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[0239666]

I was wondering is there a way to customise the playlist view so that you can view by artist and album? I have a playlist syncronised with my iPod so it has +15000 files. Currently if I want to delete an artist, album or song I have to scroll down through the whole list. I have looked around to try and customise the view to make it display the same information as when you click "details" on for the iPod view.

[Matt]

Sorry but this isn't currently possible.

You can create library views that only show a specific playlist if that helps.

[glynor]

That's exactly what I was going to suggest.  That'll probably accomplish what he needs...

I'll write up quick instructions and post back shortly.

[0239666]

Thanks.
I think it is a good idea to have a view like this available as most iPods will be managed by playlists. And its very time consuming to scroll down through the whole list to delete maybe one song.

[Matt]

One other approach is the use the search box.  It'll quickly filter any view.

[glynor]

Okay... Here we go.  There IS a way to "filter" the files in a Playlist, just like you can with your regular view schemes.  You can do it by creating a special view scheme, that "searches" for the files in the Playlist.  This is pretty easy to do and the instructions are below...

However, there is one major limitation to the usefulness of this approach, especially if your goal is to use the Playlist to sync to a handheld device.  The View Scheme you create, and can filter, cannot be made to automatically sync to the handheld device.  This is because MC only allows you to select actual Playlists in the Handheld Options - Sync List dialog, rather than letting you pick any "node" in your library. This is quite annoying actually, and I really wish it could be changed so that you can just choose certain View Schemes in the Sync List.  Perhaps one day it will be...


Boo!  You can't choose any of your View Schemes!

It would also be extremely helpful if you could simply have access to the Edit View Scheme options (the ability to add panes and whatnot), directly to the Playlists themselves.  In other words, just treat Playlists (both regular and smartlists) as a "special" type of View Scheme, but still let you do everything you normally could in the "Edit View Scheme" dialog.  I know others have asked for this in the past, and if it were possible, it'd make some management tasks that I regularly do (prepping for DJing and handheld syncing) much simpler!!

So anyway... This feature can be cool though, if you have lots of manually created Playlists that you want to filter for use occasionally.

First off, create an empty View Scheme in the Audio part of your tree in MC where you'll store these special view schemes.  I called mine "Playlist Schemes" but you can name yours whatever you want.  Simply right click on Audio in the tree and choose Add View Scheme, and then name it what you want in Step 2.  You can leave everything else alone (though you might want to change the Step 3 --> Image choice to "Folder" or something similar).

Once you have your "container" view scheme, right click on it in the tree and choose Add View Scheme to create your new Playlist View Scheme.  Give it a name, and add whatever fields or other filters you'd like available under Step 1.  Then, under Step 4 in the dialog, click the arrow and choose Playlist.



In the Playlist dialog that appears, choose the playlist that you'd like to be able to browse.  You can also choose more than one, and then the View Scheme will browse the combination of the playlists you selected.



That's all there is to it!  Simply click OK twice to close the dialogs and then you can use your new View Scheme.  This will let you browse the files, as you would with any View Scheme, but the only ones that will be shown will be the ones in the original Playlist.



As I said though, this may not be very useful for syncing to a handheld.  The problem is that if you try to delete any files from the View Scheme, it will delete them from the entire library, not just remove them from the "source playlist".  In order to make any changes, you'd need to somehow select the files you want and build a new playlist and then sync that playlist (certainly not very convenient).

All in all, it would be vastly preferred if the two abilities I mentioned above could be implemented!

[dcwebman]

Great explanation glynor. Mind if I put it in the wiki?

[glynor]

Great explanation glynor. Mind if I put it in the wiki?

Of course not.  I almost did myself, but I was too lazy to figure out how.

I've really got to learn Wikimedia editing one of these days...

[dcwebman]

It's easy to do. You just did the hard part in writing it up with images. I'll have it added today.

[glynor]

I know it's easy.  I've just never bothered to look at it at all...

[marko]

The problem is that if you try to delete any files from the View Scheme, it will delete them from the entire library, not just remove them from the "source playlist".  In order to make any changes, you'd need to somehow select the files you want and build a new playlist and then sync that playlist (certainly not very convenient).

I skimmed this real quick, but, if we're talking about actual playlists here, rather than smartlists, it's very easy to get this functionality.

Instead of placing the playlist filter in step 4 of the viewscheme, leave step 4 empty, and make the first view scheme pane a 'playlist group' pane.

Now, when you select a file, or album, in the list, then simply clicking inside the 'tagging mode' tickbox in the pane will remove it from the playlist.



The entries without tagging mode boxes are smartlists, which by their very nature, could not work this way, but still remain selectable and browsable nonetheless.



-marko.

[glynor]

Instead of placing the playlist filter in step 4 of the viewscheme, leave step 4 empty, and make the first view scheme pane a 'playlist group' pane.

I'm not real clear on what you do to link this view scheme to a specific Playlist...

EDIT: Well, I played with it a bit more and it seems that this works better than the method I proposed, though I'm not clear on the "Tagging mode" stuff and how you'd make changes which then would apply to the Playlist group for an iPod sync.  It does seem to only work on Playlist Groups, as opposed to only individual playlists, but this probably works better anyhow (since the Pane then gives you the individual Playlists).

Marko... When you get the chance, could you explain the Tagging Mode aspect of this method a bit better?  Specifically, how I would quickly be able to remove artists from the Playlists (or the Group) via the Panes, so that they don't sync next time I plug in my handheld.

There's always more to learn in MC... Amazes me.

[marko]

EDIT:

Select "Playlists" in the tree and press F10. Type Viewscheme Groups and press enter.

With "Viewscheme Groups" selected, hit F10 again to create another playlist group, and this time call it iPod. For this example, I called mine TestPod.

Next, add the playlists you would like to manage to the ipod group, and then, with the ipod group selected, press F9 to add a smartlist.

The idea here is to exclude everything that exists in the playlists you wish to sync to the ipod.
Click on the 'Advanced' button, then click on the little 'wizard' triangle and select 'Playlists'.

Select all the ipod playlists, choose "Exclude", then press OK.

Next, right-click Audio in the tree, and choose "Add View Scheme" from the menu.
In Step 1, click on the Add button and set the selections as shown below:


Then use the Add button to add other panes you'd like to use to filter your music. I chose Album Artist (auto) grouped by 3 followed by Album Artist (auto) and finally, Album.
I deselected auto name and called my view scheme "iPod Manager"
I chose "honour parent scheme search rules" only, then pressed OK.


The view scheme loads. I select "files not in sync list" and now I know I'm looking at files that are not, and never will be on the iPod.
I filter down to find an album I'd like to have on the ipod and then select the files in the file list.
Those greyed-out boxes that appear beside the playlist names in the first pane are "Tagging Mode" tickboxes...

I want to place this album in podlist 1, so I click in it's box, and MC shows the following prompt:

Click "Enable tagging mode now" and MC turns on tagging mode, and now, this album is a part of podlist 1...


If I later decide I don't want that album on the ipod, or perhaps want it in a different playlist, all that's needed is to select podlist 1, select the offending album, and click in the tickbox to remove it from the playlist.


Remember that tagging mode is now turned on!! Be careful not to click in the tick boxes when selecting things in the other panes. When you're done changing things, press F4 to turn tagging mode off again.
Last, but by no means least, remember to plug in your ipod, load the handheld options and set MC to sync from those playlists.
Easy huh?
==============

If you prefer, you could set up a custom library field instead of playlists. You first pane would be that custom field. Everything that is tagged "on ipod" for example, would be sync'd and all the unassigned stuff is not sync'd. You would then sync from a smartlist that contained a rule that excluded all files whose ipod field was empty.

[Raphoune]

Did you consider using a custom field to control the synchronization on the iPod ?
It seems easier and more flexible to build a view scheme and a playlist (for iPod synchro) based on a field than to build a view scheme based on a playlist.... (I may not be very clear...).
I found that method in the forum a couple of years ago. I can try to find out the link iif you are interested...

[marko]

I find it one of those "six or half a dozen" things to be honest.

Once it's set up, it's still just ticks in tickboxes whichever way you go, and boils down to personal preference.
My son uses the custom library field method to manage his, while I find a group of 4 smartlists takes care of my needs.

-marko.

[marko]

Marko... When you get the chance, could you explain the Tagging Mode aspect of this method a bit better?  Specifically, how I would quickly be able to remove artists from the Playlists (or the Group) via the Panes, so that they don't sync next time I plug in my handheld.

Had a little time on my hands this morning, so I reworked my post above. Is that any clearer now?

[glynor]

Had a little time on my hands this morning, so I reworked my post above. Is that any clearer now?

I'll check it out when I have a little more time on my hands early next week.  I'm slammed right now getting ready for my trip and recovering.

[Robo983]

Thanks Marko, I found this very helpful. I am bumping this up rather than start a new thread because of all the documentation in the thread. I also thought this would be helpful if added to the Wiki but am concerned because of the damage it could do if used in appropriately since this is not what tagging mode was intended for.

Any objections to adding?