TNT Stays Minimised

With the release of TNT v. 2.0 the EC Software screenshot program has become a serious application in its own right, so it was high time that it was given its own forum!

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SteveBarnett
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TNT Stays Minimised

Unread post by SteveBarnett »

I have TNT set to start automatically and to minimise to the system tray, which it does quite nicely. However, while I can take screen shots, I cannot restore the TNT window. If I try to, it appears on the task bar, but does not display in a window.

If I close TNT and start it again via a desktop icon, it works perfectly well.

Anyone else seen this and have a work-around?

Thanks
Steve

(TNT 2.1 Build 370, Windows/XP Home SP1 + all critical patches).
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Steve,

I've tried very hard to duplicate this but I can't, although I have a Matrox G550 dual head card with two TFT monitors and dual screen systems are usually the trickiest. I do have V. 2.1.0 Build 370 installed, but I doubt whether that has anything to do with it, I don't recall any other reports of this.

Oddnesses like this with program windows are often graphic driver related. In addition to installing the latest version of TNT (can't hurt) I would also upgrade your graphics driver to the latest version -- even if it's not the cause of this particular problem it's always a good idea.

If you are running a dual monitor system you might also want to check any graphic driver/window manager settings for defining which monitors program windows, dialogs etc. are supposed to open in and custom settings for window positions, maximizing, minimizing etc. I have often experienced various incompatibilities and strangenesses with these settings on all three major systems (Matrox, NVida and ATI). In addition to windows opening squished up and in strange places some settings actually make some windows (but not all) open off screen in virtual space where they are not visible at all, which makes you think a program is malfunctioning.

If none of this works I would suggest sending a brief mail describing the problem to EC at support AT ec-software.com.
Last edited by Tim Green on Wed Mar 02, 2005 9:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Re: TNT Stays Minimised

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

SteveBarnett wrote:I have TNT set to start automatically and to minimise to the system tray, which it does quite nicely. However, while I can take screen shots, I cannot restore the TNT window. If I try to, it appears on the task bar, but does not display in a window.

If I close TNT and start it again via a desktop icon, it works perfectly well.

Anyone else seen this
Yes. You are "restoring" to a minimised state. It's very annoying.
The right-click menu on the tray icon needs a Maximise entry.
Try right-clicking on the task-bar button, and them Restore or
Maximise there.

If no joy try this:

1. Launch TNT via the desktop icon.
2. Set it to Maximised.
3. Set it to Restored (button next to X).
4. Drag and resize to the size you want.
5. File > Exit.

Restart Windows and try again. You may need to repeat
this palaver several times. I did. But eventually normal
working was resumed. Needles to say I can't make it happen
again now. :?

Martin.
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Tim Green
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Unread post by Tim Green »

Martin,
Needles to say I can't make it happen again now.
Do you have any idea or recollection what preceded this behavior? As I wrote, I've done everything I can to try to provoke it but it continues to be completely well-behaved -- a double-click on the system tray icon always restores the TNT window, no matter what. Gremlins... :roll:
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Tim Green wrote:Do you have any idea or recollection what preceded this behavior?
Hi Tim,

I wish... :?

I recall that I got into a muddle of some sort. I was trying to
capture a screenshot. TNT minimised as expected but there
was no red frame to define the shot. Thinking that I had made
a mistake (again :( ), I pressed Esc, but TNT failed to re-appear.

After that I'm a bit hazy, I tried various things to get TNT back
but it remained stubbornly minimised when launched, even after
a Windows re-start. Like Steve, I could still use it to make
screenshots.

I then changed the desktop shortcut properties to "Run maximised",
(instead of "normal window"), which worked, but after a screenshot
it remained minimised as before. So I went through the process I
outlined for Steve. On reflection, I think the important point was to
drag and re-size the window while it was in the "restored" state.

I'm inclined to think that this is a Windows problem rather than
TNT, but it could be avoided if the right-click menu for the tray
icon included a "Maximise" option in addition to "Restore".

I have only just realised that when capturing, the tray icon has
a tripod under it, and when simply minimised it doesn't. Now you
want to know which was showing when I was having trouble... :roll:

Win98SE. And no, I can't make it do a repeat performance!

Martin.
SteveBarnett
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Re: TNT Stays Minimised

Unread post by SteveBarnett »

Martin Wynne wrote:1. Launch TNT via the desktop icon.
2. Set it to Maximised.
3. Set it to Restored (button next to X).
4. Drag and resize to the size you want.
5. File > Exit.
Many thanks for this. I've followed your instructions and it's working again.

I'm not sure how or when this started, I usually expect TNT to be there and working - it's something I take for granted, so I don't often mentally log when things go wrong.

The only symptoms I can think of is that I have had a couple of occurrences where I took a screen shot and TNT restored, but restored behind all of my other applications. I could not switch to it, so had to minimise all of my other apps to get at it. I've also noticed that this is more likely to happen after I have cancelled a "free area" screen shot by pressing escape.

This has generally happened when I've got VB6 open, an application running and Word in the background, a not untypical scenario when I'm producing documentation.

Steve
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