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Release Notes 7/23/08


OpinioNate

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Hi there,

 

I am completely shocked about all these problems using geocaching.com. I am preparing a few days of caching in Chicago - two days ago everything works without problems - today even the search seems to be broken down!

 

Typing the cities name like "Chicago" or "Schiller Park" in the box and klick "go" has no result, how can I find the caches any more?

 

Using the hint decrypt doesn't only translate the hint but refresh the complete page so I have to begin on top of the page again.

 

Printing the pdf with 5 logs and the DECRYPTED hint isn't working any more, the hint is decrypted in the pdf although it was decrypted in the cache description before.

 

And last problem - I miss the pictures of my coins!!! Where are they gone? - edit - only some pictures seem to be missing...

 

Help please, I will fly to Chicago next Tuesday and want to prepare some more caches for the trip!

 

Anne

Edited by Liskatze
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Just noticed search for a northern ireland postcode such as bt1 2gu brings back caches in germany

 

Thank you for reporting this. Did it work before the update? We get our postcode info from a third party so it should not have changed overnight.

 

There are numerous reports of postcode problems - various types of behaviour. I just get the standard "A location for IM.... cannot be determined" (as reported above). Others get this followed by seemingly random search results. Others get results that are nearby the postcode, but between 1 and 10 miles out. All was OK before the upgrade.

 

Postcode searches are very useful, and those who don't read the forums will be mightily baffled.

 

(Edit) it looks like the programmers are working overtime - the site is down for maintenance now!

Edited by Happy Humphrey
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I'm not a big fan of change for the sake of change - if it works why fix it? I feel that comment is extremely pertinent here as it worked and now doesn't:

 

As the screen shot above I am no longer able to search for a cache using any of the search options - all report that a location for "x" could not be determined!

 

Also to add my two cents about some of the other issues people have commented on: without the counts for Friends that is a useless feature as I know how to contact my friends off gc.com and use it to see if they've been active.

 

The change in colours makes it much more difficult for someone with a visual impairment to navigate the site.

 

Having moved the inventory to the bottom of the page is rubbish! And the space where it used to be is now blank - what is the point of that?!

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How can I find events now?

Before we could goto whatever state and they would appear for us.

I miss that.

 

This has been answered several times, but a couple more people have asked so I'll attempt it again:

 

Go to the "Hide & Seek A Cache" Page.

 

Towards the top left are two different drop down menus that let you search by state.

 

The top state search takes you to a state page that shows all the upcoming events at the top, and then all the geocaches in that state from newest to oldest.

 

The bottom state search takes you to a state page that shows you different searches: city, events, and recent travel bug logs.

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Oh yes.. and has the forum clock always been an hour slow, or did Washington just slide West another time zone??

 

Check your "board settings". The time is right for me (and we are in the same time zone.

 

Yes I fixed it.. the automatic DST thingy must have quit working. I rechecked the other box and it's OK now, except that I'm now runinng an hour late for an appointment. :D Hopefully when I check back this evening everything will be up and running. The good side of this is that it was done in the middle of the week and it seems that TPTB have all their top guns working to fix them as we find them. Could have done it on Friday afternoon and gone home for the weekend. :D

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Here are just a couple of problems with the new release that I see:

 

[*]Re-arranged the /my/ page for cleaner presentation

 

The new presentation is not as compact in reporting logs, making the page much longer for a search.

The trackables inventory fell to the bottom of the page in a much less convenient place.

 

[*]Removed find and hide count from friends list

 

Why the heck did you do this? This was probably the most useful feature of the friends list. I like to see at a glance what my friends have been doing.

 

Ocean Lovers

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Perhaps this needs to be posted at the top of each new page in this thread. :D:D

 

Removal of Friend's List hides/finds: These stats never displayed properly. As with the encrypt/decrypt feature above, we had not time to make it work, but neither did we want to leave something that was obviously broken up on the site. This will get another look in the future and return when it can be done right.

 

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Hi - looks good.

 

The resolution for searches in the UK to filter on regions is a nice little addition. But, the first time I've used it to download details of a relatively new series in my area for caching tomorrow, I found an anomaly....

 

GC1EC20 Henlow Camp - The Final One (Region : East Midlands)

GC1EC2F Henlow Camp - The Flat One (Region : East of England)

GC1EC48 Henlow Camp - The Devious One (Region : East Midlands)

GC1EC2R Henlow Camp - The Usual One (Region : East Midlands)

 

All the caches are within a couple of kilometres of each other. Initially I thought; "oh, that's interesting, the regional boundary bisects the cache set" but then saw that GC1EC2F is the most northwesterly of the 4 cache locations which should give it a greater likelihood of being considered as in "East Midlands" and a lower likelihood of being considered as in "East of England". The Regional Boundary is to the NW of the set.

 

Not a big deal but would be interesting to see if regional misclassifications are occurring more generally.

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Perhaps this needs to be posted at the top of each new page in this thread. :D:D

 

Removal of Friend's List hides/finds: These stats never displayed properly. As with the encrypt/decrypt feature above, we had not time to make it work, but neither did we want to leave something that was obviously broken up on the site. This will get another look in the future and return when it can be done right.

 

That would still presume that people would actually read it... :D:D:D

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Just a moment ago we made some updates to the release.

  • Put out a fix for the formatting issues on some profiles in IE version 6
  • Fixed the error in IE when attempting to create a Pocket Query from a route
  • Restored search functionality by PID for benchmarks
  • Fixed paging error on "your created routes" page

We had to revert the location search on the home page to a zip code search because we were exceeding Google's daily number of requests (15,000). As such, until the limit resets the "zoom to address" field on our maps will not work. We hope that by reverting to a zip code search on the home page it will reduce the load and our map search will again be functional. In any case, the limit should reset; perhaps this evening, or as late as midnight tonight. We're very sorry for the inconvenience, and have a request in with Google to come to some new arrangement.

 

Friend's List - The numerous requests you've made to return the hide/find functionality are not lost on us. I can say at this time that we do have plans for a complete renovation of this feature in the near future, so please be patient with us and it will become a much more useful part of the site soon. I'm very sorry this upset so many of you.

 

Printing - If you're printing the cache pages without first viewing one of the print friendly versions, I'm afraid we can't guarantee how it will look. If this is your preferred way to print, you will have better luck by printing in "landscape" mode. That should keep the left side of the page from being truncated. Also, I have written up problems associated with the .pdf version when using IE (Try Firefox - you may like it better) so that will get another look soon.

 

I will keep you posted on the Google situation. Thanks all.

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Just a moment ago we made some updates to the release.

  • .......

 

Printing - If you're printing the cache pages without first viewing one of the print friendly versions, I'm afraid we can't guarantee how it will look. If this is your preferred way to print, you will have better luck by printing in "landscape" mode. That should keep the left side of the page from being truncated. Also, I have written up problems associated with the .pdf version when using IE (Try Firefox - you may like it better) so that will get another look soon.

 

I will keep you posted on the Google situation. Thanks all.

 

But the "print friendly version" omits the google satellite image which is really the only part I absolutely need. Can't the original cache page be programed to print an image on one page rather than splitting it over two pages?

Edited by edscott
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Printing - If you're printing the cache pages without first viewing one of the print friendly versions, I'm afraid we can't guarantee how it will look. If this is your preferred way to print, you will have better luck by printing in "landscape" mode. That should keep the left side of the page from being truncated. Also, I have written up problems associated with the .pdf version when using IE (Try Firefox - you may like it better) so that will get another look soon.

 

That's too bad. I've geocached for four years using wysiwyg. Landscape printing does not work any better. I've never cared for the printer 'friendly' versions. Unfortunately, I guess I'm stuck with them now. :D PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE fix the decrypt for the printer 'friendly' version, if I'm going to be stuck with them. (Someone's suggestion about adding &pf=y&decrypt=y did decrypt, but cut off other useful iformation, such as coordinates. :D ) I would far prefer the old wysiwyg.

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Like the "driving directions" feature on the cache pages.

 

I agree. However, I think that it might be worthwhile having a warning on the "driving instructions" functionality - I guess that we all realise that Google can only direct you to the nearest public road to the cache site. That said, users ought to be warned that this might not offer the most convenient or safest parking location and that instructions in the cache description should be considered.

 

Here's a good example ....

 

Google Maps Instructions to get from "fictional" (obvious reason !!) Home Co-ordinates to GCZNMZ

 

The cache is adjacent to a public footbridge over a busy road at the mouth of a tunnel .... The driving instructions send you to a location under the footbridge which would be a death defying place to pullover and start a cache hunt from !!

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I agree. However, I think that it might be worthwhile having a warning on the "driving instructions" functionality - I guess that we all realise that Google can only direct you to the nearest public road to the cache site. That said, users ought to be warned that this might not offer the most convenient or safest parking location and that instructions in the cache description should be considered.

I noticed it only routes to the cache, even if there's parking coords. Wonder if there's a way to have it detect parking coords and route to them.

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Have you heard why this is happening and when it will be fixed? I'm leaving the state to go caching and can not down load my caches.

 

 

:D The write to GPS function not longer works. I was in the middle of downloading when your update came on line. At the that moment write to GPS stopped working.

Today's release represents a significant update to Geocaching.com. Although there have been numerous bug fixes, the primary focus has been to improve the process for creating and renewing Premium Memberships.

 

We are now offering 4 different ways of purchasing a Premium Membership, with both PayPal and credit cards being accepted. PayPal no longer requires a subscription ID and both methods are instant. Any active PayPal (renewing) subscriptions will remain valid unless, or until, it is canceled for whatever reason.

 

PayPal

  • $30 Annual Premium Membership (Non-Renewing)

Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover)

  • 1 Year Premium Membership (Auto-Renew) - $30 USD/Year
  • 1 Year Premium Membership - $30 USD/Year
  • 3 Month Premium Membership (Auto-Renew) - $10 USD/3 Months

And now for the bug fixes! Here they are in no particular order:

  • Updated email notifications for Premium Membership
  • The "renew" membership link will now only appear if the membership is within 60 days of expiration
  • Re-ordered page titles for cache pages. e.g.: GCTANE Trees of Greenlake: The Empress (Multi-cache) in Washington, United States created by licibear & drizzle
  • Updated freetrial.aspx page with new language and error checking
  • Added region search to UK and Ireland
  • Updated Send to GPS functionality for Garmin devices so the Gpx output is in GML (or the Garmin Modeling Language), a subset of html.
  • Slovak cache note added
  • An audit log note is now created when an adoption is complete.
  • Re-arranged the /my/ page for cleaner presentation
  • Added new icon to search results which indicates multiple Travel Bugs are placed in a cache
  • Rebuilt "about us" page
  • Improved spacing between username and log out link on home page
  • Updated mailing address for Groundspeak on contact us
  • Added MacCaching link to list of GPS software
  • Removed all hard coded instances of nearest.aspx
  • Pocket Query page will now properly post back when a different coordinate format is selected from the dropdown
  • Fixed mispelling in Glossary
  • Added error checking to /track page when searching for non-existent travel bug
  • Fixed issue that prevented the selecting of state/province on membership creation page
  • Fixed map on edit cache page to properly display new coordinates
  • Text change instructing users on contacting Shop Groundspeak on Contact Us
  • Updated Copyright notice on TOU page
  • Various dates and typos have been fixed in the TOU
  • Added CacheBerry to list of GPS software links
  • Fixed grammar issue on cache submission form
  • Fixed issue with odd characters being used in username creation
  • Updated Shop Groundspeak contact info on Contact Us page
  • Removed find and hide count from friends list
  • Removed references to "stash note" from /seek page
  • Fixed Pocket Query issue where no results were found when Flashlight Required attribute is enabled
  • Fixed issue with Google Earth KML causing errors for certain Travel Bugs and Geocoins
  • Fixed issue with certain Geocoins failing activation
  • Fixed login link on geocoin faq page
  • Updated link to support page on contact us
  • Added to cache pages the ability to click through to a complete list of shared Bookmark Lists
  • Fixed issue with ampersands in encrypted cache hints adding nonsense code each time it is decrypted
  • Removed HTML Encoding for cache pages when using Send to GPS functionality
  • Fixed issue with Travel Bug dropdown menus duplicating each time an item is selected
  • Changed wording on FAQ page to clarify "Where you *hide* a cache is up to you"
  • Updated FAQ on proper process for adopting trackables
  • Improved decrypt/encrypt feature by maintaining original line breaks
  • Fixed spelling errors in FAQ and Glossary
  • Entering an invalid cache ID in the PQ generator now correctly reports the error
  • Updated wording on the "email a user" page
  • An error will now be generated when attempting to transfer ownership of a virtual or webcam cache using the /adopt tool
  • Fixed issue with random route not loading when page is posted back (User Routes)
  • Removed ability to queue "My Finds" PQ if user has no finds
  • When submitting a cache listing the "hide a cache" page now defaults to the account's country. If a region is chosen it will also select the default region.
  • Trackable activation wizard will now default to today's date
  • Added asterisk to Mega-Event caches in profile geocache tab
  • Removed redundant text from cache creation page
  • Fixed rating functionality for bookmark lists to properly display or hide based on ratings
  • Removed broken link to "country map" from UK cache pages
  • Added CITO logos to logousage.aspx
  • Fixed issue where some usernames starting with a number or symbol were not accepted
  • Fixed issue with URLs not displaying properly in cache logs
  • Remove geocoin text from trackable FAQ (they have their own FAQ)
  • Fixed issue on /track where hitting the enter key does not submit search
  • Fixed issues with Green Jeep Travel Bug pages where the CSS displayed incorrectly.

As usual, please reply in this thread with any problems that come up as a result of this release. If you need clarification on any of these, just ask.

 

We still have plenty to keep us busy, so if your favorite bug didn't make it into this release, fear not. We will get to it as soon as possible. :D

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Just a moment ago we made some updates to the release.

:snip:

I will keep you posted on the Google situation. Thanks all.

 

Nate, and everyone else working non-stop on this,

 

Thanks so much for your prompt responses to all our complaints/whinings. You guys do work hard, so thank you very much for working with us to find what makes us happy (HA!) and what keeps your site running smoothly and efficiently.

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Friend's List - The numerous requests you've made to return the hide/find functionality are not lost on us. I can say at this time that we do have plans for a complete renovation of this feature in the near future, so please be patient with us and it will become a much more useful part of the site soon. I'm very sorry this upset so many of you.

 

 

Thank you! :D

 

I don't much care about the hides, but the finds...love that info!

 

I will try to be patient.

 

Now if my avatar will update....oh well

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What are the rules in Geocaching?

1. If you take something from the cache, leave something of equal or greater value.

2. Write about your find in the cache logbook.

3. Log your experience at www.geocaching.com.

You added a rule that you log your experience at www.geocaching.com. Does that mean that I should cross out the names of people who signed the log book and didn't log online?

 

Actually, it should say:

1. If you take something from the cache, leave something of equal or greater value. - Great Rule here.

2. Sign the logbook in the cache. - Not all logbooks have enough room for someone to write about their find (think micro or nano).

3. Write about your adventure on the cache page at www.geocaching.com. - This is where someone should write about their adventure (or experience) for others to read. I will usually read others stories when I'm sitting at my computer, but not when I am out in the field. "We're on a mission..."

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Just a moment ago we made some updates to the release.

  • Put out a fix for the formatting issues on some profiles in IE version 6
  • Fixed the error in IE when attempting to create a Pocket Query from a route
  • Restored search functionality by PID for benchmarks
  • Fixed paging error on "your created routes" page

 

Thank you for fixing the IE 6 profile problems. My profile is now displaying properly as it did before the update. My Findstatsgen table now shows on the screen and the scroll bars at the bottom work.

 

:D

Edited by HMarkguy
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Second, decrypting/encrypting a hint now completely reloads the page. Being able to do this on the fly was handy.

 

Reloads the page and takes you back to the top so you have to scroll back down to get back to where you were on the page. That is very annoying to put it mildly.

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Bug Report:

New found caches in top right doesn't update. Currently showing 977. Just got done logging new finds, still shows 977 even though "old" counter shows a correct 998.

 

buglet.png

 

Long night for the developers again tonight?

 

-R

Edited by CCrew
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Perhaps this needs to be posted at the top of each new page in this thread. :D:D

 

Removal of Friend's List hides/finds: These stats never displayed properly. As with the encrypt/decrypt feature above, we had not time to make it work, but neither did we want to leave something that was obviously broken up on the site. This will get another look in the future and return when it can be done right.

 

 

Yes, and if so, Nate might want to edit it and choose his words more carefully, since "never displayed properly" is obviously not true (as several of us have pointed out). Perhaps "usually didn't display properly" might be more accurate. :D

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Sorry, but I am just NOT going to read through eight pages of replies to see if anyone has reported:

Benchmark pages not rendering properly. Overlapping text in Firefox, plus two grrroundspeak logos. (testing the capitalization issue)

 

'Optimized mode' on smartphone (Treo 680, Blazer 4.5) now barely usable...not like before. 'Wide Page mode' not much better.

 

Earlier today, when I attempted to EMail another user, (from my smartphone) the text was lost when I finished entering it and I was ready to send the message. That never happened before!

 

EDIT: to add that I am unable to use the previously functional URL for a benchmark when clicked on in GSAK.

A runtime error.

Edited by AZcachemeister
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As I often do when I'm out caching "paperless"ly, I started browsing the site using Safari on my iPhone.. for the most part the pages appear to display alright with only minor issues with the page formatting. The pages always looked fine before the site changes.

 

:D:D:D

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When using the Geocaching maps to see caches in an area, it was really convenient to use the box on the upper right to type in anything...and it would show me caches related to it. I've tried typing in a few things and just get error messages. Doesn't bring up a thing.

 

When looking for a cache by state and then get the drop down box to choose cities, I'm not sure why Boca del Mar has managed to get on the listing for Florida. Boca del Mar is within the city of Boca Raton. It's a subdivision.

 

Having said that, Virginia doesn't even have Fredericksburg in their listing of cities. :D Hoping it can be added! :D

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. Have not had much luck searching by entering a zip code. I've gotten 33496 to come up on one occasion. When entering that at another time, two, or three, I've gotten error messages. That's when I went to searching by state...and saw Boca del Mar. :D

Edited by VirginiaGator
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Let me start by saying I really like the new look.

 

Now for the problem I ran into right off the bat:

 

When I went to print out the Cache info/log pages they no longer conform to an 8 1/2" x 11" page format. The content is way to wide to fit on a normal page (even with a Landscape setting) and therefore it truncates and many words end up getting cut off.

 

FYI - I actually do paperless caching and I always create a pdf version of the printout (using pdf995 software). Whether it be a regular paper printout or an electronic pdf of the paper printout, the formatting is just not right. As for the pdf print function on the cache page (No logs, 5 logs, 10 logs) it produces a very strange graphical format that does not display on my PDA. Besides that, I prefer to have all logs included. This is why I just do a regular printout and convert it to pdf.

 

Yikes! Please fix this ASAP! I need my printouts! I can't live without them! Help!

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As others have mentioned, on the Friends page, we liked the ability to see what their find count was to see if they were caching for that day. Now we actually have to go a couple more steps to see the same information that was readily available before. How about bringing it back.

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The problems I'm having are the line spacing on cache pages are squashed with my browser and it's affected my mystery cache:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...ec-a9dd3cf8d8d3

 

 

Also I didn't need to log in today. Without using remember me, I turned my computer on and came onto

 

geocaching and I was already logged in from yesterday. It's never done that before. Now I'll have to actually

 

log out before I turn my computer off.

 

I've solved the problem, I hope, by using CSS.

 

Now I can't get my new avatar to work on the forum.

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Now I can't get my new avatar to work on the forum.

 

I reported a similar issue a couple of pages back, but I can see how it could have easily gotten overlooked.

 

When I changed my Forum Title and re-entered the forums to update it, it didn't update.

 

It used to take me to an interim page that told me I was about to enter the forums, but now the link takes you straight here.

 

This might not have been a change in the recent upgrade so it might not need to be mentioned here, I'm not sure.

 

Anyone know how to update Avatars and Forum Titles?

 

Again, I'm not sure if this was changed in the most recent upgrades, but I didn't notice it until now.

 

I'm using Firefox 2.0.0.15 and running Windows XP Pro. <-- maybe that's what I forgot to add last time. :D

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The CSS links must be adjusted.. The pink or purple or whatever it is looks awful. The rest is.... different, but not bad. I'm not a fan of the inventory being at the bottom of the page like several other folks, but my god, the links....

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Two things I noticed:

Second, decrypting/encrypting a hint now completely reloads the page. Being able to do this on the fly was handy.

I noticed this too,,, I thought, 'well that was a step backwards'. What is the reason behind that? It was better the other way. Now not only does the page reload but you have to scroll back down and find your place again. :D

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Bug Report:

New found caches in top right doesn't update. Currently showing 977. Just got done logging new finds, still shows 977 even though "old" counter shows a correct 998.

 

buglet.png

 

Long night for the developers again tonight?

 

-R

 

As an additional FYI, I've been playing with this one. Seems to be a session related issue. The top stat won't update here unless the browser is closed and 20 mins or so expires. Given default state timeout for IIS is 20 minutes, now makes perfect sense. Can be shortened by closing browser and clearing the browser cache. Latest version of IE on fully patched XP running 3.5 framework if that matters to you. Hope it helps.

 

-Roger

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Nate & all who helped, you rock. The "Zoom to Address" feature is working perfectly!

 

The whole site is working good for me except one VERY minor thing I discovered.

 

On the "Find another player" page, the ability to simply hit "enter" after typing in a username doesn't take you to the next page. I manually have to click "Go."

 

This was an issue yesterday on the "Zoom to Address" form, but that's working now.

 

Happens on both Vista Home Premium with IE7 7.0.6001.18000 and NOD32 AV and

 

XP Pro with IE7 7.0.5730.11 and McAfee AV

Edited by Skippermark
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