The CD of Coastal Plants of the Royal National Park

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This FAQ page has some basic FAQ that support the online help included in the program, but also provides some answers to questions people have before deciding to purchase.

Buying / Ordering

1. Can I order using credit card?

A: No. Sorry, but at this stage we do not have credit card facilities. You can order by mail and pay using cheque or mail order. If you live locally you can also come to a meeting and buy over the counter. We have implemented a direct deposit facility so that you can now order over the net.

2. Can I buy it at the shops?

A: Yes, The CD is now available at selected shops in the Sutherland area. To see a list, go to Stockists .

General

3. Is this CD an audio or video CD (VCD)?

A: No, it’s neither. It is a CD-ROM which includes computer software, images and text to run on a personal computer. This software drives a graphical, searchable flora database of plants of the coastal area of the Royal National Park of NSW just south of Sydney Australia. To find more information, see About the CD.

4. Will this software run on my Mac?

A: No. At the moment this software is only for PC type computers (see Minimum System Requirements).

Installing

5. I have a DVD drive but no CD drive. Can I still install and use this software?

A: Yes. A DVD drive should read CDs.

6. When I put the CD in my CD drive, nothing happens. How can I start the installation?

A: Some systems do not permit auto-run on CDs. If this happens, leave the CD in the drive and go to the Start menu. Click on “Run...” and when the dialog box opens, if you know the drive letter of the CD drive, type in the field “d:\setup.exe” and click on the OK button. If the CD drive is not “d:”, then use the above filename, but change the CD drive letter from “d:” to the correct letter. If you do not know the CD drive letter, then click on "Browse" and from the pull down menu, next to “Look in:”, find the drive letter that corresponds to the CD drive. In the root directory, double click on the file setup.exe. This should start the setup process.

7. During the installation of one of the updates on the web, I get an error message that says something like <Cannot delete the old file XXX >. What does this mean and what should I do?

A: Typically it means
(a) the file was in use when you performed the upgrade.
To solve this probelem,
1. download the upgrade file, and save it somewhere on your computer.
2. restart your PC
3. attempt to (re)run the upgrade after startup without starting the RNP Plants application any other programs.
(b) permission problems.
If you are running on Windows XP Professional (or a version of Windows that allows multiple users), you need to have 'Administrator' privileges to delete some files. The way to get over it is to logon with an account that has Administrator privileges and (re)run the upgrade.The RNP Plants installer/upgrade package usually allows you to re-run the upgrade, so unless the upgrade notes specifically say so, don't be afraid to have another go at it.

If this doesn't work for you, contact us and we could mail you a CD with the latest version (including all updates), with instructions to remove the old version and load the new one.

8. During the installation, I get an error message like <XXX image>. What does this mean?

A: Generally it means the installation program could not write the necessary files to your hard-disk. This could be because you (a) don’t have enough free space on the disk, (b) you don’t have write permissions in the folder you selected (if you chose custom install) or you chose to install it to a disk or memory stick that has since been removed from the computer.

Licensing and Using

9. Once I’ve installed this software, do I have to put the CD back in the CD drive to run the program?

A: No. The installation process installs all necessary files onto your hard-disk so the program will operate without the CD being present. You just need to double-click on the desktop icon to start the program.

10. Does this mean I can install it and then give the CD to my friend?

A: No. You have purchased rights to use this software, text and images for your own personal use, and you cannot copy or distribute the software, text or images to any other person. This CD is the product of the efforts of a lot of people and the costs and efforts need to be recouped by the Sutherland Group of the Australian Plants Society.  The CD is priced at a very reasonable rate, and piracy should not be tolerated.

11. Can I print the plant photos?

A: Most of the text pages have print options. The photos do not.

12. What type and resolution are the photos?

A: Typically the photos are 600x800, so they are more than adequate for plant identification and they are aesthetically beautiful. They are not suitable for signficant enlargement but that is not the intention. The software and images had to be designed to operate with reasonable response on computers that are not the latest in speed, memory and power.

13. Once I’ve selected some plants based on their characteristics and clicked on the button "View Plants", how do I go back to browsing the full plant list without restarting the program?

A) While still in the Gallery tab, click on the radio button Display all plants as shown in the figure .

14. The program seems to be showing the full list of plants, not the ones I’ve selected based on the search criteria. How do I go back to viewing the plants matching the search criteria?

A: While still in the Gallery tab, click on the radio button Display search results.

Updates

15. What if there are updates to the software, images or text in the program?

A: Updates will be made available on the webpage CD Updates. Check here regularly for the latest updates to your programs.

More information

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