Use Merge Symbols to combine duplicates into one. Markup suggests likely matches to make this easier or you can choose the symbols to merge yourself.

Use this step when the same printed symbol appears more than once on the symbol list. Choose the version you want to keep as the master symbol, then merge the duplicates into it. Every grid square assigned to those duplicates is transferred to the master and the unused symbols are removed.

Important: A merge takes effect immediately and cannot be undone. Only merge symbols when you are confident that they represent the same stitch, or you want to combine them.

Merge Symbols at a Glance

The left side displays the suggestions that Markup thinks may be the same (you can control the match sensitivity). The right side is the Merge Tray, where you can review your current selection and choose the master.

Split Screen: Search and Merge

Complete Merge Symbols screen: the symbol selection area on the left and merge tray on the right are numbered 1 and 2.

  1. Find and Select Symbols: This panel has two views:
    • Suggestions: Markup suggests similar looking symbols to be group together. This simplifies searching though all symbols to try and identify duplicates
    • Browse All: see all of the symbols on your project and manually select which ones to merge
  2. Review and Merge Symbols: The Merge Tray shows everything you have currently selected. Use it to remove incorrect symbols, add new ones from the list, and select the master. Tap the button to complete the merge.

Find and Select Symbols

Start with the left side panel. Markup scans the symbols lists and groups together what it thinks are similar looking symbols for you to review and merge. Depending on the quality of your chart, try different search senstivities to create different grouped suggestions of symbols. This is usually easier to review that trying to identify similar looking symbols via the Browse All tab. 

Review Suggested Symbol Groups

Merge Symbols suggestions: tabs, strictness, a suggested group and its actions are numbered 1 to 4.

  1. Suggestions and Browse-All tabs: Suggestions display likely duplicate symbols into groups for you to quickly scan and review. Browse-All lets you pick from every confirmed symbol. The badges next to the names show the number of groups or symbols available in that tab.
  2. Search Sensitivity: Start with 'Strict' to detect close matches. Once each group has been reviewed (or if no groups are initiall found) try 'Balanced' or 'Loose' to allow for more variation when grouping. These settings only changes the available suggestions in the list.
  3. Suggested Group: Similar-looking symbols are grouped together in the list. Underneath each symbol is number of stitches associated with that icon. The starred icon with the highlighted count is the current master. Tap another icon if that is the version you want to keep. This list can scroll left/right in case there are quite a few similar looking symbols in one group. 
  4. Suggested Group Actions: Select the Merge button to accept the group as is and merge all of the symbols in the currently selected master symbol for that group. Tap the Edit button to move the group contents into the Merge Tray. The Merge Tray provides more control and allows the addition and removal of other symbols (see below). 
No suggestions shown:
When Markup has not automatically detected any similar looking symbols, choose a less-strict sensitivity. If Loose still finds nothing useful, switch to Browse-All and choose the symbols yourself.

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Browse-All: Pick Symbols Yourself

Merge Symbols Browse All view: the tab and selected symbol tiles are numbered 1 and 2.

  1. Browse All: This tab displas complete symbol list of confirmed symbols, and updates when merges are completed. Each tile shows the symbol icon and the number of stitches found for that symbol. Markup tries to group the symbols on their appearance, which can vary. 
  2. Selecting Symbols: If you identify duplicate symbols in this list, simply tap the symbol icon to include it in the Merge Tray. This will add a check mark and border around the symbol in the list to indicate it has been selected. Tap the icon again to remove the selection.
When there are many symbols:
I recommend checking the Suggestions tab first. Grouping similar symbols together is much faster than searching through a chart containing dozens or hundreds of separate tiles. Use Browse-All for anything the suggestions miss or group incorrectly.

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Merge Tray

Once symbols are selected, move your attention to the Merge tray on the right. This is where you make your final decisions about which symbol should be merged.

Merging Symbols

Merge Symbols tray: picked count, master, other selected symbols and merge controls are numbered 1 to 4.

  1. Picked count: This count confirms how many symbols are currently in the tray.
  2. Master Symbol: The starred and highlighted symbol with a border is the current master symbol. All other symbols in the Merge Tray will be merged into this symbol when committed. The master symbol icon, name and assigned colour are kept. Its stitch count will increase to include the grid sqaure from the other merged symbols. Future symbol searches (on Set Symbols) will now use the master symbol icon to detect matches. Choose your master symbol wisely. 
  3. Duplicate Symbols: Review and compare each thumbnail, name, stitch count and colour. Select the Set master optoon when another symbol has the clearer icon, correctly assigned colour or higher stitch count. Tap the X to remove a symbol from the tray (this also deselects the symbol in the Browse-All tab)
  4. Cancel or Merge: Cancel empties the tray without merging any symbol. The Merge N → master button combines all current duplicate symbols into the master symbol, and removes the duplicate symbol entries from the symbol list. 
How the first master is chosen:
The most-used symbol starts as the master automatically. This is a useful starting point, but the largest count does not always mean it is the best version to keep.
What to compare:
Keep the symbol with the correct icon, name and colour assignment. If page coverage is shown, use it to check whether a variation belongs to a particular page before combining it.

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On Completion

After merging:
The other symbols are removed and all of their chart grid squares now use the master. Review the updated master count before making another merge.
Done:
The Done button is displayed whenever the Merge Tray is empty. Tapping the button returns you to the step that opened Merge. 
Close:
The X in the top-right corner also leaves Merge Symbols and returns to the screen that opened it. If you opened it from Set Symbols, you return there.

Did you know?

  • Suggestions Order. Larger groups appear first, helping you deal with the duplicates that affect the most symbol records.
  • Editing Suggesions:  You can add multiple grouped suggestions into the Merge Tray by tapping the Edit button on the relevant suggestions. Alternatively, you can quickly remove symbols from a suggestions by tapping Edit to put them in the Merge Tray and tap 'X' to remove invalid symbols. 
  • Refreshing Suggestions: Tap a different search sensitivity to refresh the suggestion list. The suggestion list is automatically refreshed using the current sensitivity each time a merge is performed. This ensures that the suggestion list remains up to date.      
  • Changing the Master Symbol. Tap a different tile in a suggestion, or use Set master in the tray.
  • Ignoring Symbols is Temporary. Selecting X removes that suggestion for the current Merge Tray. They may appear again when a new search is run.

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