How to avoid corrupting a book

1. Keep an accurate backup. I usually keep three days worth of backups.
2. Test your application after every revision. I visit every page after a revision to the book.
3. Make sure you have plenty of hard drive space in the temp directory of your computer. If you run out of hard drive space you can corrupt the cache file ToolBook uses. When you save a book the corrupt cache file saved in the book file.
4. Never, copy a questionable book over any backup.
5. Use reliable drivers in Windows. Be sure that you have the current video driver for your video card.

To fix corruption try the following steps:

1. Save the book to a new file name using the save as menu item from the file menu. If you have MTB 3.0 turn on CD-ROM optimization in the save as dialog box.
2. Get a copy of mtb3xfer.exe from the Asymetrix on-line services. This compressed file contains mtb3xfer.tbk. Mtb3xfer.tbk builds a new book from an existing book. It's helpful for fixing up problematic books.
3. Import the book using the import menu item from the file menu. Rebuild any parts of the book that you cannot import.
4. Contact Asymetrix technical support for help on resolving the problems with the file.

 
Dave Kester
Asymetrix

What Causes Corrpution

I'm going to go off on a tangent and answer this question in an indirect way and then in a direct way.

If you have a corrupt book, please send it to Asymetrix Technical Support. We cannot fix a problem that we do not know about, and the best way to address a customer's problem is by having a reproduce case. Corrupted ToolBook files can be created in a number of ways, and there is no way we can know a priori what these methods are. (For those of you who read too much into my posts, this is meant as a funny, not as a "we know everything and we're not going to tell you" message.) We do try, though.

Corruption in ToolBook 1.5 was not unknown, and we've worked spent a lot of time trying to fix it in TBK/MTBK 3.0. We've found that corruption occurs much less frequently in MTBK 3.0A than in prior versions of ToolBook. The 'Save As to a new filename' solution actually works fairly well. It is not, as you term it, a fall back solution. Save As does garbage collecting on the ToolBook file, where Save does not. This is an intentional design, not a 'bug', for those of you interested. ToolBook, at the very base level, is a database, and ANY database that isn't cleaned up over time eventually becomes corrupted. Using Save As with the CD-ROM Optimized switch on is even better. Our fall backs are importing the corrupted file into an untitled instance, and the fixer program you mentioned.

Here are a list of things to do and not do:

• Don't shut your machine off in the middle of a save. (I know, like, duh.)
• Don't use corrupted fonts
• Don't use corrupted graphics
• Do use 'Save As to a new file name' on a consistent basis. If you're working full time with ToolBook, do this a couple of times a day.
• Do save backups (Truly, it is amazing to me the number of "software professionals" who don't do this, regardless of the software product being used.)
• Check hardrive space. If you're close to running out, delete some old files. Saving a ToolBook file when there isn't enough room on the hardrive can corrupt the file.

Dave Hardwick
Asymetrix