scary moment

[Judy Staigmiller]

Hello fellow indexers,

I was working away on SKY 7 today when all of a sudden I had trouble. The screen faded, and the preview pane went blank. I couldn't do anything except close the index, and there was a message that it might not be saved.

I tried closing down and opening up the index again. I restarted the laptop a couple of times. When it did open up and I left it for a minute, the text started to appear in the preview pane. I deleted the proofs, shut down SKY, shut down the laptop and left it for a few minutes. When I came back the same thing happened. I was wondering if I need to uninstall and reinstall SKY and if I should call Kamm.

I noticed there was a title that was a number (638) in the second line of the index, and I thought to myself I would need to force the sort when I could work on it again. Then I noticed that the first line of the index started with 58 which was a page number and was followed by the text. I had accidentally put a page number where the main heading should go — I do that once in a while. Somehow I must have accidentally copied and pasted a bunch of the text into where the main heading would go. I don't know if it was the entire proofs or the text that started on page 58 or what. But when I deleted that entry, everything was working again.

So, no longer a problem, but I thought it was weird, I am intensely relieved, and thanks for "listening."

Judy

[Deborah Patton]

Yes, there can be scary moments with software, but fortunately they are rare. And you aren't alone in inadvertently typing over something in the grid -- and like, you, I often do that in the first record, but I've found that screwup other places.

I'm glad things straightened out for you, but you never mentioned going to a backup.

The reasons I'd go to a backup in this case are two -- things weren't screwed up earlier so maybe the file got corrupted somehow? I'd go to a backup for a clean version. The other reason to go to a backup is that I'm never smart enough to remember what was in that main entry that I overtyped with either a page number or something else. 

If it isn't the first one in the file, then View>Record numbers will show me the record number of the one I screwed up. Using that number I can open a backup file and find that entry (ctrl+Alt+R, then type in the record number and press Enter). Then a simple copy/paste will fix my screwup.

It's good to know where your backups are on your computer. There's the automatic one which is in a SKY directory. I always make a separate one to an external harddrive in a folder I named Sky backups. 

Another thing you can do is, repair the index. With your problem file closed, File>File management>repair -- and it'll want to know which file, so you choose it.

If that doesn't fix it and sometimes it doesn't, then open a new file and then File>File Management>Merge and choose the problem one to merge into the new one. That fixes a lot, although your formatting settings will be back on the default ones. Still, your data will be intact.

Glad to hear you got through it unscathed!

Deborah

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[Judy Staigmiller]

You are right about the backups, Deborah. I do backup, but didn't think about it last night. And I forgot to mention that "repair" didn't work. 

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From: Deborah Patton <ma...@pattonindexing.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2025 3:49 AM
To: Judy Staigmiller <judy...@gmail.com>
Cc: SKYIndexUsers <skyind...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [SKYIndexUsers] scary moment

 

[Maria Sosnowski]

Sorry to hear that Judy!  I know when weird things happen the panic turns my brain off.  Good for you for figuring out what happened (with all the keystrokes we do it’s so easy to hit the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong place). 

 

Maria

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/BL1PR12MB537850073E1E30C7D9A523A3F852A%40BL1PR12MB5378.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[ju...@writeguru.com]

I back up after every chapter. I know that Sky 7 has a backup feature built in, but I do Save As to create a new file—and I leave the earlier one intact. I number every new file--#2, #3, etc.

On one occasion, I had a problem. I went back file by file until I found that place without that problem. Those backups saved my hide.

~Judi

 

From: skyind...@googlegroups.com <skyind...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Judy Staigmiller

Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2025 7:25 AM
To: Deborah Patton <ma...@pattonindexing.com>

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/BL1PR12MB537850073E1E30C7D9A523A3F852A%40BL1PR12MB5378.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.

[Judy Staigmiller]

Yes, backups are important. Once I identified the heading 56endlesstext ... as the problem and deleted it, life returned to normal. Or my personal life at the moment in time to be more accurate 🙂

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From: ju...@writeguru.com <ju...@writeguru.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2025 1:32 PM

To: 'Judy Staigmiller' <judy...@gmail.com>
Cc: 'SKYIndexUsers' <skyind...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: RE: [SKYIndexUsers] scary moment

 

[Iris Ailin-Pyzik]

I've been using this approach for ages.  I also do this when I'm attempting a global change or edit that I view as risky, and label the new file as 1a or 1b or whatever, just as a CYA.  The only caveat here is if you close Sky, or it closes itself for some reason, be sure you're restarting with the file you mean to start with, and not necessarily the one Sky sees as most recent.

Iris

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/skyindexusers/0e9301dbf9ad%2410f9daf0%2432ed90d0%24%40writeguru.com.