AlbumTracker is a special-purpose database program designed to store and manipulate collections of recorded music.
The author, Michael Sackett, can be reached for questions, suggestions, and bug reports on:
BIX: MSackett
CompuServe: 76414,160
Delphi: MSackett
GEnie: M.Sackett
If you like and use AlbumTracker, please send what you feel it's worth to:
Michael Sackett
1883 Lakeville Road
New Hyde Park, NY 11040
The Apple (Desk) menu contains:
About AlbumTracker...
Help facility
Desk Accessories
Brings up a window with a description of AlbumTracker and other information. For more information, use this Help facility
Brings up this Help facility
AlbumTracker supports desk accessories in the standard way.
Commands related to storing, retrieving, and printing AlbumTracker collections and editing icons.
New
Creates a new AlbumTracker collection
The contents of the new collection will not be saved until either the Save, Save As, or Close commands are issued.
New Icon
Adds a new icon to the collection
The new icon will only be usable after the icon editing window is closed.
Open
Open a previously saved AlbumTracker collection
The name of the View window will change to that of the collection being opened. AlbumTracker can only open files it creates.
Version 1.X files will be converted to version 2.0 when opened.
Save
Saves the open AlbumTracker collection
If the collection hasn't been saved before, the name of the View window will change to the name of the collection.
Save As...
Saves the open collection under a specific name
The name of the View window will change to the name entered in the dialog box.
Close
Closes the open AlbumTracker collection
Close saves any changes to disk. If the collection hasn't been saved before, it will prompt for a filename and disk.
Revert
Reverts to the last saved version of the collection
Revert Icon
Reverts to the last saved version of the icon being edited.
Page Setup...
The standard Macintosh dialog for controlling print format.
Print...
The standard Macintosh printing dialog.
Edit Icons...
Brings up a window in which you can edit the displayed icons
Import Icons...
Lets you extract ICON and ICN# resources from other files which have them for use in your collection
Transfer...
Transfers to another application without first going to the Finder.
Quit
Exits AlbumTracker and returns to the Finder
Asks you if you want to save any changes that have been made to the open collection
Commands related to modifying the contents of an AlbumTracker collection
Undo
AlbumTracker does not support the Undo command.
Undo is provided for desk accessories that may make use of it.
Cut
When editing an album:
Cuts selected text to the clipboard
When editing an icon:
Cuts the image of the icon to AlbumTracker's clipboard
Copy
When editing an album:
Copies selected text to the clipboard
When editing an icon:
Copies the image of the icon to AlbumTracker's clipboard
Paste
When editing an album:
Pastes text from the clipboard to the insertion point
When editing an icon:
Pastes the image of the icon from AlbumTracker's clipboard
Clear
When editing an album:
Clears (deletes) selected text
When editing an icon:
Blanks out the image of the icon being edited
Add Album
Adds a blank album to the collection
If an album was already being edited, Add Album closes that album and opens a new, blank one.
Delete Album
Deletes the frontmost album from the collection
The display will be reshuffled and the albums laid out in order.
Copy Album
Makes a copy of the frontmost album
Edit Album
Opens the frontmost album for editing
If the edit window was behind another window, Edit Album will bring it to the front.
Uppercase
Makes the contents of the currently selected data field all uppercase
Lowercase
Makes the contents of the currently selected album field all lowercase
Title
Makes the first letter of each word in the currently selected album field uppercase, and the remaining letters lowercase
This is especially helpful when editing name fields, such as Composer.
Show As Sorted
Shows the value of the album data field as it is arranged when AlbumTracker sorts the collection
Only name fields are rearranged for sorting.
Add Icon
Adds a new icon to the collection
Prompts for the name of the new icon
Delete Icon
Deletes the currently selected icon from the collection
Rename Icon
Lets you rename the currently selected icon
AlbumTracker can display and print simple graphs of a collection.
To save a MacPaint image of a graph, press Shift-Command-3 when the graph is visible.
To print a graph, press Shift-Command-4 when the graph is visible.
Distribution
Displays a frequency distribution histogram of the collection broken out into different categories by the current sort field
The count and percentage total for each category is included.
Purchase Cost
Displays a histogram reflecting the amount of money spent to purchase albums in categories determined by the current sort field
The total dollar amount and percentage total for each category is included.
Current Value
Displays a histogram reflecting value of albums in categories determined by the current sort field
The total dollar amount and percentage total for each category is included.
Year of Release
Plots a pie chart showing the time periods when albums in the collection were released
Year of Composition
Plots a pie chart showing the time periods when the music on albums in the collection was composed
Edit Window
Makes it possible to modify the contents of an album. Use the mouse, scroll bar, tab key, and Return key to select different data fields.
Pressing Enter or clicking in the close box causes the contents of the album to be saved.
View Window
Changing the selected data field causes resorting of the collection by that data field.
Entering a search string and pressing Enter or Return causes filtering of the collection by that string.
Icons
Icons will be displayed for any data field whose value equals the name of an icon in AlbumTracker's resource file.
Some icons for common data field values (e.g. "classical") are already entered. Edit these with the Edit Icons... command.
Importing Icons
You can use Import Icons.. to copy ICON and ICN# resources from resource files that have them. These icons will be added to the collection you're editing.