you said that showing/hiding does not do anything to prevent the program from crashing. What led you to think that it is causing the program to crash?

What I meant about the same problem was the crashing. This is the only software that I have had problems with on my computer. And I understand others were have crashing problems related to other operations.

As I said in my original post: While playing around to see if I could find what may be causing the crashing, when reopening a saved project, I immediately click save. Then clicking on the thumbnail pages to open, I came across one page that I was working on before crashing, and it is showing and outline the same size below the page I am viewing. What I am saying is, there was an outline the same size as the page of the brochure I was working on just below the blank page of the brochure. If you click on the Layers Properties icon in the upper right corner above the ruler and uncheck the Visible box, it made the outline of the brochure page invisible. My thinking was that it was a layer that was freezing for some reason and causing the program to freeze and crash. I got through the brochure about the 4th time and got it completed without any crashing.

Jim,

I understand that the program is crashing on you and for other people. The problem with this is that it is not crashing while performing the same action for everyone. As such, we cannot assume that the cause of the crashing is going to be the same for everyone. The cause may very well be the same for every issue, but we cannot assume that. If we assumed that and they have unrelated causes, we would never identify each cause. For the time being, we have to assume that these are separate unrelated issues.

Where is this outline appearing? That is appearing in the main design area in the center of the screen, correct? Or is that appearing in the thumbnail views on the bottom of the screen?

Also, is this brochure project with the outline one that you started from scratch? Or was this one of the pre-designed brochures? If it was a pre-designed brochure, which brochure did you start with?

It sounds like the brochure that displays an outline was a previously saved project. I suspect that this was a project that you were working on when it crashed at some point previously. I think the crash may have corrupted that project which is causing this outline to appear. When you say that you got through the brochure the 4th time, is that brochure the one that was displaying that outline? Or was that a new brochure that you started and completed without it crashing?

My basic question is - why does Print Artist 24 crash so much?  Maybe it is not the exact thing every time, or for each person that is having the problem, but it is crashing - a lot - for all of us!  I just tried to revise some wording on a brochure that I printed perfectly this morning, and it crashed when I tried to save it.  Not only did I lose my revisions, I lost my original brochure!!!  I did not import anything new, I did not do anything out of the ordinary, I just retyped some words!!  This really is unacceptable, don't you think?  Why do so many projects just get "corrupted" - for no reason - as you say?

Edith,

The software may be crashing for you and the other people that are reporting problems, but it is not crashing for everyone. I personally have used the program for months and I have yet to see it crash on my system. I have a second system where it is used less frequently but installed just as long and have never seen it crash there, either.

The issues that you and others are experiencing are limited to those systems. As to what is causing the problem, I cannot say without further troubleshooting.

The causes for programs crashing are many and varied. It could be something that is installed on your computer. It could be multiple things that are installed on the computer at the same time. It could be multiple things that are installed in a specific order on your system. It could be something that is running in the background while you are using the program. It could be multiple items running in the background at the same time. It could be some sort of update to some other program that was installed at some point. It could be some sort of change that deviates from the norm in your Windows installation. It could be an update to Windows. It could be multiple updates to Windows performed in a certain order. It could be the way Windows was installed on your system. It could be your specific version of Windows. It could be changes made by the computer manufacturer to the system. It could be an outdated or updated driver on your system. It could be a virus on the computer. It could be a corrupted file on your computer. It could be something that was previously installed on the computer, but left remainder files/settings after it was uninstalled. It could be an action you are taking in the program. It could be a series of actions in a specific order that you are taking in the program. It could be a font that you have installed on your system. It could be type of graphic you are using in the program. It could be caused by many more things that do not immediately come to my mind. It could be a combination of any of the above.

If I knew what was causing these problems, I would tell you. There are many posts that I have made that clearly outline problems with various programs and what solutions, if any, are available for those problems. I am not trying to hide anything from you or others. It is simply that I have no idea why this is happening. This is why troubleshooting is necessary.

Regarding your question as to why projects are becoming corrupt, I believe this is only happening with projects that are open when the program crashes. This is just speculation on my part. I think that since the files are in an open state when it crashes, it is unable to save the changes to the file or close out the file during the crash. So, when you try to access the file again after the crash, it cannot be opened since it is in an unfinished state from before the crash.

I never heard back from you regarding my last series of questions. Could you go over these and answer them for me?

Can you think of anything that you may be doing differently between the times that it crashes on saving and when it does not crash on saving? This could be something that you are doing in the program or outside of the program. Can think of any other programs that may be running in the background, or not running, versus when it crashes? Is there anything at all that you can think of that is different?