Music library program

[Elbeen]

I'm going to shoot myself over Vista's version of Word 2007. That is an awful program.

Indeed. I hated it, had to switch back to 2003.

[rabbitSDMF]

http://foobar2000.org/

Lowest memory usage of anything, plays pretty much every format. EXTREMELY customizable. As such the preferred Windows audio player of many audiophiles.

(The screenshots on the site are very basic, you can choose colors and a font/font size for everything and add countless plugins.

Exactly, I've been using it for a year or two and I can definitely recommend it. When you run it you don't even know it's running as BigKaboom said:

Lowest memory usage of anything

[benji]

but the way the menus are arranged and structured is terrible.

More like awesome and easier to use.

Indeed. I hated it, had to switch back to 2003.

Lewelz. It's exactly the same except the menu bar is gone in exchange for a fleshed out ribbon, it's packing a ton less bloat and the new format for the files is vastly superior.

[Laxation]

http://foobar2000.org/

Lowest memory usage of anything, plays pretty much every format. EXTREMELY customizable. As such the preferred Windows audio player of many audiophiles.

(The screenshots on the site are very basic, you can choose colors and a font/font size for everything and add countless plugins.

Exactly, I've been using it for a year or two and I can definitely recommend it. When you run it you don't even know it's running as BigKaboom said:

Lowest memory usage of anything

Aight cheers Ill give that one a go

I'm using it now (having fun fiddling with the equalizer - there goes my day!)

Just wondering though, is there a way to put the search bar in the top menu area, without needing to go to library -> search?

[cyanide]

Lewelz. It's exactly the same except the menu bar is gone in exchange for a fleshed out ribbon, it's packing a ton less bloat and the new format for the files is vastly superior.

A ton less bloat? There's like four or five layers of long rows of densely packed nested buttons with various-sized icons accompanied with text with no clear structural hierarchy.

Also, their inability to implement custom "line spacing" baffles me.

[benji]

A ton less bloat? There's like four...

Code please.

[gz18]

can you put songs in Ipod with winamp?

[shadowgrin]

Word 2007. That is an awful program.

All I hear around my campus are complaints about it.

Indeed. I hated it, had to switch back to 2003.

Used to have the same sentiment, until I explored a little bit and found it easier to use.
It's a bit of a daunting task to use the program at first since it has minimal words and a lot of icons to exactly know the function you want, but once you familiarize yourself with it it's a breeze to use and customize.

Even though it's Help menu no longer has that kewl dog, it's pretty powerful. Even has videos to show you how what you want to do.

People are just afraid to click the Help button for fear it makes them look like an idiot.

Though this or something related to it baffles me as well:

Also, their inability to implement custom "line spacing".

Their afterpoint spacing is set to ten, which ideally should be set to zero. It's like that setting is the default, which makes it a pain in the arse when I have to print a document with another PC which has the "default" setting and screwing up the format that I want in the process.

[cyanide]

A ton less bloat? There's like four...

Code please.

Pffft. I have no idea what you just said. InDesign FTW! Hell, even Apple Pages gets the job done better. From a non-biased objective pov.

I put Word 2007 against industry standards

[benji]

Pffft. I have no idea what you just said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_(computer_programming)

From a non-biased objective pov.

[cyanide]

My bad.

Code: Select all

01000101001010101001010101001010101010010010101001001010101010
10011110100100100110101010100100010101001100100110100101101010
10101010101011001001010101001011010101010101001100110010100101
01010101010101010110010101010010101010011010101001010101010101
01001101010100100101000010010101010100110101110101100001111101


[benji]

Guess I'll address issues since people rambled beyond my point after not understanding it.

Their afterpoint spacing is set to ten, which ideally should be set to zero. It's like that setting is the default

Yes, it is easy enough to do the "remove space after paragraphs" (or to set that as default) but nobody seems aware of it. There's a reason they chose it as the new standard (same with the other changes, 1.15, calibri 11pt), I don't remember it exactly though. They did a lot of changes in hopes of not only eliminating some of the unsightly standards they originally defined with Word and other Office programs in the first place. Same thing they're trying to do with IE. But also some of them are supposed to lend themselves better to "HD displays" and stuff like that. I'm sure if you really cared to know why the various dev blogs would explain.

I know some are big problems in heavy mathematics fields, but in mine, formatting outside of citations is basically irrelevant.

Then again, I change the defaults in every program so much I just expect it by now. I can't think of the last program where I never changed any settings. Gmail Notifier probably.

Also, their inability to implement custom "line spacing".

Eh? What do you mean by "line spacing"? The space between lines of text? Because I seem to be able to make it anything I want. (Including my standard 8x multiple of 72pt.)

InDesign FTW!

I don't feel like dropping $700 on a desktop publisher when I just need a word processor and Excel, and 2007's reboot is so delicious.

Hell, if I didn't want Excel and the 2007 awesomeness, there's things like AbiWord and OpenOffice.org. (If only the latter wasn't so slow.)

I put Word 2007 against industry standards

What industry? The word processing software industry?

"Everything fails by irrelevant standards." - Thomas Sowell

From a non-biased objective pov.

[cyanide]

Eh? What do you mean by "line spacing"? The space between lines of text? Because I seem to be able to make it anything I want. (Including my standard 8x multiple of 72pt.)

Word's "line spacing" comes in multiples of 1, 1.15, 1.5, 2, and ridiculous sizes beyond that. I now see that after two clicks to get into a dialog box, I can change the multiples. Proper line spacing, or leading, should be done in points, like Word's font size settings. After years of different versions, Word still doesn't allow the option of point-spaced leading.

I don't feel like dropping $700 on a desktop publisher when I just need a word processor and Excel, and 2007's reboot is so delicious.

I recently d/l OpenOffice at work, so I'm gonna give that a try. For some reason, the Insert > Picture option only works on my computer, and in every other computer, it sees a black box instead. Huh.

What industry? The word processing software industry?

Right, I keep forgetting that there's a difference with desktop publishing and word processing. Then again, the case can still be made with Apple's Pages.

Edit: From a non-biased objective pov. *wink*

[shadowgrin]

Word's "line spacing" comes in multiples of 1, 1.15, 1.5, 2, and ridiculous sizes beyond that. I now see that after two clicks to get into a dialog box, I can change the multiples. Proper line spacing, or leading, should be done in points, like Word's font size settings. After years of different versions, Word still doesn't allow the option of point-spaced leading.

Those has been the standard for old-school word processing even before Word came out, e.g. typewriters.

[cyanide]

That's my point. We've moved beyond typewriters, and Word is still stuck in that era.

[shadowgrin]

There are still people who learned to use typewriters that are still comfortable with the standards.

[benji]

After years of different versions, Word still doesn't allow the option of point-spaced leading.

In ur Word, setting ur line spacing by pts.

[cyanide]

Ho ho, so there is an option! I can't believe it's not default or even customizable within the top-level navigation.

I think this is where we end up in a stalemate.

[benji]

Stalemate on what? There's a battle going on?

I'm not even arguing in favor of Office 2007. All I'm doing (like in past threads regarding Windows) is informing you of things you aren't aware of. And being snarky like this:

We've moved beyond typewriters, and Word is still stuck in that era.

Same thing with all the writers and soft-science academic fields. Especially considering the latter doesn't want it to be readable, let alone care about how it appears.

The reason your teachers have all said things should be "double-spaced" isn't because of Word. MLA and APA standards weren't built around Word's defaults.

[cyanide]

Good points, especially with regards to MLA and APA standards. There really needs to be new standards, and I'm pushing for that. Microsoft has the opportunity to pave the way for that, but I see your point why they're using multiples as the default rather than the typographer's standard.

[benji]

Yeah, well, the dirty little secret is that outside of English departments, nobody honestly uses the standards. We just tell them that all the work they do is valuable and important. Then we butcher the english language and make our writing illegible. This is why everybody makes their own standards.

Then there's Journalism, the lowest form of English.

Microsoft probably does want to change the default, but they know if it they stay with it, less than 1% of people whine about it. However, if they change it, everyone else screams their heads off because something has changed and they refuse to accept it.

The biggest problem (and 2007 is still a big improvement over the past) is that they need to have some kind of "defaults" wizard because people still don't realize you can set everything to your liking and click the "default" button.

[cyanide]

Interestingly, Microsoft Office for the Mac is designed completely different, and a lot more comfortable to work with because of the organization of menus. I was finally given a Mac at work after a previous worker left, so I had my first run at it.

Regarding change, yeah, a lot of people do freak out when there's the slightest change that happens, if done gradually, people's not going to notice.

[Laxation]

Thats because most of the time when things are changed, theyre fucked up.

Or theyre done for the sole purpose of justifying the pay-check of the committee that came up with the change.

[Joe']

Mac OS X - iTunes
Windows (any version) - Foobar
Ubuntu (probably other Debian-based Linux distros too) - Amarok

Overall I think the best program for organizing and managing music is Amarok. I wish it were available for OS X.

But I really don't mind iTunes. Never had a problem with it, it does its job just fine. Then again, I don't need my music organizer to be customizable, at least not any more customizable than iTunes. I don't even know what can be customized in other apps.

As for Microsoft Office 2007, it really sucks ass, on Windows anyway. Office for Mac 2008 is the bomb, though. I'm in love with that thing. Even the 2004 version is awesome compared to the Windows one. Never liked the alternatives; OpenOffice is way too slow, AbiWord lacks a lot of features. Even iWork just does not do it (unless you're fond of the templates). But yeah, Office for Mac is the best out there.

[benji]

As for Microsoft Office 2007, it really sucks ass

So we keep hearing. But we don't hear why it sucks ass. Other than it doesn't have features it has and people miss the menu bar.