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71 changes: 28 additions & 43 deletions README.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -135,58 +135,43 @@ Offstream tags a recording while it makes it, so a track recorded before you set
or while Last.fm was down, or whose title Spotify reported oddly — keeps whatever thin tags it got
at the time. The **Metadata** tab is where you repair those.

![The Offstream Metadata page: the scanned library on the left with cover art and Will change badges, and the selected track's tag editor on the right — its fields scroll, with the search box pinned below them](docs/images/metadata.png)

1. **Scan Directory** reads every taggable file in the folder shown. It starts at your recordings
folder; **Browse…** points it somewhere else, so a library Offstream didn't record works too.
2. **Auto-Fetch Metadata** looks up the files that are missing a title, artist or album. Spotify is
asked first if you're signed in, then Last.fm if you have a key. Files that already have all
three are left alone and cost no lookup — use **Re-fetch** on a row when its tags are complete
but wrong.
3. **Save Selected Tags** writes the ticked rows into the files.

Nothing reaches a file until you press Save. The page is a list beside an editor. Each file is one
row showing what *would* be written — the title, then the artist and album, then the file it came
from — and clicking a row, or arrowing onto it, fills the pane on the right with its tags as
editable boxes: Title, Artist, Album artist, Album, Genre, Year, Disc, Track, Tracks on album and
Copyright. That is every tag Offstream writes while recording, so anything it can put into a file
it can also repair. There is a **was …** line under anything you'd be changing, so a match
that got the remix wrong is a correction rather than a reason to start over. The pane stays the
same size and in the same place whichever row you pick, so the library never moves out from under
you while you're working on one of its files. Rows that would actually alter a file are marked
**Will change**, which is how you find the three that need attention without reading the other
hundred. Artwork a lookup found is shown under the boxes, before and after, since it is the one
thing Save writes that you can't type.

Only what a lookup actually found is proposed: a provider with no genre for a track leaves the
file's own alone rather than offering to remove it. Save writes no blank over a value either, so
emptying a box leaves that tag as it was — clear a box to stop Offstream changing something, not
to erase it. Type a comma into **Genre** to give a track more than one; **Artist** and **Album
artist** take the name as you write it, commas and all, because "Earth, Wind & Fire" is one band.
A file whose artist tag already holds several names shows the first in the box and keeps all of
them on Save unless you type over it.

**Filter** narrows the list to the rows whose title, artist, album or file name contain what you
type. It only changes what is on screen: Save still writes every ticked row, including the ones the
filter is hiding.
three are left alone and cost no lookup — use **Re-fetch** in the editor when a track's tags
are complete but wrong.
3. **Save Selected Tags** writes the ticked rows into the files. Nothing reaches a file before that.

Clicking a row fills the editor on the right: title, artist, album artist, album, genre, year, disc,
track, tracks on album and copyright — every tag Offstream writes while recording, so anything it
can put into a file it can also repair. A **was …** line sits under anything you'd be changing, and
artwork a lookup found is shown below the boxes, before and after.

- **Will change** marks the rows that would actually alter a file, which is how you find the three
that need attention without reading the other hundred.
- **Filter** narrows the list by title, artist, album or file name. It only changes what is on
screen: Save still writes every ticked row, including the ones the filter is hiding.

### When the match is wrong

Untick the row and nothing happens to that file. To fix it instead, either type the correct values
into Title, Artist and Album — they're yours to edit and they win over anything a lookup found —
or use **Not the right track?** at the foot of the pane. The box starts filled in with the row's
artist and title, so it is usually a word or two away from the right query, and it keeps its place
at the bottom so results appear where you were already looking. It searches
Spotify for whatever you type and lists what it finds, with the year beside each result so you can tell a remaster from
the original, and **Use this** fills the row in from the one you pick.

Reach for the search rather than **Re-fetch** whenever the artist is the thing that's wrong.
Re-fetch asks the same question the automatic lookup already asked — built from the file's own
fields, and refusing any result whose artist disagrees with them — so it returns the same answer
however many times you press it. The search takes your words instead, which is the only way to
reach a track the file's tags point away from. Picking a result also replaces the cover art, since
the old one belongs to whatever the file used to claim to be.
Untick the row and nothing happens to that file. To fix it instead, type over the boxes — your
edits win over anything a lookup found — or use **Not the right track?** at the foot of the pane,
which searches Spotify for whatever you type and lists what it finds, with the year beside each
result so you can tell a remaster from the original. **Use this** fills the row in from the one you
pick, cover art included.

Reach for that search rather than **Re-fetch** whenever the artist is the thing that's wrong.
Re-fetch builds its query from the file's own fields and refuses any result that disagrees with
them, so it cannot reach a track those fields point away from.

A few things worth knowing:

- **Clearing a box stops Offstream changing that tag; it doesn't erase it.** Save writes no blank
over a value, and a lookup that found no genre leaves the file's own alone.
- **Commas separate genres, not names.** "Earth, Wind & Fire" in an artist box stays one band.
- **`.wav` files are skipped**, and the page says how many. WAV has no tag format players agree on,
so a row for one would look editable and then fail when you saved it.
- **A file that's open elsewhere can't be written.** If you're playing the track you're retagging,
Expand All @@ -197,7 +182,7 @@ A few things worth knowing:

The **Advanced** page is where the details live.

![The Offstream Advanced page: filename template with a live preview, detection options, tag options and app options](docs/images/advanced.png)
![The Offstream Advanced page: filename template with a live preview, recording options, tag options and application options](docs/images/advanced.png)

**File names** are a template with a live preview, so you can see exactly what the next file will be
called before you record anything. Use `\` to make folders — `{artist}\({year}) {album}\{track:00}
Expand Down
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