So thanks to this forum I have been able to change an XCF to a ZIP and read the associated XML file. It seems however if I make any changes, even as simple and extracting the files, creating a new file and re-zipping it, I get a corrupted file error in Pronto Edit Professional. Some threads talked about swapping out image files, and I have seen some XCF files where the system items have been modified. I want to change the text color of the systemobject "activityname" to white and the size of the "firmkey" systemobject text to 14. I realize I have other solutions for the firmkey objects, but being a programmer I like to mess around and see what is possible. Editing the XML is the easy part, but it will not read. Has anyone gotten around this?

I'm using the latest Winzip to zip and unzip. At this point my XML editor doesn't matter because I can't even rezip the unedited XML.

Obviously I realize this is "mess up your pronto at your own risk".

The likely problem is that you are not creating ZIP comments properly in your new zip file. Open an existing XCF with Winzip and "View Zip Comments".

However, assuming you are only editing the XML file, do the following:

Rename a copy of your XCF to *.zip and open with Winzip.

Then with Winzip open on desktop, delete the file ConfigEdit.xml from inside the zip.

Then, drag in a new ConfigEdit.xml file.

Close Winzip.

Rename the file from .zip back to .xcf, and try it out.

instead of renaming the file to .zip and back again, I right click on the .xcf file and "open with" 'winzip executable'. I then drag the configedit.xml from within the winzip window to my desktop and do the necessary mods. I delete configedit.xml within the winzip window and then drag the modified configedit.xml back into winzip. Winzip automatically updates the file for me. saves you a couple of key strokes :)

I do the same as well though using WinRaR. No need to recreate the zip file. Simply extract and insert whether it be the XML or png's from the Bitmaps folder.

If you are messing around with the inards of xcf files you might want to try the Pronto Script Support tool at my web site (www.the-gordons.net) It takes an xcf and breaks it down into its parts and builds a GUI over the scripts in the file.

Invoking a script will open whatever editor assigned to the extension js. It holds all of the material including the collection xml in a working directory.

It rebuilds the zip file at any time (Save) and will also invoke PEP to allow a rebuild and download in a smooth operation. It knows about the comment object and handles it properly. It works just as well with xcf's for the 9400 AFAIK.

I never use the PEP editor to edit Prontoscript. I use a full screen syntax checking editor that displays syntax in color and spots 90% of my errors before I load the xcf into the Pronto.

I only use PEP for laying out screens, and then I only use the 9600 one if if I am building for the 9400. All that extra real estate in the 9600 allows for interesting capabilities when the target is the 9400.