Chapter 7
| Features Chapter 7 |
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7.1 Select MP3 Players |
MP3rat has the ability to work in tandem with external players. MP3rat provides specific integration for Winamp, RealPlayer, MusicMatch Jukebox, Windows Media Player, and the default player for *.mp3 and *.m3u files. When an external player is specified, the internal MP3rat player is removed. The playlist window remains fully functional to create, edit, and save playlists. Either select Play Externally from the Playlist menu or choose Send Playlist to Preferred Player from the playlist window context menu to transfer a playlist from MP3rat to the new preferred player.
Each player has a different communications interface, therefore please refer to Section 8.1.10 for player specific configuration options.
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7.2 Filename Extraction |
The Filename Extraction feature of MP3rat allows you to extract song properties from the filename. It can be run for a single song or a batch of songs. To invoke the feature, select links from the main window and choose Extract Song Data from Filenames... under the MP3 menu. The dialog consists of three sections: Extraction Format, Song Data Preview, and File List.
Extraction Format - The Name Format is where you specify the order data is arranged in the filename. Underneath this field, a preview field shows the translated symbolic format into an easy-to-read example. It is assumed that some type of separator appears in the filename in between fields to identify where one field ends and another begins. This feature allows you to specify the separator and the import format. The following fields can be extracted from the filename.
Title %T Album %A Artist %r Track Number %N Year %Y Ignore Field %I The Ignore Field is any string that may occur in the filename that you want to omit from the extraction. For example, if a filename contains a genre field, you would specify that to be ignored so the rest of the extraction could proceed.
Clicking on button to the right of the Name Format field will display the above list of extraction parameters in long form. Selecting the item from the menu will add the symbolic formatting to the Name Format field where the cursor was last positioned.
If the subdirectories of where the song exists contain fields, you can also extract song information from the directory names as well. You can add subdirectory separators '\' in between fields create the Name Format.
The last four song formats are saved and available in the pop-up menu.
Song Data Preview - In this pane, the output for the selected song in the File List will be previewed. This section allows you to verify the correct import before completing the extraction. This pane will dynamically update as the Name Format is changed.
File List - Shows the files associated with the import. If a song appears in red, it means that the song does not match the import criteria specified. This window will dynamically update as the Name Format is changed. If a song doesn't match your extraction criteria, you can remove songs by deleting them from the File List. You can do by right clicking on a song and selecting Don't Extract from the context menu or just press the delete key.
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7.3 Rename MP3 Files |
The Rename feature allows you to create new filenames based on song properties. This feature allows you to easily format your mp3 files to the same standard. It can be run for a single song or for a batch of songs. To invoke the feature, select links from the main window and choose Rename Files... under the MP3 menu.
The Name Format works in the same manner as in the Filename Extraction dialog.
The File List section is similar. If a song is displayed in red it means that one of the song properties specified in the Name Format is missing. To fix the problem of a missing field, you can right-click on a song and choose Edit Properties... from the context menu to fill in the missing field. Similarly, you can select multiple songs and Edit Common Properties... You can also remove the song from the list by pressing the Delete or by selecting Don't Rename from the context menu.
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7.4 Move and Copy MP3 Files |
To enable the instantaneous search facility of MP3rat, the program needs to keep track of the file locations. If you move a song, MP3rat will report the song as Not Found. For that reason, MP3rat contains a facility to aid in file management. This dialog enables you to move and copy songs from their current location to a location based on the song properties. It can be run for a single song or for a batch of songs. To invoke the feature, select links from the main window and choose Move of Copy Files... under the MP3 menu.
The top portion shows the new path the files are to be copied to. In the File List below, the new location is previewed. Songs that appear in red indicate they are not present and therefore will be omitted from the move operation.
A move operation will move the exiting mp3 file to a new location, where a copy will duplicate the file to the new location. You can choose between a Copy and Move by selecting the checkbox in the lower right corner. Next to this checkbox is an option to update the new new path in the MP3rat data file. Select this option if you want MP3rat to be aware of the change.
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7.5 Status Checking |
MP3rat can check the status of songs to determine whether the song is present and available for play. This is beneficial if you store MP3s on removable media, such as CDs, or if your music is dispersed across a network.
There are two ways to status check pages:
MP3rat displays a small icon beside each song in the main window. These icons indicate the status of a song and may be configured in the Status Checking Icons section of the Options dialog, see Section 8.1.8 for details. The default icons are shown in the table below.
Song is available
Song is read-only
Song is read-only but can be modified
Song was not found
Song is being status checked 7.5.3 Displaying Status Information
The icons in the left most column of the main window provide a quick visual indication of the status of songs. To sort the main window by status, display and sort the Status column, see Section 5.6.2 for column configuration.
MP3rat has a feature that allows you to song status to and from read-only. Often when songs are copied from a CDs the files remain Read-Only, but since they are no longer on a CD they can be written to if the read-only file attribute is changed. For example, when you write song tags, it is important to know if you changes can be written to the song of if the cannot. MP3rat differentiates between these two types of files - read-only modify and read-only. Read-only modify means that the file attribute can be changed.
To change the file attribute, simply highlight the song(s) in the main window and choose Change Song Status from the Tools menu. This menu will pop-up another menu option that lets you change the song to Writeable or Read-Only.
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7.6 Advanced Searching |
Mp3rat features two types of searches: Keyword and Exact String. Keyword searching is used to search the words in the keyword field of each bookmark. The keyword search only searches the keyword field, if you wish to search any other field, use the Exact String Search. The Exact String search is used to search any bookmark fields and will find anything that matches what you type character for character. This is useful for searching song filenames and other fields that are not comprised of words.
Selecting Search Type
The search type may be specified by either selecting the appropriate toolbar button or by using the Search Options dialog. The search related toolbar buttons are located to the right of the search field on the toolbar. They are documented in the toolbar definition, Section 9.2, but shown here again for reference:
These two buttons specify the search type, either one or the other will be depressed. To select the search type, just press the appropriate button and it will become selected and in the process deselect the other button. The
button displays a drop down menu of search options relating to the current search type. These options are detailed in the next two sections. The Search Options dialog provides an alternative method for setting both the search type and search options.
To display the Search Options dialog, select Search Options from the Tools menu. This will display the following dialog:
In the above figure, notice that Exact String Search has been selected and the options pertaining to Keyword Search have been disabled (grayed out.) To enable the Keyword Search options, click on Keyword Search to select it and the options will be enabled. The following is a detailed description of both search types and the options pertaining to each.
Keyword searching is useful for the following reasons:
HINT: In a Keyword search, only type as much as the word as needed to narrow your search down. For instance, if you want to search for "classical" songs, just type "clas" instead of "classical".
Keywords may be combined using the following search operators:
Operator Function &
AND operator
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OR operator
!
NOT operator
Rather than using the above characters that require the shift key to be depressed, you can alternatively spell out the operator and include a leader dot: .and .or .not
Examples
rock ! 80's All rock songs except for the ones from the 80's rock & 80's All rock songs from the 80's rock | 80's All songs dealing with rock or songs from the 80's. Songs may be listed that have nothing to do with rock music because the OR operator only requires that one of the words match, not both. stock .or free Same as above but with the alternate form of the OR operator. Notice the dot before the "or", this is required so that MP3rat does not think you are searching for the actual word "or".
If you do not include a search operator between words, AND is implied. For instance, "rock 80's" would find any bookmark that had keywords that matched "rock" and "80's".
Search expressions may be grouped using parenthesis to change evaluation priority, such as in this example: (rock | 80's) & Christmas
This searches for any songs that have keywords that begin with "rock" or "80's" and "Christmas."Incremental Searching
Options
The only option available when performing a keyword search is Partial Matches. When checked, this option will cause MP3rat to match words that start with the same characters being typed. For instance, "rock" will match "rockandroll". When this option is not checked, the entire keyword must be typed before MP3rat will match it.
Exact string searching is useful for searching:
The Exact String Search searches songs for exactly what is typed in the Search Field, it does not understand the concept of words. Because of this, strings composed of any characters may be used in a search, as opposed to keyword searching where certain characters such as a space may not be searched for.
Exact String Search options are changed via either the drop down search option menu or by using the Search Option dialog.
- Match Case
- When this option is checked, MP3rat differentiates upper and lower case characters.
- Field Selection
- Check a field if you want MP3rat to search it. While the Exact String Search function can search the keyword field, do not confuse this with the Keyword Search function.
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7.7 Rating Colors |
MP3rat has the ability to display a different color scheme for each different rating value. Section 8.1.4 explains how to setup the rating colors. By default, a red color gradient is established with a rating of 10 equal to a solid red color. This feature was included to help locate highly rated songs in your search results without having to sort by rating. For example, it is easy to locate the highest rated song in the search results below:
The Rating concept is unique to MP3rat, by default every song is not rated and is displayed as "NR". There are three methods to change the rating of a song: within the Player Window for the currently playing song, from the Song Properties Dialog while you are editing song(s), or the fastest method, by using the Main Window or Player Hotkeys.
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7.8 Starting MP3rat Automatically |
MP3rat can be started automatically when Windows starts. Select Options from the MP3rat view menu and check the "Start MP3rat when Windows starts" option. You may optionally check "Run Minimized" to start MP3rat in a minimized state. Section 8.1.1 explains the configuration of this feature.
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7.9 Backing Up the Song Data File |
MP3rat stores the data file in a standard text formatted file with an extension of *.rat. The *.rat data files reside in the MP3rat directory by default, however, they may be stored elsewhere if desired.
MP3rat optionally can create backup data files with *.ba0 and *.ba1 file extensions. In the event that you would lose or corrupt your data file, you can open a backup file by selecting Open from the File menu and pointing to the backup file. Once you open a backup file, rename it as a normal *.rat file and continue operation.
The *.ba0 backup file is the most recent copy of your MP3rat song data file that was overwritten. The *.ba1 file is not as straightforward. That file is created over time and attempts to capture the the most songs saved in MP3rat.
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7.10 Deleting Songs |
MP3rat provides an option to remove mp3 files as well as from your MP3rat song data file. To delete songs from the disk, select the Delete from Disk option in the Confirm Delete Songs dialog.
When you delete a song, it will be sent to Recycle Bin. Highlighting any song, whether in the Main or Playlist Windows, and pressing the trash can icon
in the toolbar will invoke this feature.
To undelete the song, locate the deleted file in the recycle bin and reverse the delete by selecting Restore. Once the file has been restored, you can then import it back into MP3rat from the restored location.
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7.11 Bug Report |
MP3rat contains an automated bug reporting mechanism. Select Bug Report from the Help menu and the following dialog will be displayed.
When you send the bug report, the debug log is attached to the email, thus helping us debug and trace your problem faster. Be sure to include your email address, otherwise we are unable to respond to your report or suggestion.
Please feel free to use this feature to suggest ideas about how we can improve MP3rat.
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7.12 Version Check |
The MP3rat Version Check provides a quick means of determining if you have the latest software release. When you select Check for New Version... from the Help menu, a web page will open in your browser and inform you if a new version is available or if you have the most recent release.
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