Export Font Tags, Ratings, Notes - Long File Save

[Lt. Kernal]

Hello. I completely rebuilt my Vault from scratch. The only way I found to do this without any legacy data was to completely uninstall and reinstall MainType. In a situation like this it inconvenient that there is no way to export the Views/Layouts and those must be re-setup by hand, but a great saviour is exporting and importing font tags, ratings and notes. Very handy!

With the collection well over 13,000, I am now starting to tag all of them, so far 4000 down, 9000 to go!
The export XML files are about 2.5MB.
Tools > Imports and Exports > Export Font Tags, Ratings, and Notes is my friend by lately, but I have noticed it acting strangely.
I discovered that the export takes 52 seconds.
I don't mind something taking 52 seconds, but when it does not have some kind of saving progress bar, it can lead to some unpredictable results. For instance, when I closed the software and discovered that the saving XML file was zero bytes. Interestingly, reloading MainType completes the task.

So this seems like it's either taking longer than it normally should, or if it does need some time, it should have some sort of progress bar so the user does not shut down the software, thinking it was completed.

Just thought you should be aware. Let me know if you need any more details. I am always happy to help you out!

[Erwin Denissen]

I understand that it is not user friendly, but it would take a lot of effort to show the progress, as the proces is running asynchrone, as the font service takes care of it.

[Lt. Kernal]

Erwin,
Thank you for verifying that this is indeed the case.
It is too bad there is not some pop up progress bar code add-on
Here’s a suggestion: perhaps using ASCII characters in the lower information bar (the place that displays the tool tips) and have the tooltip line “taken over” for a minute by some ASCII characters that change from outline boxes to solid boxes and says “EXPORTING…”?
If that is too involved, perhaps a warning in the Tools > Imports and Exports menu, stating: “Warning: for large font collections, please allow at least a minute for the export process to finish.” I would also mention it in the documentation.
I also notice that while it is exporting, users cannot see changes they are making to tags. The tags do not seem to respond to clicks. I thought MainType froze on me and needed to be restarted, that’s how I discovered this issue. It left me with this feeling that MainType was performing unstably.

[Erwin Denissen]

We appreciate your suggestions about adding a progress bar or a warning message. For now, we will add a note to the user manual to inform users about the expected duration of the export process for large collections and to reassure them that the export is running in the background.

We are also considering your ideas for future improvements to make the export process more user-friendly.

[Lt. Kernal]

Erwin,
Once again, I appreciate your professionalism and proactive responses.

Thank you for your help!