"It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly."
PageFour Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions asked by PageFour users are answered on this page. If you cannot find the answer to your question here, the Online Help is comprehensive and covers all aspects of the software.
- I lost my license key or I want to install PageFour onto a new PC.
- I have a question. How do I contact support?
- Where are my PageFour files stored on my PC?
- How do I move PageFour from my old PC to my new PC?
- Import Notebooks doesn't seem to be working. All I see is an empty dialog.
- What is the quickest way to backup my PageFour files?
- Which operating systems will PageFour run on?
- When is the next release of PageFour?
1. I lost my license key or I want to install PageFour onto a new PC.
PageFour is no longer under development. In December 2017 we released the software as a free download for anyone to install and use at no cost. Download the latest free version from this page and install it. No license is required.
2. I have a question. How do I contact support?
As of December 2017 PageFour is free software. You can no longer purchase a license, and support is no longer offered. User who purchased a license in 2017 are entitled to one year’s support and should contact us here.
3. Where are my PageFour files stored on my PC?
When you run PageFour for the first time, all your Notebooks and Pages, archives, and customised dictionaries are written to your own user-specific Windows Application Data folder. This location can be changed by you at any time. To identify the exact location of your files, open the Options dialog from the Tools menu, and click on the Miscellaneous button. The value stored under Location of Notebook Pages is where all your files are stored.
On machines running Windows Vista or Windows 7, the default location will be:
"C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\IMBT\PageFour\"
On Windows XP it will be:
"C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USERNAME\Application Data\IMBT\PageFour\"
Depending on your Windows file settings, this folder may not always be visible when browsing. If this is the case, open Windows Explorer, go to the Tools menu, select Folder Options, open the View tab, and make sure the Hidden Files and Folders setting is set to "Show hidden Files and Folders".
You can change this location at any time from the options dialog mentioned earlier. Before doing this, ensure that you are running the current version of PageFour: www.softwareforwriting.com/download
4. How do I move PageFour from my old PC to my new PC?
A common question from PageFour users is how to go about moving PageFour and all their Notebooks and Pages to another PC. It's a relatively straight forward process, though there are a few steps that need to be followed.
- Download and install the latest version of PageFour to your new PC.
- Did you set a PageFour password on your old PC? If the answer is yes, open the Password dialog on your new PC by selecting the 'Tools | Change Password' menu, and set the password so that it corresponds to the one on your old PC.
- On your new PC, open the Options dialog from the 'Tools | Options' menu, click on the Miscellaneous button, and make sure the Location of Notebook Pages value is the same as your old PC. (This step is not critical, but it will make the moving process less prone to human error)
- Close PageFour.
- Locate your PageFour files folder on your old PC - see Question 3 above.
- Copy this folder in its entirety from your old machine to the same location on your new machine. When prompted by Windows, simply agree to overwrite any existing files or folders with the same name.
- Reopen PageFour on your new PC. All your old Notebooks and Pages will appear, and all customized dictionaries and archives will be in place.
- Two default Notebooks, 'First Novel' and 'My Notebook' will have been created when PageFour was installed on your new PC. These can be deleted at any time.
5. Import Notebooks doesn't seem to be working. All I see is an empty dialog.
One of the more common problems people have using PageFour is figuring out the Import / Export process, a feature most often used to synchronize PageFour Notebooks or Pages across two or more PCs. This section of the PageFour help outlines how to go about Exporting and Importing.
www.softwareforwriting.com/help/import_export
A common mistake made by users is to set about importing Notebooks, only to stop when they find an empty Archive or Import dialog. This is caused by selecting the wrong folder to import.
When you're importing, you need to select the top level folder that you previously exported to. For example: if you exported to a folder on your flash drive called "H:\My Files\, when you go to import, you should also select "H:\My Files\" and NOT the dated sub-folder within this folder.
The Archive / Import manager will then show all exports in this folder for you to chose from, named by date. If you regularly export to and from a flash drive, you may have a wide selection of different PageFour Exports to chose from.
Every time a user has a problem importing, it's down to not selecting the root folder when they import, as outlined above, and trying to do it manually by searching for the individual file they want to import.
Remember, there are two import options in PageFour: Import Documents, which imports external files (Word docs and such), and Import Notebooks, which imports anything you have previously exported out of PageFour. In this case, it is the second of these two options you need to use, not the first.
6. What is the quickest way to backup my PageFour files?
If all you wish to do is take a copy of your existing Notebooks, the quickest method is to go to the Tools menu and select Export Notebooks. This will copy all your current Notebooks and Pages to a location of your choosing for easy backup. In the case of a thumb drive, it will perform the entire backup for you, whereas if you are backing up to CD, exporting to a recognized backup folder on your local machine may help speed up the process.
7. Which operating systems will PageFour run on?
PageFour runs on all Windows operating system from XP onwards, including Vista and Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit). Some users have reported running PageFour on Linux (Wine), but this is not something we have investigated ourselves, so we cannot comment on how it performs. There is no Mac version of PageFour.
8. When is the next release of PageFour?
PageFour is no longer being updated. The software is old and has reached the end of its development life. There will be no new releases of PageFour. If you are looking for newer software similar to PageFour, I recommend Atomic Scribbler, our latest software for writers.