Capitalizing on a seemingly inconsequential comment from one of our beta testers, with today’s update to version 0.11.004 LIDA now gives you the capability to STORE any data file you connect to, for future quick access.
HOW IT WORKS: First, you just connect to a data file. Next, you tell LIDA to STORE that data file. You will be able to give it a short name so you can easily remember later what it’s for. Whenever you want to relink to that data file, you just click on the “Data Store” button, and a window will open with all your stored data files. Just click the one you want, and then click “Relink.” Boom. Done.
As LIDA is still in Beta Test phase, and the testers are likely only working with the sample data file, this might not seem like that big a deal.It is a big deal.
Here are some examples of why.
First, some of our testers are already keeping their data file in a different location. One that I know about is in a synchronized Dropbox folder. In working online with him and watching him relink his data file, I saw that he had to spend far too much time scrolling through a Windows Explorer window, just to FIND the data file.
If you would ever contemplate moving your data file to a location other than the default (C:\LIDA-Data), then I know you’ll find this new capability very handy.
Even more useful than this is the fact that this upgrade gives you the capability to easily manage multiple libraries.There has been some discussion over the last couple of weeks about the need to manage multiple music libraries, but this upgrade makes it easy-peasy!
If, for example, you need to manage the music libraries for a concert band, a jazz band, a church choir, a church orchestra, an Oompah band, and several outreach ensembles, it’s now only a few clicks and you’re up and running.
If you can’t tell, I’m excited by this upgrade, and I think it will make LIDA even more useful than before.
Let us know your thoughts on this feature, and how you see it being used.