Can't reopen eMatter book

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]
> I bought the 'Standard Python Library' eMatter book by mr Fredrik
> Lundh. Everything worked fine except when I tried to open the book for
> the second time. No I only get an error saying "An error occurred
> while preparing to display this eMatter(c). Please try again. If you
> continue to have problems, contact Fatbrain.com Costomer Service."
> ...
> The only thing I did after closing the eMatter book and trying to
> reopen it was to upgrade Adobe Acrobat to version 4

Same here, in all respects except the specific error msg.  So the following
may not work for you.  On my system, the problem crops over & over & over
again, seemingly every time *any* change is made to a broad area of the
Windows registry (upgrading Acrobat is but one of many triggers).  They
claim this problem is rare, but if you have a system it happens on, there
isn't yet any permanent fix.

Here's what I got from Fatbrain support.  Worth a try, anyway:

    Step 1. go to start -> run and type in regedit
    Step 2. when it opens, look through the tree of directories
            to get to my computer -> hkey_current_user -> software ->
            fatbrain.com
    Step 3. delete the fatbrain folder
    Step 4. run the ematter registration client again (it will
            ask you for a license key again)

Step 0 is missing:  editing the registry is fraught with dangers, so proceed
with extreme care.  It's easy to get sloppy the twelfth time you need to do
it, so never skip step 0 <wink>.

Step 2 should not say "my computer -> ".  The rest is correct.

To accomplish Step 3, click once on the "Fatbrain.com" folder in the left
pane, to select it.  Then do Edit -> Delete (or hit your "delete" key).
Click OK on the confirmation box that pops up, first making sure that
Fatbrain.com is indeed the item selected.

Step 3.5 is missing:  close regedit.  You never want to keep regedit open
any longer than necessary.

Step 4:  "run the ematter registration client again" is something that
happens automatically when you simply try to open the eMatter book again.

Step 5 is missing:  Enjoy!  It's a great book.  Never close it or reboot
your computer, lest you need to go thru this again <wink>.

it's-not-/f's-fault-but-we-should-be-mad-at-him-anyway-ly
    y'rs  - tim