Structured keyword list seriously messed up.

[rcohn]

I just started PM and opened the Structured Keywords list and found it damaged! Many of the main categories appear to be missing, and there are many keywords loose at the main level. It appears that all or almost all of the keywords I have added to the list are now the loose ones. I'm not aware of anything that has happened which would cause this.

Is there any explanation? This is really very disconcerting.

I looked at the file "StructuredKeywords_UTF-8.txt" in the "com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic" and I can see that the keywords in question appear out of their positions. I replaced this file with a backup from before the file became damaged and it appears OK (except for missing the keywords I added after this backup). I still don't understand how this happened or how the words I added could even be distinguished from the words that I didn't add.

Any ideas?

Ric Cohn

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

I just started PM and opened the Structured Keywords list and found it damaged! Many of the main categories appear to be missing, and there are many keywords loose at the main level. It appears that all or almost all of the keywords I have added to the list are now the loose ones. I'm not aware of anything that has happened which would cause this.

Is there any explanation? This is really very disconcerting.

I looked at the file "StructuredKeywords_UTF-8.txt" in the "com.camerabits.PhotoMechanic" and I can see that the keywords in question appear out of their positions. I replaced this file with a backup from before the file became damaged and it appears OK (except for missing the keywords I added after this backup). I still don't understand how this happened or how the words I added could even be distinguished from the words that I didn't add.

Any ideas?

No, but do you still have the 'damaged' version of the file?  I'd like to see it.

-Kirk

[rcohn]

Kirk,

I'll send you a copy of the file. I believe I figured out some of the problem, but not the cause. I have been saving my list of added keywords as a separate word document, and I recently made a copy to send to someone. It appears that this list was somehow copied into my PM list and redistributed alphabetically. This explains why the "garbage" appears to match my list of added keywords.

I suspect user error, but I'm not sure how I accomplished it. I suspect it has to do with the "copy" and "paste" keys in the Keywords Panel. I hadn't thought about this before, but does this feature just use the computer's clipboard? It may be that I somehow copied my text file and then pasted within PM into the Keywords list?

Thanks.

Ric

[Kirk Baker]

Ric,

I'll send you a copy of the file. I believe I figured out some of the problem, but not the cause. I have been saving my list of added keywords as a separate word document, and I recently made a copy to send to someone. It appears that this list was somehow copied into my PM list and redistributed alphabetically. This explains why the "garbage" appears to match my list of added keywords.

I suspect user error, but I'm not sure how I accomplished it. I suspect it has to do with the "copy" and "paste" keys in the Keywords Panel. I hadn't thought about this before, but does this feature just use the computer's clipboard? It may be that I somehow copied my text file and then pasted within PM into the Keywords list?

It does not use the OS clipboard.

Are you certain you didn't edit the file (that PM uses) with a text editor, or worse, Word?

If you can come up with a set of instructions I can follow to reproduce the problem then perhaps I can add some code to PM to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

-Kirk

[rcohn]

It does not use the OS clipboard.

Are you certain you didn't edit the file (that PM uses) with a text editor, or worse, Word?

If you can come up with a set of instructions I can follow to reproduce the problem then perhaps I can add some code to PM to make sure that it doesn't happen again.

I definitely didn't open the PM file and edit it. My skills aren't good enough to drop them in and have the list resort alphabetically; much less keep the proper levels that I would do if I knew how.<g> I have been adding keywords while working in the Structured Keyword list by Control-clicking on the word I want to create a "Child item" or a "Synonym" for-- which seems to do a good job of adding the notations needed to maintain the structure.

Sometimes I'll copy and paste a word (after checking spelling for example) rather than re-type it. This is the only point I can think of that would cause anything like this to happen, which is why I asked about whether PM uses the Clipboard. In this sense PM does use it, so maybe it still has to do with my pasting in a list by mistake.

Sorry I can't be more specific. If it happens again maybe I'll be more aware of what happened right before it happened, and I'll definitely let you know.