Micrografx Picture Publisher 10

Picture Publisher has many adherents, being easy to use and quite powerful. It was bought by Corel and has been called “abandonware”; it appears that Corel bought it up only to kill it off. It is supposed to be downloadable e.g. from the vetusware.com download page but this has not been verified. There is listed Picture Publisher 10.1, English version for Windows 9x/ME. These notes refer to the CD version reporting as 10.0 Build 10.1 (though the .txt file is named 10.1). This CD version requires a serial number on install.

Volume in drive E is MICROGRAFX_PP10
Directory of E:\MPP10

06/07/14  12:51         <DIR>          .
06/07/14  12:51         <DIR>          ..
11/10/01  15:20                  5,583 Micrografx Picture Publisher 10.1.txt
11/10/01  15:20             65,376,768 setup.exe

PP10 runs on Windows NT, XP and most if not all Windows versions. For more modern Windows versions, it is run in a 32-bit compatibility box. The installer is 16-bit. More details are on kitchencloset.com.

The utility below (14kb) solves a problem where on installation, PP10 knocks out printing and/or Ctrl-F from Internet Explorer and/or Outlook Express. Run it straight after installing PP10. It is just a simple patch to the registry. (Right click and ‘Save as...’)

ieregfix.exe

There is another patch MPPupdate.zip which replaces a Microsoft DLL mfc32.dll for a Micrografx one igx43.dll, but there's little or no information on what problem it is supposed to solve. It has never seemed necessary for NT4 and XP SP3, but in case of problems with later operating systems it can be tried. Again, further details are on kitchencloset.com.

Marantz PMD570 Rack-Mount Audio Recorder

Support files for this recorder are not readily available so they are provided here.

In common with many (all?) other audio recorders using CF cards, the PMD570 is quite fussy about which manufacter’s cards it will accept. CF cards by Lexar, Sandisk and Transcend have been reported to be okay. Integral cards don’t work. Models of the PMD570 with early firmware may only accept 2Gb cards, otherwise the maximum is probably 4Gb.

To download these files, right click and choose ‘Save as...’

PMD570 User Manual

PMD570 Application Software

The software drives a serial port allowing remote control via a control panel on the screen. The program is quite simple and ‘portable’ in that it does not require installation, and thus will likely work on other versions of Windows besides XP. Details of the serial connection are given in the manual. For transferring audio files (i.e. recordings), the rear USB connection can be used. Recordings can be copied to a computer when the recorder is put into file mode. To enter file mode, connect via USB then hold down the MENU/STORE button while turning the PMD570 on. (This is different than on the PMD580.)

Notwithstanding these provisions, a tip: if something has “Professional” on its front panel, it isn’t. These units are not particularly robust. Particularly on the PMD580 it seems, there is a problem of the silver finish flaking off the main control knob with use, which rather proves my point. Notwithstanding the notwithstanding, if any other useful information turns up it will be posted here.