How to undo font deletion within MainType

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Erwin Denissen
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How to undo font deletion within MainType

Post by Erwin Denissen »

Since we've added more and more support for cleaning up font libraries, there is also a noticeable increase of support questions related to undoing such house-keeping.

The trick is to unignore all fonts you've accidentally deleted/removed through MainType. If you have removed fonts from your font library and marked them to be ignored from MainType they will be added to the list of ignored fonts. If you no longer wish to ignore a font you need to remove it from the ignore list.
maintype_021_ignoredfonts.png
maintype_021_ignoredfonts.png (14.33 KiB) Viewed 17015 times
To unignore individual items, select the items you want to repair and click "Unignore Selected". To unignore all items at once click "Unignore All".

Then the fonts will be restored to the MainType library.

Now if you also need the physical files, do select the fonts select the font(s) in the font view and right-click one of them to select "Export...". You are then asked to select a folder where you want MainType to save the font files on your file system.
Last edited by Bhikkhu Pesala on Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Corrected the English
Erwin Denissen
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nabsltd
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Re: How to undo font deletion within MainType

Post by nabsltd »

Since these instructions no longer applies to MainType 8.0, perhaps this thread should be revised.

Also, was there a reason the change was made from "never really delete anything...just keep it in the database and ignore it" to "nuke it permanently from every location with no possibility for recovery"? I understand why the whole "just ignore it" paradigm was changed (too confusing for most people), but to go the opposite direction seems a bit overkill.

The trouble now is that the default "delete" option alsos delete the files from disk, and the delete doesn't even try to use the Recycle Bin. Since the "OK" button is the default in the confirmation dialog box, this means it's really easy to accidentally delete fonts with no chance for retrieval...just hit delete, and then "Enter". And, those two keys are very close on most keyboards with the inverted-T navigation buttons.

Can we get another "Delete" option that only removes the entry from the MainType database, and then add an option setting that lets the user pick which of the options will be the default? The current second option would be the better default for many situations.
bladewolf55
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Re: How to undo font deletion within MainType

Post by bladewolf55 »

I agree. If a user isn't careful, it's easy to delete fonts from disk. I almost did, which would have been not only tragic but caused me to no longer use MainType.

From a user's point-of-view, the application should protect me from destroying data. I recommend:

1. Remove Font(s) from Library (default option)
2. Delete Font(s) from file system, keep in Library (safe because fonts can be exported)
3. Remove Font(s) from Library and Delete from File System (unsafe)

Library maintenance is important, and I see it's been taken seriously, but the current behavior seems like asking for customer problems.
Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: How to undo font deletion within MainType

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

I disagree. Users should always backup their data if it is important to them.
We recommend to make backups regularly; preferably not on the same hard disk.
After all, your PC could get stolen, destroyed in a fire, or suffer a fatal hard drive error. All that any software should do is give you the option of cancelling an accidental keypress or button click, and offer a convenient method for making backups, which MainType does.

The fact that users often fail to make adequate backups should not be a reason to make any program harder to use.

If you look carefully at the Delete Dialog you will see that the latter two options are only available in particular circumstances.

I backup my fonts and important data for other software by archiving it using 7-Zip, then copying the archives to Dropbox and two portable USB memory sticks, which I take with me when I go out just in case my PC gets stolen. I will still have to download and reinstall a load of software, but recovering my data should be easy enough.
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