PE4 crashes when trying to add...

PE4 has just begun (I have used it for over a year without experiencing this problem) crashing every time that I click on the 'add text' button. I can't get it to crash any other way except by trying to add or edit titles.



I am using Vista on an HP pavillion with 2.0 Gb RAM and 1.8 Ghz core duo processor.



Thanks for any advice or help that you can give me!



Erik
PE4 crashes when trying to add...
Have you updated to the latest version of Quicktime as well as updated your other drivers, per the FAQs at the top of this forum?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c057647/2



Have you gone to Windows Update and manually added all the updates that don't load automatically?



Have you optimized Vista for video editing?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc448a7



Do you maintain your computer to keep all the electronic sludge at bay?

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc43f9a/0
PE4 crashes when trying to add...
When I have a large project (in terms of the no. of components and edits, not length) invoking the text editor is one of the two ways I am likely to get a crash or freeze. (The other is scrolling the contents of the media bin.) Perhaps you are making projects with more substance to them now than you were a year ago.



The work-arounds I use are:



1. Save your work often (particularly before invoking the text editor) and live with the problem, or



2. Partition your project into smaller chunks, edit them, export as AVI files and combine into a final project (with menu if desired) and burn or otherwise ''share''.

Many folks have reported crashes when adding titles in PRE4. I have also seen it. Whenever it happened, I would restart PRE4 and add the title first thing. It usually did not happen the second time.

It is a known bug that Abobe has addressed in PRE7. So a solution would be to upgrade to PRE7.

If you don't want to upgrade, then please use the workarounds Peter listed. I too used them in PRE4.

Adobe's NLE's (Pro %26amp; Elements) have problems with corrupt fonts. Much more so than, say Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. A single corrupt font can bring Titler to its knees - or to the Desktop, as the case may be.



There are a couple of ways to troubleshoot this.



My first choice is to purchase a font ''fixer,'' like Extensis Font Doctor. As I also use Extensis Suitcase for font management, it comes with that package, but is also a standalone app. It will either repair a corrupt font (most likely it can), or will offer to delete an unfixible font.



Second is to Move (not Copy, or Delete) half of your installed fonts (from Windows Control Panel%26gt;Fonts) to another directory. This will uninstall half of your fonts. Test PE (or Pro) Titler and see if it still crashes. If so, then Move half of the remaining fonts to a different location. Repeat as is necessary. You will have your Moved fonts in several folders, i.e. First_Half, Second_Half, etc.. Note: there are some fonts that are System fonts, and should NOT be Moved. Windows is pretty smart in this respect, but do take care with System fonts - do NOT Move these.



Once you have done this in halves, and can get Titler to run perfectly, then you know that your corrupt font(s) are in the last folder, or spread out amongst the Move-folders.



Start by re-installing half of the last Move-folder worth of fonts, and test. If it crashes, then you know that at least one of those fonts is bad.



This is tedious and takes a lot of work. That is why I use a program, such as Font Doctor, which will survey your system for fonts. You may have to point it to several folders, but that depends on how your fonts are stored. It will fix, or delete (at your direction) fonts that are, and are not installed on the system. On my workstation, I have over 9,000 fonts, though only about 600 are ever installed at one time. First time that I ran Font Doctor, there were 20+ fonts with problems and all but three were fixed by the program. Those were safely deleted. Now, I do a lot of print design, so I have fonts from all over, collected during 20 years of work. Most systems will not have nearly so many, but all it takes is ONE bad one installed to throw Titler for a loop.



In *most* cases, this will fix Titler's crashing.



Try one of these methods, after you have worked through Steve's suggestions.



Good luck,



Hunt



PS the font crashes with Titler *usually* occur when one scrolls down the font list, though not always.