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P L A Y L I S T U S E R ' S M A N U A L P L A Y L I S T U S E R ' S M A N U A L ┌────────────────────────┐ │ Software Solutions │ │ 217 Victory Lane │ │ St. Charles, MO 63303 │ └────────────────────────┘ You are authorized and encouraged to distribute the shareware version of PLAYLIST to others, provided that all files are kept together and no modifications are made. If distributing on a BBS, please use an archive utility such as PKZIP to keep all of the files together. Use the filename PLIST3_1.ZIP (or other extension if not PKZIP format) for archive format distribution. The shareware version of PLAYLIST is fully functional, and provides a music library capacity of 3,000 selections, which should be more than sufficient for most individual users. A professional version of PLAYLIST is also available; this has a capacity on the order of 14,000 selections, depending on available memory. Customized professional versions of PLAYLIST can also be obtained from us. THE PROFESSIONAL VERSION OF PLAYLIST IS REGISTERED TO YOU, AND IS NOT TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO OTHERS; HOWEVER, THE SUPPLIED PLIST3_1.ZIP MAY BE DISTRIBUTED, AS IT IS THE SHAREWARE VERSION. The following files are supplied as part of PLAYLIST: PLIST3_1.ZIP Complete shareware version of PLAYLIST PLAYLIST.EXE The executable PLAYLIST program PLAYLIST.DOC This documentation file MUSIC.LDB An example music library database COLORS.DAT Screen color configuration file COLORS.BW Monochrome screen configuration file READ.ME Introductory information text file ORDERFRM.DOC Order form for PLAYLIST The following additional PLAYLIST utility files are also supplied: PCONVERT.EXE Converts pre-3.0 databases to 3.0 format PCONVERT.DOC Documentation file for PCONVERT.EXE PLINDEX.EXE Converts version 3.0 databases to 3.1 format PLINDEX.DOC Documentation file for PLINDEX.EXE PEXTRACT.EXE Converts MUSIC.LDB to text file PEXTRACT.DOC Documentation file for PEXTRACT.EXE PLMERGE.EXE Merges formatted text file into MUSIC.LDB PLMERGE.DOC Documentation file for PLMERGE.EXE Software and documentation copyright 1989-1992 Douglas B. Stinson - i - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual REGISTRATION: Shareware is NOT free software. You are licensed to use PLAYLIST on a trial basis for 21 days; however, if you wish to continue using PLAYLIST, you are expected to become a registered user. Personal registration is only $15.00; this amount will cover the costs of providing you a disk with the latest available version of PLAYLIST, put you on our notification list for new versions and products in the future, and earn you our undying gratitude for being an honest person. Registration for the professional version of PLAYLIST is only $39.00. In addition to the above, you will receive a printed manual and the professional version of PLAYLIST, which has a much larger library capacity. To order a registered version of PLAYLIST, print out the file ORDERFRM.DOC, fill it in, and remit with a check or money order to Software Solutions. - ii - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION PLAYLIST is an easy-to-use database program especially made for music libraries. PLAYLIST is NOT implemented using a general- purpose database utility: It was specifically designed for extremely rapid and easy access to music libraries. All you have to provide are your own library entries, and PLAYLIST will keep them organized for you. Beyond keeping your music library organized, PLAYLIST's main purpose is to help you RAPIDLY find selections using any combination of the following "filters": - Artist - Title - Playing time - Year - Music type - Medium type By keeping the entire music library in memory during use, and organizing it for fastest lookup access, PLAYLIST is able to find all the selections meeting your filter requirements virtually instantly. PLAYLIST is very easy to use and ordinarily does not require reference to any documentation; however, reading this User's Manual will reveal a few non-obvious features and hints that will help you to get the most out of PLAYLIST. WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE PLAYLIST WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO USE PLAYLIST Any DJ will find PLAYLIST an ideal way to organize his or her music library and be able to VERY QUICKLY identify and locate music selections, based on a variety of criteria in any combination. Anyone with a fairly large personal music collection will find PLAYLIST to be an invaluable tool. If you frequently make tapes from records or CDs, imagine being able to find ALL the selections in your library that would fit nicely in that last four minutes of tape, in an instant. No more frustrating manual searches or compromises. - 1 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual GETTING STARTED GETTING STARTED To install PLAYLIST on your fixed disk drive, create a subdirectory and copy all of the files provided to that subdirectory. To start the PLAYLIST program, set your default directory to that in which your PLAYLIST files reside, and enter the command: PLAYLIST PLAYLIST automatically expects to use the file MUSIC.LDB, which contains the library database; if it doesn't exist, PLAYLIST can create a new one for you. An example version of MUSIC.LDB is supplied with PLAYLIST. To use an alternative database name, enter a startup command such as: PLAYLIST MYSTUFF.LDB This will use the database file MYSTUFF.LDB; if none exists, PLAYLIST will create it for you after you have made entries into it and told PLAYLIST to save it. Alternatively, you can rename MUSIC.LDB to something like EXAMPLE.LDB, and then use the standard name MUSIC.LDB for your own new library. - 2 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual THE BASICS OF USING PLAYLIST THE BASICS OF USING PLAYLIST Once PLAYLIST has started up, its main display is a "Listing Filters" display. The bottom line of the display shows what basic options you have available; this bottom line will change to show the options available for each screen, and is a good way to remind yourself of your options. Also on the main "Listing Filters" display you'll see a "Playlist Summary" box. This indicates the total number of selections that you have picked out from the library for making a listing that can be printed out in preparation for a show or tape transcription. It also indicates the total elapsed time, both as a simple sum and with three-second padding between selections. We'll discuss making and printing out playlists later on in this manual. First, though, let's get familiarized with the more basic aspects of PLAYLIST. It is helpful to visualize PLAYLIST's various displays as an upside- down tree, with the "Listing Filters" display as the base or trunk, and the other displays as branches, as shown below: ┌─────────────────┐ │ LISTING FILTERS │ └───────┬─────────┘ ┌─────────────┬──┴─────────┬─────────────┐ │F2 │F3 │F5 │F9 ┌──────┴─────┐ ┌────┴────┐ ┌────┴────┐ ┌─────┴──────┐ │ SELECTIONS │ │ VOLUMES │ │ ON-LINE │ │ STATISTICS │ └──────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘ │ HELP │ │ AND FILING │ │Enter │Enter └─────────┘ └────────────┘ ┌─────┴────┐ ┌────┴─────┐ │ VOLUME │ │ VOLUME │ │ CONTENTS │ │ CONTENTS │ └──────────┘ └──────────┘ To leave a branch and return to the previous display, you always press the ESC key. When you're entering names or types, you can press the F1 key to obtain a list of existing entries of the same category. For example, when entering the media type, press the F1 key to get a list of all media types already in the database. You can use the PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME, END, and arrow keys (up or down) to select an existing entry from this list, and then press ENTER to enter it; or press ESC to cancel the selection list. In larger databases, you might have quite a few artists and titles. To speed things up when selecting items from any of the F1-type menus, you can press the first letter of the item you wish to find. This will instantly scroll the menu to the first item starting with that letter. - 3 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual QUICK START EXAMPLE QUICK START EXAMPLE The following example illustrates how you can use PLAYLIST to list out all selections on compact disc by a particular artist, using the MUSIC.LDB example database file provided: (1) Press F4 to remove any previous filters (not necessary if you've just started PLAYLIST up). (2) With the cursor in the "Media Types" box, press F1, use the arrow keys if necessary to select "Compact Disc", and press the Enter key. (3) Press the Enter key a few more times to place the cursor into the "Artist" box. (4) Press F1, select the artist you wish to see listed, and press the Enter key. (5) Press F2 to list out all of the CD selections by the artist you've chosen. (6) If more than one selection is listed (as is usually the case), choose the selection you want with the up/down arrow keys. The location of the highlighted selection is shown in the box on the bottom of the display. (7) To see ALL of the selections on the same CD, press the Enter key. (8) To return to the previous display of selections by your artist, press the Escape (Esc) key. (9) To return to the main Filters display, press the Escape key again. - 4 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual WILDCARD FILTERS ── When entering an artist, title, or type in the WILDCARD FILTERS "Filters" window, you can use a pair of periods ("..") as a wildcard, which stands for "anything matches". (Note that this is TWO periods, and not three.) Capitalization is always ignored when a wildcard is used. The following example shows how you might use wildcards when listing selections (note the "ignore capitalization" example at the end): Typed Entry Example Matching Artists ─────────── ──────────────────────── Be.. Beach Boys; Beatles B..s Beach Boys; Beatles; Byrds C..A..M Cooke, Sam; Cream ..x Essex; Styx .. (all - same as no filter at all) .... (even number of dots - same as above) Beatles Beatles (exact match) BEATLES (nothing found; mixed case in database) BEATLES.. Beatles (case ignored because of "..") - 5 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual LIBRARY MAINTENANCE LIBRARY MAINTENANCE In order to use PLAYLIST effectively, it is important to know what kinds of library information it uses, and how it organizes this information in general terms. Volumes Volumes All music selections are grouped in "volumes" of particular "media" (record albums, compact discs, tapes, boxes of singles, or whatever you choose to define for media). Each volume contains the following pieces of information: - Volume's artist - Volumes' title - Volume's media type - Volume's location index code - A list of all selections on the volume Each volume entry must have, at a minimum, the first three pieces of information (artist, title, media type) in order for it to exist at all in the library. These pieces of information are COMPLETELY ARBITRARY: You can enter any artist, title, and media type you wish. (Notice that PLAYLIST has no pre-defined media types ── all media types are defined in the database itself.) A volume entry is created by pressing F3 from the "Filters" display, then pressing the INSERT key. At this point, PLAYLIST will request the primary three pieces of information needed to specify a new volume entry. Again, you can use F1 to pull down a list of available data entries for re-use. Once you have entered the new data to your satisfaction, press INSERT to enter it into the database. Data is always maintained in sorted order. If you entered a new artist name, title, or media type, the new item will be added to the respective choices menus, automatically. Following entry of the new volume, you will be asked to assign a volume location index. This index consists of a two-letter prefix code that you wish to assign for the media type (all similar volumes will use the same two-letter code), followed by a unique four-digit index number that you wish to assign for that particular volume. Note that each media type supports its own set of numbers, so that you can have, for example, LP0001, LP0002, LP0003, etc., for albums, and CD0001, CD0002, CD0003, etc., for compact discs. You can assign numbers in any order. For example, you could simply assign sequential numbers from 1-9999 in order of entry, or you could space numbers out to keep things grouped together by general - 6 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual category or the first letter of the artist name (such as 1xx for "A", 2xx for "B", 26xx for "Z", etc.). To quickly identify an unused index number that can be entered, press F1 when the cursor is in the index number field. This will list all index numbers that can be assigned. (Shortcut: Move the cursor bar to the index number or range of index numbers you want to use, and press ENTER. The number, or first number listed if a range, will automatically be entered for you.) When you have filled in the index number and two-letter prefix desired, press F10. If you do not wish to assign index numbers to your volumes, press the Esc key. This will cancel any assignment of a location index. If you wish to assign or change an index number at a later time, just select the volume you wish to index with the cursor bar in the Volumes display and press F10. NOTE: Volume location index information is new to version 3.1 of PLAYLIST. If you have converted a library database used with an older version, you can rapidly assign index numbers in sequence to a series of listed volumes by assigning index information to the first volume listed, then pressing and holding down the F10 key. PLAYLIST will automatically step through each volume and assign sequential index numbers while F10 repeats. Selections Selections Each music selection entry contains the following information: - Selection's artist - Selection's title - Selection's music type - Selection's index number - Selection's year of release - Selection's playing time As is the case for volume entries, each selection entry must have, at a minimum, the first three pieces of information (artist, title, music type) in order for it to exist in the library, and these pieces of information are COMPLETELY ARBITRARY. Ordinarily, you will want to enter each selection's index number, which can be anything from 0 to 99. For example, if you are entering selection number 4 on a CD, you would enter "4" for the index number. If you have a box of 45 RPM singles, give each single an index number within the box. Note that you can assign the same index to two or more selections, if you wish. If you don't want to specify an index number at all, enter "0" (or a blank field). - 7 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual For multi-sided media such as 33 RPM albums, use a method of mapping side A numbers and side B numbers that is easy to remember. For example, you could add 20 (for "side 2") to all side B index values, to distinguish side A from side B. PLAYLIST will try to anticipate what the next index number will be, so you won't usually have to type in the index number for every selection. Likewise, PLAYLIST will try to anticipate each selection's year of release. If you have just created a new volume, the current year will appear by default. When entering the second and subsequent selections, the year will be copied from the preceding selection. NOTE: Year information is new to version 3.0 of PLAYLIST. If you have converted a library database used with an older version, it is likely that most of your selections will have an "unknown" year (zero). To make it easier to add year information in such cases, PLAYLIST will automatically replicate a single selection's year in every other selection for a given volume; so you don't have to update the other selections' year information unless the years are different from selection to selection. If you don't know the selection's playing time, simply leave it as "0:00", or "0", or blank. A selection entry is created by pressing F3 from the "Filters" display, selecting the volume the selection is to go into, then pressing ENTER followed by INSERT. If you had just created the volume entry, simply press ENTER then INSERT. At this point, PLAYLIST will request the information needed to specify a new selection entry. Again, you can use F1 to pull down a list of available data entries for re-use. Once you have entered the new data to your satisfaction, press INSERT to enter it into the database. Press INSERT again to enter another selection. To delete a volume or selection, place the cursor bar over its entry (on the "Volumes" or "Volume Contents" display), and press the DELETE key. To change an existing entry's data, DELETE, then INSERT. The information from the deleted item will be presented in the data entry box for you to alter. Note that PLAYLIST won't let you delete a volume entry that contains selections; this is done to protect from accidental deletions. If you try to delete a non-empty volume, the contents of the volume will appear. If you really want to delete the volume, then simply hold down the DELETE key at this point to delete all of its selections, then press ESC: The volume will then be gone. To print out a listing of volumes or volume contents, press "P" from the "Volumes" or "Volume Contents" display, as applicable. - 8 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual SAVING YOUR CHANGES TO DISK SAVING YOUR CHANGES TO DISK From the main "Listing Filters" display, press F9. An options box will appear. Select the option you wish to use, either using the up/down-arrow keys or by pressing the first letter of the option, then press ENTER. While making new database entries, it's a good idea to use the "Save changes and continue" option every so often, to have your database file on disk updated. This way, if there's a power failure, you won't end up losing an hour or more of work. The "Exit" option on this menu will automatically update your database file before leaving PLAYLIST; the "Quit" option simply leaves PLAYLIST without updating the disk (and any changes made since the last save would then be ignored). DATABASE LIMITATIONS DATABASE LIMITATIONS An arbitrary limit of 100 has been set for music types and media types; if you're a professional user, and really need this number increased, we can provide a customized version of PLAYLIST for you. It is felt that 100 types will be more than enough for most users. PLAYLIST supports a maximum of 500 selections in any single volume; however, note that the selection numbers are constrained to 0-99. (The value of 0 is reserved for non-numbered selections.) This limitation, also, is arbitrary, and can be changed in a customized version. A maximum of 3000 selections is supported in the shareware version of PLAYLIST; in the professional version, the limit is a function of available memory, and is typically greater than 14,000. Limits for other totals are a function of available memory in your computer. You can assess how much reserve space is available using the "Statistics" display (press the F9 key from the "Filters" display). It is recommended that you try not to exceed 90% of available capacity, so that there will be some margin available during database editing. DATA ENTRY SHARING DATA ENTRY SHARING To conserve space and provide its very fast lookups, PLAYLIST internally maintains the following sorted lists: - Artists - Selection titles - Volume titles - Media types - Music types Duplicate entries in these lists are automatically avoided; thus, even if you have 100 titles by the Beatles, "Beatles" is stored only once. - 9 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual GENERATING A PROGRAM LIST GENERATING A PROGRAM LIST As alluded to earlier, you can create lists of selections from the library for shows, tape transcriptions, etc. To pick out a selection, go to the Volume Contents display (from the main "Listing Filters" display, press F3, select volume, then press ENTER; or press F2, select selection, then press ENTER). Once in this display, place the selection you wish into the playlist by positioning the cursor bar over it and pressing ENTER. A musical note symbol will appear between the title and artist name, near the center of the selection's line. To de-select a previously picked selection, repeat the same sequence as above: Each time you press ENTER, the musical note symbol will toggle on or off, indicating whether the highlighted selection is in the selected program list. Notice that the musical note symbol also appears next to chosen selections in the Selections (F2) display. To print out your program list (or "playlist"), go to the Files (F9) display from the main "Listing Filters" display, select the "Print" option, and press ENTER. PLAYLIST will print the title and artist of each selection, along with its location in your music library. You can also output your program list to a file, by selecting the "Write" option from the Files display. Filenames are automatically generated as PLAYLIST.001, PLAYLIST.002, etc. To erase the current program list and start another, press F6 from the main "Listing Filters" display. - 10 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual HELPFUL HINTS - SHORTCUTS - NICE TO KNOW STUFF HELPFUL HINTS - SHORTCUTS - NICE TO KNOW STUFF - You can edit data entry fields (for artist, title, time, etc.) with the following keys: left arrow = Move cursor to left right arrow = Move cursor to right Backspace = Delete character to left Delete = Delete character to right - When the cursor first goes into a data entry field, any pre- existing data in that field will be erased automatically when you start typing in new data, unless you use one of the above editing keys first. - To erase a data entry field, just press the space bar when you go into that field's box. - If you go into a data field and wish to add more text at the end, press the DELETE key first before adding the new text. - If you begin editing a data field and want to start over again, press ESC. This will restore the preceding contents. - While you probably will want to make your text entries fit within the data entry field windows most of the time, it is nice to know that you can actually make entries at least twice as long as the windows indicate. When entering extra long data, it will scroll horizontally as you type it in. - When entering time values, you can use the semicolon, comma, or period key instead of the colon key. Thus, you can use your numeric keypad to enter "2.30" to obtain "2:30". You can also enter times in seconds only, and PLAYLIST will convert them to minutes and seconds. - The following examples may be of interest when you wish to specify a viewing filter based on a year or a range of years: 1968 = show only selections for year 1968 1968-1972 = show only selection for years 1968-1972 1968-72 = (short-hand equivalent to the above) 0-1972 = don't show any selections dated after 1972 1-1972 = show only selections dated 1972 or earlier 1968- = show only selections dated 1968 or later - 11 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual - You can synthesize cross references by taking an approach similar to that in our example database: Create volumes entitled "(List of Related Artists)" ── this is only a suggested title ── for each artist you want to create cross references for, using "Cross-Reference" as a media type. This can be useful when you want to track individual artists who may also be associated with one or more groups; or for artists who are listed under more than one name. - When a multi-page list of items is displayed, pressing HOME twice will position the cursor bar to the very top of the list, and pressing END twice will position the cursor bar to the very bottom of the list. In addition, you can press the first letter of the item (or artist name for multi-column listings) to place the cursor bar at the first such item. (This feature does not apply to volume contents lists, where items are listed by selection index number. However, such lists are usually quite short.) - 12 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual CUSTOMIZING PLAYLIST'S COLORS CUSTOMIZING PLAYLIST'S COLORS Another file PLAYLIST automatically looks for is COLORS.DAT. This is a somewhat self-explanatory text file that you can customize with an ordinary text editor to change the display colors used by PLAYLIST. One special version of this file, called COLORS.BW, has been provided for use if you don't have a color display. To use this alternative file, delete or rename COLORS.DAT, and rename COLORS.BW to COLORS.DAT. The general format of the COLORS.DAT file is: <display identifier> = <foreground color>, <background color> All of the available <display identifier> options are shown in COLORS.DAT as supplied. The following options are available for <background color>: BLACK BLUE GREEN CYAN RED MAGENTA BROWN LIGHTGRAY All of the above colors can also be used for <foreground color>, plus the following: DARKGRAY LIGHTBLUE LIGHTGREEN LIGHTCYAN LIGHTRED LIGHTMAGENTA YELLOW BLACK WHITE PLAYLIST is rather forgiving with respect to COLORS.DAT. The file itself is optional: If it is not found, PLAYLIST will use its own default colors. Entries for <display identifier> records can be in any order, and can be repeated (in which case the last-seen entry will be used). Any subset of <display identifier> records can be used, and spacing and case are not critical. The <background color> field is optional. Finally, if an invalid color is specified, PLAYLIST will simply ignore it. There are no error messages involved here. - 13 - PLAYLIST 3.1 User's Manual CUSTOMER SUPPORT CUSTOMER SUPPORT We can be reached on PRODIGY if you need assistance (or if you have any suggestions for improvements) by leaving a message for SWTP42A; or on PCLINK by leaving a message for "DB Stinson". You can also write to us, of course, or call us at (314) 441-9310. - 14 -