The Search panel of the Aloof interface provokes a powerful method to location music within your library, while provide a familiar and simple to use interface. Searching across album titles, artist names and song titles, search allows rapid access to all aspects of your music library.
Search Layout
Following a common search layout pattern, the Search panel provides a simple interface – a search field with results displayed dynamically as the search terms are typed.
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[image_frame title=”The Search Panel” alt=”The Search Panel”]http://acceleratingvector.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/al_search.png[/image_frame]
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Search results are easily navigate thru the use of the arrow keys or tab key. Additionally, the search field is rapidly accessed anywhere on the search panel by entering the Command-L key combination.
Search Results
Search results are listed following an Album grouping methodology, and listed in order of Albums, the Artists and finally Songs that match the search terms.
Albums that match the provided search terms are shown with all album tracks displayed. For Various Artist albums, each song will also include the artist name.
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[image_frame title=”Album Results” alt=”Album Results”]http://acceleratingvector.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/al_search_album.png[/image_frame]
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Artist search results are grouped as albums, but only show the songs of artists who matched the current search term.
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[image_frame title=”Artist Results” alt=”Artist Results”]http://acceleratingvector.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/al_search_artist.png[/image_frame]
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Songs that match the provided search term are grouped under a single album and displayed at the end of the overall search results.
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[image_frame title=”Songs Results” alt=”Songs Results”]http://acceleratingvector.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/al_search_songs.png[/image_frame]
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Using Search Results
There are various methods to use the search results to play music, including context menus, buttons and specific combinations. When performed on a song, the action only applies to the selected song, but when performed on an album title, that activity is performed on all songs displayed for that album.
Play Now
Each entry in the search results displays a “Play” button when the mouse cursor traverses over the entry. Clicking this button will play that song immediately. If the button is pressed on an album title, the first song is played immediately and all other songs added to play next.
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[image_frame title=”Play Entry Now” alt=”Play Entry Now”]http://acceleratingvector.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/al_search_playnow.png[/image_frame]
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Double clicking on an entry preforms the same action and pressing the play now button.
Context Menus
Right-clicking on a search result entry will bring up a context menu for the specific item selected. The contents of this menu differ between Songs and Albums.
For Songs, the context menu contains the following items:
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- Play – Plays the song immediately
- Play Next – schedules the song to play next
- Add to Up Next – adds the song at the end of the Up Next list.
- Start Genius – Starts iTunes Genius on this song
- Create Genius Playlist – creates a new Genius Playlist using this song
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For Albums, the following items are displayed in the menu:
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- Play – the first song of the listed songs are played, the remaining songs are added to Play Next.
- Play Album Next – this listed songs are scheduled to play next.
- Add Album to Up Next – the listed songs are added to the end of the Up Next list.
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Key Combinations
In addition to the contents of the context menus, key combinations are provided for rapid access and use of the research results.
As noted earlier, search results are navigated using the tab and arrow keys. In addition, the following actions are available from the keyboard when a result entry is selected.
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- Enter: play the current entry
- ⌘-Enter: Add the current entry to Up Next
- ⌥-Enter: Play entry Next
- ⌥-Command-Enter: Start Genius using the selected song. No action is taken if an album is selected.
- ⌘-L: Return control to the Search Entry Field.
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