Tech Forum

I downloaded MLS ver. 3.0 at the chapel PC today and noticed the font throughout the Display Windows has become 'ugly'.

I was only there to check if our stake redivision had taken place and wards repopulated, so this happened at an awkward time, but the changes had not come through so we still have members from other wards mixed in with ours until HQ gets that straight. I'm not worried about the membership - HQ will get that straight.

I'm at home now and not fiddling with MLS so, has anybody else downloading the "2.9.4 Patch" - which actually was an upgrade to 3.0, experienced this sudden change of display font? And if so is there a quick way for me to revert back to the less chunky font when I return to the chapel on Sunday? I didn't hang around today.

Suggestions please.

WenU wrote:I downloaded MLS ver. 3.0 at the chapel PC today and noticed the font throughout the Display Windows has become 'ugly'.
. . .
I'm at home now and not fiddling with MLS so, has anybody else downloading the "2.9.4 Patch" - which actually was an upgrade to 3.0, experienced this sudden change of display font? And if so is there a quick way for me to revert back to the less chunky font when I return to the chapel on Sunday? I didn't hang around today.

Is your stake on the beta program? Or are you just now getting 2.9.4? I ask because there has been no announcement of 3.0 that I have seen.

We were told we had to have 2.9.4 to get to 3.0, but 3.0 is not yet available to us.

The font changed for us at 2.9.3, by the way.

Even if you revert back, you will just get the patch again when you do a Send/Receive.

lajackson wrote:Is your stake on the beta program? Or are you just now getting 2.9.4? I ask because there has been no announcement of 3.0 that I have seen.

An MLS 3.0 announcement was sent in the last few days to stakes participating in the beta program (my stake is a beta site). But the beta is not yet available on mls.lds.org, although it is to be downloaded to beta stakes around now during the normal Send/Receive. I thought it was tomorrow, but I imagine the download would be configured before the end of the work day on a Friday, so I'm not surprised if it is available now.

I haven't installed it yet, but I will do so tomorrow, and then I will be in a position to respond to the specific reported problem.

lajackson wrote:The font changed for us at 2.9.3, by the way.

But I've never seen the font make a change for the worse in any upgrade.

Thank You Alan,

The graphics and layout remain the same but the blue text listing the sub-categories within the window has become 'clunky' instead of the smooth font we had before.

Just wondered if I was missing anything.

We had 2.9.4 installed. Today was just the patch and when I rebooted we had version 3.0

I would not know yet if any radical changes were made to the operating system, just the UI looks clunky (ratty). Like going back to VGA fonts, for instance.

Out of curiosity, what screen resolution are you running? Are you using a LCD display? I'm wondering if there's a resolution mis-match somewhere that's causing the font to go bad.

Good question. It's a standard (?) Dell LCD. Important though that this is ONLY the font for the BLUE text within each of the (6 for instance) windows on the opening MLS screen. Other screens within had the same condition.

Other text was OK. I think the little arrow indicators on 'More' looked somehow different too. It just looked 'strange'. You know how we hate change.

Have not actually explored ver. 3.0 That wasn't why I was in the office.

WenU wrote:Good question. It's a standard (?) Dell LCD. Important though that this is ONLY the font for the BLUE text within each of the (6 for instance) windows on the opening MLS screen. Other screens within had the same condition.

Other text was OK. I think the little arrow indicators on 'More' looked somehow different too. It just looked 'strange'. You know how we hate change.

Well, now that I have installed MLS 3.0 (my stake participates in the beta), I can definitely see the screen font change, and I have mixed feelings about it.

I have attached screen shots of MLS 2.9.4 and MLS 3.0 from the same machine (I had to zip them up, because vBulletin insisted on resizing the PNG images, which made it impossible to see the subtle differences).

The new screen font is different. It’s anti-aliased, whereas the font in 2.9.4 was not. Generally I like anti-aliasing, but in this case, the bottom curve of the lowercase “e” seems practically disconnected from the rest of the letter. All in all, the look of the font is a bit smoother (which you would expect from anti-aliasing), but there are some odd thin points in some of the characters that are a bit distracting. I certainly wouldn't call it "ratty" -- for many characters I think it looks better. But clearly font aesthetics are greatly a matter of personal opinion.

The More links in the navigation panels have a black arrow (triangle, actually) to the right that helps indicate that there is indeed more. That's a good change, in my opinion.

The most noticeable change is that the MLS 3.0 links are no longer underlined (except when you hover your mouse over a link). That produces a cleaner look, but I wonder if it will create a usability issue. Many MLS users are not particularly skilled computer users, but they may be aware of the standard Web practice of underlining hyperlinks (and yes, I know that this is not nearly as “standard” as it once was). Although the options are highlighted by underlining as you hover your mouse over them, some people aren’t bold enough to actually move their mouse, but might just stare at the screen wondering how to access an option. Aside from the hover, there is only the fairly subtle difference between blue text and black text to tell you an option is actually clickable. Of course, once they use MLS, they will very quickly figure out what is clickable, and any such problem will go away.

One thing I will say too is that when I did a Send/Receive, it said "MLS 2.9.4 was being patched to my computer." Obviously that was wrong and it should have read "MLS 3.0."

By the way, the font is noticeably different. However, it looks terrific on our computer. No complaints here. Perhaps it's just personal preference?

Gack! (... personal opinion of the blurry 3.0 font in the screenshot ...)

I hope there's a user option to disable the blurring of text. I guess I'll have a message to send to support if I can't find an option.

At least for me, blurry text makes my eyes go buggy. The eyes try to focus, but they can't focus on something that's blurry no matter what the eyes do. The added futile effort can trigger significant contact lens discomfort and physical eye irritation.