What's New in Music Collector 8

Music Collector 8 has arrived!

We are happy to announce the arrival of this new major version of Music Collector for Windows. It brings many new features and enhancements of existing features. And it looks better too! Just scroll down this page to get an impression of all additions and changes.

Upgrading to v8
If you already own an earlier version of Music Collector (Standard or Pro), you can upgrade to the PRO version 8 for only US $19.95, a 50% discount. Just enter your license key in the box on the right and click Upgrade Now.
(if you came here from our upgrade notification email or from the v8 trial edition the key will be filled in automatically)

What's New in Music Collector 8:

---

• Link CD discs in your personal database to slots in your Centurion CD Device.
• Use the Browse and Search features to find the disc you are looking for, then choose Eject. The device will automatically rotate and eject the disc.

---

• Improved CueCat handling in main screen
• Improved CueCat handling in Add Automatically screens
• CueCat can now also be used in the Edit Music screen (automatically fills barcode field then)

Searching your database:

---

• Completely redesigned Filter screen
• Build advanced filters using brackets, AND, OR, NOT, equal, not equal, greater than, less than, contains, starts with, ends with, wildcards
• Mix album and track fields in your filters (e.g. album.artist = madonna AND track.title contains "love")
• Use the same filters in Album and Track View, switch back and forth to see the same filter results in both views
• Save your filters and activate them directly using the Filter menu on the toolbar
• Faster Quick Search
• Faster Track View / No Folders mode

Sorting:

---

• Save your sort order definitions and activate them directly using the Sort Order menu on the toolbar
• Simpler Sort Field selection screen, just use checkboxes to select the fields you want.
• Sort Titles are now automatically generated from the Title when using Add Automatically
• new "Generate Sort Title" button in Edit Album/Track screens
• use Tools / Options / Sort Titles to configure recognized articles (the, a, le, la, die, der, das, etc..)

Columns:

---

• Save your column definitions and activate them directly using the Columns menu on the toolbar
• Simpler Columns selection screen, just use checkboxes to select the fields you want.

Folder selection

---

• Save you custom folder field combination and activate them directly from the Folder menu above the tree
• Simpler Folder field selection screen, just use checkboxes to select the fields you want.
• new Folder field option: "First letter of Artist" (tip: works great in combination with Artist as the 2nd level folder)

Database changes

---

• Improvements for classical music:
  • Artist/Composer field separated into two fields Artist and Composer
  • new field: Composition with subfields Title, Composer, Key, Opus, Date
  • new field: Chorus
• New field: Subtitle
• New field: Original Release Date
• New field: Tags
• Studio field now allows multiple values
• Producer, Engineer, Songwriter, UserCredit 1&2 and Musician fields now use a shared "People" pick list

Improved Edit Album / Tracks tab page

---

• Drag and drop multiple items in one go
• Drag and drop Header items
• Easier drag and drop to last position
• Track title, artist, length and original position are now shown in separate columns
• new "Restore Original Track Order" and "Auto Renumber Tracks" buttons

Edit Album / Edit Track screens

---

• Improved field layout
• Musicians/Credits lists now remember their column widths:
• Improved Links tab page:
  • Add links to websites by dragging & dropping from your browser
  • Add links to local files (images, musics, playlists) by dragging & dropping
  • Added images show up in the Details View in the main screen
  • Easier editing of links and their descriptions

• The "..." buttons next to pick list fields have been removed and replaced by a new [Add ...] command inside the drop down list (tip: use F2 to edit!)
• New entry boxes for easier adding of values to check list fields (e.g. Genre, Extras)
• Edit Track screen is now resizable

Add Albums Automatically

---

• Improved Advanced Mode: tabs at the top have been combined, making it easier to search by Artist/Title AND Barcode in one go

• Improved Wizard Mode:
  • It now takes less steps to add an album
  • Screen is now resizable, for better previewing of results
• new Check Connection button
• The purchase price is now being retrieved from Amazon info sources

Improved network support

---

• New lock file system automatically prevents concurrent editing
• When one user is already using a database in Writable mode, subsequent users will automatically open the database in Read-Only mode
• In Read-Only all editing features are hidden and disabled, allowing viewing and searching only
• Create Read-Only workstations by running a forced Read-Only installation (start the installer with the /readonly command line parameter)

Details View Templates:

---

• New CSS Styles system
  • Template menu now allows selecting various "styles" for each template (using a submenu)
  • Styles can be created using CSS style sheets
• Added several new styles for Full Details Classic template
• New Music Collector 8 template, in 3 different styles (blue, black and iTunes)

Improved Loan Management

---

• Print loan lists
• Use Flic scanner in Loan Management screen to Loan or Return CDs
• Use the Quick Search box to search your Loan History by Title, Barcode or Loaner name
• New Email and Address fields in the Loaner item
• New date selectors in Loan Info screen

Export to HTML (PRO edition only)

---

• New Music Collector 8 Blue and Black detail page templates
• Improved look of List and Thumbnails index pages
• Improved look of Next/Previous navigation at the top of exported pages
• New "Paged by First Letter of Artist" option

New Help file (english version only for now)

---

• Up to date reference of all new features
• Added task based help topics
• Full keyword index
• Context sensitive help (Help buttons) in most screens of the program