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[Matt]

Heavy taggers have complained about the file properties being in the action window in MC 9.1 and beyond.

I'm wondering if we couldn't find some simple solution that would make most of us happy.

Two approaches I can think of are:

• improvement of in-place editing / visible column selection so that file info in the Action Window isn't needed
• grouping or a better way to control what fields show in the Action Window file info window

The first one is the most intriguing to me because it cleans the interface and does a better job of using all the screen space already given to the list.  Could this be workable?  Maybe an easier way to get to fields or expand what's visible or something?

Any ideas or feedback would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[phelt]

Ack, you had to ask on Friday night...

I'll add thoughts tomorrow, maybe at halftime  

[samarah88]

I'm kinda torn here.  For image files, I select the thumbnails as a logical group and edit the tags using the action window. This seem like the most efficient way to me, since I need the visual cue to group the images.

Whereas, for audio files I edit the tags using the column entries.

Please consider image tag editing when deciding the proper path.

[skidoo]

Just out of curiosty, why is it a problem that tag editing is in the action window? Would you rather a separate dialog pop up? Or is this an aesthetic appeal (referring to your call to improve editing in the grid)?

[rocketsauce]

Hhmm.

I guess I don't understand why it's possible to resize the tree/action window pane horizontally, but not vertically. I have the tree/aw pane set at a width that works well for me and don't really ever have to resize it. The main reason I prefer the old properties pane from 9.0 is that it was tall enough to allow me to see all the tag fields that I wanted without having to scroll up and down. So, maybe a simple solution would be to allow the aw height to be resizable and sticky just like the width and instead of sliding out from the side (like the 9.0 properties pane) it could slide up from the bottom.

Maybe some improvements to how tag fields are grouped and displayed would also help. Being able to show more than one group would be cool as would being able to choose the order in which fields are listed in the display.  

Rob


Listening to: 'Love Will Freak Us (Missy Elliott vs Joy Division)' from 'That No-Talent Hack' by 'Dsico' on Media Center 10

[ZRocker]

Right now, in-place editing is worse/terrible in MC 10...

The drop-down choice button makes in-place editing ugly when your columns are perfectly sized for the choices most common (like the Year column...it's 4 digits always, but during in-place editing you can only read 1 or 2 digits because of the space the drop-down button and horizonal scroolbar take up.  I see this problem all too often now in MC 10.0 (with multiple columns I try editing...like Track # too, size for 2 digits...in-place editing Track # is unuseable today).

I like editing using both methods and really just want better control over EXACTLY what AW's window shows.  I suggested long ago (5+ months) that a simple column selection list for AW would be way better than the kludge of groupings offered now...was hoping that would be 'fixed' in MC 10.

[LisaRCT]

I like the flexibility offered by having the A/W show file info, but it needs to be vertically resizable to work for me . . . . I generally only use the tree to create/select VS's and Smartlists anyway so having it partially consumed by the A/W is no loss.

I can't imagine how you'd make that info showing in the A/W unecessary, but I'll be glad to give it a try if you think you can suceed..

[Matt]

The drop-down choice button makes in-place editing ugly when your columns are perfectly sized for the choices most common (like the Year column...it's 4 digits always, but during in-place editing you can only read 1 or 2 digits because of the space the drop-down button and horizonal scroolbar take up.  I see this problem all too often now in MC 10.0 (with multiple columns I try editing...like Track # too, size for 2 digits...in-place editing Track # is unuseable today).

Just hadn't thought of that.  It'll be fixed in a build or two.  Thanks Z.

So would the current system work if we just allowed full manual control of the fields that are shown, with a quick load / save configuration deal?

[gpvillamil]

Being able to save/load configurations of fields would be good.

However, one of the things I miss about the detachable action window is that often I have to parse info from a filename or path. Basically, I populate the library from the filename for my photographs. Sometimes the directory structure is inconsistent, so I need a way to see the entire path as I'm writing the parsing string.

Currently I can't do this at all in MC10: the list window is showing thumbnails (remember I'm working with pictures) and the action window is too narrow to show the path. Since I'm entering the parse string in the dialog box for that, I can't go back to the action window and scroll it.

I also miss the ability to look at full size cover art images easily. This was easy to do with the floating action window. I'm not sure how to do it now - remember, I want to look at the cover art for files in the list, not the now playing.

The floating action window worked fine for me. Please bring it back. (With "next" and "previous" buttons at the bottom to move to different files - would allow quick sequential editing of many files)

[cfgreen]

I concure!
The "Floating"  window is a great feature for full time use on the second Tube.
Tube 1 20" Left
 A couple of IE windows lapped on the left side (AMG & walmat (pics are 500x500)) Tag info on the right about 3" wide x full up/down, plus the cover art dir.

Tube 2, 17" Panel in front of me.
MC full screen
All make for fast album tagging

Charles

[NoCodeUK]

As it is I do all of my tagging in the main interface anyway...I have never tagged using the AW and never tagged using the tagging window in MC 8 either.  What might be a nice idea would be if tagging in the main interface when you switch to tagging mode all the relevant columns for that media type appear in the window and you can tag them...of course this would need some kind of grouping too to say what fields were relevant to what media type but I think this will become more of a necessity anyway now that MC is becoming more media-centric.

Adam

[skidoo]

The drop-down choice button makes in-place editing ugly when your columns are perfectly sized for the choices most common (like the Year column...it's 4 digits always, but during in-place editing you can only read 1 or 2 digits because of the space the drop-down button and horizonal scroolbar take up.  I see this problem all too often now in MC 10.0 (with multiple columns I try editing...like Track # too, size for 2 digits...in-place editing Track # is unuseable today).

Just hadn't thought of that.  It'll be fixed in a build or two.  Thanks Z.

So would the current system work if we just allowed full manual control of the fields that are shown, with a quick load / save configuration deal?

And remember, it's a lot easier and more practical to work with a dialog with a list of checkboxes than a simple fly-out that disappears with each click. Leave the flyout for column selection in the grid, and use provide it on the action menu too if you like. But please also offer the option of going to a dialog.

[ZRocker]

So would the current system work if we just allowed full manual control of the fields that are shown, with a quick load / save configuration deal?

Yes...

And Skiddo's comment about a list of field names with checkboxes is much nicer than a popup menu that disappears on every click.

[LisaRCT]

And Skiddo's comment about a list of field names with checkboxes is much nicer than a popup menu that disappears on every click.

gets my vote . . . again

[ZRocker]

And...while we're trying to make tagging more user friendly, I'd like to specify the field ORDER (when listed) instead of alphabetically.  That way I can list the fields in the order I like them in (in a more logically organizational order).

[sraymond]

I like the AW for tagging.  I wish for more sizing and arrangement control, though.  Vertical resizing is the biggest benefit - but rearranging position would be nice as well.  Why not add the Media Library tree to the AW paradigm?  This would allow us to open/close everything on the left side of the GUI.

Scott-

[phelt]

Choice of fields and field order would help greatly.
If tagging stays stuck in the action window, vertical resizing would help a lot.

For me it's a personal preference to have the option to view a lot of data in a resizable container. This is why I liked the slide-in tag window, and the later compromise of the detachable action window. It just feels wrong to be running at higher resolutions and not be able to see all or most of my data because of an interface constraint.

[bvm]

In MC 9.1, I used the AW taginfo box for two types of tagging action:

* Fields that have useful dropdown menus (e.g., Genre, Composer)

* Tagging multiple tracks with the same info.

The former can now be done in MC 10 with the in-line dropdown menus, but I haven't noticed anything to make the latter simpler.  Of course, it can be done (click the first track you want, shift-click the last and in the desired column, press F2), but it's a lot easier in the taginfo box.  My only gripe about taginfo is that it only shows the fields I have columns for.  There are in general more tags that I want access to there than there are columns that I want to see in every view.  So the suggested offer of letting me choose the fields and save that configuration would be great.

But speaking of the inline editing part, am I missing something on auto-complete?  In other apps (web browser url field, Excel, ...) auto-complete means that as I type characters, a/the possible completion appears after the cursor in pending-delete mode.  In MC, something only happens if the menu of possible choices has dropped down, which requires clicking the mouse.  Or does it?  Is there a key I can type to activate it?  It would be extremely nice for heavy tag editing if I could navigate the view pane entirely from the keyboard.

[nila]

What I'd also LOVE is the ability to tag list types.

Maybe just put them with a button there instead of a text box and when we press it a dialog box appears and we can check the boxes that we want to set for the current file.
Currently we can only do list types (by means of a GUI) in Media Library and no where else

[rocketsauce]

My only gripe about taginfo is that it only shows the fields I have columns for.

When you get to the Tag Info pane click on the little "page" icon in the upper right of the Action Window, there is a menu called Fields To Show.

Rob

[pat1066]

For me, the AW in 9.1316 works just fine. There is everything I want; any way I want it. And I can change stuff in Pane views.
My gripe is the names:
Tag Info - shows library fields and I would call it "Library Fields"
File Type Info - Shows (!) tag information so I would call it ... err... "Tag Info!"
(I note that it shows nothing for Read Only files...)

[Vorgod]

Heavy taggers have complained about the file properties being in the action window in MC 9.1 and beyond.

I'm wondering if we couldn't find some simple solution that would make most of us happy.

Two approaches I can think of are:

• improvement of in-place editing / visible column selection so that file info in the Action Window isn't needed
• grouping or a better way to control what fields show in the Action Window file info window

The first one is the most intriguing to me because it cleans the interface and does a better job of using all the screen space already given to the list.  Could this be workable?  Maybe an easier way to get to fields or expand what's visible or something?

Any ideas or feedback would be appreciated.  Thanks!

I like solution one: improvement of in-place editing

[Jaguu]

Two approaches I can think of are:

• improvement of in-place editing / visible column selection so that file info in the Action Window isn't needed
• grouping or a better way to control what fields show in the Action Window file info window

An even better solution to grouping would be if we were allowed to decide which fields we want to have in tag info and maybe even in column view at the time we create a new view scheme.
We can now select the fields to be used for panes. If we could use the same mechanism for selecting fields to display in tag info and in column view together with a sorting order, then "Add View Scheme" would become a centralized and comprehensive configuration tool and would simplify many things.

[Jaguu]

I also miss the floating tag info window. It was very useful for fields with very long content (such as filenames) and for editing tracks sequentially. We just had to click "PageDown" and the next track was displayed. that was really a great help and now a great miss.

[Zarius]

We just had to click "PageDown" and the next track was displayed. that was really a great help and now a great miss.

I never found this funcationality before I moved to v10, but I can see it being very handy (both on a floating or non-floating AW), as I use the AW for almost all my tagging and prefer not to take my hands off the keyboard when sequentially tagging.