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rick.ca:
Originally posted to lost topic Selecting individual movies to export in July 2008...
It exports the movies displayed, not those selected. Use filters or search to display only those you wish to export.
rick.ca:
Originally posted to lost topic Search box behaviour in December 2008...
Currently, the basic Search feature works like this:
• The default search is for "All."
• The search box is the default location for keystrokes (i.e., they go here unless another input control is active).
• Searching is done (after a short delay, I presume) "as-you-type."
• For list fields, a drop-down list of terms is available, and the first match is displayed as-you-type.
This all seems very logical, but I just can't take it any more! >:(
[Update: This has all been fixed, but this may help explain how and why Search works the way it does now.]
A search "All" is the most useless and normally the last choice one would make. In the rare case it might be helpful, it's not because the results don't indicate where the hits are. I'm losing precious minutes of my life waiting for the program to complete searches of the entire database for my every accidental keystroke.
With keystrokes going to the search box by default, and search-as-you-type in effect, the most useful search would be of Title/Name—what is displayed in the list panel. Or perhaps better, Title + Original title + AKA for movie view, and Name + Translated name + Alternative name for people view. Not only is this a better default for the search function, it facilitates the behaviour naturally expected of the list pane—to react to a keystroke. Usually, lists will jump to the first item starting with the letter of a keystroke. Search-as-you-type results would be a little different, but still logical and more powerful. I think most users would appreciate that—even if they weren't expecting it.
Search-as-you-type is very handy when the search results come as fast, or almost as fast, as one types. For longer searches, however, it's just an annoyance. I think it should be used for a Title/Name default search only. For any other search, the "interim" results—as shown in the movie/person list—are not so relevant or helpful. It would be faster to type the whole term and hit enter. For list fields, it would be more helpful for the drop-down box to open at the first matching term, rather than a search be started.
BTW, what's got me frothing-at-the-mouth about this was trying to do filmography searches. I found it impossible to type a movie title without a search starting on a partial term (or, worse, a typo). I would then have to wait while it searched the 108,192 movies in the database. On my machine, it's faster to kill and restart the program. The only practical way I could do such searches was to copy the title to the clipboard, and paste it into the search box.
rick.ca:
Originally posted to lost topic Subtitles in statistics in September 2008...
Considering most DVD's have a number of different subtitles, I don't understand what sense one would make out of summary statistics. I think Search and Advance Search are more appropriate tools for getting this sort of information. For me, subtitles in English language movies are irrelevant—I'm not going to use them. On the other hand, with Advanced Search, I can easily filter my foreign language movies and check that I have English subtitles—or just see how many I have.
--- Quote ---Almost every decent DVD has plenty of languages which you can choose from, and there are automatically added to the statistics pie...
--- End quote ---
...which also produces a "statistics" of questionable use. My comment had nothing to do with my mother tongue being English. I was pointing out the search features of the program provide a more effective means of reporting such information.
[sidebar]
I suspect for most users the statistics feature makes a good first impression, then isn't used much. I think it's useful as an overview of the database. But with too many tabs, it becomes overwhelming for that purpose. Furthermore, having too many tabs suggests everything should be included, making it more difficult to maintain.
As an alternative means of providing statistical information, Advanced Search could be made more friendly by adding the ability to save searches. Saved searches could then be a means for generating whatever statistics one is interested in seeing on a regular basis.
rick.ca:
Originally posted to lost topic Print an alphabetical list of the movies in November 2008...
PVD does not yet have any "direct" print function. As you might imagine, there would be some complexity in determining exactly what should be printed. Maybe we'll see something in the next version.
The method that is available for producing reports is powerful and flexible, but not very user-friendly. You can produce any kind of report you like using the export feature (on the menu: Tools - Export - Export Movies or Persons using templates). The templates are managed by selecting Tools - Preferences - Plugins (left pane) - Plain text export (right pane) and clicking Configure. Here you will see a variety of sample templates that can be modified to suit your needs. When run, the export routine will create a plain text or HTML (i.e., web page) file that includes the movies or people currently displayed. This file can then be displayed and printed using your computer's native abilities for doing such things.
Needless to say, your computer ability is going to have to rise above a 1 before anything gets printed this way! But it's not as difficult as it sounds. The "Simple plain list" sample template is probably very close to what you want. I suggest you try doing an export with that template selected. You won't hurt anything by trying—it will just create a file. You can then view the file and decide whether you've got something worth killing a tree for.
rick.ca:
Originally posted to lost topic Export bug in October 2008...
In Preferences - Plugins - Plain text export - Configure, select the template you want to use and click the Use as default button. You can also check Select template on execute if you would rather select the template each time the plugin is run.
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