select method to order album art in "top two pane" view

[MrSinatra]

apologies if this has been mentioned prior...

but the main way i use winamp and its wonderful smartview feature, is to browse via album artist as words in a thin column on the left, while the art is in a much bigger pane to the right. underneath both are the tracks.

the problem is that while the artwork is in album artist order, WITHIN each album artist, if you have multiple albums, they are always displayed ALPHABETICALLY.

thats fine for those who want it that way, but what i would much rather have, is for each album artist to have their albums displayed and sorted by YEAR in the tag. (if two are the same year, then go alphabetical).

i have tried clicking on different columns and setting up different views, but haven't found an existing solution if one exists. so i am registering my wish here.

if this is valid, how do i get it listed in the official wishlist thread?

thx egg and all you winamp devs, you make the best software player/library manager out there imo. i use it and install it everywhere i go.

[marz045]

well just click on the 'Year' column header in the right hand side pane (click again to reverse order). Of course since Winamp allows sorting by just one category at a time when you select 'All' on the left hand side, the albums will be displayed chronologically not by artist nor alphabetically.

[MrSinatra]

that doesn't work.

it puts ALL albums / artwork in year order, it does not do what i am requesting.

[mrburns]

join the que Mr S.
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=239896

[MrSinatra]

yeah, i've seen that thread, and i guess it related and i'll post my support in it...

but i am trying to focus in on this one instance, b/c its the one i care most about, and its such an obvious one to show the need.

i really am shocked actually that a pgm like winamp doesn't have this already... arranging albums by yar, instead of alphabetically, within each album artist, is just very, very obviously needed, especially in artwork view.

[marz045]

Originally posted by MrSinatra
that doesn't work.

it puts ALL albums / artwork in year order, it does not do what i am requesting.

It does do what you asked for AFTER you select a certain artist that artists' albums will be arranged by year. I mentioned that it's not perfect and you'll have to wait for multiple column sorting but that's been on the wishlist for years so this is the only workaround for now.

[MrSinatra]

great, but thats not what i want. sure i could click on each album artist, then click year, but thats not a solution to the issue i want solved.

what i don't understand is why it already isn't like that, meaning, that since the first pane is higher in the hierarchy, when i click year in the second pane, it should arrange the albums by year, but do so without violating the first panes sort/rule. seems simple and obvious to me.

if i wanted to sort ALL albums by year FIRST, then i would pick that in the first pane. the second pane should be for a second sort/rule. choosing artwork or not should simply be an on/off toggle, unrelated to the sort/rule.