This is a curiosity question; it's very focused on my own workflow so I'm interested in seeing how others might use these options.
I'm fairly new to Mp3Tag and have not (yet) discovered a way to incorporate Action Group Presets into my workflow. It looks like they don't fit with my workflow, because there doesn't seem to be a way to invoke them with keyboard shortcuts. Looks like I could Alt+6, Alt+P, arrow to desired preset and enter to hit them. Maybe that would work, but it seems more clunky than Alt+A [keypress] IMO.
Anyway, to me it doesn't seem that different from judicious management of Action Groups themselves. For example, let's say I have four operations I run frequently, but not always together. Maybe I do run two pairs together each time, so I create two Action Groups:
Action Group A:
Operation 1
Operation 2
Action Group B:
Operation 3
Operation 4
Now let's say I run all four operations together frequently enough that it makes sense to combine them.
One option would be to create a third Action Group:
Action Group C:
Operation 1
Operation 2
Operation 3
Operation 4
But another option would be to create an Action Group Preset:
Preset I:
Action Group A
Action Group B
The main reason of Presets is the preselection of any combination of your existing Action Groups.
An Action Group itself will always be executed completely, with all its single Actions inside.
The benefit of Presets is the possibility to reuse the same Action Groups in different combinations.
Or the other way around:
The first thing you need is one single Action in one single Action Group.
If you find several Actions that you can execute always together, put them in the same Action Group.
If you want to execute several Action Groups - let's say - only for your classical music then select all the necessary Actions Groups and create a Preset "Classical Music".
Another Preset could be called "Popular Music" with another combination of preselected Actions Groups.
OK, thanks. So it sounds to me like it's really a preference/workflow thing. Creating action groups with similar operations this way might be hard to remember:
etc etc, so creating presets would make them easier to manage. And if one of the operations should be changed, then changing the action group containing it once would flow to all the presets, rather than changing it in every action group it's in. OK, that makes sense.
I do wish there were an easier way to invoke presets though. Anything you're aware of besides clicking through and/or the key sequence mentioned above?
You could put the respective key sequences into a macro and bind that to a macro key (assuming you have a keyboard with macro keys and software). That's what I usually do when I have a set of steps I want to execute quickly without having to remember the steps or performing them manually.
That's a good suggestion. My keyboard doesn't have that option, and I don't plan to replace it soon, but I used to have a mouse that could do macros and it proved very useful in certain situations.
Right now I'm doing fine with just some carefully named and um, grouped, action groups. I've used the same naming pattern for many years and don't expect to change, so I don't think I would benefit from having syntax changes flow through via presets.
There are also many free macro programs which allow binding custom hotkeys. AutoHotkey for example. Or if you prefer voice macros, for me VoiceAttack works very well (it's not free tho).