How do I browse?

[dehlers43]

I just upgraded to 4.0 and I'm pretty frustrated. I want to be able to browse folders like I did in MainType 3.0 but have no idea how to do that....I'm just about at the point of uninstalling 4.0 and going back to 3.0....help~
Diane

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

You don't need to waste time doing that in MT4 — just add folders to your Font Library, and let MainType add every font on your system to the database. Automatically create groups while doing that if you wish.

[dehlers43]

Isn't there any way to browse? For me, it would be a huge undertaking to recreate everything within the font library. I probably have over 400,000 fonts, all neatly organized in folders by designer, foundry and/or style. I just want to be able to use MainType to view the fonts within my folders.....

[Enigma]

Isn't there any way to browse?

MainType 4 is database driven, so there's no way to do that. I'm missing some of the old functionality, too, but the new version is quicker, which might help managing a huge font collection like yours.

For me, it would be a huge undertaking to recreate everything within the font library. I probably have over 400,000 fonts, all neatly organized in folders by designer, foundry and/or style.

As Bhikkhu Pesala said, you can automatically create font groups mirroring the folder structure while importing the fonts, so you shouldn't need to create anything yourself within MainType 4. I haven't tried that myself, though.

I just want to be able to use MainType to view the fonts within my folders.....

If the license allows this, I guess I'll use MainType 3 and 4 side by side... Not an ideal situation, I know.

Cheers,
Jan

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Isn't there any way to browse? For me, it would be a huge undertaking to recreate everything within the font library. I probably have over 400,000 fonts, all neatly organized in folders by designer, foundry and/or style. I just want to be able to use MainType to view the fonts within my folders.....

With so many fonts it will take more than just a few minutes, but MainType will create groups automatically from your font folders structure. That was perhaps an option that you overlooked when running it for the first time, but you can do it from the Add Folders route too.

My Font Groups replicate my font folders, all organised under \My Documents\My Fonts\ into various subfolders.

[León Fridsma]

Converting your current folder structure to groups is the way to go. If you missed the option in the first-start wizard, you can still create the groups by going to the font folder manager (Tools menu) and rightclicking on the entry you want converted and select "Create groups from folders".