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Running the Antique Map Price Record
on the Macintosh, using CrossOver

 

CrossOver is “virtualization” software that allows you to run Windows software on a Macintosh computer.  It is available from CodeWeavers, Inc. Unlike other approaches to virtualization, CrossOver does not require you to install a copy of a Windows operating system on your Mac.  All you need is the CrossOver software itself, which is sold at a very reasonable price (currently $39.95).

 

There are, however, some minimum requirements that your Macintosh must meet before you can run CrossOver:

 

Ø     You must have an Intel-based Mac (CrossOver does not work for Power-PC Macs).

Ø     You must be running Mac OS-X 10.4.4 (or later).

Ø     You must have at least 512MB main memory.

Ø     You must have at least 100MB free disk space

 

The following instructions assume that you have already installed CrossOver on your Macintosh.

 

When you insert the AMPR CD-ROM into your Macintosh’s CD-ROM drive, CrossOver will wake up and notice the Windows-style CD-ROM.  CrossOver will also notice that the installer for the software on the CD is not one that CrossOver knows about.  So CrossOver will ask you how you want to proceed.  You should specify that you want to do an Express Install. After clicking the Express Install button, CrossOver will proceed through a number of set-up steps, preparing the Macintosh environment for running this Windows-based application.  Near the end of this process the AMPR’s own set-up program will run, and you should proceed through the AMPR’s installation program’s screens.

 

When the AMPR installation is finished, CrossOver will display a Finder folder, showing two “globe” icons for the two programs that have been installed (the Antique Map Price Record and the Map Collection Manager).  I recommend, at this point, that you make an alias for the Antique Map Price Record program icon, and then drag that alias to the desktop.  This way you will always have ready access to the AMPR (by double-clicking the desktop icon), without having to separately start up CrossOver and locate the AMPR program icon within the CrossOver windows.  If you want, you can also create an alias for the Map Collection Manager program.

 

At this point you can run the AMPR program (by double-clicking the Antique Map Price Record icon).  In this case the program will access the AMPR database from the CD-ROM.  For convenience of operation, I recommend that you copy the database from the CD-ROM to your hard disk.  That way you will not need to have the AMPR CD-ROM inserted in order to run the program.  To copy the database from the CD to your hard disk you will need to open two Finder windows.  One Finder window should be opened on the AMPR_V24 CD-ROM. (Double-click on the AMPR_V24 desktop icon to open the Finder window, if it is not already opened.)  Among the items in the AMPR_V24 Finder window you will see a folder named data.  This is the AMPR database, and it is this folder that you will want to copy to the hard disk.  The destination for this copy operation is the drive_c:Program Files:AMPR folder on your hard disk, so you need to open a Finder window on this folder.  Fortunately CrossOver makes finding this folder relatively easy.  If it is not already running, start up CrossOver. Pick Bottle Manager from the Configure menu. Make sure the AMPR_V24 bottle is selected from the list at the left, and then click the Advanced tab/button. Click the Open C: Drive in Finder button. The Finder window that comes up corresponds to drive_c, and in that folder you will see the Program Files folder. Double-click on that and you will see the AMPR folder. Double-click on that and now the Finder window will show you the desired folder for the destination of the copy operation. (That folder will be seen to contain a Home folder and about a half dozen individual files.)  Do a drag-and-drop operation to copy the data folder from the AMPR_V24 CD-ROM Finder window and drop it into the AMPR Finder window on your hard drive that you have just navigated to. The copying will take a while (several hundred files are being copied). Once completed, the CD-ROM can be removed from the CD drive, as it is no longer needed to run the AMPR program.

 

Note: If CrossOver is not currently running (i.e. there is no CrossOver icon visible in the Mac’s program dock), then when you invoke the AMPR program (by double-clicking its globe icon), CrossOver will also be started up. This will cause a Welcome to CrossOver window to be displayed, which can be a bit of an annoyance, since you really probably just want to see the AMPR program’s window.  However the Welcome to CrossOver window has a check-box, at the bottom, which you can turn on to prevent the welcome window from being displayed in the future.

 

If you have any problems or questions with these instructions, please contact:

 

Jeremy Pool

MapRecord Publications

617-661-3718

Fax: 617-868-1229

jeremypool@comcast.net

 

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