More PASAT tips

"Macros disabled" error message. If you have just installed PASAT and it won't work and you are receiving a "macros disabled" message, then Genn Webb offers this tip:

Open Word, go to Tools, Go to Options, Go to Security, Go to Macros Security and then choose either medium or low security. That should do it.

Importing XML specifications. It is extremely important to appreciate the usefulness of the "import XML specification" feature of PASAT. You might have some old patent specification that needs to be re-edited for a new filing, for example as a continuation or divisional. You might find that for some reason it is not possible to open the old S4W file, for example because it has somehow gotten corrupted in its proprietary internal format. If that happens, you should try importing the old XML specification file. It might load when the seemingly identical S4W file will not.

This same import feature can be helpful in other ways. Suppose you are in the middle of creating an XML specification in PASAT. You may find that the S4W file on your screen gets corrupted through no fault of yours. Warning signs of such corruption include:

• one or more XML tags (which are supposed to be blue in color) have black characters within them
• one or more words of specification text (which is supposed to be black in color) have blue characters in them
• the cursor misbehaves, for example you click within a text sentence and the cursor jumps to a supposedly uneditable position in the middle of an XML tag
• typing a single character within a text block or paragraph leads to two or more characters being inserted into the block or paragraph

When this happens, the S4W file is damaged. If you save the S4W file, you will be saving something that can never be re-opened by PASAT and edited properly.

Of course one protective step against this sort of problem is to save S4W files with various file names, repeatedly through the PASAT process. For example you could save files called "specification1.s4w", "specification2.s4w", "specification3.s4w", and so on, every few minutes. That way if the current S4W file gets corrupted you could go back to older and older versions of the S4W file until you find one that can be re-opened and edited successfully. If you do this, keep in mind that sometimes PASAT itself will be the problem. That is, PASAT can get into an internal state that guarantees that no S4W file can be edited properly, and you will need to close PASAT and re-launch it, and then try opening the older S4W files until you find one that can be re-opened and edited.

But reverting to an older S4W file isn't always the best thing. First of all, you would lose all the work you have done since the previous time you saved a different S4W file. Or you might not have been saving S4W files with distinct file names. So the important option to consider is this. Even if the S4W file you are editing is corrupted, even if PASAT is in some unintended internal state, you may still be able to export your specification file as XML. Once you have done that, you can close PASAT, launch it again, and use the "import XML specification" feature to open the XML file. If the XML file loads successfully, you may find that you have overcome the corruption in your S4W file. You can then save the specification as an S4W file and continue your editing.

The cautious approach to using PASAT, then, includes not only making a series of files called "specification1.s4w", "specification2.s4w", "specification3.s4w", and so on, but also a corresponding series of files called "specification1.xml", "specification2.xml", "specification3.xml", and so on. Then when PASAT gets flaky you can close it, re-launch it, and try importing the most recent XML file if the most recent S4W file won't load properly.

There is a risk, of course, for the unwary user, in this change. If you wait until all editing is done before creating the XML file, then there is no doubt that it is the "current draft" and you will be filing the "current draft" with the Patent Office. But if you get into the habit of saving to XML every few minutes during the preparation of an application, think what might happen. You might save to XML, make a few more changes in PASAT, then exit PASAT and use ePave to file the patent application. The problem of course would be that the XML file which ePave sends to the Patent Office would be a next-to-last draft.

So it is extremely important, whenever you are getting done with a PASAT project, to save the XML one last time.