Usher's intuitive interface and feature set make short work of all your media management needs. To get the most out of its feature set, though, it's helpful to know just what it's capable of, and how to best match its features to your needs.
The first time you launch Usher, you'll be greeted by its main window, looking (hopefully) a lot like this:
Before you start adding media to Usher, please read the following section! You need to decide how Usher will work with your media collection.
Media Management
If you read nothing else in help at all, please read this section!
The first thing to decide about Usher is how you want it to work with your media collection. There are three distinct ways Usher can manage your collection:
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Reference Only: When adding media to Usher, only a reference to the media files' location on your hard drive will be stored. This lets you keep your media files wherever you like, and then use Usher to manage the collection. (This is the default behavior.)
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Copy Media: Media files are left where they reside on your hard drive, but a full copy is also made in the Usher library folder. If you paid attention in school, you should realize this means you'll require twice the space for your media collection. (However, it's also like having an automatic backup of your media files, which isn't all bad.)
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Move Media: When you add files to Usher's library, Usher will move them from their source location to the Usher library folder. This will require no additional disk space, but it will result in your media files living within the Usher library folder. To emphasize, move will relocate your media files to the Usher library folder.
Which method you choose to use is really up to you—if you've got a well-organized collection already, you might want to leave Usher in Reference Only mode. If you're just starting out, perhaps you'd like to let Usher keep the media files in its library via the Move Media mode. The Copy Media mode might be useful if you wanted duplicate copies of your media files—but please, don't rely on Usher as a backup solution—and keep in mind, this will require twice as much space on your hard drive.
To change how Usher operates, open the Library tab of its settings, and find this particular pop-up menu:
If you leave the pop-up disabled, Usher will continue to operate in Reference Only mode; change it to Move or Copy if you'd like to use one of those modes instead. See the Library section of the Settings help page for more assistance.
The Details
Usher is a powerful program with a ton of features; help has been divided into sections to make it easier to work through everything it can do:
- Getting Started: A walkthrough of Usher's interface, basic usage, and library structure.
- Menus: A walk through Usher's menu structure, including the contextual menu that can be accessed by right-clicking on any media file's thumbnail.
- Settings: All of Usher's settings, explained in great detail.
- Metadata: The real power of Usher lies in its ability to use metadata to help you manage your collection. Through Properties, Tags, and notes, you can track an incredible amount of detail about everything in your collection.
- Playlists: How to use playlists to organize your media collection.
- Smart Playlists: What's a Smart Playlist, and how can you use Usher's extra-smart Smart Playlists to really organize your media collection.
- Regular Expressions: There are a few spots in Usher where you can use regular expressions to help accomplish certain tasks. This section covers those areas, and some things particular to Usher's implementation of regular expressions.
Tips on Using Help
Our help system is designed to be easy to use. The top area of the window contains page navigation buttons on the left, and a magnifying glass icon (that will open a search box) on the right. If you find the font size too small, you can increase it by pressing ⌘=; ⌘- will reduce the size.
We use some standard conventions for certain bits of text throughout our help system:
These sections of text contain additional explanatory material that's related to the topic being discussed, but may go into more detail or not quite fit in the regular flow, so we set it apart with a visual call-out.
These sections of text contain tips, shortcuts, hidden features, or other similar "goodies" to help you get the most out of the app.
This is text we really want you to read—generally, something that's very important relative to your use of the app. If you're just skimming the help files, don't skim these notes—please read them.
When we reference items in the menu, we highlight each menu item's name, and separate them with an arrow, like this:
→ →When we reference a setting in Settings, it'll be called out like this: A user-settable setting
Keys you type are called out: ⌘⌃4
Get More Help
If this help isn't enough, and you need additional assistance with Usher, you can reach out to us via our other channels. Use our support page to open a trouble ticket or email us directly, and you can often find us on our Discord channel.
You might also find answers to your Usher questions on the Usher FAQ pages.