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[MusicHawk]

Still frustrating is the handling of long text, such as in Comment field. Today I'm working with 15 lines of Comment text as shown in the hover-to-view box. Editing it is a struggle, and it is not the longest Comment I have.

When I hover I can see the full text in a box, but when I click the field to edit, there's just one long line that truncates. If I click the field in a view it truncates at the edge of the field's column; if I click in the Tag window it truncates at the edge of my display. This is not enough; I can't get to most of the text without clicking into the field and laboriously scrolling the single line. Then I can't see the rest of the text, never mind do more than trivial editing. Cut & Paste to reorganize chunks of the text is too clumsy to be practical.

My workaround is to copy the field's contents to Notepad, edit there, then paste back into the field.

Could MC possibly provide a direct way to view a long-test field in a stable box (not just by hovering), and further to edit it while viewing all the text? It seems like a gap in MC's strong capabilities.

Searching for a solution, I see this has been discussed over the years, but apparently not improved (hoping someone can tell me of a method I'm overlooking).

I encounter long text in Music (most of my tracks use Comment or similar field for background on the recording and/or performer), Images (lots to say about some photos), and Videos too.

Of what value is long text that MC can't easily display? Actually, it can, as HTML in visualizations and similar. My music is always played with a custom visualization that shows the key info about the tracks, cover or other image, and as much of the Comment field as fits on the screen, quite a bit usually. And even when not displayed, long text can be valuable documentation of what a media file is, where it originated, etc, etc.

[Matt]

Long fields such as bios, description, etc. edit in a nice box in the tag window.  Comment isn't marked as a long field, so it's just an inline combobox.

[MusicHawk]

Matt, it is wonderful to learn that MC has a way to edit a long text field, apparently I have not used any such fields (I established my main MC fields many many years ago). In my library, Comment needs "long field" behavior; it already has lots of long field text. 

Assuming this is controlled by field Edit Type "Large Value", can the user be allowed to change this for Comment (current set to "Standard"), and possibly allow changing other built-in fields that seem to invite longer text? Is there a downside or trade-off? What does this break?

If not, must I move my Comment data to an existing "Large Value" field? Looking through the full Manage Library Fields list I discovered only these four "Large Value" fields:
Bios
Description
Lyrics
Notes

To me, Comment should also be on this list.

But if it can't be changed, I could copy all my Comment data to Notes, easy to do. But.... that would lead to massive updating of most of my 80 thousand audio files, those changes rolling through to my many backups, and revising my Playing Now display. Changing Comment field's Edit Type to "Large Value" seems like a much lighter load.


Re MC's field Description, is it suitable for use with Images? As a Large Value field, what might happen if another image app touches/changes the field? I've seen odd interaction between Description and Caption among some photo management and image editing apps, including MC and Google Picasa/Photos. Would a long text field get damaged or break an app that expects it to be of "Standard" length? Would it be safer to use Large Value field Notes to elaborate on particular images?

[Ahime]

If not, must I move my Comment data to an existing "Large Value" field? Looking through the full Manage Library Fields list I discovered only these four "Large Value" fields:
Bios
Description
Lyrics
Notes

To me, Comment should also be on this list.

I feel pretty much the same way.

[MusicBringer]

I feel pretty much the same way.

That explains why I get so cross with MC coz Comments and Description do not behave the same.

[~OHM~]

Hey guys I don't mean to stir the pot but.....a comment by most descriptions is a short verbage where as description could be pages. I find this to be true with most anything not just computer stuff.....maybe Matt will change it if he can or maybe there is underlying reasons why it wont happen.