f20dx09 in Visual C#

Drawer QR Code ISO/IEC18004 in Visual C# f20dx09

Figure 20-9. Use the Advanced Tag Editor to add and edit details that can t easily be changed in the Library itself, such as Lyricist and Composer.

For music files, the Track Info and Artist Info tabs contain all standard tags. Select a single track, change the value in a field, and then click Apply (to save the changes and continue editing tags) or OK (to save your changes and close Advanced Tag Editor).

Advanced Tag Editor doesn t include an undo feature. If you make a mistake when editing tag information, those changes become part of the underlying files. Before doing any serious tag editing, we strongly recommend that you back up your music collection.

If you select multiple tracks, the interface changes slightly. By default, all fields are unavailable for editing. This is a safety precaution, designed to prevent you from inadvertently renaming a group of tracks with a title you intended to apply to just one. To enable editing for fields that typically are identical for an entire group (such as Genre, Album, or Album Artist), select the check box to the left of the field you want to edit. Make your change and click Apply or OK; the new value you entered replaces the existing contents of that field for all selected tracks.

20

Note Advanced Tag Editor is powerful enough for all but the most obsessive music fans. It s far from perfect, however. For instance, it doesn t allow you to search and replace values in a library (useful when you ve misspelled an artist s name). Although you can edit the Track Number field, you can t automatically renumber tracks based on the order in your playlist. You can t manually rename files based on tag information, nor can you extract tag information from the names of downloaded files. And you ll be unable to edit files in formats other than MP3 and WMA, such as OGG or AAC. If you want those features and many more, we recommend an inexpensive third-party utility called eMusic Tag Editor, available from AbyssAudio at http://www.abyssaudio.com. It uses an easy, Explorer-style interface and supports virtually any type of music file. For serious music collectors, it s a must-have, if only for its undo/redo capability!

Managing a Digital Music Collection You can also edit metadata directly in Windows Explorer. Right-click any MP3 or WMA file and choose Properties, and then click the Summary tab (you may need to click the Advanced button to see this information). Each field shown here is editable. If you select multiple files, you can use this dialog box to edit fields such as the name of the artist or album for all selected tracks. Note that changing metadata stored within each file does not change the information displayed in your Media Library unless you remove the tracks from the Media Library and add them again using the Search tool.

Every music track in your library has a star rating, assigned on a scale of 1 star (lowest) to 5 stars (highest). By default, all new tracks are Auto Rated at 3 stars. As you play a track, its Auto Rating increases to 4 or 5 stars. (The rating goes up only if you play all the way through a track; if you click the Next button while a track is playing, Windows Media Player assumes you did so because you didn t like the selection.) If you choose to do so, you can assign ratings to tracks, one at a time or in groups. To adjust a rating, select one or more tracks in the Library s Details pane, choose Rate, and pick a rating from the list. You can also assign a rating by pointing to the Rating column for a track and choosing the correct number of stars. As soon as you assign a rating, Windows Media Player stops using Auto Rating for that track. (To completely remove a rating you ve assigned, choose Unrated. In this case, the track will once again have an Auto Rating of 3 stars.) The Rated Songs category in the Library s Contents pane allows you to sort your Library by user rating (or to see all tracks that you have not yet rated).