Always Open New Projects

If you close the Project window before quitting GB, the next time you open it you should get the screen that allows you to choose from New Project, etc.

Scorysto wrote:
I work in a Lab settings where a lot of people Use garageband to create there musical projects. I was wondering if there was a setting that could be changed in a p-list or something to make it so that garage band always opened a new project instead of opening the last open project. We have had problems with people just deleting other peoples tracks instead of starting there own project. Any ideas?

You could also make a blank GB song and save it to the desktop. Train users to open and close the blank song after each session. That will effectively break the link to their own song, protecting it from the next user.

I was also thinking of making their own templates but forgot to mention it. They should open the blank and then "save as" immediately shouldn't they?

poflynn wrote:
I was also thinking of making their own templates but forgot to mention it. They should open the blank and then "save as" immediately shouldn't they?

Should be even easier than that.

Just have the blank one ready. Open and close it (no need to save or anything else). That's all that's needed to make GB forget the last song you were working on.

Just have the blank one ready. Open and close it (no need to save or anything else). That's all that's needed to make GB forget the last song you were working on.

But wouldn't they want to save the new Project so they don't lose their work? Or am I missing something? (certainly wouldn't be the first time)

poflynn wrote:

Just have the blank one ready. Open and close it (no need to save or anything else). That's all that's needed to make GB forget the last song you were working on.

But wouldn't they want to save the new Project so they don't lose their work? Or am I missing something? (certainly wouldn't be the first time)

That's right. They would need to save (Save As) the new project as their own. But then they'd open and shut the blank to protect it.

The issue is that GB thinks you want to immediately go to the last song you were working on. That's OK if it's just one person, one mac. But in the lab environment the OP described, what's happening is the next person who uses the machine shouldn't access the last person's work (what GB will do by default, thinking it's being helpful), and then potentially if unintentionally delete it.

To protect that original user's work, you'd need to break the link between the previous and next GB user. GB needs to forget about the last song so the next time someone opens the program, they don't get someone else's work and ruin it.

If you have a blank GB song, always at the ready, and simply open and close it at the end of a session, GB will think of that as the last song worked on. It severs the link to the actual song the person was working on, protecting it, so the next time someone opens up GB, if they don't start a new project, at worst they'll get that blank song GB now thinks is the last song worked on.

That next person will need to save their work - if they are starting from the blank song, they'll need to Save As - and, in turn, after they work, they quickly open and close the blank file. If it becomes habit to open and close a blank song after each session, that will also provide the necessary cushion.

Assuming the system breaks down, and someone opens the blank file, works on it, and saves it as their own, so it's no longer the blank session but their own work, when they open and close the blank file at the end of their session, at least they'll see their own work and know that that's what the next person will see as well. In that case, at least they'll know, because the blank file is no longer blank, and can simply open up a new GB file that's blank and save it back to blank.

But generally, just having a blank file and telling people to save their own work as their own work, and then open and close the blank file in a multi-user environment should solve the one person/one Mac problem.

you'd need to break the link between the previous and next GB user.

poflynn explained the most simple method in his first reply. close your project before quitting.

HangTime wrote:

you'd need to break the link between the previous and next GB user.

poflynn explained the most simple method in his first reply. close your project before quitting.

Sure... IF everyone does that. In practice, the blank file provides a safety net in case they don't.

if it were automated, yes, but if you can't get them to close a project, you're not going to get them to open and close some other project.

HangTime wrote:
if it were automated, yes, but if you can't get them to close a project, you're not going to get them to open and close some other project.

Actually, a friend of mine had a similar situation as the OP and found the opposite to be true.

By having that blank file and making it part of the workflow, simply opening and shutting it as part of ordinary GB hygiene in a multiuser environment, people did it.

By asking people to shut their projects first before quitting - some did, some didn't.

As much psychology as anything else, I suppose, but people got used to punctuating their sessions by ending it with a blank in order to protect their own work, and that's what worked.

If everyone would reliably do it the other way, then no need, agreed.

Actually, if you put the blank project on the desktop and opened that each time to open GB, it will open the blank every time. No need to close before quitting or open and close the blank at the end of a work session. Simply open the blank file on the desktop instead of opening with the application's icon. Even simpler.

... or put it in the Dock, for easy access.

i think the anecdotal story suggests he enforced his latter choice and didn't the easier one. the two workflows are nearly identical, except one wastes time and adds a step.

students could:

A: *open GB, open their project, close project, quit GB*

2: *open GB, open their project,* open blank project (wait), *close project, quit GB*

III: open GB and find their project messed up, learn a lesson, and choose (A) next time.

but evs, different teaching styles for different people.

poflynn wrote:
Actually, if you put the blank project on the desktop and opened that each time to open GB, it will open the blank every time. No need to close before quitting or open and close the blank at the end of a work session. Simply open the blank file on the desktop instead of opening with the application's icon. Even simpler.

We're probably over-thinking this... but the reason why he chose the other way was because opening a blank at the end of each session was a way for users to protect their own work. It was in their interest to do that. If you leave that task up to the next person, they have less interest in protecting the last user's work, which was the problem. So giving the group a bullet-proof method to protect their own work at the end of any session ensured it was done. If someone worked on something for a few hours, they were happy to spend a few seconds at the end forcing GB to forget they were there, protecting their work. Again, more psychology than technology!

HangTime wrote:
i think the anecdotal story suggests he enforced his latter choice and didn't the easier one. the two workflows are nearly identical, except one wastes time and adds a step.

Agreed! Perhaps if the group were better trained to follow the simpler workflow, that would have been equally successful. However, in practice, his experience was adding an extra step that wasted time proved most successful. It forced users to address the issue and they did it. It was kind of like a "protect button" at end of session - open/close blank - and their work was protected. That extra step made it work. On the face of it, I would agree with you and what you're saying and Poflynn suggested might work best for this group. I'm just sharing this one guy's experience. It reminds me of one of those social experiments they do with unexpected results.

students could:

A: *open GB, open their project, close project, quit GB*

2: *open GB, open their project,* open blank project (wait), *close project, quit GB*

III: open GB and find their project messed up, learn a lesson, and choose (A) next time.

but evs, different teaching styles for different people.

One issue that's obvious to us but was not universally obvious to his group of less experienced users, is that some users didn't make much of a distinction between closing and quitting. At the end of a session, sometimes GB was quit, sometimes it wasn't. So even with the "blank" method, that could be done after a project was closed or after GB was quit (an even longer wait... quit GB, open blank/GB, quit). But if there were any confusion or lack of care between closing and quitting, the blank method would always work.

Absent my friend's experience, I would agree with you. Why insert an extra step? And if the OP can make it work, it's faster, more efficient, and ostensibly better. This is just some .02 from the rough and tumble of a friend's experience. After a couple hours working on a song, the small gesture of opening and closing a blank (15 secs?) provided a satisfying confirmation that the next person couldn't mess with their work, so that's what they embraced.