More > JRiver Media Center 28 for Windows
FEATURE REQUEST: Tag Window Menu additional options
EnglishTiger:
I agree with HPBME the Tag Windows do need some, probably a lot, of work carried out.
But that work does not stop with HPBME's Suggestions.
There are inconsistencies of presentation of Tag Content between the 2 windows. For Example in the Std Tag Window ; delimited tags are presented as a list, in the Advanced Window only the 1st entry is displayed.
In the Std. tag window there is a Mysterious, and Editable, Tag labelled "Format" and if you do as the the Tooltip Suggest and Click to Edit you end up in a New Window that is doing a very good impression of the Advanced Tag Window's Tag Dump Section; where you discover that "Format" is not a single tag and none of it's Component Parts are Editable.
But the thing that I noticed when compiling my Track-Info Plugins was how badly organised the unmodified Advanced Tag Window is.
For example the ATW has a section labelled "Classical" but the 4/5 Tags that are unique to Classical Music are in the Advanced Section, The 3 Movement tags, the "Work" tag and the undocumented "Show Work Movement" tag.
OH and there is something I am getting fed up of reporting - Somebody at MC decided to give us the ability to store the "Amazon System Information Number" in a Tag/Filed, but totally forgot that Amazon prevented 3rd party metadata scrapers accessing their web-sites years ago because they set it as "Can Not Be Edited". MC is capable of doing lots of things but using ESP to populate the Amazon ASIN Tag metadata is not one of them.
HPBEME:
--- Quote ---1) Stop that irritating flashing when the tag window is first opened. I'm always in a hurry and it drives me crazy wasting a second for it to settle down so I can use it.
--- End quote ---
100% agree with this. It is pretty obvious when you open the tag window, since, well... it opens! I have no idea what purpose or value the "flashing" brings. That said, I have found that if you click somewhere, anywhere, within the tag window immediately after opening it, it prevents the flashing. But why have it flash at all? I cannot think of a single benefit, unless one enjoys being annoyed.
--- Quote ---2) Make the tag window artwork image scale larger as I widen the window so I can more easily assess the quality of artwork.
--- End quote ---
If you make the tree/tag window as narrow as possible, and then start to widen it, you will see the artwork does get larger, but stops increasing in size fairly quickly. I presume you want it to keep getting bigger? You could try what I do to evaluate artwork - I use split view with the cover art maximized on 1 side. I find it helpful to turn on the display an alphabet option so I can quickly access a specific artist/album - with the art being that big, scrolling a large library can be laborious.
--- Quote ---3) When both the tag window and tree are visible, make it possible to change the size of the split. I always need more space for the tag window and will happily shrink the tree to make room. I can't close the tree because I still need access to it.
--- End quote ---
That is a great idea... Yes please!
--- Quote ---4) Make it easier to grab the scroll bar in the tag window. I almost always miss it on my first attempt with the mouse.
--- End quote ---
This one is driven by the skin design itself. If you are willing to go into the main.XML file of the skin you are using and do a simple edit, you can make the scrollbar wider. Here is a screenshot of the relevant main.XML section for the Noire skin.
To make the scrollbar wider, decrease the Scale value shown at the end of the highlighted line (for the Scrollbar's "Vertical Background"). Conversely, to make the scrollbar thinner, increase the scale value. And yes, that is the opposite of what one would intuitively assume (for me it was anyway).
Note that scale values do not have to be integers... you can change them by incremental amounts. In fact, you may want to... changing Scale from 2 to 1 doubles the width, which is a pretty drastic change. I would suggest changing 2 to 1.5, or maybe 1.8 and see how that looks. Keep decreasing the value until it is at a width you like and can easily "grab".
Also note that these values are relative not absolute. This mean that if the XML original Scale = 4 (like the sample script above), then changing that to 2 doubles the width, and changing to 3 increases the width by 50%. Just wanted to point that out, as I don't know what skin you are using and not every skin uses the same scrollbar vertical background scale (which typically has to do with how detailed the scrollbar background image is, and how finely the author is trying to display that image). Also, the horizontal background scale is set independently of the vertical background, so you will need to adjust it's scale as well if you want their widths to match.
And finally, the script above will not be identical for all skins: the sequential order of the lines, the order of variables within a given line, and the image name for the Bitmap variable all may differ. The thing that will be common for ALL skin XML's however, is the relevant script will be in the <SCROLLBAR> section, and the critical line will begin with <Entry Name="VerticalBackground"...
Way more info than you asked for, but hopefully you will try the edits and it gets you what you want.
HPBEME:
--- Quote ---There are inconsistencies of presentation of Tag Content between the 2 windows. For Example in the Std Tag Window ; delimited tags are presented as a list, in the Advanced Window only the 1st entry is displayed.
--- End quote ---
YES! I so wish the Advanced Tag Window displayed it as a list. Showing just the first item with an "..." ellipsis after it is very frustrating.
--- Quote ---In the Std. tag window there is a Mysterious, and Editable, Tag labelled "Format" and if you do as the the Tooltip Suggest and Click to Edit you end up in a New Window that is doing a very good impression of the Advanced Tag Window's Tag Dump Section; where you discover that "Format" is not a single tag and none of it's Component Parts are Editable.
--- End quote ---
I had never noticed that tag before... interesting. After reading this, I played around a bit and found you can also generate that same "format tag" by clicking the text at the very top of the Std Tag Window (next to the tiny cover art image). If you hover on it for a second, the tool tip says "Click for detailed format information"... whaddya know. So there are 2 ways in the Std tag window to generate a detailed list of the file info, as well as the "Tag Dump" option in the advanced window. I consider all these to just be different ways to show the same info though, and is not really a "problem". Redundant perhaps, but no biggie.
All my blathering in these last couple posts notwithstanding, I really hope my original post does not get lost in the shuffle... that is...
Add the 4 items to the Tag Window Header Bar's Menu list that I detailed in my initial post. I really believe these would be very nice enhancements to MC's usability, and hope more people will post their support of this idea to encourage JRiver to incorporate them.
markf2748:
--- Quote from: HPBEME on November 19, 2021, 11:12:38 am ---YES! I so wish the Advanced Tag Window displayed it as a list. Showing just the first item with an "..." ellipsis after it is very frustrating
--- End quote ---
I find that if nothing is selected in the Adv. Tag Window (may need to hit <ESC> to make that happen), then hover my mouse over the first item shown in a ";" delimited list which appears with an "..." ellipsis, then I get a very clear, easy-to-read drop down of all items in the list! Great feature. If I click directly on the item, then I get a full-fledged selection drop down, showing my current list at the top above a separation line, also a great feature. Just take the ellipsis as a signal that there is more to see... I vote NO CHANGES to the way Data Type: List (semicolon delimited) works. :)
Re "Tag Dump" - that is another really great feature of the Adv. Tag Window, particularly the Vorbis Comment Block that shows up for my flac files. I believe the block contains only tags that are actually written into the music file itself. I generally get 1-1 agreement between tags displayed in the Comment Block, and those displayed by app Mp3tag > View > Extended Tags, apart from occasional small differences in labeling. This cross check gives me high confidence about what is truly preserved in the file.
Only two wishes here: (1) Unfortunately the Tag Dump does not expand to occupy all available space - instead it has a vertical scroll bar. I have submitted this twice as an enchantment request, but so far no bananas. (2) An option to list the Vorbis Comment Block in alphabetical order for easy comparison. I'm not sure what drives the current order - maybe it reflects ordering in the file itself (?).
As implied by other comments in this thread (which I am thankful for), most views of the Std. Tag Window have optional near equivalents in the Adv. Tag Window, as illustrated in my attached images. I find the Adv. view and Std. view either agree identically, or the Adv. View actually shows a few more fields (exception: behavior of lyrics editing window). The Adv. View has so much versatile customization to love. Granted, Std. View may be valuable for those users who just want something that is relatively simple and works out of the box without mucking around. (my 2 cents).
HPBEME:
--- Quote from: markf2748 on November 19, 2021, 01:44:27 pm ---I find that if nothing is selected in the Adv. Tag Window (may need to hit <ESC> to make that happen), then hover my mouse over the first item shown in a ";" delimited list which appears with an "..." ellipsis, then I get a very clear, easy-to-read drop down of all items in the list! Great feature. If I click directly on the item, then I get a full-fledged selection drop down, showing my current list at the top above a separation line, also a great feature. Just take the ellipsis as a signal that there is more to see...
--- End quote ---
Yeah... I was aware it shows the full list in a tooltip if you hover over it (but not if you have tooltips turned off obviously), and that it shows a split list if you click on the combobox. But I, and would bet English Tiger too, would definitely prefer it shows the full list directly by default, as it does in the Standard Tag Window. We will likely have to agree to disagree as to which is better. That said, your preference is the current default.
--- Quote ---Re "Tag Dump" - that is another really great feature of the Adv. Tag Window, particularly the Vorbis Comment Block. I believe it shows only tags that are actually written into the music file itself. I generally get 1-1 agreement between the items it shows, and those displayed by app Mp3tag > View > Extended Tags, apart from occasional small differences in labeling. This cross check gives me high confidence about what is truly preserved in the file.
Only two wishes here: (1) Tag Dump does not expand to occupy all available space - instead it has a vertical scroll bar. I have submitted this twice as an enchantment request, but so far no bananas. (2) An option to list the Vorbis Comment Block in alphabetical order for easy comparison. I'm not sure what drives the current order - maybe it reflects ordering in the file itself (?).
--- End quote ---
Great additional info/observations regarding the Tag Dump. And having the Tag Dump automatically expand to fill the full height of the Tag Window would be a definite plus.
--- Quote ---As implied by other comments in this thread (which I am tthankful for), most views of the Std. Tag Window can optionally be brought lock-stock-and-barrel directly into the Adv. Tag Window, as illustrated in my attached images. I find the Adv. view and Std. view either agree identically, or the Adv. View actually shows a few more fields. The Adv. View has so much versatile customization to love. Granted, Std. View may be valuable for those users who just want something that is relatively simple and works out of the box without mucking around. (my 2 cents).
--- End quote ---
Nice info/pic for those unfamiliar with how to customize the Adv Tag Window.
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