Using Cardbox on CrossOver Mac

For other articles in this series, see the Mac section of the Knowledge Base.

Cardbox is a Windows program. CrossOver Mac is an implementation of the Windows interface on Mac OS. It is mostly a good implementation, but there are still differences. This page describes how these differences will affect you as a Cardbox user.

Starting Cardbox

CrossOver creates a Cardbox icon in its own application folder. If you are using Cardbox often, you can drag this icon to the Dock.

You can also start Cardbox by opening CrossOver's Programs menu and selecting Cardbox from the list.

As with Windows, you can start Cardbox by double-clicking on a Cardbox workspace file (.cbw) or database file (.fil).

Function keys

Your Mac's keyboard has icons on the function keys, showing what actions they perform on Mac OS. For instance, on the iMac, F2 makes the screen brighter and F1 makes it dimmer.

How does your Mac decide whether F1 means "ask Mac OS to dim the screen" or "ask Cardbox for help"?

System Preferences

There is a setting in System Preferences that controls which is the primary meaning of the function keys. This setting is accessible through the Keyboard page of the Hardware: Keyboard & Mouse preferences.

"Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as function keys" OFF:: F1 is interpreted as a Mac OS command. To send F1 to Cardbox, hold down the "fn" key on the keyboard and then press F1.
"Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as function keys" ON:: F1 is interpreted as a Cardbox command. To send F1 to Mac OS, hold down the "fn" key on the keyboard and then press F1.

The F12 key

You may find difficulty with using the F12 key to display an image field in Cardbox. Even when you have avoided the Mac OS meaning of "increase speaker volume", you may find the Dashboard popping up. This is controlled by the Keyboard Shortcuts page of the Hardware: Keyboard & Mouse preferences. You have two choices:

You can remove the F12 entry from the Keyboard Shortcuts page.
You can give up the use of F12 in Cardbox. To display the image, use View > Full Screen, or the toolbar button; to return to the main record display, hit the Esc key (or use the toolbar button).

Add/Remove Programs

If you need to configure the licensing of Cardbox - for instance, to turn licence borrowing on and off - our standard instructions tell you to use Add/Remove Programs in the Windows control panel. The CrossOver environment has no equivalent to Add/Remove Programs. Instead, in CrossOver, use Configure > Manage Bottles. Select the correct bottle from the list on the left, select Cardbox 3 from the list on the right, and press the button marked "Repair or Remove".

Printing and scanning

We have experimented with printing, and this seems to work, though it may depend on various factors and you should try it out for yourself. Scanning directly into Cardbox under CrossOver is not possible because useful implementation of the Twain scanner interface is provided.

Talk to us!

This is still an experimental project, so the more feedback we get, the better. To let us know your experiences, visit the Cardbox Everywhere blog. Go to the Feedback page (listed under Pages in the links on the right), and add a comment to it. Everyone will be able to read what you write, so you will be helping the whole Cardbox community.