Style set of a document has been lost

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Manu31
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Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Hi,
I've encountered a problem this morning working on a very important document. The document has lost sight of my style set, reverting to the default style set, and shows all formatting styles as document-only styles (with the small ◆ in front of each style in the style palette). I closed Mellel and reopened it to no avail.
I don't know how this happened. The only thing I can think of is that I tried to insert a footnote using the shortcut I previously created: Alt-Cmd-N. It usually works fine, but this time Mellel would display the change of color of the "Insert" Menu without completing the task. Then I realized that the styles were lost, closed Mellel and reopened the file: Mellel put me right on the place I was BEFORE I attempted to insert a footnote (let's say the cursor was on page 10, then I come back to page 1, place the cursor on page 1, try to insert a footnote, nothing happens, I close Mellel, reopen the file, and Mellel opens it on page 10 as if nothing had happened in between).
I don't know what to do since what I'm most afraid of is introducing changes in this large document. How do I recover the link from this document to its original style set?
I've tried to go back to a previous version, but all previous versions have lost the style set.
When I go to the Edit Style Sets window, only the Default Set shows up.
Thanks for your help.
Manu
Bulow
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Bulow »

I have had something similar happening, but it is not that serious: the styles are not lost, and if it is important, all you have to do is to define these 'document only' styles as global. I do not remember exactly how and why it happened for me, but perhaps something to do with the passage to 3.4?
The same for your footnote problem: perhaps 3.4 has forgotten your shortcut. Anyway, these are just suggestions. Make sure to have a b/u of your file before trying anything.
Bülow
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Thanks for your reply.
I had some new developments on this matter, and it seems to be a bug, a very annoying one I didn't need to stumble upon at the present time:
- First, as you suggest, the best practice would be to make the document styles global. But here is the problem: when opening the Editing styles window, the Default set shows, but none of the document styles. I have nothing that I can click on to make it global.
- Second, I opened today a backup copy which is a week old. Good news, the styles were there. And I realized that all my styles were an editing of the Default set, so I duplicated it and made it a new Styles set. I updated my document applying this new Style set, saved and closed.
Then I reopened the document: all styles are now document only, and in the Editing Style window, the name of the style set I've just created is now blank, and all styles have disappeared except the document styles (at least, on this version, they show up).
- Third, perhaps it is the way it should work, but I took a look at the behavior of the "Style sets" folder in Mellel's Application support library: when closing the file, the style set disappears from this folder. It stays in the folder only during the time Mellel is active.

So, isn't it clear that it's a bug?
Manu
Bulow
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Bulow »

Let me get this right. When you open 'styles' > 'edit style sets' you have a number of columns. The left one represents the style sets and at the bottom of it there are icons for 'add' 'duplicate' 'delete' and then, to the right, a globe for making style set global. Is this missing?
Bülow
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Thanks a lot Bülow for your help.
In the "Edit style sets", the globe est there. But two cases happen: 1. If the document style set is "Default set", then on the right, only the styles from the default set are showing, not any of the document styles that appear in the palette pane ; 2. if the document style set has been changed to "My own set", then on the left column "My own set" is replaced by a blank, and on the right all the styles of the set have disappeared, but (sometimes) the document styles appear, while document styles appear in the palette pane.

Strange isn't it?
Thanks again for taking care.
Manu
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Here are screen caps.
1. Situation with Default Set styles
Image

Image

2. Situation with another set:
Image


Image
Bulow
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Bulow »

I see, at least I think I see. You will have to save all the individual styles in your document: not the palette, but the styles>paragraph → (at the bottom of the list will be the style in which you have put the cursor with the option 'edit') - they will be saved into the default set and will appear there without the lozenge.Then you go to edit style sets, make a duplicate of the default set, call it something, and, if you wish, remove all the styles that do not belong to your new set. Then you make this new set global.
I cannot reproduce this procedure since I do not have a suitable document to work on, but it ought to work.
Bülow
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

I understand the procedure but:
1. In the Style menu>paragraph style>edit NNN style: there is no way to save the style because the save button is grey. So, if I make a change to the style, this save button is now blue, and I can make the change. But this changes nothing in the Edit style set: this paragraph style I've just saved still doesn't appear.
2. Now, in the Style menu>paragraph style>duplicate NNN style: I create a duplicate of one of those styles that Mellel has made document styles. I save it, and when I go to the Edit style set window: this paragraph appears not as a document style but as part of the style set "Default Set". So, I click on the globe and I'm able to render "Default Set" a global set, which was impossible before.
3. In the Library>Application support>Mellel>Style sets, there is now a "Default Set" which stays in the folder even when I quit Mellel. This is, I assume, the way Mellel deals with "Global sets": by saving them in this library, so that they are accessible to any file.
4. If, now, I take one of my old files, before the crash: the style set seems ok, it appears as it should in the Edit style sets window. I create a duplicate, rename it, and make it global. One should expect that when I save and quit Mellel, this style set should stay in the Library>Application support>Mellel>Style sets folder. But it's not the case. The "Default Set" I recreated in step 3 appears in this folder even when Mellel is not active ; the one that I've just created disappears as soon as I quit Mellel. The result is simple: when I reopen my file, all styles are gone (in the edit style set window: the name of the set is blank and the columns that should list the styles are blank) and the styles in use appear as document styles. E.g. I've just corrupted a file that was working fine by rendering it's style set global.

So, I will try to recreate the whole style set as you suggested later this day, but I'm quite sure that the outcome will be exactly the same: as soon as I will duplicate the style and make it global, the style will not be saved permanently in the Mellel Library, resulting in a corrupted file next time I open it.
In a nutshell, there is a big problem that the last version of Mellel introduced in the style set management: it doesn't save new global style sets. I had encountered the hyphenation bug of 3.4, but now this is far worse. I hope a fix will come soon!
Bulow
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Bulow »

You are right, of course. One cannot save a style like that, and the procedure I suggested does not work. Perhaps it is an error in the program. I have been the only one to try and help, but now I do not know what to suggest. Anyone else?
Bülow
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Thanks anyway for being there. This is comforting if you do not feel alone when this kind of mess happens.
I've submitted a form directly to the support and, hopefully, they will answer.
Manu
Manu31
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Manu31 »

Mellel 3.4.2 seems to have solved the problem.
Thanks to Mellel support.
Manu
Declan
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Re: Style set of a document has been lost

Post by Declan »

I've just spent a pretty frustrating couple of hours with the previous version of Mellel, before discovering that I had to update to the new version.
I've done that. Now I'm wondering how to restore my style sets which disappeared in the process.

Declan
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