Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

ToMo · Post by **ToMo** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 9:51 pm

Hi all,
I have recently updated from MT v.3 to v.4. During the upating process I was offered to import my existing groups into v.4. I ticked the appropriate boxes and selected the overall group folder (with subfolders containing the groups themselves). Unfortunately nothing happened and the only group that has been imported (as it seems) is the 'Uninstalled Fonts' (of lesser value to me of course).

I had my groups organized as 'links', e.g. not the font files themselves in the groups' folder, but only links to their actual place (I'm using Win XP SP3).

My question now is whether this is normal behaviour or it is due to the "link" nature of my old groups. In any case this new state is unsatisfactory as I had invested some time in defining these groups and re-creating them from scratch (going through the font folder and re-linking them) seems not very attractive.

Does anyone have a solution?

Thanks
Thomas

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 1:48 pm

I'm sorry but there is no way to make MainType 4 recognize shortcuts. How many groups do you have, and how many shortcuts have you placed in the groups in total?

ToMo · Post by **ToMo** » Mon Sep 26, 2011 7:13 pm

Erwin Denissen wrote:I'm sorry but there is way to make MainType 4 recognize shortcuts. How many groups do you have, and how many shortcuts have you placed in the groups in total?

I guess you mean "there is no way to make MainType 4..."

Well, in I have one group with 21 fonts (shortcuts) and another (in MT 3 organized into several 'group' subfolders) with 150 font shortcuts. Especially the latter is real work to recreate.

How does MT4 handle its original groups? I have noticed that in the main window there is no longer the option - when right-clicking a font - to add it to a group. When I drag the font to a group, is the font file copied or is it just a shortcut in the MT database and the font file remains where it is?

I have a bit mixed feelings whether to stick with MT4 or return to MT3.

Thanks
Thomas

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 8:59 am

ToMo wrote:I guess you mean "there is no way to make MainType 4..."

Yes, that is correct; I've fixed it in the OP.

ToMo wrote:Well, in I have one group with 21 fonts (shortcuts) and another (in MT 3 organized into several 'group' subfolders) with 150 font shortcuts. Especially the latter is real work to recreate.

We have a small utility that replaces the shortcuts with the actual font files. This way you can import your fonts and recreate the groups within MainType 4. Do let me know if you want to give it a try, and I'll post a link to it.

ToMo wrote:How does MT4 handle its original groups? I have noticed that in the main window there is no longer the option - when right-clicking a font - to add it to a group. When I drag the font to a group, is the font file copied or is it just a shortcut in the MT database and the font file remains where it is?

A reference to the font is added to the database. This is only a few bytes, and is extremely fast to retrieve. MainType 4 does also insert one copy of the font file to the Vault to ensure you always have the font available, even when you accidentally remove it from your file system.

ToMo wrote:I have a bit mixed feelings whether to stick with MT4 or return to MT3.

Do give it a try, and let us know what we can do to further improve it.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:27 pm

Erwin Denissen wrote:
ToMo wrote:I guess you mean "there is no way to make MainType 4..."
Yes, that is correct; I've fixed it in the OP.

No, you didn't...

Cheers,
Jan

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:53 pm

Point taken

ToMo · Post by **ToMo** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 3:34 pm

Erwin Denissen wrote: We have a small utility that replaces the shortcuts with the actual font files. This way you can import your fonts and recreate the groups within MainType 4. Do let me know if you want to give it a try, and I'll post a link to it.

OK, I'll give it a try. I was quite happy with the way MT2/3 handled the groups. That way I could leave all of my fonts in one folder and only have shortcuts within MT. I do not like to have the same files spread over several folders, as it increases confusion wether they are the same, different versions etc. By having the files always only in one folder (and only with references in the managing software) it is much more easy to keep track of them (e.g. copying to several machines) or making font backups.

Is there a way to back-reference these copied files to the original files in my main font folder (to which the shortcuts reference)? Otherwise I'd have again several folders containing the same files - exactly the thing I want to avoid with a font manager...

Best
Thomas

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » Wed Sep 28, 2011 4:20 pm

ToMo wrote:
Erwin Denissen wrote: Is there a way to back-reference these copied files to the original files in my main font folder (to which the shortcuts reference)? Otherwise I'd have again several folders containing the same files - exactly the thing I want to avoid with a font manager...

Well, using MainType 4, you don't have to have any font files in any folders at all.

The replacement of the links by files that Erwin proposed is just necessary for importing the groups. I'm very sure that after the import they can be deleted again. So you can still manage your files as you like - or even delete them all if you trust MainType enough.

Cheers,
Jan

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Fri Sep 30, 2011 8:57 am

The shortcut convertor can be downloaded from here:
http://www.high-logic.com/utils/ShortcutConverter.zip

Disclaimer: the utility will remove all shortcuts that are located in the selected folder, so use with care!

: ShortcutConverter.png (77.76 KiB) Viewed 9847 times

Best way to use it, is to make a copy of your MainType Font Groups folder, and perform the Conversion on that copy.

Step by step

First download and start the Shortcut Converter
Make a copy of your MainType Font Groups folder
Select that folder within the Shortcut Converter
Click the Find Shortcuts button
Make sure the info in the listbox looks similar to what you see above
Click the Convert button to start the conversion
Close the Shortcut Converter
Now start MainType 4 and let it look for fonts in the folder that you just processed
Do set the checkbox that creates groups after indexing
As soon as MainType 4 is done you can delete the processed folder from your system

Let us know your results!

ToMo · Post by **ToMo** » Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:17 am

Erwin Denissen wrote: Let us know your results!

Everything went fine. I already noted it in this new thread, although another issue popped up now... (described there).

Thanks
Thomas

knatterton · Post by **knatterton** » Sun Jun 10, 2012 4:45 pm

Hello !

I have the same problem mentioned in this thread and would also like to use the shortcut converter - but unfortunately the posted link does not work any more - could you please post it again ?

Thank you for your support, Klaus

Erwin Denissen · Post by **Erwin Denissen** » Mon Jun 11, 2012 8:45 am

I'm sorry about the inconvenience. The file was moved since our last major website update back in November 2011. It is now back in place.

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Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

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Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

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Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4

Re: Import v. 2/3 font groups into v.4