Any of you guys who are coding know what I'm talking about.

The IBM people took my suggestion and to this day, the asterisk is that 'super-digit'. For example, instead of looking for 'Colorado' state by spelling the whole name, you could enter 'Co*' and the computer could figure this out. I spoke with one or two of the IBM programmers and discussed the fact that if they had a special characters that would mean ANYTHING in the spot where it was placed, much work and time could be saved. Well, my IQ is 145 and I used my brain because it was logical to me that the main problem is they did not have what I termed a 'super-digit' that would cut down on most of the repeats runs. until you get the correct answer finally after making several runs. Some times you would have to ask a first question, get an answer, then ask a second question from the first answer information, etc. I was a query tech at that time and learned how to get certain info off those big reel tape drives. No lap tops or desktops or cell phones invented yet. At that time IBM was supplying us with IBM 360 computers, tape storage, etc. I have been involved with computers starting way back in 1965 when I was in Air Force Intelligence, stationed at Norad (inside the Cheyenne Mt Complex) near Colorado Springs, Colo. But when a company makes one jump through hoops by going through a forum - which is ridiculous, sorry to you folks out there don't mean to be anything but blunt, to me it indicates they have problems more than issuing me an erroneous serial number. You see, this problem could have been solved in 5 minutes if this company would take phone calls - they could have issued me another serial# and I would be a happy camper. But when I try to use it THEN it becomes mine. When the error message says the serial number is 'invalid' - that is Magix's problem, not mine. I have been doing this many years so I know what I'm doing. Firstly, they print a leading 'P' just outside the front of the box indicating they know there is a 'P' there so don't bother, and secondly the box only holds the amount of the serial number less the 'P' - it won't fit with the 'P' and if you try it with the 'P' the 'P' gets dropped anyway. Hi John - well, nice try but you are wrong.

Xara designer pro x 16