KataLib

User Guide

Overview

KataLib is a Windows program that can play, convert and organize music (or video) files.

This is a Layout with all the application’s panels enabled.

FullViewWithCollections.png

The user interface consists of the Toolbar, the Transport, and three panels, the Playlist, the Library and the Properties.

The panels can be toggled on/off, by the Layout menu on the bottom right of the main window.

The size, position and configuration of the program’s window can be saved as a “Layout”, and can be easily re-applied from the User Layouts sub-menu of the Layout menu, or from the menu of the Preferences toolbar button.

There is also an alternative view of the app, the Compact View…
CompactViewTrans.png
…that consists of only a Main player window and the Playlist and Properties independent windows, that can be moved around or turned on/off, to conserve screen space.

While using KataLib, keep in mind that almost all the user interface controls, buttons, etc. have a Tooltip, that briefly explains what they do.
This Tooltip is shown when you hover your mouse over the corresponding control.

Generally, KataLib can be seen as three programs in one:
A Player, a Converter and a Librarian.

Portable mode

KataLib can also start in a Portable mode using a “-p” argument to the shortcut or by running the KataLib Portable.exe.
In the Portable mode the app reads its settings, db, etc. from a portable_settings directory inside its folder and not from the Windows current user’s settings.
Using the Portable mode while the app is installed inside the Program files directory is not advised, because Windows treat this folder in a special way.
Any other directory or removable drive is ok, as long as the user can write on it.

The ToolBar

The ToolBar is at the top of the main window. It contains buttons that can be used to perform various actions.
These buttons can change or be disabled, depending on the currently focused panel of the app.
Right-clicking on an empty space of the Toolbar, brings up this menu…

MenuToolbar.png
…that lets us change the ToolBar icons’ size and appearance.

The permanently visible buttons are:
  Toolbar1.png

  1. Convert
    Opens the Convert dialog to configure the way you want to convert the selected track(s).
  2. Files
    Shows a menu with the following file management options:
    • Copy the selected file(s) to a new location (uses a file selector).
    • Move the selected file(s) to a new location (uses a file selector).
    • Rename the selected file(s) using pattern.
    • Delete the selected file(s) from the disk. Use with caution!
  3. Metadata
    Depending on the number of the selected tracks, this opens the Edit Metadata (single selection) or the Multi Edit Metadata (multiple selected) dialog.
  4. Remove Tracks / Delete files / Delete Collections
    This button changes appearance and function, depending on the currently focused panel.
    If the Playlist has the focus, it removes any selected track(s) from the playlist.
    If the Library Collections panel is focused, the button removes the selected collection(s) from the Library database.
    If the Library Tracks panel is selected, it removes the selected file(s) from the Library and deletes them from the disk!
  5. Preferences
    Opens the Preferences dialog.
    Clicking the arrow next to the button, opens a drop-down menu with the saved Layouts, and options to manage them, like:
    • Add the current Layout as a new Layout
    • Update the currently selected layout
    • Delete the currently selected layout

    The menu also contain an option to switch to the Compact View.

  6. About
    Shows the About dialog, with info about the program and more…

If the Library panel is visible and focused, and the Library Collections are shown, the following buttons are visible:

  Toolbar3.png

  1. Delete Collections (Remove Tracks if the Playlist panel has focus)
    Removes the selected collections from the Library.
  2. Library Tracks
    Display the Library files instead of Library Collections.
  3. Filter
    Opens the Filter Library Collections dialog.

If the Library panel is visible and focused, and the Library Tracks are shown, the following buttons are also visible:

  Toolbar2.png

  1. Delete files
    Removes any selected files from the Library and deletes them from the disk!
  2. Library Collections
    Toggles showing the Library Collections instead of Library files.
  3. Filter
    Opens the Filter Library Tracks dialog.
  4. Library Folders
    Shows the Library Folders management window.
    There is a drop-down menu when we click the arrow next to the button.
    This Library Folders Menu has shortcuts to the Add Folder and ReScan Folders buttons (see Library Folders details).

Detailed info

Playlist

The Playlist panel is the main part of the Player.
We can drag audio files or playlists here or use the Find button to search YouTube or our Collections for tracks.
The loaded Tracks can be used for Playback, get Converted to various formats, saved as a playlist, etc.

PlayerView.png

The buttons that we find under the Playlist are:

DJ sub-panel

DJ.png
The DJ controls are:

Find

Pressing the Find button opens the Find Tracks dialog that lets us search for Tracks at the following places.

Transport

Transport.png

Mostly, self-explanatory playback controls:

Compact View

CompactViewDetails.png

This is a minimal view of the app, that consists of only a small, resizable Main window, that shows mostly the Cover Art of the currently playing (or selected) track and the Transport that controls the playback.
The transport is like the Full View’s Transport, only smaller.

Above the Transport, there is the title of the currently selected/playing Track and two extra buttons that open/close the Playlist and Properties windows.
Double-clicking this title text, will show the file in Explorer or the YouTube url in the system’s browser.
Double-clicking the Cover Art will open the Edit Metadata (or Multi) dialog if the Track(s) have metadata.
Right-clicking the Cover Art will create a context menu with additional options.

All the Compact View windows have a Close button (x) that closes them.
The Playlist and Properties windows have the same functionality as in the Full View, and also some more buttons.
The Lock button, locks the position of the window relative to the Main window, so when we move the Main window, the locked window moves with it in the same way.
Additionaly, the Playlist window have a DJ button to open the DJ panel of the Playlist, and the Properties window has an About button to open the About window.

Library Collections

When showing Library Collections, every row consists of the Collection’s name, number of tracks, custom tags, total duration etc.

CollectionTypes.png

There are three types of Collections

Favorite Collections can also get Starred and use this attribute for filtering or sorting.

We can create Collections from the Playlist’s right-click menu, we can add tracks to existing Collections, we can remove tracks from them, we can delete existing Collections, drop them to the Playlist for playback etc.

Library Tracks

When showing Library Tracks, every row consists of some basic info (like file size or file type), some info that is contained inside some music files (like Artist or Title) and finally some info that we provide ourselves and aids us into organize our collection (like tags or rating).
To get the music files into the library, we must provide the program with their location.
This is done by pressing the Library Folders toolbar button.
In the Library Folders dialog we can add/remove folders to/from the library.
Only folders can be added to the library, not individual files.
We can re-scan folders to update the library with the changes in their contents, and by checking or un-checking them, we can make them visible or not.
By selecting a file in the library we can see its properties in the Properties panel (if its visible).
By clicking again on any cell we can edit the contents of that cell. Editing a cell changes the contents of the library but also the metadata of the file itself.
The file’s metadata can be edited either directly by clicking the cells or by pressing the Metadata toolbar button.
This will open the Edit Metadata dialog.
If more than one file is selected when pressing the button, the Multi Edit Metadata will open and the changes there will affect all the selected files.
The selected files can get copied or moved anywhere and also can get converted to many other audio formats with the built-in Converter.
They can also be played back, but to have them advance automatically (like a list) the Player’s Playlist must be empty.

Convert dialog

A dialog to select the conversion settings.

 Convert.png

The usual workflow of a convertion, is to uncompress the files to .wav file format, and then re-encode them with the selected encoder.

Besides the main settings for the encoders, like the Compression Type and the Quality Control of the conversion, there are a few more settings:

The Reset All button restore the default settings of the dialog.
Convert starts the conversion process, while Close just closes the dialog (but keeps all the changes made).

Edit Metadata

  MetaEdit.png

This dialog lets us edit all the track’s metadata and also change its filename.

We can Copy and Paste metadata (including the Cover image).
When the Paste is pressed, a Paste Options dialog will open, letting we choose what fields from the copied metadata will be pasted.

There are some “convenience” buttons that require more explanations.

  1. This button just opens the Download Cover dialog and starts the search automatically (saving us from some extra clicks)
  2. This button guesses the missing fields by automatically searching for metadata using any already available tag (works only for Title, Artist, Album, Track number and Year).
  3. These buttons just close the current track’s metadata dialog and automatically open the next (or previous) one.

There is also the option to Search Metadata from the internet, as long as we provide at least a title for the track.

The Get Lyrics button searches the lyrics for the current track.
If some lyrics are found, they are added to the comments after any already existing text.

All the changes that are made in this dialog are not written to the file until either the OK or the Next/Prev arrow buttons are pressed.

Multi Edit Metadata

  MetaEditMulti.png

Opens the dialog to change the metadata from all the selected files at once.
Only the checked (enabled) entries will affect the files.
If there is no value in a checked (enabled) entry, the respective metadata will be erased.

Some convenience buttons are:

Of course, nothing is really written to the files until the OK button is pressed.

Filter

The Filter function help us narrow down what is displayed in the Library.
Depending on the display mode of the Library (Collections or Tracks), this button opens up different dialogs.

Filter Library Collections

 FilterCollections.png
With this dialog we can filter the Collections using their tags.
We can select multiple tags and we have the options to:

The “star” button lets us filter using only the Favorites Collections, while the “x” button clears all the selected tags.
There is also a number next to every tag name, that depicts the number of Collections that use this tag.

Filter Library Tracks

 FilterTracks2.png      FilterTracks.png
With this dialog we can filter the Tracks using their path, their metadata, such as Artist, Album, Title, Genre, Tags, Rating, or All the above.
Pressing the Filter button updates the view and pressing the Clear button resets it.
If the checkbox on the Filter button is checked, the view is updated as we type, but that can be laggy if the Library shows many files.
We can also use boolean operators (OR, AND, NOT in full capitals) with our keywords.
E.G. Pink Floyd AND Animals
will show us all the Pink Floyd tracks from their “Animals” album.

Library Folders window

FolderManager.png

Manage the Library Folders that contain all the Library Tracks.
Here we can:

The checkmark in front of a folder also determines if the contents of that folder will be visible to the library.
We can also drop folders here from the file explorer to be added to the library.

Preferences

There are five pages in the Preferences dialog:

General

Prefs1.png

View

Prefs2.png

Theme
Select between Light, Dark and Custom themes.
The custom theme accepts a .qss (a Qt flavored .css) file.
These files can also be fast previewed, by drag and drop to the main window (when the Preferences dialog is closed).

Playlist view
Changes how the tracks at the playlist are displayed.

We can also hide the Playlist Number and/or the Playlist Icon.

Change Playlist font
Change the font and the row height of the Playlist entries.

Change Library font
Change the font and the row height of the Library entries.

Compact Title font size
Change the font size of the track Title that is displayed of the Compact View layout.

DropZone
Enable the use of the DropZone and customize its appearance.

Toolbar buttons and Show text labels
Here we can customize the way the Toolbar buttons look.
We can select the size of the Toolbar icons and even if their icon or text is visible.

Window Layouts
We can save here the window configurations (size, position, open panels, fonts etc.).

Subtitles
We can change the font and position of the subtitle text (for video files that have subtitles).

YouTube Settings

Prefs3.png

Paths

Prefs4.png

Here we select the paths to the executables that the app uses to

Advanced

Prefs5.png

No relative paths in Playlists
The Playlists can have both absolute and relative paths.
The relative paths work only if the position of the playlist remain in the same relation with the position of the files, as it was originally saved.
So if both are moved and keep their position relation the playlist will work.
To move only the playlist and not the files, all the paths must be absolute.

Fast loading for Playlist tracks if more than
Fast load tracks using the basic properties and get the rest of the info when possible.

Prompt to send log after crash
If the program crashes, it will ask if we want to send the crash log to the developer for debugging.

Use natural sorting for Library paths
Normal (alphabetical) sorting gets “Track 11” before “Track 2” but is ~15% faster.
Natural sorting, sorts numbers in paths as expected (e.g. X1, X2, X11).

Use global hotkeys
Control the playback even when KataLib’s window is in the background.
Pressing the Change button opens a dialog that let us select which keyboard combination will do what action.
For the default settings check the Shortcuts section at the end.

DataBase

Multi-Processing

About

Info about the program in four pages:

About.png

Rename

Rename.png

This dialog lets us rename the selected file(s) using a pattern with variables.
The variables are:

{0} = ARTIST
{1} = TITLE (or FILENAME if no TITLE)
{2} = ALBUM
{3} = TRACK NUMBER
{4} = FILENAME
{5} = PLAYLIST ROW
{6} = GENRE
{7} = YEAR

It can also create directories by using the \ character.

Example: {7} {2}\{0} - {1}

Produces: 1998 NYC Live\Portishead - Sour Times

Context Menus

Playlist Track

The right-click menu of Playlist Track(s) have different options, depending on the type of selection.
Some of these options might not be available for some type of Tracks.

MenuFileTrack.png MenuFileTracks.png
One file Track selected Multiple file Tracks selected
MenuLinkTrack.png MenuLinkTracks.png
One YouTube link Track selected Multiple YouTube link Tracks selected

Library Track

MenuLibTrack.png
Library Track(s) selected

Library Collection

MenuLinkTrack.png MenuLinkTracks.png
One Library Collection selected Multiple Library Collections selected

Playlist menu

Playlist menu Sort list menu List View menu
MenuPlaylist.png MenuPlaylistSort.png MenuPlaylistView.png

Cover menu

These options are enabled/disabled depending on the type of the selection.

  MenuCover.png

Compact View menu

Right-clicking on the Compact View’s Cover Art will produce this menu

MenuCompact.png MenuCompactView.png
Compact View Main menu View menu

Shortcuts

General  
Toggle Compact View Ctrl+D
Convert Alt+C
Files (Copy) Alt+V
Edit Metadata Ctrl+E
Remove/Delete Del
Delete from disk Shift+Del
Filter Library/Collections Alt+F
Library Folders Ctrl+M
Preferences Ctrl+P
About/Info Ctrl+I
Exit KataLib Ctrl+Q
Compact Mode specific  
Toggle Playlist Panel Alt+L
Toggle Properties Panel Alt+P
Toggle Always on Top Ctrl+O
Player  
Play/Pause SpaceBar
Stop Ctrl+SpaceBar
Stop w/Fade out Ctrl+Alt+SpaceBar
Stop when track ends Shift+SpaceBar
Seek (PositionBar) Left/Right ↔
Play Next Ctrl+Right →
Play Previous Ctrl+Left ←
Play Next w/Crossfade Alt+Right →
Volume Up/Down ↑↓
Mute Alt+M
Tap Tempo Alt+T
Select Next Ctrl+Down ↓
Select Previous Ctrl+Up ↑
PlayList  
Load PlayList Ctrl+L
Save PlayList Ctrl+S
Clear PlayList Ctrl+Del
Reload PlayList F5
Add PlayList as Collection Ctrl+Alt+S
Find Track Ctrl+F
Add Tracks (local files) Alt+A
Remove Tracks Del
Delete Tracks Shift+Del
Repeat All Alt+R
Shuffle Alt+S
DJ show/hide Alt+D

 
Hotkeys (Global Shortcuts)

These are disabled by default.
To enable them go to Preferences > Advanced > Use global hotkeys
These default assignments can be changed by the user.
 

Global Shortcuts Hotkeys
Play/Pause Win+Ctrl+Z
Stop Win+Ctrl+C
Previous Win+Ctrl+A
Next Win+Ctrl+X
Seek Right Win+Ctrl+]
Seek Left Win+Ctrl+[
Start crossfade Win+Ctrl+W
Show/Hide Win+Ctrl+S
Increase Volume Win+.
Decrease Volume Win+,