QslDesignAndPrint Updates

Version 1.6.12

Enhancement

  • Added support for non-standard callsign SX1912.
  • Added a general exception catch around the program to catch exceptions that are not otherwise caught by the program. Exception information is written to the log file and a message is displayed to inform the user what to do with the information.
  • The message that is displayed during a printing request when the paper size is smaller than the card size has been enhanced to list the size of the card and the paper size reported by the printer driver.

Version 1.6.10

Bug Fix

  • An unreported bug in the QslBureaus definitions resulted in calls that should have sorted for the W8 bureau being identified as having no bureau. This has been fixed.

Version 1.6.8

Bug Fix

  • Bug #17 - Font names in the fonts ComboBoxes are no longer displayed in their font faces. This is a workaround for a problem in .Net that causes the program to abort when malformed fonts are used to display ComoBox items. Note that the fonts can still be selected and text will still be displayed in those fonts, but the ComboBox items cannot be displayed in those fonts.

Enhancements

  • Font names are sorted alphabetically within the fonts ComboBoxes. This enhancement was added to help in debugging Bug #17.
  • Support for non-standard callsign LM9L40Y has been added.
  • Bureaus for Albania, Côte d'Ivoire and Marshall Islands have been been removed; these bureaus have closed.

Version 1.6.6

Bug Fix

  • Bug #16 - Calls such as U1AQ are now being issued by Russian authorities. The QSL Bureaus sort routine has been modified to assign these calls to the Russian QSL bureau.

Version 1.6.4

Bug Fix

  • Bug #15 - Added support for non-standard callsigns BM100, BN100, BO100, BP100, BQ100, BU100, BV100, BW100, and BX100.

Version 1.6.2

Bug Fix

  • Bug #14 - One of the enhancements added in version 1.6.0 (Ability to delete QSOs box), resulted in the program aborting when attempting to print the card or save it as a JPEG. Version 1.6.2 corrects this.

Version 1.6.0

Enhancements

Version 1.6.0 provides a number of minor enhancements:

  • QslDesignAndPrint has had the ability to save a single card as a JPEG file for some time. Version 1.6.0 adds the ability to save a JPEG containing 4 blank cards for taking to a professional print shop for printing. This feature is useful to those people who do not have a printer that is capable of printing the cards.
  • The File dropdown menu has been replaced with two dropdown menus:
    • Card dropdown, containing card related tasks; and,
    • QSOs dropdown, containing QSOs related tasks.
  • Two menu items have been added to the QSOs dropdown menu, one for selecting all QSOs, and one for deselecting all QSOs.
  • The ability to sort QSOs by date and time has been added.
  • QslDesignAndPrint has always provided the user with the ability to select and deselect individual QSOs. Version 1.6.0 adds the ability to select or deselect multiple QSOs at once. This uses the standard GUI Ctrl + click and Shift + click mechanism.
  • If the manager field of one or more QSOs is edited and the QSOs are not exported, then at program termination, QslDesignAndPrint displays a dialog box asking the user if he wants the QSOs to be saved.
  • QslDesignAndPrint tracks the ADIF files loaded and the last card loaded or saved. The next time QslDesignAndPrint starts, it will reload these files if the appropriate options are set in User Preferences.
  • The ability to delete the QSOs box has been added, along with the ability to add a QSOs box back in if deleted. This feature is useful when creating two-sided cards since you would want the QSOs box on only one side. Previously, the QSOs box could not be deleted, just moved off the card.
  • When displaying the File Open dialog box to load an ADIF file or an image, QslDesignAndPrint now opens the File Open dialog in a default folder for each. The default folders may be set in the User Preferences dialog.

Version 1.5.6

Bug Fix

  • Bug #13 - Version 1.5.6 provides a work-around for a number of problems related to culture that occur on only one computer. QslDesignAndPrint has been modified to prevent a FormatException from occurring when reading in a card file. On that one computer, the decimal separator was not being generated correctly for the computer's culture setting.

Version 1.5.4

Version 1.5.4 addresses three reported bugs, and in so doing also provides two minor enhancements.

Enhancements

  • If an image file referenced in a card file was moved or had been deleted, an error message was displayed and the card was not loaded. QslDesignAndPrint has been modified to ask the user if he wants to search for the file, or to delete the image from the card. If the user searches and finds the file or a replacement, that image is used for the card instead.
  • When editing the text of a text item, the mouse cursor had to be clicked outside the text box in the Text Item Properties panel. While this was mentioned in the help files, it was often forgotten by users, so the text change did not get saved. QslDesignAndPrint has been modified to update the text on the card as the text is modified in the text box. This enhancement was provided in response to bug report #12.

Bug Fixes

  • Bug #10 - If the user clicked the Cancel button on the Open Card dialog, QslDesignAndPrint would abort. This has been fixed.
  • Bug #11 - Program aborted after attempting to open several card files containing images that could not be found. While this problem could not be duplicated, the first enhancement listed above allows the user to either search for the missing images, or to delete the images from a card.

Version 1.5.2

Version 1.5.2 addresses Bug #9.

Bug Fixes

  • Bug #9 - If one or more QSOs contain a frequency that is not a valid number (e.g.'14.240.6' or '14d6'), QsoDesignAndPrint would crash. QslDesignAndPrint now validates the frequency, if included, for each QSO. If the frequency for one or more of the QSOs is invalid, a message indicating the error is added to the log file and the QSO is not included in the QSOs Table. A message is displayed indicating that one or more QSOs contained errors.

Version 1.5.0

Version 1.5.0 is a functional update, and also fixes two minor bugs.

Saving Card Images for Printing

  • Cards could always be sent to the printer attached to your computer or local network for printing. Version 1.5.0 adds the ability to save the cards for printing as JPEG files so that they may be sent or taken to a photo print shop for printing.

Card Layout on Paper

  • Some printers do not properly support the card layouts provided in previous versions of QslDesignAndPrint. Two additional layouts have been added to support these printers.

Bug Fixes

  • There was a minor error in how QslDesignAndPrint determines if there is a new version of the program available. This did not affect previous versions of the program, but showed itself in testing of version 1.5.0.
  • When the total number of cards to be printed was not an integral multiple of the number of pages being printed times the number of cards printed per page, and the user deselected the 'Fill Last Page With Blank Cards' checkbox, QslDesignAndPrint did not print blank cards, but did print card outlines for these cards. The program has been modified to not print the card outlines in this case.

Version 1.4.6

Version 1.4.6 is a bug fix update. In addition to three bugs reported by users, two additional bugs were discovered while investigating and testing bug #7.

Bug Fixes

  • Bug #6 - If the text in User Preferences fields is deleted, and a new card is created and saved, QslDesignAndPrint may abort when reloading the card. A warning message is now displayed when the user attempts to tab out of an empty text field in User Preferences Dialog, and default text replaces the empty text field when cards containing empty text fields are loaded.
  • Bug #7 - Selecting QSOs by date and time does not select the correct QSOs. This has been corrected.
  • Bug #8 - For cultures where the decimal character is a comma rather than a period, selecting font sizes results in font sizes that are 10 times what they should be. The font sizes in the font sizes dropdown box in the text item properties panel are now displayed in the culture specific reperesentation. This fixes the font size problem.
  • In the QSOs panel, when the user selected or deselected the All checkbox for Band or Mode selection, the correct QSOs were not being selected/deselected. This bug was traced to the deletion of a single line of code in a previous version of QslDesignAndPrint. This one line of code was been reinserted, so QSO selection by band or mode now works correctly.
  • If the user attempts to load an ADIF file that does not contain at least one ADIF record, QslDesignAndPrint aborts. A warning message is now displayed instead.

Version 1.4.2

Bug Fix

  • Bug #5 - When QSOs are loaded, attempting to do a print preview produces an error message, and attempting to print does not print.

Version 1.4.0

Version 1.4.0 is a functionality update:

Card Sizes

  • Prior to this version, only 3.5 by 5.5 inch (89 by 140 mm) cards could be created. 4.25 by 5.5 inch, 4 by 6 inch, and 10 by 15 cm cards can now also be created.

Card Printing

  • Prior to this version, only Letter or A4 sized cardstock could be used to print cards. The card printing interface has been rewritten to allow printing on any cardstock that is the same size or larger than the cards you want to print.
  • The layout of cards on the cardstock has been modified to support all known available micro-perforated cardstock that is suitable for QSL cards. This includes cardstock perforated for bureau sized cards and for Avery and equivalent perforated cardstock.

Help Files

  • The help files have been updated to include an extensive discussion of QSL card sizes and perforated cardstock.

Version 1.3.0

Version 1.3.0 is a functionality update:

QSO Input

  • QSOs may be entered manually in addition to importing from ADIF files.

QSO Handling

  • QslDesignAndPrint now allows each QSO for a single callsign to have a different manager.
  • Prior to this version, QslDesignAndPrint would not sort QSOs by QSL bureau if one or more QSOs were invalid (such as having text other than a valid callsign in the Manager field). Now QslDesignAndPrint sorts only selected QSOs.

Version 1.2.4

Version 1.2.4 is a bug fix and minor functionality update that includes:

Bug Fix

  • Bug #4 - QslDesignAndPrint crashes when sorting by QSL bureau if a callsign suffix contains more than 4 characters. Changed to accept 1 or more characters.

Functionality Update

QslDesignAndPrint has been updated to support changes in ADIF 2.2.3. These changes are:

  • 560m added to band list.
  • JT65A, JT6M, and THOR added to modes list.

Version 1.2.0

Version 1.2.0 is both a functionality and bug fix upgrade. It includes:

Functionality Upgrade

  • Ability to sort QSOs (and cards) by QSL Bureau and then Callsign, or simply by Callsign.
  • Can open card file created on a computer using a different regional setting.

Bug Fix

  • Bug #1 - Opening any saved card causes 'Input string was not in a correct format'. This is a solid error on one computer. Fix is related to the second functionality upgrade mentioned above.
  • Bug #2 - After print or print preview, card in Design panel contains QSO information that was placed on the last printed card. Fixed by forcing redisplay.

Version 1.1.0

Version 1.1.0 is a functionality upgrade that includes:

User Preferences:

  • User may set default text for callsign, name and QTH, and the salutation, as well as the default fontface that the text is displayed in. The fontface and text may be changed at any time during card design.
  • User may set column text in the QSOs Box, as well as the text displayed in the optional QSL column of the QSOs Box. The various text items in the QSOs Box are set when a new card is created (using New Card... menu items).
  • User may set a default fontface for text in the QSOs Box. This fontface may be changed at any time during card design.
  • User may select a default date format. The format may be modified at any time during card design.
  • User may set the month abreviations that are printed when the 'DD-MMM-YY' date format is selected.
  • If the user selects to print frequencies in the QSOs Box rather than bands and no frequency field is provided for a QSO, then QslDesignAndPrint supplies a frequency that is at or near the bottom edge of the corresponding band. User may modify the frequency that is substituted in these cases.

Version Checking

  • Each time the program starts, QslDesignAndPrint downloads version information from the website to check if the program is up to date.
  • User may turn version checking off for cases where Internet access is not available to prevent error messages from being displayed.