V.11 removed my custom menu and I want it back!

Help & Support
21

@Sasa: you're brave suggesting to someone making threats like these:

...to go removing and reinstalling codec packs - lol!

@Destry:

[quote="Destry"]Can someone explain in English how I can get them back...

The message said something like "you can still access your menus from the customised dialog,eg. menu --> menu(1)"
Something like that.
That's not quite as undestandable to me as Linear A (a still-undecipherable dead language).[/quote]
...well:


...seems pretty clear to me, though not necessarily very specific on exactly how to get there. But particularly if you've spent a significant amount of time 'customizing' things to your liking in the first place, I'd have thought you would have known exactly how to get into the 'Customize' dialog - no? Maybe a specific mention of going into Settings->Customize Toolbars... would be more helpful for some people? Though I'd hardly compare this situation to pre-Grecian hieroglyphic language :wink:.

[quote="Destry"]PS: I still can't believe the gall of them being replaced.
You'd think it was Microsoft or Google.[/quote]
...I think GPSoft does this in order to make their latest and greatest changes to the defaults more obvious to help expose new functionality. Most other apps that I use which allow similar levels of customization do very much the same upon version upgrades (UltraEdit, Opera, others).

22

@Steje: Well, since final v11 some funny posts have appeared, but I didn't take all seriously.

BTW Opera is a bad example, they (unfortunately) changed the complete engine, and since v15 your settings won't be changed on upgrade.

23

[quote="Destry"]Being too trusting, I installed this *&%^$%$# version 11.
And the first thing I get when I log on is a message saying that my customised menus have been replaced.
Jesus H. Christ.
I just spent 2 years creating them.

Can someone explain in English how I can get them back... so I won't have to sue you?

The message said something like "you can still access your menus from the customised dialog,eg. menu --> menu(1)"
Something like that.
That's not quite as undestandable to me as Linear A (a still-undecipherable dead language).

I use my customised menus every hour!

What steps do I need to go though to have them permanently on-screen and immediately accessible.

If that's not possible, can I roll back to v.10 and will they be there as before.

Thanks.

PS: I still can't believe the gall of them being replaced.
You'd think it was Microsoft or Google.[/quote]
I am soooooooooooo with you on this!

Much as I love, love, love DO, I was so disappointed and frustrated with the upgrade from v10.5 to v11. :imp:

Like you, I had all sorts of toolbar and menu customizations and much to my surprise after the upgrade, they disappeared! Ok, so I read the message that they were still available, but why should I have to re-enable them in the first place?! Rather, it should be the opposite: Keep my customizations as default and give me the option to enable the new toolbars, menus, etc.

As a matter of fact, I'd much prefer if the DO upgrade would test if a standard toolbar/menu/etc. was customized and, if so, enable it with, for example, a label at the front such as "DO11:" or "New:", etc. The upgrade could even prompt you to decide if you want to keep your customized version or enable the new version--at least you'd be given the choice! But to assume that your customized version should be replaced is ludicrous!

DO provides so many features that and so many customization options that it makes no sense whatsoever that one should have to go through hoops after an upgrade to re-enable those customizations. As an example, I spent countless hours yesterday trying to get my status bar customizations back to what it was in v10. In the end, I gave up and used an out-of-the-box v11 sample and modified it instead. I still don't have what I had in v10, but I'm okay with what I have now.

And in another example, my custom buttons no longer worked as they had in v10. Once I re-enabled my v10 toolbars, some of my custom buttons/commands didn't work as they used to work in v10. For example, I had a button/command called "SingleList" that would switch the display to a Single List, Full Screen; after the v11 upgrade, it still did that, but my custom toolbars would disappear! :smiling_imp:

In the end, I looked at the code on the new toolbar for the dual and horizontal display buttons and I adapted my code, accordingly. Still, I should not have to go through all of this extra effort. All I wanted to do was upgrade to v11, while keeping my customizations intact, enabled, and functional. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the DO11 upgrade.

What makes the situation worse for me is that I rarely customize so I can't even remember how I made some of those customizations! :smiley: For example, I couldn't remember how to create/edit custom commands yesterday. What I couldn't remember was how I created/edited my custom menu and the only way I was able to move forward was to take move menu options from my old custom menu to the new DO11 menu bar. The last thing I wanted to do was modify a default DO11 menu bar, but to get up and running as quickly as possible again, that was the best option I thought of doing.

The bottom line, GPSofware folks: Do a better job at maintaining users' customizations after an upgrade. Assume the customizations should be kept and enabled, rather than simply be visually "replaced" with those of the new version. I spent more time getting DO11 to look and function with my DO10 customizations than when I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8! That doesn't make any sense! It should have been more seamless.

24

It was the same from 9 to 10, the reasons are explained in detail in the FAQ, it's once every few years, and turning the toolbars back on takes less time than it would've taken to type that message. :slight_smile:

25

I know that comment is made in jest, Leo, but the situation isn't about just re-enabling something and all is well with the world again. The fact that I took the time to express myself in such verbosity reflects the level of my frustration with the upgrade process and its results.

As I had mentioned, functionality of my custom buttons and other customizations were broken post-upgrade; these issues were not resolved by re-enabling my custom menus, toolbars, etc. Rather, it was after re-enabling my custom menus, toolbars, etc., that I noticed that my DO10 customizations were broken. Thankfully, in my situation, fixing a custom command resolved numerous issues with custom buttons, which were using that custom command. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same luck with the Status Bar and in the end, rather than stress and fight with it, I gave in and modified a sample Status Bar provided via the DO11 Help.

Once again, my point is that GPSoftware needs to do a better job at accommodating users' customizations during (major) upgrades. Simply copying the customized objects to "xxx (1)", disabling them, and noting this via a FAQ and/or popup is not acceptable in my opinion. GPSoftware provides users with customizations and users elect to customize because of their preferences; thus, such customizations/preferences should trump default options in upgrades. Again, if/when there are conflicts, users should be actively notified and engaged during the upgrade process, not passively notified.

26

The way the status bar works has changed completely in Opus 11. Your old settings are still there if you switch back to the legacy status bar mode via Preferences.

When major versions come out and change the way parts of the program work, you may have to configure a few things once every few years if you want to stay with the old way of doing things. We've still left in those old ways as options for you, and carried relevant settings over, so it's usually only going to take a few clicks to get back to how things were. Almost everything else is imported, too.

This is par for the course with major updates, and very few settings are actually lost or more than a handful of mouse clkcks away.

The alternative would be to leave everyone with old configs in the past, missing out on much improved features, whether they want it or not. We assume people who have configured things a lot are more likely to be OK with a tiny amount of configuration work to go back to the old ways if that's what they want, since people who haven't done any configuration will definitely never know how to switch to the new ways and gain their benefits if we did everything the other way around.

Once you do these things once, you won't have to care again until Opus 12.