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Author Topic: Action Window Suggestions  (Read 3468 times)

datdude

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Action Window Suggestions
« on: August 08, 2006, 08:47:52 pm »

Ok, this topic obviously brings up alot of debate.   The tree view allthough not perfect is not bad and in MC 12 I am finding I like it for some reason a bit more than MC 11.1.  However when combined with the action window, there are major problems as discussed in other threads, that I won't go into.

A couple of quick and dirty suggestions that could make a big difference in usabiltiy:

1) The ipod allows you to customize the Main Menu where essentially you can display anything you want from there.  This could work really well for the action window especially if you added a menu that always pulls up the standard items as you see now, imo.

2) Allow any item in the aciton window to be detached like the display screen currently is.  Make this drag n' droppable if possible.

What do you think?
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jgreen

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2006, 08:53:25 pm »

Mucho agreement.  I think the ability to set a customization for the left panel, based on what we use most often, would be very helpful.  And since Playing Now is used the most of all, detachability (a la Display View) would loosen navigation up considerably.
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datdude

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2006, 09:17:51 pm »

Hmm...

Actually looking into the action window again, which I have not used much of at all since I started using MC,  it looks like there are actually less features in it than I rember there being say in MC 10/11.  MAybe the menu suggestion doesn't make as much of a difference since there  aren't as many nested feautres as I thought. :o

However being able to detach out all the major items in it would be HUGE to the usability!!!!
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Matt

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2006, 09:41:45 pm »

Floating windows make my head hurt.

As for customization, you may be able to do some of the same things by customizing the toolbars on the top and bottom of the program. (i.e. "Tag" button)
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jgreen

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2006, 09:51:35 pm »

Fine, Matt, but Playing Now is the most important window you've got on the MC dashboard, and yet it is buried.  How can we get this easier to get to?
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datdude

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2006, 10:13:13 pm »

Floating windows make my head hurt.

As for customization, you may be able to do some of the same things by customizing the toolbars on the top and bottom of the program. (i.e. "Tag" button)

I know what you mean.

But I think its better than when the playing now and tag screens get bunched up due to the tree or hide the tree due to their size, and don't always stay open when doing cetain things in MC.  Would it not be better to allow us to set our own sizes of these items and stick them where we want more permantnetly? 

I don't think the auto sizing of MC in this area will change, so I thought maybe it would be easier programming wise to allow these to be extracted out so we can do as we please with them.

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datdude

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2006, 11:03:57 pm »

Another thing to think about, is it seems like MC is trying to be more like the latest WMP or maybe its the other way around, which is fine by me, they did a great job.

One thing that I like about it is that you can pretty much get the now playing list with the library view working very nicely on the same screen together.  If MC could emulate this,  that would be great.
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jgreen

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2006, 11:16:56 pm »

IMO, "Tag" icon is a great example.  Put that on your bottom border via customize toolbars and you have a quick route to tag in the AW. 

I wish the "Playing Now" icon worked the same way.  Rather than opening up Playing Now in the AW, it will overwrite your current view with Playing Now, and it becomes a hassle. 
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datdude

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #8 on: August 08, 2006, 11:55:47 pm »

I know this will never happen, but just about the only thing I ever liked in Winamp was the fact that the player, playing now, and library were seperate but dockable and resizable items that could be placed just about anwhere in any fashion on the desktop.

That ruled!

Oh yea, I also liked that 'thing box' where you could place anything in it, and it would scroll to have easy access to the 'things' you liked the most, who would a thunk it.

But hey, I never once got to talk to a developer there, so at least I can peddle my crazy ideas here. ;D
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Doof

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2006, 01:17:22 pm »

What would be really sweet is if the "breadcrumbs" feature could be expanded a bit. Like when you're in the tree-less view, the top link lets you jump to your different media types... well, expand that to allow us to access everything that we can in the tree, then let us expand the action window to take up the entire left hand side, so we can a really large area for tagging, editing playlists, etc. as well as having multiple AW componentes open.
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marko

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2006, 04:04:01 pm »

how do we do things such as reset the playcount field now?

Doof

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #11 on: August 09, 2006, 06:08:35 pm »

I'm also not seeing anyway of editing the filename in the Tag AW.
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marko

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2006, 06:23:16 pm »

I'm also not seeing anyway of editing the filename in the Tag AW.
we don't have access to the (name) and (path) varients, but if you right-click the tag window, you should see 'filename' in the list.

also, that tag list was not remaining open earlier, but now that I've rebooted, it is, which is nice.

datdude

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Re: Action Window Suggestions
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2006, 12:48:55 am »

What would be really sweet is if the "breadcrumbs" feature could be expanded a bit. Like when you're in the tree-less view, the top link lets you jump to your different media types... well, expand that to allow us to access everything that we can in the tree, then let us expand the action window to take up the entire left hand side, so we can a really large area for tagging, editing playlists, etc. as well as having multiple AW componentes open.

 ;D
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