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[Jim L]

Hi,

Is there a quick way of selecting a whole album from a 'List Style -> Details, Group By -> Album' view other than shift-clicking to select all the tracks? Frequently I want to play a whole album from such a view and this seems like slightly harder work than it should be. Instinctively I keep trying to click on the album thumbnail to select all the tracks.

Cheers,
Jim

[wig]

I'm not aware of a menu option that will allow you to queue an entire album from that view.

However, you can activate the left-button lassoing, which you might find easier than shift-clicking

Tools > Options > Tree & View > Advance > Allow list lasso with left mouse button

[Jim L]

Thanks wig, that does make things a bit easier.

[MrC]

I usually use the pane itself to do this - select the album in the Album column in pane, and double click it.

[rick.ca]

Also, use a Double-click Behaviour (Option setting) appropriate to your style. If you don't often add single tracks to Playing Now, you may find 'Replace Playing Now (all)' useful. I guess MrC is assuming you use that. You can still add single or selected tracks using the context or main menus. And you can double-click any selected value in any pane to play all the selected tracks. That's a small thing (considering it's just playing all the currently selected tracks), but very useful because you don't have to think about how to start playback—just double-click the last value selected in the panes.

[park]

That does make a good feature request though. I'm sure it was on the to-do list a couple of years back.

Request: Grouped details album art should act as a Tile with "Play" and "Tag" links on it.

Extension of idea: Said tiles should be expandable/collapsable to show/hide the "details" columns. When collapsed you would basically be browsing a list of thumbnails like the current "album thumbnails", but when clicking on a "details" link on a particular tile it would take you to the Grouped details list automatically scrolled to the point in the list of the clicked tile.


Were such a feature implemented we go ditch album thumbnails altogether, and have a nice tight browsing method that utilized tiles for both top and bottom lists.

[icstm]

@park - sounds quite interesting.

[rick.ca]

Were such a feature implemented we go ditch album thumbnails altogether, and have a nice tight browsing method that utilized tiles for both top and bottom lists.

You seem to be referring to Categories View, but the idea seems applicable to Panes View as well. There, it's currently easy to switch between 'List' and 'Album Thumbnails' styles (e.g., using Toolbar buttons). But doing so to get details about a particular album is frustrating—because changing to the List style doesn't retain the current selection (or "take you to the Grouped details list automatically scrolled to the point in the list of the clicked tile"). So I like viewing covers and playing by album, but I invariably find myself wanting details at some point. The way it is now, changing styles to get details is almost as jarring as changing views. It would make a huge difference if the current selection were retained (and the view scroll so that's in view) when changing list styles—in either direction. And yes, if it worked that way, it would make sense to have a thumbnail 'Details' link.

It would also be nice to have a 'Group Thumbnails' style—so that functionality can be used for any Group By setting. For some applications, I like to group by something other than [Album]. If that's [Artist] (and it often is), the two list styles are reasonably similar. But if it's something else (e.g., [Style], [Year] or some custom grouping field), there is no such similarity. It would be nice to be able to choose a style that's consistent with the grouping used.

The two ideas are unrelated, but I really like the idea of a Panes View that retains a current panes selection as a default and supports an easy switch in styles for getting details about a selected thumbnail. I would then be able to start with a pleasing thumbnails view and default selection—a point from which I could quickly move on to wide variety of different tasks or browsing activities.

[Jim L]

Glad I've sparked off some ideas. Park's suggestion in particular sounds like the sort of thing I was looking for.

[Frobozz]

Some good ideas.
I have some of the same problems when wanting to play the entire album when in a panes with detail group view.  I usually end up doing a shift key and mouse select to select all the tracks.  Which takes two hands.

I have the opposite problem when in a panes with thumbnail view and I want to play a single track from an album.  My usual method then is to right-click on the thumbnail and then open up Analyze Audio.  In the Analyze Audio dialog I can select a single track and add it to playing now.  It's a roundabout way of doing things.

[MrC]

+1 for retaining the current selection when changing list styles.

[rick.ca]

I have the opposite problem when in a panes with thumbnail view and I want to play a single track from an album.  My usual method then is to right-click on the thumbnail and then open up Analyze Audio.  In the Analyze Audio dialog I can select a single track and add it to playing now.  It's a roundabout way of doing things.

Sometimes the strangest ideas are the most brilliant...

It never occurred to me the Analyze Audio window is pretty much a file list—like any other. But now I see it serves the need reasonably well. I would still like to it "properly," and this workaround also serves to demonstrate the value in retaining the selection while changing list styles. Try this, and you'll want that too! This is what I did:

• Resized the Analyze Audio window so it fills the space occupied by the File List.
• Added the columns I wanted. I'm not sure why, but it seemed I had to save it as a Preset for the column settings to be "remembered."
• Created a List Link to a batch file that executes mc17.exe /mcc 23005 to call the window. Created a shortcut (Ctrl+L) for the same command.

The attached illustrates a typical use. I'm using an Album Thumbnails style Panes View, happily selecting albums to play. I want to play The Allman Brothers Dreams—but not all five hours of it. So I click my List link, sort by number of plays, and select an hour of tracks I've played least in the past, right-click and Play or Add to PN. When the window is closed, I'm back to the original view—exactly as I left it.

[Frobozz]

Neat!  I've never actually done anything that makes use of the command line options.  I'll have to experiment. 

I like what the 3D Albums view does to allow you to select tracks after clicking on a thumbnail.  I'd like to have that sort of functionality, but without the 3D effect and animations, in Album Thumbnail views.  Some way of easily being able to select individual tracks from an album.

[rick.ca]

I like what the 3D Albums view does to allow you to select tracks after clicking on a thumbnail.

I think that mode of selecting tracks is okay for gimmicky view like that, but it seems the selection is limited to all tracks or one-at-time. In any case, I find I really need all the information presented in a list view to choose the way I want to. The list also allows sorting by any field (e.g., rating, number of plays, etc.) and then lassoing a selection. I might even start selecting by BPM and Intensity...