Important: This page deals with Graphic Workshop Professional 3. If you have Graphic Workshop Professional 2, we recommend that you upgrade your software to version 3, as discussed below. A Graphic Workshop Professional 2 registration code will not work with the current version 3 software. Installing Graphic Workshop Professional 3 on a system which currently has a registered copy of Graphic Workshop Professional 2 will not update your version 2 software — it will create a separate installation for Graphic Workshop Professional 3, as an evaluation copy.

Q: I registered Graphic Workshop Professional 2.0a as shareware for $40.00 or $44.99. Is there a reduced cost upgrade path to Graphic Workshop Professional 3?
A: Yes there is. You can upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 3 for $22.49. Please see our secure server page or call our toll-free order desk at 1-800-263-1138. Customers in the United States, Europe and Australia can also upgrade through PayPal.

Q: What advantages are there to upgrading to Graphic Workshop Professional 3 if I'm currently using Graphic Workshop Professional 2.
A: Among the improvements in Graphic Workshop Professional 3 are:

• Graphic Workshop Professional 3 is a lot faster and more memory-efficient.
• Its thumbnails are easier to browse, and more of them fit in a browser window.
• A number of minor format-specific improvements have been incorporated into the various file readers and writers.
• The look and feel is more contemporary, and you can personalize Graphic Workshop Professional 3 with your choice of themes.
• The screen saver and self-displaying picture formats have been updated to more robust applications, compatible with Alchemy Mindworks' Screen Saver Construction Set and Presentation Wizard applications respectively.
• All the batch functions have been redesigned to make them more intuitive and powerful.

There are dozens of additional refinements and additions throughout the software.

Q: Does this mean that there will be no further updates for Graphic Workshop Professional 2?
A: Pretty much. We created Graphic Workshop Professional 3 because we'd stretched the architecture of Graphic Workshop Professional 2 as far as we could. Graphic Workshop Professional 2 has reached its end of life, and updates for it will be limited to addressing potential security issues, should any arise. Software support for Graphic Workshop Professional 2 will be discontinued in time.

Q: What hardware is required to run Graphic Workshop Professional 3?
A: Any Windows system running a Pentium or better processor with 128 megabytes of memory or more will be able to run Graphic Workshop Professional 3. 256 megabytes or more is strongly recommended. You will need a display adapter and screen driver capable of handling more than 256 colors at 800 by 600 pixels or better — this describes virtually every system sold in the past few years, and you can probably ignore it.

Q: What if I don't like the new look and feel of Graphic Workshop Professional 3?
A: You can select the Retro theme in Setup that will make Graphic Workshop Professional 3 look pretty much like Graphic Workshop Professional 2, save that it will have faster performance, better thumbnails and so on.

Q: Can I install Graphic Workshop Professional 3 on the same system as Graphic Workshop Professional 2 without interaction?
A: Yes you can — the two applications have nothing to do with each other. The only exception to this is that Graphic Workshop Professional 3 will read thumbnails created by Graphic Workshop Professional 2 correctly. The reverse is not true. Nothing bad will happen if Graphic Workshop Professional 2 finds some thumbnails created by Graphic Workshop Professional 3, but the results are pretty colorful.

Q: What is the upgrade policy for Graphic Workshop Professional 3
A: Registered users of Graphic Workshop Professional 3 or users who have upgraded an earlier registration to Graphic Workshop Professional 3 are entitled to a minimum of one year of no-cost downloadable upgrades for Graphic Workshop Professional 3, as they become available.

Q: I thought Graphic Workshop Professional cost $40.00 to register — the web page says it costs $44.99. Was I looking at Graphic Workshop from a nearly-identical parallel quantum universe?
A: This is unlikely, as most parallel quantum universes have prices in Arcturian mega-credits, rather than dollars. It's with sincere regret that as of January 1, 2004, we caved to the demands of our bookkeepers and increased the price for Graphic Workshop Professional. In the defense of our bookkeepers, however, we should note that the price of Graphic Workshop hadn't increased since the early 1990s. Needless to say, the price of feeding our programmers has not remained constant.

Q: I have Graphic Workshop for Windows 1.0 or 1.1. I thought I could upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional for less than the price of a new application.
A: The reduced-price upgrade from Graphic Workshop Classic to Graphic Workshop Professional ran from 1998 — when Graphic Workshop Classic was discontinued — until the end of 2003. We felt that five years was long enough for anyone who wished to upgrade to do so. All good things come to an end, as did this offer, as of January 1, 2004.

Q: I want to reinstall Graphic Workshop but I don't have all the patches between the patch level of my original software and the current version. Can I download them?
A: You don't need them. The current patch embodies all the previous patches. If you're a registered user of any patch level of the 3.0 series of Graphic Workshop Professional, you should Download and install the current version of Graphic Workshop Professional from our web page. Having done so, your installation of Graphic Workshop Professional will be completely up to date.

Q: I registered Graphic Workshop Professional 2 and I need to reinstall it. When I went to the Graphic Workshop Professional web page, the downloads were for Graphic Workshop Professional 3. How can I get the installer for Graphic Workshop Professional 2?
A: Unfortunately, you can't. The Graphic Workshop Professional 2 has been removed from distribution. We recommend that you upgrade to Graphic Workshop Professional 3.

Q: I have previously registered Graphic Workshop Professional. Recently, I had to re-install the software on a new system or on a reformatted hard drive. How can I re-register it?
A: This is actually a two-part question. If you have lost your registration code, you'll need to get a replacement code before you can re-register your software. Please see the Lost Registration Code Robot to get your code e-mailed to you.

If you have your registration code — our compliments on a well-organized desk — you can enter it either when you reinstall your software or in a previously-installed copy. In the former case you'll be prompted for the registration name and code during installation. In the latter case, you'll need to:

1. Run Graphic Workshop Professional.
2. Click on the wrench — the Setup button — in the tool bar.
3. A dialog will appear. Enter your code and name.
4. Click on OK and exit the application to save your code.

Note that none of the foregoing applies if you have a registration code for Graphic Workshop Classic — Graphic Workshop Classic codes have five or fewer digits, while Graphic Workshop Professional codes have fourteen digits and three dashes. A Graphic Workshop Classic code cannot be used to register Graphic Workshop Professional. Please see the discussion of upgrading elsewhere in this document.

Q: Do I really need 25 megabytes of hard drive space to use Graphic Workshop Professional?
A: No, you need 25 megabytes to install it. Over nine megabytes are used for temporary files created by the installer, which will delete them as soon as it's done. The application files occupy about eleven megabytes.

Q: How does the GIF Construction Set UltraLight software included with Graphic Workshop Professional compare to the stand-alone GIF Construction Set software that registers for $24.99?
A: GIF Construction Set UltraLight is a considerably reduced version of the stand-alone GIF Construction Set package. It includes complete block editing and Alchemy Mindworks' powerful Animation Wizard to quickly build animations from your source art. It lacks the Banner, Transition, Spin, Wide-palette GIF and LED Sign wizards of GIF Construction Set; some user interface elements, such as the tool bar; importing from file formats other than GIF; block management and manipulation; Supercompressor; integral Paint support and several other advanced features found in the stand-alone version.

GIF Construction Set UltraLight is positioned for occasional creators of animated GIF files, or for applications wherein you need to do nothing more than assemble source frames into animations. Serious GIF artists will probably find the stand-alone GIF Construction Set to be a more useful tool.

Q: There are some differences between the Graphic Workshop Professional directory tree navigation window and that of Windows Explorer. The most noticeable of these is the lack of indicators for directories below the currently selected one. Is there a reason for this?
A: This was something of an intentional compromise. In order for a directory tree window like this to ascertain whether there are additional subdirectories below a directory it lists, it must visit the listed directory. In the case of devices other than a local hard drive — removeable drives or network drives, for example — having Graphic Workshop visit every device for what may be several open browser windows can be very time consuming. Even Windows Explorer, which only has one directory list window, is pretty irritating in this respect if your system is connected to a network. It goes into vapor lock from time to time as it surveys the available drives. Eliminating those plus signs in the directory tree window made Graphic Workshop's browsers a lot more responsive.

Q: How can I uninstall Graphic Workshop Professional.
A: You can uninstall Graphic Workshop Professional Professional through Add/Remove Programs in the Windows Control Panel.

As is explained in the Association Wizard help file and in the prompt for this feature in the Graphic Workshop Professional installer, Association Wizard cannot preserve your old file associations, and as such they cannot be automatically returned to their previous settings. Uninstalling Graphic Workshop does not undo file associations. If you associated file types with Graphic Workshop using Association Wizard, you can only un-associate them through Windows Explorer by associating them with other applications, or by deleting their associations entirely. Please see the documentation for Windows Explorer for assistance with this procedure.

Because the results of running Association Wizard are somewhat time-consuming to remove, Association Wizard prompts you on two occasions during the Graphic Workshop Professional installation process to warn you about what it's about to do, and confirm that this is what you want. If you ran Association Wizard, we assume that you understood what it was intended to do. We regret that we are unable to provide assistance to users who wish to remove Graphic Workshop's file associations beyond what is provided in this document. Don't ask. You will need to consult the Windows Explorer documentation and work through the Windows Explorer View » FolderOptions » File Types dialog to modify your file associations.

Q: I couldn't find an uninstall entry in Add/Remove Programs for Graphic Workshop Professional. How can I uninstall it manually?
A: This appears to happen as a result of an as yet unidentified security application preventing Graphic Workshop Professional's uninstall information from being added to the Add/Remove Programs applications list during installation. We're still trying to nail this one down. You can uninstall Graphic Workshop Professional manually by deleting the folder it installed into — that will be C:\Program Files\Alchemy Mindworks\Graphic Workshop Professional 3 by default.

Q: Graphic Workshop Professional can write PCD files. Does this mean it can create complete Kodak PhotoCDs?
A: Sadly, no. While Kodak has licensed us the technology to create PCD files — a useful format for high quality imaging — they have thus far refused to disclose the details of the other bits required to create a complete Kodak PhotoCD which would be readable by Kodak's set-top players. They seem to want to keep this facility for their own authoring packages.

Graphic Workshop Professional can create multiple-resolution PCD files which are effectively identical to those created for a commercial PhotoCD. If you write these to a CD-ROM using the directory structure of a Photo-CD — as discussed in the Reference document for Graphic Workshop — you'll have a pseudo-PhotoCD readable by most PC-based applications, such as Graphic Workshop Professional itself. We're still working on the rest of the PhotoCD standard, but at the moment, this is as good as it gets.

Q: I would like to configure Graphic Workshop Professional such that its browser windows do not display a directory navigation tree to the left of the file area. Can this be done?
A: Yes, but it will require some fiddling with Graphic Workshop's secret internal workings. You will need to edit the GWSPRO30.INI configuration file. Be sure you have read the Configuration document installed with Graphic Workshop Professional before you proceed. Graphic Workshop Professional must not be running when you edit GWSPRO30.INI.

1. Open \WINDOWS\GWSPRO30.INI with Windows NotePad. This will be \WNNT\GWSPRO30.INI on NT 4.0 and some Windows 2000 systems.
2. Locate the line:
       MinDirWide = 150
   and change it to:
       MinDirWide = 1
   
3. Locate the line:
       DefaultDirWide = 150
   and change it to:
       DefaultDirWide = 1
4. Save GWSPRO30.INI.

When you create new browser windows, they will appear with no directory tree. You will be able to drag the directory trees in your existing browsers fully to the left to hide them as well.

Q: I would like to use a paint application of my choosing in Graphic Workshop Professional, rather than the default Microsoft Paint. Can I do this?
A: Yes you can. Note that your new paint software must accept a file name passed to it as a command line argument, and it must read and write BMP files. Make sure Graphic Workshop Professional is not running when you do this.

1. Open the file \WINDOWS\GWSPRO30.INI with Windows Notepad.

2. Locate these lines:
   PaintbrushName = MSPAINT.EXE
   PaintbrushPath = c:\Program Files\Accessories\MSPAINT.EXE>

3. Change the right part of PaintbrushName = to the EXE file for your paint application. Do not include the path.

4. Delete the right part of PaintbrushPath = .

5. Save the file.

Now run Graphic Workshop Professional. It should search for and find your paint application. If the paint application search dialog does not appear when Graphic Workshop Professional runs, click on the wrench button in the tool bar, enable the Search for Paintbrush item and run Graphic Workshop Professional again.

Not all paint applications are suitable for use with Graphic Workshop Professional. If you use this procedure, you're on your own. To restore Graphic Workshop Professional to its default state — so it uses Microsoft Paint as its paint application — delete the PaintbrushName = and PaintbrushPath = lines from GWSPRO30.INI.

Q: What are THN files, and why do they get created by Graphic Workshop? Can I open them with Graphic Workshop, or convert them to other graphic formats?
A: The THN files created by Graphic Workshop store its image thumbnails, keywords and comments. By default, they are generated whenever a graphic file is written or updated, or when you explicitly add thumbnails for your graphics. Each graphic will have a corresponding THN file.

THN files are read by Graphic Workshop when it wants to display thumbnail images, but they're not opened by anything. They cannot be converted to other formats, as they don't store graphics in the conventional sense.

Q: When I try to use the GWS Camera screen capture function under Windows ME or 2000, it doesn't seem to operate correctly. Is this a bug in the software?
A: Not as such. GWS Camera was designed to work under Windows 98 and XP. The internal Windows software interface it uses changed under some later versions of Windows. Depending upon the build of Windows you're using — and several other factors — GWS Camera may work under later versions of Windows, or some of its functionality might. It is, however, known to be less than entirely stable in these environments, and at present its use therein is not recommended. We're working on this.

Q: Some PSD or PDD images display an error message that says I need Photoshop 3.0 when I try to view them with Graphic Workshop. Do I really need Photoshop 3.0?
A: This isn't actually an error message. It's a picture of an error message stored as the default graphic in your PSD or PDD file. It actually pertains only to files saved from Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 3.0 or earlier, and as such is a fairly infrequent problem.

Adobe recommends that you do one of the following:

• Export your photo from PhotoDeluxe to a different file format, such as TIFF or JPEG.
  • In PhotoDeluxe 1.x, choose File > Export > File Formats.
  • In PhotoDeluxe 2.0, choose File > Send to > File Format.
  • In PhotoDeluxe Business Edition, choose File > Save As > Other
  • In PhotoDeluxe 3.0, choose File > Export > File Format.
  
  
• If you're using PhotoDeluxe 2.0, 3.0, or Business Edition, merge the layers in your photo before saving it:
  1. Click Advanced and choose View > Show Layers.
  2. Choose Merge Layers from the Layers palette menu. To access the Layers palette menu, click the black triangle on the Layers palette.
  3. Choose File > Save As and give your photo a new name.

The foregoing was obtained from Adobe's web page, and has not been verified by Alchemy Mindworks. We do not have the Adobe applications in question in house, and as such are unable to provide you with assistance in using them.

Q: When I attempt to access the Manual feature of Graphic Workshop Professional, I am told that no application can be found to access the document. What's wrong?
A: The Manual documents are HTML files — the same document type used for web pages — and are opened by a web browser. They have the file extension .HTM, rather than .HTML. Assuming that you have Netscape or Internet Explorer installed on your system, your problem is being caused by the .HTM file type not being associated with your browser. There are two ways to fix this — here's the simplest one:

1. Run Windows Explorer — not Intenet Explorer. You can run Windows Explorer by right-clicking on the Start button in the Windows Task Bar and selecting Explore from the menu that appears.

2. Navigate to the parent directory of Graphic Workshop Professional. This will be \C:\Program Files\Alchemy Mindworks\Graphic Workshop Professional 3 on your C: drive if you installed the software it its default directory.

3. Select the html directory. You will see a number of files with the extension .HTM.

4. Double-click on any .HTM file. If no application has been associated with the .HTM extension, an Open With dialog will appear. Enable the Always Use This Program to Open This File option and select iexplore from the list of applications.

You have created a file association for the .HTM file type. The Manual function in Graphic Workshop Professional should work correctly.

Should you be unable to use the foregoing procedure, you can set up an association "by hand" through Windows Explorer. Note that this is not the Internet Explorer web browser. Launch Windows Explorer and do the following:

1. Open the Folder Options dialog — this appears in the View menu of most versions of Windows Explorer.

2. Click on the File Types tab.

3. See if you can find an entry in the Registered File Types list called Microsoft HTML Document, or failing this, an entry for the file extension .HTM. If you find this entry:
   • Click on Edit.
   • Ensure that the Default Extension for Content Type combo lists the extension .HTM
   • Click on Edit.
   • Ensure that the Application Used to Perform this Action field does point to your current default web browser — this will usually be "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Iexplore.exe" or "C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT OFFICE\OFFICE\msohtmed.exe"

4. If you can't find an existing entry for .HTM, you'll have to create one. Consult the documentation for Internet Explorer for the details of associating a new file extension — they vary a bit between Windows versions. You need to create an association for the extension .HTM, for the action open to associate with your web browser application, typically "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\Iexplore.exe"

Q: I have installed Graphic Workshop Professional under Windows NT, 2000 or XP. I entered my registration name and code, and they were accepted. However, the next time I ran Graphic Workshop, the software prompted me to register. Is this the result of a conspiracy by disgruntled used car salesmen, or am I doing something wrong?
A: It's probably something more sinister than used car salesmen. In most cases this is caused by a Windows permissions issue.

On Windows systems with multiple accounts — NT and 2000 are often configured this way — only software installed by the administrator account is allowed to modify files in the \WINDOWS or \WINNT directory. This prevents other users from changing or removing system files. This is, however, where Graphic Workshop stores its initialization file. The initialization file, among other things, stores its registration code. If Graphic Workshop is prevented from writing to this directory, it will be unable to save its code, and it will think it doesn't have one.

You can remedy this situation by uninstalling Graphic Workshop, and either logging in as the administrator for your system to reinstall it, or having the real administrator do so. This will make Windows think that Graphic Workshop has the privledges of the administrator account, and as such permit it to update its initialization file.

Please get in touch with us if this does not resolve your problem.

Q: Can Graphic Workshop be operated from a command line, rather than through its user interface?
A: Not really. It will view image files passed to it as command-line arguments, but this is as good as it gets.

Q: When I open the Setup dialog of Graphic Workshop, the text is in a bold font that's too large — some of the text extends past the edge of the dialog. Is this the Attack of the 50-foot Font, or is the problem something that can't be described as a B movie?
A: Perhaps Captain TrueType on the Planet of Doom. Actually, Windows is missing the MS Sanserif bitmap font. If you download SSERIFE.FON and install it under Windows, the problem will be resolved.

Q: When I attempt to use the Graphic Workshop Paint function, Windows Paint attempts to run but crashes immediately. Is this an indication that Windows Paint has been eating genetically-modified crackers when I wasn't looking?
A: This is unlikely, as Windows Paint as shipped with most releases of Windows doesn't have any fingers. This problem pops up occasionally under newer releases of Windows, such as Windows XP and Windows 2000. Locate the desktop shortcut icon for Windows Paint and right-click on it. Select Properties from the menu that appears. When the Properties dialog opens, make sure Windows 95 Compatibility Mode is disabled.

Q: Can Graphic Workshop Professional convert AVI or MOV to MPEG, or MPEG to other video formats?
A: 'fraid not. The MPEG format is encumbered by a software patent. Implementing it in Graphic Workshop would have been prohibitively expensive. Unlike traditional patents, software patents usually apply to discoveries rather than inventions — the first person to happen upon an algorithm slaps a patent on it, and everyone else winds up paying for it. Considering the relatively narrow range of applications for MPEG movies, we decided that it wasn't worth raising the price of Graphic Workshop for everyone to include this functionality. Don't thank us — thank your elected officials for patent laws which allow this sort of abuse.

Q: When I right-click in a Graphic Workshop browser window and attempt to move, copy, convert or otherwise process all the selected files, only one file is actually processed. Is this the work of subversive neo-liberal minsters of underwater pottery?
A: Probably not. By default, the right-click menu in a Graphic Workshop browser window only operates on the file you right-click on. The tool bar buttons and the functions in the Image menu operate on all the selected files. A very long time ago, when dinosaurs walked the earth, the right-click menu duplicated the tool bar functions, and processed all the selected files, hence the potential confusion for long-time users of the software. You can make the behavior of the right-click menu revert to its earlier behavior by changing the setting of RightClickOneTimeFunctions in GWSPRO30.INI — see the configuration document in the Graphic Workshop Professional Manual for more about this.

Q: Graphic Workshop Professional was running fine, and then I installed the ART format plugin. Graphic Workshop thereafter refused to start, and I think it's sulking. Any idea why this happened, and how to put it in a better mood?
A: This one's exceedingly rare. For reasons we have yet to determine, the libraries which allow Graphic Workshop Professional to read and write ART files interact with a small number of other Windows applictions. When this happens, Graphic Workshop will refuse to boot up. If you remove the ART plugin from Graphic Workshop, the problem will be resolved. With Graphic Workshop not running, use Windows Explorer to delete the file C:\Program Files\Alchemy Mindworks\Graphic Workshop Professional 3\plugin\gwsplart.dll .