FreeSCAN - Assigning colors to groups?

[bbedsole]

Sorry if this is a little elementary, but I'm still getting to know my 396XT and FreeSCAN.

I am looking for a way to set an entire GROUP to a particular COLOR. For example, I have about 70 talkgroups for my local police department. Do I have to individually set the color for each talkgroup, or is there a way to change the color for the entire group?

I've tried highlighting all the talkgroups manually, and I've tried setting the color under the "XT Options" section, but nothing seems to work. I did search the forums for a solution, but couldn't find anything in the archives.

Am I missing a step here? Or is there not a way to change the color of an entire group at once?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[hiegtx]

Sorry if this is a little elementary, but I'm still getting to know my 396XT and FreeSCAN.

I am looking for a way to set an entire GROUP to a particular COLOR. For example, I have about 70 talkgroups for my local police department. Do I have to individually set the color for each talkgroup, or is there a way to change the color for the entire group?

I've tried highlighting all the talkgroups manually, and I've tried setting the color under the "XT Options" section, but nothing seems to work. I did search the forums for a solution, but couldn't find anything in the archives.

Am I missing a step here? Or is there not a way to change the color of an entire group at once?

Thanks in advance for any insight.

You can make a 'global' change, whether it's for a color, or changing a group of conventional channels from, say FM mode to NFM. Or any other change, as long as they are in the same system & group.

Using FreeSCAN, if all the frequencies or talkgroups are sequential (meaning, you're going to change a block of them, not skipping one here & there), then:
Hold down the <Shift> key
Click on the top talkgroup (or frequency) that you want to change to highlight it.
While still holding down the <Shift> key, scroll down, then click on the last item to be changed. This will result in all of them being selected. (The standard Windows 'Select All' command would also work, if you are changing all the talkgroups or frequencies in the group. Just be sure that the Group edit window is your active window when using 'select all' (<CTRL>+<A>.)
Now, hold down the <CTRL> key.
While holding it down, make your change to the color, audio type, mode, whatever, of one of the selected frequencies or talkgroups.
Now, still holding down <CTRL>, click that same field you just changed on a different line (talkgroup or frequency).
All of the selected lines will change to the updated value.

If all of the ones you wanted to change were not sequential, say you needed to skip one or two, or add ones outside the block selected, you can add or remove additional lines by clicking on them while still holding down the <CTRL> key. (If you forget to keep holding CTRL, you'll deselect your lines, and have to start over.)

 

[bbedsole]

Outstanding. That totally worked. I'm pretty computer savvy, but I don't think I EVER would have figured that out on my own.

Thanks a million.

By the way, if that's how you set a group to a color, then what's the point of that setting in the "XT Options" section?

 

[hiegtx]

Outstanding. That totally worked. I'm pretty computer savvy, but I don't think I EVER would have figured that out on my own.

Thanks a million.

By the way, if that's how you set a group to a color, then what's the point of that setting in the "XT Options" section?

If you're referring to the color choice under "XT Scanners Only" when you access the Scanner Setup Options, that is on the Close Call tab. That color would be the backlight choice used when Close Call was active & 'found' a frequency.

The color choice on the General tab of the Scanner Setup is the color used if you manually turn on the backlight. When the scanner stops on an active channel (conventional frequency or talkgroup ID), the display would change (if needed) from the 'default' color picked on the General tab to the one specified(if any) for that channel.

For example. I have the backlight mode option set as infinite on my 396XTs. The display comes on, to the selected color, for about ten seconds, when the scanner stops on a transmission, then goes off, even if the transmission continues longer than the 10 seconds. My default color is Cyan. At night, I turn the backlight on, It remains on in Cyan, until it stops on an active channel. Then, it will change to that channel's color, say Red for FD, for up to 10 seconds. If the channel remains active longer than that, the display will revert to Cyan, and remain on, also staying on when it resumes scanning.