Snapshot Viewer No Longer Available

[James Brown]

Hi,

The Microsoft website states (at
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Snpvw90.aspx ) that the Snapshot
Viewer is no longer available. We have an Access 2K application that sends
out reports in Snap format, and this application is used by over 100
companies. Can we provide the Snapshot Viewer to download from our website,
or is this illegal? If so, how can our users allow their users to view the
reports they are sending out?

I know Microsoft have done stuff like this in the past, but this seems
completely irresponsible as it puts us in a situation where we have promised
a service to our users that we now cannot provide.

Thanks for any advice,

Jamie.

 

[Rick Brandt]

Hi,

The Microsoft website states (at
http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Snpvw90.aspx ) that the Snapshot
Viewer is no longer available. We have an Access 2K application that sends
out reports in Snap format, and this application is used by over 100
companies. Can we provide the Snapshot Viewer to download from our website,
or is this illegal? If so, how can our users allow their users to view the
reports they are sending out?

I know Microsoft have done stuff like this in the past, but this seems
completely irresponsible as it puts us in a situation where we have promised
a service to our users that we now cannot provide.

This smells funny to me. I wonder if they lost an infringement suit or something and
were required to remove the download. I can't think of any other reason for them to
withdraw it (especially with no explanation).

 

[Chris Sergent]

Purchase Data Beck PDF producer for 49.95 and send your
reports out via PDF. You can distribute reader free of
charge.

If you want to automate the process, you should buy Adobe
Acrobat 5.0 or later full version for about 249.99 per
license. I have integrated this with MS Access and
GroupWise e-mail sharing with users all over the state of
Illinois at the cost of one license.

 

[Stephen Lebans]

James I have asked our Access MVP lead to look into this issue. As soon
as I hear anything I will post back to this thread.
--

HTH
Stephen Lebans
http://www.lebans.com
Access Code, Tips and Tricks
Please respond only to the newsgroups so everyone can benefit.

 

[James Brown]

Hi,

I was thinking it may be something along those lines too, but its odd that
it should come up now - from what I can gather the snap format hasn't
changed for 6 years.

Cheers,

Jamie.

 

[James Brown]

Hi,

I can certainly see that PDF is the way to go. But we were hoping to
migrate it slowly, as a new release costs a lot of money!

Thanks for your tips on the available software - I'll look into both.

Jamie.

 

[James Brown]

Thanks Stephen - that sounds great.

James I have asked our Access MVP lead to look into this issue. As soon
as I hear anything I will post back to this thread.
--

HTH
Stephen Lebans
http://www.lebans.com
Access Code, Tips and Tricks
Please respond only to the newsgroups so everyone can benefit.

 

[Stephen Lebans]

James I see in another post that someone posted the URL to the SNapshot
app:

Hi,

you can download the file here:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSLFILES/

the file you are looking for is called SnpVw90.exe. It's
still there 'cos I just looked )

hth

chas

-----Original Message-----
Has microsoft stopped supporting Snapshot Viewer? I have
just tried to download it from Microsofts site, but the
page has been removed.
.

--

HTH
Stephen Lebans
http://www.lebans.com
Access Code, Tips and Tricks
Please respond only to the newsgroups so everyone can benefit.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

Here is one great pdf maker/printer driver.

It is absolutely Free,

And free means no watermarks, no nag screens, no annoying Popup
advertisements, no time limits etc.

It is also very fast, and works very well. I highly recommend it.

http://www.acrosoftware.com/products/cutepdf/Printer.asp

 

[Stephen Lebans]

It is strange Rick. Snapshot files are basically a standard printer
Spool file, that is a series of compressed Enhanced Metafiles.
THe only patenable issue would involve the compression/decompression of
the Metafiles which is accomplished with a call such as :

lngRet = SetupDecompressOrCopyFile(strPathandFileName,
strEMFUncompressed, 0&)

THe API declare is:
Private Declare Function SetupDecompressOrCopyFile _
Lib "setupAPI" _
Alias "SetupDecompressOrCopyFileA" ( _
ByVal SourceFileName As String, _
ByVal TargetFileName As String, _
ByVal CompressionType As Integer) As Long

Since this function is part of the older operating system Setup libs I
would think that MS would not run into any patent issues in this area.
Hopefully they are simply upgrading the Snapshot format and have to
modify the SNapshot viewer application!

--

HTH
Stephen Lebans
http://www.lebans.com
Access Code, Tips and Tricks
Please respond only to the newsgroups so everyone can benefit.

 

[James Brown]

Stephen et al,

Thanks for that - I've yet to manage to get connected to ftp.microsoft.com
(I keep getting time out errors!) but its something to bear in mind for the
moment. I can't help worrying though that this is mainly an oversight on
Microsoft's behalf rather than a permanent solution.

I'm currently trying with the Microsoft Technical Support line at the moment
(mainly to see if I can distribute it on our website to our clients) and
they say that they will get back to me. I'll let you know how that goes.

Cheres,

Jamie.

 

[James Brown]

Hi all,

MS Technical Support have got back to me and told me that its ok to
distribute the Snapshot Viewer on our site. (I even asked for it in
writing!)

That seems to be a solution... Still no idea why they removed it though!

Thanks for all your help.

Jamie.

 

[Rick Brandt]

It is strange Rick. Snapshot files are basically a standard printer
Spool file, that is a series of compressed Enhanced Metafiles.
THe only patenable issue would involve the compression/decompression of
the Metafiles which is accomplished with a call such as :

lngRet = SetupDecompressOrCopyFile(strPathandFileName,
strEMFUncompressed, 0&)

THe API declare is:
Private Declare Function SetupDecompressOrCopyFile _
Lib "setupAPI" _
Alias "SetupDecompressOrCopyFileA" ( _
ByVal SourceFileName As String, _
ByVal TargetFileName As String, _
ByVal CompressionType As Integer) As Long

Since this function is part of the older operating system Setup libs I
would think that MS would not run into any patent issues in this area.
Hopefully they are simply upgrading the Snapshot format and have to
modify the SNapshot viewer application!

At any rate, it's nice that the FTP site still has it. I wonder if they just missed
that and we'll be seeing it vanish from there as well?

 

[James Brown]

Hi,

I don't think it copes very well internationally - I constantly get timeout
errors when trying to connect to the site using my FTP client.

Jamie.