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steppinwolf
04-17-2010, 10:42 AM
I would like to create playlists that contain specific files which may be scattered across multiple folders. There are no attributes that could identify these files other than I want to put them in a collection together.

I'm new to Mezzmo, but I read that we can create a new folder and drag files into it. A couple of issues with this. First, help does not make it clear if this actually moves, copies or just creates a pointer to these files. The latter would be ideal. Even in that case, it's troublesome to do this with a large pre-existing list of files. That's where Add Files from External Playlist would help right? But what if your external playlist type is not supported?

To use a specific example, with an image viewer like PolyView, one can create a slideshow script which basically contains a simple options header followed by a line with full path for each file you include. Unfortunately, Mezzmo does not currently import PVS files.

So, it would be nice if Mezzmo could add PVS file support and/or allow creation of a playlist from a list of files as long as the full path is included and the media type is supported.

Paul
04-17-2010, 01:25 PM
I'll try to answer your questions:

* To create the playlist that you want: Click the Create Playlist toolbar button and then click Create Playlist... menu item. This will let you create a normal (empty) playlist. Once created, you can then browse & locate files in your Mezzmo library, and then drag & drop them into the new playlist in the tree. You can add any non-related files that are in your Mezzmo library into this playlist. This is a great way to organize all your favorite media into playlists.

* Drag/dropping files between playlists are copy actions - not move actions. Note, the file itself is not copied - just the details about the file, like it's location on your HDD, any meta data, etc. Note: when you add files into Mezzmo, Mezzmo just adds details about the files into its library - it never adds the file contents into the library - it will always just points to the files on your computer. We'll look at improving the help file so it's explained better.

* We'll look at PVS files for possible inclusion into Mezzmo

Hope it helps. Thanks for great feedback!

steppinwolf
04-18-2010, 12:09 PM
Dennis, thanks for the clarification. So let me ask, if I already have a list of say 30 or 40 file paths scattered throughout several different folders, could you add the ability to insert that path list into a playlist without having to manually drag and drop each file into the playlist? In other words, I'd like to edit a playlist directly and bypass drag and drop. This would be even better than PVS file support since a list of file paths can be generated by many different programs.

Paul
04-19-2010, 10:00 AM
When you add a folder into Mezzmo using the Add Folder... menu item, you are creating a folder playlist and it is a direct representation of the folder & sub-folders on your hard disk. If you add or remove a file from the folder on your hard disk, then the folder playlist in Mezzmo will also be dynamically updated as well. So, it's a one-to-one representation of your hard disk folder & is fully dynamic. This is really convenient if you want to use your existing Windows folders as your primary hierarchy/organization of your media files (instead of re-organizing them in Mezzmo).

Since folder playlists are dynamic & a direct representation of folders on your hard disk, you cannot edit the contents of a folder playlist. If you do want to edit the contents of your playlists, then I'd suggest you add the files into Mezzmo differently. For example, you can use the Scan Drive/Folder For Media Files menu item to add files into Mezzmo. Choose the folder you wish to scan, and then select the Add files to playlist checkbox and also check the Create sub-playlists based on folder hierarchy of files checkbox. This will add all the files into Mezzmo and create normal playlists for any sub-folders that it finds. These playlists can be edited as you like - you can add or remove files, move them, remove them, etc.

Hope that helps you do what you want in Mezzmo. Mezzmo has a very flexible organizing system, so I am sure you will be able to do what you want. If you have further questions, just ask.

Best regards,

Paul

steppinwolf
04-22-2010, 10:40 PM
Thanks for the detailed explanations. I have a better understanding of Mezzmo file organization and agree it is very flexible. However for this task, adding files from an external playlist would obviously be much easier than recreating the list by manually editing a Mezzmo-generated playlist containing hundreds of files from the real folder structure. I'm glad you included the Add Files from External Playlists feature and hope you'll decide to expand it by adding PVS and/or generic path list support in a future release. :)