Copyright © Wen Zheng 1999. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Since this is a free ware, I accept absolutely No Responsibilities whatsoever of what this program may or may not do to your computer and your data. So please read the following instructions carefully. You are welcome and free to distribute it in it's unmodified form. Suggestions and criticisms are welcome.
1. What is File List Creator?
2. System requirements and Installation
3. Quick Start Guide
4. The Main Window
The
File Explorer Tab
The
Playlist Editor Tab
The
Data Field Editor Tab
The
File Menu
The
Edit Menu
The
View Menu
The
Tools Menu
The
Settings menu
The Help Menu
6. The MP3 Utilities Window
7. The MP3 Utilities Window Menu
8. Tips and Examples
Playlist
Editor
Data
Field Editor
ID3
Tag Edit
Rename
File List Creator is a little utility that can help you keep track of your files. Although it can create catalogs for different file types, it's designed for MP3 collectors. It's actually 5 programs in one. It's a list maker, a data base, a mass Mp3 ID3 Tag editor, a MP3 playlist maker and a mass MP3 file renamer. You can create list of your files and output them as text or html, search and find duplicates. If you collect MP3s and keep them on CDs, this is the right tool for you.
It has been tested on Win95/Win98/Win NT 4.0, if you downloaded the
"EXE" only file, please make sure you have all the VB runtime files.
To install File List Creator, unzip "FLC.zip" into a temp directory,
then run setup.exe. That's it. To uninstall File List Creator, go to Windows'
Control Panel, open Add/Remove Programs, select File List Creator, click
Add/Remove button then follow instructions.
IMPORTANT:
If you have older version of File List Creator on your computer and
you are installing it in the same directory, please DELETE the old data
folder first.
Step 1. Create a data file
From menu, choose Settings => Options, under "Scan Options", select or type in the file type you want to create the data base for. If the file type is "mp3", check the "Include bitrate when scan mp3s" box if you want to include bitrate and id3 tag information to your data file.
Click on the "Add" button to add drives or folders you want to scan, choose File => Scan. When done, choose File => Save to save the data file to whatever name you like. The data file extension of File List Creator is "mpd".
Step 2. Create File List
Open a data file or do a new scan. From menu, choose Settings => Options. Under "List Format", check what you want to include in your list and what output file format. The default list file type is "txt". Under "List Style", choose the style you like and set column width if the list is in "txt" format. Click on Save or OK to exit the options window. (Save button saves your settings to a file, OK will keep the setting for this section.) From menu, choose Create List, enter file name and location, click Save to save the file.
Step 3. Add a Disk To Your Data File
Open a data file, then from menu choose Tools => Add a Disk To Data File. In Browse for Folder window select the drive where the disk is located at, enter a disk label for the disk (Default label is the disk's volume label.), hit OK. The added disk will show up under the drive letter where you scan the disk in the directory tree. Each disk will be identified by it's label.
Step 4. Browse you data file
The File List Creator directory tree is just like your Windows Explorer except it does not show empty folders. Double click to expand a folder, click on a folder to view its content. Files will be displayed in the listview. To launch a file, simply double click on the file name, file will be opened with it's associated program.
The File List Creator Main Window is very similar to windows explorer except it only show folders containing files. The directory tree shows drives and folders, the listview box shows files. If the data file is for MP3s, then Playlist Editor Tab and the Data Field Editor tab will show up.
"Add" button ------------ Add drive or folder
to folder list box.
"Delete" button --------- Delete selected
folder or drive in folder list box.
"Clear" button ----------- Remove all items
in folder list box.
"Find in All" button ----- Find files in
entire data file.
"Find in Drive" button -- Find files in specified
drive.
"Save Playlist" button ----- Save the playlist
to specified name.
"Delete Selected" button - Delete selected
item from the list.
"Clear All" button --------- Remove all files
from the list.
"Play All' button ----------- Play all files.
(Assumed Winamp is your default player)
"Open a Playlist" button -- Open a playlist
file.
"Use File Name" button -- Parse file name
into Artist, Title, Album and place them in corresponding columns.
"Enter" button ------------ Enter the text
into corresponding columns.
"Artist <=> Title" button -- Swap Artist
and Title.
"Title <=> Album" button -- Swap Title
and Album.
"Update" button ---------- Update data file's
Artist, Title and Album fields.
"New" --------------------------------- Clear
the opened file.
"Open" -------------------------------- Open
a data file.
"Save" ---------------------------------
Save the data file.
"Save a Copy As" --------------------- Save
the data file to a different name as copy.
"Scan" ----------------------------------
Scan the specified drives or folders for files.
"Create List" --------------------------
Create a list for all files in the data file to specified format.
"Create List From Search Results" -- Create
a list for all files from result of a search to specified format.
"MP3 Utilities" -------------------------
Open the MP3 Utilities window.
"Open/Close CD Tray" --------------- Open
or Close CD ROM door.
"Exit" -----------------------------------
Exit File List Creator.
"Header Text" --- Open Header.txt with your
default text editor.
"Footer Text" ---- Open Footer.txt with your
default text editor.
"Disk Label" ----- Edit selected disk's label
"Show All Files In Selected" ---- Show all
files in a drive or folder (Including sub directories)
"Show Duplicates" -------------- Show
duplicate files in data file.
"Data File Info" ------------------ Show
data file properties (File size, number of files indexed, etc.)
"Properties" ---------------------- Show
selected file's properties.
"Send to MP3 Utilities" ------------ Open
MP3 Utilities window and copy selected file(s) to MP3 Utilities.
"Send to Playlist Editor" ----------- Send
selected file(s) to Playlist Editor and switch to Playlist Editor Tab.
"Send to Data Field Editor" -------- Send
selected file(s) to Data Field Editor and switch to Data Field Editor Tab.
"Copy File Name to Clipboard" ---- Copy selected
file name text to Clipboard.
"Delete File" ------------------------ Delete
selected file(s) from hard disk and it's record in data file.
"Rename File" ---------------------- Rename
selected file on disk and update it's record in data file.
"Correct File Name" ---------------
Change a file name in data file to a different name.
"Update" ---------------------------- Scan
all hard drives for files and update data file. (Record of files on removable
disks will not change.)
"Add a Disk To Data File" --------- Add a
removable disk to data file.
"Delete Drive or Folder" ----------- Delete
selected folder and it's contents from data file.
"Options" ------------- Open the Options Window.
"Show Grid Lines" --- Toggle grid lines on
and off.
"File List Creator Help" ------ Launch help
file.
"Check for Updates" --------- Go to File
List Creator Home page.
"About File List Creator" ---- Open the About
window.
The MP3 Utilities is designed for you to view mpeg file information, edit ID3 tags and rename mp3 files. The file list box displays original file names and new file names. The " Mpeg properties " frame shows you the mpeg file properties and allow you to edit ID3 tags. The control buttons are for renaming MP3s files.
There are two ways to get files into the MP3 Utilities. You can select files from the main widow or browse for files directly from the MP3 Utilities window. To get files from the main window, select files (for multiple files hold down the Ctrl or Shift key) from the file list box, from menu select Tools => Send to MP3 Utilities. The MP3 Utilities window will open and files will be listed in the "Original" column. To get files directly from MP3 Utilities window, go to File => Browse for folder. Browse to the folder where the files are located at, hit OK.
"Auto" button --------------- Automatically
change the file names to proper format.
"Ab => ab" button ---------- Change all characters
to lower case.
"ab => Ab" button ---------- Change the first
character of every word to upper case.
" ab " => "ab" button ----- Trim leading
and trailing spaces.
"Artist <=> Title" button -- Swap Artist
and Title. (Must be separated by " - ")
"Trim Numbers" button --- Trim all numbers.
"Insert Text" button ------- Insert text
to specified location.
"Trim method 1" button --- Trim all occurrences
of specified text and replace them with a single space.
"Trim method 2" button --- Trim all occurrences
of specified text.
"Replace" button ---------- Replace the text
in "Replace" box with the text in "With" box.
File
"Browse for folder" --- Get files for specified
folder.
"Exit Utilities" -------- Close the MP3 Utilities
Window.
Tag
"Erase Tag" ---------------------- Erase tags
in selected or all files.
"Write Tag" ---------------------- Write
tag to selected or all files.
"Write Tag Using File Name" --- Write tag
to selected or all files using their file names.
Rename
"Rename" --- Rename all files to new file
names.
"Undo" ------- Rename files from their new
names to their original names.
Tools
"Remove Selected Files" --- Remove selected
files from list.
"Clear All Files" ------------- Remove all
files.
"Oops" ----------------------- Go back one
step. (Applies only to rename controls)
"Start Over" ----------------- Clear the
"New" column and try again.
"Extract ID3 Tag" ----------- Use file's
ID3 tags as new file name.
"Manual" --------------------- Manually edit
file name.
Options
"Create Rename Log" ------ Create a log file.
"Include Comment Field" --- Include the Comment
field when use the Extract ID3 Tag option.
"Include Album Field" ------- Include the
Album field when use the Extract ID3 Tag option.
To use the ID3 tag Editor, you must set option first. Under "Options" select "Apply to selected file" or "Apply to All files". When "Apply to All files" is checked, changes will be applied to ALL files.
1. To show ID3 tag in file
Simply click on the file name or use the arrow key scroll up and down,
the tags will show up in the corresponding boxes.
2. To write tag to a file
Enter text in the boxes, then from menu choose Tag => Write Tag.
You can also use the file names to fill the fields automatically. To do
this, the file name has to be in the following formats:
Artist - Album - xx - Title
Artist - Album - Title
Artist - xx - Title
Artist - Title
"xx" is the track number, separator must be a space, a "-" and another
space. Track number will be put into the comment field. For example, if
the file name is:
"Gordon Lightfoot - Songbook Disc 2 - 02 - If You Could Read My Mind.mp3"
The tag will look like this after "Write Tag Using File Name" is applied:
Artist:
Gordon Lightfoot
Title:
If You Could Read My Mind
Album: Songbook
Disc 2
Comment: 02
3. If you copied the files from the main window (from the data file), The data file will be updated automatically. You do need to refresh to see the changes in main window (Click on the folder in directory tree).
4. Use the check boxes to to preserve the field you want to keep. For example, if the Album field is checked, the album information in original file will not be changed.
Note: DO NOT use the check boxes if the original file does not have tag in it. Because that part of the file does not mean anything until you put "TAG" at the right place. If you write "TAG" to the file and do not fill those empty fields with null characters, all garbage will show up.
5. Please note if you rename the files first, the data file will not be updated.
A lot of programs have auto rename feature, you set the rules and hope they will come out right. But sometimes they don't. That's why I turn mostly used functions into buttons so you can apply them when they are needed. The Auto feature in File List Creator will get rid of all the non letter characters except numbers, trim double spaces and Upper case the first character of every word. What about the rest? Well, you can click on the those buttons just like you set the rules in other programs. The good thing about the buttons is you can see the changes right before your eyes. Files will not be renamed until you click Rename.
Here is an Example:
From:"@longbook_disc_2_-;_^02^+_-_if_you_could_read_my_mind20%_-_#gordon_lightfoot$.mp3"
To: "Gordon Lightfoot - Songbook Disc 2 - 02 - If You Could
Read My Mind.mp3"
Step 1: Click " Auto" button => "Longbook Disc 2 - 02 - If You Could Read My Mind - Gordon Lightfoot"
Step 2: Click "Artist<-->Title" button => "Gordon Lightfoot - Longbook Disc 2 - 02 - If You Could Read My Mind"
Step 3: Type in "Lo" in the replace box, type in "So" in the with box,
Click "Replace" button => "Gordon Lightfoot - Songbook Disc 2 - 02 - If You Could Read My Mind"
It really depends on how you do it, and in what sequence. So you just have to experiment a little bit.
1. To copy files to Playlist Editor, select files you want to add to the playlist from the File Explorer tab. From menu, choose Tools => Send to Playlist Editor. All selected files will be copied into Playlist Editor, the tab will also be switched automatically. You can keep doing this, files will be added to the bottom of the list. This is great for either burning audio CDs or burning MP3s to CD, because it gives you total file size and playing time. You can delete files from the list and save the playlist as a "m3u" file. To play all files in the list, just click on the "Play All" button.
2. You can also open a playlist file to see what's in it. please note
that files must exist on hard disk otherwise there is no way to determine
playing time.
It will import playlists created by Winamp.
The Data Field Editor is designed for files that can not be changed. For example, you burned a bunch of CDs but forgot to write the tags. When you add the CDs to the data file, the Artist, Album and Title fields will come out empty. Another example is ID3 tag standard only allow 30 characters, anything longer than 30 characters gets cut off. With the Data Field Editor, you can edit your data to make them look nice.
Note: Do not use this for files on your hard drives, unless you don't update your hard drives. Because when updating hard drives, File List Creator will discard all old information of your hard drives.
1. To copy files to Data Field Editor, open a data file. Select files with data fields you want to edit, from menu choose Tools => Send to Data Field Editor.
2. The tools in File List Creator is designed for the following file
name formats:
Artist - Album - xx - Title
Artist - Album - Title
Artist - xx - Title
Artist - Title
As long as the file name is in one of the formats above, all tools
will work correctly without any problems.
3. If files have the right format, you can just click on the "Use File Name" button, all fields will be filled automatically. Click on the "Update" button, data file will be updated automatically.
4. Use the "Field Options" if you want to edit individual field. For example, if you just want to write in the Album field. Check "Apply to Album".
5. You can edit as many songs as you want at one time. But if you have a huge collection, it takes a while to update your data.
6. To see the changes, just refresh list in "File Explorer" by clicking the folder in directory tree.