Author Topic: "Auto size all columns" automatically?  (Read 8522 times)

Sigma

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You can right-click the column headers in the Now Playing box and choose "Auto size all columns" to have them resize to best fit the information that's displayed there.

Would it be possible to have an option to have this done automatically, so the columns will just size themselves to best fit the info at any given point? So any time something is added or removed from the Now Playing list, it would effectively trigger "auto size all columns".

I don't know if this would be a hassle from a coding POV, but from a user experience POV the only negative I can think of is that when you manually use this option, there is a very slight bit of screen flicker, like the UI of the whole program is being refreshed or something and that could be annoying if it's happening a lot. I thought I'd ask anyway though.

psychoadept

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As long as it was a one-time event when adding a column, that could be useful.  What I mean is people might still want to manually resize columns for whatever reason.

What I would like to see is an automatic maximum for columns like time and bitrate.  They only need to be big enough to show the info, they don't really need any padding.
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Zak

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I've never missed this in the Now Playing list because mine only ever shows Artist and Title anyway, but it would be a good option for the Details columns in the main panel where the view is constantly changing and can show different columns in different contexts. It used to be an option but must have been removed at some point.

For consistency with other Windows programs, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-+ should also do the same thing.

What I would like to see is an automatic maximum for columns like time and bitrate.  They only need to be big enough to show the info, they don't really need any padding.
I've never had a problem with columns being wider than necessary. Quite the opposite, I'd rather see an option for setting a minimum width because values I want to see keep getting truncated.
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Sigma

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As long as it was a one-time event when adding a column, that could be useful.  What I mean is people might still want to manually resize columns for whatever reason.
I wasn't thinking of it as a one time event. It would occur any time anything new was added to the Now Playing list (or was removed from it), because the column widths need to adjust depending on the length of things like the artist name or track title, which obviously change as you use MusicBee. The idea is, this would always keep the columns at the optimal width automatically, depending on the information they contain at the time.

If it was added as a feature, it would have to be optional though, because some people like to have the columns at fixed widths.

Iasc

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I don't know if this would be a hassle from a coding POV, but from a user experience POV the only negative I can think of is that when you manually use this option, there is a very slight bit of screen flicker, like the UI of the whole program is being refreshed or something and that could be annoying if it's happening a lot. I thought I'd ask anyway though.

i like the idea and would use it as long as it doesn't have the annoying effect you stated above so +1 from me.

Ametz

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Is it possibly to set it to always auto size columns so i dont need to do it manually in every folder i visit?
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redwing

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+1 for adding a permanent auto-size-column option. It's annoying to click on it over and over whenever displayed fields are adjusted. As discussed above, this could be given as an option like the following mockup:



But how to handle existing nodes (filter, playlists) with fixed-width columns?

My suggestion is whenever node changes the auto-size selection defaults to "one time." But if the user chooses to tick "always," the node is remembered as having auto-sized columns. So when the node is revisited later, the selection will be "always".

psychoadept

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But how to handle existing nodes (filter, playlists) with fixed-width columns?

My suggestion is whenever node changes the auto-size selection defaults to "one time." But if the user chooses to tick "always," the node is remembered as having auto-sized columns. So when the node is revisited later, the selection will be "always".

I'd think just make it part of view settings like columns are now.
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redwing

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I'd think just make it part of view settings like columns are now.

Yes, that's what I meant.

Zak

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For consistency with other Windows programs, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-+ should also do the same thing.
I notice something has been implemented for this in one of the recent releases, but it doesn't do the same thing as selecting "Auto Size All Columns". I think it's a useful addition, but currently there are a few problems:

1. The highlight column becomes really wide (for me at least, as I prefer it to be a narrow "strip" rather than a thick block)
2. Genre doesn't appear to reflect the width of its contents at all
3. The rating column seems to always size to the width of a two star rating
4. The total width can become less than the width of the main panel (see screenshot below). In this case, columns should be wider than needed to display their contents.
6. The column widths don't take into account tracks that are off screen
7. It only works when "Keep Columns Sized to Panel" is unchecked
8. Sometimes I end up with unskinned scrollbars
9. The same key combination can be used to size columns in the Track Browser if they have input focus, which doesn't really work because there's no way to resize it again.



Tried the same keys in Album and Tracks view and got this:

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theta_wave

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+1 for adding a permanent auto-size-column option. It's annoying to click on it over and over whenever displayed fields are adjusted. As discussed above, this could be given as an option like the following mockup:



But how to handle existing nodes (filter, playlists) with fixed-width columns?

My suggestion is whenever node changes the auto-size selection defaults to "one time." But if the user chooses to tick "always," the node is remembered as having auto-sized columns. So when the node is revisited later, the selection will be "always".
+1 on this idea.  I'm getting tired of right clicking "Auto Size All Columns" over and over again.  It would be nice to have "Auto Size All Columns" as a bindable hotkey.
Last Edit: January 21, 2016, 06:23:28 AM by ssri