Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Doberman]

I saw a thread that was discussing some issue like this, but seem to have lost it.  And I'm not sure it was the same question I have regardless.

Simple enough.  Why is the sorting in the "File List" Pane on the right not in alphabetical order by Album Name as it is in the tree view on the left?




I've got "All Albums" selected in the tree.  What I'm seeing on the right is (as far as I can tell) is all of the (Multiple Artists) stuff being first with a completely random order for the albums (these first two that are showing in the screenshot happen to be in alphabetic order, but rest assured that the next album which follows SXSW 2009 begins with a "G"), followed by the stuff that has a single album artist going in alpha order by album artist, but again NOT in alphabetic order by album.  I chopped off a bit of the right side of the screen in order to blow it up.  The scroll bar on the right is at the very top.  These are the first groupings listed be default.

What I want to see on the right is exactly what one would expect, I'd think.  I've got "All Albums" selected in the tree.  I want my pane on the right to display all my albums in order, grouped alphabetically by album with the header line for each one.  How do I make that happen?  What is the reasoning for this NOT being the default?  When I change the "Sort By" option from the "File List" dropdown in the right pane, it changes the sorting of the TREE on the left!  Someone please explain how this makes any sense.   

Am I doing something incorrectly?  Am I off-base in expecting the behavior which I do? 

Lemme know if I need to provide more information or screenshots.

Thanks for any help.

[gappie]

i think what you are seeing is how it is. when using an album grouped view they are sorted by artist-year-album.. i think. when you go to file list and group by and then to more>a-z>album, you get the albums in the order you want. this does not give any info on artist and year. to get that you have to make your own calculated library field with for instance
[album] by [artist] ([year])
and use that instead.

when the last part was to quick just say so..

 
gab

[Doberman]

Alright, gappie thanks to your reply I am able to get what I want.  Sorta. 

So, coupla things here:

First, is there any explanation as to WHY this is the default for all of the default views?  Matt?  Anyone?  Am I wrong to think that when I chose "Albums" from the tree on the left that the right would actually sort by Album?  Am I incorrect in thinking that when I choose the "Sort By" option from the "File List" drop-down on the right, choosing "Custom" and "Album" would actually sort the File List tab by that choice instead changing the order of the stuff listed under "Albums" in the tree on the left AFTER I hit the refresh button?  If "That's how it is." is the only answer, so be it.  But if I'm missing something about why this stuff operates the way it does, I'd appreciate knowing the reasoning so I can hopefully make sense of it all and get even more use out of the program. 


Secondly, here's what I seem to have to do in order to get (sorta) what I want:

FYI, here's again an exact description of what I'm wanting:  An expandable list of albums in the tree on the left which will display in a File List pane on the right, ALL albums in the library sorted into groups by Album name first & foremost when choosing either the view name in the tree or the "All Albums" sub-choice of the view in the tree.  If I choose a specific album name from the expanded view tree on the left, it will display only that album in a File List pane on the right.   

• 1:  Add a new Library View  -  I choose to just build one from scratch, using the "Empty View" choice, as messing with some others just confused me.
• 2:  Now, in order to get what I want I've got to go through a two-step process that I don't really understand.  I can't just chose "View As - File List" and then choose a category for the tree, cuz you can't choose a category for the tree, if you set the view as a File List.  So I've got to set the "View As" choice to "Categories" first, and then add "Album" to the "Show Categories In This Order:" box and hit the OK button.  This will give me the Tree view I want.  If I leave it like this, I DO NOT have a "Group By" choice in the "File List" dropdown on the right though.  So I'm pretty much at the point that I am with the default "Albums" view.
• 3:  So I've got to right click on my new View in the tree and choose "Customize View".  I then switch "Views As" to "File List", which now gives me a "Group By" choice in the "File List" dropdown in the right pane (Which wasn't there if the view wasn't set to "File List").   
• 4:  Now I can choose "Group By" and "More (sort groups a-z)" (because, of course, choosing "Album" from the 5 standard choices that are at the top of the pop-up list doesn't actually cause it to sort by album) and finally, chose "Album".   
  
• 5:  Hooray!  Profit!

Needless to say, this is a pretty convoluted (and confusing within itself) process to get a result that it seems reasonable most people would expect would be the default action.

Is there some better way I coulda done this?  Two button presses and "Wala!"? 

[rick.ca]

But if I'm missing something about why this stuff operates the way it does, I'd appreciate knowing the reasoning so I can hopefully make sense of it all and get even more use out of the program.

Assuming you're not being rhetorical, all you're missing is default behaviours are intended to be what is most convenient to most users. You've discovered they can get in the way of configuring a rather obscure view, although you've also demonstrated it was still possible to get create that view. Notwithstanding this is what you wanted to create, you must recognize it's not something most users would have much use for. The default behaviours of sorting by albums by artist and placing compilation albums first gives most users something they can readily understand in a variety of different views. Considering the superior functionality of Panes and Categories views, I suspect most favour those rather than relying on the tree with a file list view. The defaults work well with those views because other means are being used to narrow the results in the file list.

[Doberman]

Assuming you're not being rhetorical, all you're missing is default behaviours are intended to be what is most convenient to most users. You've discovered they can get in the way of configuring a rather obscure view, although you've also demonstrated it was still possible to get create that view. Notwithstanding this is what you wanted to create, you must recognize it's not something most users would have much use for. The default behaviours of sorting by albums by artist and placing compilation albums first gives most users something they can readily understand in a variety of different views. Considering the superior functionality of Panes and Categories views, I suspect most favour those rather than relying on the tree with a file list view. The defaults work well with those views because other means are being used to narrow the results in the file list.

I'm not really sure that choosing to sort an "Albums" view by default in any other way than alphabetically by album is actually that intuitive.  If I wanted my library sorted by Artist first, I'd expect to choose the "Artist" tab.    

My issue isn't really so much about the way it is as a default or that it caters to the users who prefer the graphical/thumbnail interface, but moreso that I've got to jump through some pretty non-intuitive hoops in order to get what I need to happen happening.  The fact that there's NO quick way (as far as I can tell or anyone has told me) to get a grouped file listing in alphabetic order by Album Name seems ... odd ... to me.

[rick.ca]

My issue isn't really so much about the way it is as a default...

Then suggest a change that would make it easier for you, but would not affect these defaults.

[Irtelli]

Although this request has been described as obscure, doberman's instructions came in very handy when I wanted to set up a view for classical music. The 'various artists' bias in album listing doesn't apply to classical. Back in the old days of CD's, we'd list albums strictly by catalogue number.

This is what I absolutely love about MC. I've never been unable to fit it to my purpose, no matter how obscure.