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[HamDog]

When displaying my music, I want certain columns to show, and others to hide (artist, number of channels, track #, etc.).  I have created and saved how I want things to appear.  Is there a way of making this a default?  Everytime I start JRiver, I need to go to column presets and select the one I saved.  Then I need to do this everytime I change playlists. 

Thanks!

[glynor]

There is no way to set a default Column layout for newly created Views and Playlists. However, MC will remember the changes you make to any existing View or Playlist (so long as that View isn't locked, which can be turned on and off in the Customize View dialog). These changes are saved per-View (also per-Playlist). So changing one Playlist (or the View of all the Playlist files if you select that in the Tree) will not change all of the other Playlists.

This is handy though, as you can set the View up as it works best for that particular View or Playlist, and don't need to make a "one size fits all" compromise. If you find it tiresome to apply one particular Column layout to a bunch of different places, definitely make a Preset for it, and you can quickly apply it wherever it is needed.

One thing that might be biting you, though, is that Column layout, like all View customization, must be done on the Server if you are using MC in a client/server setup. Changes made on any copy of MC connected to another server as a client will be lost when that client is closed (or when it automatically re-syncs itself with the Server).

So, if you're tweaking the column layouts, you need to do it on the Server-side, and then all the Clients will be able to see them. (You may also find this handy, as it'll stop meddlesome family members from mucking with your carefully constructed Column layouts.)

[BigSpider]

If you go to the top menu item in display view after arranging your columns the way you want them and click it you will see a drop down menu, select coumns>presets and click save. You can give this preset a name. It is easy then to apply this preset to any view. Unfortunately you cannot set a default arrangement so you need to apply the saved arrangement but then it will be remembered in future.

[RoderickGI]

I believe that HamDog is talking about Playing Now, which does reset its column layout whenever it is refreshed, based on the media format being played I think. i.e. On restarting MC, or on starting playback of a Playlist to an empty Playing Now, and some other circumstances.

If there is any way to define a default column layout to Playing Now, that is always honoured, I would be interested to know. It would probably need to be dependent on the media type, and so, therefore, work something like templates elsewhere in MC.

[BigSpider]

As far as I know RoderickGI there is no default column view, since the different media would all require a different setup, even different views within each media type might require a different column arrangement. The best we have is saved column views, which are honoured once they are applied.

[HamDog]

Thank you glynor!  My problem was that I was applying it at the client, not the server.  Therefore, it would revert back to the last style whenever started again.  I'm ok with not having a default as long as it remembers the last setting that was chosen.  Just tested it by applying my column settings (as a preset) on one of my playlists and it displayed the same on my client!  Problem solved!  Thanks.

RoderickGI, I think that's something different.  Not sure I'm advanced enough to have run into that issue yet! 

[glynor]

Playing Now, which does reset its column layout whenever it is refreshed, based on the media format being played I think. i.e. On restarting MC, or on starting playback of a Playlist to an empty Playing Now, and some other circumstances.

I don't think so. I don't remember how I did it, but my default Playing Now Column layout is absolutely customized and includes many of my custom fields (like [Watched] and [Plays]):

I opened MC on a client, played a song (from a View of only music) and got that.

Since the Column Layout it used is a version of my "All Media" Column Preset, I'd assume there was no way to set it per-media type or anything like that. I suspect I probably just played files and then altered it on the server-side, but I don't remember for sure. In any case, you can be assured that there is some way to alter it and have it stick (and since I did it long ago and not on MC25 at any point, it must be part of the settings or Library that persists through upgrades/backup-restores).

[RoderickGI]

Thanks Glynor.

I tested before posting using a standalone installation of MC on my Workstation, so that there would be no Client/Server issues to consider.

Maybe the first preset in the alphabetical list is used, or something like that. Is your "All Media" preset the first in the list? Certainly it seems that the Audio preset is the one used when the columns get reset for me, and that is the first preset other than a preset listed as "(empty)", which I assume means it has a blank name. But now I look more the changes don't seem to be consistent.

I'll have to look into it more.

[glynor]

Yeah. Not sure. I just tested changing it. My preset in question is called All Media, and is first in the list (after Empty), but the behavior isn't tied to the Presets at all.

First off, generally Presets are only "written" when you apply them, and then each View maintains its own independent Column layout. In other words, when you apply a Column Preset to a particular view, it is set to whatever that Preset was set to at that moment. But if you later change the Preset, any Views you set with that Preset previously don't auto-magically update themselves. They stay however they were at the moment you applied them. So, it would be weird for it to be dynamically applying a preset.

Also, the Columns my Playing Now was using wasn't my current All Media preset. It looks like a version of it I probably used a long while ago, frozen in time.

But, in any case, I'm now sure it doesn't have anything to do with the Preset, and I know how to change them, because I just:
1. Opened MC on my Server
2. Went to Playing Now (I didn't bother to play anything new, just went there directly). I selected Playing Now > Standard (the name I give my "regular" Zone).
3. Added a new custom column (my [Artist Letters] calculated field I use for a few different purposes) and moved the [Image (Small thumbnail)] column over where it should live next to the album name, not the [Artist] as I had it previously). I didn't do anything with the Preset.
4. I closed and re-opened MC on the server completely. The Columns persisted. I played something new and they persisted.
5. I switched over to a client machine and re-opened MC. I switched to the Playing Now view (the same one I screenshotted earlier tonight), and the new column layout is there already:

(Click to embiggen. You can also click my screenshot in my post above to see the original un-modified full-width screenshot.)

I thought maybe it was my Zone setup at first. Maybe you had some kind of fancy Zone-switching setup or something, and each Zone got its own Column layout, and that was screwing you up? And maybe mine happened to "transmit" to my clients because they too have a Zone called Standard which they usually use? But, I tested that too. I switched to the Night Zone on my client copy of MC (the Server has only Standard, and no other Zones set up at all), and played something, and it too got the new modified Column layout.

And, it is worth saying, that it doesn't matter what media type I play. If I play Images or Video (or a mixture) I still get the same Column layout. So, it doesn't appear to be Zone-specific or anything like that, and mine isn't tied to Media Type at all. I'm not sure why yours aren't persisting, but mine sure are (thank goodness, I'd be annoyed).

[RoderickGI]

Thanks for the detail.

I think the issue I was seeing was related to auto sizing of columns. The columns may not even have changed, but changed position because they weren't resizing. It is possible that the layout was changing, but now that I have loaded all presets at least once, and played about a bit, it seems the column layout is staying the same. Obviously, I wasn't taking enough notice.

However the default Presets, Audio, Image, and Video, don't seem to honour the Auto Sizing settings in "Options > Tree & View > List > Auto size columns" and "Options > Tree & View > Advanced > Allow auto size to cut off long values", which make sense as they were snapshots at some time in the past. There is no way to delete these default presets, or update/save them with columns auto sized. So if I load say the Audio default Preset, the columns are collapsed rather than Auto Sized.

I guess I should create my own Prests for all formats, and a generic one for Playing Now, as you have, then I can control everything about them.

Or JRiver could make Presets honour the Auto Size settings.

Or JRiver could allow the default Presets to be overwritten using the Save function, when the same name is used.

Or JRiver could allow the default Presets to be deleted, so new ones of the same name could be created.

[glynor]

was related to auto sizing of columns.

Gotta keep that crap straight disabled. I set my column widths and orders carefully so I can see what I want on screen all at once, without having to side-scroll (at sizes I often use MC). Some algorithm coming in and resizing things and moving content left-and-right across the screen how it sees fit?



One of the other benefits of the fact that the Views can only be changed on the server is that, from all my clients, I can resize columns willy-nilly across my views (temporarily to see a particularly long set of field values, for example), and the next time I launch them they'll be back how I set them originally on the Server.

[RoderickGI]

One of the other benefits of the fact that the Views can only be changed on the server is that, from all my clients, I can resize columns willy-nilly across my views (temporarily to see a particularly long set of field values, for example), and the next time I launch them they'll be back how I set them originally on the Server.

Yep, I use that "Feature" all the time. Also with experimenting with new Views. No need to back up and restore, just restart MC and back to original Views.

I might have to turn off that Auto Sizing...