Custom AZ Bar Using Vertical Column BrowserAZ bar is useful but it responds only to sort column which feels sometimes cumbersome. To avoid this, you can create your own custom AZ bar using a virtual tag and vertical column browser. It also filters to the selection.
1. Create a virtual tag as follows:
(1) For general use: AZ = $Group($Sort(<Artist>),1)
(2) If you have classical music tracks and want them grouped by composer rather than by artist:
AZ = $If(<Genre>="Classical",$Group($Sort(<Composer>),1),$Group($Sort(<Artist>),1))
(3) If you want to group artists by their last name, then use this instead:
Last = $Group($RSplit($First(<Artist>)," ",1),1)
It populates the first letter of the last word in artist field value. And if multiple artists are tagged, it takes the first artist's last name.
Also you can replace <Artist> field with <Composer> if you want to group composers by last name.
2. Configure column browser in vertical layout with one column of "AZ" field. Enabling "Show track count" could be useful too.
3. When you want to return to full list after filtered to a subset , click on "all" at the top or the selected node in left navigator.
