Dynamic patterns for the Name column

For entries, having ID3 tags, WinCatalog supports Dynamic Patterns for the Name column. Using the Dynamic Patterns you can define how the Name field will be displayed in WinCatalog. The Dynamic Patterns affect any place in WinCatalog where the Name field is used (Grid View, Thumbnails View, Search Results, Reports).

 

The main advantage of the Dynamic Patterns is that you can define or change how WinCatalog displays the data without a need to rescan your drives.

 

The difference between Name and Filename columns is explained here.

 

1For most file entries (files and folders) the Name column equals Filename until you rename the entry in WinCatalog (in that case, the Name column will display the new value). For entries having ID3 tags but not renamed manually by a user, WinCatalog displays names according to the Dynamic Pattern rules.

 

The priority of displaying the values in the Name column is the following (1 is the highest):

 

 

 

To open the Dynamic Patterns editor for the Name field please make a right mouse click in the header area of any column in the Grid View, or click the Gear icon () in the header of the Name column. This will open the Configure Columns window.

 

Click the Additional Options button to open the Dynamic Patterns editor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are following fields are available for entries having ID3 tags. The default value is %autoN%.

 

 

The Pattern Test field is based on the following example:

 

 

 

 

%auto% - builds the automatic strings by trying to include Artist, Album, Title, Year, and Duration. If any of the following values is empty, it will be skipped. For the "Yesterday" example above, this pattern will be expanded as "The Beatles - Help! (1965) - Yesterday (2:05)".

 

%autoN% - the same as the %auto%, but with the Track number in the beginning. For the example above, it will be expanded as "13. The Beatles - Help! (1965) - Yesterday (2:05)". This is the default pattern.

 

 

%artist% - the Artist Name from ID3 tags. If this value is empty, the "Unknown Artist" value will be used. For various artists, WinCatalog shows all the artists separated by slashes. For the example above, it will be expanded as "The Beatles".

 

%album% - the Album Title from ID3 tags. If this value is empty, the "No Album Title" value will be used. For the example above, it will be expanded as "Help!".

 

%title% - the Title from ID3 tags. If this value is empty, the "No Title" value will be used. For the example above, it will be expanded as "Yesterday".

 

%genre% - the Genre from ID3 tags. If this value is empty, the "Unknown" value will be used. For the example above, it will be expanded as "Chamber pop".

 

%len% - the Duration, automatically formatted. For the example above, it will be expanded as "2:05".

 

%year% - Year value from ID3 tags. For the example above, it will be expanded as "1965".

 

%track% - Track number. For the example above, it will be expanded as "13".

 

%brate% - Bitrate in kbps. For the example above, it will be expanded as "320 kbps".

 

%srate% - Sample Rate. For the example above, it will be expanded as "44100".

 

%chN% - number of channels, for the example above, it will be expanded as "2".

 

%chA% - number of channels, string representation (Stereo/Mono). For the example above, it will be expanded as "Stereo".

 

 

%filename% - the name of the file (the Filename field). For the example above, it will be expanded as "13 - Yesterday.mp3".

 

%filebase% - filename without extension. For the example above, it will be expanded as "13 - Yesterday".

 

%ext% - extension. For the example above, it will be expanded as ".mp3" (with a leading dot).

 

%parentF% - the name of the parent folder in the file system. For the example above, it will be expanded as "Help! (1965)".

 

%parentC% - the name of the parent folder in the catalog. For the example above, it will be expanded as "Help!".