Hi Michael,

>Maybe there's some bug in MoI relating to the names of the directories that you happen
>to be opening the files from, do any of the directory names happen to have accented
>or non-English characters of any sort in them?

YES!!!!! An asterisk preceding the name of a file in the directory stack! That is what caused it. The files open normally now.

This is something I have done for many, 15+ years, to keep a file at the top of the directory and no other app has ever been sensitive to that labeling. It should be noted that the mac will stop naming attempts that use unacceptable characters as will some apps.

Now I know. An expensive "Now I know".

I think we can close out this thread...

Thanks for your help and my apologies if I put you through the wringer.

Leonard

Hi Leonard, well I'm really glad that solves the mystery!

For the next v3 beta I'll see if I can fix that up or at the very least pop up a message saying that a file path with a * in it will not work properly when you try to use one.

In Windows the * character is not allowed for file names, because of the history of using a * for a "wild card" pattern in command line operations (like saying: del ab* means delete any files starting with the text "ab" and anything allowed after that), and the Windows OS itself handles prohibiting it in the system UI.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Yes, that seems to have solved it and MOI has been at work since (see pic). I found MOI does not like my using ">" in lieu of "to", e.g., "From ai>MOI". No more characters other than english. Lesson learned.

The pop up message will be helpful for us jockeys.

Leonard

Hi Leonard, yup it looks like the following characters are illegal in Windows:    " * : < > ? \ / |

So for the moment anyway avoid using those in any part of a file name and then you should be ok.

- Michael

Hi Leonard, ok so I've been able to fix things up so that files with any of these characters:   " * <> ? |   which were not working in file names before should work ok in the next beta.

Sorry it took so long to pinpoint what the problem was!

- Michael

Hi Michael, I didn't think you would take that route, i.e., to make those characters workable. You do good work.

My takeaway: its helped my problem-solving skills. In the case of this and the last problem, they were right under my nose!

Kudos to you for coming back each time with questions; that led straight to the central issue in both cases.

Cheers.

Leonard