TuneTracker System in Action - TuneTracker

Manually Editing TuneTracker Logs Locally and Remotely

All TuneTracker logs, including format clocks, master logs, and program logs, are in "simple text format," meaning they are universally readable and editable on any computer using your favorite text editor or word processor. There are some subtle differences among simple text formats on various computer platforms, but they're not a problem if you use the methods we describe later on this page. But first, let's have a look at some exciting ways to make fast changes to your logs.


GOT LIGHTNING?

The fastest way to make edits to program logs is with Lightning, our super-fast file finder and drag-n-drop program log editor. Lightning works with your program logs regardless of which version of TuneTracker you have. If you don't already have Lightning, you really ought to look into it. It's very inexpensive, and it makes your work a lot faster and easier. Not to mention that it's the world's fastest song finder during request shows!


OPENING LOGS UNDER BeOS, FOR EDITING

To edit format clocks and master logs, you open them just double-clicking them (they'll automatically open in the StyledEdit word processor or Pe, depending on your system) or by right-clicking on their icon and choosing "Open With," specifying the word processor of your choice. The TuneTracker-ready program logs you've created with TuneStacker™ have a "playlist" filetype, so don't double-click on them or BeOS will try to "play" them. Instead, right-click on them and choose "Open With," specifying "StyledEdit" or "Pe". If you have "Pe" on your computer, that one is preferable due to its more advanced capabilities. This is especially true under BeOS, since BeOS's StyledEdit saves playlists back out as straight text files rather than as playlists.


USING STYLEDEDIT

Common to all installations of BeOS, whether old or new, is the "StyledEdit" word processor, which does a great job. Let's go over a few of its features and show you how you can use it to make quick work of even complex changes to your TuneTracker logs.

1.   GET COMFORTABLE   Odds are, you're already used to using the CTRL key when doing text editing. You hold down CTRL and hit the letter "C" to copy, CTRL-V to paste, CTRL-X to cut, etc. If that's how you like to work, you'll want to assure that CTRL is the operating system's hotkey of choice. Go into BeOS "Menu" preferences (or BeOS "Keyboard" preferences) and assure there is a checkmark next to "Use CTRL as shortcut key." The remainder of our suggestions assume you have done so. If you have opted to stick to using the ALT key instead, substitute "ALT" when reading the instructions. below.
   
   
   
2.   CTRL-F TO FIND   To rapidly find some text, do CTRL-F, type in the text you're looking for, and go for it.
   
   
   
3.   CTRL-G TO GO GO GO!   Need to find that same text again and again? After once doing a CTRL-F search, just hit CTRL-G to jump to the next instance where it appears on the log, and the next, and the next. It's a nice, fast way to jump to each # Hour statement in your log when initially typing in "# Hour 0," "# Hour 1," etc. Afterwards, its a great way to quickly check that they're all typed in accurately and sequentially. Just do a "# Hour" find, then go CTRL-G-G-G-G-G-G to step through and look at each of them.
   
   
   
4.   CTRL-R IS YOUR POWER TOOL   You can use CTRL-R (replace) to have StyledEdit search for a specific piece of text and replace it with another piece of text throughout your your entire document. Just put your cursor at the top of the document, do CTRL-R, and go to it. You'll notice you can make it sensitive to upper and lower case letters, or not, your choice.
   
   Another outstanding feature is the global search-and-replace capabilities in the CTRL-R (replace) feature. You can literally have StyledEdit replace text in multiple documents at the same time. If you want to do that, select a group of documents, open then in StyledEdit (each will appear in its own window), then go to one of the open windows, hit CTRL-R, type in the text you want to find and the text that should replace it, and mark an X in the box that says you want to make the change in all open documents.

The one noticeable weakness of StyledEdit is that it can't make very long changes. If the text is longer than the size of the search-and-replace text box, or is more than one line long, you'll run into trouble. There are more sophisticated BeOS word processors you can use, however, probably the best of which is called "Pe." Despite its odd name, Pe is a really amazing program that goes well-beyond what you need for log editing, and it's free! Pe probably came installed with your TuneTracker system, but if you lack it, you can download a copy of it from us.

There are lots of situations where it will be especially convenient or even absolutely necessary to edit master logs and program logs on another computer besides your TuneTracker computer. That means you must have a way to get the files in and out of the computer, and a way to edit them. The remainder of this page provides information on how to do so.

USING FTP TO TRANSFER FILES

We recommend you use the quick, easy FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to transfer files to and from your BeOS/TuneTracker computer. Why use FTP? We'll explain in the paragraph below. If you don't understand all of it, don't panic. Just take our word for it that it's the best approach for our system.

You may have noticed that after TuneStacker™ creates a program log, the file it creates has an icon that has two cherry-like musical notes on it. That icon tells us that the file has been given a "playlist" filetype. Without that designation, TuneTracker cannot use the file. If you edit a program log using a word processor on another computer, then bring that file back into BeOS by a method other than FTP, it will "zap" the filetype as it overwrites the existing file. With FTP, if you directly replace an existing file with its updated counterpart, you will not lose its "filetype" information when you overwrite it.

Enable your BeOS FTP server using the Settings in your BeOS Network Preferences, then connect to your TuneTracker computer from a computer elsewhere using one of the many free FTP programs available such as, for Windows, the program Coffee Cup. Then, use the simple two-panel interface to drag-and-drop files from one computer to the other.


COMPENSATING FOR DIFFERENCES IN WINDOWS, MAC TEXT

There are subtle differences between the simple text format under Windows, Mac, and BeOS. Windows does one thing a little differently than the rest of the computing world. It uses a "carriage return" character at the end of each line, to cause the computer to break the line at that point and wrap it to the next. BeOS, Linux, Unix, and most other OSs need no such character, so text files created in Windows and viewed in BeOS show a little box-like character at the end of each line. This is easily resolved, however, as you will see below.


OUR FAVORITE EDITOR FOR WINDOWS

Our favorite program for editing TuneTracker logs under Windows is EditPad, which properly displays, edits, and saves BeOS text files transparently without the need to do any conversions. It is also smart enough to open files that don't have file extensions, so you don't have to tag your file names with ".txt" in order for them to be found. EditPad also provides the powerful search-and-replace features we mentioned at the top of this page.

If you use EditPad, you do not need the converter mentioned below.

If you only need to view BeOS logs, and don't have to worry about saving changes and sending them back to BeOS, you can use Windows' built-in Wordpad program. It is handy for printing out TuneTracker output logs on your Windows computer and printer, for example.


CONVERTING MAC AND WINDOWS TEXT WITH "CRCONVERTER"

Starting with TuneTracker Pro™ and TuneTracker 2™, we are including a little tool called CRConverter that will convert text documents to and from the Windows, Mac, and BeOS formats. You will find the tool in your /boot/apps/TuneTracker System/Extras folder.

CRconverter can be used two different ways. You can run the program and then drag and rop a file into it for conversion. You can also right click on a file, choose "Open With" and specify CRconverter. That is probably the quickest, nicest way to launch it.

Once in the program, click on "Destination File Name" to assign a new file name for your converted file, choose one of the provided conversion options and select "Convert."

Thanks to Daisuke Sato for allowing us to include this nifty little tool in our installation package!


DON'T FORGET ABOUT TT ANYWHERE

TT Anywhere is TuneTracker Systems' remote administration program, which allows you to log into your TuneTracker computer from another computer, regardless of location and regardless of which major operating system you're using. You can bring up your TuneTracker desktop as if you were sitting in front of it!



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