You will find more answers to your support-related issues on the QMate Support Page.
If you're new to the internet or compressed files the helpful folks at CNET have written a beginner's guide to downloading files.
Problems unzipping the QMate archive using WinZip
If you are running WinZip in "Wizard" mode then you will encounter a problem when trying to unzip the QMate zip archive. The reason for this is that WinZip in wizard mode first unzips the contents to a temporary location (on my system it is C:\Windows\Temp\Install) and then it tries to install software contained in the zip archive (in the case of the QMate archive this means running the QSetup.exe program) and lastly it deletes the contents of the archive. This last step is a problem because you must use a separate application to install the pilot application component (QMate.prc) contained in the archive. You can get around this problem by running WinZip in Classic mode. To do this, press the "WinZip Classic" button on the WinZip Wizard dialog. That will display a window which will allow you to unzip the QMate zip archive and install its components yourself. Please follow these instructions:1. Press the Open button in the WinZip's dialog toolbar or select the File->Open Archive... menu item.
2. In the open file dialog, find the QMate zip archive you downloaded and open it . You will see the contents of the archive displayed in the WinZip dialog.
3. Press the Extract button in the toolbar or select the Actions->Extract... menu item.
4. In the Extract dialog, verify that the All Files radio button is selected. Use the Folders/Drives area to navigate to where you want WinZip to save the files.
5. Press the Extract button. The files will be saved to the location you specified and WinZip will do nothing more with the archive or files inside of it.
6. Quit HotSync if it is running.
7. Use your Windows Explorer to navigate to the location where you saved the contents of the QMate zip archive and run QSetup to install and configure the conduit, QSync.
8. Use the instapp.exe program to install the QMate.prc file.
9. Run HotSync and perform a HotSync. QMate will be installed on your Pilot and QSync will be ready to synchronize transactions you enter on your PalmPilot.
Problems unzipping the QMate archive using pkunzip
If you are having problems unzipping the QMate zip archive, please see Cheryl Sarges' very informative howto page.If you continue to have problems please email me and I will be happy to help you. Don't forget, if you're trying to unzip a password protected archive, you must use the -s option in pkunzip (pkunzip -s archive.zip) or the Options->Password menu command in WinZip.
Setting up the input and output directories
I have received numerous requests for help installing the desktop component for QMate. This is one of the areas most in need of improvement and I am happy to report that version 1.5, due out in February 1999, will vastly simplify this process. The first thing to do is to setup the input and output directories. To do this, please follow these steps:1) Double-click on the My Computer icon your Windows desktop. Next, double-click on the icon labeled (C:).
2) Click on the File menu, select the New item and then the Folder item. Type the following name: QMateOut
3) Repeat the previous step, this time typing QMateIn
4) Quit the HotSync Manager application. For most users this is accomplished by clicking on the blue and red arrow icon in the "tray" of your Windows taskbar (the area that runs along the bottom of most everyone's Windows desktop) and selecting the Exit item.
Run QSetup and enter C:\QMateOut for the output directory and enter C:\QmateIn for the input directory. The rest of the settings you can leave set as the defaults. If you encounter problems you can always run QSetup again and adjust the settings as necessary. Press the Setup button and you should receive a confirmation dialog. If not please check this other faq answer and if it doesn't help then contact me for assistance.
If you're having problems installing QSync, please try the following:1) unzip the QMate archive in a directory other than your Pilot directory (i.e., the one containing your HotSync application). If necessary, replace the version of QSetup that you have in that directory with the one in the latest upgrade.
2) verify you have both of the following files in the same directory and that the directory is not the one that contains your hotsync.exe program: qsetup.exe, qsyncX.dll where X is a version number like 13 or 14 which stand for 1.3 and 1.4, respectively. If you don't have these two files you may want to consult the unzip FAQ answers above.
3) run QSetup and press "Setup..." If you get an installation error and are comfortable modifying your registry, I suggest you take a look at the QSync registry settings I've posted. Copying these to your Windows registry and placing the qsync.dll file in your HotSync directory is all that QSetup does.
Solving the "Copy failed..." problem
If you receive an error when you run QSetup that begins with: "Copy failed..." then you can try the following steps to solve the problem:
You can run QSetup as many times as you like to change settings for QSync. In fact, I designed it this way and that is why I called it QSetup instead of QInstall (really :-). The first time you run QSetup you should be sure to install QSync and HotSync 1.1 (unless you're certain you have the latest version of HotSync 1.1) by choosing the "QSync and HotSync 1.1" radio button in the Install Options dialog that comes up when you press "Setup..." (OK, so I should have titled the dialog Setup Options. Next version...). After you've installed HotSync 1.1 you don't need to do it again. Therefore, when you run QSetup after the first time, simply choose the "QSync only" radio button in the Install Options dialog. This modifies the settings for QSync only and none of your other Pilot conduits or desktop settings. (Note to power-users: you can use this fact to help QSync co-exist with other Pilot software that requires special settings. Install your other Pilot software first, making sure it uses the same version of HotSync 1.1 as QSync, and then use QSetup to install only QSync).
Some users have encountered problems when installing either QMate or QSync and want to know how to "start over from scratch." This FAQ answer is for them. I recommend syncing up your QMate data with Quicken before performing a clean install. IMPORTANT: The steps that follow only apply to version 1.5 of QMate. Follow these steps to "reset" your QMate installation:1) Quit the HotSync Manager program if it is running. If you don't know how to do this then reboot your machine after performing the next step.
2) Hold down the control key (Ctrl) as you run QSetup.You will be prompted whether you want to do a clean install. Press the "Yes" button. Complete the installation of QSync using the QSetup install wizard. After doing this your desktop settings will have been reset. Rerun the HotSync manager (you don't have to rerun the HotSync Manager if you rebooted your machine).
3) If necessary, download the QMate archive and unzip it into a newly created directory so that all the files you need are in a known location.
4) Delete QMate from your Pilot. This will delete the application and its data. If you need help deleting applications from your Pilot please consult the documentation that came with your Pilot.
5) Run the install tool to setup QMate to be installed on your Pilot during the next HotSync.
6) Chances are that your QMate databases are intact and can be installed by first locating your Backup directory. You will find it in a directory that resembles your name inside the directory that contains the HotSync program. My backup directory is: C:\Palm\DakinS\Backup. Inside that directory you may have one or more files that begin with QMate (for example, QMateAccountsDB.pdb, QMateTransactionsDB.pdb - the extensions may not show depending on your file display settings). Use the install tool as you did in step 5 to install these files onto your Pilot. Step 8 has some further notes about these databases.
7) Run the HotSync Manager program and perform a HotSync. This will install QMate and its databases onto your Pilot and you should be back to normal operation. If you are not please perform the following step.
8) IMPORTANT: Only perform this step if you still have problems after going through the first seven steps. In the unlikely event that there is a problem with your QMate databases you should go back to step 4 and in step 7, delete the QMate databases instead of installing them onto your Pilot. This does mean you will have to recreate the data in QMate but very few users should have to do this.
If you encounter problems during this process and need to contact me, please quote the exact step where you had problems and provide me with as much detail about what you did and what happened.
Should you ever need to restore your QMate data it is thankfully an easy process (that is, most of the time - there are always exceptions). The first thing you need to know is that QMate's data is backed up every time you HotSync (see the end of this FAQ answer for an exception to this rule). On Windows these files are stored in a directory called Backup which is located in your Palm user directory. The Palm user directory is usually some "reasonably" recognizable form of your last and first name. For me, this directory is DakinS and the full path to my backup directory is: C:\Palm\DakinS\Backup. On the Mac this folder is located in a similar location. Use the find file feature on either platform to locate it if necessary.Inside the backup directory are copies of the QMate datbases (among other files). The QMate database files all begin with QMate and end with either DB or DB.pdb, depending on whether you have the option to display file extensions turned on. You can use the Install App tool to install these files onto your Palm during the next HotSync, just as you would a Palm application (.PRC) file. Any data stored in those databases on your Palm will be replaced with that contained in the QMate DB.pdb file. The complete list of database files is: QMateAccountsDB.pdb, QMateCategoriesDB.pdb, QMateCurrenciesDB.pdb, QMateMemTransDB.pdb, and QMateTransactionsDB.pdb.
If after installing the QMate DB.pdb files you still do not end up with the desired state of QMate data on your Palm then the only options are to use what's there or do a clean install (for stability or other severe problems).
If you don't want to have QMate's databases backed up during a HotSync (you can save a few seconds of HotSync time which some people do to conserve battery life) there are utilities available that clear the flag which instructs HotSync to back up a given database. Search any of the larger Palm shareware sites for such a utility.
Tips for diagnosing synchronization problems
I have received a number of questions along the lines: "I've followed the instructions carefully, installed QSync using QSetup, but still don't see any QIF files on my PC. What could be going wrong?" Although I've tried to account for all possible configuration options with QSetup, there are still a few things that can cause problems. Here then is a list of things for you to try to narrow down the root cause of the problem.
How do I keep my QMate and Quicken balances in sync?
Unfortunately there is no automatic means for keeping QMate and Quicken balances in sync. The QIF import/export mechanism that Quicken uses does not offer the necessary support. You can use QMate's edit account dialog to manually adjust your account balances as necessary. I keep my QMate account balances "close enough" and let Quicken sweat the pennies.If your account balances change when you perform a purge operation (and you don't want this to happen - some users do) then uncheck the "Update account balances on purge" checkbox on the preferences dialog.
Quicken and MS Money Compatibility
QMate is compatible with all known versions of Quicken. The oldest version of Quicken that I've received successful reports of QMate compatiblity is Quicken 2 for DOS. QMate is also compatible with MS Money. A fair percentage of my users use QMate with Money.
QSync is compatible with HotSync versions 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.
Macintosh Pilot Desktop support
The current version of QSync Mac does not support transaction importing. The next release of QSync Mac will support this. The current version does support category importing.
How do I transfer money between accounts?
Given two accounts: Checking and Cash, to transfer 20.00 from Checking to Cash, create a debit transaction in the amount of 20.00 in your Checking account and make the category [Cash] (brackets are required, just like in Quicken). QMate will update the balance of each account appropriately but the transaction will only show up in your Checking account. Quicken will create the corresponding transaction in your Cash account when you import the QIF file containing the transfer transaction. There is one important note here: Quicken has a checkbox called "Special handling for transfers" on the Import QIF File dialog. Different versions of Quicken require different settings for this checkbox so if you get a message like "No valid transactions to import" or other problem when importing a QIF file that contains transfer transactions, please try changing the setting for the "Special handling for transfers" checkbox.
Although the current version of QMate does not support importing classes (it does support importing categories) you can enter class information in the category field on the Edit Transaction dialog. To do this, make sure the cursor is positioned at the end of the category entry and no category text is highlighted (as will happen when the QuickFill feature fills in a matching category for you). Enter the Quicken class character delimiter: / followed by the class you want to use. If you have entered a subcategory (e.g., Auto:Fuel) then QMate will not allow you to enter any class information (the QuickFill feature is a bit aggressive when a subcategory is entered - yes, this is a bug that will be fixed in the next release). To work around this problem, you can display the keyboard dialog and type in the class information there because the QuickFill feature is disabled when the keyboard window is active. NOTE: A future version of QMate will offer complete support for classes (importing and QuickFill entry).
Incorrect date when importing into Quicken
If you're having problems with transaction dates when you import a QIF file generated by QMate/QSync into Quicken, try changing the date format for QSync from 4-digit years to 2-digit years. To do this run QSetup and choose the "MM/DD/YY" radio button and press "Setup...".
Does QMate have a built-in calculator?
When entering transcations, especially splits, it is sometimes handy to use a calculator to tabulate data. Unfortunately, QMate doesn't allow you to switch to another application when the Transaction dialog is active. There is a solution to this situation: PopUp Calculator written by Bozidar Benc allows you to perform simple and complex calculations while leaving QMate running and active.
Please check the Revision History for announcements regarding future versions of QMate. If you don't see a feature listed there that you'd like to see included in QMate, drop me a note.
Creating a category import file without using Quicken
If you don't have access to Quicken or want to create a category import file by hand, please see the Techno Page.