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General Options

These options control general settings for Helium Music Manager.

General

These options control the general startup and usage of Helium Music Manager.

• General

  • Show Add Music Wizard on start-up
    This option automatically shows the Add Music Wizard when Helium Music Manager starts.
  • Use Hotkeys will let you use the following hotkeys to control Helium Music Manager, even when it's not the active application:
    • Shift+Win+5 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+5 on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 5 stars
    • Shift+Win+4 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+4 on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 4 stars
    • Shift+Win+3 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+3 on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 3 stars
    • Shift+Win+2 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+2 on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 2 stars
    • Shift+Win+1 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+1 on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 1 star
    • Shift+Win+0 (Shift+Ctrl+Win+Alt+0 on Windows 7) - Remove rating for the file that's currently being played
    • Shift+Win+Alt+5 (doesn't work on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 4.5 stars
    • Shift+Win+Alt+4 (doesn't work on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 3.5 stars
    • Shift+Win+Alt+3 (doesn't work on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 2.5 stars
    • Shift+Win+Alt+2 (doesn't work on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 1.5 stars
    • Shift+Win+Alt+1 (doesn't work on Windows 7) - Rate the file that's currently being played to 0.5 star
    • Ctrl+Alt+Z Will display the Now Playing desktop alter window
    • Media keys such as Previous Track, Next Track, Play/Pause, Stop and Volume Up/Down keys
    Windows 7 maps up several of the Windows-key shortcuts to system specific features, which is why we can currently only provide a limited number of the shortcut keys on this system.
  • Automatic Login
    If ‘remember me’ was selected on Login, this option is enabled. Deselecting this option will make Helium Music Manager forget the automatic login details.
  • Replace files in move operations
    If this option is ticked, if a file is moved to a destination where the file already exists, it will be replaced. Not having this set can cause inconsistencies in the Library as a result of move operations not completing correctly.

• Languages

  • Active Language
    Indicates the language Helium Music Manager is currently using.
    
    Click on the Change... button to change to a different language. Select the desired language and click OK to apply. A restart of the program is necessary for a new language to be loaded.

• When Visible/Minimized, Show Helium Music Manager In

  • Taskbar Only
    This option is the standard "Windows Mode" presentation. An item for Helium Music Manager is added to the task bar, which can be used to minimize, restore and close the Helium Music Manager window.
  • System Tray Only
    This option places an icon in the system tray which can be used to restore the window or to close the application.
  • Taskbar and system tray
    This option will show Helium Music Manager in both the above locations.

• Automatic Update Checks

  • Automatic Update Checks allows you to control how often Helium Music Manager should check for updates.
    Tick the Check for program updates automatically to have Helium Music Manager automatically check for updates using the interval set in the drop-down control. Click the Check Now button to do an imediate check for an update.

Sort Order

These options control how Helium Music Manager controls the sorting of Artists, Album Artists, Albums and Track Titles.

• Sort Order Settings

  • Use Windows XP logical sorting
  • This option will cause items to be sorted in the same way as in Windows XP and above operating systems. The table below shows an example of how this option affects sorting.
    
    

    XP Sorting	non-XP Sorting
    Music Album Name 1	Music Album Name 1
    Music Album Name 2	Music Album Name 10
    Music Album Name 3	Music Album Name 2
    Music Album Name 4	Music Album Name 20
    Music Album Name 5	Music Album Name 3
    Music Album Name 6	Music Album Name 30
    Music Album Name 7	Music Album Name 4
    Music Album Name 8	Music Album Name 5
    Music Album Name 9	Music Album Name 6
    Music Album Name 10	Music Album Name 7
    Music Album Name 20	Music Album Name 8
    Music Album Name 30	Music Album Name 9

  • Use Sort Order
    If selected, Helium Music Manager will use Artist, Album Artist, Album and Title Sort Order fields (if present) in place of the Artist, Album and Title fields. This is done when Helium Music Manager displays the track list in all browsers or the Music Explorers Artist, Album and Title items.
  • Show sort order fields
    This option is only available if Use Sort Order is selected (see above). If selected, Helium Music Manager will display the sort order fields, otherwise it will display the non-sort fields. For example, if Show sort order fields is NOT selected, 'The Beatles' will now display as 'The Beatles' but sort under the letter 'B' as oppose to being displayed as 'Beatles, The' if selected.
  • Auto set Sort Order
    If selected, The Tag editors will overwrite the Artist, Album Artist, Album and Title Sort Order fields where the associated Artist, Album Artist, Album  and Title fields start with any of the comma separated words in the Words used for Auto Sort Order processing - e.g. if 'The' is one of the words in this list and the Artist field is  'The Beatles' this will generate an Artist Sort Order field of 'Beatles, The'. In any other case the sort field will be cleared if the associated 'unsorted' field has the same value.  Otherwise the sort field will remain unaltered.
    
    Note: Auto Set Sort Order will only be in effect when tags are being written.
  • Optimize sort order fields
    If selected, the contents of the sort-tag will only be written if it differ from their respective unsorted field. This setting cannot be used when "Save iTunes specific tags" is selected.

Visual Settings

These options define the options for the visual controls in Helium Music Manager.

• General

  • Display unavailable tracks in italic
    Will italicize the text on files in the Track List when they are unavailable. A file can be unavailable for several reasons:
    • If a file has been moved to a different location after having been added to the database.
    • If a file is stored on a CD/DVD and the disc is not in the drive.
    • If a file is on a network drive that is currently off-line.
  • Show icons in Track List headers
    If selected, an icon will be shown in the column header in Track Lists
  • Use odd/even row coloring
    If selected odd/even rows will be colored differently in the Track Lists
  • Small Navigation Bar icons
    When selected, the Navigation Bar will use small icons

• Colors

  • Background colors:
    • Files with tags specifies the color to use for files with tags.
    • Files without tags specifies the color to use for files without tags

    Note: Background colors cannot be selected if Use odd/even row coloring is selected (see above)

  • Text Colors:
    • General track color is used for all available tracks in the track list.
    • Unavailable track color is used for all unavailable tracks in the track list.
  • Coverflow Background and Coverflow Texts controls the color for different elements in the Coverflow Content mode.

  Note: To select a color, click on the colored button for the item you would like to change, and a color picker dialog will be shown. If you prefer, you can also enter an HTML color code (in hexadecimal form) directly into the edit box to the right of the colored button.

• Desktop Alerts

  Desktop Alerts enable you to configure how Desktop Alerts should behave in Helium Music Manager:

  • Show general Desktop Alerts - If selected, Desktop Alerts will be shown when lengthy operations are completed.
  • Show player Desktop Alerts - If selected, Desktop Alerts will be shown when a track is being played.
  • Show Desktop Alerts only when Helium Music Manager is not the active Window - When this option is selected Helium Music Manager will only show Desktop Alerts when Helium Music Manager is not active.

  Click the Configure button to configure the duration and transparency of the desktop alerts.