Painting Totals software...

Just a short update on the software that I use to track my painting points as a couple of you mentioned them..

The application is called "Points Motivator" and is freeware available from here (click here). The actual download button is on the left at the top...

Once you've downloaded it there is a full suite of manuals and help pages - when I first set mine up though I had the use of an excellent little tutorial on Mike Cannon's webpages - it's no longer there, I'll drop him an email to see if he can make it available again, but in the meantime I've stripped down the files to the minimum and ZIP'd my installation here:

http://www.box.net/shared/0ij1pnnzt8 (click here to download)

Once you download it to your machine, unzip the folders and then copy them anywhere you want to. Once you've done that go into the main folder and if you double click the pointsmotivator.exe it should start, with my initial set up. Just click "Dismiss" on the little window that comes up after you start the program...

If you think my points values are too high, or too low, then you can modify my settings by

• clicking on the "item Definitions" option on the command line,
• select "launch item definition editor" and when the editor opens,
• click "File" and
• "Open Item Definition File"

Just select the item you want to change and it opens on the right where you can them modify as you wish..

The definitions I use are stored in a file called "Painting Totals.itemxml" in the "UserItemDefs" folder... it's probably just as easy to open that file with Notepad or somesuch and modify them direct but I've not tested that...

If you want to add a new temporary classification - say for a one off painting project that you're not likely to do again, then click the "Quick Add New Definition" option and it's fairly straight forward.

If you want to add a new permanent classification (say you decided to add a category for painting 6mm's as you'd had a brainwave and bought two of the excellent Baccuss Army packs!) then you go the "item definitions" route previously mentioned but use the "add new item" button at the bottom of the editor.. for a clue as to what to put in the definition boxes, just have a look and see what I put in one of the other items.

Hope that helps - normal service resumed with the next post...