Options

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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.

• 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.

Player Options

These options control how Helium Music Manager will play music and interact with music and other services.

General

These options enable you to configure which player to use in Helium Music Manager and how it should behave in different situations.

Player

• Internal Player
  This is the default option and will use the Internal Player to replay your music. There are several benefits of using this replaying (BASS) engine, read more about them in the section Internal Player.

• Windows Media Player (Embedded) is similar to Internal Player but will use the Windows Media Player engine to replay your music and will not give you the benefit of the many additional options available when using the BASS engine. The Windows Media Player interface will not be shown. This mode is made available to accommodate any compatibility issues you might experience with the BASS engine.

• Winamp 2.x or Winamp 5.x will use Winamp for playback. Version 2.x or 5.x of Winamp is required. Winamp 3 is not supported.
  
  When Winamp is used for replaying, Helium Music Manager hides the Play Queue pane and takes advantage of Winamp's playlist instead. You will still have access to the Internal Player window, but the available commands will be executed against Winamp instead of the internal Play Queue in Helium Music Manager.

• iTunes 4.2+ will use Apple's iTunes for playback. Version 4.2 or greater of iTunes is required.
  
  Note
  If you intend to use iTunes for replaying then we recommend that you set iTunes preferences to NOT COPY files when they are played as if you do this Helium Music Manager is unable to fully manage the playing of iTunes music.

• Scroll title in the Windows taskbar will scroll the full title of the currently playing song in the taskbar button.

• The spin-control to the right of the text Update playcounter after 50% of the track length or [x] seconds allows you to control how many seconds a track must be played before the play counter should be incremented. Please note that this time refers to the actual playing time, so skipping into a song will not affect the playing time.

• Autostart CD Art Display lets you choose if you would like to start CD Art Display when Helium Music Manager starts. More information about CD Art Display can be found here: CD Art Display

• Auto apply covers downloaded with CD Art Display will automatically add covers found with CD Art Display to your albums in Helium Music Manager.

Internal Player

Internal Player Options

 All of the options below are only in effect when using the Internal Player (BASS Engine):

• Device
  This is the sound device that Helium Music Manager uses for playing your music. This should normally be set to Default Device. If you are having problems playing your music you might want to try to change this option. This is also useful for systems with more than one sound card when you want to specify the output device manually.

• Playback buffer
  The value set for the playback buffer (in milliseconds), controls how large the player buffer will be. The default buffer length is 500 milliseconds. Increasing the length, decreases the chance of the sound possibly breaking-up on slower computers, but also increases the latency.

• Enable Accurate VBR Replaying (slower reading)
  This option lets the BASS engine calculate the correct bitrate for each file that is played when the file is loaded. This setting makes the player perform slower during reading and you should only use it if you have problems with replaying VBR files.

• Use Evil Lyrics (if available)
  If you have EvilLyrics installed, you can use it together with Helium Music Manager by enabling this setting. EvilLyrics is a program that searches the Internet for lyrics while you are playing your music. You can read more about EvilLyrics on their web site.

• Send Now Playing information to MSN Messenger
  This option makes Helium Music Manager change your personal tag-line to show the song you are currently playing. This is a cool way of showing your contacts the music you are currently listening to.

• Update MSN Messenger picture with the active album picture
  This option updates your personal picture to display the album picture of the album of the currently playing file.
  Please note that this feature requires MSN Live Messenger or later versions to be installed on your system.

• Continuous playback
  This option controls whether music playing will run continuously or not.

• Enable crossfader
  The crossfader is used to smoothly fade songs together. Crossfading is used when a new song is played, either by manually clicking Next on the Internal Player, or when a song reaches the end.
  
  The Crossfade for [x] seconds tells how many seconds the two songs should be faded together.
  
  The Start crossfade when [x] seconds of the current track remains tells Helium Music Manager to automatically start cross fading to the next song in the Active Playlist when there are [x] seconds left in the currently playing song.
  
  When Crossfade on double-click is selected, Helium Music Manager will perform a crossfade when a new song is selected to be played from any of the views and the Play Queue, if a song is currently playing.

• Mark the played track in the content views
  When selected, the track currently playing will be marked with a pink background color when browsed in Helium Music Managers various views.

Replay Gain

Replay Gain is a feature built into the Internal Player. In short. it normalizes the output volume during replaying so that irritating volume changes can be avoided. To be able to take advantage of the Replay Gain features, the files will need to contain Replay Gain tags, created by external tools. Helium Music Manager supports Replay Gain tags for Ogg Vorbis files, FLAC files and MP3 files. The different Replay Gain options available are:

• Don't use Replay Gain will ignore Replay Gain tags and not apply automatic volume leveling.

• Use Track Gain will use the track gain values (if available) to apply automatic volume leveling.

• Use Album Gain will use album gain values (if available) to apply automatic volume leveling.

Play Queue

• Confirm action to clear all contents in the Play Queue
  When selected, Helium Music Manager will ask you to confirm that all songs in the Play Queue can be cleared when this is requested.
• When switching database, you can select between the following options:
  • Clear the Play Queue - This will automatically clear the Play Queue
  • Leave the Play Queue - This will leave the Play Queue untouched
  • Ask me - will let you decided what action to take
• Center the active track in the Play Queue
  This option makes sure that the currently playing track is visible in the Play Queue by scrolling the list to show the currently played track (marked with a pink background color).
• Clear playlist before adding songs
  If selected, your Play Queue will be automatically cleared (you will not be asked to confirm this) when you use the Enqueue and Play commands.
• Dock position controls where the Play Queue will be placed on your screen.
  • Main Window will dock the Play Queue in the main user interface
  • Right Sidebar will dock the Play Queue as a tab in the right sidebar
• Default enqueueing option
  These options enable you to control the specific play action that will be taken when either the player is stopped (no track is playing) or when the player is playing a track. You can choose between:
  • Enqueue and Play - Will enqueue the selected tracks and start to play them directly
  • Enqueue Next - Will enqueue the selected tracks after the track that's currently playing
  • Enqueue Last - Will enqueue the seleted tracks after the last track in the Play Queue

Add-ons

• Use AMIP
  This option allows you to use AMIP (Advanced mIRC Integration Plug-in) with Helium Music Manager.
  To be able to use this feature, you need to place the Winamp version of the plug-in (gen_irc.dll) in the plugins folder. (<helium.exe>\plugins). Once enabled it will allow you to propagate what you are listening to in Helium Music Manager to mIRC and other supported IRC clients.
  
  More information about AMIP and downloding of the plug-in can be found here: AMIP

• Use CDG Plugin
  This option will allow you to use CDG files with Helium Music Manager.
  To be able to use this feature, you will need to place the Winamp version of the plug-in (gen_cdg.dll, gen_cdg.ini) in the plugins folder. (<helium.exe>\plugins). Once enabled, the plugin will display karaoke information for the current playing file, if available. (.CDG files should be named the same as the MP3 file and be placed in the same folder as the MP3 files).
  
  More information about the CDG plug-in and downloading can be found here: CDG

• DSP Plug-in Options
  The Title format text box will control how playing titles that are sent to DSP plug-ins such as ShoutCAST will be formatted.
  The titles can be formatted using the following codes:

  • %artist - will be replaced with the current artist

  • %title - will be replaced with the current title

  • %remix - will be replaced with the current remix

  • %subtitle - will be replaced with the current subtitle

  • %position - will be replaced with the current playlist position

  • %genre - will be replaced with the current genre

  • %year - will be replaced with the current year

  • %album - will be replaced with the current album title
    
    Note
    All codes should be written in lowercase.

Party Mode

When Helium Music Manager is active in party mode, most commands are protected and can't be used. Party mode is designed to be used at parties (as the name implies), to keep a playlist running correctly and avoid anyone skipping songs. An administrator that knows the party mode password can execute the locked functions as well as switching back to normal mode.

• Enable Party Mode controls whether Party Mode is active or inactive.

• Party Mode Password enables you to set the master password, used to unlock commands and switching back to normal mode.

Party Mode Restriction Level

You can control how hard the restrictions of the party mode should be by setting the party mode restriction level:

• Hard Restrictions will allow the following commands

  • Volume Changing

  • Enqeue Last

  • Browsing through all views

  • Searching for tracks

• Normal Restrictions will allow the same commands as hard restrictions plus:

  • Play next from the Play Queue

  • Play/Pause

  • Allow a rating to be set

Playlists & Now Playing

The Playlist Export Format text box will let you control the formatting of items that are exported in playlists from Helium Music Manager. Click the Codes button to see the available codes that can be used. Each code will be translated to it's respective value upon the exporting.

Control the number of Suggested Tracks and Favourite Tracks to be shown in the Now Playing pane using the Number of suggested tracks and Number of favourite tracks settings.

Last.fm & Twitter 

Select the Enable Last.fm scrobbling option if you would like to use the Last.fm/Audioscrobbler service when you are playing music. To be able to use Last.fm/Audioscrobbler you need to type your username in the Username edit box and your password in the Password box.
 
Select the Update Last.fm when synchronizing playcounters from an iPod device to post your played tracks to Last.fm whilst synchronizing them with your Library.
Please note that:

• Your date and time settings must be properly set on your iPod device

You can also automatically send updates to Twitter when playing music. To be able to use the Twitter services you will need to type your username and password in the username and password edit boxes.

Checkmark Update Twitter when loving a track on Last.fm to automatically send an update to Twitter when you use the Love track Last.fm function.

Checkmark Update Twitter when a track is played to automatically send an update to Twitter when you play a track.

Views Options

These options control how Helium Music Manager displays and manages the different browser views.

General

These settings apply to all the browsers in Helium Music Manager:

• Automatically select all tracks if none are selected will make all tools/wizards automatically select all tracks in the track list when no files are selected. This removes the need to manually select all tracks before running a tool/wizard.

• Show tree lines will show tree lines in all trees, e.g. the Music Library and the Playlist Browser.

• Show grid in track list activates grid lines between rows in the Track List.

• Pad track/cd with a leading zero will show track and cd numbers as 01 and 02 instead of 1 and 2 in the track list and in other places within Helium Music Manager.

• Enable full drag makes the track list and the Play Queue allow dragging of tracks by clicking in the whole area of a row instead of being forced to click directly on a text.

• Auto-fit columns will automatically adjust the column width in the Track List so that they only will be as wide as necessary.

• Show Sidebar toolbars determines if the view specific bottom toolbar in the Left Sidebar should be visible or not.

• Use simple Content Filter Interface enables you you to use the simple Content Filter interface.

• Expand all albums in the Album Details mode will automatically expand all albums so that they display all tracks when using the Album Details mode.

• Action to perform on double-click controls the action that Helium Music Manager should perform when double-clicking on an audio file in the Track List.

• Action to perform on double-click when a file plays controls the action that Helium Music Manager should perform when double-clicking on an audio file in the Track List when a song is being played.

• Add all tracks on double-click will add all tracks from the track list when the selected action is executed.

• Click Configure Album Details actions... to configure the hover actions that should be enabled in the Album Details mode.
• Click Configure Album Thumbnail actions... to configure the hover actions that should be enabled in the Album Thumbnails mode.

Albums

• Show Album Filter will show the Album Filter while in the Album view.

• Apply Album Filter to track list
  This option will additionally apply the filter specified in the Album Filter to the track list when browsing albums.

• Show tooltips will display a fullsize version (128*128 pixels) of the details of the selected album when hovering the mouse over an album. This can be useful when using smaller thumbnail sizes.

• Enable multiple selections enables you to select multiple albums in the Album view. When this setting is active, check boxes will be shown to the left of each entry in the album browser.
  
  Note:
  When using any of the select functions in the Album view, this setting is automatically activated.

• Show contents from multiple albums automatically shows the contents from all of the selected albums in the track list. The default is that only the currently selected album's tracks are shown.
  
  Note:
  This setting requires that Enable multiple selections is active.

• Indicate if original album picture is missing displays an icon in the lower left corner of the album picture if the original album picture is missing.

• Thumbnail size lets you choose the size of the thumbnails in the Album view.
  Choose between the following sizes:

  • 32*32

  • 64*64

  • 96*96

  • 128*128

• Additional file types to remove when an album is removed
  This comma-separated list defines the file types that you want to have removed while removing an album from the Album view.

• Click Configure Album Details actions... to configure the hover actions that should be enabled in the Album view.

Music Explorer

The upper part of this page allows you to control the order and visibility of the different items (nodes) available from the Music Explorer. You can show/hide an item by selecting/deselecting it with the checkbox to the left of it. You can re-order an item's position by selecting it and click the Up or Down buttons.

• Show Music Explorer Filter will show the Music Explorer Filter.

• Apply Music Explorer Filter to track list makes the Track List show only the tracks that are found by the currently set Music Library Filter.

• Automatically recurse sub-contents will automatically recurse items (nodes) that are clicked in the Music Explorer (i.e. the selected node and all its sub-nodes).

Music Explorer (My Computer)

• Additional file types to display
  This comma-separated list defines the file types (in addition to music files) that should be displayed while browsing the My Computer item (node) in the Music Explorer.
  
  Display files not in library in the following color
  This option defines the color to display for files not currently in your library.

• Selected Extra Paths
  This list can be used to add pre-defined shortcuts to paths that you want quick access to. This can be anything from network drive paths or just a favorite folder that you want to add a shortcut to. The paths defined in this list will be available at the bottom of the drive list under the My Computer item in the Music Explorer.

• Excluded paths
  This list can be used to exclude certain drives and paths from the My Computer list.

Note:
This view was named File Browser in earlier version of Helium Music Manager.

Artists

• Show Artist Filter wils show the Album Filter while in the Artists view.

• Apply Artist Filter to track list
  This option will additionally apply the filter specified in the Artists view Filter to the track list when browsing artists.

• Show tooltips will display a fullsize version (128*128 pixels) of the details of the selected artist when hovering the mouse over an artist. This can be useful when using smaller thumbnail sizes.

• Enable multiple selections enables you to select multiple artists in the Artists view. When this setting is active, check boxes will be shown to the left of each entry in the Artists browser.
  
  Note:
  When using any of the select functions in the Artists view, this setting is automatically activated.

• Show contents from multiple artists automatically shows the contents from all of the selected artists in the track list. The default is that only the currently selected artist's tracks are shown.
  
  Note:
  This setting requires that Enable multiple selections is active.

• Thumbnail size lets you choose the size of the thumbnails in the Artists view. Choose between the following sizes:

  • 32*32

  • 64*64

  • 96*96

  • 128*128

Music Browser

• Create links for items not in my library
  This allows you to browse items which have no matching files in your library.

• Tooltip Images Transparency
  This allows you to control the transparency for tooltips in the Music Browser. When set to 0% solid (i.e. fully transparent) , tooltips are turned off.

Tools Options

These options control the settings for Helium Music Manager's major tools.

Tag Editor

These settings applies to the Tag Editor.

General Settings

• Save ID3 v1.1 tag controls if the Tag Editor should save a ID3v 1.1 tag for each file (if the file type supports ID3 tags). More information about ID3 tags can be found on the ID3 Org web site.

• Save Lyrics3 v2.0 tag controls if the Tag Editor should save a Lyrics3 v2.0 tag for each file (if the file type supports Lyrics3 v2.0 tags). More information about the Lyrics3 v2.0 tag can be found on the the ID3 Org web site.

• Auto increase/decrease track number will automatically increase or decrease the current track number when navigating between the selected files in the Tag Editor.

• Auto assign total track number will set the total tracks to the number of files selected for editing if active.

• Show only user defined genres will only show custom entered genres in the genre combo box if selected. If this option is enabled, the default genre list will be removed.

• Enable Auto Complete will load previously entered data into all of the drop down lists in the Tag Editor. Note: You must restart the Tag Editor when changing this setting before it will take effect.

• Auto assign original filename will auto assign the current filename to the original filename field if selected.

• Auto play will automatically play the current file if selected.

• Auto calculate BPM will automatically calculate the BPM for the current file if selected.

• Load images and biography from database will load Artist and Album pictures as well as biography from the database for the current artist and put into the fields.

• Save tagging time
  This option will save information about when the file was last tagged in Helium Music Manager.

• Auto Extract multiple artists will automatically extract multiple artists entered in the Tag Editors

Colors

This option specifies the background colors to be used on fields in the Tag Editor as follows:

• Locked - sets the bacground for a tag field that is locked
• Changed - sets the background color for a field that is changed
• Changed (FN2T) - sets the the background color for a field that is changed by the Filename To Tag function (see below)

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.

Filename To Tag

These settings define how the Filename To Tag tool works from within the Tag Editor (Advanced).

• Enable Filename to Tag in the Tag Editor will enable Filename To Tag parsing in the Tag Editor (Advanced).

• Overwrite existing information will make fields found by the Filename to Tag function overwrite existing information in the Tag Editor (Advanced).

• Use full path when parsing filenames may be used if you have information in your folder-structure that you want to make the Filename to Tag function extract information from.

• Auto save user-defined templates will automatically save templates that you manually type, when not using Automatic filename parsing

• Verbose mode will invoke a dialog that lets you choose from multiple matching templates. The dialog will only be shown if there is more than one matching template found, and only when using Automatic filename parsing.

• Automatic filename parsing will try to automatically find the best matching template for the current filename.

• Greedy mode is an alternative mode which may produce more accurate results for some filenames.

Note:
Information about the Stripped filename:
In all the Filename To Tag processing, the actual filename is never altered. Only the internal Stripped Filename field is altered which enables the Filename To Tag tool to function more accurately.

Lists

There are four lists which can be altered to make the Filename to Tag function work more accurately. You can change the list that you want to edit by choosing it in the Change drop down list. These lists are explained below:

The Remove list
All the characters/words defined in this list will always be removed from the stripped filename before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist in the filename.

1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
2. Type in the character/word.
3. Click OK.

Note:
You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.

The Remove End List
All the characters/words defined in this list will always be removed from the stripped filename before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist at the end of the filename.

1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
2. Type in the character/word.
3. Click OK.

Note:
You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.

The Replace List 
Characters/Words in the stripped filename, that are defined in the original column, will always be replaced by the characters/words in the replacement columns before Filename To Tag parsing, if they exist in the filename.

1. Click the Add button to add a new character/word to be removed.
2. Type the original character/word in the Original word box.
3. Type the character/word that should replace the original word in the Replace with box.
4. Click OK.

Note:
You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.

The User defined templates
 
If Filename To Tag cannot find a matching template for a file, you can define your own template. When you save templates from the Filename To Tag tool (when working in manual mode), they will show up in this list.

1. Click the Add button to add a new template.
2. Type in your new template. You can use the Codes button to select the required template fields from the pull down menu. See the Filename To Tag tool for more information about defining templates.
3. Click OK.

Note:
You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or Remove buttons.

File Rename Wizard

These settings apply to the File Rename Wizard.

• Automatically remove empty folders will automatically remove empty folders when  the File Rename Wizard renames and moves files.

• Read album artist field from library
  This option will read the Album Artist field from the database to replace the Album Artist field used in File Rename Wizard templates. This option will make sure that Various Artists albums will get a correctly named Album Artist. This option should be used when you want to create folders with the Album Artist that is shown in the Album Browser.

• Show destination volume column
  This option will optionally display a column on the preview step of the File Rename Wizard, where the Volume that the files selected for renaming will end up in.

• The Replacement for illegal characters list specifies the characters that illegal filename characters should be replaced with. You can define your own original characters, but you cannot remove the default characters that are not allowed within filenames on the Windows platform. These characters are: \ / : * ? < > |
  
  Some platforms (such as the XBOX or Linux) have other restrictions which is why it is a good idea to define custom replacements to allow files to be transferred to these platforms.

• Non-music files remaining after a rename operation defines an action to be taken on files remaining after a renaming operation has taken place. This can be a good feature for moving album pictures, lyrics and other notes that belongs to the files you are moving with the File Rename Wizard.

  • Don't move any remaining files is the default option and will leave remaining files where they are.

  • Move all remaining files to the destination folder of the music files will move all remaining files to the location of the music files.

  • Only move remaining files of the following file types to the destination folder of the music files specifies custom file types to be moved with the music files. This option can be used to avoid unwanted files being moved with the music files.
    
    Great care should be taken when using this function since it might move files that you don't intend to move. You may want to start to define some custom file types such as jpg, gif, bmp, txt to be certain that no important files are moved to a different location. Files will never be removed however, which means that the operation is always reversible.

Add Files

• Search for album pictures in folders will automatically try to locate album pictures in folders when adding files to the database.

• Search for album pictures in tags will automatically try to locate album pictures in the tags of the files that are added to the database.

• Show progress dialog when adding files
  With this option enabled a progress dialog will be shown when adding files. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button on the dialog. If this option is disabled files will be silently added in the background.

• Chunk based mode
  When chunk based mode is used, all the music files you are adding to the database will be split into smaller chunks for adding. This allows you to browse, play and manage items as each chunk is processed and before all the files in the queue are added; but this may be a bit slower than Normal mode.

• Normal mode
  When normal mode is used you will only be able to access the files selected for adding once all of the files have been added to the database. This mode is normally quicker then the chunk based mode.

Update Library

• Remove unavailable items will remove tracks from the database that have been moved or removed.
  Use this option with extreme care, since it can accidentally remove tracks that are currently unavailable (on CD/DVDs etc).

• Force synchronization of all files
  This option will force all files in the selected folders to be synchronized, disregarding file stamps. When this setting is turned off only files that have been changed from outside of Helium Music Manager will be synchronized.

• Show progress dialog when synchronizing files
  With this option enabled a progress dialog will be shown when synchronizing folders. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button on the dialog. If this option is disabled folders will be silently synchronized in the background.

• Select the Search for album pictures in folders option to search for newly added album pictures in the albums folders during the synchronization process. Located album pictures will only be added for albums that do not already contain a picture.

• Select the Search for album pictures in tags option to search for newly added album pictures from the files during the synchronization process. Located album pictures will only be added for albums that do not already contain a picture.

• Use automatic updating
  Turn this option on to make Helium Music Manager automatically update your Library when your computer has been idle for a while.
  
  Set the idle timer in the drop down list.
  
  The Folders selected for automatic updating contains a list of folders in your library - select the folders you want to include in the automatic updating process.

Plugins Options

These options control how Helium Music Manager uses plug-ins.

General

This page lists all installed plug-ins, showing version informations and supported download types.

Plug-in Options

This page allows you to control which plug-ins will be used when downloading different types of information.

Change the Download type with the drop-down box. When changed, the list below, Selected plug-ins, will be updated with the plug-ins that supports the selected download type.

Checkmark the plug-ins you would like to use from the list.

If a plug-in can be configured, the Configure... button will be enabled. Click the button to configure the plug-in.

To overwrite existing data when downloading information with a plug-in, checkmark the Overwrite existing data with downloaded information checkbox.

Tags Options

These options control how Helium Music Manager should process music file tags.

General

• Apply tags in background
  If this option is enabled (which it is by default), tags will be applied silently in the background. If the option is not enabled tags will be written to files while showing a dialog that cannot be hidden.

• Show progress dialog when applying tags
  If this option is enabled you will see a dialog each time that tags are applied to your files. This dialog can be hidden by clicking the Hide button. If this option is disabled no dialog will be shown and tags will be silently applied in the background.

• Update modified date when tagging files
  When selected, Helium Music Manager will update the files modified date when writing tags.

• Ignore read-only attributes
  This option will tell Helium Music Manager to try and save tags to files even though a file is marked as read-only. A file can be read-only for several reasons:

  • The file can be on read-only media (CD, DVD or a protected network drive). These files can never be written to.

  • The file may have been copied from read-only media to your hard disc. This file should be able to be written to, when this setting is enabled.

  • You may have manually set it to read-only to disable programs from editing the information in the file.

• Use ID3v1, ID3v2 and Lyrics3v2 tags
  This is the default setting which will write these tags to MP3 files. This setting should be used unless you have special wishes to use APEv2 tags.

• Use ID3v1 and APEv2 tags
  This option will write APEv2 tags instead of ID3v2 tags on MP3 files. Also note that Lyrics3 v2 tags are not allowed and will not be used when using APEv2 tags.

• Save as ID3v2.3
  This option tells Helium Music Manager not to write any ID3v2.4 specific fields.

• Save in ID3 v2.4 compatible mode
  This option tells Helium Music Manager to write backwards compatible tags so they can be read in players not supporting the ID3 v2.4 specifications (the latest standard). This may also be an important option for many people who use portable music players (such as Creative's Zen or Apple's iPod), since some players do not yet support ID3 v2.4. Selecting this box will tell Helium Music Manager to write all ID3v2.4 tags but set the version to ID3v2.3 so players not supporting ID3v2.4 will be able to read all information (except the version 2.4 specific fields).

• Save as ID3 v2.4
  This option is default and will save tags in the ID3 v2.4 format.

• The Padding value controls how much extra space Helium Music Manager will write at the end of the ID3 v2.x tag. By adding a little padding (empty space) Helium Music Manager can add new information to the tags without slowing down the tagging process. If no padding is used Helium Music Manager will need to rewrite the entire file each time a tag is changed, which results in slower file writings. The padding has a default value of 2048 which should only be modified if necessary.

• Save iTunes specific tags
  This option will save additional iTunes compatible tags. When this option is enabled the following things will be applied to existing tags:

  • When saving the Release Type field to Compilation, Sampler or Soundtrack the non-standard Part of a compilation (TCMP in ID3v2) tag specifically used by iTunes will be set to 1.

  • The Band/Orchestra field will be disabled in the tag editors.

  • The Album Artist field in the tag editors will save to the Band/Orchestra (TPE2 in ID3v2) tag field.

• Save play counter to tags
  This option will update the play counter (PCNT ID3v2 tag frame) in your files when they are being played. This is good to use if you are using other programs that supports this information.

• Save in Unicode
  This option enables you to save ID3v2 tags in Unicode format. This is usefull if your tags contains contents with foreign characters.

• Save BPM in PCDJ compatible mode
  This option will save the BPM field in a format that the PCDJ software can read correctly.

• Save rating to MusicMatch Jukebox
  This option will save all rating values set by you in both the tag format that Helium Music Manager uses as well as in MusicMatch Jukebox's tag format.
  
  Note:
  MusicMatch Jukebox does not support half ratings. A half rating in Helium Music Manager will be rounded up to the nearest star in MusicMatch Jukebox.
• Pad track/cd with a leading zero
  When enabled, track and cd values less than ten will be written with a leading zero (e.g. 2 becomes 02).

Custom Fields

This page enables you to set names for the five custom tag fields you can use in Helium Music Manager.

These custom fields are used on both tags and in the Database and you can use them for any content you like.

You can map a custom field to a specific tag field/frame by entering the name of the field in the Map to tag frame text box.
When a field is mapped, contents from this field will be mapped to the custom field when reading tags.
This can be usefull to increase compatibility with tag fields not supported by Helium Music Manager.

Word/Text Replacer

This list includes two texts; an Original and a Replacement and a setting to define whether to treat this text replacement as a Word.

1. Click the Add button to add a new text replacement.

2. Type the original word in the Original word box. Case will be ignored when doing the comparison.

3. Type the word that should replace the original word in the Replace with box.

4. Optionally select the Treat as Word box to treat the text replacement as a Word. This option should be enabled in most cases. When this option is not enabled, the text in the Original word box will be replaced in all texts, disregarding whether the text is in the middle of a word.
   
   Example:
   If you have the word dont in the Original word box and don't in the Replace with box, the word Mastodont would be replaced with Mastodon't if the Treat as Word option was disabled.

5. Click OK.

Note:
You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or the Remove buttons.

Define the characters that should be used to delimit words, from the text box at the bottom.

Capitalizer

This page contains settings that control how text strings should be capitalized or case converted.

1. Sentence capitalization
   This option will convert the first character in each sentence to upper case and the rest of the characters to lower case.

2. Word Capitalization
   This option will convert the first character in each word to upper case and the rest of the characters in each word to lower case.

3. UPPERCASE conversion
   This option will convert all text to uppercase.

4. Lowercase conversion
   This option will convert all texts to lowercase.

5. No capitalization
   This option will leave all text as it is.

6. Custom capitalization
   This option will capitalize the character following the ones listed below. Type the characters after one another in the list. The default custom capitalization list is: -) ./:(

7. Custom capitalization list
   This list is used to define words that should always have a custom capitalization. Just enter the words that you want to custom capitalize, separating each word onto a separate line. To remove a word, just delete the line containing the word.

Note:
An example:

You have a title that looks like this:
last night a dj saved my life (from a broken heart)

By using custom capitalization a space (" ") and a parenthesis ("(") is included in the default list.
The above title would then be converted to:
Last Night A DJ Saved My Life (From A Broken Heart)

The space (" ") and the parenthesis ("(") tells the capitalize function to always capitalize the first character following the characters in the list. Also note that the DJ text is converted to upper case since it's included in the default custom capitalization list.

Multiple Artist Commands

Multiple Artist Commands are used in the Tag Editors during extraction of multiple artists. Extraction can either occur by manually invoking the operation from the Multiple Artist Editor (by clicking Extract) or if you have the setting Auto-extract Multiple Artists active in any of the Tag Editors.

The topmost list contains entries used to identify commands that will split a text into multiple artists. The value in the Original column will be used to identify the command. This can optionally be replaced during the split to maintain consistency, with the value in the Replacement column.

1. Click the Add button to add a new command.

2. Type the original word in the Original box.

3. Type the command that should replace the original command in the Replace box.

4. Click OK.

Note:

• You can edit or delete word replacements by selecting an item in the list and clicking on the Edit or the Remove buttons.

The input field at the bottom defines a list of word combinations that should not be split automatically. Enter any combination of words, separate entries on new lines.

Pictures Options

These options control how Helium Music Manager manages Album and Artist pictures.

General

• Checkmark Use specified application for picture editing to control which application should be used when you choose to edit an attached picture from the Tag Editors.
  By default the application associated with the file extension will be used.

• The Album Picture Exclude List contains strings that are used by the Add Files tool (when the Search for album pictures in folders setting is used) and from the Album Picture Manager when searching for album pictures.
  
  If an album picture's filename contains any of the texts in this list, the album picture will be excluded. This feature is useful if you have both back covers, CD covers and inlays of CD's. Use the Album Picture Exclude List to speed up the process and improve the accuracy of finding and attaching album pictures to your albums.

Album Pictures

General

• Rename copied pictures to "Folder"
  This setting will rename pictures managed via Helium Music Manager to "Folder.extension".
• Rename copied pictures to "Artist - Album"
  This setting will rename pictures managed via Helium Music Manager to "Artist - Album.extension".
• Overwrite existing files
  This setting will control if existing files with the same name should be overwritten of if a "Copy of" file should be created.

Downloaded pictures

• Download pictures to album folder will save album pictures downloaded by plug-ins to the folder where the album tracks are.
• Download to specific folder will download album pictures to the destination folder selected.
  Change the destination folder by clicking the Browse... button.

Pictures found on tags

• Do not extract pictures
  This setting will leave picture found in tags as-is. No automatic extraction will be perfomed.
  Note: This will degrade the display quality of pictures in Cover Flow).
• Extract pictures to album folder
  This setting will automatically extract pictures found in tags to the album folder.
• Extract pictures to this folder
  This setting will automatically extract pictures found in tags to the selected folder. Change the folder by clicking the Browse... button.

Manual add/updating pictures

• Leave the original picture as is
  When selected, the original picture selected will remain with it's name in its original folder.
• Take a copy of the original picture
  When selected, the original picture will be copied to the folder defined in section Downloaded Pictures and renamed using the rename rule in section General.
• Move the original picture
  When selected, the original picture will be moved to the folder defined in section Downloaded Pictures and renamed using the rename rule in section General.

Artist Pictures

Downloaded pictures

• Don't place artist pictures on disk
  When selected, downloaded artists pictures will only be added to your database and not stored on your disc

• Place pictures in this folder
  Downloaded artist pictures will be placed in the defined folder. Change the folder by clicking the Browse... button.
  Note: This option also applies when drag 'n' drop is done on pictures as well as manual add/updating of pictures.
• Overwrite existing files
  This setting controls whether existing files with the same name should be overwritten or if a "Copy of" file should be created.

Advanced Options

These options are for setting more advanced functions within Helium Music Manager.

General

• Turn on extended logging will activate detailed logging (requires a restart). When active, Helium Music Manager may run slightly slower because many tasks are logged in detail. This mode is not recommended to use unless our support has requested you to use it to trace a certain task.

• Deactivate device checking upon start-up avoids checking for iPod and MTP devices during startup. This may speed up loading times, but if you plan to use an iPod or MTP device with Helium Music Manager, you should not select this option.

• The Restore Warnings button will restore all "Do not show again" warning messages to their default state.

• Clear temporary files on exit will clear files used by Helium Music Manager when exiting the program. Temporary files are created by the Tag Editor when editing files and the Music Browser when browsing your music.

• Partial refreshes after tagging will generate less refreshes to the different views after a tagging operation is completed. Please note that using this option may requires views to be manually refreshed by uising the Refresh option from the View menu or pressing the F5 key
• Thumbnail quality controls the quality that thumbnails (artist and album pictures) will be stored within Helium Music Mananagers database. 100 is the best and is strongly recommended.
• Number of album images
  This option defines how many album images Helium Music Manager should hold in memory at any one time. The higher the value, the smoother the browsing experience, but a larger amount of system memory will be used.

• Number of artist images
  This option defines how many artist images Helium Music Manager should hold in memory at any one time. The higher the value, the smoother the browsing experience, but a larger amount of system memory will be used.

• Number of images
  This option defines how many album images Helium Music Manager should hold in memory at one time for the coverflow view. The higher the value, the smoother the browsing experience, but a larger amount of system memory will be used.

Library

• Compress database on exit will compress the database by removing unused space when exiting the application. (Note: This applies only to Access Databases)

• Housekeep database on startup will clean redundant information from the Helium Music Manager database on startup. This setting can slow down the startup process a little bit when there is information to clean but this option is recommended to be enabled.

• Browse in online mode (Checking for existing files) will check if every file exists when the tracklists are read from the Library. If a file is not available it will be marked as "offline".

• Browse in online mode (Without checking for existing files) can be used as a hybrid mode between online browsing (Checking for existing files) and Offline mode. This mode will treat all files as online, but will not check if they exist or not when tracklists are read. This mode is faster than Browse in online mode (Checking for existing files).

• Browse in offline mode can be used for faster database browsing. Helium Music Manager will not look for files when browsing so all tracks will become "offline" and shown in italic style.

• Use the Tag Editors contents Tables  drop down list to be able to edit the lists in the field boxes within the Tag Editors. Select the table you want to modify from the drop down list (e.g. Composers) and then manually edit the list to add, edit or remove entries - one per line. Click the Apply button to apply changes made to the table.

• Click the Synchronize button to synchronize the contents that are used in the tag editors dropdown lists with data from your active Library.

Paths & External Applications

User Data Folder

The User Data Folder is used to set a certain folder where you easily can copy files to. The User Folder is available in the Send To menu from both the main menu and in the context menus that you reach by right clicking on files.

External Applications

You can add shortcuts to any external applications that you would like to start from Helium Music Manager. External applications can be started with the selected music files as a parameter, so you can start virtually any application that will take music files as parameters. External applications are available from the Advanced > External Applications menu. You can also configure external applications to be run when you double click on items in the track list.

How to add an external application:

1. Click the Add button.

2. Type a description for the application in the Description edit box.

3. Click the Browse... button to browse for the application to be used as the Target.

4. Click Open once you have selected the application.

5. Add any optional parameters in the Parameters edit box.
   
   There are some parameter variables that can be used to launch an External Application with. These are described below:

   • %directory%
     This variable will be replaced with the entire path of the first selected file.
     
     Example:
     D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\

   • %filename%
     This variable will be replaced with the filename of the first selected file.
     
     Example:
     02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3

   • %files%
     This variable will be replaced with a list of all selected files, including the paths. Each file is surrounded by quotes (") and separated by a space character.
     
     Example:
     "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3" "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\03 - Vogue.mp3"

   • %wafiles%
     This variable will make the application selected in the Target box to be run once for each selected file and replace the %wafiles% variable string of each filename, including paths. This can be good to use for applications that do not take multiple files as parameters (which means that the %files% variable cannot be used).
     
     Example (if two files are selected and Winamp is the Target):
     winamp.exe "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\02 - Papa Don't preach.mp3"
     winamp.exe "D:\My Music\Madonna\Immaculate Collection\03 - Vogue.mp3"

   • %wait%
     This parameter will make Helium Music Manager wait until the application selected in the Target box terminates.

   • %refresh%
     This parameter will make Helium Music Manager update (synchronize) the database data for the selected files after the application selected in the Target box terminates. This parameter automatically includes the %wait% parameter.

   Note:
   When using the %directory%, %filename% or %wafiles% parameters, you may want to quote the parameters to make them work in your external application. Just type "%wafiles%" (including the quotes), for example in the Parameter box.  

6. Click OK.

Optionally click the Templates button to add one of the predefined templates for external applications.

Note: Parameters are optional and are not needed to normally start applications.

How to edit an external application:

1. Select the application to edit from the list.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Follow steps 2 to 6 from How to add an external application above.

How to remove an external application.

1. Select the application to be removed from the list.
2. Click the Remove button.

Setting the default application
Select any external application from the list and click the Set As Default button to make the selected external application default. The default external application can be used as the default action when double clicking files in the track list.

Proxy

The Proxy settings are used by the plug-ins in Helium Music Manager when you are behind a proxy server.

• Fill in the Address, Port, Username and Password fields, if necessary.
  Please contact your computer administrator to receive proxy settings if you are behind a proxy server.

Note: By default these edit boxes should be empty and the Port should be set to 0 (zero).