A Tale of Four Windows
Once upon a time, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get my Project5 section windows to behave, and remain in a repeatable configuration across my dual-monitor setup. These were the times that try men's souls; don't move them a pixel too much, or they'd snap to someplace that was nowhere near your intended destination.
Eventually I had the Tracker 'underneath' all in the left monitor, with a generous area covered by Syn:Ops with the Mains on top. The right monitor gave 75% of it's screen real estate to P-Seq, and the Resource Browser stubbornly refused to hold it's spot near the 'center' on the left quarter of that monitor.
I got it to stay for a while, then tried to capture this elusive window with Save as Template. At first, it would appear on the left-left corner, but I figured this was good enough: a quick double-click on the top left snapped it back to the proper place. I could live with that; it became an automatic introductory action.
Without ever changing the default template, that little scamp began displaying another behavior: It was MIA when starting P5; there was a void where the window should be. A check of the View menu showed it enabled & supposedly visible. It was
not hidden behind any other window; the RB was 'cloaked'. Now the workaround was to uncheck it in the View menu, then subsequently re-check it there to get it to appear in it's place. Weird & quirky, but something that I could still live with, if I had to.
Then fate intervened: While researching a response to a recent post related to window layout, I started messing around with the defined layouts in the View menu. After that unsuccessful experiment, I went back to my default template, and it had developed a permanent loss of memory that rivaled & exceeded my own short-term loss. The P-Seq window was now huddled up over the Tracker in a tiny window; a shadow of its former self.
The double-click trick was now failing me, and I had to drag and resize P-Seq over to the right monitor each initial session now. This was
not cool, and an impediment to a spontaneous workflow. Saving as Template would not co-operate, either, which increasingly ticked me off. OK, let's think about this logically: those
!@#$%^& layouts got me into this mess; perhaps they can be persuaded to dig me out.
I started with the ol' Cakewalk tip that's posted on the site. [
Here's the link; it's at the bottom of the page under "Bonus P5 Secret".] Arrange the windows exactly as you'd lke, taking great care to get everything 'just so'. Typical template stumbing blocks include tempo, Now Time position, Snap to Grid settings, 'hidden' FX in a track or auxiliary bus; things that can easily slip by into your default setup. Then select File/Save As, but change the file extension manually from .p5p to .p5l. Save it in your base Project5 folder, next to the Normal, Performance, & Stacked layout files (*.p5l). Verify the location in Windows Explorer, because the .p5l files won't be viewable in the Save dialogs.
Now here's the kicker: I closed Project5, and re-opened it again, only to reveal my messed-up template. I loaded the Experimental Layout.p5l (aptly named; I didn't know if this would work), which was now
selectable under the View menu. This brought up the proper window arrangement. I then immediately used Save as Template. Through (admittedly limited) testing, the template has held up exactly as I like. Problem solved?
I'd like to ask anyone who has had a similar difficulty with window behavior to try this method, and report back, whether or not it works for you. In a nutshell, save your desired default 'template' as a layout, close P5, re-open it & load the layout, and Save as Template. I'm trying to get repeatable results from the variety of configurations that everyone has, and narrow down a possible connection among the layouts, default template, and the window 'anomalies'.
A couple, 2, t'ree quick notes (as they say in NY):
1). When I first tried this 'technique', all was well, so I inserted a synth track to begin a project. The synth loaded, but Syn:Ops did not automatically switch over to the synth's GUI. It remained locked in the Mains (set in the template), even after clicking & double-clicking on the track. Only after double-clicking on the synth's track name (highlighting it in blue for a renaming), and then outside it restore the name, did the synth's GUI pop in Syn:Ops. There was a visible 'strain' & hesitation in Project5, as it was forced to acknowledge the resident synth.
2). I had limited success using (prior to using the technique above) using P5's four-way Move arrow (right-click on the window header) to rearrange windows. This is as opposed to dragging a window 'side' in a resize operation, or dragging by left-clicking & holding on the header itself. This showed some promise, but was quickly abandoned after the discovery of the "layout/template".
3). I've come to realize that I simply can't post anything without writing a small novel. Apologies for the length of this post; it could've been handled in two or three lines.
I hope this helps someone in a similar situation, and I look forward to your success/failure replies. And they all lived happily ever after ...?
Edit: Link added.
< Message edited by b rock -- 10/29/2004 9:59:40 PM >