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[nila]

Hi,
Someone requested this a while ago but there's no sign of it or any confirmation of it going to happen.

The undo button needs to be done like MS Word where you can see the list of step's your going to undo.

Today a friend was using my computer, as they were browsing suddely a message came up saying: Updating file X of 15. I obviously freaked not knowing what they were changing to what and not wanting my library messed up.

I went to use the undo and had no idea what they'd just done and if they'd done anything else before by accident.

As a result I just had to keep hitting undo tons of times. If I could see what they'd done and what had been done recently I'd have actually been able to use the undo to undo exactly what I'd needed to and also would have been aware as to what I was undoing, redoing etc

Right now it's a bit of a shot in the dark.


P.S. - Thanks for the undo/redo feature as it saved my ass today. I would have had 15 files messed up.

[DocLotus]

I agree.

I had a similar problem.

[Marty3d]

Same here...would be nice with a more detailed undo... like Undo Deleting My favourite Music instead of just Undo.

[lee269]

Ive asked for this a couple of times. At the minimum the undo/redo menu item needs to tell you exactly what its going to undo, like marty3ds example. Multiple undo levels like MS Word would be even better, but Im not sure how easy this would be - for instance if you deleted a file from the disk and not just a library entry, is it possible for MC to get it back?

Also the Undo and Redo menu items are active when MC is first started up, before you do anything - makes no sense.

[UPDATE: Nila I just read you post again. Are you saying that MC does work like Word, ie you pressed undo 15 times to undo 15 files? Ive always been too tentative to test this thoroughly. That doesnt mean that I wont want my name in Help/About as a beta tester though ]

[UPDATE 2: Wish I could undo this post - I really should think harder before opening my mouth . If you apply a single action that affects 15 files, eg changing album name, then the undo should only be one step also, not one undo per file/library entry changed. Are you saying thats not the case? Ive got my nerve together now - Im going to do some testing]

[lee269]

OK Ive done some more tests - that wasnt too frightening. Probably best to ignore my previous post. Heres what I found, and apologies if I am stating the bleedin' obvious:

1. MC appears to have multiple undo levels - for changes to the library. Actions that affect multiple files in one step seem to be undone in one step.

Conclusion: MC needs a more descriptive Undo menu item, plus an undo levels dropdown like MS Word.

2. For actions that affect the media content of the files or the state of your disk 'outside' of MC, eg bitrate conversion, or actual deletion of the files from the disk, MC appears unable to undo the action. I can understand this.

Conclusion: when an action is performed that MC will be unable to undo, it should show a confirmation dialog (configurable in options). This would also clear the undo levels list, I guess.

Overall, its clear that undo in MC is not as straght forward as it would be in Word, where Word has complete control over the file that its creating - close without saving changes and you cannot do any damage. MC is a combination of a file manager like Explorer plus a database, and making sure that the contents of the disk and the database are synchronised in real time is difficult. It occurred to me that a facility to produce a report of mismatches/orphaned library entries would be useful.

[Matt]

Undo only logs changes to file properties.

It doen't track fancy stuff like playlist ordering, sorting, etc.

I agree that we need to improve it, but it's not a simple problem.  A more elegant solution may have to wait for 9.1 or 10.

It occurred to me that a facility to produce a report of mismatches/orphaned library entries would be useful.

MC can't make a report, but it can scan for orphaned files. (File->Library->Update Library...)  It can also check for external changes quickly by looking at the filesize and last modified date. (in the Tools menu)

[nila]

Please dont make it wait for v9.1 or v10 for this feature to be enhanced.

As Lee pointed out and I'm sure many others think but dont say - it's kind of daunting pressing 'undo' or 're-do' and not knowing what it's about to do, especially as editing is now so streamlined. You really have no idea of what's happened or what your about to do etc.

The undo button just needs at least as a temporary measure to have a list of what it is going to undo eg:

Undo Change 'Artist' field for 20 Tracks
Undo Change 'Track' field for 1 Track

something as basic as this could make our lives sooo much less scary

[lee269]

MC can't make a report, but it can scan for orphaned files. (File->Library->Update Library...)

Matt, you think of everything I hadnt seen this. I havent tried it, because Im a nervous user, and nervous users want to see what changes are going to be made before they commit them. But I reckon Update Library will do the job.

I also thought that you could probably identify files that dont exist with a smartlist, but trying to select [filename]:<empty> from the wizard didnt work for me, or [filename]="". Cant figure how to select null values.

[nila]

That wouldn't work because at the time MJ scanned them they had a filename.
MJ isn't aware of the fact that the files have been removed as it doesn't check each file once it has been added to the library.

The library utility Matt mentioned is basically to do exactly that - go through your library and check to make sure all the files are where they're claiming to be.

[Marty3d]

Just a note: I've also become one of those getting scared of pressing undo... find myself trying to correct mistakes by hand!
/Martin

[nila]

Anyone else find the redo and undo daunting features to use? If so please leave a post so that MJ can see just how important this feature is and so dedicate their prescious time to adding it.

In MS Word for instance it just used to have a simple undo or re-do feature but the reason this could work and it doesn't in MJ is that in word when you click the buttons, the text is all there right in front of you so you can see exactly what changes as you click the button.
With MJ however, the chances of you actually being able to visibly see whats changing are next to none and so it is that much more crucial that you are told what you are going to be doing.

[Wile E. One]

I know the Undo feature exists... but since I don't know what it actually does.... I don't use it.