MLO doesn't always remember column settings

[Richard C]

How do you get MLO to remember the columm settings that you choose for
a view?

I keep adding Parent as a column to a ToDo view and most [*] times
that I restart MLO, the column has gone and has to be added again.

[*] I say 'most' because having noticed the problem, I tried a test
where I added the column and then exited from MLO and then restarted
it and the column was still there. And so I thought I had solved the
problem. But after stopping MLO again, it had gone. I note that
when you change the column settings in a view, that an asterisk does
not appear again the view name to indicate that it has been changed.
Where are the column settings stored - are they part of the view? Or
stored else where. I am confused.

[pottster]

I think this has come up before. There has to be a file save to record
the column changes - you can do this manually by an immediate CONTROL
+ S.

[Richard Collings]

Hmmm - its very odd. I am fairly certain that I have done this (actively
save the file after changing the column settings) and its still losing the
column settings. What is odd that I have tried closing the file and
reopening it after doing the save and the column is still there. And yet
when I close the file and reopen it some later point, the columns I have
chosen I have gone when I reopen the file. And the other thing that is odd
is that custom column settings in other views are still OK.

I think something else is going on.

R

[chuckdevee]

the same thing happens to me when I open my MLO file up on a different
PC. I suspect some of the settings for the ToDo views are saved
locally.

[Timothee]

Haven't noticed this problem. Will keep an eye out for it.

[Richard Collings]

My problem (MLO just losing column settings) seems to have gone away - the
settings I have chosen now seem to have stuck so I must have done what ever
it is that you need to do to make sure that MLO saves them. But there is a
definite problem with it not saving them as you would expect.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mylifeo...@googlegroups.com
> [mailto:mylifeo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Timothee
> Sent: 04 September 2009 7:10 a
> To: MyLifeOrganized
> Subject: [MLO] Re: MLO doesn't always remember column settings
>
>
>

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Just discovered the root of the problem.

As you know you can modify To-Do views by changing the filtering or
grouping parameters. Once you have done this change the asterisk (*)
is shown next to the view name indicating that the view settings are
changed. Now you must click "Save settings" from the filter panel to
save new view settings. If you close MLO without saving the new view
settings they are lost.

This is done intensively so that people can try "what if" scenario
without changing the saved view settings. If you like new settings -
save them with the same or new name.

So if you change columns while you in changed view mode the new
configuration should be saved to the VIEW before you close MLO.
(Filter->Save settings).

Andrey.

[pottster]

Put that way, it makes sense.

Thanks Andrey.

On Sep 7, 10:35 am, "Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)"

[Richard Collings]

Hmm - spoke too soon. Lost the parent column again in my To Do view. It
doesn't get lost every time that I save and close MLO but every so often,
when I reopen MLO its gone.

Its only a minute to restore it but it is annoying.

Richard

[Richard Collings]

I don't think this is the cause.

I am pretty certain that I have seen the following situation:
1. add column to view
2. save view - asterisk disappears [*]
3. exit from MLO
4. restart MLO 5. column still present; do not make any changes to the
view; think problem is resolved 6. repeat steps 3-5 several times until at
step 5, suddenly column is no longer present

[*] Incidentally, if I add a column to a view (in the ToDo view), the
asterisk does not appear - which made me wonder whether the columns formed
part of the view

And I have just done a further experiment. I added a new column to the
ToDo view, asterisk did not appear, did NOT click 'Save settings', exited
from MLO and restarted, new column still present. So on my file and
version of MLO (3.0.1), the behaviour you describe does not appear to
apply.

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Just tested it is again.

> And I have just done a further experiment. I added a new column to the
> ToDo view, asterisk did not appear, did NOT click 'Save settings', exited
> from MLO and restarted, new column still present.

Yes I can confirm this.

So here is the current behavior as it is designed and how it works for
me.

1) If you change the To-Do View filter configuration the asterisk
appears next to the view name.
2) You need to click Save Settings if you want these settings persist
when you restart MLO
3) If you change the columns configuration while you in "asterisk"
mode the columns will not be saved on restart unless you click Save
Settigns.
4) If you change columns while view is not changed (not in "asterisk"
mode) the asterisk is not appear and new column configuration saved
automatically on file save.

Conclusion:
If you in asterisk mode - save the settings so that column
configuration persists on next restart.
If you not in asterisk mode then the change of the column
configuration will not appear and the new configuration saved to the
current view automatically on file save.

And I cannot reproduce the 1-6 steps you described.

Andrey.

[Richard Collings]

Ok - I think I may have discovered a clue here to what is causing my
problem.

I have just lost my column settings in the To Do view yet again. This is
after several days of successfully retaining my settings across multiple
closes and reopens of MLO.

My saved view has the same column settings as the default (Due Date and
Icons) but I have added Parent to the left of Due Date. And as I say, I
have saved this and normally when open MLO and switch to MLO, this is what I
see.

This morning when I opened MLO, the Parent column had gone.

The clue is here: yesterday I was fiddling about this this view, I added a
new column (Context) and changed the Context viewed but I did not save the
view (ie I did not click Save Settings) before I exited. Perhaps it is
something to do with changing the view settings that is causing MLO to reset
the view back to its default column settings.

[Richard Collings]

>
> Conclusion:
> If you in asterisk mode - save the settings so that column
> configuration persists on next restart. If you not in
> asterisk mode then the change of the column configuration
> will not appear and the new configuration saved to the
> current view automatically on file save.
>

Would it not be better to make a change of column always set the asterisk so
that the behaviour for columns is consistent with that of filters? I was
certainly confused by this - I wasn't sure what was going on

> And I cannot reproduce the 1-6 steps you described.

The problem is that the problem is occurs only occasionally. It must be
something that I am doing; or a problem with my file. I agree it is very
odd but it is a definite problem. Perhaps next time I have the problem, I
can send you the file with the columns present (from my backups) and then a
copy with the column gone.