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[MusicHawk]

Could there be an option to display the Rating field as a numeric value instead of a set of stars? Maybe configurable via Options > Library > Standard Library Fields.

Two reasons:

1. Showing the numeric value, a single digit, would take up much less width in a view.

2. I just discovered three thousand tracks that had lost their Rating value, so were being omitted from my playlists. Bummer, and hard to spot among 80 thousand tracks. I know these tracks had a Rating once upon a time. Possibly I selected an entire playlist of 3 thousand tracks to do something, and while it was selected, inadvertently clicked one of the track's Rating field, and that changed all of them.

Yes, possibly a dumb-user error, with me the dumb user. But that could be because it is so easy -- TOO EASY -- to change the Rating field. It's the only field I use that gets changed by a single click, therefore it is highly vulnerable to a mis-click. I do lots of mass-changes, and haven't had this problem with any other field.

If the Rating field could be set to show and accept a numeric value rather than stars, clicking alone wouldn't change it. I'd have to pick a standard value (0 to 5) or type one in -- much safer.

Just a thought, while I work through all three thousand tracks, re-rating them.

[hit_ny]

Only possible if you create a custom numeric field for the purpose.

Making it harder to not change ratings interferes with general usability of the stars.

I've wondered for a long time whether i should do the same myself as fractional ratings is what i use.

But the visibility and general ease of use has prevented me from doing it so far.

[zirum]

Making it harder to not change ratings interferes with general usability of the stars.

To avoid future problems; what about to disable edit of rating when multiple songs are selected (at least from the regular view)? How often do you mass update the rating, actually? Could it only be doable thru the tagging box?

I think most usage of mass update is if you want to delete the rating for a bunch of files... Or is that a wrong assumption?

[hit_ny]

To avoid future problems; what about to disable edit of rating when multiple songs are selected (at least from the regular view)? How often do you mass update the rating, actually? Could it only be doable thru the tagging box?

Fairly often, when i start a new album its comon to select all and set to 3.

Now this is normally done with the playing view maximised as there is no need for the tree or AW.

The only way, is to use Party mode, then nothing will be updated.

Maybe a bit extreme but there isn't anything in between atm.

[Alex B]

I have suggested/requested a new system for customizeble rating style fields in this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=36753

My suggestion includes an option for selecting how the field value is displayed:

Here's a mockup:



This field would have four possible star rating values: no stars, one star, two stars and three stars.

The Display Type option would be grayed out when the Values box is empty.

When the Display Type option is unticked it would show the actual values that are defined in the field options. This option could be available (=unlocked) for the standard Rating field too.


EDIT

You can already add an expression column that shows and allows editing the Rating field value in a numerical form* and remove the standard Rating column from the view. However, there is no way to hide or protect the star ratings in AW > Tag.

* Right-click the column header area and select Columns > Add Epression Column > Expression > Insert field: [Rating]

[MusicHawk]

>> You can already add an expression column that shows and allows editing the Rating field value in a numerical form* and remove the standard Rating column from the view.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try working with it. Of course, as a half-way workaround, it creates a different behavior inconsistency. For a "no stars" entry it shows "? stars" instead of the logical value 0, even though entering "0" results in no stars displayed and an expression value of "? stars". Also, it doesn't provide a pick-list of acceptable values, so anything but 0 to 5 results in "? stars". And (minor) a decimal value is truncated to the integer.

A custom field would provide total control, but be disconnected from the built-in Rating stars display in the Tag dialog.

>> there is no way to hide or protect the star ratings in AW > Tag.

That's not too bad. I've unintentionally changed the Rating there, but not often enough to declare it's a problem.

However, given the sophistication of MC in many other areas, it seems out of character to display a set of stars so prominently as if it trumps everything else about a track. I bet most MC users categorize music and control their smartlists via several field values, with Rating being just one parameter. A variety of fields might merit prominent display in a particular user's categorization scheme (another discussion about whether text display formatting could be field/column-level).

The big risk of the Stars system is in views, where even a single track's Rating can be changed inadvertently, because it's common to click columns to select and edit values, safely because the first click just selects the row, and a double-click enables editing -- except for Rating, the only value that is CHANGED INSTANTLY by the first click.

I see a problem with UI inconsistency -- one field out of all that changes with just a single click seems an unnecessary deviation. Is the assumption that users are constantly changing the Rating value, much more often than any other value? If not, why make it so different and "easy" to change this one field?

Your suggestion and my suggestion would both be huge improvements, providing user control over the field's behavior. Simply allow the field to be viewed and clicked as Stars, OR allow it to be shown and edited as integers 0 - 5, thereby behaving like every other field.

[hit_ny]

I see a problem with UI inconsistency -- one field out of all that changes with just a single click seems an unnecessary deviation. Is the assumption that users are constantly changing the Rating value, much more often than any other value? If not, why make it so different and "easy" to change this one field?

I think its the nature of the GUI control, stars as opposed to text. That's the way they work on nearly all apps that employ them. So changing this ad-hoc behaviour would be going against the grain.

I've had the problem you mentioned, but have somehow trained myself to be more careful around the stars.

A custom field would provide total control, but be disconnected from the built-in Rating stars display in the Tag dialog.

Yes, but does it matter ?

If you use a custom field, then thats the field you look for either in the viewschemes or the AW. The display of stars at the top of the AW is a recent introduction with 12. I've hardly used it much as rating is usually done in PN for me.

A downside that comes to mind with this is if you depend on MC's average rating for an album generated when browsing in album thumbnails mode then you will see a mismatch. Course i've worked around this by having my own field for that as well and its displayed just below the thumb.

Another maybe more intractable problem is if you use a portable device, ratings i think is a std field so if there are any modifications done on the portable it wont sync back properly with your custom field.

[MusicHawk]

Good things to ponder....

You're right a custom Rating field might be the solution. I already use a bunch of custom fields, such as Artists (multi-value, lastname, firstname format), and a field to indicate Stereo, Mono or Rechanneled, and fields for original source (CD, LP, 45, 87, cassette, and others), original source ID (record number etc), and performance (vocal, instrumental, talk, aircheck, etc), and more, so what's one more custom field?

I don't care about MC features such as average rating, number of plays, time since last played, etc. (The only automatic MC features I use are smartlists, play Shuffle, and cross-fade aggressive @ 1 second, though in another thread I propose a non-fade track overlap option.)

So yes, I could ditch the standard Rating field in favor of my own. I'm thinking about the pros/cons.

BUT, I still think having one field that behaves very differently from all others is not doing users a favor. And note, I don't suggest changing the default behavior of Rating, just provide an option to show and edit it as the equivalent integer set.

[MusicHawk]

Following HIT_NY's advice, I "fixed" my problem by adding a custom field, Score, to store my "rating" without exposing it to the one-click-changes behavior of the Stars-based standard Rating field. My Score field has a picklist, 0,1,2,3,4,5.

I selected my entire library of about 60 thousand tracks, copied Rating to Score, and removed Rating from views. Then I edited all the smartlists that selected on Rating to instead use Score.

The Tag dialog still has the Rating field's Stars, but other than being a distraction I don't care because my true "rating" is in the custom Score field which can't be messed up so easily.

If MC ever gains the ability to control how the Rating field works, I would happily switch back to using it.