Dear developers,

First of all, let me provide a screenshot of how I use Amarok:

[img]http://dragon.student.utwente.nl/pics/screenshots/amarok2layout-small.png[/img]
A screenshot from the latest beta i could get (through the experimental repos for jaunty)
Larger version

Yes, I was an amarok 1.4 user. I loved it.


Now I have several suggestions I would like to show here.

--First of all, these things here:
[img]http://dragon.student.utwente.nl/pics/screenshots/amarok2layout-daap.png[/img]
I have understood this is from DAAP, a sharing protocol. I'm on a big network. I have my own music. Please let me turn this off.

--Next, my columns.
[img]http://dragon.student.utwente.nl/pics/screenshots/amarok2layout-columns.png[/img]

I want to decide how big my columns are, but currently this is impossible.  On the screenshot you can see the bitrate and type, I'd like them smaller, but I couldn't get this working with the playlist editor. Same for the big area next to the title, I couldn't get this to spread over the other columns. I understand this is a part being worked on, but please, the only usable way to change column size is an excel style playlist.
I couldn't screenshot the column size changer in the playlist editor, I understand this is some sort of 'suggested size'?

Suggestions
- Perhaps the column size changer could be a fixed width, or a width in percentages?
- The old excel style list
- Somehow change the Track, Artist, etc buttons you use in the playlist editor to reflect the size of the column?


--And my third and last item:
In Amarok 1.4, you could show the lyrics easily by clicking a button. As you can see, I hide the middle pane. Will there ever be an easy way to toggle lyrics in Amarok 2?

Suggestions
- Perhaps a toggle for showing the middle pane? I can't imagine I am the only one who hides the middle pane.
- A default window for (lyrics)plugins the same way you have Files, Collection, etc?



Finally, sorry for comparing so much with Amarok 1.4. It's just that it was a lot better in terms of usability (for me). I don't find amarok 2 all bad. The user interface does seem much faster. The default mysql backend works great. I'm sure there are more improvements :)

I hope what I wrote here is of some help to the developers. I am sure some of this has been discussed already, I just wanted to add my opinion. If you need me, I'll be hanging around on IRC -> nick Dutchy

Very interesting post. I there were an election, I'd vote for implementing his suggestions.

FYI, my amarok 2 installations (SVN on Arch, and 2.1b2 on Jaunty) are both setup like yours, with the middle pane reduced to nothing. Shame about the lyrics and wikipedia, which were more useable, IMHO, in 1.4, but as a music player I find the above layout easier.

...in fact I'm just going to have a play and see if I can my columns as good as yours....

Oh, and on the SVN version (as at May17th at least), you can resize columns. It's a slider bar under each item's heading in the playlist layout editor (the same menu as where you select font style and alignment). With judicious use of placeholders and dividers, along with some trial and error for each column size and alignment, you can get it looking pretty good (from a 1.4x POV!). Good stuff - and thanks for including this functinality back in 2.1, devs.