A mess of styles & categories

[Pauline Collins Profile Private message]

Oh Barbara You have saved my sanity. I use to be able to do a Show with no probs or sweat. Lately I have been climbing walls giving the Scotch a workout as I can't find the Styles I use to favour and know are there somewhere. I go up and down the list dozens of times. I am so glad to hear that it is not just me that has this frustration. Please please let me know if there is an easy fix. Surely they can't be where they are suppos to be for months and then not there

Cheers Pauline

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Pauline, the easiest fix isn't really easy because it's time-consuming. It's a matter of creating your own categories, but you have to think about it carefully because there has to be a clear logic to it. It's akin to when you put something in a special place so it won't get lost, and then the next month you can't find it because you can't remember what you were thinking about when you stashed it away.

Think about the various kinds of styles, and consider the characteristics you're likely to look for when doing a show. Create categories from those characteristics. For instance, maybe it's really important to you whether a style is better for portrait or landscape photos, and so you could create a category for each. I can't really suggest categories to you because we're all very individual in how we think and in the things we create.

Producer 5's style screen is better than 4's, but it still doesn't account for the fact that we're all, at best, a disorganized mess.

Barbara

[Ron Profile Private messageWebsite]

Pauline, the easiest fix isn't really easy because it's time-consuming.

So true, I've started many times to organize but haven't accomplished more that a small percentage - It really does take some logical thought which sometimes I'm just lacking
But I've taken the time to delete styles that I don't like & never use - that in itself was time consuming
Anyone with a better mouse trap

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

For those who haven't added a mountain of styles, doubtless just adding one's own categories will suffice, but for me, there was no help for it but to back up around 600 "extra" styles to disk and then delete them from the hard drive, bringing them back on board only when I need them. When you have way over a thousand styles, it seems there's no other choice.

Barbara

[SueB Profile Private message]

I would like to make my own categories for various groups of slide styles, but if I do will the wizard recognise these new category names?

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

The short answer is that, yes, it'll work. The longer answer is that you'll probably want to create themes that include your special categories so you can choose which styles are used and which aren't.

Barbara