You say this in the manual (see below)
But using this function creates a .pref file not a .scrtheme file. So how could this be imported as a theme. Theme options could be used in conjunction with a theme to duplicate preferences and appearance on another machine ( to avoid including personal information) but not by itself. This seems confusing at best if not incorrect.
Hij GoalieDad,
This is not the function to save a Theme, but a command to save Preferences without any personal information inside the file.
This allows Theme makers to include their personal prefs file inside a Theme. To do this, they have unzip their Theme, replace the prefs file, and reZip their Theme with the the scrtheme file extension.
The command to save a Theme to file is in the Window > Themes menu.
Agree, but the sentence from the manual implies you can import the file back as a theme (can’t as saved as a preference file). That was my point, the manual language is confusing and in my mind misleading.
“When included into a Theme, …”
I don’t know, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, as it wouldn’t be injecting appearance settings into the theme itself, but into the settings of the software, and thus acting as a kind of theme (just not as pervasive as a UI level theme).
Part of the confusion is that this whole setup is confusing in my opinion—there are two kinds of “theme”, and both are really themes technically speaking, but without good terminology for explaining that. The theme preset system was meant to be easier to use, and more useful as well. There was meant to be, for example, the ability to create font-only presets (or the inverse, provide your themes without obliterating the user’s font choices), or be able to hot swap composition mode settings on the fly without changing the entire software.
Instead there is this “theme options” choice, and I can’t think of a single time where I’ve felt the urge to use that over just saving my colour tweaks back to the original .scrtheme file. Why would I want to have to apply that, and then restart, and then go and dig up a loose file somewhere to apply my modifications?
Save Theme options to a file really is the same as save options (preferences) to a file minus personal options. This was confusing to me as yes options can include theme settings, but this option’s purpose is to share preferences with others minus personal information. I would argue that Save Sharing options to a file would more accurately embrace the purpose of the setting without implying this is a way to save theme options (it is, but not its key purpose). That was my point.
Well, that part is all a bug, for which there is already at least one thread (maybe in the archived beta section). It should only be saving Appearance options, nothing outside of that tab. If it was intended for there to be a way to save options without personal info (not a bad idea in and of itself) surely a checkbox when saving all options is the right answer.
I think I get it now. Thankyou
