NisusWriter Pro in Applications folder

[jjlancaster]

Why do I receive a message offering to move NisusWriter Pro to my Applications folder when I open it? It is already in the Applications folder, where I installed it originally, and nowhere else that I can find using Spotlight.

Once I inadvertently clicked on the "yes" button, and it completely hung - then when I Force Quit and restarted NWP, it told me that certain essential components were missing, and I had to reinstall the program.

[martin]

That prompt, which asks if you'd like to move NWP to the Applications folder, is to help out Mac newbies. We receive quite a bit of questions about this kind of basic stuff through customer support. Installing and managing applications appears to be a confusing thing for newcomers to the Mac.

It is already in the Applications folder, where I installed it originally, and nowhere else that I can find using Spotlight.

If your copy is indeed already in the Applications folder, then indeed you should not be asked if you'd like to move it. You could verify this by right-clicking the running application's icon in your dock and choosing the menu Options > Show in Finder.

Once I inadvertently clicked on the "yes" button, and it completely hung - then when I Force Quit and restarted NWP, it told me that certain essential components were missing, and I had to reinstall the program

That definitely should not happen. It sounds like the move operation did not complete and left behind a damaged copy of NWP. I don't suppose you saved the force quit / hang report?

[jjlancaster]

Sorry, no I didn't save the report. This may be related to another curious issue: If I right-click on a non-rtf file and "Open with" NWP, it opens in NWP, but adds a second icon to the dock (in addition to the one I keep in the dock).

If I then try to open another file from the Finder, sometimes it will try to open it in a new copy of NWP (with the anchored icon bouncing) and I'll get the message that it's not good to have two copies open at the same time. What would cause this behavior?

That is, why wouldn't opening NWP automatically happen using the icon that's anchored in the dock? and why, if a copy of NWP is already open, why would it try to open a second copy anyway?

Thanks.

[Hamid]

It is quite likely that you have two copies of NWP; one in Applications folder, and another elsewhere on your HD.
Reproduce the situation where you get two NWP icons in the Dock; Command-click each of the two NWP icons in the Dock in turn to find out where the two copies are located. (Command-clicking the icons in the Dock will show their location in the Finder.)

[martin]

Hamid is exactly right, you almost certainly have more than one copy of NWP on your computer. Which one the Finder chooses to launch can depend on a lot of things, including your file associations (eg: you can set a specific app for each particular file format). It would be best if you used the Dock menus to show these additional copies of NWP and delete them.

[jjlancaster]

Thanks, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Both copies refer back to the Applications folder when I Command-click the icons (or right-click the icons and "Show in Finder"), and no other copy shows up when I search with Spotlight.

As I said, this behavior seems to occur only when NWP is running, and I right-click a non-rtf file in Finder and "Open with" NWP. Obviously, I can avoid this by just opening the file using File > Open in the copy of NWP that's already running, and that's what I do - but sometimes I forget.

Or vice versa - I've opened a non-rtf file, which produces a second NWP icon in the Dock, and then I try to open another file using "Open with" - and it opens by using a second copy of NWP, attached to the icon that's anchored in the Dock. This seems to happen when the second file is in a different folder from the first one, though I can't say that that's the only time it happens.

So it seems to be related to the "Open with" command in some way. At least some of the time, that command doesn't recognize that NWP is already running, or that there's an icon for it already in the Dock.

This doesn't happen with Word or TextEdit - any additional files I open with them just open in the copy that's already running.

This is not a critical issue, of course - but I can't help being curious.

Thanks for any further thoughts. (I'm still running Mountain Lion, by the way, in case that might matter.)

[Hamid]

Thanks, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Both copies refer back to the Applications folder when I Command-click the icons (or right-click the icons and "Show in Finder"), and no other copy shows up when I search with Spotlight.[...]

In that case the same one copy of NWP app is running twice. This can only happen when the Unix Executable file 'Nisus Writer Pro' inside the NWP app package is run. Then you will get the following message:

Another version of Nisus Writer is already running, are you sure you want to launch Nisus Writer Pro 2.0.7?
Running two copies of Nisus Writer is not recommended

Since you are not manually activating that file, or running a command in Terminal to run it, I don't know what is happening in your case.

[martin]

Thanks, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Both copies refer back to the Applications folder when I Command-click the icons (or right-click the icons and "Show in Finder")

That's unexpected. The Finder should prevent you from ever launching an application twice (ie: creating two running instances from a single app bundle on disk). As Hamid mentions, you can circumvent this policy by using the Terminal (aka: the command line) but it's not generally recommended and isn't something that happens by accident. If your Finder is behaving properly, you should only be allowed to launch a single running instance of an app; multiple running instances should only occur if you also have multiple copies on your disk.

Another theory: maybe you have two folders called "Applications" with similar contents? For example, if you have two partitions on your hard drive.

Or perhaps something is wrong with your Finder or system? To try and correct the errant launching you might:

1. Delete all copies of NWP from your computer (and empty the trash).
2. Remove all icons of NWP from your dock (drag them out so they "poof").
3. Download and install a fresh copy of NWP.
4. Keep the newly installed copy of NWP in a special folder, at least initially so you can test and make sure there aren't other copies lingering.

If that still doesn't work, you could explicitly force OSX's launch services database to rebuild.

[clane47]

This happens sometimes if you have an external HD with a clone of your system installed. I use SuperDuper to periodically clone my internal drive. If that’s what you’re doing, you should eject the clone and see if your troubles disappear.