The Template Directory Default?

I just 'saved' a study-template, but then this template was NOT listed when later I tried to re-apply it to another chart. .

What went wrong here? After more checking around, I see that all templates are saved in the "Application Data" folder, in a Documents and Settings directory, etc. But the dialog that is supposed to show the 'existing' templates (previously saved, presumably) was pointing to the MultiChart main directory, instead of the intended directory (in the Application Data folder). So how could that happen? Well, here is what I think happened: I previously had copied several (now old) templates to the Multicharts main folder, thinking that is where they should be (because I was trying to restore my old data after a re-install of MC). So perhaps, the software went looking first in the main Multicharts directory for the template files, and since it found some, then concluded this is what will be displayed in the Format Studies dialog. As it turns out, those were now NOT the current ones, nor did they include the one most recently 'saved'.


I have many frustrations using this template feature, is this just added one more . Please get the programmers to pay attention to making this feature really user-friendly, including un-ambiguous choice for where the files can be stored AND then found later.

Also, it is very inconventient to require the user to type the file name (again) for a template that is just being updated. I should be able to select it from a list, and apply the update, right? Thank you much.

Dear denizen2 -
We appreciate your willingness to explore, but what you describe here looks like a case of "user puts file in random place, product doesn't find it". I'm afraid our product - or any other for that matter - cannot be made proof against this.

Out concept of handling templates presumes you modify a template on the chart as necessary, then save under the required name and delete the old one if it is not useful. There is no editing function in the Format Study Templates dialog, because it serves for selecting and assigning default templates, not for editing.

Dear denizen2 -
We appreciate your willingness to explore, but what you describe here looks like a case of "user puts file in random place, product doesn't find it". I'm afraid our product - or any other for that matter - cannot be made proof against this.

Out concept of handling templates presumes you modify a template on the chart as necessary, then save under the required name and delete the old one if it is not useful. There is no editing function in the Format Study Templates dialog, because it serves for selecting and assigning default templates, not for editing.

Alex,
Perhaps I did not present my 'case' very well. This user did NOT put file in random place, during the process of 'Save' template [i.e., from the template dialog]. In fact it is not even possible to Save the template in some random place, because that location is fixed by the software, as we now know .

The problem was that after saving a template, using the Save button in the Template dialog, then that saved file was not displayed as a template that could be re-applied on another plot. I could see some other templates listed, but not the new one just saved.

Why couldn't the software find the template that was just saved by the Save button in the template dialog? That is the big question .

So I was offering to you something that *might* be an explanation of how the software got "mixed up", namely, the Template Dialog software did NOT look for the previously saved file in the standard %userprofile% place you have mentioned [as the first place to look]. Ya know, sometimes there is a 'priority search list' used for finding a file, and IF that is true in this case, AND if the first-place happen to be in the main MC program directory (not the %userprofile% place), then it would 'find' some templates to display and then just quite looking. In which case, such as mine, there were those 'old files' that should have been ignored, but were taken as the most current templates. So then I would NOT see the saved template . Maybe there is some other explanation for the problem, but *something* caused the 'default directory' [used for retreiving the template files] to be incorrect.

So the case we have here seems to be a design-problem, not a user problem . I would suggest that someone could 'confirm' by code inspection whether there is any way that the directory used can be somehow changed, OR is it absolutely fixed to always be one specificed-by-design location. It might be easier than trying to 'recreate' some random user actions that would duplicate this problem .