Why C-More Micro preview mode will not sort screens

The sort belongs to Screen Library mode

The C-More Micro editor gives you two ways to look at screens. Screen Library mode, the detail view, lists screens with their numbers and sorts by them. Preview mode draws thumbnails, and it draws them in creation order. The sort you apply in the detail list is a sort of that list, and it never reaches Preview. In April 2007 the software's support desk answered this question directly: there is not a way to sort screens in Preview mode, and the only sort is in Screen Library mode. That answer, plus the release notes published with each software version, is the basis for everything below. If your version's notes announce a change, use the change. Until then, work as if Preview is a creation history you cannot reorder.

Symptoms and what each points to

• The sorted list snaps back when you switch to Preview. This is the view behavior of the software itself, present in 2007 and unchanged in any version documented since. Your project file is intact, and no setting inside the view modes reorders those thumbnails.
• Screens sit out of order after you added them late in the job. This is creation order at work. Each new screen is appended to the end of Preview, and its number never moves it there.
• The Screen Selector shows bare entries while the System menu shows titles. In 2007 the System menu carried menu titles and the selector did not, and the request to add titles went to the vendor as a suggestion.
• Copying, pasting and renaming need the mouse every single time. The navigator had no standard Windows shortcut keys in 2007, and that gap was logged with the vendor as an improvement request.

Check it on your version

1. Open the project and switch to the detail view, Screen Library mode.
2. Sort the list by screen number.
3. Switch to Preview.
4. Read the thumbnails. Sorted order means your version changed the 2007 behavior, and you can stop reading. Creation order means the behavior holds.
5. Before spending an hour on workarounds, read the release notes published with your software download. Editor improvements are listed there by version, and that list settles what your build does.

Sort and search from the library list

This is the working fix. Do every search, comparison and audit in Screen Library mode with the list sorted by number. Click an entry in the sorted list and the editor opens that screen number. The sort is a view on the list: sorting writes nothing to the project, so there is nothing to save or undo afterwards. Keep Preview for layout work on one screen, which is what it is good for, and let the sorted library be your index. A small panel pushes a project toward more screens than you first planned, so the index matters more as the count grows.

Number new screens in ranges

Preview order is fixed by creation, so the permanent repair is to create screens in the order you want to read them. Reserve a block of numbers per function before you build: the low numbers for startup and overview, one decade per machine area, a decade for alarms and diagnostics. Create screens in that sequence. When a screen joins the project late, give it the next free number in its own range, never the next free number in the project. Write the range plan into the project documentation, and keep a short exceptions list for every screen created out of sequence.

Worked example: numbering a four-station packaging line

A packaging line has four stations: infeed, filler, capper and case packer. The plan reserves numbers below 10 for startup and overview, 9 slots. The 10s go to the infeed, the 20s to the filler, the 30s to the capper, the 40s to the case packer and the 50s to alarms and diagnostics. Slots inside the plan: 9 + 5 x 10 = 59. The project opens with 41 screens, so 59 - 41 = 18 slots are free for growth inside the ranges.

In month three a filler changeover screen is added. The 20s already hold screens 20 through 27, so it takes number 28. In the sorted library it sits between 27 and 29, exactly where a technician looks for filler screens. In Preview it appears at position 42, the last of 41 + 1 = 42 screens, and it stays there for the life of the project. That is the documented behavior, so log screen 28 on the exceptions list and move on.

Recommendation: on any project past about 20 screens, write a range plan before you create the next screen, do every search and audit from the sorted Screen Library list, and treat Preview as a creation history. Number late additions into their range, and record each one as an exception.

Copy and rename without shortcut keys

The navigator has no standard Windows shortcut keys for copy, paste and rename, and delivering them is the vendor's job. Cut the mouse work instead. Build one clean template screen with the common layout and park it on a reserved number at the edge of a range. Copy the template, paste, and rename the new screen before you touch its content, so default-named duplicates never pile up. Check by sorting the library and scanning for duplicate or default names; there should be none. Do not push keystrokes into the navigator with a third-party macro tool on a production laptop. One misfire pastes over or renames the wrong screen, and the recovery you need is a project restore.

Put readable titles where the selector can show them

The System menu carries menu titles. In 2007 the Screen Selector did not, and the request for titles went to the vendor as a suggestion. Put the description in the screen name, number first: an entry reading 21 Filler Faults says more than 21 alone. If operators need more context than a name can carry, spend one screen number on a navigation page with labeled buttons, the way set up HMI screen navigation with change screen buttons describes, or follow the text-menu approach in build an HMI text menu with a screen selector list. Keep the maintenance decade off anything operators reach, using the method in HMI screen access control for a protected operator view.

Verify before you transfer

1. Save the project, close it and reopen it. Names and numbers survive the round trip.
2. In the sorted library, confirm each range holds only its own function.
3. In Preview, confirm creation order matches the range plan, and note the exceptions you logged.
4. Open the Screen Selector and the navigation page, and step through every entry.
5. Transfer to the panel and repeat the navigation test on the real display.

If order is wrong for many screens, stop. Renumbering an existing project is a planned rebuild: back up the project file first, expect to retest every jump, and schedule it in a window you control, not on a night shift.

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