Something I’m not understanding (or it’s a bug):
I open the Paragraph Styles dialog to choose a new Default Text font (Avenir, say…). I want this to be a choice for all new future projects, so I click the star icon to make it a default in my User Library, then hit OK.
However, if I now go into the Library Manager, choose ‘Compare (this current score) to User Library’ at the top, and then look at the Paragraph Styles collection, it shows the User Library’s setting for Default Text hasn’t been updated; it’s still Optima, not the Avenir I thought I just instructed it to take as my new User Library setting. In other words, the Library Manager is either not reporting correctly the updated default setting for this item that I just set in the Paragraph Styles, or the Paragraph Styles ‘star’ button didn’t do it’s job. What’s happening here?
First of all, what happens when you create a new document?
Bear in mind there is also a setting for default text font in the Application Preferences:
There is indeed that setting in Application Preferences, and it appears to respect my selection if I do create a new document… but the issue I describe in the Library Manager persists, and doesn’t inspire confidence. The point of the User Library presumably is as a repository for all settings, most of which inherit from the Factory Library, but which can be overridden with specific choices. I’d expect those choices to show up correctly in the Library Manager…
Can you show us what you see in the Library Manager, and in your Paragraph Styles dialog?
Sure… first image is when I select Paragraph Styles… and choose Avenir as the Default Text… and hit the star icon, which I assume means: “make this the default in the User Library”.
…then I go into Library Manager… and this is what it shows: under Default Text - which is what I’ve just changed in the above step - it says ‘Some options differ’ because it seems to think the User Library setting for this is still Optima:
I find this fairly buggy too. Often you need to make an additional change to get the new default to register. Try changing the size to 11.5pt, unclick the star, close Paragraph Styles, reopen Paragraph Styles, change the size back to 12pt, hit the star. After closing Paragraph Styles again and opening the Library Manager, will it work now?
EDIT: Just to be clear, you did actively import that Paragraph Style into your “Train Departs” file, right? Or create that from File/New after you changed that default setting? Changing a default will not change any files that already exist unless you bring it in using Library Manager. Sorry if that’s obvious, but just wanted to confirm.
Yeah, did all that stuff about starring/unstarring, saving, doing it again etc. It’s not having it.
EDIT: Just to be clear, you did actively import that Paragraph Style into your “Train Departs” file, right<<…
a reasonable question to ask and yes I know that files are not ‘actively linked’ to the current User Library settings and have to be imported each time, but that’s not the issue here: the problem in hand is the seeming failure of the updating of the User Library state itself (for future files that draw on it).
I’m not sure then. Like I mentioned, I’ve definitely encountered bugs with this as well and I’ve just fixed this manually too when I couldn’t get it working right. Close Dorico, open your userlibrary.xml file, do a search for all instances of your old font and replace it with the new one. (Back up the file first just in case.) After saving the userlibrary.xml file with your changes, Dorico should have all the fonts correct when you restart the program.
It does look like userlibrary.xml isn’t being properly updated with changes made in Paragraph Styles… one wonders what else is being ignored…
I opened it in an XML editor and sure enough, it was still showing Optima there. Have manually changed it as you suggest…
Do Help > Create Diagnostic Report and attach the resulting zip file here. The diagnostic report will include, among other things, your preferences and user library, so I can see what’s actually going on. There are no known bugs in this area – which doesn’t mean there isn’t a bug, of course, but I’m not aware of any.
Here’s what I experience on 5.0.2:
- File/New, add a Piano
- Library/Paragraph Styles: Default Text is highlighted, my default font is selected, the “Save as Default” star is solid, showing I have saved this in my userlibrary.xml file
- Change the default font to Comic Sans. The “Save as Default” star is now greyed out, so I cannot currently make a change to its status at all.
- Hit OK, which also closes the window.
- Reopen Library/Paragraph Styles: Comic Sans is listed as my default font and the star is now solid again. I think this is a bit confusing, as the star means some font is saved as a default, not the currently selected font, which obviously is not.
- Click the star so it’s an outline, then click it again so it is solid. At this point I would assume that Comic Sans will be my default font as the star was an outline, then when I clicked it again to save Comic Sans as my default, that’s what I had selected.
- Hit OK, then close the Project.
- File/New, add a Piano
- Library/Paragraph Styles: Default Text is highlighted and my standard font is still the default, not Comic Sans. All the “Save as Default” clicking with the star didn’t do anything.
- If I close Dorico, and open my userlibrary.xml file, when I search for “Comic” nothing comes up.
Perhaps I’m doing something wrong at some step in that, but I would expect clicking the “Save as Default” star would save the currently selected font as a default for the currently selected style. It doesn’t do this reliably.
Can confirm this is exactly what happens… I just ran your test too.
Daniel, I can attach a Diagnostic Report if you like, but I’d suggest the above sequence is not behaving as expected, no?
My assumption, based on the description of the Library Manager in the manual, is as follows:
User Library is a complete copy of the property/attribute list that is the Factory Library,
Individual attributes in that User Library can be changed, using the various dialogs such as Paragraph Styles etc. A solid star shows for that attribute when its User Library copy differs from the Factory Library
Any such property overrides are immediately written to UserLibrary.xml
Library Manager refers to that User Library list (in User Library comparison mode) to show comparisons with the current file.
The problem seems to be that UserLibrary.xml isn’t being updated for when the Library Manager next looks at it.