Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, Latin - All fonts lost again

[TYA]

One week ago I decided for the first time ever to change the background colors in "Text Display" and "Tool Display" from plain white to some other colors to improve the aesthetics.  I like to customize Workspaces and then save them, so the settings will always be precisely what I've chosen when I open them again.

 

However, I can't remember if it was at that exact time, or because of that color customization, but all my customized font settings for Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and Latin font settings (font size, spacing) were lost.  This took me 1-2 hours to do, and was endless clicking and pushing buttons for 1-2 hours.

 

Now, earlier today, I copied ALL of my Accordance files to completely duplicate it on a new laptop.  I also changed some of the colors again, and when I came back to my computer tonight, and once again, all these same settings were lost.

 

For example, the Latin Vulgate is no longer displayed in italics, which is how I set it.  The Syriac Peshitta "OT" has a larger font, and is spread out more than what I've always set.  All my Greek texts (dozens of them) are now scrunched together (maybe 10% spacing), whereas I manually set each and every one of them to 60%.  All this is lost... again.

 

Please: what is going on?  Are the font settings stored in a particular place?  Why is this happening, and what can be done to stop this from happening again?

Edited November 15, 2019 by TYA

[R. Mansfield]

If the settings are changed to a workspace, make certain you manually re-save that workspace for those changes to stick. Saved settings in a workspace will override the universal settings unless they are saved.

[TYA]

Rick, thanks for this answer.  I have done both--meticulously--multiple times.

 

Please, for the sake of time, why is this happening, and how to fix it?  A whole 1-2 hours were lost having to redo these things again last week, and now I'm confronted with it again last night.  Why should I have to waste so much time (on top of all other bugs).  Does changing background text or tool colors corrupt something?

 

Just answer: is there a single file saved somewhere in a folder that I can backup elsewhere, and then restore if this happens again?  I never had this problem with v. 12.

 

P.S. (For those who in their minds have secretly been thinking all this time, "Why don't you just get another computer?"  I DID!!!  Last week.  I did try to go with Windows 10 instead of Windows 7 on a "new" Dell Precision M4600, but for technical reasons, I had to load Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate.  (My current computer (left) is Windows 7 64-bit Pro.)  Just loaded Accordance on the new computer, and I can't even get it to open.  I'm not wasting time with it.  I'm sticking with my current computer, but I want help with these issues.  Feels like I haven't had a solid study session with Accordance over the last month without having to report, fix, or deal with some bug or issue.)

Edited November 15, 2019 by TYA

[Joel Brown]

TYA, fonts are saved in a 3 tier system.  If you make changes in Preferences -> Text Display or Tool Display, this will get applied to all of your texts, so if you went in there to make a change, it could 'wipe out' other changes.  That's the top tier.  If you open a specific text and make changes, then click 'Save As Default', these changes will be the default for all new tabs/panes of that text.  This is the middle tier.  Finally, if you open that Set Text Display dialog and simply close it, these changes are only part of the pane or tab, which means the only way they are saved is if you save the file.

 

So, I'm not sure what you are doing, but it may be possible you are inadvertently wiping out changes by modifying a preference.

 

Honestly, reading your post, it sounds like this is exactly what happened - you went to the Text Display preferences, made some changes to background colors, and then this applied itself to all of your texts.  If you had any open workspaces, you may have noticed it even offered to modify any open tabs, which you may have agreed to.  Remember, you can modify background colors of individual texts too, by clicking the 'Customize Theme' option on the normal "Set Text Display..." dialog, rather than through the preferences.

[TYA]

Joel, of course I'm always grateful to receive a response; however, it seems you might have misread my post.  I wrote, "font settings (font size, spacing) were lost."  Not colors.  I fully understand the 3-tier system, but what I wrote is that I went into Preferences to change colors, and then all my font size / spacing settings were lost in ancient language texts (all but English).

 

Again, it is nearly 100 texts that I've had to go back through manually--one-by-one--and change the font size / spacing.  I never changed those, or did anything on my end to cause these settings to be lost; and it has now happened two full times, taking about 1 hour each time.  Completely... wasted... time.

 

I never had this problem with v.12.  True, I wrote above that I never experimented with changing colors until v. 13, but what at all does that have to do with font size / spacing settings?  Obviously, it should have nothing to do with it.

 

So, I always appreciate the education (3-tier system), but I want to make sure the issue is being addressed.  So far, it hasn't.  This isn't user error on my part.  Font settings have been lost now 3 times in the last month (since the v.13 beta's came out).  I don't want this to happen again.  So, as I asked above, is there a single file saved somewhere in a folder that I can backup elsewhere, and then restore if this happens again?

 

Or, what can Accordance do to fix this?

Edited November 18, 2019 by TYA

[Joel Brown]

TYA, you again are misunderstanding the system.  This is not user error, nor is it an "issue" that needs to be addressed, but I don't think you are understanding the system yet.  When you make a change in one of the tiers, all of those settings are applied to the tier.  So, if you go into Text Display settings and change the background color, then all of those Text Display settings, even ones that you did not modify, get applied to all texts.

 

 

 

Your text display preferences are saved in Your user/AppData/Local/Accordance/Accordance Preferences/Texts.acc1.  However, other settings are also saved there, so I would not recommend replacing this file at will, or you may experience other, unexpected, changes.

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Forgive my leaping in here. Joel, am I reading you correctly here ? Does this mean that if I set display default properties for a specific text/tool and then subsequently go to the text/tool properties in the Preferences and set something and save it, that the previously set default display properties that I set for a specific module will be overridden by the default prefs ? Even if the setting I changed in Preferences is not the one I customized for the text/tool ?

 

thx

D

[TYA]

if you go into Text Display settings and change the background color, then all of those Text Display settings, even ones that you did not modify, get applied to all texts.

 

Now I see.  I went back to look there, and now I see that it does say "Default display for ALL Bible and other texts:"

 

So I now understand, and I stand corrected.  *However* I think I make a valid point when saying "changing colors... but what at all does that have to do with font size / spacing settings?"  I think we could agree that it is illogical (or at least, not ideal) for changing only the color to also necessarily change the size / spacing.  Why can't I change the color in all text panes without changing the fonts across all languages.

 

Obviously, not all languages work with the same font size / spacing.  So why would you dictate that in the same place / setting as the color?  It makes no sense if you ask me.  Please accept this as a feature enhancement to that effect.  *But* I'm happy that the error technically was on my end.

 

Thank you, Joel.

Edited November 18, 2019 by TYA

[TYA]

Even if the setting I changed in Preferences is not the one I customized for the text/tool

 

Good question, and it sounds like you're getting to my issue with the system; and why, although Joel has now shown that I'm technically at fault here (which I gladly admit), the system still isn't ideal.

 

See my most recent post directly above for my feature request based on this issue, because why can't I merely change the color universally without also affected the font size / settings across the board?

Edited November 18, 2019 by TYA

[Mark Allison]

I don't know if this will help, but you can change the Text Display settings of multiple Texts at once by selecting them in the library (use the Control key to select non-contiguous items), right-clicking on a selected item, and select "Set Default Display." This will only change the display settings for the selected items.

[TYA]

 

you can change the Text Display settings of multiple Texts at once by selecting them in the library

 

Actually, that does seem like a neat little trick.  I could manually select (e.g.) all Greek texts that way--especially if the new Library "filter" feature gave them all to me--and then apply the settings that way.  Thanks, Mark.

Edited November 18, 2019 by TYA

[Λύχνις Δαν]

Good question, and it sounds like you're getting to my issue with the system; and why, although Joel has now shown that I'm technically at fault here (which I gladly admit), the system still isn't ideal.

 

See my most recent post directly above for my feature request based on this issue, because why can't I merely change the color universally without also affected the font size / settings across the board?

 

My question is aimed at a slightly different issue. I am trying to understand precedence in the hierarchy. It will influence this particular issue for sure, but has other implications.

 

Thx

D