Author Topic: Dot Field for managing multiple tracks (and some other features wishlist)  (Read 24862 times)

jistme

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beeing good

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-1 for this, sorry.

For me it is easy enough to control click tracks or select all and control click, it seems silly to me to add something so potentially complex when you can already do the same thing more or less.

HHM

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of course - you can always do the same more or less in winamp, itunes, windows media player... but that's the point of this forum and of good programs to make things as easy as possible.

besides - it won't be obligatory as a column to pick in main window, so I don't understand your -1:)
Last Edit: June 15, 2012, 07:02:45 PM by HHM

beeing good

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I don't really see how it makes anything much easier and it just adds complexity where it is unnecessary. I think it is quite important to keep it as intuitive as possible and after reading the comments from Steven above I don't think this feature would be intuitive or simple. It sounds like it would be messy in usage. I'm not going to support something that I don't think is a good idea and one that I think will cause problems with the interface.

Steven

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i'm still inclined towards not doing this as i dont see what cant be achieved just by selecting the files and as i mentioned before its not clear to me what i good way is to distinguish when commands should apply to the ticked files versus applying to selected files.
I think itunes only uses the tick box for skipping files (which can already be acheived in MB using the right click/ Skip Track command) and for synching particualr files. I dont really use iTunes so i dont know if there is more. I think AIMP also has this feature and implements a couple of commands (delete files?) using a context menu path that applies only to ticked files. Neither of these implementations is particularily good for general usage in my opinion.

HHM

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The way I see it to make it as simple as possible without creating additional buttons + to achieve it's functionality:

Let's say we're in Inbox managing our new tracks:
a. on default all the tracks dot fields/check boxes are checked in (so it would be in any playlist)
b. you uncheck tracks you don't like
c. there are only 2 commands in rightclick menu:
1. delete unchecked tracks (and you don't have to do it one by one or mark all unwanted tracks from the whole playlist using ctrl and you don;t have to remember all the tracks you want to dispose as only thing you want to do is uncheck the dot/box and then delete all with 2 clicks)
2. send checked tracks to... (playlist/folders/organised folders)

Additional funcionality could be that MB automaticly skips the unchecked tracks (also much simplier than using the right click/ Skip Track command).

Of course I see it's the completelly new thing and would acquire lots of work and I understand your objections, but I think it would make some operations more simple.

And for those who don't like the idea at all - the dot field view can be just an additional column in playlist view (like Artist, Album, Comment etc.), so if you don't need it, you don't have to switch it on. and you even won't notice it's there.

Steven

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this is done now but not exactly in the way asked for.
You can add a tick box field in the main panel but not if the now playing list is displayed in the main panel - i might include it there as well but the reason its not is so people dont expect the same iTunes type behavior where it skips the file. There is already a command for that.

By default all files are ticked and can be manually unticked/ re-ticked. There are right click menu commands "Select ticked files" and "Untick all Files"/"Tick all Files" that are only available if the tickbox field is displayed. You can then choose any of usual commands (delete, send to etc)

Its in the next update
Last Edit: July 30, 2012, 01:33:45 PM by Steven

Greb

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however i dont feeel comfortable about how it would work from a user interface perspective when editing tags or applying any other context menu command.

It looks like the checking box would allow to skip automatically any song you really don't like in any album. No need to 'skip' it every time you play the albums (as it happens right now). I'd propose:

- When you play any album, any 'unchecked' song appears in the 'Now playing list' as a skipped song. Of course, you can turn off the 'skip' box in the now playing list (and this way, listening the song) without affecting the check/uncheck state in the library.
- When you copy the songs to a USB stick (for example) you should be able to choose if you want every song or only the checked ones.
- When you tag, tagging should be applied to every song. If you're changing the Genre, for example, you should change it for every song, not only for the checked ones.

EDIT Shit, didn't see the last messages...

Steven

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@greb, just in case there is any confusion:
- this functionality has no impact on the played songs as there are existing ways to manage that, it is just a way to manage and select multiple files
- you can permanently ban any track from playback using either the ban track button (no need for a last.fm account) or from the settings tab in the tag editor
- you can skip a track on a non-permanent basis from the now playing list by right clicking/ Skip Track


Greb

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@greb, just in case there is any confusion:
- this functionality has no impact on the played songs as there are existing ways to manage that, it is just a way to manage and select multiple files
- you can permanently ban any track from playback using either the ban track button (no need for a last.fm account) or from the settings tab in the tag editor
- you can skip a track on a non-permanent basis from the now playing list by right clicking/ Skip Track

I didn't notice the 'ban' option before. I see that it's possible to see them because they have a 'prohibited' sign in the 'Last.fm' field. It's very easy to uncheck the ban (just clicking over it). But if you click again then you 'love' that song. There's no way to ban a song in a easiest way?

Steven

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this has the change:
http://musicbee.niblseed.com/V2/MusicBee_Exe_Patched.zip

i decided to include this field in the now playing panel as well, and if its included you can untick to skip tracks (like iTunes), but to be clear that behavior only exists for the now playing panel and is independant of ticks for files displayed in the main panel

@greb, hold the shift key down
Last Edit: July 31, 2012, 06:43:20 PM by Steven

Greb

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@greb, hold the shift key down

Holy shit, why didn't I know that before?  ;D

Seriously, Steven, in my opinion the biggest problem MB has now is... it's absolutelly big. I know quite well the program and even though I miss lots of functions... a newcomer has to be missing 90% of MB.

Why don't you prepare a 'How to...?' page the way anybody here could add new things. This way, when something like that appears in the forum, somebody could drop by and add, for example, in this case, a 'How to ban and unban songs from the library'.

HHM

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It looks nice and works, though one command in right-click-menu is missing (think Steven wrote about this), I mean "Select Unticked files"

Right now we got:
Untick all files (changed for "Tick all files" when all files are already unticked)
+
Select Ticked Files (and after that we can do all operations needed available in MB)

"Select Unticked files" would make deleting unwanted tracks much simplier.

So imagine there are 3 files in DOWNLOADS / NEW folder/playlist, accordingly 1. WANT, 2. NOT SURE, 3. DELETE, all are ticked on default (^). What I want to do is to send Want to the library, dispose of Delete and stay with Not Sure to give it another chance.

^ WANT
^ NOT SURE
^ DELETE

First I want to do is delete unwanted stuff. So what I need to do is:
1. Untick all
2. Tick Deletes manually
3. delete them

With additional "Select Unticked files" function in RC Menu, it takes only two steps:
1. Untick Deletes manually
2.  delete them

But maybe it's me just wanting too much:) The way it is now is great, so thanks a lot!!!!!