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[Waverider]

Hello everyone

I've been using Winamp for music playback for many years. A friend recently recommended that I give Media Center a try, so I downloaded the free trial. Everything is working okay, SQ is excellent, but I have a few questions about the interface that I just can't seem to answer. I've searched the forums and done a fair bit of Googling.

Q1 - Is it possible to keep the file browser pane locked in place in Album view? I'm referring to the pane that lists tracks for the currently selected album. It seems to be a permanent fixture in the Artists view, but each time I access Album view I have to drag it up again.

Q2 - Is there some way to have the Album view remember my position when I switch back to it from another view (Playing Now, Artist, etc.)? I have rather a lot of music, and having to scroll through several pages to get back to where I was is a bit of a chore.

Q3 - Whenever I start Media Center, the background (the area behind album covers) is plain white, not in line with whatever skin is selected. Switching between views a couple of times causes the background to revert to the correct skin colour, but this has to be done each time I start the software. If I don't change views, the colour does not change of its own accord. This occurs with both the included skins as well as 3rd party ones. Is this fixable?

I would be grateful for any light you could shed on these matters

[JimH]

Welcome.

2.  Use the backspace key or the little arrows at the upper left corner of the content pane.

3.  Please try a different skin.  That's not normal. 

[MrC]

1. Customize the view, change Settings> View Details> Always show files.

[marko]

What MrC said... also, as you are a new user, some padding...

To get at the "Customise View" options, either right click on the view in the tree and choose that option from the menu, or hover over the little triangle in the view tab and a menu will automatically appear, called the "view header menu", with the same option also present.

It's quite possible that when saving your changes, you will receive a prompt from MC warning you that you are changing a "Locked View" and presenting you with a few options. Do not worry too much about this. If you are really nervous, take the save as new option, but truthfully, the 'carry on regardless' option will not do you any harm whatsoever and will keep your tree tidy. The system is there to help protect the default views, which you may want to keep as they are for reference later.

-marko

[MrC]

I felt I had to stay under JimH's sentence length above to fit it.

[marko]

I'm sure I've seen #3 mentioned in the 3rd party forum before, but it was a few months ago now, and there has not been any other mention of it since.

Makes me wonder if an out-of-date build is being used? Waverider, if you go to "Help > About" what version are you using?

[kstuart]

Nice try.

Reminds me of President Coolidge:

Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose."

[chrisjj]

Q2 - Is there some way to have the Album view remember my position when I switch back to it from another view (Playing Now, Artist, etc.)? I have rather a lot of music, and having to scroll through several pages to get back to where I was is a bit of a chore.

Hi, fellow newcomer I have found that, in addition to the Back command mentioned by the experts, the multiple tabs are handy for this, by letting you leave your Album view as is and call up the other view in a separate tab. CTRL+TAB cycles around the tabs.

[rec head]

Hey OP - - I just finished my 30 day eval a couple weeks ago and decided to buy it. It's a great piece of software but it is really daunting. Stick with it. Most of my questions have been simple and were answered pretty quickly on this forum.

[Waverider]

You guys are awesome! Thank you so much! 

2.  Use the backspace key or the little arrows at the upper left corner of the content pane.

Excellent! The back button on my mouse works like a charm.

1. Customize the view, change Settings> View Details> Always show files.

To get at the "Customise View" options, either right click on the view in the tree and choose that option from the menu, or hover over the little triangle in the view tab and a menu will automatically appear, called the "view header menu", with the same option also present.

Perfect ^_^

3.  Please try a different skin.  That's not normal. 

I tried several - the included skins as well as various 3rd party ones. This problem occurs with all of them. (Well, except those that have a white background anyway ). This is by no means a deal-breaker, just a minor annoyance. I'll take a quirky background over unstable WASAPI and KS any day (Winamp, I'm looking at you...).

what version are you using?

18.0.106

Hi, fellow newcomer I have found that, in addition to the Back command mentioned by the experts, the multiple tabs are handy for this, by letting you leave your Album view as is and call up the other view in a separate tab. CTRL+TAB cycles around the tabs.

Great suggestion! Is there a way for MC to remember the tab views on restart? Each time I load MC the tabs all reset to Artists view.

Hey OP - - I just finished my 30 day eval a couple weeks ago and decided to buy it. It's a great piece of software but it is really daunting. Stick with it.

I must say that I'm digging MC in a big way thus far...

[MrC]

Great suggestion! Is there a way for MC to remember the tab views on restart? Each time I load MC the tabs all reset to Artists view.

Tools > Options > Startup > Startup Interface > Location: Last Location

[glynor]

I tried several - the included skins as well as various 3rd party ones. This problem occurs with all of them. (Well, except those that have a white background anyway ).

That's weird.

Can you grab a screenshot?

Are you on XP?  Maybe it is something with the transparency effects or something...

[Waverider]

Are you on XP?  Maybe it is something with the transparency effects or something...

Nope, on regularly-updated Windows 7

Some screens...

On startup:



After changing views:

[JimH]

Which skin is that?  Did you try others?

[Waverider]

Which skin is that?  Did you try others?

This is Purity Dark. And yep, tried several others with the same outcome, even the native ones.