Some users writelog.ini files have accumulated a large number of entries of the form:
[DockScreen-Barnnn]
For recent versions of WriteLog, there should only be entries [DockScreen-Bar0] through [DockScreen-Bar23] as well as [DockScreen-Summary]. If you have more than these, WriteLog can become sluggish and even completely crash. The excess settings are duplicated into any .wl files you save with WriteLog so permanently getting rid of the excess requires some care. WriteLog version 11.01 and later automatically removes excess entries, so the procedure below should not be necessary for users of those versions, but, if WriteLog becomes especially slow, it is worth looking in your writelog.ini to check there are only 24 (or so) [DockScreen-Barnn] entries.
Version 12 users case safely delete all INI sections of the form [DockScreen- because Version 12 uses a completely different mechanism to save its on-screen layout.
Removing excess [DockScreen-*] entries from writelog.ini
Edit Writelog.ini and search for
[DockScreen-
All of the sections with that name are written in order, so you can select all of them in one large selection and delete them. Save writelog.ini and when you next run WriteLog, start a new log (do not load an old log). The window layout will be the default layout without any of your customizations. You may customize them now for the settings you would like when you create a new contest log in the future. Then do a Setup/Save Configuration. Check that your writelog.ini has 24 settings (0 through 23).
Keeping the excess from writelog.ini
The docked window layout is saved to the .wl file and is recovered when you load a .wl file. If you load a .wl file with excess settings and then do a Setup/Save Configuration, the excess settings will appear in your writelog.ini and therefore any any new logs you create and save afterwards. These excess settings will slow down WriteLog, so you want to avoid this problem.
To prevent WriteLog from loading settings from a .wl file, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click the OK button on the file selection box. Keep it held down through any initialization dialogs that might pop up until all you see in the WriteLog window is the caret flashing in the CALL field in WriteLog’s Entry Window. At this point, the window layout is that specified in writelog.ini and not the one save in the .wl file. You may safely do a Setup/Save Configuration at this point, or change your window layout and do a File Save, which will save a “good” layout to the .wl file, thus eliminating the problem from that particular .wl file.