The Historical Archive

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How much is shipping in the United States?
2. How much is shipping in other countries?
3. Do you offer free shipping?
4. How are products shipped?
5. I want to give your products as a gift but don't know which ones. Do you offer gift certificates?
6. What type of payments do you accept?
7. Is it safe to order online?
8. How quickly will my order be shipped?
9. When can I expect to receive my order?
10. What is your guarantee?
11. Do you have a return policy?
12. Do you offer discounts for large volume purchases?
13. Do you ever have sales?
14. How often do you add new products?
15. Do your DVDs play on all DVD players?
16. What computers do your CDs run on?
17. Do I need to install any special software to use your CDs?
18. Can I print the photographs, maps, books, etc. on the CDs?
19. Can I sell your products?
20. Do you have an affiliate program?
21. Do you offer drop shipping?
22. Can you tell me about a specific map, photo, film, etc. and if my grandfather is included?
23. Are your products always in stock?
24. What happens if an order is lost in the mail?
25. What happens if my order arrives damaged?
26. How do I print out the map files on the map CDs in full size?
27. I need the latest DVJU viewer for my computer. Where can I get it?
28. Is there a standalone DJVU viewer available for Windows/Macintosh computers?
29. Acrobat crahses when opening a pdf file. What do I do?
30. [AUTORUN/INCORRECT DISK DRIVE ISSUE] My CD/DVD Book/Photo/Map collection does nothing when I put it in the disk drive. What do I do?
31. It is hard to read the text of some of the DJVu books. Is there a way to improve readability?
32. The search function is not working in DJVu when I open a book. Is there a way to fix this?
33. Some of my PDF books are hard to read. Are there adjustments I can make in Adobe Acrobat Reader to improve readability?
34. I can't play WMA files on my Old Time radio collection. What do I do?
35. Can I search multiple PDF files at one time?
36. Access to the files on the CD/DVD is very slow. How can I speed it up?

1. How much is shipping in the United States?
   
   Shipping to the United States depends on the total dollar amount of your purchases. If you purchase $25 or less in products, the shipping charge is $4.00. If you purchase over $25 in products but no more than $50, the shipping charge is $6.00. If you purchase over $50 in products but no more than $75, the shipping charge is $8.00.If you purchase over $75 in products but no more than $100, the shipping charge is $10.00. If you purchase over $100 in products, shipping is FREE.
   
   
2. How much is shipping in other countries?
   
   International shipping (i.e. shipping to countries other than the United States) depends on the total dollar amount of your purchases. If you purchase $25 or less in products, the shipping charge is $8.00. If you purchase over $25 in products but no more than $50, the shipping charge is $12.00. If you purchase over $50 in products but no more than $75, the shipping charge is $16.00. If you purchase over $75 in products but no more than $100, the shipping charge is $20.00. If you purchase over $100 in products, shipping is FREE.
   
   
3. Do you offer free shipping?
   
   Yes we do! If you make a purchase of more than $100 in products, shipping is free to anywhere in the world. Free shipping is sent by the most economical rate (which could be media mail in the United States.)
   
   
4. How are products shipped?
   
   We ship all our products in slim sized DVD cases - in either secure bubble mailers or boxes depending on the quantity of products purchased.
   
   
5. I want to give your products as a gift but don't know which ones. Do you offer gift certificates?
   
   We do not offer gift certificates at this time.
   
   
6. What type of payments do you accept?
   
   We accept a variety of payments. We accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover Card, Paypal, Check and Money Order. If you are an international customer and paying by check or money order, it must be in U.S. funds.
   
   
7. Is it safe to order online?
   
   Absolutely! We have a secure certificate on the site to protect your sensitive data from abuse. Order safely and securely.
   
   
8. How quickly will my order be shipped?
   
   All our orders are shipped within two business days.
   
   
9. When can I expect to receive my order?
   
   We ship all orders to U.S. addresses by first class mail/parcel post and all international orders by air mail. Most U.S. orders will arrive within a week of payment. Most international orders will arrive within a week to 14 days of receipt of payment.
   
   
10. What is your guarantee?
    
    We offer a 30 days no question asked satisfaction guarantee.
    
    
11. Do you have a return policy?
    
    Yes we do. If you wish to return your product within 30 days of your purchase date, we offer a full refund of your purchase price. (Shipping is not refundable.) Just use our contact form to request an RMA code and use that when returning the product.
    
    
12. Do you offer discounts for large volume purchases?
    
    If you wish to order a large number of a single title, we are happy to offer a discount. Just contact us to let us know your needs and we will work out a price.
    
    
13. Do you ever have sales?
    
    We do offer periodic sales to our customers from time to time.
    
    
14. How often do you add new products?
    
    We release anywhere between 5 and 20 new products a month. The best way to keep up with new titles we ad is to sign up for our email notification list.
    
    
15. Do your DVDs play on all DVD players?
    
    Yes they do - but like all consumer product, there will be an occasional failure - due to postal mishandling of the package, etc. If you ever receive a DVD that doesn't play, just contact us and we will send you a replacement DVD right away.
    
    
16. What computers do your CDs run on?
    
    Our CDs run on Windows and Macintosh platforms unless otherwise discussed in the product listing itself.
    
    
17. Do I need to install any special software to use your CDs?
    
    Sometimes you will need to install special viewers to view the contents of a particular CD. Any time any special software needs to be installed, the software and full instructions are included as part of the CD.
    
    
18. Can I print the photographs, maps, books, etc. on the CDs?
    
    Yes. All items on the CDs are printable.
    
    
19. Can I sell your products?
    
    We offer our wholesale program to those interested in selling our products. Full details can be found on our Partner Programs page.
    
    
20. Do you have an affiliate program?
    
    No we do not.
    
    
21. Do you offer drop shipping?
    
    We offer our drop ship program to those interested in selling our products in that manner. Full details can be found on our Partner Programs page.
    
    
22. Can you tell me about a specific map, photo, film, etc. and if my grandfather is included?
    
    While we would love to help you locate information on family members, etc., there is such a volume of information in all our products that such searches are not really feasible due to the sometimes scant amount of infoormation available on some items - such as group photos or people who appear in a documentary. The best way to answer this question is to purchase the product and examine it for yourself. If it does not meet your needs, you can always return it for a full refund of the purchase price.
    
    
23. Are your products always in stock?
    
    We operate our own manufacturing facility to guarantee that all products are always in stock and ready to ship when you place your order.
    
    
24. What happens if an order is lost in the mail?
    
    For all U.S. orders, we put a delivery confirmation code on each package so we can attempt to trace the location of any package lost in the mail. For international orders, we do not have that ability.
    
    But basically if enough time has passed and you have not received your order, we will be happy to send a replacement at no charge to you. Just contact us and we'll get a new one right out to you. For U.S. customers, a reasonable amount of time is two weeks from the time the order was shipped and for international customers, a reasonable amount of time is three weeks from the time the order was shipped.
    
    
25. What happens if my order arrives damaged?
    
    The post office is generally very good at deliverying our products without damage but once in a while something happens to a package on its way from our offices to your location. If you ever receive a damaged product, just contact us and we will get a replacement out to you right away at no charge to you.
    
    
26. How do I print out the map files on the map CDs in full size?
    
    Images on the map CDs are in one of two different formats - MRSid (.sid extension) or Jpeg 2000 (.jp2 extension.) To use and manipulate them in a graphics program, you would need to "extract" the image into a different format - like as a tiff image. This FAQ answer will describe how to do this for both the .jp2 and .sid files on your map CD.
    
    Lets start with the Jpeg 2000 images. If the map CD contains Jpeg 2000 images, there will be a viewer on the CD (on the instructions.html page) that will need to be installed. Full instructions are included on that page. And the program (ER Viewer) is on the CD itself. Once it is installed, every time you click on a map image to get to the full sized image, if it is a Jpeg 2000 image, it will prompt you to open the ER Viewer application. It will open it and show you the image.
    
    To save the image in a useful format for manipulation, do File -> save as -> then enter a name in the save as dialog box and save it as either tiff or as jpeg and click OK. At that point, it will show another dialog box that gives more options. Just click OK and it will save the file full size in that format. This will make a VERY LARGE file - anywhere from 30 to 200 MB in size depending on the size of the original map.
    
    Also on the CD is a MRSid viewer that will allow you to look at the map in your browser. But this viewer does not support extracting the full image. To do so, you will need to download an older version of the MRSid viewer from our website or a special extractor program from Lizardtech.
    
    Option 1: Download the older version of the MRSid viewer from our website. You can download it here. It is a zipped executable file and only runs on Windows platforms or Macintosh computers that support Windows programs.
    
    When you download it, unzip it and double click it to install it on your computer. Then follow the below procedure to extract the image.
    
    A) Identify the name and location of the map in question through the menu system on the disk. An example might be

    file:///D:/ct/maps/1.sid

    B) Open the mrsid viewer start -> programs -> MRSid viewer -> MRSid viewer will do this for you.
    C) This will open the mrsid viewer. Click on the file -> open command to open a file.
    D) Locate the actual file (1.sid in this case) on your CD drive with windows explorer. In this example if your CD drive is letter D, it would be in directory D:\ct\maps. When you find the file, just double click and it will open it in the view window.
    E) Then, click file-> export and select a name and location by clicking the export to button. (in this case you can only save as a tiff file) and click save. Then click go on the other box and it will save it as a tiff image. Like the prior program, it will be a big file.
    
    Option 2: Lizardtech has a special tool designed to extract .sid images that is available for free download and run on Windows and Macintosh platforms. They provide full instructions here.
    
    Option 3: You can download GeoViewer to view and export SID files. It is a very powerful viewing program and works on MrSID and JPED 2000 files. You can download it here: http://www.lizardtech.com/downloads/category/#viewers
    

27. I need the latest DVJU viewer for my computer. Where can I get it?
    
    The latest versions ofthe DJVU viewer can be downloaded here: http://www.caminova.net/en/downloads/download.aspx?id=1. This new viewer will handle Windows Vista as well as the newer Macintosh and Unix platforms.
    
    
28. Is there a standalone DJVU viewer available for Windows/Macintosh computers?
    
    Yes there is. It is called Windjview (MacDJView for MAC) and is available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Either version can be downloaded at http://windjview.sourceforge.net/
    
    
29. Adobe crashes when I open a PDF file. What do I do?
    
    Check to see if you are running Adobe Acrobat Reader version 9.X where X is a another number - for example 9.1. The 9.X versions of Acrobat and Acrobat Reader occasionally crash within seconds of opening a document. Until Adobe comes up with a stable fix for this bug, it is recommended that you downgrade to a version 8 level of Acrobat Reader. To get a downgraded version of Acrobat Reader, go to: http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/ and choose your operating system. You will then be given the ability to download an earlier version of the product.
    
    
30. [AUTORUN/INCORRECT DISK DRIVE ISSUE] My CD/DVD Book/Photo/Map collection does nothing when I put it in the disk drive. What do I do?
    
    This can be caused by one of two things. The first is that you only have a CD drive in your computer and you bought a DVD information product. If this is the case, the DVD cannot play in the CD drive. All computers have CD drives but not all computers have DVD drives. (Note that DVD drives can read both CDs and DVDs.) So if you purchased a product on DVD, verify that your drive does indeed work with DVDs. If you are not sure, the easiest way to tell is to put a movie DVD - one that you would watch on your DVD player connected to your TV - into the drive and see if the movie plays. If it does, you have a DVD drive.
    
    Assuming that you have the correct type of disk drive, the disk should automatically start but sometimes - due to a configuration setting on your computer - it doesn't recognize the autostart file. In this case, you need to start it manually.
    
    There are two ways you can do this. Both are outlined below. In both instances, start by putting your disk into your computer CD/DVD drive.
    
    The first way is as follows (instructions are given for Windows based operating systems):
    
    a) Double click on your "My Computer" icon (just "Computer" in Vista) with your left mouse button. This will open access to all your drives.
    b) Single click with your right mouse button on your CD/DVD drive. This wll display a variety of options that you can select.
    c) Choose the option that says "Explore." This will open a new window that shows the contents of the CD/DVD.
    d) There will be a file called "Index" amongst the files on the disk. Double click that file with your left mouse button. This will open your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.) and display the main navigation page for the disk.
    e) At this point, you can now navigate the CD/DVD just like you navigate web pages.
    
    The second way is as follows"
    
    a) Open your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.)
    b) Click on the file menu option at the top left of the browser with your left mouse button. This will display a menu of choices.
    c) Left click on "Open" in Internet Explorer or "Open File" infirefox or its equivalent in the browser you are using. This will open a file window that allows you to access any files in your computer.
    d) Navigate to your CD/DVD drive and select the file called "Index." This will load the main navigation page for the disk.
    e) At this point, you can now navigate the CD/DVD just like you navigate web pages.
    
    
31. It is hard to read the text of some of the DJVu books. Is there a way to improve readability?
    
    Yes there is. DJVU has a variety of controls built into it to allow you to modify your user experience. The below steps will turn the pages into black and white by removing any background color and also sharpen the text. Just follow the steps and you should see a dramatic improvement.
    
    A) Open your book inthe DJVU browser.
    
    B) Navigate to a page with text so you can watch the changes as you do them.
    
    C) Right click on the page one time with your mouse button. This will show a menu. Mouse over the VIEW option. This will show a submenu. Mouse over the LAYER option. This will show another submenu. Now left click on the option that says FOREGROUND. That should show some improvement.
    
    D) Repeat step three again but this time select the option that reads BALCK & WHITE. That should now show quite a bit of improvement in the quality.
    
    Note: If you are using a standalone DJVu viewer (as opposed to the one that works within your web browser), the View Menu option will be on the top of the viewer and is accessed with the left mouse button.
    
    
32. The search function is not working in DJVu when I open a book. Is there a way to fix this?
    
    There is a quirk in the DJVi viewer that sometimes affects how the search functionality works. Most of the time, you can begin a search from any page in the book but in some cases, the DJVU viewer will not start a search unless you are on a page that has text. So if you are having trouble with the search function, just navigate to an internal page of the book with text on it and start the search there. It should work fine from there - and it will still search the whole book regardless of what page you start from.
    
    
33. Some of my PDF books are hard to read. Are there adjustments I can make in Adobe Acrobat Reader to improve readability?
    
    Yes there are some steps you can take to improve readability.
    
    Step 1: Be sure the Acrobat Reader application is displaying on the full computer screen. If it is not already occupying the full screen, click on the box in the top right hand corner (directly to the left of the X you click ot clost the window.) This will open the reader to the full screen.
    
    Step 2: Be sure only a single page of the book is being displayed in the display window. If the book is displaying two pages at a time on the screen, the text can be very small. Switch the reader to show a single page at a time. If you do not know how to do this, the process is to select view -> page display -> single page from the command bar.
    
    Step 3: Once on a single page, if the text is still too small, use the magnification button to bring the magnification up to somewhere around 125% to 150% (or more if that is better for you) depending on the volume. This will greatly improve the readability of books that have very small or light text.
    
    
34. I can't play WMA files on my Old Time radio collection. What do I do?
    
    The easiest solution is to install the free Winamp Player at http://www.winamp.com/.
    
    
    
35. Can I search multiple pdf files at one time?
    
    Yes you can. This is a standard feature of Adobe Acrobat Reader. Please refer to this article from Online Tech Tips for full details on how to use this feature: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-search-for-text-inside-multiple-pdf-files-at-once/
    
    
36. Access to the files on the CD/DVD is very slow. How can I speed it up.?
    
    CD and DVD drives are a very slow access type drive. You can gain a tremendous speed advantage in loading and working with your files if you copy them to your hard drive. http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/bc/bcs1p9.html is an excellent step by step article on how to do this for Windows XP. The process is similar on other versions of windows.
    
    Once you have copied the files to your hard drive, to access the menu system, just double click in the "index" file in that directory. It will open the index just like it does on the CD/DVD except this time when you click on a link to access the file, it will be reading it from your hard drive. Note: Once the files are on the hard drive, you do not need to have the CD/DVD in your computer.