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[dcwebman]

I posted a problem, at least in my mind, in a topic. Glynor replied to it but that topic has now been locked so I can't reply there. I'm going to try and reproduce it here.
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If I have a set of songs in Playing Now and I am viewing through my library, I sometimes decide I want to hear a particular song right then. If I right-click and select Play, my Playing Now is erased and that one song is put in Playing Now. Instead of selecting Play, I could have gone through the nested menus to select Send To\Play\Add (play now) to hear that song without losing my Playing Now list, but it seems like the single Play should do the same thing.

The problem also appears, and is inconsistent with the song's Play, if I'm looking at my tag window with the Image window and I need to see how big that image really is. If I double-click on the Image it displays the image and erases Playing Now. However, if I select "Play / Show (first file)" for that image, it just displays the image without affecting Playing Now. The double-click should act like "Play / Show (first file)".

P.S. I know I can go find the Recent Playing Now, try to remember what song was selected at the moment I tried Play and add to Playing Now again. A lot of work just to hear one song.

Glynor's reply:
I, personally, like it that Play works that way.  Otherwise it'd be difficult to add a whole set of songs, TV shows, pictures, or other videos to Playing Now (while still specifying which particular file in a larger set should play first).  Especially with video watching, but also when I want to play a specific song from one of my "mix" view schemes (with shuffle turned on), this is the desired behavior.  When I'm manually building a playlist it isn't, but that's what the Send to --> Play --> Add to Playing Now (as next to play) is for (and then once you use it, it will show up at the top of MC's right-click menu for you).  Choosing Play and double-clicking do the same thing.

You can change it's behavior though, so it's not a problem.  Go to Options --> General --> Behavior --> Double Click.  You can select:

• Replace Playing Now (all) - the default
• Replace Playing Now (single) - same as above but only adds the one file
• Add To Playing Now (to end) - keeps Playing now list intact and adds the selected file to the very end of the list
• Add To Playing Now (play now) - stops the current file from playing and plays the selected file but keeps the rest of the current list intact
• Add To Playing Now (play next) - same as above but waits for current file to end before playing the selected file
• File Properties - Pulls up the tag window

Also.... The "show" option is specific to images.  Those are something of a special case, because they wanted you to be able to play a playlist of images in a slideshow without affecting the currently playing music.  If music is not already playing, double clicking an image file will do a standard "play/double-click" command.  If music is playing, the images are instead added to the special "image slideshow" visualization, which maintains it's own playlist.

Generally in MC the terminology used regarding Playing Now's list is:

• Play - replaces the current playing now with what is selected
• Add - keeps the current playing now list intact

[dcwebman]

I'm sorry but I really don't understand what you were saying in your first paragraph. If you're adding more than one item to Playing Now, aren't we supposed to just select "Add to Playing Now"? I'm not sure how selecting Play adding one (or if you selected more than one and selecting Play) would help.

I was going to add to the initial post, and should have, that I have the double-click set to "Add To Playing Now (to end)" which if Play is supposed to act the same way, then it contradicts what I believe you were saying. Sounds like Play is always doing a "Replace Playing Now (all)".

Bottom line is, in my opinion, my current Playing Now shouldn't be removed unless I select "Clear Playing Now" and put something else in there.

[jgreen]

dc, I agree with you, in so far as right click/play is a hazard in the way that file/delete is next to file/save in many windows programs.  I would like to see some right-click command that would insert the track after the currently playing track and begin playing it.  or else a preiview mode that would pause the currently playing track and playyour selected track instead.

FWIW, Doof's lyrics editor has or had this capability perfectly implemented.  I tried to get him to make an alternate playing now plugin that would combine this with immunity to searches, which are the two things that bug me about playing now.

[marko]

P.S. I know I can go find the Recent Playing Now, try to remember what song was selected at the moment I tried Play and add to Playing Now again. A lot of work just to hear one song.

Just a quick pointer:
All you need to do is find the 'recent playing now' in the list and double click on it. MC remembers which file was playing at the time it got added and continues from there.

[Matt]

I would like to see some right-click command that would insert the track after the currently playing track and begin playing it.

This is there.  Check "Send To > Play"

[jgreen]

Good point, Matt, and that is exactly the capability I mean.  The only snag for me is that navigating multiple menus requires (for me) more than the 2-3% of available brain waves that I'm willing to expend on it.  As I've got three zones sitting there waiting for a misdirected mouse move, the hassle factor looms fairly large. 

--CAUTION:  SHAMELESS FEATURE REQUEST AHEAD--

In a perfect world we could configure "favorites" for the right-click menu, not just last-commands, which are very good all the same.  What I'm talking about is, well, it would be a user-configurable o-p-t-i-o-n. 

[glynor]

I'm sorry but I really don't understand what you were saying in your first paragraph. If you're adding more than one item to Playing Now, aren't we supposed to just select "Add to Playing Now"? I'm not sure how selecting Play adding one (or if you selected more than one and selecting Play) would help.

I just about always want to add the entire list to the Playing Now, starting with the file that I have selected (and not to have to select multiple files).  Many of my View Schemes are "radio-station" style mixes of music (with complicated "Step 4" searches).  I like to keep MC set to Shuffle and just double click a file here or there to start the music.

I was going to add to the initial post, and should have, that I have the double-click set to "Add To Playing Now (to end)" which if Play is supposed to act the same way, then it contradicts what I believe you were saying. Sounds like Play is always doing a "Replace Playing Now (all)".

I didn't realize this, but you're completely right here.  I think Double-Click and Right-Click Play should always do the same thing.  That would probably also solve your problem, but would make MC's use of the word "Play" somewhat ambiguous (and that's why they didn't do it I guess).

Play always clears the Playing Now.

Add adds to the existing Playing Now.

I think that's pretty clear.  Why is it such a hardship to go to Send To --> Play --> Add (as next to Play), or (to end), or whatever?  Especially since you only need to do it once, and then it shows up at the top of your right click menu!

Bottom line is, in my opinion, my current Playing Now shouldn't be removed unless I select "Clear Playing Now" and put something else in there.

See, again, this is where I strongly disagree.  I agree, if you use Playing Now to build complicated playlists, then this is probably annoying.  I don't.  I build complicated playlists using MC's feature called Playlists.

I'd say that if you do use it for that, then you probably should use the "Add" feature to add new tracks to it, and set your double-click action to something else.  Play is clearly defined as destructive to Playing Now, and has been for a long time in MC and MJ.

If this were changed, it would really annoy me when trying to play a TV show.  If I double click (or choose "Play" in Theater View") in a View Scheme showing all of a certain season of a show, when it's done playing the show I'd chosen, it should (and does) go on to the next episode (and the one after that and the one after that) without having to jump through a bunch of hoops.  Same goes with playing all the songs by a particular artist.  I navigate to that artist using the Tree or Panes and select the song I want and double-click or hit play.  It Just Works^TM.

[glynor]

I agree, if you use Playing Now to build complicated playlists, then this is probably annoying.  I don't.  I build complicated playlists using MC's feature called Playlists.

Actually... I just had a thought that might solve the problem if implemented.

The one thing that's annoying about using Playlists is that you can't really build them "on the fly".  If you're already playing a Playlist, you can't add new files to it (or re-order it) in the Playlist itself and have the changes "automagically" appear in the Playing Now list.

What if it wasn't that way?

What if instead Playlists were treated "special" and, as long as you hadn't manually modified the Playing Now list, any changes you made to the currently playing playlist would automatically show up in the Playing Now list!  Then you could build your complex lists in a real actual Playlist, but still "on the fly" DJ.  It'd also let you manage multiple Playing Now zones all without having to switch Zones manually.  just add and rearrange the playlist that they happen to be actively playing!

[dcwebman]

Just a quick pointer:
All you need to do is find the 'recent playing now' in the list and double click on it. MC remembers which file was playing at the time it got added and continues from there.

I didn't know that tip. That helps!

[dcwebman]

This is there.  Check "Send To > Play"

That's good but like jgreen said, another nested menu. Sounds like the ideal solution is to have two items on the first right-click menu, something like "Play (replace)" and "Play (add)".

[dcwebman]

Why is it such a hardship to go to Send To --> Play --> Add (as next to Play), or (to end), or whatever?  Especially since you only need to do it once, and then it shows up at the top of your right click menu!

I would say that's a little harder than right-clicking and selecting Play. Remember though that even though the command gets put at the top of the menu, once you close MC, it's gone and you have to do it all over again the next time.

I play songs from either playlists, smartlists, or going through the library picking and choosing artists/songs in order to put stuff in Playing Now. Regardless of how the Playing Now is populated, the point is the removal of the items from Playing Now. However you put them there, if you want them back to continue your listening, you're still going to have to go find that correct Recent Playing Now.

[Matt]

Remember though that even though the command gets put at the top of the menu, once you close MC, it's gone and you have to do it all over again the next time.

Leave MC running 24x7.

And you make it sound like it's a chore like mowing the lawn or helping your pregnant wife put on her shoes.  It's not that bad, really.

[dcwebman]

Leave MC running 24x7.

Can't do that when you keep coming out with all the builds.    Plus occasionally a reboot of the system is needed.

I would like to see some right-click command that would insert the track after the currently playing track and begin playing it.

This is there. Check "Send To > Play"

With some playing around this morning, that does the exact same thing as just Play, replacing the Playing Now with just the selected song(s). But if you select one of the further nested items, that Send To > Play gets replaced with what you had selected.

I did come up with one way that nobody spoke of that could be used. Create another zone and when you want to play just one song without interfering with the Playing Now, Ctrl+T over to the other zone and then you can select Play. Done playing, Ctrl+T back to the original Playing Now.

I can see I'm going to lose out on this discussion but the ideal solution I just thought of that would solve this issue and many more, is to simply remember the Right Click Recent Commands between exiting and opening MC.

[Matt]

I think you're looking for "Add (play now)"  It adds the files as the next files to play, doesn't disrupt the rest of the list, and plays them now.

[dcwebman]

I think you're looking for "Add (play now)"  It adds the files as the next files to play, doesn't disrupt the rest of the list, and plays them now.

That is correct as I said in my first post of this topic. I don't want to reiterate the problem again but like I just suggested, the solution to this and a lot of usability features is to remember the Right Click Recent Commands between exiting and opening MC.  As another example, when I am doing tagging, it sure would be nice to have my Recent commands from previous sessions of MC still there at the top of the menu instead of having to dig down into the Library Tools again.

[glynor]

the solution to this and a lot of usability features is to remember the Right Click Recent Commands between exiting and opening MC

I got to agree here.   

Most applications do have some facet where they remember actions between runs (recently opened documents).

[modelmaker]

I got to agree here.   

Most applications do have some facet where they remember actions between runs (recently opened documents).

I have to add my vote here as well.