Managing free Filters
By WC Merritt

New users of Photobrush may soon discover that they can download many free filters from the Internet (I found over 2000 without much trouble).

THE PROBLEM

Then I had a big problem. Filters have both an author name and a filter name. When you ask Photobrush to load say 200 filters, it will do it. BUT it probably won't be able to display them all for your use. This is because you end up with perhaps 60 authors with one or two filters associated with each one.

I found a solution using Harry's Plugin Commander (download here). There are two versions available. The light version one was free when I downloaded it and it solved my problem.

THE SOLUTION

It takes getting used to.(But if I can figure it out, you can!!!) I started with 210 filters I had determined to be my favorite ones in a single folder - from the original 2000 filters downloaded. Then I set up 7 new folders and COPIED 30 filters into each new filter. (7 times 30 equals 210.) Call them F1 through F7. Or something else simple.

In Harry's Plugin Commander I started with file view and highlighted the folder (say F1) containing the 30-filters I wished to combine into one new category called F1 (or any other name). Then I switched to plugin view.
AGAIN I highlighted the filters of interest (all 30 of them). Finally I poked Change Cat and the program asked me for a new category name to use.

Then I went to Harry's Plugin Commander and performed the described operation 6 more times. Once for each new folder of 30 filters.

So now I can, if I wish, have Photobrush load all 210 filters. (Or just n times 30 filters) And when I use them I am presented with from one to seven filter lists, each containing 30 filters and each with a simple name ( any of F1 thru F7). Previously, there were 50 lists with an average of four filters each and they could not all be displayed at once. On top of that I was faced with remembering one of fifty list names to know where my filter came from. I hope you find this proceedure useful.

WC Merritt

PS You may find it necessary toconvert some of the downloaded filters to the *.8bf format required by Photobrush. This can also be accomplished using Harry's Plugin Commander.