The Preferences
The Preferences do exactly that - they allow you to customize the program to your preferences and needs. The Preferences menu command is located under the DVDpedia menu. The keyboard shortcut to open the Preferences window is Command-,
Please note that in some cases the program has to be restarted for changes in the Preferences to take full effect.
There are 6 different tabs in the Preferences:
The General tab
'Return to search window automatically after add' will take you straight back to the search window after you have added an entry. Uncheck this option if you want to add more than one result from the same search.
'Add first search result automatically' will add the first search result it encounters. Combined with the preference to 'Return to search window automatically after add' this can speed things up greatly when you are adding entries with a scanner or an iSight. (If you want to temporarily override this preference without having to open the Preferences window and uncheck it, hold down the Option key while you press the 'Search' button. That'll keep the program from adding the first search result automatically for that search.)
'Ignore foreign articles during title sort' will not take into account foreign articles such as der, die, das, le, la, el, etc. when sorting entries by title. The program automatically ignores English articles (the, a, an) when sorting. For this setting to take effect you have to re-sort the title column after you've checked the preference so the titles can pick up the new sort method.
For total control over the sort feature, use the 'Sort Title' field. Whatever you enter into that field, that's what the program will take into account when sorting. So if you want "12 Monkeys" to be sorted under Monkey instead of 12, enter M into the Sort Title field of the movie.
'Include library-independent entries in smart collections' will include entries from excluded collections in your smart collections. Excluded collections are marked with a grey library icon except for the Wish List and Borrowed collection which keep their star and red silhouette icons even when they are excluded from the Library.
'Open links in external browser' will open any linked files or URLs for an entry in an external program instead of the program's details view.
'Move linked movies into data folder' will automatically move any linked movie file into the DVDpedia data folder. The exception are VIDEO_TS folders because they are too large.
'Automatically send emails for borrowed entries overdue' will automatically send emails to borrowers whose items are overdue. To see a list of emails to be sent, go into the Advanced menu > Outgoing emails. For more information about the email feature, take a look at the Email section further down.
'Check for updates automatically on startup (weekly)' means the program will check once a week whether there is a newer version available. (If you purchased the program through the Mac App Store this preference will not be included.)
The 'Date formats' let you set a default date system to be used in the various date fields. For example, "dd MMMM yyyy" would display as "25 September 2011". The most common options are:
| Conversion Specifier |
Description |
d |
day of the month (1-31) |
MM |
month numerical (03) |
MMM |
month abbreviated (Sept) |
MMMM |
month full (September) |
yy |
year without century (11) |
yyyy |
year with century (2011) |
For further options on date formatting, please take a look at
this website.
The 'DVDpedia data folder location' lets you see the path to the location of your program's data folder. By default the DVDpedia folder is located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia. If you would like to change the location, hold down the option key during start up and choose a different location or a different data folder. For more information about how to change between different data folders, take a look at the database page.
The Style tab
'Show status banners over cover images' will display banners on the cover images that let you know whether a movie has been borrowed (green), is overdue (red) or when the DVD will be on sale (blue).
'Outline grid covers' will create a border for the cover images in Grid view.
'Grid color' lets you set the background color in Grid view.
'Collections Text' lets you set the font size for the collections column on the far left of the main window.
'List Text' lets you set the font size for the list view.
'Details Style' lets you choose between the different details view templates. (Alternatively, ctrl-click inside the Details View and choose 'Style' or use the View menu > Details Style.)
The 'Status Bar' options let you choose what information you'd like to see about a collection at the bottom of the main window. Just check the appropriate box(es).
The Fields tab
'Display fields for' lets you choose the fields that appear in the Add/Edit window, the details view or the full screen mode. Choose one from the drop down menu and then check those fields you're interested in and arrange them in the order you like.
Please bear in mind that when a field is unchecked for the Add/Edit window, DVDpedia will not download information for that field.
The
custom fields, displayed in italics on the list, can be renamed to whatever titles you'd prefer. Just double-click the title and enter a new one.
Restart the program for your changes to take full effect.
In addition, the Add/Edit window lets you toggle between only showing fields that hold information or showing all fields, including blank ones by pressing the 'Show All' or 'Hide All' button at the bottom of the window. NOTE: if a field has been unchecked in the Preferences > Fields for the Add/Edit window, the field will not be displayed when you choose 'Show All'.
The default settings at the bottom of the Fields tab let you set standard settings for the following three fields:
'Region' lets you set a standard region for your database.
'Video format' lets you set a standard video format (NTSC or PAL) for your database.
'Loan period (days)' lets you set a standard amount of time when a borrowed entry is due back.
The Email tab
Under the 'Email' tab you have the choice to set a default email subject and body for two different email features: one to remind borrowers (using the 'Email Borrower' command from the Movie menu) and one for sending suggestions to friends (using the 'Email Selection' command from the Movie menu).
The tags [key:title], [key:borrowedBy], [key:borrowedOn] and [key:myName] are placeholders for the title of the entry, the name of the person who borrowed it, the date it was borrowed and your name (taken from the 'Me' entry of the Address Book). They automatically will be filled in with the correct information when the email is set up. The same holds true for the other email template only that different placeholders are used.
If you choose to send emails to borrowers automatically (you have that option in the Preferences > General where you can check the box to 'Automatically send emails for borrowed entries overdue') the emails are sent 10 minutes after you launch the program to allow you to return items first or if DVDpedia is always running it will check daily whether there are any messages to be sent.
Under the View menu > Outgoing Emails you can view the users that will be getting emails and delete those messages you'd like to surpress. If one borrower has several overdue entries, the emails are grouped into a single message.
To send mails you need to have Mail.app setup with an SMTP server for outgoing mail; even if you use another mail client. For safety, you will be prompted to authorize email sending from DVDpedia. (Even though you need to have Mail set up this way, the emails will be sent from the system directly and will not appear in Mail as sent emails.)
The Sites tab
Under the 'Sites' tab you can choose which sites you would like to access, just check the box next to those sites you want to use and drag them into the order you want. This is especially important if you want to use the 'All' search option which cycles through the selected sites until a match is found. Sites that you have not selected will not appear in the search window when you click on the magnifying glass to select a site.
The Amazon Settings button at the bottom of the Sites window brings up the Amazon Settings window where you can enter your Access key and Secret key to access the Amazon sites. Check out the
Searching Amazon section for more information on how to sign up for those keys.
The Autofill tab
Under the 'Autofill' tab you can add autofill values to certain fields.
Autofill means that when you start typing, the field will guess at what you're typing using the values added to the autofill list and try to fill in the field for you.
To add or delete values from the autofill list, use the plus and minus buttons at the bottom of the Autofill tab. To edit a value, double-click it.
You can also add values to the Autofill list by entering a value directly into the field in the Edit window and then clicking on another field (or hitting Tab) to move the focus out of the field. That will complete the autofill process and save the addition to the list.
The 'Rebuild' button at the bottom of the autofill window will rebuild the selected field from the entries found in DVDpedia. (This will overwrite any previous entries in the autofill list.)
