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[bjornas]

Hello, I am very happy with MediaCenter! One question however: Is there a way to export library data to a text file? I'd like to produce a hard copy of all my records. So I thought the best way would be to somehow produce a *.csv or similar file, and further manipulate it via Excel or similar.

Can anyone describe how I should go about? In details please, as I am not a particular bright person 

Rgds, Bjørn, Oslo, Norway

[gappie]

you can go directly to excell.
make a playlist or smartlist that has all the records with all the values you want in it.
choose one record
do ctrl & a on your keyboard (this selects all the files in the list)
click ctrl & c to copy those

now open excell
click ctrl & v (this pastes all the records in excell)

tried to be as clear as i can. but that is even in my own language a problem.

 
gab

oh... and welcume to the forum 

[jack wallstreet]

Gappie told me about this awhile ago.  It works very well.  I have never been able to find a way to use "export" of the library so the copy works very well.

[vbrook]

You can automatically export every single field as recognised by MC. No need to select fields for export...

1) Create a new playlist

2) Go to a library view where all of your items are visible. They can be grouped---that's OK. (e.g. On my screen, I see piles of album covers representing each artist.) Click somewhere inside the window so that the window is activated. Press "Ctrl" and "a" (for select all). Drop or paste the items into your new playlist.

3) Select/hightlight the playlist

4) Go to File--->Export Playlist.
5) Choose a file location and title.
6) Select "HTML" for 'Includes field data'.
7) Do not select anything under 'Filennames only'.
8 ) Select "All Fields" under 'Included fields".
9) 'Output range' should be set to "All"
10) Press OK

You can open the resulting HTML file in Excel, and it will be formatted as a spreadsheet. Depending on the size of your library, the file size could be massive. If you re-save it as an Excel file (XLS, or better XLSX if you have Excel 2007), the size will be reduced significantly.

You'll need to delete the top row or so, which simply reads "Media Center Export" or something like that, as well as the row just below the end of your table (which also reads 'Media Center'). You'll also need to select all cells and "unmerge" them (your data won't be affected).

I do the above frequently. It's great! I can pivot table the data, look at it in different ways.

The only downside (I believe---can someone confirm??) is that you see only the tags that MC is set up to see (all default fields and all user fields). For example, I have a user-field called "Totaldiscs". In reality, with FLAC files, this is stored within the file as "Totaldiscs". However, in MP3 files, it's stored as "JRCOMMENT:Totaldiscs", or something like that. MC knows this, and for sake of convenience, it just displays the one "smart" field, which is what the export shows. In other words, the export shows all of the library tags, but not the tags within the files themselves. This is either a very good thing, or not so helpful, depending on your point of view.

[bjornas]

Ouch... was it THAT simple?

Well, I SAID that I wasn't particularly bright...

[gappie]

Ouch... was it THAT simple?

Well, I SAID that I wasn't particularly bright...

lol...
dont underestimate yourself. your not the first one to ask, nothing stupid about that question, its the solution that is simple.
there is this guy here, dutch, living in germany.. now he has asked some stupid questions in his time..