MusEdit "Tip of The Day"

      

Tip #18 - Periodically Backup Your MEChords.dat File

If you look in your MusEdit folder (located in C:\Program Files in Win 95) you will see a file called "MEChords.dat" (it may just appear as "MEChords" on your system). This file is your personal chord dictionary. This is where the information for any chords you create with MusEdit's Chord Designer are stored, and also where "scanned" chords (from MusEdit files which you didn't create) are stored.

As you add more chords to your personal chord dictionary your MEChords.dat file becomes more valuable and more difficult to recreate if it ever becomes damaged somehow. For this reason you should periodically make a backup copy of this file. To do this you can open the MusEdit folder, click ONCE on the MEChords.dat file to select it, hit Ctrl+C to copy it, then Ctrl+V to make a file called "Copy of MEChords.dat". You may want to change the name of this backup by clicking on it once, hit F2, then type the new name ( eg. "MEChords 12-12-98.dat" )

When MusEdit starts up it scans your MEChords.dat file to create your custom-chords dictionary, but if it finds something in the file which doesn't make sense it issues a warning:

"One (or more) chord keys in the MEChords.dat file isn't valid"

and then it abandons your custom chords for fear that adding bad data may crash your system. The file may have become invalid by a bug in MusEdit, by scanning in a corrupt chord from a MusEdit score, or some other small glitch.

The MEChords.dat file is a simple text file and you can edit it, but you should be VERY careful about doing that! Certainly make a copy of it before you begin editing it! In a future tip I'll send out details about the structure of the data in MEChords.dat so you will know how to make changes if necessary.

 

      

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