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[Robert H]

I’m trying MC 16 as a replacement for day to day media player/manager and as a DJ tool. DJ use is limited swing and blues dances.   I’m reading through the Wiki, and am overwhelmed with information and am having trouble finding answers to what might be simple questions.
 I’m trying to determine how I can identify my music other than in the Genre tag which I would like to leave alone.  I don’t see any custom tags available so I was thinking to just use some of the seldom used tags but don’t want to do something that I will end up regretting later on.  Ideally I would have one tag that just identifies “Dance” a second tag breaks dance in to “Genre” so if I want I can separate Dance into Lindy, East coast, 20s Charleston, Balboa, Blues, etc. with that and the BPM tag I could cover any (swing)dance scene.
Am I going in the right direction? Are there tags that are safer to hijack than others? Or, should I be taking a different approach?
Thanks
Robert

[JimH]

Welcome.  You can add a custom tag if you want to.  On the Wiki, search for "File Properties".

To add a tag,

Custom fields may be added with the Add New Field button in the Tools > Options > Libraries & Folders > Manage Library Fields... dialog.
 
You can also add a new view under Audio.

[MrC]

Some people use a Subgenres list-type tag to manage sub-genres.

Create your own custom field, and set it to Data Type: List.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=50721.0

Once the tag is created, you can start adding subgenres to the list using the Tag Action Window, or directly within a pane view.  You can modify your views, or create new ones, to use display and organize via this new field.

[Robert H]

Awesome guys, I'm off in the right direction!
Thanks
R

[Robert H]

Ok, I added two fields. "dance" which is just a yes answer. That way I can easily filter out all songs that might be used at a dance. The second category "dance style" has a list "Swing; East Coast; Lindy; Balboa; Charleston; Blues; Waltz; Reggae" more will come.  I noticed that I can check more than one item in the dance style field like Balboa and Charleston. which would be great for songs that cross genres as many do. But only the first selection shows up in the field in a view the the second check is dropped if leave and come back to the song.  I would rely like to be able to tag a song for multiple dance styles so that it can populate multiple discrete smartlists.  Can the Field lists be used like this or do I need to create a field for each style if I want this functionality?

[MrC]

Here's a panes column that shows your Dance Style.  You can see from the attached screenshot that you can select the styles from the list.

One or more tracks are selected, and then the Dance Style is modified either in a panes view (as shown, use F4 to go to Pane Tagging mode), or in the Tag Action Window (second image) by clicking on the Dance Style field which expands into a list edit box.

[wig]

Nice explanation, MrC.

Is there any way to suppress the New option at the bottom of the pane (New Dance Style in your example)?

I've tried setting up a pane-based tagging view, but I find that element pretty distracting. It would also be nice to suppress the unassigned notification as well.

[MrC]

I don't know of any way to suppress the "New..." element in panes view (which appears once one or more files have been selected).  I guess there would have to be another UI mechanism to enter a new value into a pane.

I don't personally find it useful, esp. at the bottom of long lists.

Unassigned can be eliminated with the judicious use of expressions to handle said values.

[Robert H]

Thanks MrC after reading your reply I noticed that when I selected a view (smartlist in this case) with no song selected, the Dance Style field showed a blue fill in the check box for each style that was present in the smartlist. but when I click a song and check more than one style, the extra checks do not stay with the song. as soon as I click anywhere else and come back to the song, only one style is checked.
I looked around in the settings to see if maybe there was something that made multiple list items selectable but was unsuccessful.

Also, F4 doesn't change anything for me.  I'm just checking out the Panes view so it might just be my initial ignorance of that feature.

[MrC]

Have a look at the attached screenshot of a view I created to show three areas at once.

The upper-right quadrant is the Panes area - only one column is shown in the screenshot.

The lower-right is the File List area, where only one column (Dance Style) is shown.

The lower-left is the Action Window's Tag area.  You can see the field named Dance Style.

In the File List, you can see that when a list type field is shown, the values for the field are listed in one row, separated by semicolons (eg. Balboa, East Coast, etc.).  You can see also that two tracks are selected.

In the Panes area, the shown Dance Style pane shows the checkbox list of the values currently existing for the field.  When there is a checkmark, it means the value is set for the selected tracks.  When the box is blue, it means some of the selected tracks have the value set, some do not.  An empty box of course means that value is not set.  Compare the value "Balboa" in both the Dance Style column in the Panes view area and the Dance Style column in the File List area.   The selected tracks have both the Balboa and Swing value set, but only the first tracks has Lindy, Charleston, etc.

In the File List area, select one or more tracks by selecting in the Dance Style column and then press F2 - a list edit will open where you can select values.  Hit Enter to accept the values (there are other ways too).

To edit the values in a Pane, click an empty area in the Dance Style pane (not a value, or that changes the selection) and use F4 to enable tagging mode.  You'll see the boxes change to editable.

In the Tag Action Window, show the Dance Style field (from the upper-left area of the Tag Action Window, either show all fields, or add this field to the default view) and click to Edit, add your checks, and either Close the edit box, or continue to edit other tracks with the box left open.

[Robert H]

Wow, that is a very detail post. I really appreciate the time you have taken to help me out with this MrC.  I try this tonight or tomorrow as soon as I can devote more time to it.
Thanks Again
Robert

[Robert H]

Ok, I have this working but intermittently and kind of "bugish" With the same basic view that MrC posted above. 

Select a file in the File List area. Click in a blank area of the Dance Style Pane. hit F4 and check boxes are available.  Often I cannot select some of the check boxes even though they are available. for example: In the first pane "Dance", "yes" is selected. In Dance Style pane "all dance styles" is highlighted. Select a file that has "blues" tagged in Dance Style. click in the dance style pane and F4. Check boxes are enabled. Note, not all styles are listed on ones that are already used. Dance Style order is:
All Dance Styles (highlighted)
Balboa
Blues (checked)
East Coast
Swing
Unassigned
New Dance Style

next
click East Coast box, nothing happens.
click Swing check box, box becomes checked.
click Balboa check box, nothing happens.

If I reestablish the initial conditions I find that, of the listed styles, I can only select Swing. I can also select Unassigned and New Dance Style.
If I select New Dance Style, all dance styles are available in the menu but selecting them and OK does not activate the associated check.

Back to initial conditions, click unassigned which deselects blues and select New Dance Style.  Now if I check an unused style in the menu like "Cha Cha" and OK, it gets added to the list and becomes checked.

Also, if Swing is the only thing selected, nothing else can be selected.

Here are my Field Settings

Data Type: List
Relational: Not relational
Edit Type: Standard
Acceptable Values:
Swing; East Coast; Lindy; Balboa; Charleston; Blues; Waltz; Cha Cha

The only thing I see unique about Swing is that it is first in the acceptable values list.

 

[MrC]

Once you select a pane value, the file list is winnowed, so you'll need to re-select any files you want to operate on for panes tagging.  Once you select the files, you'll see the checkboxes reappear.

The reason you don't see some values is that they are not present yet in any files in the list.  For example, if East Coast is not one of the values in at least one of your selected files, it won't be present in the Dance Style list.  Keep in mind - a pane is not a list of all possible values.  Rather, it is a list of all the unique values in only the selected media files (or all files if no selection).

To add East Coast for the first time to a track, perhaps one of your Blues tracks, select the relevant files, and then click the checkbox for the New Dance Style entry on the pane.  This will open a new dialog whereby you can select East Coast.  For this, it might be easier to use a column in the file list, as you can just edit in place, selecting values you want as ALL possible values are present.

FYI: you can also Drag-and-Drop tracks to one of your dance styles in the pane - this will allow assigning dropped-upon keyword to be added to the dragged files.

This is a little dated, but may be of some use:

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Tagging_Mode

I'm not sure I covered all your cases here.  But let's see where this goes.

[Robert H]

I probably should have deleated part of my post as I think I burried my actual problem with background information...

Once you select a pane value, the file list is winnowed, so you'll need to re-select any files you want to operate on for panes tagging.  Once you select the files, you'll see the checkboxes reappear.

No probelm actaly seeing check boxes or getting them to appear.

The reason you don't see some values is that they are not present yet in any files in the list.  For example, if East Coast is not one of the values in at least one of your selected files, it won't be present in the Dance Style list.  Keep in mind - a pane is not a list of all possible values.  Rather, it is a list of all the unique values in only the selected media files (or all files if no selection).

To add East Coast for the first time to a track, perhaps one of your Blues tracks, select the relevant files, and then click the checkbox for the New Dance Style entry on the pane.  This will open a new dialog whereby you can select East Coast.  For this, it might be easier to use a column in the file list, as you can just edit in place, selecting values you want as ALL possible values are present.

Saw that, and it worked fine.

FYI: you can also Drag-and-Drop tracks to one of your dance styles in the pane - this will allow assigning dropped-upon keyword to be added to the dragged files.

neat! will have to try it.

Going to make a second post with just my problem...

[Robert H]

Trying to select multiple values from a list is the only real problem I am having.
Only the FIRST value in the “Acceptable Values:” list can be selected as a multiple value. And, only if the other value is selected first.
For example:
If “swing” is checked, nothing else can be checked.
If swing is clicked, thereby de-selecting it any other style can be checked. For instance, “Blues”
With “Blues” checked, clicking on all other styles will do nothing EXCEPT “swing” which just so happens to be the first item in the in the “Acceptable Values:” list. 
So I can have a maximum of two values checked, One of those has to be the first item in the in the “Acceptable Values:” list, and those two items must be selected in the proper sequence (swing checked last). 

I hope I have spelled the problem out more clearly.

Here are my Field Settings for “Dance Style”
Data Type: List
Relational: Not relational
Edit Type: Standard
Acceptable Values:
Swing; East Coast; Lindy; Balboa; Charleston; Blues; Waltz; Cha Cha
The only thing I see unique about Swing is that it is first in the acceptable values list.

Thanks
Robert

[Robert H]

Video of what I am experiencing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkbY7scNmu8

I hope this makes it clear.

[MrC]

Sorry, I should have given you my immediate thought last night, which I just verified.

Remove the spaces after the semicolons for each of your Acceptable Values.

If you look very carefully, you'll notice that the values under the Dance Style column in the file list don't quite line up - the first entry in Acceptable Values is left-aligned, all others are indented by one space.

Great screen-cast!

This should be considered a bug in my opinion.

[Robert H]

Or at least a note in the wiki about data entry...

Thanks for helping me work through this!!!!!!!!!!

[MrC]

You're welcome.

I posted a bug in a dev thread.  The dev's are pretty busy, so we'll await for any response or action.  I can update have updated the Wiki now.