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Live View

richardsladetdj-creator edited this page Jun 20, 2026 · 6 revisions

Live View

The control window is the central hub for TangoDisplay. It uses a sidebar for navigation with three sections:

Live

  • Live — Status, preview, and quick-action buttons (this page)
  • Setlist — Built-in player queue and playback controls (Built-In Player)

Settings

Profiles

  • Profiles — Saved appearance profiles (Profiles)

The Setlist item is only active when Built-in Player is selected as the player source. Selecting it while using another source shows a prompt to switch.


The Live page shows what is currently playing, a live preview of the dancer display, and quick-action buttons.


Status indicators

At the bottom of the preview area:

Indicator Meaning
Playing (green) A track is currently playing
Polling OK (green) TangoDisplay successfully read track data on the last poll
Paused The display is manually paused (dancer screen is frozen)

When using the Built-in Player, status reflects local playback state rather than Music.app polling. The "Polling OK" indicator is not shown in this mode.


Action buttons

Button Shortcut What it does
Force Poll ⌘⇧R Immediately triggers a Music.app re-read, bypassing the normal notification/fallback-poll cycle
Override… ⌘⇧O Opens a dialog to manually set what text appears on the display
Pause Display ⌘⇧P Freezes the dancer screen; pressing again resumes live updates
Last Tanda Activates the Last Tanda label on the dancer display — label appears in the cortina coming-up section and throughout every dance track in the tanda. Toggle again to clear. Disabled if no Last Tanda label text is configured in Appearance Settings.

All three keyboard shortcuts work globally — you don't need to switch to TangoDisplay first. The Last Tanda toggle has no shortcut.


Last Tanda

The Last Tanda toggle activates the Last Tanda label on the dancer display. When toggled on:

  • During a cortina: the label appears in the coming-up section alongside the next tanda preview.
  • During dance tracks: the label appears as an orderable field in the Dance Tracks display.

The toggle is enabled only when a Last Tanda label text is configured and the Show in display option is on in Appearance › Last Tanda.

Works with any player source. For Built-in Player users, cortinas can also be pre-scheduled — see Last Tanda in the Built-in Player docs.

Turning the toggle off immediately clears the label from the display.


Focus Mode

Focus Mode combines the live preview and setlist into a single split-pane window — useful when you want everything on one screen during a performance.

Open / close: Click the Focus Mode button in the toolbar (⌘⇧F).

Layout

  • Top pane — 16:9 live preview of the dancer display. An optional controls panel (200 px wide) sits to the right of the preview.
  • Divider — drag the divider strip to resize the top and bottom panes. The split position is remembered between sessions.
  • Bottom pane — the full Setlist view, including player controls and track list. Requires Built-in Player to be active; if another player source is selected, a prompt offers to switch.

Controls panel

The controls panel (toggle with the rectangle toolbar button, or hide it to maximise preview space) contains:

Button What it does
Force Poll Immediately triggers a re-read from the current player source
Override… Opens the manual display override dialog
Pause Display / Unpause Display Freezes or resumes live updates on the dancer screen
Last Tanda Activates/deactivates the Last Tanda label

Focus Mode requires the Built-in Player to be active for the setlist panel. The preview and controls panel work with any player source.


Track info panel

Below the buttons, TangoDisplay shows the currently detected values:

  • Title — track name (may include vocalist in parentheses)
  • Artist — orchestra / artist name
  • Genre — the genre tag from Music.app
  • Tanda — position within the current tanda, e.g. "Track 1 of 4"

Debug log

The Debug Log disclosure item at the bottom expands to show recent polling events, AppleScript results, and cortina detection decisions. Useful for troubleshooting unexpected behaviour.

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