First, place an order for a product:
Once your
order is purchased you will receive a confirmation e-mail
which includes step by step instructions to install the product along
with the required passwords. You will be sent one e-mail with download instructions for each product ordered. The emails are sent as soon as you submit your credit card so you should receive them within a few minutes.
If you do not receive the download e-mails you can use this form to resend the download emails to yourself.
Make sure
to keep a copy of your confirmation e-mail as your order number and original e-mail address will be required for future upgrades.
Also backup
the download file(s) from our server. Users frequently request
downloads when they have lost the original file, had a hard drive
crash or are looking for an updated version. We do not maintain
continual download access for individual users on our download
site. Passwords change periodically. We do not retain older copies
of downloads and if you need a new download and we have upgraded
the software you may be required to order the upgrade.
Here are the steps you will encounter after placing your order and receiving
your download instructions on-screen or by e-mail.
Download the Product Installers:
Product Download and Installation Video
Review tutorial #1 if you have any questions regarding the proper and expected way to get our products onto your computer.
First login
to the download page. In some cases the credit card processor or our order system will flag an order for manual review before the download passwords can be released. If you have been given a message in the download instructions to call us, you must contact us, otherwise your order may be voided.
The userid and password are in your confirmation
e-mail. These passwords are temporary and subject to change,
so you should download the kit as soon as possible after ordering.
Also backup your downloaded files and store them with your order
confirmation information.
Your browser
will popup a dialog box prompting for the download userid and
password. These are located in the order confirmation e-mail
along with the link to the download page. If you receive a server
error, such as an authorization failure, either your browser
is not displaying the login dialog box or you did not enter
the proper userid and password. If you were not prompted for
the login information you may need to reboot your computer and
try again, or use a different browser or computer for the download.
You can then move the installer file after it is downloaded
to the actual computer it will be installed on.
If you get
a corrupted download file most likely there is a problem with
your connection. Our kits are downloaded every day and corrupt
files are very rare. If you are downloading using a proxy server,
proxy servers have been known to corrupt downloaded files. Turn
off your proxy server and/or try a different connection or computer.
Click the
download file link and save the download file to your hard drive.
DO NOT run the download file remotely.
Windows, Mac and Linux users can download from the same page. Make sure to
run the right download on the right computer. For example, do not try to run the Windows .exe installer on a Mac or Linux computer.
If you are on a Mac or Linux system the download file is a Zip file format. This is a built in format automatically recognized by Linux systems. If you are on a Mac you may need an updated Stuffit Expander. You can get the free Stuffit Expander from Stuffit.com.
We DO NOT
bundle or ship Visio, ConceptDraw, Word, Excel, Flash, Adobe
Fonts or any other 3rd party software with our products. It
is your responsibility to supply any required software.
Installing the Product:
Run the
downloaded file once to install the product. You will be prompted
for an install password. Your install password is listed in
your order confirmation e-mail.
Once you
enter the install password the kit will be installed to your
hard drive. You will have the option to specify where on your
hard drive including drive and path to install. Do not run the
installer or install the kit directly into your operating system
desktop folder or existing system folders. It should be run
from a temporary download folder and installed into a new folder
on your hard drive. By default it is installed into your C:\ProposalKit directory into a new folder.
Our products
support virtually every Windows operating system and Mac OS
8/9 and OS X and Linux variations. Proposal
Kit has been installed and used by thousands of developers worldwide
with very few install problems. Virtually every installer problem
is due to out of date user software, corrupt hard drives or
other system instabilities on the users computer.
Most install
problems are related to user configuration problems on the host
computer such as installing on Windows 2000 without admin privileges
with access to the registry, not enough space on the C: drive
for the installer, installing over a remote connection, etc.
If you experience
an install problem, reboot your computer from a complete power
down. Do not run any other software in the background. Login
with admin privileges (if your OS has restrictions). Copy the
installer program to the same computer it is being installed
onto.
If
you experience an error message during installation,
there are a few things you should try, as the problem is most
likely due to a problem on your computer.
- Check
your available disk space on your C: drive and the drive you
are installing the product onto (if it is different than your
C: drive). You should have 100 to 200 mb free depending on
the product you are installing. Most install problems are
due to not enough disk space available on your computer. Try
running your Windows "Accessories -> System Tools
-> Disk Cleanup" utility to free up some space, if
you spend a lot of time on the Internet also consider clearing
your web browser cache to free up some disk space.
- If you
have a cluttered temp folder there may be a conflict. In rare
cases your installer will start working if you delete the
files in your "c:\windows\temp" folder. NOTE: Backup
any important files first if you do store important files
in your temp folder.
- If you are using a Mac and are getting a "decompression error" opening the .zip file you MUST be using Stuffit Expander 10.1 or greater. First update your Stuffit Expander program then try again.
If
you experience a corrupt download,
there are a few things you should try, as the problem is with
your connection to the Internet or your computer.
- Try downloading
the program again, there may have been a problem with the
last download not completing properly.
- If you
are using a proxy server, disable the proxy server or download
from a different computer not on the same connection. Use
of a proxy server is known to cause corrupt download files.
- Try defragmenting
your hard drive. Some cases of the installer displaying an
error about a ".CAB" file being corrupted have been
cleared up by simply defragmenting the hard drive.
Access to required software:
Proposal
Kit, Proposal Pack, Proposal Pack Wizard, Estimate Pack, Contract Pack and other products are primarily a collection of CONTENT.
Documents, spreadsheets, web pages, etc. You must have the native
software installed first (such as the free Adobe Acrobat Reader,
a word processor and a web browser).
If you get
an error message clicking any of the kit documents that a required
program was not found, then you need to check to make sure it
is both installed AND your operating system is setup to recognize
that file extension so it can launch itself properly.
For example,
for a PDF document to launch from the kit organizer you need
to install Acrobat Reader which will also setup the ".PDF"
file extension so that the OS associates the extension with
the reader program.
Running the product interface:
The kit
and pack interfaces are designed to walk you through the organization
of a collection of material making up the kit.
The interface
is broken into multiple sections in the order they are generally
used by a company or individual. Each section contains a number
of links to specific documents, spreadsheets, other sections
of the interface and links to our web site for additional information.
Look over
all of the categories first, check out the sample proposals,
read the documentation and the tutorials.
Watch the getting started videos.
Continue
to : Getting Started
Back to
: Tutorial Index
Downloading, installing
and setting up