Attention AOL/MSN users

While extensive precautions have been taken to ensure that MediaBuilder® is compatible with all current browsers and platforms, AOL and MSN have well-documented anomalies which may affect MediaBuilder® users. The software that comes with AOL in particular does not adhere to common industry standards, and you will therefore likely experience problems using MediaBuilder® via the default AOL browser. As a workaround, we highly recommend that after you logon to AOL, you minimize the default browser and launch a separately-installed current version of Internet Explorer (available here). This should alleviate most of the problems you may otherwise encounter. Any issues remaining should be taken up with AOL Customer Service, as they relate to the AOL protocols themselves and are therefore beyond the scope and control of Amedius.

Run time error/error on page

In some rare instances, depending on your particular combination of browser, platform and system configuration settings, you may occasionally see a yellow “warning” triangle in the bottom left corner of the browser window with the message: “Done, but with errors on the page.” This is usually nothing to be concerned with, and you can safely continue without losing any functionality or content.
     Alternatively, you may receive an alert pop-up message stating there has been an error on the page, and then you are given the option to continue. This warning message indicates a more serious error, which could possibly stop certain features from working. If you receive this second type of error notification, please call (866) 608-4490 for assistance in troubleshooting the situation.

Recipients not receiving notification emails

If you’ve received the MediaBuilder® notification email, but some of your intended recipients didn’t receive their copy, it is usually due to excessively stringent spam filtering on their part. Many publications have strict filters in place to keep out unwanted email offers and messages. This is frequently an issue when the user’s (the sender’s) email address is a Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN account. You can try entering the publication’s e-mail as the sender, and yourself as one of the additional recipients. Presumably, the publication won’t reject it’s own e-mail address and they should then receive the email. With this workaround, you’ll still receive the email as one of the cc: recipients. Beyond this, you’ll need to contact the publication directly for a solution, as it is due to their mail server settings and is therefore beyond the control of Amedius.

Forwarding your MediaBuilder email link to a third party

Rather than forwarding your MediaBuilder® notification email, we highly recommend that you use the extra e-mail destination fields provided on the final preview/destination page. When you fill in the blue “your email address” box, it not only identifies you as the sender to any other recipient, but it also sends a copy of the notification email directly to you. There are two other email address fields you can use to send to one or two additional recipients (e.g. to two different publications). In doing so, all recipients receive the same email with a link to the MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center.
     If you receive the link and then try to forward it to the publication, it may work fine. There have been instances where forwarding the link doesn’t work due to particular browser/email application settings which strip the link out of the email, rendering it useless.

File retrieval deadlines/expiration

Please note that your custom-built files only remain accessible on our server for ten days after their creation, after which they are deleted (or archived, depending on your organization’s file storage agreement with Amedius). If you have a magazine deadline more than 10 days in advance, you will need to make the publication aware of this so that they can be sure to retrieve your ad before it is removed from the server. Otherwise, the magazine may just keep the link and not download the file until closer to when they actually need it. If they return to retrieve the file after the 10 days have expired, the file will not be found and you’ll have to recreate the ad.

File compression

All image files are stored using ZIP compression. This enables a smooth transfer through most e-mail systems, and also reduces the file size considerably. Most Windows PCs have a ZIP utility pre-installed. If you have difficulty, there is a link to a shareware WinZip utility on the MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center page. For Macintosh, we highly recommend StuffIt, which is also available in a shareware/trial version.

Download Acrobat Reader

A link to the free Adobe Acrobat Reader is provided at the MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center. Please note that you will need at least Acrobat version 5. If your system has an older version installed, the update is free and easy to install.

Saving and renaming PDF files

When you have finished downloading the high-resolution PDF of your ad, click on the disc icon in the toolbar at the top left. This will open a dialog box so that you can save the file to your chosen destination (example: “Desktop” or “My Documents”). You may change the file name as needed, as long as you keep the “.pdf” identifier at the end.

“My ad looks terrible on screen.”

All on-screen previews are low-resolution JPEG or GIF representations intended only to give a general idea of what your finished ad will look like. Due to screen resolution limitations, it is impossible for these previews to contain any significant detail, and as such they are not suitable for any form of output. The only way to truly proof your ad in high-resolution detail is to complete the ad-building process and download the high-resolution PDF from the MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center via a link that will be emailed to you. Note that this link will also include your low-resolution preview, for the benefit of someone you may have copied it to (i.e. your publication). By clicking the “download hi-res PDF file” button, you will be able to download your ad in high-resolution, industry-standard Adobe Acrobat PDF format. Note: Amedius is not responsible for ads or other materials which are printed or output from the low-resolution preview.

“I need a file that’s not on this site.”

As a third-party vendor to your organization, Amedius does not have any materials available through MediaBuilder® other than what is provided to us by your organization’s marketing department. If you need any files, images, or formats that are not presently listed on this site, you will need to contact your company’s co-op or marketing department directly. If you are a publication or other output provider, the sender of your files will need to contact their home office for any additional required materials.

“I need a different size ad than what is listed.”

All available ad sizes are shown, as provided by your organization’s marketing department. If your chosen publication requires a different size, they should be able to proportionally scale your high-resolution PDF up or down slightly (preferably not more than 75%-125%) to suit most ad space requirements. If this is not possible, you will need to contact your organization’s co-op or marketing department for further material.

“Why can’t you just email me the files I need?”

MediaBuilder® has been designed to accommodate a wide range of users and connection speeds (from a 56k dial-up modem connection to broadband). Many of the ads and color image files accessible through MediaBuilder® are quite large, often several megabytes. To alleviate this, we use our MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center, which gives the ad or image recipient an instant low-resolution look at the ad before downloading. If the recipient doesn’t need the hi-res file, they don’t need to download it.
     For example: You’ve created an ad to be sent to a magazine. You get your notification email through your dial-up account and check to see that the low-resolution preview is OK, but there’s no need for you to download the high-resolution file. Meanwhile, the magazine’s production department likely has a high-speed connection and can download the high-resolution PDF with no problem.
     The Pick-Up Center method of file-retrieval also gives you the option to wait awhile and download the high-resolution file when you’re less busy, since the large download may take considerable time over a slow connection and will tie up your machine.

“I’m building a new ad, but the final preview still shows the last ad I built.”
“My ad preview doesn’t seem to be changing when I make content changes.”

This is due to your browser cache setting. In an attempt to make pages display faster, your browser may store (cache) certain images. You can remedy this one of two ways. First, to keep from changing your browser cache setting permanently, you can simply click the “refresh” button in your browser’s toolbar (usually identified as a page with two circling arrows). The other remedy is to change your browser cache preferences so that no images are cached, or that cached file information is updated every time a page loads. Contact your system administrator for more information.

“I can’t preview my radio spot.”

Check to make sure you have a multimedia-capable browser plug-in installed. On the Windows platform, you’ll need to have a current version of Windows Media Player. On the Macintosh platform, you should download the latest QuickTime Player. Contact your system administrator for installation instructions or more information.

“The ad/image we received is low resolution.”

This is usually because a user has right-clicked on the thumbnail preview and saved it, rather than downloading the high-resolution PDF from the MediaBuilder® Pick-Up Center. To obtain the high-resolution file, you must complete the entire ad-building process and enter your e-mail address (along with email addresses for other intended recipients). You will then receive a notification email with a link to the Pick-Up Center where the high-resolution PDF file may be downloaded.

“Acrobat launches, but nothing happens.”

If you’re using a slower connection (such as dial-up), there can be a significant delay of several minutes before your ad begins to appear in Acrobat. Often, Acrobat will not show anything until the entire file has been downloaded. Once the file is downloaded, you can save it to your hard drive. From then on, simply double-click the file and it should open instantly.