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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: MarkCoutinho on January 18, 2006, 12:23:22 pm

Title: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: MarkCoutinho on January 18, 2006, 12:23:22 pm

Now this is a nice one for the real MC-nerds (I guess) ;-)

This is the situation:
- I've got 300 files that were hits in 2005
- I imported them in MC
- I've got an Excel-sheet of the year-list of 2005 (The greatest hit is no. 1 and the worst one number 300)
- I want to sort my MC 2005 playlist in this this year-list order

I figured I could try doin' it something like this:
- make an extra column in Excel in which I put all the numbers 1 through 300
- sort my Excel-sheet alphabetically
- export my MC 2005 playlist to .txt-format
- open this playlist with Excel
- copy the 'numbers'-column from the original Excel-sheet
- paste this column in the MC-excel-sheet (in a special column that was originally, say, the BPM-field)

But then what?
I'd like to import my original MC-list back again, but this time with the BPM-column filled with the 1-300 numbers. Then I'd just have to sort in on 'BPM' and my list would be just like the real 2005-list is.

But how do I do this?
Can I do it in this way or is there another way?
(And I do know I can sort the list one by one in MC, but that's just what I don't want to do to save me from RSI).

Thanks for thinking with me!

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: Alex B on January 18, 2006, 03:01:18 pm

I would do this:

1. Make an alphabetically sorted playlist of the files in MC

2. Export the playlist in m3u format (this contains only a list of the filenames in plain text format)

3. Open the m3u playlist with Excel and cut the contents to the clipboard
 
4. Sort the hit list table alphabetically and paste the m3u playlist in as a new column

5. Sort the hit list table back

6. Copy the "m3u playlist" column back to the m3u file and save it

7. Import the m3u playlist to MC (imported playlists appear in the Imported Playlists group).

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: MarkCoutinho on January 19, 2006, 07:07:52 am

Gee, thanks, that sure did the trick. Only thing is that when I import the list back again (from within Microsoft Explorer) the imported playlist is empty.
Therefor I did it like this: from within MS Explorer I choose Replace and play in MediaCenter. Then I turned to MC and copied the Playing Now list and pasted it in the playlist that had to do all the changing (after I emptied that playlist ofcourse).

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: Alex B on January 19, 2006, 07:25:17 am

Quote from: MarkCoutinho on January 19, 2006, 07:07:52 am

Only thing is that when I import the list back again (from within Microsoft Explorer) the imported playlist is empty.

Strange. It works for me. I always use right-click > import in Windows Explorer if the playlist files are already included in the database.

Perhaps marko could tell if this a reported bug.

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: ChrisRainman on January 19, 2006, 09:44:34 am

How do you get the context menu entry for importing files to MC? I remember the context menu entries were there - but years ago!

I recently formatted my harddisk. Anyway, after a fresh installation I only can find "Play in Media Center".

 ?

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: hit_ny on January 19, 2006, 11:47:18 am

Options->General->Shell Options->Enable Shell integration

Title: Re: Can I sort with Excel and then import in MC?
Post by: ChrisRainman on January 20, 2006, 03:07:40 am

Thanks! Easy if you know where to find...