INSTALLATION / SETUP — NOTA BENE ON MACS

Standard install, clean install, file associations, and troubleshooting.

 Note: On versions of Mac OS Tahoe 26.5 and later, you may receive a message on Nota Bene startup that the program will not work with a future release of macOS. There’s no need to worry.

Download Nota Bene
Support

Table of Contents

Standard Installation

Nota Bene should install like any other Mac application:

1. Download. Download the installation zip file from the Nota Bene website

  • To get the latest release, go to the nb.notabene.com web page, Login, and then click Previous Orders / Downloads 

2. Install. Double click on the unzipped app file to install it; when prompted, allow your system to move this application to your Applications folder

For most Mac users, that is all you need to know. The rest of this page describes special cases.

Notes / Some Issues You May Encounter

Permissions

If you receive an error about not having permission to run Nota Bene, please click the Apple icon, System Preferences, and then Security & Privacy, and make sure that the option is set to allow running applications from “identified developers” and/or those downloaded from the web.

If you have an earlier downloaded version of Nota Bene in your Downloads folder, and download it again, the second download may have a number added to it, such as “Nota Bene 2” or “Nota Bene-2,” and if you then install it (which moves the app to the Applications folder) it will install using that numbered name. If you encounter this situation, you can rename the apps, or even remove them (in both the Applications and Download folders), and start over again with a new download.

While Safari automatically unzips the download, this may not happen when using other browsers until you double click on the downloaded file to run it

If you encounter some other kind of error, you may want to check to make sure that the download finished:

  • Before unzipping, the file should be at least 300 MB
  • After unzipping, the application should be larger than about 610 MB
  • If it is not of the expected size (at either stage), then something has gone wrong with the download or unzipping process, and you will need to try again until you get a complete download (this is a browser/internet issue; if you continue to have problems, you may want to try a different browser)

Some users may encounter a message saying that Rosetta needs to be installed in order to run NB. If you see this message, simply install Rosetta.

  • Rosetta is an Apple program that allows running software written for Windows to run on the Mac
  • This is usually preinstalled, but a few users have encountered the need to install it manually

If you get this dialog when first starting NB’s current version after installing on Monterey, you can simply click OK to acknowledge it — NB will function properly despite that message

Clean Up / Fresh Install

Do this only if standard install fails.

Sometimes installation may not work, or the program may not run properly, because of the residues of old Nota Bene installations on your system, or because something has happened to the Crossover Wine bottle. The notes below describe how to remove earlier traces of the program, and the current bottle, so you can have a fresh install.

Note that all of the items you are instructed to move to trash below are shortcuts or applications, NOT normal folders, and so unless you have done something very unusual (which you would need to have done intentionally), you should have no NB files, databases, etc., under them.

  • In the one in a million chance that you have saved data inside/under the applications you are asked to delete below, you can retrieve those applications from Trash
  • Once you are satisfied that nothing is saved there, they can be deleted from Trash when you do cleanup

One final note: the one Nota Bene item you should never move to trash is the Nota Bene folder under your Users > YourUserName folder (see the first of the “Two ‘Nota Bene’ Folders” section below).

To clean up your system, and get a fresh install:

  1. Click on the Apple icon, and then Force Quit, and quit any Nota Bene or “wine preloader” program that shows up on that list (you can do this in any order)
  2. Using Finder, go to the Applications folder, and move all Nota Bene applications to Trash
  3. Using Finder, go to the Downloads folder, and move all Nota Bene .app, .dmg, .zip, or .exe files to Trash
  4. Remove any Nota Bene items/icons on the Dock (usually you can simply drag this to the Desktop until the Remove menu appears)
  5. Using Finder, browse to Users > YourUserName > Library > Application Support, and rename any Nota Bene folder (you can use any name, such as “Nota Bene old”) that you might find there
    1. If Library does not show up when viewing your user folder, click Go on the top Finder menu, and hold the Option key (this displays hidden folders, such as Library)
    2. Do not ever rename the Nota Bene folder that is under your Mac User > YourUserName folder (see “Two ‘Nota Bene’ Folders” below)
  6. Make sure no version of Wine is running, either by:
    1. Restarting your computer (but make sure that it does not simply restore any previous state)
    2. Starting Terminal (Applications, Utility, Terminal), and typing:
      1. pkill -KILL wine
      2. pkill -KILL Nota
  7. Remove any NB icons from the Dock
  8. Download the latest release from the Nota Bene web site (see above)
  9. Install that version (see above)

If that does not resolve the problem, it could be that some customized configuration setting is causing the problem. To see if this is the issue:

  • Make sure that Nota Bene is not running (see above about Force Quit)
  • Using Finder, browse to the User\YourUserName\Nota Bene\Settings folder
    • Rename the NB.INI file in that folder (use any name)
    • Rename the NB.DFL file in that folder (use any name)
    • Copy in the version of those files from the Initial folder you will find under the Settings folder (that is, copy from ..\Settings\Initial to ..\Settings)
    • Restart NB to see if that resolves the problem


Note that after renaming these files, you will may need to reselect some defaults that you had changed (the most-recently-opened-files list will be automatically repopulated as you work)

Two "Nota Bene" Folders

There are two “Nota Bene” folders when NB is installed on a Mac, and they are very different:

1. The Nota Bene folder under Users/YourUserName is an important folder, and should never be deleted or renamed
  • It contains the important Settings folder, where your customized settings are contained
  • More importantly, your Ibidem databases may be saved in the Databases folder under it
  • And your NB documents may also be saved in the Documents folder under Nota Bene, if you chose that location rather than the general Mac Documents folder
  • In addition, if you had a version of NB prior to NB 13 installed on this computer, the Nota Bene wine bottle, and the Nota Bene program, from that earlier installation will be installed under this same Nota Bene folder (in a folder named drive_c\windows in the case of the former, and drive_c\nbwin in the case of the latter)
    • Although the NB 13 installation program should have copied all your Nota Bene documents stored in this earlier bottle (that is, documents and databases created with earlier versions of NB, when saved under what used to be accessed as c:\nbwin) to the comparable location in the new structure (see notes on setup for details), anything not copied can be retrieved from this location (Users/YourUserName/Nota Bene/drive_c/nbwin)
  • Unlike the primary Nota Bene folder mentioned above, this Nota Bene folder is NOT directly under Users/YourUserName, but is instead further down the tree, under Users/YourUserName/Library/Applications [with Library even normally hidden from view])
  • While in earlier versions of NB, you could save data files and databases under the Nota Bene bottle+program folder (in fact, it was recommended in many cases [when saving files to C:\nbwin]), in NB 13 there is no way to directly access the C: drive [it’s drive_c under (Users/YourUserName/ Library/Application Support/Nota Bene/Bottles/notabene [again, Library is normally hidden]) except when using the Action Line, or when creating an Orbis textbase

File Associations

If file associations — operating-system-level associations (outside of Nota Bene’s control) that allow you to start Nota Bene by double clicking on an NB file in Finder — are not set up automatically:

  1. Open Finder
  2. Select an .NB file (you can choose any file)
  3. Click File, Get Info
  4. If it is not already open, click the down arrow to the left of Open With
  5. Click the arrow to the right of the box below it
  6. Select “Other” from the drop list
  7. When the Finder dialog opens (again, the same version that opens from within NB and TextEdit), in the Enable drop list below the list of files, select All Applications
  8. Browse to Nota Bene under Applications, select it, and click Add


(Your version of the Mac OS may have slightly different steps, but the above should give you the general idea of how to proceed.)

Command Key Setup

To set Command to be the equivalent of the Control key (the latter is standard in Windows), go (in Nota Bene) to Tools, Keyboards, Mac Keyboard Configuration:

  • If this is already set to be the Equivalent of Nota Bene Control Key
    1. Select Equivalent of Nota Bene Alt Key
    2. Press OK
    3. Click OK on the message about needing to restart Nota Bene
    4. Go to Tools, Keyboards, Mac Keyboard Configuration
    5. Select Equivalent to Nota Bene Control Key
    6. Press OK
    7. Click OK to dismiss the message about needing to restart Nota Bene
    8. See if Command now works; if it doesn’t, then restart Nota Bene
  • If this is set to be the Equivalent of Nota Bene Alt Key, start at step 4 above

Retina Display (Quality and/or Size)

By default, Nota Bene should be set up to use the full capabilities of Apple high-resolution Retina displays. If for any reason it is not, or if the display size is too small or too large, you can easily change this:

1. In Nota Bene, go to Tools, Preferences, Mac Options
2. Select the Retina option in the middle of the dialog

  • If this is already set to Retina, but NB does not seem to be running in Retina mode, select Standard Mode, and click OK, and then OK to restart NB; when NB restarts, repeat these steps, choosing Retina again


3. Select the size from the drop list

  • You may want to experiment with different sizes
  • Note that “small” means small

 

4. Click OK
5. Confirm that you are willing to restart NB (unlike Command key configuration described above, a restart of NB is necessary in order for this change to take effect)

We Value Your Privacy

Only cookies necessary to let you browse through the web site are used—only the (current) session ID that allows us to retrieve your “session data” from our server. 

Everything is removed after you leave the page. We do not collect—and never have—any data for use with marketing, sales, or for any other use. 

You are visiting our website for your benefit, not for ours.

OK