Each panel can contain either a tree, album art or facet view. Panels needn't be contiguous. The example describes how to set-up New Facets with 3 facet panels: Genre, Artist & Album.

Set up

• Insert 3 spider monkey panels into the layout and add library tree to each
• For each panel, use quicksetup and select 'Facet'
• Set the view of the first panel to Genre, the second to Artist and the third to Album*
• For each panel press shift + windows key, choose configure & on the scripts tab set the panel name of the first panel to Genre, the second to Artist and the third to Album

Options

• Optionally change the second panel to show albumart if preferred and set the type to artist & may be circular style images
• Optionally change the third panel to show albumart if preferred and set the type to front
• Adjust albumart > group level if required
• Optionally hide the top bar search, filter button & settings button for the second and third panels
• It's recommended to leave enabled: remember state on exit and before search; filters auto-manage scroll

* The default album view works best as a tree view; for a facet view, the following is better: Extra view patterns, compatible with both facet and tree styles View by: Sorting Facets works by using the top level of normal tree views. The remainder of the view is used for sorting, which should be sufficient. If extra sorting is required, a playlist sort can be used, e.g. one of the below.

Set different colours for parts of a line of text. All colours are optional: any undefined are set to default. Colours apply after the $colour code until either another $colour code is encountered or a splitter is reached (| or ¦ in the view pattern) or a reset code is reached: $colour{} Normal, hover & selected can either be r-g-b or a highlight or dim indicator, e.g. $colour{r-g-b,r-g-b,r-g-b} or $colour{-,++,+++}

Highlight & dim indicators: - dim text -- dimmer text --- dimmest text + bright text ++ brighter text +++ brightest text Format, r-g-b & -/+ style, can be mixed in same $colour{} function. Syntax examples: $colour{} reset all colours to defaults. $colour{255-0-0} set normal text colour to red; set hover & selected text colours to defaults since undefined. $colour{,,+++} set selected text colour to brightest; set normal & hover text colours to defaults since undefined. $colour{0-255-0,++} set normal text colour to green & hover text colour to brighter; set selected text colour to default since undefined. $colour{255-0-0,0-255-0,0-255-255} set normal, hover and selected text colours to red, green & cyan, respectively. Example pattern:

Item counts are a special case. They don't form part of the view pattern. Align right: drawn separately; not controlled by $colour codes; already dimmed. End of text: effected by $colour codes. Use $colour{} at the end of the line to reset or set to a different colour if desired ($colour{--} is used in the example above).

$nodisplay & $colour are generally unsafe inside string manipulation functions that remove a part of a string or insert a substring by position. Instead, they should be put before the string function, e.g. Use $colour{255-0-0}$substr(str,from,to). Don't use $substr($colour{255-0-0}str,from,to). Use $colour{0-255-0}$swapbranchprefix{%<artist>%}. Don't use $swapbranchprefix{$colour{0-255-0}%<artist>%}.

Enable the disk cache for best performance. It contains resized images that facilitate faster loading and is built as images are initially loaded. Optimum performance will be achieved when the cache is fully built. If new images are obtained or images replaced, the cache copy can be refreshed from the refresh context menu item. Optionally cached images can be preloaded in the background. Preloading completes shortly after initialisation. After that images should always show immediately on scrolling, subject to memory available.

Album art is loaded from the file sources defined at Preferences: Display, and embedded images. Stub images are set above. Artist photos: if biography is used to obtain photos, the pattern below can be entered. To get ...*YOUR PATH*..., use biography > sources > open file location > image. Copy the part required from the windows explorer address bar.

Any view can be used. The image loaded is that of the first item in the group, according to the type set (front cover, artist etc). Views starting with something like %artist%|%album%... or %album artist%|%album%... work well. Always use a full pattern so tracks etc sort properly. By default the number of group levels is automatically determined. Use of the same view for the tree and album art makes toggling between the two more straightforward. Since only one copy of the library is kept in memory, a library reload is also avoided.

If enabled, the "File>Preferences>Display>Selection viewers" setting is used.

Switch off 'Show Album Art Options' on the display tab while in tree view. Album art loading, disk caching plus the album art tab and menu options are disabled. Switch the option back on to allow album art mode.