Linotype FontExplorer

dwanders

Member
We have been installing FontExplorer on all our new systems. However as it is currently set up, every individual that uses the systems has to have fonts loaded for their use, when they all use the same font set. Is there a way to make the install and usage of FontExplorer global for all users, instead of one by one.
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Perhaps I did not include enough information. I am on Macs that are OSX 10.4.9, and I am predominately Mac stupid. Our Macs are department oriented and all should share the same privileges so why can't FontExplorer be global to some extent. Please help, if possible.
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Hi Dennis

I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly. It sounds like you're trying to create a standard install of Font Explorer for all your machines. It's not a server based font management program, so it does need to be set up for each machine, but it can save it's settings and load fonts from a common source.

So if you want to make a standard install for all your Macs, set up one machine exactly like you want and make sure your font library is in a common location. You can manually pick it's font library location from the Preferences, Advanced menu.

Then go to the File --> Configuration menu and save your settings. Copy the saved settings file to the next machine and Load them from the Config menu and you should have identical setups on both machines.

Hope this helps.
Shawn
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Thank you, Very good information to have, but not exactly what I need, guess I need to sharpen my communication skills. The problem I have is that each machine is used by multiple people (shifts, installed software differences between machines, etc). So in the past, I have had to get every possible person that could be needing to use a specific machine to login so I could then load fonts into FontExplorer and activate them for that user. That sometimes is 5 or more times for each system that I would be setting up FontExplorer using exactly the same fonts. I just need a way to install FontExplorer that will make it setup for any users of that system and not have to set it up for each possible user. Thank you for your help, please try again.
Dennis
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

You should be able to copy the preference file for LFEX to each new user. That might help
a little. I'm not sure there's a way around loading the fonts for the first time for each user. Have
you contacted Linotype?
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Thanks for the reply there doubting_thomas,
No I have not contacted Linotype yet. I have been to their web site though. I just kind of expected that since the software is free, they would not want to put resources to support it. I was just thinking that there may be some way to place LFEX into a default user or template that would offer it to all users of that computer. Sort of like the default user in a PC.
Thanks again
Dennis
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

As has been mentioned, it's not an application to run off of a server, and that's the
way it sounds like you'd like to run it, even if it'd be local.
I've never tried it, but I'd imagine you'd run into a permissions issue.
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Hi Dennis

I don't think you can do things exactly like you'd wish. User permissions on OS X won't normally allow you to make changes to an account without the password.

The closest I can come up with would be for you to set the default font library to a common location instead of in the user folder (Users/[your username]/FontExplorerX/Font Library) since the user folder location is considered protected when another user logs in. Then save a configuration file out that can be loaded in each user account that points to the master location.

If you're setting up a brand new account, you could use the Migration assistant (from the utilties folder) to copy user information from a user account on a disk image. Setup an account with all your software and save it as a disk image on a server. When you want to load a new user, load the saved image and open the Migration assistant and choose to migrate from another volume on this Mac. It will copy all user information from the account on the disk image into a new account on the Mac. This won't help you for all the accounts that are already out there, but it can simplify setting up new ones from this point on.

Shawn
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Shawn,
Thanks, I am going to try this and I expect it will work but it may take me a few days to do it because I am buried. When migrating a user profile, does the user name have to be the same? Also, does the Migration utility go in and correct any pointers or path names? I ask this because I expect that there are a lot of preferences that have a path that would include the source profile's user name. I won't be able to test for a few days and I just wanted you to know that I like your idea.
Thanks again,
Dennis
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Contrary to what you'd expect, Linotype DO support their (free) product. It's a bit slow, natch, but you can find it on their site, pretty sure...
Also, there is a user-type forum:

http://www.fontexplorerx-board.com/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=37cfd0d4ce34098fc57f887405fcac1e

Gritsch and Goliath are prolly Lintoype staffers. Very friendly forum. You may well find out what you need there, though the answers you got here pretty much define the limits, I suspect.
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

Dennis,

Are you creating a User on on each computer?

If you were using a Server and had the Users on the Server and when Users login on each computer, they would actually be logging into the server were there preferences would be stored. This way you would only setup the User Preferences once and that would be it.

The other option you could do is just have one User name for each computer and everyone would share that User name. Saves time with setting up multiple users.
 
Re: Linotype FontExplorer

All very good help but I have not had the time to experiment. We went live with All new OSX systems in three departments two weeks ago and things have only begun to quiet down. I'm going to check out all these great answers some time soon, thanks a bunch.
Thanks again,
Dennis

Edited by: Dennis W Anderson on Nov 29, 2007 3:59 PM
 

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