USING THE LAUNCH GROUPS TOOL

Covering the left side of the Launcher window, the LaunchGroups tool is an interactive tree view (a.k.a. “Explorer-style”) display that allows you organize your audio files into related display folders (“Launch Groups”) so that you can find and play any of your audio files quickly and with just a couple of mouse clicks.

With the LaunchGroups tool you can organize your files by project, instrument, or clip library. Organize your commercials by show, length or sponsor. Organize your sound effects by type, source or topic. Or simply organize your favorite MP3 files by group, artist or music type. 

You are limited only by your imagination as to how you can organize access to your files. Need your favorite techno dance mix?  Just click on your “Mixes” group, click on the “Techno” group inside it, and then click on the file called “Mix #5” to play it. 

Launch Groups are “virtual” groups for visually organizing your files in Harbor. The physical location of your audio files does not matter, nor do you have to move them at all to organize them into your custom Launch Groups.  They can exist in any folder on any drive on any system in your visible computer network, and files from different locations on your system or network can co-exist in the same Launch Group.

The Launch Groups tool also uses custom icons denoting the different file types supported by Harbor for representing the audio files displayed in your groups. You can see at a glance which files are .WAV, .MP3, etc.

CONFIGURING YOUR LAUNCH GROUPS TOOL

There are several tools you can use to easily configure and manage your own custom setup of the Launch Groups tool: 

The Pop-up edit menu
The pop-up edit menu is the main tool for creating and editing your Launch Groups display. You use this menu to add, delete or modify any of the entries in the display. This menu pops up next to your mouse cursor any time you right-click on a group or file in the LaunchGroups tool.

Moving and reordering
You can arrange your launch groups and audio files in the Launch Groups tool in just about any order or fashion you wish by dragging and dropping the items within the display, or by using the Launch Groups tool's Position Controls.

Dragging and dropping into the Launch Groups tool
You can drag and drop audio files into the the Launch Groups tool from Harbor's Data Viewer tool or other applications.

SEEING INSIDE LAUNCH GROUPS

Displayed launch groups are just like file folders (hence the icons) in that they can be open for display or closed from display. Open ones have an open folder icon and closed ones have a closed icon.

When a launch group is closed, any contents it has will not be displayed (the display for that group is “collapsed”). You can, however tell if it has any actual contents by whether it has a “+” symbol in front of it or not. If it has one, there are indeed items in that group. If there is no “+”, the group is empty.

To open a launch group for display (to “expand” it), either left-click once on the “+” symbol or double-click on the group name. This will display the contents of that launch group.

Launch groups that are already open will have a “-“ symbol in front of them.  To close a launch group display, either left-click once on the “-“ or double-click on the group name.

LAUNCHING (PLAYING) AN AUDIO FILE

Once you have the launch groups and launch files configured into your Launch Groups display, you are ready to use it to actually playback the files it contains.

To playback (launch) a file from the LaunchGroups display, simply find the file in the display by opening its launch group, and double-click on the file.

You will see the launch file’s caption, file/path and length instantly appear in the Player Status Display area of the Launcher window, and the file will automatically play.

You can stop playback of the file at any time by clicking on the “Stop” button in the QuickLauncher tool.