Removing previously typed artist filter charcters

[CouchPotatoe]

Using latest 4alpha40exp5 and from the 'Album' button off the HomePage I then see all my albums . I click on ABC and a keyboard appears that narrows the displayed albums as I type (by artist) .

Q..Having already entered some charcacters how do I remove them again ? - eg "NIRV" to see Nirvana - now I want to just jump to the "B"'s . I thought you hit 'cancel' and then the 'stop' type button on the left side (which returns the display to the beginning but as soon as you press 'ABC' again your previous charcters are still remembered so your stuck. There are no delete or backspace buttons and I dont think you can even see what your have entered so far either ....Has this just changed perhaps ??

Chris

PS two silly questions - what does the cencentric circle button do (left of this same line) - it seems to always play your very first album which seems not too useful. And what does the 'pushpin' icon do ? - bottom right of the main icon group.
I do feel the icons 'move around' and change appearance quite a bit providing a non intuitive user interface - eg the 'home' icon is also a 'menu' button and is always somewhere different on each screen. From the 'note icon' screen which just shows the album cover for NOW and NEXT for example it is a < arrow - but that doesnt work you have to use esc.

[Colby]

I hope I understand what you mean. In 40exp5: click the filter button (the grid inside a circle looking button next to the abc button)

Q..Having already entered some charcacters how do I remove them again

There are no delete or backspace buttons and I dont think you can even see what your have entered so far either

if you click del it removes the last character typed. (essentially a backspace.) If you want to do a new search and clear all click reset

what does the cencentric circle button do (left of this same line)

This is the playall button it adds your whole collection to the playlist and begins playing them.

what does the 'pushpin' icon do ?

this is the snaptrack button.

I do feel the icons 'move around' and change appearance quite a bit providing a non intuitive user interface

(no offense but,) if you dont like it change it. heres a quote from xlobby's home page.

Everyone wants to customize their interface to best suit their needs, and xlobby allows for this with an easy to use drag and drop skin editor. Not only will you be able to customize your skin, but you can also download and install other skins to find something that best suits your taste and needs.

hope this helps

[CouchPotatoe]

I don't think I made a very good job of describing the problem -

There is a button marked 'ABC' and when you press this (not the filter button) you can enter characters that succesively filter the albums that are displayed as cover art. eg NIR to get to Nirvana. However there is not a 'DEL' or 'Backspace' or any other way of clearing the entered characters so each time you open the 'ABC' button the previously entered characters are retained. It is these that I want to 'clear'. If for example you mistakenly enter NIRVZ you can't clear the Z. The 'ABC' button allows you to browse by cover art. If alternately you use the filter as you suggest then your selection is from a list on the right hand pane which is not what I was trying to achieve.

As an example I have all my albums displayed and I hit the 'ABC' button and then mistakenly type NIRVX and my displayed covers now goes blank - as none match - I hit 'cancel' and the only way I get all my covers back is to hit the 'stop/cancel' button - the circle with the line through it. Now as soon as I press 'ABC' again the keyboard appears but the existing characters of NIRVX are still remembered. Actually all albums are still displayed but if I type say 'A' everything is removed as I have a filter now of NIRVXA.

You can see this by just typing say N and then closing the 'keyboard' and then pressing the 'stop' button to get all albums displayed again. When you press the 'ABC' button & reopen the keyboard although all albums are currently displayed if you type 'I' then the view is reduced to things starting with 'NI'.

You mention that the pushpin is the 'snaptrack' button - I feel I've missed some instructions or documentation somewhere that would have made me aware of this - and what it does - have I ?? - I have read the brief install instructions but that's all I could find - is there another doc somewhere I can download that covers basic usage things like this ?

I'm about to get to grips with the skin editor - it seems very flexible. My comment on the initial skin was just that I felt it was a bit inconsistent and therefore confusing to a new user - such as myself and that detracted from the first experience of the program.

Chris

[Colby]

I guess I get what your saying, I made you a new overlay skin. this should resolve your isssue. Just download and unzip it and paste it over your existing alphabet XML in the folder Skins>Default
I hope this helps.

The skin editor is very easy to use I suggest reading ChadWolcott's Skin tutorial. http://home.comcast.net/~chad.wolcott/Skinning_xlobby.doc