presets for column browser layouts

[hiccup]

An option to be able to save and load column browser layouts would be nice to have.
Something like the options: 'save columns layout' and 'load columns layout', available by clicking the column browser header would be great.

[phred]

+1

[psychoadept]

Since we can already use "sort by" presets for this, maybe we just need more sorting sets in preferences? I remember running out of sorting sets when I was using library explorer a lot

[hiccup]

Since we can already use "sort by" presets for this, maybe we just need more sorting sets in preferences?

I am talking about sometimes wanting the column browser to show:

Genre Category | Genre | Composer | Work

And at other times maybe something like:

Year | Genre | Sub genre | Artist

How does 'sort by' play a role here?

 

[psychoadept]

Do you not have "use Sort By fields" as an option right under Set Displayed Columns?

[hiccup]

Do you not have "use Sort By fields" as an option right under Set Displayed Columns?

Wow, thanks. I never made the connection that something named 'sorting as' would relate to the layout of the column browser.
It seems to work indeed, yet not completely one-on-one as I would expect it.
Some quick tests display more columns than I have actually set in the sorting panel.
Seems to be related to settings elsewhere such as 'what defines an album'.

Makes me wonder if I have to acknowledge that MB is just more clever than I am, or that it is trying to be too clever ;-)

[Zak]

You're not alone. I've never noticed that before, although I tend to have a preferred set of columns that I use for all views.

[psychoadept]

Yeah, it's definitely one of those things that could be labeled more clearly.

[hiccup]

Do you not have "use Sort By fields" as an option right under Set Displayed Columns?

Any idea why this was coupled to 'sort by' in the first place?
Was this because of a request and/or some discussions in the past?

And more importantly, is there an advantage that it works like this, opposed to just having dedicated 'save/load' column presets, independent of these 'sort by' presets?

[hiccup]

Now that I know this, it's not an issue or a request for me anymore. I'm a happy camper now.

But since at least three experienced MB users weren't aware of the workings of this, for the sake of many other users it would perhaps be good to revise this feature.

[psychoadept]

I would guess it was just a matter of "here are some common field sets someone might want to use", but yeah they should probably be relabeled a little bit. There's a feature in Library Explorer that uses these, too. (Is anybody using Library Explorer anymore?)

[Zak]

Any idea why this was coupled to 'sort by' in the first place?
Was this because of a request and/or some discussions in the past?

And more importantly, is there an advantage that it works like this, opposed to just having dedicated 'save/load' column presets, independent of these 'sort by' presets?

My guess is that it was just easier for Steven to implement it this way, because the work for letting the user specify a set of tags was already done for the custom sorting.