CmapTools Known Issues

CmapTools v6.03.01 (List updated September 4, 2019)
  • In all distributions of Linux, CmapTools presents a bug related to the size of menu separators that shows as no borders at all around popup menus. This is a known Java bug.
  • On Linux versions derived from Red Hat (Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat), the 64-bit version of CmapTools cannot create thumbnails for the Cmaps store in My “Cmaps.”
  • Under Windows 10, High Resolution monitors (HiDPI) are not handled well by Java programs that use Swing. This is a documented Java bug. Unfortunately it affects CmapTools. The fonts are not scaled correctly, and text and images are displayed very small. Changing the screen resolution helps with some machines.
  • Some Windows 10 users report that the program crashes as soon as they attemtp to Export a Cmap (fixed in v6.03.02)
CmapTools v6.02 (List updated September 24, 2016)
  • Users who connected to the Cmap Cloud using the CmapTools beta version had problems switching accounts (fixed in v6.03).
  • The French translation asked for a password instead of an email address when switching Cmap Cloud account (fixed in v6.03).
  • Illegal unicode characters in Cmap files in CXL format prevented the Cmap from being imported or exported (fixed in v6.03).
CmapTools v6.01.01 (List updated June 29, 2016)
  • On an opened Cmap, the Find function does not search for the node's additional Info, only the node's labels.
  • In a node (concept or linking phrase), if the text is selected to be on the side of a background image, enlarging the node does not enlarge the image.
  • The Find function for searching for strings within a Cmap does not work well when found text is insided nested nodes.
  • The new option to lock concepts and prevent them from being edited (Edit -> Edit Locked) uses the same shortcut (<ctrl> L) as the Autolayout (Format -> Autolayout). As a result, selecting concepts and doing a <ctrl> L results in the nodes being locked instead of performing the autolayout. (fixed in v6.02)
  • Opening a linked proposition between two concept maps does not always transfer the focus to the linked Cmap.
  • The navigation windows does not reflect changes in the Zoom for the Cmap window.
  • Under OS X, the menu entries sometimes grey out. We have not been able to determine the cause of this bug or under what circunstances it happens.
CmapTools v6.00.4 (List updated February 21, 2015)
  • Double-clicking on a Cmap file outside of the CmapTools Views window fails under OS X. (In no case does the saving of the Cmap will work if opened from outside the CmapTools window).
  • While changing the Zoom and other operations on an opened Cmap, the canvas may turn gray and unresponsive. This has been tracked to a Java bug and will be fixed in the next version (fixed in v6.01).
  • The dialogue box for some operations (e.g. Validate and Fix Links and the Spelling checker) sometimes are displayed behind the opened Cmap window. Moving the Cmap window will display the dialogue box (fixed in v6.01).
  • Under OS X, with multiple displays, each with its own Space and Menu bar, moving a CmapTools window (Views or Cmap) to another display may result on the Cmap not being able to be moved, depending on the relative positions of the displays. This is due to a documented Java 7 bug.
CmapTools v6.00 (List updated February 5, 2015)
  • When providing the credentials (email address and password) to access an existing Cmap Cloud account, CmapTools complains that it can't find the Cmap Cloud server. Closing CmapTools and relaunching the program will find the Cmap Cloud server but will ask for the userid (email address) and password when performing an operation on the Cmap Cloud Folder. After providng the userid and password access to the Cmap Cloud Folder will continue to work (fixed in v6.00.4).
  • Some users have reported that, under Mac OS X, the installed program will not work. This is an issue with the Installer and Java 7. In most cases, the users have been double-clicking on the "CmapTools.app" icon under the "bin" folder. To launch CmapTools, double-click on the "LaunchCmapTools.app" icon. If this doesn't work, try installing this version of CmapTools that uses Java 6, which needs to be installaed separately by the user (the system will prompt for the installation). (CmapTools v6.00 using Java 6. The installer at the end gives an error indicating there is no disk space left -- ignore it.) We've published a new installer for OS X (CmapTools v6.00.1) that solves the problem and can be launched by double-clicking on the CmapTools.app icon (fixed in v6.00.4).
  • Under rare circunstances, the content of the Views window goes blank, showing no resources. Clicking on the Tree/Icon button at the bottom of the Views window restores the display.
  • Under rare circunstances, after scrolling the Views window, the Views goest back to display the resources before the scroll action. Seems to be a Java bug. Clicking on the Tree/iCon button at the bottom of the Views window restores teh display.
CmapTools v5.06 (List updated May 7, 2014)
  • Renaming a resource in the Views to a new name that only has changes in the case (upper-lower case) of some letters fails (fixed)
  • Importing an outline merges linking phrases that are the same, even if they are from different propositions.
  • Under unusual circunstances, typing text in one concept modifies the precious concept that has been edited/selected.
  • Importing a CXL file does not import its metadata.
CmapTools v5.05.01 (List updated May 7, 2014)
  • Some users report problems exporting images while running CmapTools under Windows 7 (fixed in v5.06)
  • Some Mac OS X users report being able to Quit the program without it asking the user to save Cmaps that have been edited and not saved (fixed in v5.06)
  • The Web search functionality has broken since Google changed their Search API. Currenlty using Bing but it also causes problem. The Web search functionality will be dropped from future releases. This also affects the "Suggestions" feature.
  • If you open a Cmap using the cmap://domain.name/resource-id protocol in a Web Browser, the Cmap opens in CmapTools but the Views collapses all opened folders and displays My Cmaps with all folders closed.
CmapTools v5.04 (List updated May 15, 2011)
  • A Snow Leopard update on the Mac updated Java to 1.6 release 22. With this release, there is an incompatibility with the "Check for Updates" program which is executed when CmapTools is launched. To get around the problem, you need to launch CmapTools directly. Open the "Applications" folder (in the Finder, select the menu entry "Go -> Applications". Open the "IHMC CmapTools" folder, and within it the "bin" folder. Launch (double-click) "CmapTools.app". CmapTools should launch without problems. You may want to drag-and-drop the "CmapTools.app" to the Dock to launch it directly (fixed in v5.04.01)
  • A Snow Leopard update on the Mac updated Java to 1.6 release 22. With this release, the cmap://.... protocol by which a Cmap in CmapTools can be opened from a Web page does not open the Cmap. This prevents the opening of Cmaps in CmapTools at sites like www.livemappers.com & www.cmappers.net (fixed in v5.04.02)
CmapTools v5.03. (List Updated June 23, 2010)

  • In the CXL file format, the "to-pos" and "from-pos" fields of the "<connection-appearance>" structure of a CXL file are not applied when a CXL file is imported (fixed in v5.04)
  • A Snow Leopard update on the Mac updated Java to 1.6 release 20. With this release, there is an incompatibility that truncates the log files shortly after the program is launched. The execution of the program is not affected, but the log files are incomplete (fixed in v5.04.01 Beta 3, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us).
  • Under unusual cirunstances, creating a folder on a CmapServer will result in an error, and a second attempt to create the folder with the same name will display a message that the folder already exists. The folder has been created but won't be displayed until the CmapServer is restarted.
  • Requesting that the userid and password for a folder on a CmapServer be sent by email not always works, depending on the email configuration of the CmapServer (fixed in v5.04.02)
  • If CmapTools has a problem creating or accessing the My Cmaps folder, instead of displaying an error message the cursor continues to spin indefinitely in the VIews window. This can be due to several reasons, including (a) the path to the My Cmaps is no longer available (e.g. the folder has been moved or the reference is to an external drive or memory stick that is no longer available or its drive letter has changed, (b) the user does not have permissions to create the My Cmaps folder, or (c) there is some corrupt file in the My Cmaps folder. Depending on the reason for the problem, it can be fixed by renaming the My Cmaps folder, having CmapTools re-create it and then copying it back, or by editing the profile.xml file and changing the <property name="server.rootfolder"> <string> ...... </string></property> to the right path to the My Cmaps folder. This file is located usually in "c:\Documents and Setting\<userid>\Application Data\CmapTools\profile.xml" in Windows systems and at "Library:Preferences:CmapTools:profile.xml", under the user's home directory, on Mac OS X (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 11 or newer, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us)
  • Snow Leopard updates Java to 1.6, which on the Mac includes an incompatibility with previous versions that causes the saving of profile information to fail. Thus, if the user changes the default Language, location of My Cmaps, or any other property in the Preferences panel, it does not get saved and therefore will not be in effect the next time the program is launched. To change any preferences string, you need to carefully edit the profile.xml file with a text editor, changing the corresponding property string. The profile.xml file is located at "Library:Preferences:CmapTools:profile.xml", under the user's home directory (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 7 or newer, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us)
  • Snow Leopard updates Java to 1.6, which on the Mac includes an incompatibility with previous versions that causes storing userids & passwords provided when accessing CmapServers to fail (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 8 or newer, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us)
  • When you install CmapTools using Advance Configuration, you can configure the use of Cmap Recorder, if you want Cmap Recorder to start automatically when you run CmapTools and you select Cmap Recorder in Audit Mode, the option in the installer is inverted; therefore, if you specify "yes", it is really "No" and vice versa. For example, If you want Cmap Recorder in Audit Mode you must select "No" or you could also, after installing cmaptools, edit the configuration file "cmaptools.cfg", and change the parameter from recorder.auditMode=no to recorder.auditMode=yes.
  • If CmapTools is invoked to open a new Cmap via the cmap://... protocol (e.g., launched from www.cmappers.net or www.livemappers.net, and (a) the CmapTools client is configured to erase the profile file when it closes down, or (b) its the first time CmapTools is invoked on that machine, then two blank Cmap windows are opened. Saving the Cmap in one of them will store it in the location indicated by the cmap://... invocation, and saving the other Cmap will store it in My Cmaps (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 9 or newer, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us).
  • Because of intermittent problems with the replications of the Directories of Places (DoP) servers, a CmapTools client may receive an incomplete list of CmapServers from the DoP.
  • If the CmapTools program is invoked via the cmap://... from a webserver, with the URI indicating the CmapServer to contact to open or store the Cmap, but the CmapServer is not in the list of CmapServers known to the client (either added manually or the list received from the DoP), CmapTools will present the message "Client error" without further explanation. The user should manually add the Place (CmapServer) to My Places, after with the cmap://.... invocation will work (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 11 or newer available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us)
  • If a Place is added as a default to My Places (e.g. IHMC Public CmapServer), and an updated record for the Places is received from the DoP (e.g. change in port #), the record is not updated (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 9 ore newer available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us).
  • If (1) Cmap A has a link to Cmap B, (2) Cmap B is moved to another folder, (3) the original enclosing folder that contianed Cmap B when the link was made is removed, and (4) Cmap B is opened through the link in Cmap A and edited, then when saving Cmap B an error occurs, and the user is prompted whether to use the "Save As" dialogue box. The user should use the Save As" dialogue box and navigate to the current location of Cmap B and save it (this bug is fixed in v5.04 Beta 8 or newer, available at ftp://ftp.ihmc.us).
CmapTools v4.18. June 09, 2008
  • Kuna does not appear as a possible option of a cmap's language; you should use "Interlingua" instead.
  • Dragging suggestions into a Cmap or concept does not work on Mac OS X, or Linux. (it only Works on Windows).
  • An error message appears when trying to open a Soup from the list. It doesn't occur if the browse button is used and a Soup is selected.
CmapTools v4.17. May 05, 2008
  • When exporting a cmap as an image, the only available format is "JPEG".
  • When you try to Zoom a Cmap, the only available zoom factor is 100%.
  • CmapTools does not recognize the new file formats introduced by Microsoft Office 2007.
  • The Style Palette does not appear when CmapTools opens a new cmap.
CmapTools v4.16. March 11, 2008
  • A presentation can be saved without assigning a name to it.
CmapTools v4.15. February 05, 2008
  • The "Navigation Tool" does not display the current status of the concept map when the "Auto Layout" is applied to a subset of the concept map.
  • If a cmap is copied to a folder where the user does not have write permissions, a folder with the linked resources is created, but the cmap is not copied.
Note: CmapTools v4.13 & v4.14 were internal versions that were not publicly released.

CmapTools v4.12 . October 18, 2007
  • When more than two CmapTools clients attempt to collaborate on a Cmap, the requests to collaborate should be sent and acknowledged by the "lock-holder" of the collaboration session *sequentially* rather than simultaneously to ensure that all clients who are permitted to collaborate on the Cmap by the lock-holder are able to do so successfully. Here is an example of the lock-holder handling collaboration requests and acknowledgements sequentially: Client A is the lock-holder of the collaboration. Client B sends their request to Client A to collaborate, Client A accepts the request. After Client A accepted Client B.s request, Client C sends their collaboration request to Client A, Client A accepts, etc.
  • Using certain characters from some fonts that are supported on Windows, Linux, or Solaris when titling a Cmap can cause the Cmap to fail to open, be renamed or moved, or it can even be deleted permanently after dragging the Cmap from a Place to My Cmaps on Mac OS X.
  • When running CmapTools for the first time in Linux, since the splash screen cannot be moved or disposed of by clicking it with the mouse, if you type a mismatched password in the "confirm password" box the program will hang because a message dialog informing you of the password mismatch appears behind the splash screen and cannot be moved to the side to confirm receipt of the message (by clicking "OK"). From a terminal you must "kill" the most recent "java" process in the list, then restart the application.
  • CmapTools will fail to export a Cmap in any of the supported image types, as well as PDF, Postscript, and SVG, when the user interface is in Turkish. A workaround to this inconvenience is to save the Cmap, change the language to a non-Turkish language, restart CmapTools, then export the Cmap.
  • Exporting a Cmap to XCM format XML will not yield a file that may be imported back into CmapTools.
  • Concept suggestions provided by the Suggestions panel may not be dragged and dropped to a Cmap with CmapTools running on Windows or Linux during collaboration on that Cmap, but still may be dragged and dropped to the Cmap during collaboration with CmapTools running on Mac OS X. Concept suggestions work as expected outside of collaboration for all supported platforms.
  • Newly-created custom styles that were generated on a newly-created Cmap item will revert the Cmap item back to its original style if the Cmap item.s text has not been "set" first by single-clicking on the canvas prior to adjusting the style of the Cmap it.
  • Generating the first new custom style in the "Named Styles" list will overwrite the style named "Default" in the list. To preserve the original style info in the style named "Default" before creating additional named styles, right-click (control+click for single-button Mac mice) the style named "Default" in the Named Styles list and choose "Copy", then right-click (control+click) a white portion in the list and choose "Paste".
  • Upon clicking a resource link to a resource stored in a Place that is unavailable at the time, an "Error Opening Resource" dialog will appear, but this dialog currently does not supply the reason why it was unable to open the resource.
  • Exporting a Cmap to PDF or PostScript will more often than not result in incomplete representations (i.e. missing Cmap items, connections, etc.) when performing the export with CmapTools on OS X, and will occasionally exhibit this behavior from CmapTools on other supported platforms.
  • When a synchronous collaboration is started and the Cmap is situated on the 2nd monitor, the canvas collapses.
  • Cmaps exported to the SVG image format will appear as expected in Internet Explorer using Adobe.s SVGViewer plug-in, but will not appear correctly in Firefox or Inkscape.
  • When presenting a Cmap in Full-Screen mode using a saved presentation created with Presentation Builder, certain actions such as opening and closing an image from a resource link can cause the loss of keyboard interaction with CmapTools. In some cases, you can return focus to the Cmap by clicking the open slide using the mouse and then the "Esc" and "/" will at least work so that you can exit the slide or re-open the navigation panel at the bottom.
  • When you open a Cmap and leave it open without editing it, then change its title in My Cmaps and delete it, the open version of the Cmap will fail to save using a "Save" action. To workaround this, you can use "Save As".
  • Sometimes portions of the canvas of a Cmap can appear "gray" (or whatever the default window background color has been set to in the OS) until some activity is done on the Cmap to re-establish the desired background color of the Cmap when running CmapTools on Windows XP.
  • Even if a user has "Administrator" privileges over server "B" and admin privileges over a folder stored in server "A" prior to doing a "Copy to Folder with permissions" action using that folder from server A to a destination on server B where the "Everyone" user has "Add folder" permissions, if the folder contains at least one Cmap, resource, or folder, then the user will still be prompted for credentials to write the source folder.s contents into the destination folder.
  • Trying to supply a .\. in the User ID when attempting to authenticate using a pre-Windows 2000 naming convention with an LDAP-enabled CmapServer that has been configured to use an Active Directory LDAP server will yield an error dialog that says there was a problem communicating with the user directory.
  • Creating a .????. -> .????. -> .????. proposition on a Cmap joined to a Soup then changing one of the Cmap items of the proposition to something else will not remove the .????. -> .????. -> .????. proposition from the My Claims list.
  • Pasting the contents of a concept or linking phrase into a .????. -> .????. -> .????. proposition on a Cmap joined to a Soup will cause the .????. -> .????. -> .????. proposition to disappear from My Claims.
  • Creating a non-standard proposition using one or more linking phrases connected together on a Cmap joined to a Soup will result in unexpected behavior in the My Claims window.
  • The "Edit Resource Properties" window has a string that reads, "Don't copy this file to the views (create a shortcut)". The word "views" should instead read "Views".
  • The "Export Folder as a Web Page" dialog supplies the absolute path of the default location in the filename text field, rather than being blank as expected.
  • The top left icon of the "Export Folder as a Web Page" dialog, and its progress .child. window, still show the Java icon rather than the CmapTools icon.
  • The "Export Folder as a Web Page" dialog uses the CmapTools installation directory as the default location, rather than the Desktop.
  • If the "click to select" message appears in the canvas of the Cmap next to a concept prior to exporting the Cmap to HTML, the resulting export may still contain a portion of the "click to select" message.
  • If a group of Cmap items are selected on a Cmap during synchronous collaboration and then dragged around the top left corner of the Cmap canvas, linking lines may unexpectedly "shift" away from their corresponding concepts and linking phrases and become misaligned.
  • When Cmap items are selected prior to a new user joining a synchronous collaboration, the user who selected the items will see that they are highlighted as expected, but until the first user deselects the items and reselects one or more of them, the new user who joined collaboration will not be able to see that the selected items are highlighted.
  • Text files saved in ANSI, Unicode, or UTF-8 character encodings that contain Chinese characters currently do not appear as expected in the CmapTools text viewer window.
  • The "Go" button in the Cmap Recorder panel may appear "cut off" in the Mac OS X and Linux versions of CmapTools.
  • Several context menu (right-click menu) items are unexpectedly available when in preview mode of a presentation, such as "New Concept", "Annotate.", "Change Background", "Reposition Background", "Remove Background", and "Paste".
  • After starting a new session of CmapTools, if you select a Place in the "Shared Cmaps in Places" view, then return to the "Cmaps in My Computer" view and choose to create a new soup, you will be able to do so even though soups are functionally not supported in the My Cmaps folder.
  • Choosing "Open" from the context menu (right-click menu) in the "Cmaps in My Computer" view unexpectedly does not open the My Cmaps folder into a separate window.
  • Expanding the contents of a Place in a folder browser that is in a dialog window (i.e. "Save As") can take significantly longer to load than when expanding the same Place in the "Shared Cmaps in Places" View.
  • The "Find in Views" feature will not work as expected when the Cmap that the action was requested on is stored in the root of the Place, rather than if it is stored in a folder or subfolder in the Place.
  • Under certain circumstances, the License Agreement, the Ceryph notification, or the first screen in the CmapTools installer may appear blank.
  • Sometimes the contents of the Cmap Outline tab in ListView may reduce down to a single concept after making a link from a child concept back to the root.
  • After creating a new Cmap, exiting it, and choosing to save it to a server, if a second client opens and edits that Cmap, the second client will get a collaboration message even though the Cmap is closed. This will happen as long as the first client's CmapTools session is still active.
  • After creating a new Cmap, exiting it, choosing to save it to a server while using a different User ID/Password from that present in the User Info, then clearing the password cache, that user will not be prompted for credentials after reopening the Cmap and editing it; they will instead only be prompted as they attempt to save their changes.
  • When dragging an image from FireFox to Views - CmapTools, the image sometimes fails to be imported when FireFox and Views - CmapTools are overlapping.
  • When dragging from the arrows on a large clip art image to create a new proposition, the linking phrase can appear behind the clip art.
  • Copying and pasting the contents of a Cmap into another Cmap that had content previously selected does not replace the previously selected content.
  • Changing meta data in the "save as" dialog on a previously saved Cmap will result in a prompt that there is a newer version of the Cmap upon reopening.
  • Dragging animated gif files from Views to a concept on a Cmap will fail if the image is a Clip Art.
  • CmapTools for only the soups properties window to be open which can cause CmapTools to not completely exit.
  • Canceling when adding soup and asked for permissions will give error message with only numbers.
  • Refreshing the Views window leaves loading in folder window after creating Cmap in empty folder.
  • Add and edit links to resources is available when more than one concept it selected. Changes and properties are only for one of the concepts.
  • Dragging a link for a web page in MS IE will not add URL to views window but will add the URL to concepts.
CmapTools v4.11 – July 06, 2007
  • When more than two CmapTools clients attempt to collaborate on a Cmap, the requests to collaborate should be sent and acknowledged by the “lock-holder” of the collaboration session *sequentially* rather than simultaneously to ensure that all clients who are permitted to collaborate on the Cmap by the lock-holder are able to do so successfully.  Here is an example of the lock-holder handling collaboration requests and acknowledgements sequentially:  Client A is the lock-holder of the collaboration.  Client B sends their request to Client A to collaborate, Client A accepts the request.  After Client A accepted Client B’s request, Client C sends their collaboration request to Client A, Client A accepts, etc.
  • Using certain characters from some fonts that are supported on Windows, Linux, or Solaris when titling a Cmap can cause the Cmap to fail to open, be renamed or moved, or it can even be deleted permanently after dragging the Cmap from a Place to My Cmaps on Mac OS X.
  • When running CmapTools for the first time in Linux, since the splash screen cannot be moved or disposed of by clicking it with the mouse, if you type a mismatched password in the "confirm password" box the program will hang because a message dialog informing you of the password mismatch appears behind the splash screen and cannot be moved to the side to confirm receipt of the message (by clicking "OK").  From a terminal you must "kill" the most recent "java" process in the list, then restart the application.
  • CmapTools will fail to export a Cmap in any of the supported image types, as well as PDF, Postscript, and SVG, when the user interface is in Turkish.  A workaround to this inconvenience is to save the Cmap, change the language to a non-Turkish language, restart CmapTools, then export the Cmap.
  • Exporting a Cmap to XCM format XML will not yield a file that may be imported back into CmapTools.
  • Concept suggestions provided by the Suggestions panel may not be dragged and dropped to a Cmap with CmapTools running on Windows or Linux during collaboration on that Cmap, but still may be dragged and dropped to the Cmap during collaboration with CmapTools running on Mac OS X.  Concept suggestions work as expected outside of collaboration for all supported platforms.
  • When a user has typed in a footer and did not type in a header (or vice-versa) on a Cmap saved to a CmapServer, and the user clicks the “View as Web Page” button to view that Cmap in a browser, they will see an HTTP error in place of the blank header.
  • Newly-created custom styles that were generated on a newly-created Cmap item will revert the Cmap item back to its original style if the Cmap item’s text has not been “set” first by single-clicking on the canvas prior to adjusting the style of the Cmap item.
  • Generating the first new custom style in the “Named Styles” list will overwrite the style named “Default” in the list.  To preserve the original style info in the style named “Default” before creating additional named styles, right-click (control+click for single-button Mac mice) the style named “Default” in the Named Styles list and choose “Copy”, then right-click (control+click) a white portion in the list and choose “Paste”.
  • Upon clicking a resource link to a resource stored in a Place that is unavailable at the time, an “Error Opening Resource” dialog will appear, but this dialog currently does not supply the reason why it was unable to open the resource.
  • Exporting a Cmap to PDF or PostScript will more often than not result in incomplete representations (i.e. missing Cmap items, connections, etc.) when performing the export with CmapTools on OS X, and will occasionally exhibit this behavior from CmapTools on other supported platforms.
  • When a synchronous collaboration is started and the Cmap is situated on the 2nd monitor, the canvas collapses.
  • Cmaps exported to the SVG image format will appear as expected in Internet Explorer using Adobe’s SVGViewer plug-in, but will not appear correctly in Firefox or Inkscape.
  • When presenting a Cmap in Full-Screen mode using a saved presentation created with Presentation Builder, certain actions such as opening and closing an image from a resource link can cause the loss of keyboard interaction with CmapTools.  In some cases, you can return focus to the Cmap by clicking the open slide using the mouse and then the “Esc” and “/” will at least work so that you can exit the slide or re-open the navigation panel at the bottom.
  • When you open a Cmap and leave it open without editing it, then change its title in My Cmaps and delete it, the open version of the Cmap will fail to save using a “Save” action.  To workaround this, you can use “Save As”.
  • Sometimes portions of the canvas of a Cmap can appear “gray” (or whatever the default window background color has been set to in the OS) until some activity is done on the Cmap to re-establish the desired background color of the Cmap when running CmapTools on Windows XP.
  • Even if a user has “Administrator” privileges over server “B” and admin privileges over a folder stored in server “A” prior to doing a “Copy to Folder with permissions” action using that folder from server A to a destination on server B where the “Everyone” user has “Add folder” permissions, if the folder contains at least one Cmap, resource, or folder, then the user will still be prompted for credentials to write the source folder’s contents into the destination folder.
  • Trying to supply a ‘\’ in the User ID when attempting to authenticate using a pre-Windows 2000 naming convention with an LDAP-enabled CmapServer that has been configured to use an Active Directory LDAP server will yield an error dialog that says there was a problem communicating with the user directory.
  • Creating a ‘????’ -> ‘????’ -> ‘????’ proposition on a Cmap joined to a Soup then changing one of the Cmap items of the proposition to something else will not remove the ‘????’ -> ‘????’ -> ‘????’ proposition from the My Claims list.
  • Pasting the contents of a concept or linking phrase into a ‘????’ -> ‘????’ -> ‘????’ proposition on a Cmap joined to a Soup will cause the ‘????’ -> ‘????’ -> ‘????’ proposition to disappear from My Claims.
  • Creating a non-standard proposition using one or more linking phrases connected together on a Cmap joined to a Soup will result in unexpected behavior in the My Claims window.
  • The “Edit Resource Properties” window has a string that reads, “Don't copy this file to the views (create a shortcut)".  The word “views” should instead read “Views”.
  • The “Export Folder as a Web Page” dialog supplies the absolute path of the default location in the filename text field, rather than being blank as expected.
  • The top left icon of the “Export Folder as a Web Page” dialog, and its progress ‘child’ window, still show the Java icon rather than the CmapTools icon.
  • The “Export Folder as a Web Page” dialog uses the CmapTools installation directory as the default location, rather than the Desktop.
  • Opening a shortcut to a Cmap prior to having opened the Cmap at least once during the session will cause the Cmap to open at the top left corner of the screen with the smallest dimensions possible.
  • If the “click to select” message appears in the canvas of the Cmap next to a concept prior to exporting the Cmap to HTML, the resulting export may still contain a portion of the “click to select” message.
  • If a group of Cmap items are selected on a Cmap during synchronous collaboration and then dragged around the top left corner of the Cmap canvas, linking lines may unexpectedly “shift” away from their corresponding concepts and linking phrases and become misaligned.
  • When Cmap items are selected prior to a new user joining a synchronous collaboration, the user who selected the items will see that they are highlighted as expected, but until the first user deselects the items and reselects one or more of them, the new user who joined collaboration will not be able to see that the selected items are highlighted.
  • Text files saved in ANSI, Unicode, or UTF-8 character encodings that contain Chinese characters currently do not appear as expected in the CmapTools text viewer window.
  • The “Go” button in the Cmap Recorder panel may appear “cut off” in the Mac OS X and Linux versions of CmapTools.
  • Several context menu (right-click menu) items are unexpectedly available when in preview mode of a presentation, such as “New Concept”, “Annotate…”, “Change Background”, “Reposition Background”, “Remove Background”, and “Paste”.
  • After starting a new session of CmapTools, if you select a Place in the “Shared Cmaps in Places” view, then return to the “Cmaps in My Computer” view and choose to create a new soup, you will be able to do so even though soups are functionally not supported in the My Cmaps folder.
  • Choosing “Open” from the context menu (right-click menu) in the “Cmaps in My Computer” view unexpectedly does not open the My Cmaps folder into a separate window.
CmapTools v4.10 – May 09, 2007
  • The import and export dialogs will not appear in CmapTools v4.10 for Windows Vista users.  For users who are experiencing this problem, please visit the FAQ (http://cmap.ihmc.us/Support/FAQs.php) for more information on a workaround in the following entry: “Q: I am unable to import or export Cmaps in CmapTools using Windows Vista…”
  • The “Select Soup to Join” search window will successfully locate Soups from the servers listed in My Places, but unexpected soup search results may occur for soups stored in CmapServers which do not register with the IndexServer.
  • If two images are in folder “A” and one of them is moved to folder “B” which is stored on the same level as that of folder “A”, unexpected behavior may occur when attempting to open the image still stored in folder “A”.
  • Bold, italic, and underline styles may behave unexpectedly when text, a concept or linking phrase, or an entire proposition is selected and one of these three styles are either applied or removed from the selection.
  • Many export formats that would be functionally unaffected by including the focus question as part of the title of an exported Cmap, do not include the focus question.
  • Sometimes when searching for a Cmap, resource, or folder and the search is restricted to a particular Place, duplicate search results may be present.
  • If “Print Preview” is opened, the “Page Setup” button is clicked, and then the “OK” button is clicked in the “Page Setup” dialog, CmapTools will crash on Windows Vista.  This issue is resolved in CmapTools v4.11 Beta 1 and later because it makes use of a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) which has the fix:

    ftp://ftp.ihmc.us/DownloadCmapTools/CmapToolsBeta

  • Exporting to Cmap Outline will not yield a file that may be imported back into CmapTools.

CmapTools v4.09 – January 02, 2007
  • Any styles that were applied to text inside concepts or linking phrases will appear as a stationary style “segment” that shifts when typing new text into those Cmap items at the beginning or in the middle of the existing text.  It is recommended to apply styles after you have finished textual edits in the Cmap item.
  • When clicking a resource link or a shortcut to a Cmap or resource stored in a folder that is either no longer present in it's original location or no longer exists at the time the resource link was made, from within CmapTools you will receive a prompt for a User ID and Password that you will never be able to bypass with any credentials.  Subsequently when trying to access a URL to the web version of the absent folder you will be prompted for credentials in the same manner as in CmapTools and upon cancel you will receive a 401 error message.  For URLs that point to any of the contents of the absent folder you will receive a 500 error.
  • The “Spelling” button on the Discussion Thread window does not work.
  • When moving Cmaps that are of a different language that the language currently used in the CmapTools interface from either My Cmaps to a Place or vice versa, these Cmaps will automatically have their language changed to the language of the current interface.
  • When the path of a shortcut to a resource is broken and you attempt to copy the shortcut to another location, you will receive a “Copy Error” dialog that will report “Unexpected Error” and the shortcut will not copy to the destination.  If a Cmap was also part of this copy action and the Cmap had a resource link to the shortcut, the Cmap copy will reach the destination successfully.  However, as you click the link to the shortcut on that Cmap you will receive an “Error Opening Resource” dialog that reports it was unable to open the shortcut resource.
  • When attempting to view the Web version of a Cmap or resource stored in a locked-down folder in a Place on Mac OS X, Safari will not prompt the user for credentials and will instead report that the access is “Unauthorized”.
CmapTools v4.08 – December 20, 2006
  • When accessing folders that are stored in either a v4.08 CmapServer or in My Cmaps, if a folder contains anything and the user refreshes the list of contents of the parent folder or the server root, the ‘+’ symbol that is next to the folder will still be present.
  • Editing the email address and organization property fields of a Cmap reverses those fields upon saving the Cmap.
  • When the network becomes disconnected for a CmapTools user before or during a move to/from a CmapServer, the Java Bug Report form appears.
  • When clicking a resource link on a Cmap that no longer points directly to its original resource, CmapTools will make a best guess as to the desired resource’s present location and open it from there.  As a result, a dialog appears that asks the user whether or not they wish to update the resource link to point to the “best guess” location of the resource that CmapTools provided.  Clicking either “Yes” or “No” in this dialog causes the newly-found resource to be hidden behind the Cmap.
CmapTools v4.07– October 10, 2006
  • When exporting a Cmap that has an annotation to an XCM format XML file, then importing it back in, an "Import Error" dialog appears that says, "The file may not be the correct format".
  • In the “Object” tab of the Styles Palette, the background image options: “Manually Reposition the Background” and “Manually Crop the Background”, have not been implemented yet.
CmapTools v4.03 – April 28, 2006
  • When creating an additional linking line that points back to an already-connected concept, unexpected results appear in ListView -> Cmap Outline.
  • Exporting as an image file twice consecutively on a Cmap will cause the loss of background images of all concepts.
  • Autolayout only works on a selection of Cmap items that do not include a nested node.
  • Right clicking an annotation within a group of selected items displays an unusable annotation menu.
  • Dragging Resource link off a concept in collaboration causes a break in collaboration.
  • When restricting a search to a specific server this causes the search to only return resources, regardless if other matches are present.  
  • The enter key opens files, but if you do not select anything, and just hit enter, it does nothing
  • Running a compare against a cmap with two sequential linking phrases causes an exception
  • Exporting a large ontology as a web page stalls cmap tools
  • Cmaptools only returns resources  (not cmaps) when you do a search that is restricted to a server
  • Searching older version of the cmap server doesn’t work
  • Attempting to add a local cmap to a remote cmap as a resource fails
  • changing the font properties in styles affects unselected text 
  • Saving style reverts font and fails to save 
  • Adding Background to Ontology Fails
  • Comparing a cmap to a blank cmap displays error message
  • If your password has an ‘i’ in it, you will not be able to switch from Turkish, to any other language
  • Cmap tools does not render some characters correctly in the web search window
  • Clear passwords does not delete session passwords 
  • Dictonary Replace fails with unknown word 
  • Dictionary shows the previously selected word, when you search for an unknown word.
  • Trying to save a collaborated cmap, after another party adds an annotation fails
  • Resizing a nested node often throws the contents of the node outside of it
  • Attempting to play videos not supported by cmap tools, but renamed to a format supported by cmap tools causes it to crash
  • Clicking inside a large concept can cause it to loose focus
  • Reverse e char from the 1st col. 2nd. row math box is rendered wrong
  • Spellcheck doesn’t work on the 2nd row greek math characters
CmapTools v4.02– February 2, 2006
  • On Linux systems, if an error occurs while CmapTools is in the process of loading, the error message remains hidden behind the splash screen, giving the misrepresentation of a system lockup.
  • The “Enter User ID / Password” dialog may cause the mouse pointer to get “stuck” to a concept that was selected.
  • Trying to rename a folder to the name of an existing folder in the same directory will create a dialog box that reads “Unexpected Error”.
  • If you create a link between two Cmaps and select Cmap items other than the “Cmap-linked” concepts, then you click and hold the mouse button over the link to the other Cmap and move the mouse around, the previously selected Cmap items move around erratically.
  • When adding a resource to Views that has a ‘%’ character in its name, the “Edit Resource Properties” window reports it as an invalid name. After you change the title of it to something valid and click “OK”, an “Unexpected Error” dialog appears.
  • If the previous issue is encountered, the file will appear after refreshing Views. However if you try to open the added resource, an “Open Resource Error” dialog appears.
  • Style palette graphics are inconsistent from one tab to another.
  • The “Edit Knowledge Soup …” window appears solid gray until it is resized on Windows.
CmapTools v4.01 – January 31, 2006
  • The configuration file of CmapTools has the wrong default value for the size of the log files. To correct this, edit the configuration file: "cmaptools.cfg" and change the line: “logger.file.size=52428880” to “logger.file.size=5242880”. This will decrease the default maximum log file size from 50 MB to 5 MB.
CmapTools v4 - January 17, 2006

  • Since the "Spelling" feature currently only supports the English language, words with accents or other special characters cannot be added using the Add button from the Spelling window.
CmapTools v3.10 - August 26, 2005

  • Open Annotations will not appear as open in a Cmap that is either exported as an image or printed; only the Annotation's icon will appear. To obtain an image of a Cmap with an opened Annotation, use the screen shot facility of the computer.
  • When viewing Cmaps using a Web browser, regardless of whether they were generated using the Export to Web Page menu entry or generated automatically on a Web Server, the following restrictions apply:
    1. There is no way to expand or close a Nested Node in the web page version of a Cmap.
    2. If you have a Nested Node expanded at the time you export the Cmap to a web page, the Nested Node will appear expanded in the web page version. If the Nested Node is collapsed, it will be exported as collapsed in the web page version.
    3. The links to Discussion Threads (DTs) cannot be opened in the web page version of a Cmap.
    4. Annotations cannot be opened or closed in the web page version of a Cmap.
    5. The web page version of a Cmap cannot be edited or modified in a web browser.
    6. A resource that has been linked to a Cmap (such as an image or video) has a caption describing the linked resource when viewed using CmapTools. These captions are not displayed when viewing the web page version of the Cmap.
  • In the Object tab of the Style Palette, the background image options "Manual Reposition the Background" and "Manual Crop the Background" are not yet implemented.
  • CmapTools is available in various languages (e.g. English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish, Czech, and Chinese), and Cmaps may be created in any language. However, the Spelling Checker and the Dictionary and Thesaurus features are only available in English.
CmapTools v3.9 - August 17, 2005:
  • CmapTools is very slow w hen accessing Places and opening and saving Cmaps.
  • The drag and drop between native file systems on Fedora 4 running Gnome, doesn’t work.
  • On Solaris systems, during Synchronous Collaboration, the chat text input field is too thin for users to see what they type..
CmapTools v3.8 - April 8, 2005
  • When you print or export an image of a Cmap that contains Annotations, even if the Annotations are open, the content of the Annotations is not printed or part of the exported image, only the Annotation's icon is included. To obtain an image of a Cmap with an opened Annotation, use the screen shot facility of the computer.
  • When viewing Cmaps using a Web browser, whether they were generated using the Export to Web Page menu entry or generated automatically on a Web Server, the following restrictions apply:
  • If the Cmap has Nested (Big) Nodes, there is no way to expand or close a Nested Node with a Web browser.
  • If you have a Nested (Big) Node expanded at the time you export the Cmap to a web page, then the Nested (Big) Node will appear expanded. If the Nested Node is closed, it will be exported as closed.
  • The links to Discussion Threads (DTs) cannot be opened from a Web browser.
  • Annotations cannot be opened or closed on the Web Page version of Cmaps.
  • Cmaps cannot be edited or modified when viewed with a Web browser.
  • Links to images and videos in CmapTools have a description that is displayed as a caption underneath the resource when viewed using CmapTools. These captions are not displayed when using a Web browser.
  • CmapTools is available in various languages (e.g. English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese), and Cmaps can be made in any language. But the Spelling Checker and the Dictionary and Thesaurus features are only available in English.
CmapTools v3.7 - March 7, 2005
  • When you open a empty Cmap, the Navigation tool is open too.
  • In the Mac OS X environment, files dragged and dropped from Cmaps in My Computer under Views to the desktop have their file names prefixed with tmp.
  • The field associated with identification of the user (user-id) not has validation.
  • Cmaptools do not support rename a file with a very long name.
CmapTools v3.6 - October 12, 2004
  • The path to define the profile and My Cmaps locations, in a Installation of CmapTools using Advanced Configuration option, must be have a escape character ( \ ) before each back slash ( \ ) in the full path name.
CmapTools v3.5 - July 7, 2004
  • The background was added as a tiled image. If the background is a tiled image then the export to image does crop the map down to the contents of the map. If the Image was not tiled then the image would be cropped down to the contents plus the full background image.
CmapTools v3.4 - May 12, 2004
  • When you add a resource to a concept, change its shape from rectangular to oval, and enter a very long length of text in the concept, the concept borders expand and incase the resource icon within the concept itself, making the resource inaccessible via clicking it. To ensure access to the resource, either shorten the length of text within the concept or use a rectangular shape.
  • When you click on a resource icon that has been added to a concept, hover the mouse pointer over an item from the resource list, and strike the Delete key, the resource icon disappears while the list items remain. If you click anywhere else on the Cmap, the list items will also disappear. Select the Undo option to restore the resource icon.
  • Following these steps in this order will prevent a user from being able to see messages on a Discussion Thread (DT):
    1. Open a DT.
    2. Close the DT.
    3. Rename the DT.
    4. Open the DT again. The user will not be able to see DT messages.
  • Given a Cmap with concepts that have very long lengths of text, when you export the Cmap propositions as text, and then import that text file, the resulting Cmap will have the concepts overlapping and run together.
  • Following these steps in this order will render the appearance of virtual linking phrase arrows:
    1. Create a Nested Node out of two concepts connected by a linking phrase.
    2. Collapse the Nested Node and move it.
    3. Expand the node and select either the linking phrase between the two concepts or one of the concepts themselves.
    4. Collapse the node again. Notice the virtual linking arrows of the selected linking phrase or concept remain in place and will still function as regular linking arrows.
  • During collaboration, if two users simultaneously select the same object on a Cmap and manipulate it, the user that releases the mouse last will receive the latest updated Cmap upon completion of the manipulation.
  • When using CmapTools in a Linux environment, the Views window folder browser will sometimes appear blank. To restore the contents of the folder browser, check and uncheck the icons only checkbox.
  • On occasion, you might be prompted to refill your profile information upon running or restarting CmapTools. To prevent this from happening, go to Edit Preferences, select the Places (Servers) tab, and alter the Check for new Places every __ minutes and activity status of each Place every __ minutes fields - input a very large value.
  • Private Places or Servers cannot be added via Edit Preferences, Places (Servers) - notice the Add button is grayed out. To do so, regress to CmapTools version 3.3. This problem will be addressed in version 3.5.
  • Given running a single CmapTools client in a multi-user environment OS (Windows, Linux, Macintosh, etc.), it should be noted that every user has a unique profile. To prevent issues with checking for multiple instances of CmapTools from arising, follow these steps:
    1. Use a text editor to open the CmapTools.lax file located within the bin directory of the folder to which you installed CmapTools.
    2. Locate the section entitled LAX.COMMAND.LINE.ARGS.
    3. Delete the parameters -checkForMultipleAppInstances 4749,nlk.basic.MultipleAppInstanceHandlerImpl .
    4. Close the file and save changes.
  • Users running a firewall should allow programs Java.exe and Javaw.exe to bypass the firewall to ensure CmapTools runs properly.
CmapTools v3.3 - March 9, 2004
  • When there are no concepts selected on the cmap, it is still possible to move the meter on the stretch bar even when it is supposed to be inactive.
  • If you try to use the Stretch facility on a Cmap that is positioned against the top or left border, stretching the Cmap will not work. Move the Cmap away from this top or left border and then use the Stretch facility.
  • If the user selects a line connecting a concept to a linking phrase, it isn't possible for the user to change the format of the line to a vector or a spline unless the user first changes the line to a 3pt bezier or 4tp bezier from the styles palette.
  • If you don't receive any results from a search, then simply try it again. In a small number of cases, the first time you attempt a search will results in no results being found. Usually this is resolved by running the search again.
  • If the search progress bar continues to moving while the elapsed time has already stopped, then all results have already been received. The bar may continue to move until you type your next search.
CmapTools v3.2 - February 12, 2004:
  • While in the Views window, if you rename a resource, it gets moved to a position such that resources with names that alphabetically precede the renamed resource get replaced with a blank line. Closing and opening the Views window remedies this error.
  • Given a knowledge model that has been published to a server, if a user makes changes to any Cmap within that knowledge model and republishes it, the HTML representation of the changed Cmap cannot be viewed unless the user saves the changed Cmap on the server to which it is being published.
  • Some dialog boxes are displayed in the language native to the user's Operating System.
  • When a user creates a new root folder on any Cmapserver, clicks the Permissions button, checks Inherit permissions from parent folder , and clicks the Show Effective Permissions button, the user name and password prompt does not appear, and causes the program to stall.

CmapTools v3.1 - February 10, 2004:
  • When the language for CmapTools is set to Italian, the table of contents under the Help option is displayed in Portuguese.
  • In the Edit Preferences window, the text displayed under the Language tab remains in English even if the user changes the Language setting.
  • When a user clicks on any of the entries listed in the table of contents under Help, the proper contents are not displayed.
CmapTools v3.0fkp - December 15, 2003:
  • If a user right clicks a concept on any Cmap, selects the Search option, selects Show Refine Search, unchecks all the options under Where to Search, then tries to perform the search, the search process will never end.
  • If a user opens the Edit Preferences window, clicks OK, reopens the Edit Preferences window, clicks on any tab besides General, then clicks OK again, the Changes in the language dialog box appears unnecessarily.
  • When working with Cmap concepts, if a user presses SHIFT + X to cut the concept, presses SHIFT + X again, then presses SHIFT + V to paste, the concept gets deleted.
CmapTools v3.0fap - October 22,, 2003:
  • If you have a BigNode open, the Select All (Ctrl-A) operation fails, so you need to close the BigNode before using Select All.
  • If you try to use the Stretch facility on a Cmap that is positioned against the top or left border, stretching the Cmap will not work. Move the Cmap away from this top or left border and then use the Stretch facility.
  • The text alignment buttons for positioning text (top, center, bottom) do not work.
  • The Stretch facility for either horizontal or vertical stretching does not work.
  • Saving a Style will cause the program to freeze. Upon restarting the program, the style will have been saved in the specified folder.
  • When dragging and dropping a Discussion Thread to a concept/linking phrase, the group list in the Add Resource Links dialogue will display the first item of the list instead of Discussion Thread type. This group does not matter and the link will be added as a Discussion Thread.
  • In the Add/Edit Links to Resources window, Discussion Thread links will not appear. The only way to add links is by dragging and dropping onto the concept/linking phrase or by creating a new Discussion Thread on the concept/linking phrase. To remove links, right click on the link icon and select delete.

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