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After choosing the alphabet to be imported using AlphaTricks, you will see the above dialog box with the default settings. I like to map - or assign keystrokes - to all the characters first. YOU have to do this because the computer is dumb as a box of rocks - it has no idea that the design that is in the highlighted focussed section is the capital letter A. In fact, if you look where it says Letter in the dialog box - right now, this is all it knows - the filename of this particular character.
And this filename is truncated, so it might look the same for each character, but it is not. If you looked at the filenames when you imported the designs, sometimes they make sense like a simple A.pes, Aa.pes, B.pes, Bb.pes etc and the folder name (shown here as 8cpAnnMarie pes) tells you more information about the design - where it came from, the name and the stitch format (which we really don't care about because Essentials will export to the format you need!)
But when there are more than one size in a folder - like in this font there are 1inch, 2Inch and 3inch designs - The designer has named the files with this information so that you would know which size you are selecting. This alphabet purchased from 8 Claws and a Paw names the capital and small letters in this fashion. So THIS is what you are seeing as the gobble gook in the Letter field BEFORE you have mapped the letters - there is really no need for you to see this information so its' truncated - but the software knows what the filename is for the letters -- because it has to know what file to bring in when a particular key on the keyboard is pressed -- that is what YOU have mapped it to be.
Now YES you could just manually assign the keystrokes to the "filenames" that you aren't seeing where it says Letter. But this can be quite repetitive! Unless the characters are in complete disarray because they were named something silly - they are going to be pulled in alphabetically. This is how the shortcut mapping keys came into being. The most common naming conventions - A-Z (all capitals) Aa-Zz (all letters organized in pairs alphabetically) a-z (all small), and of course 0-9 for numbers - these allow you to let the computer do the monotonous work.
Its a perfect job for a computer! Each letter is going in the expected order, all it has to do is assign the alphabet letter to each design in the order that it is in. Yes, it kind of looks like the software can read....but it can't.....you are recognizing the pattern of the displayed files and telling the software what that pattern is. See how you can make the software appear to be so smart? Its all you!
So for this example I would have clicked the Aa-Zz button to map all the letters -- and in this case there are no punctuation or numbers so I have FINISHED assigning the keystrokes - the letters are now MAPPED when I click on Save. I have not done any baseline adjustments at this time, but I can now exit the import wizard, choose to add Lettering, type my word and use this font.
TIMESAVER TIP - As you can see, mapping takes no time at all. If this is not a font you are going to use often, it might be just as easy to map it, use it delete it to keep your list of fonts under control. Deleting a Font in the import dialog does NOT affect the original designs! All it does is remove the mapping information and the font name from your list. You can always map it again in the future! Might consider this for holiday fonts that are only used once a year?
- Assigned letter_sm.png (103.5KiB)Viewed 14589 times
And this filename is truncated, so it might look the same for each character, but it is not. If you looked at the filenames when you imported the designs, sometimes they make sense like a simple A.pes, Aa.pes, B.pes, Bb.pes etc and the folder name (shown here as 8cpAnnMarie pes) tells you more information about the design - where it came from, the name and the stitch format (which we really don't care about because Essentials will export to the format you need!)
But when there are more than one size in a folder - like in this font there are 1inch, 2Inch and 3inch designs - The designer has named the files with this information so that you would know which size you are selecting. This alphabet purchased from 8 Claws and a Paw names the capital and small letters in this fashion. So THIS is what you are seeing as the gobble gook in the Letter field BEFORE you have mapped the letters - there is really no need for you to see this information so its' truncated - but the software knows what the filename is for the letters -- because it has to know what file to bring in when a particular key on the keyboard is pressed -- that is what YOU have mapped it to be.
- Actual names.png (29.98KiB)Viewed 14589 times
Its a perfect job for a computer! Each letter is going in the expected order, all it has to do is assign the alphabet letter to each design in the order that it is in. Yes, it kind of looks like the software can read....but it can't.....you are recognizing the pattern of the displayed files and telling the software what that pattern is. See how you can make the software appear to be so smart? Its all you!
So for this example I would have clicked the Aa-Zz button to map all the letters -- and in this case there are no punctuation or numbers so I have FINISHED assigning the keystrokes - the letters are now MAPPED when I click on Save. I have not done any baseline adjustments at this time, but I can now exit the import wizard, choose to add Lettering, type my word and use this font.
- Assigned letter 2_sm.png (101.01KiB)Viewed 14589 times
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Lisa
http://www.Sew-bubbles.com - check out my Blog for how to vidoes, projects and more!
</h3class="first">Lisa
http://www.Sew-bubbles.com - check out my Blog for how to vidoes, projects and more!
Re: The Letter field
Hello Lisa, thanks for the Letter Field Instructions. I think the problem I have is with the Fonts I have purchased. I purchased some from 8 claw and a paw and I could get them into the program. I tried with my GG Designs Fonts but I can't get them in there. I didn't think it would matter where they came from. Thanks for all your help.
Michele
Michele
-
LisaSewBubbles
- Posts:258
- Joined:Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:27 pm
Re: The Letter field
Well the only issue I see with her fonts - I bought one just to check it out - is that she saves them in a "non-conventional" way. The numbers are first - easy, use the 0-9 button to map them.
Then she has a, A, instead of A, a like most other companies. And after the letter A, she has a whole bunch of symbols that have to be hand mapped, and the the alphabet continues with b, B instead of B, b.
So we have two things going on here - the symbols in the middle of the alphabet and the letters in reverse order - small capital, not capital small. I need to think on this to see if there is an easier way to map this, but this morning the only thing I can think of is that you would need to map each letter separately.
This means you used the 0-9 to map the numbers. The small a is in the center lines....hit the small a on your keyboard. The capital A is now the current letter - hit the SHIFT A on your keyboard. and go on one character at a time to assign the keys to the characters that are shown.
Her fonts can be mapped - they just can't be done with the shortcut buttons UNLESS you were to rename all the designs manually and that would be more of a pain than doing it manually.
Hope this helps explain what is going on!
- crazy order.png (103.46KiB)Viewed 14436 times
So we have two things going on here - the symbols in the middle of the alphabet and the letters in reverse order - small capital, not capital small. I need to think on this to see if there is an easier way to map this, but this morning the only thing I can think of is that you would need to map each letter separately.
This means you used the 0-9 to map the numbers. The small a is in the center lines....hit the small a on your keyboard. The capital A is now the current letter - hit the SHIFT A on your keyboard. and go on one character at a time to assign the keys to the characters that are shown.
Her fonts can be mapped - they just can't be done with the shortcut buttons UNLESS you were to rename all the designs manually and that would be more of a pain than doing it manually.
Hope this helps explain what is going on!