Over-writing existing arrangement order

[kwell]

I've been using the new arrangement feature in PM to prepare slideshow presentations. Generally, it works great. On a few occasions, however, I seem to have "lost" the arrangement I was working on. I was able to restore it from a backup version of the .pmarrangement file, but otherwise, this would have been quite painful.

I suspect I was in the default "filename" order and then attempted to move an image, thus replacing the prior arrangement. With one fat-fingered mouse move, all prior arrangement work is wiped out.

Kirk, would it be possible to prevent accidentally over-writing an existing arrangement?
Perhaps the following rules could help:

When an image is attempted to be dragged AND the sort order is NOT "arrangement":
1. If no arrangement exist, create a new .pmarrangement.dat file and switch the sort order to "arrangement" (as present in PM 4.5.2)
2. If there is an existing .pmarrangement.dat file, prompt upon attempting to drag a photo "An arrangement already exists for this folder. Would you like to Switch to the existing arrangement or create a new arrangement (warning: this will delete the existing arrangement)?"
2a if SWITCH: cancel attempted drag/drop action and switch to sort order "Arrangement" using the existing .pmarrangement.dat file.
2b if NEW: create a new .pmarrantement.dat file based on the current sort order, then switch sort order to "Arrangement" and permit the drag/drop action.

If at some point multiple arrangements are permitted per folder, the warning in #2 can be dropped.

A totally different way to go would be to require an explicit "save current arrangement" command before the .pmarrangement.dat file is over-written.


Regards,

Kevin

[Kirk Baker]

Kevin,

I've been using the new arrangement feature in PM to prepare slideshow presentations. Generally, it works great. On a few occasions, however, I seem to have "lost" the arrangement I was working on. I was able to restore it from a backup version of the .pmarrangement file, but otherwise, this would have been quite painful.

I suspect I was in the default "filename" order and then attempted to move an image, thus replacing the prior arrangement. With one fat-fingered mouse move, all prior arrangement work is wiped out.

Kirk, would it be possible to prevent accidentally over-writing an existing arrangement?
Perhaps the following rules could help:

When an image is attempted to be dragged AND the sort order is NOT "arrangement":
1. If no arrangement exist, create a new .pmarrangement.dat file and switch the sort order to "arrangement" (as present in PM 4.5.2)
2. If there is an existing .pmarrangement.dat file, prompt upon attempting to drag a photo "An arrangement already exists for this folder. Would you like to Switch to the existing arrangement or create a new arrangement (warning: this will delete the existing arrangement)?"
2a if SWITCH: cancel attempted drag/drop action and switch to sort order "Arrangement" using the existing .pmarrangement.dat file.
2b if NEW: create a new .pmarrantement.dat file based on the current sort order, then switch sort order to "Arrangement" and permit the drag/drop action.

If at some point multiple arrangements are permitted per folder, the warning in #2 can be dropped.

A totally different way to go would be to require an explicit "save current arrangement" command before the .pmarrangement.dat file is over-written.

How about simply having an option to not allow arrangements unless in the Arrangement sort mode?

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

Sounds workable to me too (but then again I'm not a big user of arrangements anyway).

[kwell]

How about simply having an option to not allow arrangements unless in the Arrangement sort mode?

-Kirk

That would work.

If someone needed to "start from scratch" and delete the existing arrangement, they could just delete the pmarrangement.dat file in the folder.

Kevin

[Kirk Baker]

Kevin,

How about simply having an option to not allow arrangements unless in the Arrangement sort mode?

That would work.

If someone needed to "start from scratch" and delete the existing arrangement, they could just delete the pmarrangement.dat file in the folder.

They wouldn't need to do that.  All they would need to do is use the "Make Arrangement" command on the View menu whenever they were in some other sort mode that they wanted to use as a new arrangement.  So if they wanted to start over with a Capture Time sort, they would switch the Sort popup menu to "Capture Time", use "Make Arrangement" and then they would be in Arrangement sort mode and the current arrangement would be by "Capture Time".  Then they could continue to rearrange the photos.

-Kirk

[kwell]

Yup, that's even better.

I hadn't appreciated the interaction with the View->Make Arrangement command in the menu.

Kevin