Music Library Help (Version 1.2, July 30, 2000)

Copyright 1999-2000 ©, WenSoftware. All rights reserved.

Please visit the Online Help section on the website for the latest updates.

Content

1.  Installation

2.  Using CDDB

3.  The Main Window

• MP3 Explorer

• Audio Explorer

4.  The Menu

• File

• Audio

• Playlist

• MP3

• View

• Tools

• Controls

• Help

5.  The Rename Utility

6.  The Tag and Field Editor

7.  The Properties Window

8.  The CDDB Lookup Window

9.  The Search Window

10.The Lyric Database Maintenance Window

11.The CD Player

12.How to Register Music Library

Installation

To install Music Library, simply unzip the "mlib10f.zip" to a temp directory. Then run "Setup.exe" and follow instructions. If you downloaded the EXE only version, simply create a folder (For example: "C:\Music Library") on your hard drive. Unzip files into that directory. That's it. Double click on "Musiclib.exe" to run the program.

 

Important:

If you have previous version on your computer, please uninstall it before install version 1.2. Version 1.2 uses the latest windows DLLs, older versions might not work properly.

 

To uninstall, go to Windows' Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs. Select Music Library from the list then click remove. Follow instructions. If you had the EXE only version, simply delete the folder and all files.

Using CDDB

Music Library uses the CDDB² Disc Recognition Service^SM (DRS) from CDDB, Inc. to get the artist, title, track, credit, and other information about the CDs you play.  This service is FREE and automatic.  The first time you use the service, you must register with CDDB.

 

To register with CDDB, just add a CD using the "Album Info Editor" to  Music Library audio database. You will be asked to register, click "Yes" to launch the CDDB Registration Wizard.  Follow the screens for a “New Registration” to select a “nickname” and password.  The remaining information is optional, but does help CDDB provide better service.

 

 

Once you register, you do not have to re-register, unless you want to change your registration information or settings.

 

 

To change your CDDB registration information launch the "Album Info Editor". Select CDDB / Register from menu, then follow instruction.

 

 

To see or edit the full CDDB² information for a CD, switch to the "Audio Explorer" tab, change to "Album" view. (To do this, simply select "Album" from the view selection box on top of the Treeview.) Select the album you want to edit. From menu, select Audio / Edit Album to bring up the Edit Album window. Click on the Disc Info button to show CDDB disc info.

 

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The Main Window

The "MP3 Explore"

The "MP3 Explorer" window is divided into 4 panes:

Treeview: (Upper left pane) Displays directories, albums, artists and genres when the corresponding view selection is selected in the view selection
                 dropdown box above it.
File List: (Upper right pane) Displays files.
Playlist Layout: (Lower right pane) Displays songs in your open playlist or working playlist.
Cover Viewer: (Lower left pane) Displays album cover image when a track is selected in "File List" if there is an image associated with the file.

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The "Audio Explorer"

The "Audio Explorer" window is divided into 3 panes:

Treeview: (Upper left pane) Displays albums, artists and genres when the corresponding view selection is selected in the view selection
                 dropdown box above it.

Track List: (Right pane) Displays tracks.
Cover Viewer: (Lower left pane) Displays album cover image.

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The Menu

The "File" Menu

New Database	Start a new database.
Open Database	Open a new database.
Save As	Save the current database to a copy.
Import	View an import database file (".dbv"" file"). You can export your database to a "dbv" file, so other people can browse your collection just like the files are on their computers. Use this menu to open a  "dbv" file.
Export	Brings up the "Export Database" window. Allows you to export your database to an "dbv" file or delimited text file.
Compare	Allows you to compare your MP3 database with others', generates a wanted list in seconds. The files not present in your database will be shown in the "Playlist Layout", you can save the list as a "m3u" file.
Exit	Closes and exits the program.

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The "Audio" Menu

Add Album	Brings up the "Album Info Editor" window. Allows you to scan audio CDs and query CDDB database or to enter albums in other media format.
Edit Album	Brings up the selected album in "Album Info Editor" window. Allows you to edit and update an existing album in the audio database. You must switch to "Album Title" or "Artist (Album) - Album Title" view in order to select and edit an album.
Delete Album	Allows you to delete the selected album from your database. You must switch to "Album Title" or "Artist (Album) - Album Title" view in order to select and delete an album.
CD Player	Launches the Music Library CD Player.
Properties	Allows you to show information of the selected album. You must switch to "Album Title" or "Artist (Album) - Album Title" view in order to select an album.

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The "Playlist" Menu

Open	Allows you to select and open a playlist file and list it in the playlist layout.
New	Clears the playlist layout and allows you to compose a new playlist.
Playlist Generator	Brings up the "Playlist Generator" window. Allows you to save current playlist layout to ".m3u" files.
Add Selected	Adds selected files (in "File List") to current playlist layout.
Add All	Adds all files listed (in "File List") to current playlist layout.
Recurse Folder	Adds all files in selected folder including sub folders (in "Treeview") to current playlist layout.
Recurse My Hard Drives	Adds all files on your hard drives to current playlist layout.
Select by Rating	Brings up the "Select by Rating" window. Allows you to select and add songs with rating, location and genre you specified to current playlist layout.
Delete Playlist	Deletes selected playlist from your hard drive and database.
Remove	Removes the selected tracks from current playlist layout.
Clear	Clears the current playlist layout.

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The "MP3" Menu

Add Volume	Brings up the "Browse for folder" window. Scans selected drive or folder for MP3 or other audio files and add to your database.
Add Playlist \ Search Hard Drives	Scans all hard drives for playlists files (".m3u") and add to your database. All playlists will be listed under the "My playlists" node in the "Treeview".
Add Playlist \ Manual	Allows you to manually select a playlist file to  add to your database.
Update (Selected)	Updates selected folder or drive.
Update (Recurse)	Updates selected folder or drive and subfolders.
Update All	Updates your hard drives and network drives (if any connected) with a single mouse click.
Copy to	Copies the selected files to a selected folder.
Move	Moves selected files to a selected folder.
Rename	Brings up the "Rename Utility" window. See "Rename Utility" for details on how to rename files.
Edit Tag	Brings up the "Tag and Field Editor" window. See "Tag and Field Editor" for details on how to tag files.
Delete	Deletes the selected folder from database in "Treeview" pane or delete selected files in "File List".
Remove Record	Removes records of selected files in "File List".
Rate Tracks	Brings up the  "Rate Tracks" window.
Select All	Selects all files in "File List".
Invert Selection	Inverts the selected status in "File List".
Enqueue Selected	Loads selected files into Winamp's internal playlist.
Enqueue All	Loads all files in "File List" into Winamp's internal playlist.
New Folder	Creates a new folder under the selected folder in "Treeview".
Edit Disk Label	Allows you to edit selected removable disk's label.
Properties	Allows you to view folder properties when a folder is selected in "Treeview" or a file's properties when a file is selected in "File List".

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The "View" Menu

All	Show all panes.
Folder + Tracks + Playlist:	Show Treeview, File List and Playlist panes.
Folder + Tracks:	Show Treeview and File List panes.
Folder + Tracks+ Cover	Show Treeview, File LIst and Image panes.
Up One Level	Moves to parent node of the current selection in "Treeview".
Collapse Drives	Collapses all nodes except drive nodes.
Expand All	Expends all nodes in Treeview.
Find	Finds first item that matches the search word in Treeview, File List or Playlist pane whichever has the focus.
Find Next	Finds the next item that matches the search word in Treeview, File List or Playlist pane whichever has the focus.
Refresh	Refreshes the "File List".
Always on Top	Keep the main window always on top of all windows.

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The "Tools" Menu

Search Database	Brings up the "Search" window. allows you to search the MP3 or audio database.
Publishing \ MP3 Text Report	Brings up the "Text Report" window, allows you to create reports in ASCII text format for MP3 database.
Publishing \ MP3 HTML Report	Brings up the "HTML Report" window, allows you to create reports in HTML format for MP3 database.
Publishing \ Audio Report	Brings up the "Audio Report" window, allows you to create reports in ASCII text format for Audio  database.
Compose CD	Brings up the "Audio CD Composer" window. allows you to select mp3 files to compose audio CDs.
Update Scheduler	Brings up the Update Scheduler window. Allows you to set date and time to update the MP3 database automatically.
Lyric Database Maintenance	Brings up the Lyric Database Maintenance window. Allows you to browse and edit the lyric database.
Global Replace	Brings up the "Global Replace" window. Allows you to replace fields with new values globally.
Merge  Database	Brings up the "Merge Database" window. Allows you to append a existing database to current open database.
Compact Database	Compacts the current database. Reduces database size if you have a lot of deleted records in the database.
Erase Database	Deletes all records in current database.
Database Properties	Brings up the "Database Properties" window.
Search the Web	Search popular websites such as amazon.com for album info, cover image etc.
CDDB Lookup	Brings up the "CDDB Lookup" window. Allows you to search CDDB website for album and track information and update ID3 tag info.
Preferences	Brings up the "Preferences" window. Allows you to set program preferences.

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The "Control" Menu

Remote controls for Winamp. Winamp as your default player is required.

The "Help" Menu

Access help file, links to web site, registration etc.

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The Rename Utility

Renaming files can be a nightmare. With the Rename Utility, rename you files can be a piece of cake. The Manual Mode is actually not so "manual". It just puts all the controls in your hands. With Auto Mode, you can set your own rules and rename files with a single click.

 

Undo	Undo rename.
Close	Closes and exits rename utility window.
Rules	Brings up the "Preferences" window to set rules.
Close	Exits and closes "Rename Utility" window.

Manual Mode:

Replace	Replaces all occurrences of selected text with specified text.
Replace Once	Replaces first occurrence of specified text with specified text.
Insert Text	Inserts text at specified location. (Click on the location where you want to insert the text at.)
Trim 1	Trims all occurrences of specified text and replace with spaces.
Trim 2	Trims all occurrences of specified text.
ABC > abc	Sets all characters to lowercase.
abc > ABC	Sets all characters to uppercase.
ab cd > Ab Cd	Sets first character of every word to uppercase and the rest to lowercase.
Reset	Start over.
Artist <=> Title	Swaps Artist and Title. (Must be separated by " - ".)
Trim Numbers	Trims all numeric characters.
Use Tag	Use tag as new file names. You can define your own templates and choose any fields in any order. Click on the "Rules" button to choose a template.
Start	Renames all files in the list.

Auto Mode:

Preview	Allows you to preview new file names after the rules are applied.
Start	Renames all files in the list.

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The Tag and Fields Editor

The Tag and Field Editor allows you edit tags and fields in the easy way. You can get the results you like with a few mouse clicks. See results before action. Field editing allows you to correct any mistakes you made after you burn your file on CDs. Album artist field let you use "Various" for albums with various artists. When scanning, default album artist is the track artist.

Tag - id3 tag in MP3 files.
Field - The fields in your database, such as Artist, Title, Album, etc.

The Toolbar buttons:

Erase Tag	Erases id3 tags in all files listed.
Write Tag	Writes id3 tags to all files.
Erase Field	Clears all fields in  all files listed.
Write Field	Writes fields of all files listed.
WWW	Allows you to perform artist search on popular web sites such as amazon.com for album info, cover image etc.
Close	Closes and exits "Tag and Field Editor".

The "General" Tab:

Use File Name	If file names are in format like: Artist - Album - Comment - Track - Title. (All fields separated by " - "). Apply this option will parse the filenames and place fields into different columns. Fields might not be placed in the corresponding columns. Please switch to the "Advanced" to use appropriate template.
Artist <=> Title	Swaps items in Artist and Title column.
Title <=> Album	Swaps items in Title and Album column.
Album <=> Com	Swaps items in Album and Comment column.

The "Advanced" Tab:

The advanced tab allows you to define templates base on file names. To define a template is simple, all you need to do is to replace the actual fields in the file names with valid field names in your template. Valid field names are: "Artist", "Album", "Title", "Comment", "Genre", "Year". Check the "Update fields in file names only" box if you only want to update fields only present in file names. Click the "Start" button to apply the selected template.

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The Album Info Editor Window

The Add Album, Edit Album Window allows you to add albums to the database or edit an existing album. You can actually catalog

any music media you have. Music Library is a CDDB² (The newest enhanced CDDB service) enabled program, You can retrieve all

most all information about a CD (internet connection is required). No more typing! You can even catalog your home made CDs, all

you need to do is open the playlist you create the CD from. All fields will be filled automatically.

Toc: Table of contents of a CD.

The Toolbar buttons:

Add Track	Adds a track to the album manually.
Edit Track	Brings up the "Edit Track" window to edit the selected track.
Add to DB	Adds current album to your database.
Update DB	Updates the database after you edit the album.
New Album	Starts a new album. (Clears all fields)
Exit	Closes and exits the "Album Info Editor".
Get Toc	Calculates the TOC* of a disc.
Disc Info	Queries CDDB for disc information.
Registration	Changes your CDDB registration information.
Eject	Opens CD door.
Close	Closes CD door.
Open Playlist	Gets your home made CD's information from the playlist.

The Menu:

CDDB / Get Disc TOC	Same as the "Get TOC" button.
CDDB / Disc Info	Same as the "Disc Info" button.
CDDB / Submit Disc	Launches the CDDB Submit Disc form.
CDDB / Register	Brings up the CDDB registration window. Allows you to change your CDDB registration info.
CDDB / Options	Brings up the CDDB options window. Allows you to set proxy settings and scan options.
Tools  / Use Proper Case	Sets all fields to proper case. (First character of every word to uppercase and the rest to lowercase.)
Tools  / Read Disc	Reads disc in the CD drive and scan for track time, track numbers etc. For CDs not exist in CDDB database, track title and artist field will default to "Track 01"... and "Track Artist".
Tools  / Open MP3 Playlist	Opens the playlist file for album and track information. (If you have the playlist file that you create the CD from)
Tools  / Edit Record Label	Brings up the "Edit Record Label" window. Allows you to add, edit and remove record labels.
Tools  / Search CDDB	Brings up the "CDDB Search" window. Allows you to search CDDB website for album info.
Tools  / Search The Web	Allows you to perform artist search on popular web sites such as amazon.com for album info, cover image etc.

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The Properties window

 

The Properties window let you view or edit a track's information, attach cover images, lyrics and set track rating.

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 The CDDB Lookup Window

The "CDDB Lookup" window allows you to search for album and track information in CDDB database. It works just like the search function on CDDB's web site. To bring up the search window, select a file in "File List" and click on the CDDB button on the toolbar. The search starts automatically and matched albums will be listed in the bottom left box. Click on an album in the list to list all tracks. Tracks will be listed in the bottom right box. When you click on an album in the list, the "Artist" and "Album" text boxes will be updated. The matched track will be hightlighted. Click on the track to update the "Title" and "Comment" (track number) boxes. If there is no match, you may try to add or remove fields to refine the search. You may use the arrow buttons to scroll to previous or next track in the "File List". Check the "Do not clear results" box to keep the current results (If you are looking for information within the same album). 

The "CDDB Lookup" window also allows you to add "wanted" tracks to the database. For example, if you have a missing track in the album, select the track in the lower left box and give it a virtual file name (the default is "artist - title.mp3") and click on the "Add to wanted list" button. A virtual folder called "Wanted Tracks" will be created under the drive letter "C". All missing tracks are listed under this folder.

The Toolbar buttons:

Play	Plays the current file.
Update	Updates tag and fields of current file.
Add	Enabled when search in "Album Info Editor". Adds the selected track to album layout.
Search	Starts the search.
Next	Shows the next 10 matches.
Stop	Cancels the search.
Exit	Exits and closes the CDDB Lookup window.

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The Search Window

The Search window allows you to search the MP3 or Audio database. To search files in MP3 database, select the

"Search MP3" radio button. To search tracks in Audio database, select the "Search Audio" radio button.

The "Quick Search" tab:

Enter text to search in the "Containing text" box, select a field in the "Search in field" drop down box, specify a location

to search in by select a drive in the "Look in location" box, click on the "Folder" button to select a folder. Click on the "Search"

button next to the "Option" frame to start search.

The "Find Duplicates" tab:

Select a location where you want to locate the duplicates by select a drive in the "Find in" drop down box. Then select a criteria

in the "Determine by" box. Click on the "Start" button to start the search.

The "Advanced" tab:

Enter search criteria in the corresponding text boxes, leave the box empty if you do not want to search that field. Select a 

location then click on the "Search" button next to the "Options" frame to start the search.

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The Lyric Database Maintenance Window

The "Lyric Database Maintenance" window allows you to view and edit your lyric database. The lyric database works with both

MP3 and Audio database. The association is determined by artist name and track title (case sensitive). Every time you open a

track property window, Music Library will search the lyric database for selected track's artist and title. If match found, lyric will

be displayed in the track property window.

To add a track to the database, enter artist name in the "Artist" box and title in the "Title" box. Type in or paste text into the 

bottom text box. Click on the "Add" button in toolbar to add the track to database.

The Toolbar buttons:

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The CD Player

The Music Library CD Player is a stand alone fully featured CD Player. It not only plays CDs, but also displays detail information of what your listening to. Whenever you insert a CD, it will recognize the disc and query your database to retrieve disc information, automatically! It's still under development, more features will be added soon!

• To display track information, you need to associate a database with the player. To do this, click on letter "O" in the upper left corner to bring up the option window, select a database that contains the disc information. Next time you run the player, every time you insert a disc it will detect the disc and display disc info automatically. If disc is not in the database, it will just display "Unknown" and "Track 01".

• To enter or edit comment of a playing album, click on the "Album" icon to bring up the "Album Comment" window, click the "Update" button to update your database.

• To enter or edit comment of a playing track, click on the "Track" icon to bring up the "Track Comment" window, click the "Update" button to update your database.

• To refresh album and track info if you made changes to the playing album, simply click on the "Artist" icon.

• To make it always on top, click on the letter "P" on the upper left corner of the display.

• To continuously play a CD, click on the letter "C".

• To play a specific track, click on the track number on top of the display.

• To change time display, simply click on the playing time to toggle "Time elapsed", "Time remaining", "Total elapsed" or "Total remaining".

• To view detail track info, click on the white arrow beside the logo (bottom right corner).

• To view cover image, click on the left arrow beside the logo (bottom right corner).

• To change to Control Bar mode, click on the "diamond" on upper right hand corner or simply double click on any empty area.

• To reset to Normal mode, click on the "square" (second box from the right) or simply double click on any empty area on the bar.

• To go to any location of the playing track, click on the location on the status bar. Or you can "drag" on the status bar and release at location you want to go to.

• To control it form system tray when minimized, right click on the icon to bring up the menu.

 

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How to Register

Music Library is shareware. The program is free for commercial use and fully functional for a period of 30 days. After the trial period, some limitations , such as program settings will not be saved will be applied. You must register to get a unlock key to unlock the limitations. 

Secure online registration is available at RegSoft.com 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All major credit cards accepted. You may also order by mail, phone or fax.  If you prefer to order by regular mail, you may also print and fill out  the order form ("Order.txt" can be found in yorur program directory) and send it with cash or checks to the address provided on the order form.

Once RegSoft.com received your registration form and fee sent, you will receive your registration key by email. The delay is about 24 to 48 hours. Then, in the software, you should enter this key and user name into the appropriate fields of the Registration window. Your copy of software will be instantaneously registered and fully functional. To enter the unlock key, select Help / Registration from the menu to bring up the registration window. Type or paste the user name and key into the corresponding boxes and click the "Enter Key" button to register the program. You must use the exact user name provided in the email.