Access (or EAccess) Violation errors when editing or printing in Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 for Windows

[This FAQ also true if you get the CHILDWIN.pas error.]

If the program is stuck and you are using Windows, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and start the Task Manager.  Select “Movie Magic Screenwriter” from the list of applications and press the End Task button.  You may have to repeat this several times to close the program.

1. Recover Your .TMB Timed Backup File First

Before going further, please try to recover your timed backup (.TMB) file.  It will have the most current version of the document.  Here is a FAQ on how recover it.

LINK:  How to Recover Timed Backup (.TMB) files for Windows Screenwriter

2. Reset Your Windows Default Printer Driver

NOTE: For Windows 10 users, you may want to double-check to make sure the Windows default printer is set as it can be unset during one of Windows' many updates.  It can give you an Access Violation error when not set.  Here is a link to an article with the simple steps to set the default printer:

LINK: Windows Screenwriter 6 won't run or crashes on launch? RESET your default print driver

Also, please make sure your documents are on your local hard drive, not on a cloud drive, such as OneDrive.  Screenwriter does not work well with cloud drives.  Here is a link to a FAQ with a solution if you're documents are one OneDrive:

LINK:  Windows Screenwriter 6 problems with OneDrive

3. Resolving Access Violation Errors.

The most common trigger is having one or more long paragraphs (usually over a page in length) somewhere in the document. This mostly happens in stage plays where there can be monologues that go on for a while. Please break up those paragraphs with something like Action and see if the program runs better. You can also try and set the program to break Action and Dialogue *only* at sentences ends under Format > Element Styles > Page Breaks.

Another trigger is having blank elements in the document. Click on Tools > Run SmartCheck and click OK to have the program remove any blank elements it finds, though we recommend leaving one [1] blank line of action at the end of the document.

You can also copy and paste your entire document into a new blank document of the same type, i.e., Screenplay, Novel, Stage Play, etc. which may help the problem.

4. IF THE ABOVE DID NOT RESOLVE THE PROBLEM....

Are You Using a Cloud Drive such as OneDrive or Dropbox?

Another cause of Access Violation Errors can be if you save your documents to a cloud drive, such as OneDrive or Dropbox, instead of working from your hard drive.  Screenwriter does not work well with cloud drives.  If this is the case, the solution is to work locally on your hard drive.

LINK:  Windows Screenwriter 6 problems with OneDrive

LINK:  Windows Screenwriter 6 problems with Dropbox

RECOVERING YOUR DOCUMENT

If the program closes unexpectedly for some reason, it should ask you to retrieve a Timed Backup the next time you open the program.  The Timed Backup is a separately file that gets updated as you are working every few minutes, and is designated by a .TMB extension at the end of the file name (e.g., OscarWinner_01-01-2008.tmb).

To manually retrieve a Timed Backup:

1. Click on File > Open.
2. From the "Files of Type" list at the bottom of the window, choose Timed Backups.
3. At the top of the window, select the folder designated as the Timed Backup location; by default, this is under Documents (or My Documents) > Screenwriter Documents > Timed Backups.
4. Select the Timed Backup with the name of your document (e.g. [name of your file].tmb) and click Open.
5. Assuming this has most (or all) of the data you were working on, click on File > Save As and save the file into the folder where you normally store your files.  You might want to opt to save under a slightly different name (e.g. [name of your file]_v2.mmsw).