[Ben]

I was a fan of MS (green) already, and MSP (blue) provides many more reasons to be that, a fan. I select Hardware because of MSP (if the companion was available for iOS I'd probably go for my first MacBook, this is postponed now).

Anyway, I love being able to select and sort the Tabs (Artists, Songs, Setlists, Genre, Year), the auto-scroll is very cool, the metronom much improved, two pages display, a.s.o.). 
The way songs can be shown in the Songs Tab is just perfect for me: Song titles in relatively large font size, the artists in smaller font size and greyish below the song title. No improvement possible here for me!

I find "number of songs" very useful, they are shown in brackets right after the name of the artist, setlist, year, genre...

However, the way the number of songs are displayed doesn't quite match the perfection of the mentioned Song Name - Artist combination in the Songs Tab I think.
If the number of songs could be given less visual importance, by showing them in grey, possibly smaller and/or right aligned and without brackets (the many brackets seem to "pollute" the view somewhat), would this perhaps be visual improvement?
Of course, it's already great as it is, and I'd continue to be a happy camper "even" if the "number of songs" are not given less visual presence/importance as the group they refer to!

Cheers
Ben

[Ben]

My "Artists" TAB shows > 400 artists currently, at least 50% of them are represented with just one song.
It would save time if those songs could be opened directly from that TAB, and if the song name would be shown (visually set apart from the artist's name, smaller font size, grey...) in the artist's line already. This could apply to all instances when number of songs = 1, and to all Tabs with groups. "Only" when # of songs > 1 would they (the numbers) be shown. 
I think this would provide useful info quicker (name of song), quicker navigation, and perhaps easier reading if the number are somewhat separated from the group' name (as suggested in the first post).
This is not the most profound and urgent suggestion obviously, just something I'd welcome as a nice adjustment.

[Zubersoft]

Ben,

Your first request is very interesting. I just studied the code and it would be incredibly difficult to color part of the text a different color the way it's currently designed. If I separated the number of songs and instead made it right aligned, this is something that would be easier to implement, but I'd love to know if this is a change that everyone would like to see. If any other users are taking advantage of the "Show Number of Songs" option to display the number of songs next to all group items, I'd like to hear their thoughts on it being aligned with the right side of the screen, and whether or not they would want it white or gray in this case.

As for your second request, that is also something I could do fairly easily, but I think it would need to be a configurable setting, as not everyone would expect the app to suddenly load a song instead of viewing the contents of an artist/album/etc when they tap on it. I'd also like to hear if other users would take advantage of this as well.

Thanks for the feedback,
Mike

[Skip]

The number by the song is fine as is for me.
Having a song loaded when a group is selected seems rather immaterial to me since it seems that the odds of having only one song in a particular group will approach 0 after the app has been in use awhile. It may be slightly useful for a short time, but why bother.

[Harper]

I'm in agreement with Skip. IMHO no changes are needed. But the Windows version would be welcome!

[Ben]

Mike,

appreciate your comments!
I still think the Tabs with groups (= all Tabs save Songs) would gain from the visual and/or spatial separation of "# of songs".
Group name and "# of songs" appear as one unit currently, where these are two separate items of information really.
Just like Song Name and Artist (or whatever group is selected to appear in addition to the song), perfectly represented on the Songs Tab!
Visual/spatial distinction would allow to ditch the brackets, too, less characters on the screen are always welcome unless they contain relevant information.
Since a different color is not feasible ("incredibly difficult") a settings option to right align without brackets would definitely be something I'd choose.

The second suggestion, open song directly from group selection when there is just one song:
My database has 1640 songs today. Of the 18 artists that begin with the letter "A", only 4 have more than one song.
Whether ABC, Adele, Al Green, Al Stewart, Albert Hammond, Alexander Ebert, ..., will ever "roll out" on my tablet, I doubt it.
Perhaps an option in the "# of songs" settings?

I know that both suggestions are of minor relevance. First things first...

Cheers
Ben

[Skip]

1 - The number in parentheses represents a description in settings when 'show number of songs' was selected, so works fine now as far as I'm concerned. The way it is in the songs tab is effective because it displays multiple pieces of information, the proposed suggestion is only one, closely related, piece of information which would cost a horizontal line of screen space.
2 - Two clicks vs one? As an option? Up to Mike.

[Ben]

Hi Skip,

ad 1, I didn't think of finding "#of songs" below the group item, rather in the same line, only offset from the group item name, by right alignment, as different coloring seems difficult to do.
If this was my own little Excel application, I'd probably even suppress the display of value "1", if suggestion 2 was to be realized.
I mentioned the Songs Tab because I really really like its design. The Tabs with groups, to me, look a tad less "professional" when the otherwise superuseful # of songs are displayed.
None of my two suggestions is bigger than peanuts, of course!

Cheers
Ben

[Skip]

Hi Ben;
Thanks for pointing out "right justified', I mis-read that, was thinking left justified. I suppose it's only a matter of what a person gets used to seeing.
I agree on the song group set up, it really works well. I use it to id different tunings, same key, of a song, amongst other things.

[Ben]

quick recap:

1) right-alignment of "# of songs" values would provide for a "neater" look of the group tabs, and...
2) the brackets wouldn't be needed anymore.
3) 2 clicks instead of 4 if group items with one single song were to be opened directly (currently 2 to open, 2 to get back).
4) suppressing the display of value 1 would make it perfect for me. A visual thing that supports work flow.

Give somebody an inch, and he will take a mile.
Mike gave us the mile already. The above is a fraction of an inch! ?

Ben

[Zubersoft]

If I right-align the number of songs, do you want it to maintain the same color as the other text or would you like it different? Should I just display the number by itself? I just wanted to make sure I implement exactly as you've envisioned. I think I can also make your 3rd request an optional feature without too much effort. I assume #4 means that if I complete #1 you are satisfied.

Thanks for the feedback,
Mike

[Ben]

Mike,

gladly reply to your questions! ☺

- Right-aligned with the grey you apply for the sub-line text (e.g. Artist) in the Songs tab would be my choice.
- Brackets will probably be obsolete with the gained distance between group item and counter. Whatever you think is visually more appealing.
- Option to open song directly when count = 1 would be nice indeed.
Not sure I understand your last sentence though. My idea of a perhaps slightly improved "workflow" is that the value 1 isn't shown at all, so that when you click on items that don't have a value shown you expect a song to be opened instead of a list. In other words, only items w i t h a displayed value on the right side would be perceived (rightly) as a "folder".
Items with value 0, could they be greyed out? Personally, I don't have that (empty groups) but quite a few people will not have deleted the unused "Genres" for example.
I am delighted and impressed that you consider to implement some or even all of this!
Thanks from Switzerland.
Ben

[Zubersoft]

All of your suggestions have been implemented for the next update. It wasn't too much work and I think it looks a lot better. Thanks for the great feedback!

Mike

[Ben]

fantastic, thank you very much, Mike!
I found a small bug with the setlist slider, will report that in the specific forum now.

[Ben]

Just updated with version 1.28, this is dead-on!
Library Settings: "Skip Viewing Groups with One Song"
Brilliant, thank you Mike!