Hi all,

I've just installed Freehand MX on my new notebook, and it will not display
the tools or toolbars. This does NOT appear to be the same problem as discussed
here...

http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_13188

...because on that page, it says that "The Window menu shows a check mark in
front of the menu item." I do not even get the check marks when clicking the
items I want to display. Certain palettes will display, but not the tools or
toolbars.

I have tried every solution mentioned on that page, including deleting
preferences, without luck. I have also tried:
* Three different versions of Freehand MX (11.0, 11.0.1, 11.0.2) (I don't have
any older ones)
* Running the program in compatibility mode (tried Win95, Win98 and Win2K
settings)
* Changing my screen resolution from 1680x1050 to 1024x768
* Reinstalling the program while set to 1024x768

Nothing has worked. My computer is a near-new Dell Latitude D830, with a fresh
installation of Windows XP (Service Pack 3), Nvidia Quatro NVS 140 video card,
2GB of RAM. Other installed software includes MS Office 2007, Acrobat 5, and
various security software (Avira AV, Comodo firewall, Threatfire).

Could Service Pack 3 be the issue? My old PC with Service Pack 2 had no
problems with Freehand. I would consider downgrading to SP2, but only as a last
resort.

Thanks in advance.

> Could Service Pack 3 be the issue? My old PC with Service Pack 2 had no
> problems with Freehand. I would consider downgrading to SP2, but only as a last
> resort.

FreeHand panels ok in Vaio laptop with SP3. Some bugs require a certanin combination of software and hardware to appear. I've had two near-identical computers and in one FH8 did not handle fonts properly while in the other FH8 worked just fine. Manged to come up with a workaround but still do not know what caused the problem.

FH is probably far more buggy than Windows. It is just that Bill Gates is the first to blame when something goes wrong. ;-)

Jukka

I'm a Mac user, so take this as a trouble-shooting suggestion only.

I'm wondering if your security software might be preventing FH from writing
to the toolbars preference file.

If you have any other software that runs in the background, such as a
screensaver or scheduler, it might be causing problems.

Are you able run FH (as a test only) in Safe mode or with the security
software turned off?

Judy Arndt

the problem may be with Comodo firewall, try setting the 'Proactive Defense' to training mode, then launch Freehand

Hi all,

Thanks for all your suggestions. I did try disabling all my security software,
to no avail.

However, uninstalling Threatfire altogether (not simply disabling it) has
turned out to be the solution! Freehand now seems to work perfectly, even with
Comodo Defense+ re-enabled.

I appreciate everyone's input. Cheers!

Go to the menu bar at the top of the screen > Window > Toolbars - customize.

Drag and drop the missing tools on to another toolbar that is visible on
screen. It does this thing in OSX 10.5 on a machine at work. It works just
fine. Vive la diference! Freehand still rocks.

Rainy- thanks for the suggestion, but I did try that without luck.

As mentioned, removing Threatfire (a security app) has done the trick for me.

I'm on a mac and I do not have ANY toolbars visible. So I cannot drag and drop to an existing toolbar. Got any other suggestions?

Graphicedge,

No idea, sorry! I haven't used a Mac in three years, and can't remember
Freehand MX giving me any trouble back when I did. Is there any security
software (anti-virus, firewall, etc.), or other 'background' apps installed
that you can try uninstalling?

I presume you've already tried all the suggestions above, including those
found here:
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_13188

I hadn't, but I got a post from Judy Arndt with the same link, and yes removing the preferences file for the toolbars fixed th problem. Thank you for replying... what made you jump ship to a PC???