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Up-to-date with version 3.0.5992

Tabs Bar[]

Tabs Bar

Caption Bar / Tabs Bar / Panels Header Bar

The tabs bar, also sometimes called the toolbar, is shown just below the caption bar by default, but can also be moved into the caption bar. (The Main Menu and the Tabs Bar cannot both be in the Caption Bar.) In addition to the Tabs, it contains the search box and other important tools.

Tools and Buttons[]

Navigation
Navigation Buttons

Navigation buttons

The Navigation buttons provide a browser-like capability of going back to previous areas you were viewing.

Search Box
Search Box

Search box

Main article: Search

Search your library by any field or all fields. The search box can be resized by grabbing a small area at the left end of the box (your mouse cursor will change), but not if it's in the Caption Bar.

Downloads and Summary buttons

Downloads / New File Summary / Configure Layout

Configure Layout

Opens the Panels Configuration window.

New File Summary
New File tooltip

New File Summary tooltip

This button only appears if the Left Sidebar is hidden. It tells you how many items are in the Inbox and how many unlistened Podcasts have been downloaded. The numbers will appear in a tooltip if you hover on it, and you can also click on it to use the menu to navigate to one of the nodes. If you dismiss it using the close command in the menu, it will reappear when more files are added.

Downloads menu

Downloads

Downloads

Shows a list of current and recent downloads, which you can pause collectively or cancel individually.

Custom Buttons
Main article: Command Buttons

Right click anywhere to the right of the tabs and choose "Configure Toolbar" to create your own toolbar buttons, using any command in the Hotkeys list.

Tabs[]

Tabs allow you to have different areas of your library and any other main panel content all available at the same time. In addition to being able to quickly switch between tabs, you can drag & drop items into a tab (such as for adding files to a playlist). You can also drag & drop the tabs themselves to reorder them. In many ways, tabs can perform the same function as the Navigator.

Opening and Closing Tabs[]

You can always create a new tab with the [+] button at the right end of the current tabs. You can also middle click on any node in the Navigator to open it in a new tab, or right click on it and use the "Open in New Tab" command if you don't have a middle mouse button.

The active tab will have an [X] button on the right side for closing it, unless the tab is pinned (you may have to mouse over it to see it). You can also close a tab by middle clicking on it (just like you can open a new tab with a middle click in the Navigator), or you can right click on a tab and use the "Close Tab" command.

Tabs Settings[]

style
Upper Tab

Tabs with centered UPPERCASE text and no icons

Mixed Tab

Tabs with icons and left-aligned mixed case text

In Layout Preferences, you will find options to show the tabs in the caption bar or below the caption bar, and to customize font for active and inactive tabs. There are also two options for tabs "style." Exactly how these look will depend greatly on what skin you're using.

  • Centered/UPPER TEXT [no icon] (Default)
  • Boxed/Mixed Text [with icon]
Tab Overrides
Tab Overrides

Tab Overrides

In the Panels Configuration window, there is a section in the bottom right labeled "Overrides for the current MusicBee tab". You may need to expand it with the triangle button in order to see all options. Here, you can choose to show or hide certain elements or whole panels on a per-tab basis. (Elements will only appear here if they have already been added to the layout.)

For the Left Sidebar and Right Sidebar only, you can put them in "auto-open" mode: they will not be shown most of the time, but if you mouse over the left or right side of the window, the corresponding panel will pop up. In Layout Preferences, you can add buttons to the Status Bar to toggle show and auto-open modes for the sidebars.

The left sidebar has some further features in auto-open mode: it will appear if you select and drag tracks in the main panel or the Playing Tracks panel, to make it available for drag & drop functions; you can click on the active tab header to force it to pop up, and it has a small pin icon at the top right that you can click to put it in Show mode (to put it back in auto-open mode you will have to return to Panels Configuration or enable the status bar buttons).

Tabs Menu[]

Tabs Menu

Tabs Menu

If you right click on any tab, you can set certain options for that tab only.

Edit Tab Header

This allows you to rename a tab to anything you like (for instance, if you have a particular playlist in that tab you could put the name of the playlist).

Pin Tab

A pinned tab cannot be closed unless you unpin it first (except from the tab menu), and it will be moved to the left of any unpinned tabs in the tabs bar. The Navigator is hidden for pinned tabs (on the assumption that you're also using the Navigation Lock option and will use other tabs instead of the Navigator), but it can be reopened if you want. Likewise, the search box is set to Local Node Only for pinned tabs, but can be changed (if the tab is locked, a search of the entire library will open the Search Results node in a new tab).

If you select the Icon Only version of this option, when the tab is pinned and you are in another tab, it will be minimized to only an icon to save space (Inbox and Podcasts tabs will show their new file count with the icon). When you select the tab, the text name of the tab will still be shown. The Icon and Text version will always show the text. (Pinned tabs will always show an icon, even when using "Centered/UPPER TEXT" style.)

Navigation Lock

You can also choose to apply navigation restrictions to pinned tabs.

  • Do Not Lock (Default)
  • Full Lock
  • Partial Navigation (allow Playlists & Filters)

In Full Lock mode, any other node you select in the Navigator will open in a new tab. In Partial Navigation mode, if you have pinned the tab to a playlist, you can select another playlist. If you have pinned the Music node, you can change the filter. Any other nodes will still open in a new tab.

Hide Header Bar

This is a shortcut to hide or unhide the Panel Header Bar, so you don't have to go into Layout Preferences to do it. (Affects all tabs.)

Close Tab

Closes the tab you have clicked on.


Layout
Panel Options The Anatomy of MusicBee · Library Navigation · Track Information · Visualizations
Main Panel Views Tracks · Album and Tracks · Album Covers · Artists · Custom Views
Other Tabs Bar · Main Menu · Status Bar · Layout Preferences
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