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[wheel54]

I'm almost there with everything - just would love one tiny tweak to my view - to get panes in to it.

I don't suppose there's anyway to have a categories view (which allows you to setup custom subtext under groupings AND have those groupings able to be entered via double-click to show album icons also with subtext and selectable track listings when double-clicked) also have a panes filter in it too?

Basically like the panes view setup but with a categories view under the panes instead of a details file listing.

What my goal is basically is moving over from MusicBee, and while I know I can't recreate it perfectly, I have it almost there - even better than panes would just be a single vertical column to the left of the categories view which filters down the categories view to the selected grouping from the column (basically like a custom artist field).

Visually I can create this by using split views but the two views in split view don't acknowledge each other so functionally it doesn't help at all. 

[HPBEME]

I have it almost there - even better than panes would just be a single vertical column to the left of the categories view which filters down the categories view to the selected grouping from the column (basically like a custom artist field). 

When you set a view to use categories, the left panel tree can function in a way that I think you're looking for - just make sure you enable the checkbox for Support Tree Browsing.

Instead of double-clicking album thumbnails in the primary content area, click the list items in the tree instead and drill down to your desired level.  For each level, you can customize the text that is shown under the thumbnail.  The second picture shows three different options for the final level: Album Thumbnails, Tiles, and Detail List.

 

[blgentry]

I think what you really want is a Panes view with a Pane that lets you filter on a composite field, or an expression.  Panes are really designed to be clicked on to filter your result further and further until you get what you want.

Categories views are neat because they are visual.  But they are really quite slow and limited compared to Panes views.  Did you know you can use an expression in a Panes view?  How about saved searches?  These are called search lists.

I think you can probably do everything you want with a Panes view.

My collection is tiny compared to most here.  It's only about 650 albums.  With a collection that size, just the search box is all I need most of the time.  That and just scanning over album covers to find what I want.  I understand that a lot of you have thousands of albums, which probably makes it harder to find what you want.

Brian.

[wheel54]

With Media Center category view, I get this which you can double click an entry to get this.  It's pretty decent, but not great imo.

With Media center panes view I get this.
1) Now I have a vertical column like I enjoy that is functional (album thumbnails update based on this column's selection).
2) A large vertical pane prevents the upper panes at top I think.
3) No interaction other than double click to play.

[HPBEME]

I suggested the tree browsing option because it seemed like it kind of matched what you stated in your prior post. I personally don't use tree browsing, though I can see why some people would want to.

The links below show how I set up my panes view. It definitely differs from your desired layout, but I think you can still mostly accomplish what you want to achieve.

https://imgur.com/y6yNitN
album thumbnails below the panes as you filter selections, which as you have discovered, you can only launch the entire album and not a specific track (I agree this is a shortcoming).  Note the 1st pane - it groups artists by a single sort letter.
   
https://imgur.com/pH5ocQp
same as above, except album details are shown below the panes.  As you can see, you can include a large album thumbnail as a column item… The wider the column, the bigger the album thumbnail will be.  And since it is a detail list, you can select/play a single track, or even non-contiguous tracks from any album shown in the view.

These next couple pics is another way I like to use to browse for music.  The first pic shows artists grouped under each of the primary sort letters.  The custom text underneath indicates the sort letter itself, and the number of albums that correspond to it.  The second pic is simply after double-clicking on the "J" artist grouping, which then shows much larger thumbnails with artist pictures instead of album thumbnails.

https://imgur.com/ofCxsUk
https://postimg.cc/XZ57K8DV

I know none of these are exactly what you're looking for, but maybe they will suit your needs anyway, or maybe points you in a new direction that does.  Best of luck.

[wheel54]

Thanks!  I feel like there's a few small pieces missing to be able to get closer to what I want.

Still with suggestions and time I'm sure I can get even closer to something ideal. 

I don't suppose there's any way to set the icons under the tree on the extreme left for folder browsing is there?  They're small, but might be neat to have them custom to the each grouping - perhaps if instead of tree browsing I just make individual views under the main view and I might be able to accomplish what I'm looking for better not sure.  I still have more tweaking to do!

Also wondering if in panes view it would be possible to get thumbnails with 2 lines of subtext like in category view?  Not possible right?  Even if you use a custom fields that's assembling data from other fields, it wouldn't be able to list that custom field instead of the album name right?  This is the main limiting factor that will probably keep me to category view - I like to see my desired album summary info right inline with the album itself.

[lepa]

You can have also many rows of text under thumbnail in the panel mode. But as you would need to use album thumbnails you won't get any track level data

[HPBEME]

Thanks!  I feel like there's a few small pieces missing to be able to get closer to what I want.

Unfortunately, kind of close is probably all it will ever be. MC and Musicbee simply handle how you browse and drill-down differently.

I don't suppose there's any way to set the icons under the tree on the extreme left for folder browsing is there?

The tree icon position is not something users can change… Not even if you were to create your own skin.  I experimented with completely removing the tree icons (which you can do), but the text next to it remains in the exact same position.

Also wondering if in panes view it would be possible to get thumbnails with 2 lines of subtext like in category view?

As lepa showed in his screenshots, that is infinitely doable - as many lines as you want with whatever information you want to include.  You just cannot double-click on that thumbnail to show the tracks in a panes view.

But as I showed in the second screenshot of my prior post, you can show a fairly large thumbnail in a detailed list with access to each album track (below the panes). I realize that is not the thumbnail view you desire - it is just the best compromise I can come up with that leverages panes and allows direct access to album tracks.

MC provides a large variety of ways to customize your views, so with continued tweaking, hopefully you will come up with something satisfactory.

[JimH]

Off topic posts removed.