Making Comments viewable in layout

[astro46]

How do I get to see the comments field in layout, along with other fields like: Title, Artist, Album, Custom 2, custom 3, etc.?

[Peke]

Hi,
Comments are Memo type field and can't be reliably shown in Columns.

[Riegelstriegel]

Hi Peke,

Mixxx (https://mixxx.org/) does show comment fields in a column. Is this comparable to the MediaMonkey library or are there significant differences between the two?

[Peke]

Hi,
There is significant difference in apps. I used Mixxx numerious times and it can't handle near MM library and features. Comment field is not indexed so there will be no quick sorting option and will LAG MM UI. We tested it at one point but it significantly slowed down MM.

[Lowlander]

You can choose which columns are shown including Comment.

[Riegelstriegel]

Hi Peke,

thanks for the clarification! I was just curious about the technical differences.
Fun fact: I use Mixxx for DJ-ing, but I don't use its library at all.
Instead I still use MM4 as library for browsing and drag and drop the tracks from the MM window into the Mixxx decks. Unfortunately MM5 is not stable enough for me yet to be used in a critical live environment. Hopefully soon.

Hi Lowlander,
thanks you too for your post. So it is possible after all. I wasn't aware of that.
Does this mean that you found a way to display the comment column without performance penalty?

[Peke]

Hi,
Yes, we did But I think it is limited to 256 Characters viewable. Thus I never recommend it.

[IanRTaylorUK]

If this helps...

I often use comments in order to shorten album names. So phrases like "Remastered"; "Deluxe Edition"; "Vinyl Rip" are in my comments field. As Lowlander points out this can easily be added to the columns AND can even be sorted.

BUT

As Peke mentions, it is a memo field. So be careful. The "memo" can easily start with non-visible characters and thus make you think the field is empty! In reality the text starts a "few lines" down due to the special characters.

You may want to take steps to ensure that your comment field "text" starts with readable / displayable characters.

Also, you may to take a look at the comments field from a File / Reports CSV export (say to Excel or something where you can easily view the character length of the content).

From memory, I think Lyrics has similar "limitations"

[astro46]

Lowlander , on the page (link) that you posted, Can you give me some direction, where on page is the instruction for seeing comments in layout view?

[Riegelstriegel]

Right-click on column header -> "Choose columns / sort" to enter this dialog.

You can also right-click the column header and navigate to Audio->Comment in the "All Fields" section to enable the column.

[astro46]

Right-click on column header -> "Choose columns / sort" to enter this dialog.

that helps. thanks. at least it is available without going to 'properties'. I got rid of a number of other columns to make room for it.
In my original post I was referring to the 'preview' pane. There is plenty of vertical space there to hold comments. and I was hoping to open comments there.

Unfortunately I don't understand most of the technical terminology used in MM, so it can be difficult to express what I am looking for, and find my way around, and make modifications.

[Barry4679]

In my original post I was referring to the 'preview' pane. There is plenty of vertical space there to hold comments. and I was hoping to open comments there.

The comments tag is available in the Preview pane.
Click its three dot menu, and change the Preview tab's format to "advanced", and then use the gear icon to enable the "comments" tag.

[MattTown]

Hi,
Yes, we did But I think it is limited to 256 Characters viewable. Thus I never recommend it.

Hi Peke,
There was a bug [#19252] which did cause only the first 200 characters in the Comment field to be reliably retained, now fixed. I routinely use the Comments field for long form context for tracks in the main list, and even though the comment box is horizontally limited to the column space you give it, the in-edit vertical scroll works fine.
Cheers

[MattTown]

I often use comments in order to shorten album names. So phrases like "Remastered"; "Deluxe Edition"; "Vinyl Rip" are in my comments field. As Lowlander points out this can easily be added to the columns AND can even be sorted.

There are 10 custom fields availalble, managed through Tools > Options > Library > Fields.

One or more of those could be devoted to "Shortened Album Name" or "Album Category", which can then be added to the main list panel (Right click column heading > All Fields > Custom) and used for filtering and sorting.

Cheers
Matt

[astro46]

In my original post I was referring to the 'preview' pane. There is plenty of vertical space there to hold comments. and I was hoping to open comments there.

The comments tag is available in the Preview pane.
Click its three dot menu, and change the Preview tab's format to "advanced", and then use the gear icon to enable the "comments" tag.

this is where i would hope to find it, and where I have not found it. I don't see "comments " listed.