QuickGuide.Library

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Using the Library to organize the downloaded files

The Library is one of the most important tools Shareaza offers, since it will help you organize the files you are sharing, and gives easy access to play them in the Media Player. This section will focus on the basics of the Library's features.

For detailed information on the Library, refer to the Manual.Library page.

Looking for the files that you just downloaded:

When you click on the Library tab, you are going to see a list of "virtual folders". But currently what we are looking for is the panel that is below the main page, it has listed there our most recent downloads.
When you click on them, it will take you to the location of where that file it, and highlight it on the main list.
You can then double click that file if you want to play it on the media player, or use the Library toolbar (below) or the context menu (right click) for more functionality.
When selecting a file, the panel where the recent files appeared will be changed to show detailed information about the file, and also gives you the ability to rate it, so that other users can know how good it is, by using the "Rate this file" link on the top right corner of the details panel.
To get back to the list of recent files, you can click on the blank part of the folder structure shown on the left, that will take you to the main place of the Library again.

How the Library works

Shareaza features two different ways to organize the files in the Library: Physical, which works with files in real shared folders, as they appear in your hard drive's file system, and the Organizer, which allows you to organize files into virtual folders, without actually moving them about the hard drive's file system. Switch between Physical and Organizer mode by using the two buttons that are at the top of the folder structure panel on the left. Each one has its advantage, and you might find yourself using features of both in the future. Note: The Library only contains the files that you already downloaded, or added.

Organizer Library

The Organizer is a Library that works with Virtual folders, where the files are organized by their metadata (detailed) information. For the purpose of this, let's say that you are looking for the classical music that you downloaded.

Go to the folder structure on the left, and where it says My Music, go to Genre, and double click it to expand it.
Under Genre are shown the genres of the files available on the Library, now since we were loonking for the Classical music, you can click on the Classical genre.
At the right appear all the songs that are classified as Classical, by using their metadata. You can now play them if you like, by double clicking, or using the context menu.
It could also be the case that we wanted to add and play all the Classical music to the Media Player. So you can now click on the Play Album button located on the Library toolbar (bottom), or use the context menu by right clicking on Classical.
This will pop up the Media Player with all the songs added to it, now on the Media Player toolbar (bottom) click on play, so that the playlist begins to play.
Now switch back to the Library to continue with the tutorial, by using the Library tab button on the toolbar.
to be continued...

Physical Library

The Physical Library is where the files are located on your computer. They will appear just like folders, shortcuts or files would anywhere else on your computer, such as your desktop for example. Let's say you have a folder full of music files that you wanted to share with other members of the Shareaza community.

Go to the library and click on the Physical button.
Right click in the directory tree and select "Share Files".
Click on "Add"
Navigate through the directories until you find your folder you want to share. When you find it, highlight it and press ok. Press ok again in the next box.
Shareaza will begin a process called hashing, and enable you to share the files inside the folder to other people of the p2p community.