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MrBS · Jul 17, 2002, 10:10 PM

[mods, feel free to move to software. I keep getting errors when trying to post there]

iTunes 3 is an awesome application, but there are still a couple holdover shortcomings, and a few things I think should be changed... we'll see if you guys agree or not.

Browse columns don't stay where they are. If you switch between playlists or from a playlist to the library, the browse column is back at the top of the list. The selection remains, but you need to manually scroll to find it. Very annoying.

If you change info for multiple tracks, pasting into a field doesn't check the "change" box, like typing into it does. Very annoying when you notice this after a few wasted minutes.

I'm guessing the Disc Number column is pretty useless for most of most users' libraries. But it's still information you want. I think it would be a lot nicer if tracks that were part of a disc that was part of a set would just have a little (1 of 3) in a smaller, grey font after the album title. It wouldn't be part of the albumn name itself, it would be it's own textbox.

Shuffle and Repeat buttons are right next to each other. They look very similar. They each have 3 states. Clicking on Repeat toggles between 3 states, while clicking on Shuffle toggles between 2 states, making you go into the preferences for the third. This is pretty stupid. I'll admit, a button is not the best thing to use to switch between 3 different states, but they really should be consistent. They should change both of them from a button to a toggle switch or something of that sort, or at the very least have album mode toggle by the shuffle button.

iTunes 3's new file wrangling abilities are awesome. Kind of makes the utility I just started on worthless but I'm okay with that. There's just one little problem I have with it. If you have checked "part of compilation" then the track is put in an album folder in the compilation folder. This is good. I like being able to rip "Short Music for Short People" (not a great album) without having 101 different artist folders. But, if I go into the "Green Day" folder I would like to see all the Green Day tracks I have, regardless of whether or not they are part of a compilation. The solution seems to be for iTunes to make an alias of the track in the compilation folder into the artist folder IF the artist folder already is there. That way, you don't clog up your main music folder with a lot of artist who you only have 1 track from, and at the same time when you open an artist's folder you actually see all the tracks from that artist.

Finally, something I've said before. I really wish they would put a "next-song token" into the control bar. This would be a little arrow button or something like that which you could drag from the controls to a track. When the current song ended, the song you marked with the token would start. A seemless way to change playlists or just choose the next song. As it is now, if you want to do that, you have to stop what you're doing, go to the computer, wait, just a couple seconds longer, almost over, and then finally when the track ends double click the song you want. It would be much more elegant if you could just tell iTunes "I want this song next" whenever it was that you wanted the song, instead of having to either interrupt the current song or sit there and wait for the current song to end.

~BS

benh57 · Jul 17, 2002, 10:14 PM

Is there any way to do a secondary sort - ie, sort first on say "Comment", then on "Track"?

funkboy · Jul 17, 2002, 10:23 PM

Make sure to submit your ideas to the iTunes feedback page - I like them!

ratlater · Jul 17, 2002, 10:28 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by benh57:
Is there any way to do a secondary sort - ie, sort first on say "Comment", then on "Track"?<hr /></blockquote>Yep, you can do a secondary and third and fourth...and on and on...it kicks ass!

BTW he has submitted them to feedback

-matt

benh57 · Jul 17, 2002, 11:19 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ratlater:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by benh57:
Is there any way to do a secondary sort - ie, sort first on say "Comment", then on "Track"?<hr /></blockquote>Yep, you can do a secondary and third and fourth...and on and on...it kicks ass!

BTW he has submitted them to feedback

-matt<hr /></blockquote>How?

MrBS · Jul 18, 2002, 02:18 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by funkboy:
Make sure to submit your ideas to the iTunes feedback page - I like them!<hr /></blockquote>I sent them in earlier today, they didn't even have version 3 available on the form. Glad to hear you like them.

One other thing that would be cool if iTunes would let you set a max. width for each column and then automatically shrink the columns whenever there is wasted space in any of the playlists.
~BS

fmalloy · Jul 18, 2002, 02:21 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by MrBS:
Finally, something I've said before. I really wish they would put a "next-song token" into the control bar.<hr /></blockquote>Great idea! It could be called the "On Deck" token

edddeduck · Jul 18, 2002, 08:39 AM

I like the idea of being able to enqueue songs to you just browse through you playlist and right list to enqueue the song onto a current list of songs to be played.

Basically a playlist that shows the next songs but once a song is played it deletes off the queue...

Win Amp does this very well on the PC.

Cheers Edwin

MrBS · Jul 18, 2002, 02:14 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by edddeduck:
I like the idea of being able to enqueue songs to you just browse through you playlist and right list to enqueue the song onto a current list of songs to be played.

Basically a playlist that shows the next songs but once a song is played it deletes off the queue...

Win Amp does this very well on the PC.

Cheers Edwin<hr /></blockquote>This functionality is already there, just make a new playlist and drag the first song you want onto it and click play. Then, just drag songs onto that playlist and they will be queued up.

What you don't have though is a way to switch from a playlist to another or if you want to jump to a different part in the same playlist without changing the actual order of the playlist.
~BS