Is there an issue with moving database file from one place to another? I ask only because I created a database, then moved it, and found that a file with the same reappeared mysteriously in the original folder. It had most of the information I had put into what I thought was the original file that I had moved, but not all of it. The moved file of the same name had nothing in it. It appeared that neither file worked once I deleted the one I’d originally moved which seemed to have retained nothing after I moved it. I trashed both and started over, but now I’m afraid to move a database once I’ve created it. Any issues here I/we should know about? It says in the tutorial I should be able to move it just as I would any file.
When I close another database and then open another, and I have DTPro active (I’m opening at database from within the program), why do I have to click the dock icon after opening the database in order to see it? I see no reason for this (checked preferences and menus to see if there was some kind of option I was missing, but didn’t see any). Didn’t see anything in the tutorial (which doesn’t mean it’s not there, just that I didn’t yet find it!)
When I tried to create a new database and import my clip art, some jpg’s wouldn’t transfer. This is weird because I exported them out of DT PE and then imported the files into DT Pro directly. About 20 or so jpg’s wouldn’t import (log said ‘failed’). They have the correct file extension, so it’s not that. This is strange because I can open my old PE file and they are there just fine, and all the clip art was exported directly from PE to begin with. Any thoughts about why it won’t import some jpgs?
Just the first of many questions I’m sure. I’m of course delighted to have such problems (meaning I now have my hands on DTPro)!
[1] It’s OK to move DT Pro databases – but only if they are closed. It’s not a good idea to move an open file (under just about any application).
One nice thing about the package file format is that one can open a DT Pro database by double-clicking on it. (If DT Pro doesn't already have another database open!)
[2] Do you have preferences set so that at database startup it opens the windows that were open when you last quit? That always works for me.
[3] I don’t know for sure. Try opening a troublesome JPEG file under another application such as Graphic Converter, then saving it again from that application. Will it import into DT Pro now? Maybe file corruption? Export it again from DT PE and try import into DT Pro. If that doesn’t work, try importing it back into DT PE to see if PE will accept it. If a JPEG stubbornly refuses to import into DT Pro, attach it in an email to Support.
Many thanks, Bill. Yes, it is nice to be able to double click on the database to open it. And yes, I might have had the database open when I moved it. I’m not sure, but if I did, well, I was excited, what can I say? (oops…)
I changed the option so that it starts up with opening the windows that were open when I quit and I still have to click on the dock icon before I the database I’m trying to open shows up. It’s not even listed under the ‘windows’ menu, so it doesn’t appear to be truly ‘open’ till I click the icon. Very strange. I’ll play around with a bit more tomorrow (am off to dinner with the hubbie).
I’ll also work with the images a bit to see what’s up and then follow your suggestion and email one or two to support if I can’t get them into Pro. That’s a good idea to open it up with a graphics program and resave, though. Should have thought of that, but I thought maybe there was some kind of Pro issue at work.
Another quick question. I noticed that when I switch from vertical view to three-paned view, the sorting options change (to sort folders/groups and files in the pane). I have it ‘unsorted’ in vertical so I can put groups in the order that I want them. But when I use three-paned view it forces me to choose an automatic sorting option. It keeps my manually set order when I switch back to vertical, but this makes the three-paned view kind of unworkable for me, as I want to establish my own order for files and groups.
Is this the way its supposed to be for some reason? I didn’t see anything in the tutorial. Should I be sending these kinds of issues directly to DT or here? I hate to keep asking pesky little questions. I’m sure there will be more of them…
Many thanks to you, Bill, or anyone else who wants to jump in! Take care,
I discovered that the ‘failed’ clip art was an issue with old tiff files. I had changed the extension to jpgs and they somehow imported into DT PE and were viewable within DT PE, but they couldn’t be exported out of DT PE. I had to resave them and then import them into Pro and they seem to work fine.
I’m still having two issues:
1-I set the options in preferences under ‘startup’ to ‘open windows that were open when quit’ and it didn’t do it. I quit with a db open and it didn’t open when I started up again.
2-At first, when I closed one db and opened another, all was fine. I opened and the db I was opening appeared in DTPro with no problems. But after a time, perhaps after I opened my old PE db within Pro (I’m going to try to pin it down further), it started doing what it did before, where I close a db, open another, and then have to click the dock icon to get the db to appear. I’ve tried closing other applications and it doesn’t seem to affect it. Once it starts doing it, it seems pretty consistent. Every once and a while, the db I’m opening will appear just fine, but then that’s it and I have to click the dock icon again when closing then opening. I’m guessing this isn’t normal behavior.
I really don’t get the three pane view issue yet, so I’ll hold off on my problems with that until I have a better feel for what it’s supposed to accomplish.
I think #2 might occur if you don’t have a database set as the “default database.”
I installed DT Pro on my laptop, set “open windows set at last,” but did NOT check “default database” for anything. On re-launch, I wouldn’t see anything at startup. I manually opened the database, and then the window opened. But when I didn’t have a default DB set, doing things like dragging a word doc on the DT Pro icon would launch the app but then not do anything. Having “open last windows” set without a default database might be strange, but some thought needs to go into what a “default database” really means – what happens if you select “open windows like last session” set but the DB you had open last was NOT the default database?
Actually, this would apply to my first question, wouldn’t it? Setting the option in preferences and nothing happening? I tried setting one of my dbs as ‘default’ and it does open at startup. But not the one I had open when I quit. So, I’m afraid I don’t get the idea behind the option in preferences. It seems to just plain not work. I have no problems with having one db as default, since the one I set is the one I want almost everything to go into anyway. But then why offer the option if you have a default db to start with?
So I guess I’m not sure why that option exists, and if it did work, how it would work. Would the option override the default db selection?
Anyway, just wanted to confirm what CatOne indicated.
Alexandria
PS dragging a word doc to the PRo icon did open the default db and copy the doc into it. But this is not the case when there is no default db selected. Makes sense, since the ‘open last db’ option isn’t working, so nothing opens when Pro launches.
PPS Now the 2nd issue I reported is not happening any more. I have no idea what changed. It seems to come and go (that I have to click the dock icon to get the db to appear). It’s not related to having the ‘default db’ option selected, since it was doing that even when I had that option selected, and I’d have to click the dock icon when launching Pro to see the default db. But now it’s not doing that any more. I have to think there is some kind of conflict, or I’m just plain missing something. It will take some detective work, I suppose.
It’s 5 AM here and I’m a bit groggy so bear with me. (My girlfriend has a doctoral level stats exam today and I was tossing and turning, so rather than risk waking her, here I am providing amateur software support at Oh-dark-thirty; whodathunkit)
It’s interesting: I’m seeing a pattern here: new beta users pointing out “problems” that I had some time ago accepted were just the way things work in DTPro.
Your First, and perhaps Second, issues are cases in point. The “Open windows that were open on Quit” preference is file specific; ie. it is saved with each individual database so that when you open that file its windows will reopen. Otherwise, whenever you Launch DT without specifying a file, it will open the windows left open when you last closed your default database (if you’ve specified one.)
For things to work the way you – and quite frankly I – would prefer requires a preference for “open last Db” instead of “Open windows that were open on Quit”" which come to think of it should instead be named something like “Open windows that were open on Closing this particular database file”, only pithier.
As for the “Can’t leave it unsorted in Three pane View” issue: well, Life’s a bitch – and a mystery. I’ve been wondering about this glitch for a while, and I suspect theres a reason for it – though it makes 3-Pane less useful for me too. Thanks for asking – I keep forgetting to.
Oh my gosh, I feel for her. I am about eight months (I hope!) from my orals, which is my last hurdle before earning my Ph.D.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback. I see what you are saying about the preference being file specific. The only problem I have with that is that the option comes under ‘start up’ which I assumed meant when the program ‘started up’ (which is what it means in every other program I have). Not when you open a specific db. Oh well. I can now see, though, why they’d have both a default db selection and the option, and the option now makes sense, so thank you for that!
I can also see the usefulness in this. Yeah, I think they could make this clearer for new users or they are likely to keep getting complaints like mine that it ‘isn’t working.’
As for the sorting issue with the three pane view, yeah, I plan to make a request that that be changed. I still haven’t worked much with the three pane view. That third pane only lists files and not folders/groups, so I’m not sure how I’d use it. I need to play with it more. But I certainly think that my group order should be altered if I switch to it. Unless there’s a reason for it which, as you say, remains a mystery???
Anyway, thanks for responding at so late/early an hour and clearing some of this up for me! And you did it so well, being groggy and all!
Alexandria
PS I still don’t understand the thing where I sometimes have to click the dock icon to fully open a db and sometimes I don’t and it opens just fine without having to do that. I’m going to try to pin that down more and see when it starts doing that. It will be less of an issue once I have my dbs all set up and I’m working primarily in one or the other (and not switching around so much).
OK I’m not entirely sure what the issue is but I fooled around for a while and think I get it. I suspect your problem is that you think you are CLOSING one database by closing its window and opening another whose window was similarly closed earlier. The result is that the database is opening without a remembered open window for its “open windows that were open” preference to open. (I feel like Lou Costello here) Consequently you have to use the “New Window” command or click on the dock Icon, which has the same effect.
What you perhaps don’t realize is
that when you “closed” the first database all you really did was close a window. You could have opened a new one with “new Window”, option-command-n or by clicking on the dock icon. When you returned to that database there was no saved open window so you had to open a new one.
more importantly, you dont need to “Close” the first database at all. Just Open the new one and the currently open window will be saved with the first database and pop back open next time you return to it. Don’t worry about saving: if you have an unsaved document dthink will autosave it.
Personally I have all my databases keyed to Quicksilver commands and switch between them in a flash with a single key combination. I never “Close” anything.
Phew! personally I’d rather have to write a French Stats Exam than have to explain that again. (She did just fine by the way; probably aced it knowing her- but how she suffers! She’s lounging around reading guidebooks for our weekend in Britanny now. First time I’ve seen her goof off in weeks. She says thanks for the sympathy from nine time zones away.)
Wow, now that was a Herculean effort at explanation! Many thanks! I think I get it. But, I tried what you suggested–left open the original db, opened another one, and the first time the new db I opened appeared just fine. The second time I did the same thing I had to click the dock icon to get the next one to show up. At this point I’m assuming that I’m missing something. Otherwise other people would be experiencing the same thing. But…what, I’m not sure. It’s like the program goes into the backgroud or something–I have to click on it to get it to activate. I don’t know. But I think it’s weird. And somewhat annoying to have to click on the icon just after opening a db.
But I do understand how things work a bit better. I’ll likely get more comfortable with it as I use it. If I still have this dock icon thing gonig and can’t figure out why, I’ll likely contact DT directly.
Many thanks again!!
And congrats to your girlfriend for getting through her stats exam. Brittany! Oh, yeah, you are in Paris! I’d love to be planning a trip in Britanny, or Paris for that matter!
Just remember to leave a window open when you switch databases and you should have no problems.
Can’t say more right now: just got back from dinner with friends and have – umm let’s see – champagne (2 separate vintages) beaujolais, bordeau, and rosé de provence floating thru my veins. Off to bed Gotta catch a morning Train to Britanny at 8:30 AM dammit; back in 3 days. Life in France!
Yes, that worked. The default db appears no matter what whenever I open it, but with others, some do and some don’t. The ones that do don’t have any windows open, but it must be that something is ‘open’ in some way? Heck, I don’t know. But I opened up windows on the ones that weren’t appearing and now they do. Learning the little tricks to DT Pro. DT Pro. Wow, I feel like a big, grown-up DT user now!
Thanks again!
All that wine and champagne. Ah, to live as the French!
Indeed. There are other examples of preferences that seem more applicable to a specific database instead of being global and awhile ago there was some discussion about reworking the prefs that way.
It can also be confusing knowing when changing other settings in windows/views will apply to just that window, globally, and/or between sessions. For example, adjust the toolbar search options in different windows, quit DT, and try guessing which options will be set when DT is restarted.
And which columns appear (by default) when opening groups in certain views has been unpredictable at times, including a couple days ago when it seemed that three pane views had unexpectedly inherited column settings I’d set earlier in a different list view window. That’s going to take more testing to figure out if there’s a logical explanation and/or possibly a way to make it more intuitive. In a recent thread moses requested adding a pref to select which default view a window uses. Adding a pref for default columns could be useful, too.
