Added support for my focal-lenth sort plugin.

This version can be registered in Lightroom 3. It can run in Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3; it does not work in the Lr3 betas.

It uses my new registration system when run on Lightroom 3, which avoids some of the silly issues of the old one. Please take care to note the details on the registration page: use of this version (or later) of the plugin in Lightroom 3 requires a new registration code, even if you had registered some older version of the plugin.

Completely changed how the one-click upgrade applies the newly-downloaded zip file, in the hopes that it'll work for more people. Rather than unzipping over the old copy, it now unzips to a temporary folder, then moves the old folder out of the way and the new folder into place. Prior versions' folders are now maintained (with the version number in the folder) in case you want to revert a version; you may want to clear them out from time to time. Of course, it won't take affect until you try to upgrade after having upgraded to or beyond this version.

Enhanced the one-click upgrade stuff quite a bit, now detecting ahead of time when it will fail because the plugin is installed where Lightroom can't write (if Lightroom can't write to it, it can't update itself). I also added a progress bar, and now download in smaller chunks to avoid 'out of memory' errors on the larger plugins. Do remember that this new functionality becomes available after you upgrade to or past this version, when you then upgrade with it.

This update affects Mac users only

It seems that many (all?) Mac users had problems with Lightroom forgetting presets each time it restarted. I've discovered a bug in Lightroom that I think I've been able to work around in this version, but the change is not backward compatible, so Mac users who were actually able to make Custom User Presets will lose them upon upgrade. Sorry. This happens only when upgrading from before this version to this version or after, and subsequent upgrades should be lossfree. (Static User Presets, and all presets on Windows, are unaffected and should carry through unharmed.)

Wow, this plugin continues to be one of the most complex I've ever worked on. Tons of new stuff this time, including...

• Now donationware.
• Lots of UI cleanup.
• Added "label" and "separator" links at the bottom, so that you can easily add labels and separator lines without scrolling to those entries at the bottom of the right-side master list.
• Added a "show photo data from" toggle in the bottom-right corner, allowing you to toggle between photo data from the image selected when you invoked the dialog, or fully-filled-out fake sample data. (If no images are selected when you invoke the dialog, you get only the fake sample data.)
• If you click on the active line in the left-side preset preview, the associated item in the right-side master list is scrolled into view and highlighted.
• Some have been confused by how a new preset's title is entered, so I've added a bunch of visual hints (big flashing "EDIT HERE!!!" signs ) until I can figure a more intuitive interface.
• The "Blank Slate" built-in preset didn't really work. Does now, and has been renamed to "Empty (No Items)"
• Added the ability to edit/save/create static user presets, and to import/export presets. I've left these as candy for when the plugin is registered.
• Added a help page describing the different types of presets the plugin works with (Lightroom default, Plugin default, User custom, and Static user custom).
• Added the "map" metadata item from my geoencoding plugin
• Lots more I can't remember.

One of the big todos is to add the ability to set attributes to items, such as the the number of lines of a caption.

Initial public beta release.

The UI for this plugin has been by far the most difficult to do, and that's mostly what this plugin is about: a snazzy interface for editing a simple preset file. Lightroom's plugin infrastructure is still in its infancy and understandably Adobe has not yet filled out every feature required to make a rich, interactive presentation. Taking it almost as a personal challenge, I've expended enormous effort to try to work around some of the limitations. This is the best I can do for now.

At this first-beta-release stage, I'd appreciate comments via email, so I've turned off comment-submission for this post.

Because this is an early beta that I don't want to hang around very long, the plugin expires after a month. It'll certainly be updated well before then.