Knowledge Base

Installation

A sample network installation: The installation of a straightforward network a step-by-step guide.
Upgrading database sharing from Cardbox 2.0: The way that databases are shared is different in Cardbox 3 and in earlier versions of Cardbox. This guide shows you how to convert a working Cardbox 2.0 installation to a working Cardbox 3 installation with minimal disruption to users.
Installing Cardbox on CrossOver Mac: A step-by-step guide to installing Cardbox on an Apple Macintosh that has CrossOver Mac installed. More Macintosh articles are here.
Moving Cardbox to a new computer: When you move from an old computer to a new one, you need to move your Cardbox databases and also other settings such as macros. This article tells you what needs to be moved and how to find it.

"Access or permission denied": ...when a second user tries to open a shared database across a network.
Why is my menu item grey?: You try to use a command but you find that the menu item is greyed out and you can't select it. This article tells you how to find out why this is happening.
Crashes with IN_PAGE_ERROR: The error code C0000006 (IN_PAGE_ERROR) indicates that your network has failed. This article gives an explanation of what is going on.

An image field is unexpectedly read-only: You have just created an image field, and Cardbox is behaving as if the field were read-only. Here is a simple explanation and a simple cure.
Importing PDF files as images into a Cardbox image field: This requires you to download and install the Ghostscript interpreter, which is free software: the article gives you full instructions.
Sample database: photographic archive on Amazon S3: This article, with its accompanying download, gives you a database that you can use as a photographic archive. The database itself stores miniature copies of your photographs, and the original (high-resolution) image files are stored in Amazon's S3 online storage service, from where you can download them whenever you need them.
Converting fractal images to JPEG: This article presents a macro for converting images that were originally stored using Fractal compression (a compression mode offered as an option in Cardbox 2.0) to JPEG, and explains when you might need to convert them.
Non-image files: Cardbox can store more than just images. Any file at all can be stored into an image field, for later display or retrieval. This makes it much easier to use Cardbox as an archive.

Sending emails directly from Cardbox: A summary of the available ways of sending emails from Cardbox. It covers both using Cardbox directly and using your own email program. It describes sending records in a single email or doing bulk email with one email per record.
Customising the built-in email commands: The File > Send As Email and Tools > Bulk Email commands can be customised. The Cardbox help file gives some examples of customisations: this page shows you a few more possibilities.

Help with writing macros: Sources of information and advice if you want to write macros yourself, and suggestions for where to get help if you'd prefer someone else to do the work.
Macro example: getting the indexed words from a field: A macro fragment that you can incorporate into macros of your own when you want to extract just the indexed words from a field.
Macro example: removing old backups from Amazon S3: The Cardbox Server does not delete old backups: if you set it up to make separate daily backups of your databases to Amazon S3 then the backups will accumulate until you do something about them. This macro deletes all old backups, retaining only the most recent backup of each file.
Controlling Adobe Reader: Macro fragments that let you open an Acrobat/PDF file in Adobe Reader and go to a specific page number or bookmark.
Online databases: getting data from Amazon: Using Amazon's free service to retrieve book data given the book's ISBN. Includes a downloadable sample macro and database.
How macro safety settings are stored: If you are responsible for a network then you may want to set up your users' macro safety settings for them. This article explains how macro safety settings are stored in the Windows registry.

Moving the Cardbox Server from one server to another
Running the Cardbox Server on a workstation: Sometimes, either for technical or management reasons, it is not possible to run the Cardbox Server on the computer on which the database files are stored. This article describes how to run the Cardbox Server on a different computer.
Using the Cardbox Server under Linux
Filenames of Amazon S3 Backups

Upgrading from Cardbox 3.0 to Cardbox 3.1: Cardbox 3.1 is fully compatible with Cardbox 3.0. However, since Cardbox 3.1 is licence-free, the use of access codes (for encryption and password-protection) has changed. This article also covers the licensing implications of mixing Cardbox 3.0 and Cardbox 3.1 in the same system.

Changing licences after installation: Changing the serial number, size or location of a licence after the initial installation.
Read-only licences: How to make your databases accessible to people with read-only network licences.

Cardbox 2.0 technical articles: All the technical articles for older versions of Cardbox for Windows, up to and including Cardbox 2.0.

Ways of using Cardbox on the Mac: Boot Camp, Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and CrossOver Mac.
Installing Cardbox on CrossOver Mac: A step-by-step guide.
Using Cardbox on CrossOver Mac: How using Cardbox on CrossOver Mac differs from using Cardbox on Windows, and what to do about the differences.

Printing mailing labels: A beginner's guide, with step-by-step instructions.
Using Cardbox with Chinese, Japanese and Korean: How to configure Cardbox to handle ideographic languages; and the limitations.
How to rename a database
Recovering from a lost master password