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[Opawesome]

Hello everyone!

I have been struggling with this issue for too long, I need help.

My music files are tagged with "moods" values (separated by semicolons). I created a pane listing those moods. What I want to achieve is that when I click a "mood" in the list, all files that don't have this mood appear in the lower window. If you prefer, I want the list to be an exclusion list, or a inverted/negative filter if you prefer.

Also note that "MOODS" is a multiple values field.

I would really appreciate any help on that.

Best regards

Opawesome

[rick.ca]

It's not possible. You would have to do a search or create a smartlist to do that. If it were possible, it would be interesting to play with, but the results would be difficult to interpret and of limited value. This is true of any list field with a large number of possible values, but particularly so with something as subjective as moods. You're more likely to be able to craft a limited number of smartlists having some meaning to you. For example, one might exclude moods you find depressing; another moods you find contrary to relaxation. Smartlists can also include any other criteria, just in case you find sad rock depressing, but sad jazz not. You could put a collection of such smartlists in a pane as Search list categories. That would take some work, but would be more productive than trying to make sense out of NOT mood selections made on the fly.

[MrC]

Or you can Select All with Ctrl-A, and Ctrl-click to deselect those you don't want (which now is essentially clicking those to excluded).

[Opawesome]

It's not possible. You would have to do a search or create a smartlist to do that. If it were possible, it would be interesting to play with, but the results would be difficult to interpret and of limited value.

Yes i already use smart playlists but they are now becoming insufficient for the use I make of my library, it is not flexible enough. Trust me, the value of such feature would unlimited for me.

Or you can Select All with Ctrl-A, and Ctrl-click to deselect those you don't want (which now is essentially clicking those to excluded).

No because for example if I want to listen to "energetic" songs but which are not "dark", then a song that is both "mood tagged" as Dark and Energetic, will show up as long as "energetic" is selected (with "dark" remaining unselected)

If anyone knows a workaround, maybe using plugins and VB scripts or something (I don't know if it is possible), any help (even rough guidance) would be really appreciated.

[rick.ca]

I think you should experiment more with Search to create the selections you're looking for. That's probably going to remain more effective than any workaround your come up with. It might also help you understand what it is you're asking for...

No because for example if I want to listen to "energetic" songs but which are not "dark", then a song that is both "mood tagged" as Dark and Energetic, will show up as long as "energetic" is selected (with "dark" remaining unselected)

If "dark" items are excluded because "dark" is not selected in the pane, then it follows that all items with any of the moods not selected are excluded. In other words, the result would items tagged "energetic" and only "energetic"—surely not what you're looking for. If the pane allowed a way to select a value and another way to NOT an value, you'd still have a problem. The natural way the panes work is to OR the values selected. You're asking for a way to AND NOT values. But how is that to coexist with OR?

The only functional behaviour I can think of is one where values selected are OR'd (as usual), and values NOT'd are actually AND NOT'd with those. This was discussed at some length in Filter Panes - Exclude. (There seemed to be some genuine enthusiasm then, but those who held their breath are no longer with us.) It would permit the type of selection of your example, but it's arbitrary and certainly less flexible than a search. So if a search is not flexible enough for you, I'm not sure what it is you're looking for.

[Opawesome]

The only functional behaviour I can think of is one where values selected are OR'd (as usual), and values NOT'd are actually AND NOT'd with those. This was discussed at some length in Filter Panes - Exclude. (There seemed to be some genuine enthusiasm then, but those who held their breath are no longer with us.) It would permit the type of selection of your example, but it's arbitrary and certainly less flexible than a search. So if a search is not flexible enough for you, I'm not sure what it is you're looking for.

Yes that would be the ideal solution. This is a feature have yet not been able to find anywhere (foobar, another program, etc.). Because I know that this feature of "Filter pane exclusion" would need additional coding in the source, I just asked if maybe there was some work around with an expression. And of course search function is flexible enough. Maybe the right word I was looking for was versatile. Because it is kind of longer to right a whole search string compared to just throwing a few clicks in the pane.

What you said in this old post is exactly what I believe:

The practise of classifying something with multiple attributes is simple and commonplace. For movie genres, it's standard. There's no need to invent an alternate classification system to suit how the panes work. If necessary, more complex queries can be constructed using the search facility. But panes offer a powerful and convenient way to filter data. All that's being suggested here is the ability to exclude as well as include items in a pane selection would make it that much more powerful—while still being simple and easy to use.

I thank you very all very much for your help.

By the way, do you think I can make the same request for MC 16 ?

Regards,

Opawesome

[rick.ca]

By the way, do you think I can make the same request for MC 16 ?

You just did. But it didn't go anywhere last time, so we would need to get a discussion going and hope others show an interest.

I think it's safe to say it's not the sort of thing that's likely to be implemented if it requires some significant change to how everything works. It would be nice if the developers could give some hint as to whether something like this might be feasible or is just wishful thinking. Based on Jim's recent explanation of how they consider these things, I can offer a suggestion: If they think the idea sucks but don't want to tell us, they could just tell us it's not feasible for proprietary technical reasons.

From a usability point-of-view, I can see it being implemented in such a way it wouldn't adversely affect anyone not interested in using it or who might be confused by its existence. If it applied only to list field panes, items were selected for exclusion (and de-selected) with a Alt-Click and their selection indicated by strike- or grey-out, it wouldn't get in the way of "normal" use of the panes.

There is something else which may be both a usability and technical issue. Panes do not work in isolation. Generally, when a selection is made in one pane, the others are updated to show only the values present in the current selection. A user's expectation would be same if this were being used. That seems simple enough, but we don't know how things work under the hood—so who knows?