A manual playlist is a playlist where you manually add tracks to the playlist. You add the tracks from either the Album View or the Track View.
You use the 'Manual Playlists' window when you add tracks to playlists. This window has the basic functionality of the Playlist View, but you can have this window open at all times (also when the 'Album Edit' or 'Track Edit' window is open).
By default, the window will stay "floating" on top of the main CATraxx window. If you want to keep the window out of the way, simply minimize it. The window has it's own icon on the Windows taskbar. Click this icon to open the window again, or simply press Ctrl+P (this is the shortcut for the Manual Playlists command on the Audio menu).
Adding tracks to playlist
To add tracks to a playlist, first choose Manual Playlists from the Audio menu to open the 'Manual Playlists' window. Then either create a new playlist, or select an existing playlist you want to add tracks to.
To add all tracks on an album to the playlist, select the album in the Album View, then choose Add to Playlist from the Audio menu (or press the F3 shortcut). If the Track View is open, this command will add the selected track to the playlist.
If multiple albums, or tracks, are selected, this will add all the selected albums or tracks to the playlist.
You can also click 'the add to playlist' icon in the explorer pane to add an album or track to the playlist.
You can also add tracks to a playlist from both the 'Album Edit' and the 'Track Edit' window. In the 'Album Edit' window, the Add to Playlist command will add all tracks on the album to the playlist, except if the track list has the focus. Then this will add the selected tracks in the track list to the playlist. You can also drag tracks from the track list over to the 'Manual Playlists' window.
Moving tracks from one playlist to another
You can easily move (or copy) tracks from one playlist to another: Either use drag-and-drop (hold down Ctrl to copy), or use the clipboard (Copy/Cut and then Paste). This works in both the 'Manual Playlists' window, and the Playlist View.
To use drag-and-drop, first make sure the playlist you want to move the tracks to (the "target") is visible, then select the tracks you want to move, click and hold down the mouse button while you drag track the tracks over to the target playlist. When you release the mouse button the tracks are moved to the target playlist. If you hold down the Ctrl key, the tracks are copied instead of moved.
To use the clipboard, first select the tracks, then right-click and choose Cut (to move) or Copy (to copy) from the popup menu.
Then open the playlist you want to move the tracks to, right-click where you want to add the tracks and choose Paste from the popup menu.
The Playlist Track View
In the Playlist Track View you can browse all tracks on manual playlists. This works similar to the Track View (except that if a track is, let's say, on 3 different playlists, this track will appear 3 times in the list). There is also a corresponding report so you can print out reports with playlist tracks.
Click the Playlist Track View button on the toolbar to open this view.