Running Wessex Professional on a Mac

I'm often asked if Wessex Professional will run on an Apple Mac computer. In fact a previous post on the issue has had more views than any of my other posts.
As you may gather I'm a "Windows" man, but a few months ago I bought a reconditioned MacBook to see what the fuss was about. Of course that led to some research to see about running the pricing program on it.
I downloaded the free trial of CrossOver Mac from CodeWeavers. The result - well see for yourself!

I've only had a short time to tinker with the result and there are some problems with printing, but there seems to be no major issues with the Basic version of Wessex Professional.
I certainly hope to be able to come up with a solution to the printing errors which would make the full version useable. (At the moment everything is printed into the top quarter of an A4 sheet, instead of over the whole sheet.)

It was very easy to install Wessex Professional into what CrossOver calls a "bottle" (think of it as an oasis of Windows files amid a desert of Mac!). Then I needed to add extra files (dependencies) to get the program to run (very few programs these days are completely standalone). Again CrossOver made it straightforward to find and install them.  Just so you know, these files are .Net Framework 2, MS Jet, MDAC, and Core Fonts.

Very encouraging so far - I'll keep you all upto date with further developments.

Tips for Updating App mouldings file

Those of you who use the App will know that it can use a file called "Mouldings.csv" to price frames. This obviously needs to be kept upto date in order to give correct prices and to reflect the mouldings you offer. Because this file can be opened by Excel or other office spreadsheet packages it is easy to edit and modify.

The App comes with a file containing all the Wessex & Frinton mouldings. Uptodate versions of this file can be downloaded from the Wessex Pictures website. 

Once downloaded onto a PC the file can be edited to add other suppliers mouldings. Most suppliers issue a file containing details of their mouldings and this data can be copied and imported into the App's Mouldings file. For more information on the file format have a look at this link.

Or you could create your own by downloading a blank file from the App website and adding the data to it manually.

Another scenario for getting the file is to create one from Wessex Professional (WPP4). This will enable you to use the same set of mouldings and price both in the shop and on the move.

Once you have the file sorted the next task is to copy it to your device and then import it into the App. There are a number of ways to do this - someone I know sends himself an email with the file attached. The way I use is to attach the device to the computer and copy the Mouldings.csv file to "Download" on the device. 

Then with the App go to "Settings >"Misc Values" and choose "Import Mouldings File". This brings up a screen to search for the file. Scroll down to the folder where you copied Mouldings.csv, select it and the file should appear. Tap "OK" and the file will be imported to the App. You can then test it to make sure all is ok. (NB. Disconnect (Eject) the device from the computer after you have copied the mouldings file to the Device, otherwise not all the available device folders will show up.)

A bit of a faff? Well, at first, yes, but every framer is different and if the App had only one way of doing things it wouldn't be at all useful to professional picture framers.