A couple of quick questions

[Kaien]

Hey everyone, I'm new around here and thought I could get some help with a couple of little things that are bugging me out 

First off, is there a way to have the Now Playing popup *not* steal focus from the main MB window? Sometimes I'm working on my library and the popup comes up when a new song starts and it messes up with whatever I was doing (fixing tags, moving files, etc). I really love having the popup so I don't want to disable it just for that little thing.

Second, my music library was a complete mess (to say the least), so I've been working with the File Organizer a lot lately. One thing that I'm finding a bit time consuming is going through the different templates I've created so far and finding out which one is the one I need (basically I had to re-create my whole library, so I have a ton of them). Is there any way I can remove templates that I'm not going to use ever again anymore? Having them in that dropdown taking space seems a bit pointless to me.

Last but not least, as a former iTunes user something I was used to was the Now Playing list/view showing the songs I had queued in the order they were going to be played (even if I had shuffling on - which I do most of the time); however, I've noticed that MB's right panel (Now Playing) doesn't do this and instead just jumps from one track to another. Is there a way to make it list the songs in the order they're going to be played (so that I know what's going to play next and so on)? Also, in this iTunes/MB shuffling topic - I remember in iTunes being able to go from a shuffled play to a non-shuffled one when I clicked the Play button in an album (like this: http://i.imgur.com/Jx9Vnvg.jpg); however in MB when I do this it plays the album in shuffle mode until I manually turn shuffle off. I understand both programs are different from each other but I was hoping there was a way to emulate this little thing?

I'm sorry if any of these questions have been asked/answered before, I tried doing a forum search but couldn't find anything similar.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, I've been using MB for about 2 months now and I'm loving every bit of it - can't wait to see what Steven has planned for the future 

[phred]

First off, is there a way to have the Now Playing popup *not* steal focus from the main MB window? Sometimes I'm working on my library and the popup comes up when a new song starts and it messes up with whatever I was doing (fixing tags, moving files, etc). I really love having the popup so I don't want to disable it just for that little thing.

Welcome!
I think what you're looking for can be found in the Now Playing section of the Preferences.  Look near the bottom under 'playback' and remove the check (tick) mark from 'show popup for:'  
However, I just reread your issue and see that you don't want to disable it.  You just want it to not grab the focus when it pops up.  That may be something Steven needs to address.  If no one else has a solution, you might need to add this to the wishlist topic so Steven can consider it.

[Steven]

it shouldnt steal focus and trying now it doesnt for me. However i have only tested this on XP and win 7, so i guess its possible something has changed in windows 8+

[Kaien]

Hey there, thanks for the prompt response!

Here's a screenshot of what I'm talking about:



As you can see, the selected track changes from red to gray. So, for example, if I'm working on that file's tags and the popup shows up, it will interrupt my typing until the popup fades out (I am aware I can always disable the popup or shorten its duration - and I'll gladly resort to that if there's no other option).

Also, any thoughts on the other 2 questions? Should I perhaps start a new thread in the wishlist forum for those?

Thanks again!

[Steven]

yes i get the same behavior is MB is active and you dont have "only show when inactive" enabled.
This should fix that:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

unzip and replace the existing files

[Zak]

Is there any way I can remove templates that I'm not going to use ever again anymore?

There doesn't seem to be currently (short of editing whichever XML configuration file they are stored in) so this would need to be made into a wishlist request item.

Last but not least, as a former iTunes user something I was used to was the Now Playing list/view showing the songs I had queued in the order they were going to be played (even if I had shuffling on - which I do most of the time)...

Is there a way to make it list the songs in the order they're going to be played (so that I know what's going to play next and so on)?

I thought half the fun of shuffle mode was not knowing what song was going to be played next! To get the behaviour you've requested instead of turning on shuffle mode, right click any track in the Now Playing List and select List > Shuffle List. MusicBee will still play them in the order displayed, but it will be a random order.

[Kaien]

yes i get the same behavior is MB is active and you dont have "only show when inactive" enabled.
This should fix that:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2_5/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

unzip and replace the existing files

Awesome, I'll try this right away. Thanks a lot!

There doesn't seem to be currently (short of editing whichever XML configuration file they are stored in) so this would need to be made into a wishlist request item.

Ah, I see. Will do, then

I thought half the fun of shuffle mode was not knowing what song was going to be played next! To get the behaviour you've requested instead of turning on shuffle mode, right click any track in the Now Playing List and select List > Shuffle List. MusicBee will still play them in the order displayed, but it will be a random order.

Oh nice, I hadn't thought of that! And I don't have to worry about albums playing shuffled either! Niceeee, 2 birds with 1 stone. Thanks a lot for that tip - you've improved my MB experience haha