Sticky Groups

Dick Pape · Post by **Dick Pape** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:36 am

I just got started using groups and of course it's very easy. I have a main library of fonts sorted alphabetically by file name (=font name) which I am trying to sort by design characteristics using Groups with Shortcuts... never to move or copy.

1. Is there documentation on proper usage? Now that I have some fonts in Groups what's next? ... beyond going back and doing more classification.

2. When adding an item to a group "Add Selected Fonts Operation" should be "sticky" that is, remain on the last one selected. I NEVER would use anything but Shortcut but it keeps reverting back to Copy. The "Add Selected Fonts To Group" works properly.

3. Since I slipped and moved or copied (I don't know which - and that's a problem) some fonts, how do I get them out of Groups and back into the main library? I used Moved to Folder... but I have to remember where they came from in order for that to work properly and it's a little tricky. And then it's tricky to get them back into the group(s) as Shortcuts if you once do it as copy or move... it's getting too complicated for me, Erwin.

4. Is there a way to know to which groups a font has been assigned? You show the contents of each group, but not the other way around AFAIK.

5. And the "Add To Group" menu should be sticky when it's opened so that if you have more than 7 groups they all may be visible. I expect to end up with "hundreds" of groups if I live that long.

As usual MT is fast so I can muck around and around quickly. Dick

pentool · Post by **pentool** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:54 am

I wonder if anyone uses "Move" or "Copy" for the Groups feature? Now that we have the "Shortcut" feature available is there a reason to have "Move" and "Copy" at all? Based on what I've read in the forum, most people not like to have duplicate fonts scattered around on their HD.

I was looking at the shortcuts on the HD. They take up about 8-900 bytes or so. But the system allocates 4K of disk space to each shortcut regardless of their actual size.

So if someone has, say a few thousand fonts added to groups as shortcuts, that would amount to megabytes of unused but allocated space on the HD. Would it worth to have the group items, instead of being actual shortcuts, be stored like maybe in a central file, like a "database" kinda thing? And they would be managed strictly by the program as opposed to having shortcuts on the HD? ...just a thought.

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:10 am

I will make sure MainType will remember the last used Add Selected Fonts Operation.

A database could be useful, I'll add it to the request list.

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 12:42 pm

Dick,

I've just uploaded a new release that remembers the last used Add Selected Fonts Operation. It is available through the Announcements forum.

About your other questions...

1. No right now there is no documentation about shortcuts, I will add it to the user manual when I release MainType 1.1. However don't expect to much information about this topic. It might be better to add an online tutorial about this topic. Anyone interested in writing such a tutorial?

3. The "sticky" Add Selected Fonts Operation should help.

4. No, that isn't possible with shortcuts. Another "reference" approach (a database) would solve such issues.

5. I'll add it to the wish list.

Yehuda · Post by **Yehuda** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 4:28 pm

I was actually thinking of requesting this enhancement too. It's great, since all I use is shortcuts.

The pace of upgrade releases has been amazing

pentool · Post by **pentool** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 7:56 pm

Yehuda wrote:The pace of upgrade releases has been amazing

Yeah! Thanks Erwin for the amazing work!

Dave Crosby · Post by **Dave Crosby** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 2:22 am

I was looking at the shortcuts on the HD. They take up about 8-900 bytes or so. But the system allocates 4K of disk space to each shortcut regardless of their actual size.

Is there any way to add notes about the font in the extra space, or does that get too messy?

Dick Pape · Post by **Dick Pape** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:10 am

Happy New Year. I've been saving these.

1. Need way to identify that font has been assigned to a group (as little as y/n). I want to make sure I've Group-ed every font.

(May be expensive but how about adding two links when a font is assigned to a group. The first goes to the Group folder and the second goes to the Font (file name) folder. Keeping them in sync would be a trick but you could see right away to which groups this font had been assigned.)

2. Need way to drop link - to remove font from a group without have to go to all Groups and page through. "UnGroup", and "Ungroup All" perhaps.

3. Need help in keeping the links up to date. Need to test links periodically. Need report of missing links. (You can see the bad ones by going to each group and see what's missing). (I moved a font folder and had to delete all the links without references in each Group and then go through the moved folder to set them up again. What happens when a font is renamed or deleted ... ugly! but you need to be told about it).

4. Nice to be able to select multiple groups at a time.

5. Is it hard to add Lnk entries to a Groups folder? I have a list of all the font paths in my "Beautiful" group -- can I convert them to shortcut records easily?

Yehuda · Post by **Yehuda** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 11:33 am

Is there any way to add notes about the font in the extra space, or does that get too messy?

I second the request for this (assuming it is possible), or some other way of storing info about fonts.

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:48 pm

Truetype fonts contain a Description field in the advanced naming properties. This description is displayed in the Font Information toolbar. So all you need to do is edit the font in Font Creator and have the information stored permanently in the font where it can be seen in Windows Explorer with the MS Font Properties Extension or in other font managers. Microsoft also offer a free tool: Font Properties Editor for those who don't have Font Creator.

Dave Crosby · Post by **Dave Crosby** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 3:59 pm

Great!

Does anyone know the size limitations for the Description field?

Bhikkhu Pesala · Post by **Bhikkhu Pesala** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:16 pm

davecrosby wrote:Great!

Does anyone know the size limitations for the Description field?

It seems to be about 32K

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:39 pm

For personal use it might be a possible, however I don't recommend changing fonts just to add comments (the description field is not meant for comments anyway).

I'll add this request to the to-do list.

Photo Joe · Post by **Photo Joe** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 3:59 pm

pentool wrote:...So if someone has, say a few thousand fonts added to groups as shortcuts, that would amount to megabytes of unused but allocated space on the HD. Would it worth to have the group items, instead of being actual shortcuts, be stored like maybe in a central file, like a "database" kinda thing? And they would be managed strictly by the program as opposed to having shortcuts on the HD? ...just a thought.

I have seen other programs use a comma delimited text file for this that matched the name of the group.

davecrosby wrote:......Is there any way to add notes about the font in the extra space, or does that get too messy?

This could also be added to a delimited text file, but I'm not sure how you keep the notes link with the font file if you move or deleted the font file outside of MT program. Maybe have a refresh option that you could run every once in awhile to check the links

Photo Joe

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