[oz1]

I love being able to add the collection name to the song titles in the songs list. I have 2 suggestions:
1 - be able to select a different font size and/or font type and/or color for the collection so it looks less cluttered,
         e.g. "The Song Title -- theCollectionName" or "The Song Title -- theCollectionName" or "The Song Tile -- theColectionName"

         (as it is when displayed as a caption since the font size and color is already different when displayed as a caption, as opposed to on the same line as the song title)
2 - be able to have a different option for the song title formatting in the song list and the setlist. since presumably once I created a setlist, I may just to display the song name, as it has already been selected from the collection(s)
        (I know I can select to show the collection as a caption, which is in a different font than the song title, but then each song occupies 2 lines which is less compact)

Note that I'm using %collections% in my example but it could apply to the other variables.

Thanks.

[Geoff Bacon]

For what it is worth, for each of my music groups, I add a short mnemonic to the song filename e.g. "Songname - MUJ" and "Songname - U3A"
This avoids clashing filenames for common songs and allows the different versions to diverge to meet the needs of the group.

Also, MS  allows a song to be in more than one collection. This could make the song entry more cluttered if a song was in 3 or 4 collections e.g. a "To Practice", "Performance Ready" and "Easy Songs" (say).

If you don't want to embed the mnemonic into the songname, I suggest you use a different field (possibly custom) instead of %collections%
 
Geoff

[Zubersoft]

What you are asking for doesn't fit cleanly into the current design, because the user can order the fields in any way they want, and include any fields they want. Being able to specify different font properties only for specific fields being referenced means either needing a verbose complex syntax such as  %COLLECTIONS: Font(arial, 15pt)%, or having a font override for any field other than the title. This makes the rendering of the text significantly more complex and costly too. I then can't use a single TextView element to render the text - I either have to split it up into multiple elements stacked horizontally (which then introduces wrapping issues with long text across multiple lines) or I have to switch to using something that supports spans with rich text, which will be much slower, potentially impacting scrolling performance. I can't also easily handle it one way for users that want a custom font and another way for users that don't - it would become a nightmare, so it needs to be the same implementation regardless of the selected settings.

The second request is possible if I add a new "Group Song Title Formatting" setting and then use that instead of the standard song title formatting only when viewing songs under a group. I'd like to hear from more users as to whether this would be useful/desired though.

Mike

[itsme]

I'm reallly happy with the current features of the existing song title formatting.
What I really would lke to have as an addition (and I already proposed that somewhere in the forum) is an easy way to switch between different song title formats. It could be implemented similar to "user defined filters".
The reason why I'm asking for this: I like to use different song title formats in different situations, showing different fields while maintaining my library, another combination while preparing setlists, another one for playing on stage and so on.
As a workaround I have several song titles and captions stored in a textfile from where I copy what I like into the song title formatting dialog. It would be a fantastic enhancement if I could just select select a previously format from a dropdown field.

[oz1]

For what it is worth, for each of my music groups, I add a short mnemonic to the song filename e.g. "Songname - MUJ" and "Songname - U3A"
This avoids clashing filenames for common songs and allows the different versions to diverge to meet the needs of the group.

Also, MS  allows a song to be in more than one collection. This could make the song entry more cluttered if a song was in 3 or 4 collections e.g. a "To Practice", "Performance Ready" and "Easy Songs" (say).

If you don't want to embed the mnemonic into the songname, I suggest you use a different field (possibly custom) instead of %collections%
 
Geoff

what you are suggesting maybe works with the way you manage your collections, but since I'm sharing collections with other people, that wouldn't work for me. Using a filed other than collections wouldn't solve my particular request as far as distinguishing the title from the other fields

[oz1]

What you are asking for doesn't fit cleanly into the current design, because the user can order the fields in any way they want, and include any fields they want. Being able to specify different font properties only for specific fields being referenced means either needing a verbose complex syntax such as  %COLLECTIONS: Font(arial, 15pt)%, or having a font override for any field other than the title. This makes the rendering of the text significantly more complex and costly too. I then can't use a single TextView element to render the text - I either have to split it up into multiple elements stacked horizontally (which then introduces wrapping issues with long text across multiple lines) or I have to switch to using something that supports spans with rich text, which will be much slower, potentially impacting scrolling performance. I can't also easily handle it one way for users that want a custom font and another way for users that don't - it would become a nightmare, so it needs to be the same implementation regardless of the selected settings.

The second request is possible if I add a new "Group Song Title Formatting" setting and then use that instead of the standard song title formatting only when viewing songs under a group. I'd like to hear from more users as to whether this would be useful/desired though.

Mike

yes I understand the complexity, that makes total sense.
If you did thew second request that would totally work for me (I'm not sure what "group" refers to, but I assume it distinguishes between the song list and the setlist).

BTW I found the advanced formatting: very complex but awesome!   Although: the song title formatting is not copied to the sync'ed client when using the "sync library" even if all the options are checked in the server's "device sync activity"

[Zubersoft]

The sync library feature doesn't currently support transferring application settings - that's something I'm going to support at some point.

Mike