Sidekick 98: Printing labels

[Richard9222]

The (very) old Sidekick 98 was and still is the best PIM ever. I now have it up and running on my desktop under Windows 10. Looks great, thanks to help I got here and elsewhere, runs great... except for one very important function. Printing labels. I can print a cardfile or a whole lot of card files, but I can't get to the areas where I can create and print a label from a cardfile. Whenever I try, the program thinks for a moment or three and then crashes as if I clicked the X in the upper right corner.

I have tried a lot of alternatives for this reason and they all turn out to be dog poo compared to Sidekick. Has anyone out there had this problem and fixed it? I'd love to hear from you.
Richard9222

 

[KaraChow]

Richard9222 I've been using Sidekick 98 from its inception /thru every incarnation of Windows and now using Windows 10 Pro/ 64 bit.
Its had its quirks but Tek-Tips advice has kept it successfully running. (As an aside if you are going to use alongside a web browser open Sidekick first, then the browser.) Back to printing a label or labels. Questions I'm afraid first.
Can I assume you have set up 1. Choose printing style template and 2. Choose contents to print within dropdown = File / Print / Labels /Style Template + Contents to print. Thus this far you can see the Preview?

Let me know if you are getting this far. If not will try and walk you thru ... how far are you getting?

 

[james33]

Dear KaraChow and Richard9222

Believe it or not, I too am getting the same error. Running SK98 on Windows10 64 bit Pro.

I have tried (when Sidekick is not running) moving the Label layout file skwlb2.skw in the Sidekick98\Data folder onto the desktop to encourage Sidekick to recreate it the next time it started, but no luck!
If anyone has a solution to this I would appreciate a heads up.
For me it isn't too serious as I'm retired, but it is and was, a very useful tool when I was at work and it probably still is for many.

It happens as soon as you select File/Print/Label or the Envelope option or Address Book
Thanks in advance for any help
Jim

Regards Jim
Check the FAQ area of any Forum you are in for answers to similar queries, it could save you a lot of time and effort! Good Luck!

 

[KaraChow]

James33 I have just copied skwlb2.skw to my desktop (not tried that before)and Sidekick opened fully from double clicking. Have you ensured the file is not Read Only in properties? In my Sidekick the Data folder is Read Only but the label file is NOT Read Only as attached.

Let me know if not successful and I will look elsewhere for possible cause.
KaraChow

 

[KaraChow]

James33 ..I saved this text sometime ago from another contributor. This maybe where I got the previous tip from.

I don't know if this will fix your INSTALL failure, but a friend who also uses Sidekick 98 upgraded from a WinXP system to a Win7 system. After installing Sidekick 98 on that new system, the data changes to the new Sidekick 98 install could not be saved. I checked to be certain that the userdata folder & files were not read only, but the data could not be saved (and it DID NOT COMPLAIN that the data was not being saved).
Reinstalled Sidekick 98 in the root of C: (C:\Starfish\Sidekick 98) rather than the normal install location, C:\Program Files (x86)\Starfish\Sidekick 98.
After that install, the Sidekick 98 data saved with no problems.
IMPORTANT!: Sidekick 98 setup.exe has to be "Run as Administrator" to install correctly.
Sidekick will not load on many machines if you have Opera or Chrome running, just exit those programs and open Sidekick and then re-open them.