Upgrading from ancient PSP 8

[terrypin]

If I were to finally abandon PSP 8 and buy the latest version, would all my settings, workspaces and many scripts be saved and immediately usable?

Are there any major 'gotchas' I should look out for please?

[flagpole]

Settings no.
Scripts yes. You just need to add them to 2018. There are several ways of doing this, non of them hard. And they will only be available in the 32 bit version. It's recommended, since you have a 64 bit OS to install both versions.

[terrypin]

Thanks flagpole, appreciate the fast reply.

Just downloaded the Trial version of 2018, which is 64-bit, presumably the default? If I go ahead with buying it (still not sure - it's SO unfamiliar!) should I look for a 32-bit version, as I definitely want to use my scripts.

BTW, Help seems inaccessible; is that to be expected for the trial? Meanwhile can someone tell me the trick to get Materials, Script Output and Layers palettes respectively docked on the right please?

[flagpole]

So for some reason the demo of trial only installs the 64bit version. If/when you buy it you get both.

[LeviFiction]

Scripts will work in both 32-bit and 64-bit. It's plugins that care if you're 32-bit or 64-bit. Scripts are just text files interpreted by the program, and both versions of the program have scripting.

When you grab a palette you'll see some overlays pop up representing where you can dock the palette. Hover the palette over one of these overlays and it'll snap into place. If you hover a palette over another docked palette it'll show overlays for placing the palette above or below the docked palette.

[terrypin]

Thanks Levi.

[JCBrown]

Hi Terry,

Link to pdf manual:

http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/v20 ... o-2018.pdf

Did you try out the Map part? See the post here about the JavaScript problems. I am having trouble with it on my Surface Pro 4, but not my desktop. I'm just trying to locate some of my photos on the map to be able to insert them at the approximate correct location on the routes in my videos.

One other thing to check, change the path for the external editor in MEP to PSP2018 to check that it works. It works fine for me, so it should for you.

[flagpole]

Yeah sorry. I confused myself.

[JoeB]

Because of the various posts we have received from people wondering about why their plugins don't work, I want to stress LeviFiction's point that most plugins are 32bit only - virtually all of the older ones and some/many newer ones also. So if you use those plugins you will have to work with the 32bit version of PSP. When you purchase it the program recommends that you install both the 32bit and 64bit versions, so be sure to accept that option. But there should be no issue with most scripts working.

Once you have set up your preferences in the 32bit version (e.g., pointing it to your scripts and setting the other preferences) the 64bit version will automatically adopt those settings so you don't have to do it separately for each version. The only thing to set separately in the 64bit version is to point it to any 64bit plugins that you might have. Because you have been working with PSP 8 I will assume that you only have 32bit plugins and you should, of course, have pointed 32bit PSP2018 to those plugins.

Another consideration is that PSP2018 has both an Essentials workspace and a Complete workspace. The Essentials workspace severely limits the customizing options and several other options in the program. An experienced PSP user like you should, when starting PSP, select the option on the Welcome screen to use the Complete workspace. And once PSP opens with that workspace then Save that workspace so that it always uses the complete workspace.

Also, if you don't want the program to open with the Welcome screen then, in Preferences, go to the Tabs option and set Manage or Edit as the default opening workspace. Again, once you have your settings you should make sure that you save the workspace, and to the same whenever you customize your toolbars, menus, etc.

One last point. If, after testing the 64bit version of PSP you think 2018 could serve your needs you can purchase it and, because you can then install both the 32bit and 64bit versions, you'll be able to test the 32bit version because Corel has a 30 money back policy. There is something wrong with Corel's marketing people in only providing the 64bit version for testing given that the vast majority of existing plugins are only 32bit and PSP users have been collecting them for decades!

[hartpaul]

Also as he is coming from PSP 8 there was no manage tab so he would get the experience closest to his PSP 8 by setting complete and Edit .

[JoeB]

Also as he is coming from PSP 8 there was no manage tab so he would get the experience closest to his PSP 8 by setting complete and Edit .

...And also making the Manage tab available - although not the default - so as to get experience using it to browse/find/open image files. I have the Adjust tab Unchecked because I don't see a use for it myself as all the options are available in the Edit workspace anyway.

[terrypin]

Hi John,

Good to find you here!

Thanks for the manual, although it will be a while before I get time to study it properly. In fact the whole re-learning thing was one of the demotivators against upgrading. And the scores of macros that will need rewriting.

Anyway, I went ahead and bought it. Installation didn’t go well. Didn’t get a 32/64 choice. Failed to do it manually from the setup.exe I found in Program Files (x86). But succeeded at second attempt.

The map feature looks interesting. I’ve just got the hang of using it to geo-locate a folder of JPGs in plain Google Maps. And also in satellite view once I found the error here in Help: "Click the Map or Satellite button in the upper-right corner of the Map area". As you know, I do that at present in GE (for MOV video files too, an increasing proportion of my MEP source material), but this PSP 2018 feature could be a handy alternative. Haven’t looked for the JavaScript issue you mention yet. Took me a while to discover that no icons get displayed on first clicking a folder. I have to first display a single icon for any file from the bottom pane, remove it (Ctrl click the thumbnail) and the full set then gets displayed. Unfortunately cannot show several folders at once?

Another nice plus is MEP integration, which is working OK. Several other features tempting me further, but I’ll resist experimenting for now.

Adding text seems particularly different. But I guess after a few insertions I’ll get comfortable. Can you tell me how to wrap text please, a facility missing in PSP 8 that frustrates me and which I hope has been added now.

Couldn’t do what Help said to dock the Script Output palette between Materials and Layers, namely drag it to an edge (having allowed that in settings). Finally did it, although not sure how.

OK, I'll reluctantly now put PSP 2018 on back burner for a while. I’m way behind on current MEP project, from which I’ve digressed to write some of my Macro Express mapping macros. They in turn use some Excel VBA macros (another digression to relearn some basics of that) and some PSP 8 scripts. My main motivator for the upgrade was that PSP 8 is not working properly. (Refuses to open from d-clicking a file in File Explorer. Nor will it let me drag a file in to open it.) So you get the picture: several levels down in the digression tree and sort of between a rock and a hard place!

P.S: Installed your Xara, but that too is also on my heavily stacked back burner.

[terrypin]

Also as he is coming from PSP 8 there was no manage tab so he would get the experience closest to his PSP 8 by setting complete and Edit .

Thanks, duly configured that way. Current layout shown, with a few queries thrown in!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zvk5kugc8xxge ... .jpg?raw=1

Also, I cannot see any diffrerence with this enabled or not? View > Customize > Toolbars > Show Text labels

[terrypin]

Many thanks Joe, very helpful.

As you see from my reply to my friend John (another user of the same video editor as me, Movie Edit Pro), I've now installed the 32-bit version, 20.2.0.1.

[JoeB]

Looking at the image you posted I notice that you have a lot of room taken up by the Recently Used portion of the Materials palette, leaving little space to see your layers. You can drag the Layers palette up and make the Recently Used space much smaller. I have it small enough so it only shows one line of swatches because I don't need it very often but that's because I most often find myself selecting colors from images open in the workspace. so don't need the palette a lot.