[vip_students] Windows Media Player 11 Guide
- From: "albertbrown" <albertbrown@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:35:21 -0000
Hello,
I came across this interesting tutorial on Windows Media Player, written By
David Bailes.
hope you find it useful.
Bert
Windows Media Player 11 Guide
A guide for Jaws users, written by David Bailes
Contents
list of 14 items
. Introduction.
. Main window.
. Main menus.
. Player taskbar.
. Playback controls area.
. Playing CDs and audio files
. Now Playing page
. Library page.
. Rip page.
. Burn page.
. Options dialog.
. Audio file formats.
. CD drive autoplay.
. Keystrokes.
list end
Introduction
This is a guide for Windows Media Player 11, running under Windows XP. Although
the Player can deal with most types of digital media, including audio, pictures,
and video, this guide is only concerned with digital audio. The guide describes
how you can use Window Media Player to:
list of 4 items
. Play audio files, audio CDs, and data CDs containing audio files.
. Organise the audio files on your computer using the Library.
. Rip audio CDs to your computer.
. Burn audio and data CDs.
list end
Even given the focus only on digital audio, not all the capabilities of the
Player are covered in this guide. For further information, see the the Player's
Help.
Throughout the guide, optical drives which can play CDs, whether they're DVD or
CD drives, are referred to simply as CD drives.
Pages and tasks
Windows Media Player has a number of different pages, and so its structure is
in some ways similar to that of a multi-page dialog box. Each of the pages
is designed for a particular task or group of related tasks. The pages and
tasks are:
list of 6 items
. Now Playing page. If Windows Media Player isn't already open, and you open an
audio file or play an CD, then Windows Media Player opens on this page to
play the audio. If Windows Media Player is already open, you'd normally use the
Library page for these tasks.
. Library page, which is used for finding and playing tracks in the Library,
creating and playing your own playlists, and playing audio and data CDs.
. Rip page, which is used for copying the tracks from audio CDs onto the
computer.
. Burn page, which is used for writing tracks on a CD, which can be formatted
as either an audio CD or a data CD.
. Sync page, which is used for transferring tracks between the computer and a
portable player. This page is not described in this guide.
. MSN Music, which is used for playing online audio streams, and purchasing
audio files from online stores. This page is not described in this guide.
list end
When you open Windows Media Player from the Start menu or a Desktop icon, it
opens on the Library page.
Main window
Main components
list of 5 items
. Title bar, which contains the text Windows Media Player. To read the title
bar, press INSERT + T.
. Optional menu bar, as described in the
Main menus section.
. Player taskbar
. This includes buttons which let you select which page you want to work with.
Whichever of these buttons is pressed, the corresponding page is displayed.
Visually, these buttons have the appearance of the tabs of a multi-page dialog
box.
. The page corresponding to the pressed button in the Player taskbar, for
example the Library page. This is the largest component in the window.
. Playback controls area
, which, not unsurprisingly, contains controls for controlling the playing of
tracks.
list end
All these components have the same width as the main window, and so divide the
main window into a number of horizontal panes. The "page" takes up most of
the window, with the Player taskbar above it, and the Playback controls area
below it.
Moving around the main window
list of 2 items
. To move to the next control in the window press TAB, and to move to the
previous control press SHIFT + TAB. Note that simply by pressing TAB you move
through all the controls in all the components of the main window. For example,
if you're focused on the last control in the Player taskbar, then pressing
TAB takes you to the first control of one of the pages, not back to the first
control in the Player taskbar.
. If you press CTRL + TAB, it moves the focus forwards to the nearest of these
two controls:
list of 2 items nesting level 1
. the first control of the selected page, for example, the Select a category
button on the Library page
. the first control in the Playback controls (the seek slider)
list end nesting level 1
If you carry on pressing CTRL + TAB you just alternate between these two
controls. Pressing CTRL + SHIFT + TAB moves you backwards in a similar manner.
Given the large number of controls in the main window, using CTRL + TAB can
greatly reduce the number of keystrokes needed to move around the window. For
example, if you want to move to the Player taskbar, you can press CTRL + TAB
once or twice so that you're at the first control in the selected page, and
then use SHIFT + TAB to move through the controls in the Player taskbar.
list end
Main menus
There are two options for the format of the main menus:
list of 2 items
. A new style pop-up menu.
. A conventional menu bar, which is referred to as classic menus.
list end
Both these formats contains bugs in their keyboard navigation, but the bug in
the classic menus is more severe, and so it's recommended that you use the
new style pop-up menu, which Windows Media Player uses by default. If you want
to change between the two formats, press CTRL + M. The two menu formats
are described in the next sections.
New style pop-up menu
list of 3 items
. Press ALT to open the pop-up menu, which contains sub-menus for File, View,
Play, Tools, and Help. As usual you can open the selected sub-menu by pressing
RIGHT ARROW or ENTER. BUG WARNING: The first time that you open this pop-up
menu after you have logged into the computer, none of the keystrokes for
navigating
the window work. However, if you press ALT + TAB the pop-up menu closes, and if
you then press ALT, the pop-up menu works correctly.
. To close the pop-up menu, press ESC.
. To directly open the File menu, press ALT + F as usual, and similarly for the
View, Play, Tools, and Help menus.
list end
Classic menus
There is a severe bug in the keyboard navigation of the conventional menu bar.
If you press ALT to move to the menu bar, then the two standard keystrokes
to leave the menu bar, ALT and ESC both don't work. There are work arounds, but
it's easiest to use the new style pop-up menu.
Player taskbar
The player taskbar contains the following controls, which will be described in
the next sections:
list of 2 items
. Back and Forward buttons.
. Six pairs of buttons for the different pages.
list end
Back and Forward buttons
These buttons have similarities with the Back and Forward buttons in Internet
Explorer. The keystrokes for these buttons are ALT + LEFT ARROW and ALT +
RIGHT ARROW respectively. The rest of this section gives a more precise
description of these buttons, and assumes that you're reasonably familiar with
the
Library page.
On any of the pages which contain a Primary list view, there are a number of
actions which can change the contents of the Primary list view. For example,
on the Library page the Primary list view can be changed by selecting an item
in the Library tree, opening an item in the Primary list view which isn't
a track, or entering text in the Search box. After one or more of these
actions, you can use the Back button to go back through these actions. Once
you've
gone back through a number of actions, you can then use the Forward button to
move forward through the actions again. As a simple example, if you open
an album in the Primary list view, the tracks in the album are then displayed.
If you then press the Back button, you go back to the list of albums.
Warning: sometimes if you're on a page other than the Library page, and you
press the Back button a number of times, then after going back through the
actions
which changed the Primary list view, you are then returned to the Library page.
But only sometimes.
Six pairs of buttons for the pages
The first button in each pair is used for selecting which page is displayed.
One of these buttons is always pressed, and when Jaws reads the name of the
button, it includes the word pressed if the button is pressed.
The second button in each pair is a menu button for that page. Nearly all these
menus contain the following items:
list of 3 items
. A small number of options which are relevant to the particular page.
. "Other options" which opens the Options dialog at a relevant page.
. "Help with something" which opens Windows Media Player help at a relevant
page.
list end
BUG WARNING: If you press one of the buttons for selecting the page using
SPACEBAR, then as well as the button being pressed, the menu associated with the
following button also opens (this doesn't happen when Jaws is not running). So
only use ENTER to press these buttons.
Playback controls area
The Playback controls area contains the following controls:
list of 13 items
. Seek slider. Pressing LEFT or RIGHT ARROW moves the playback backward or
forward by one twentieth of the length of the track.
. Rotate metadata icon button. When a track is playing, pressing this button
cycles round three icons, which include a tiny frequency plot of the audio.
Of no importance, and unreadable by Jaws anyway.
. Current position of playback (hours, minutes, seconds), which is only present
if a track is being played.
. Shuffle on/off button (CTRL + H).
. Repeat on/off button (CTRL + T).
. Stop button (CTRL + S ).
. Previous item button (CTRL + B).
. Play/Pause button (CTRL + P).
. Next item button (CTRL + F).
. Mute button (F7).
. Volume slider. Press LEFT or RIGHT ARROW to decrease or increase the volume
(F8 or F9).
. View full screen.
. Switch to compact mode.
list end
Playing CDs and audio files
This section gives an overview of playing CDs and audio files. Some of the
details mentioned are more fully described in the sections on the Now Playing
and Library pages, and may make more sense after you have read those sections.
The standard installation of Windows Media Player allows you to play audio
files in only some of the common formats, including mp3, wma and wav. However
you can play files in other audio formats by installing some additional
software, as described in the
Audio file formats section.
Now Playing list
Whenever you play one or more tracks, these tracks appear on the Now Playing
list. You can browse this list on both the Now Playing and Library pages, as
described in the sections for these pages.
Whenever there are tracks in the Now Playing list, you can use all the Playback
controls, which are described above in the
Playback controls area section
, and whose shortcuts are summarised in the
Playback controls section
of the Keystrokes section.
Playing audio CDs
If Windows Media Player is open, then regardless of which page you're on, if
you insert an audio CD:
list of 3 items
. Any autoplay action for Music CDs is ignored (see the
CD drive autoplay section).
. If no audio is playing when you insert the CD, then the CD starts playing,
and the Now Playing list contains the tracks on the CD.
. The CD appears near the bottom of the Library tree on the Library page.
list end
If Windows Media player is not open, and you insert an audio CD, then the
autoplay action for CDs whose content type is Music CD is performed (see the
CD drive autoplay section
). If this autoplay action is either:
list of 2 items
. Play in Window Media Player
. Prompt me to choose an action, and you've chosen Play in Windows Media Player
in the dialog that appears
list end
then:
list of 3 items
. Windows Media Player opens on the Now Playing page.
. Playing starts automatically, and the Now Playing list contains the tracks on
the CD.
. The CD appears near the bottom of the Library tree on the Library page.
list end
Playing data CDs containing audio files
If you insert a data CD containing audio files, then the autoplay action for
CDs whose content type is Music files is performed (see the
CD drive autoplay section
). If this autoplay action is either:
list of 2 items
. Play with Windows Media Player
. Prompt me to choose an action, and you've chosen Play in Windows Media Player
in the dialog that appears
list end
then:
list of 3 items
. If Windows Media Player isn't already open, then it opens on the Now Playing
page.
. The CD starts playing, and the Now Playing list contains the tracks on the
CD.
. The CD appears near the bottom of the Library tree on the Library page.
list end
A data CD can contain hundreds of audio files if they're in a compressed format
like mp3 or wma. If you have a data CD with a large number of files, then
on the Library page you can easily browse the files by artist, album etc using
the different views of the CD which are available in the Library tree, as
described in the
Library tree section
of the Library page section.
Ejecting CDs
To eject a CD: if you only have one CD/DVD drive, then you can use the shortcut
CTRL + J. Otherwise, if you're in the Library, Rip or Burn pages, you can
select the drive in the Library tree, and choose Eject from its shortcut menu.
Playing audio files which are not in the Library
To play audio files which are not in the Library, you can either use the Open
dialog in Windows Media Player, or open them in Windows Explorer which then
refers them to Windows Media Player for playing.
To play one or more audio files using the Open dialog in Windows Media Player:
list of 3 items
1. To open the Open dialog choose Open from the file menu, or press CTRL + O.
2. Select one or more files, and press the default Open button.
3. Playing starts automatically, and the Now Playing list contains the selected
track(s).
list end
If you open one or more audio file in Windows Explorer by selecting them and
pressing ENTER, and their default program is Windows Media Player then:
list of 2 items
. If Window Media player is not open, then it opens on the Now Playing page.
. Playing starts automatically, and the Now Playing list contains the track(s).
list end
If a particular audio file type does not have Windows Media Player as its
default program, you can change this on the File Types page of the Options
dialog,
as described in the
File types section
of the Options dialog section.
Playing audio files on web pages
If you open a link to an audio file, and it's default program is Windows Media
Player then:
list of 2 items
. If Window Media player is not open, then it opens on the Now Playing page.
. Playing starts automatically, and the Now Playing list contains the track.
list end
Note that if you're using the Firefox web browser, this program uses its own
settings for a file type's default program. You can can change these on the
Contents page of Firefox's Options dialog.
Playing audio files which are in the Library
This is described in far too much detail in the
Library page section.
Now Playing page
The primary use of the Now Playing page is for viewing pictures or videos.
However, if Windows Media Player in not open and you open an audio file, or
insert
and try to play a CD, then Windows Media Player opens on the Now Playing page.
Components of Now Playing page
The now playing page is divided vertically into two panes:
list of 2 items
. Video and visualisation display area. This is used for displaying pictures,
videos, and decorative visualisations to accompany audio.
. List Pane, which is described in the following section.
list end
List Pane
The List pane contains these controls:
list of 4 items
. Hide List pane button, which Jaws reads as the Hide basket btn button.
Normally you won't want to hide the List pane. If the List pane is hidden, you
can show the List pane by choosing Show List Pane from the Now Playing menu in
the Player taskbar.
. If a track is playing, a buy button and the track's rating.
. A button whose name depends on the origin of the list of tracks in the Now
Playing list below. For example: the name of the CD if the tracks are on a
CD; the name of a playlist if the tracks are in a playlist; Now Playing, if the
tracks don't have a name, or the Now Playing list is empty. If you press
the button, a menu opens which includes options for sorting the tracks in the
Now Playing list.
. Now Playing list, which Jaws reads as the Basket list view.
list end
Library page
On the Library page you can easily find an play files which are in the Library,
and also create, edit and play your own playlists. This is the largest section
of this guide, and it contains the following sub-sections:
list of 10 items
. The Library.
. Components of the Library page.
. Address toolbar.
. Library tree.
. Primary list view.
. Playing tracks.
. Searching the primary list view.
. Updating the Library.
. Editing media information.
. Playlists.
list end
The Library
The Library is a database of the media files on your computer, which allows you
to quickly find and play files. This database contains pointers to the media
files, so you can remove a file from the Library without necessarily removing
the file from your computer.
The media files in the Library are divided into five main categories: music,
pictures, video, recorded TV, and other media. The Library page shows only
the files in the category which is set by the Select a category button, which
is the first control on the page. By default this is set to Music, so you
shouldn't have to change it.
Media information
When a media file is created, then certain media information is included in the
file. Individual items of media information are known as attributes or tags.
Examples of the attributes contained in audio files are: title, album, artist,
etc. This media information is vital for the Library, as it's the information
which allows you to quickly search it to find the tracks which you want. If the
media information has not been automatically included in a file then it
can be added manually, as described in the
Editing media information section
below.
Components of the Library page
These are the components of the Library page, which are all described in detail
in subsequent sections:
list of 4 items
. Address toolbar.
. Library tree
(called the navigation pane in WMP help). If you select an item in the Library
tree, then the content of that item is shown in the Primary list view.
. Primary list view
(called the details pane in WMP help).
. List pane
, which is used for editing playlists.
list end
The address toolbar runs across the top of the page, and below this the Library
tree, Primary list view and List pane form three columns
Address toolbar
The Address toolbar contains the following controls:
list of 5 items
. The Select a category button, which is used for selecting the category of
media files which you want to deal with on the Library page. By default, this
is set to music. To the right of this button are a number of buttons which give
you an alternative method for selecting an item in the Library tree. These
buttons are accessed using LEFT ARROW and RIGHT ARROW, but they won't be used
in this guide.
. Layout Options button. To the right of this button, there's a View Options
split button which you can reach by pressing RIGHT ARROW if you focused on
the Layout Options button.
. Search edit box, which is used for searching the items in the Primary list
view, and is described in the
Searching the primary list view section
below.
. Search options button.
. Show List pane button. This only appears when the List pane is hidden.
There's normally no need to use this button, as the List pane is automatically
shown when it is being used for editing playlists.
list end
Library tree
If you select an item in the Library tree, then its contents are shown in the
Primary list view. The items at the top level of the Library tree are:
list of 5 items
. Playlists, which contains your playlists. If the Playlists item is open then
the first child item is for creating playlists, and the remaining children
are only the five most recently created playlists. However, when the Playlists
item is selected in the Library tree, all your playlists appear in the Primary
list view, with the first five being the most recently created.
. Now Playing (sometimes). This is a list of tracks which are currently being
played.
. Library, which contains several possible views of the Library. If it's open,
then the child items are the possible views of the Library. These views are:
list of 7 items nesting level 1
. Recently added - files added within the last 30 days.
. Artist.
. Album.
. Songs - all the tracks in the Library, grouped by artist. However the names
of the artists at the beginning of each grouping are not accessible to Jaws.
This item is roughly equivalent to All Music in Windows Media Player 10.
. Genre.
. Year.
. Rating.
list end nesting level 1
. Audio CD (sometimes). If there is an audio CD in one of the CD drives, then
the album name appears in the Library tree.
. Data CD (sometimes). If there is a data CD which contains audio files in one
of the CD drives, then the CD's label appears in the Library tree. Just like
the Library item, a data CD contains several possible views. If it's open, then
the child items are the possible views of the audio files on the CD.
list end
Navigating the tree
list of 4 items
. As for any list, you can use these keys: UP and DOWN ARROW, HOME and END, and
the first letter of the item you want to find.
. LEFT ARROW has two uses: if you're focused on an open item, it closes it;
else it moves you up the list to the parent item.
. RIGHT ARROW also has two uses: if you're focused on a closed item, it opens
it; if you you're focused on an open item, it moves you down to the first
child item.
. If either the Library, or any of the Library views are selected, then you can
use these keystrokes to change the selection:
list of 3 items nesting level 1
. CTRL + 7 to select the Artist view of the Library
. CTRL + 8 to select the Album view of the Library.
. CTRL + 9 to select the Songs view of the Library.
list end nesting level 1
These keystrokes are useful when you're in the Primary list view as they save
you having to move to the Library tree to change the view of the Library.
list end
Primary list view
Views of the Primary list view
For many of the items in the Library tree, the corresponding list of items in
the Primary list view can be displayed in a number of possible views. For
example, if the Songs view of the Library is selected in the Library tree, then
the list of tracks in the Primary list view can have either an Expanded
Tile or Details view. This is very similar to the choice of views of a folder
in Windows Explorer.
For each of the items in the Library tree, it's recommended that, whenever
possible, you set the view to details, as this allows you both to use UP ARROW
and DOWN ARROW to move through the entire list, and to use the first letter of
an item to quickly find it.
Unfortunately, unlike in Windows Explorer, you can't change the view for one of
the items in the Library tree, and then apply that to all the other items.
After some instructions for changing a view, there's a list of the items in the
Library tree, along with recommendations for changing the view.
To change the view of the Primary list view for an item in the Library tree:
list of 4 items
1. Select an item in the Library tree.
2. Move to the Layout options button in the Address bar (eg press CTRL + TAB
twice, TAB once.
3. Press RIGHT ARROW to move to the View Options split button.
4. Press DOWN ARROW to open the drop down menu, and choose an option (eg
details).
list end
The following list of the items in the Library tree gives their default view,
and recommendations for changing the view to details, where possible:
list of 14 items
. Playlists, which contains the individual playlists. The default view is Tile,
change this to details.
. Individual playlists. The default and only view is details, so no change
needed (or possible!).
. Now Playing. The default and only view is details.
. Library, which contains the views of the Library. The default and only view
is icon, so you're stuck with this view.
. Recently added view of the Library. This shares the same view as the Songs
view of the Library - see below.
. Artist view of the Library. The default view is Icon, change this to details.
. Album view of the Library. The default view is Icon, change this to details.
. Songs view of the Library. The default view is Expanded Tile, change this to
details.
. Genre view of the Library. The default view is Tile, change this to details.
. Year view of the Library. The default view is Tile, change this to details.
. Ratings view of the Library. The default and only view is Icon.
. Audio CD (this only appears when a CD drive contains an audio CD). The
default view is Expanded tile, change this to details.
. Data CD containing audio files, which contains the views of the data CD (this
only appears when a CD drive contains a data CD). The default and only view
is Icon.
. Views of the data CD. These share the same settings as the views of the
Library, so there's no need to change these.
list end
Choosing columns
For all of the items in the Library tree, if it's been set to use the details
view, then you can choose which columns are shown, and their order. Examples
for wanting to change the default settings include:
list of 2 items
. By default, the first column of both the Songs view of the Library and a
playlist is the track number, which doesn't allow you to use the first letter
of the the track's title to find it more quickly. So you might want to either
not show this column or move it.
. If there are alot of columns shown, then it's tedious having Jaws read them
all, so you may want to keep only the important columns.
list end
To choose the columns for an item in the Library tree:
list of 4 items
. Select the item in the Library tree.
. Move to the Layout Options button on the Address bar, for example by pressing
SHIFT + TAB three times.
. Press this button, and choose Choose Columns from the menu.
. The Choose Columns dialog opens. The first control is a list of check boxes
for the possible columns. To show/hide a column, select it and press SPACEBAR.
To move a column, select it, TAB to the Move up or Move down button, and press
it.
list end
Navigating the Primary list view
list of 5 items
. HOME and END.
. The first letter(s) of the item you want to find.
. UP ARROW and DOWN ARROW. Note that if you're focused on the first item in the
list and you press UP ARROW, this takes you to the Search edit box on the
Address toolbar. You can return to the top of the Primary list view by pressing
DOWN ARROW. Also note that these keystrokes will not take you through the
complete list if the view is set to icon or tile.
. If you select any item, you can open it by pressing ENTER. If the item is a
track, then the track starts playing, as described in the next section. If
you open other items, then the list displays the tracks contained in that item.
For example, if you open an album, then you're taken to a list of the tracks
in that album. If you open an artist, then the list displays a list of the
tracks by that artist which are grouped by album. However the album titles are
not accessible to Jaws. If you're looking for an album by a particular artist,
it's best to select the Album view of the Library in the Library tree, and
then search the Primary list view for albums by that artist, as described in
the
Searching the primary list view section.
. Having opened an item other than a track, you can come back up a level by
pressing the Back button (ALT + LEFT ARROW) in the Player taskbar.
list end
Playing tracks
Once you've found in the Primary list view the track(s) that you want to play:
list of 2 items
. To play the tracks, starting from a particular track, select this track and
press ENTER. The track starts playing, and a Now Playing list is automatically
created from the tracks currently in the Primary view list.
. To play a single track and no others, select a track and choose Play from its
shortcut menu. The Now Playing list consists of this single track.
list end
You can browse around the library without affecting this Now Playing list, and
if you want to refer back to the list, its available via the Now Playing
item in the Library tree.
Searching the Primary list view
You can search for items in the Primary list view using the Search edit box in
the Address bar. Because the results of the search are also shown in the
Primary list view, you can also think of this operation as filtering the
contents of the Primary list view.
list of 3 items
. You can move to the Search edit box by pressing CTRL + E.
. The results of the search are shown in the Primary list view, and you can
move to the Primary list view from the Search edit box simply by pressing DOWN
ARROW.
. If you move to the Search edit box and it already contains text, then the
text is selected.
list end
Details of the text matching used in the search:
list of 5 items
. The search is not case sensitive.
. The text you enter in the Search edit box can either be one or more complete
words, or the first letters of one or more words.
. By default, each word or initial letters of a word is matched against text in
all the columns for each item in the Primary list view. To restrict the
match to a single attribute, use the format attribute:text. For example, if the
Primary list view contains a list of albums, then to find the albums by
Elvis, type artist:elvis in the Search edit box. Other attributes which you can
use in this context include album, composer, genre, rating and title.
. If you enter two or more words, then only items which contain all the words
are found. However you can use the OR operator, for example Chopin OR Debussy.
. To search for an exact phrase, use quotes, for example "mark twain". Without
the quotes the search could find items which contained the text mark in one
column and twain in another.
list end
Updating the Library
There are number of ways of updating the media files in the Library:
list of 3 items
. Windows Media Player automatically monitors a number of folders, including My
Music. If you need to change the folders which are monitored:
list of 4 items nesting level 1
1. Either choose Add to Library from the Library menu in the Player taskbar, or
press the Monitor Folders button on the Library page of the Options dialog.
2. The Add to Library dialog opens. If there is an Add button press it,
otherwise first press the Advanced Options button, and then press the Add
button.
3. The Add Folder dialog opens. TAB to the Select a folder tree, select a
folder, and press ENTER to press the default OK button.
4. You're returned to the Add to Library dialog, with the focus on the Add
button. TAB to the OK button and press it.
list end nesting level 1
. When you play a file, it is automatically added to the Library. However this
does not happen if the file is on removable storage media, or removable storage
devices ( for example, data CDs and USB flash drives ).
. To remove audio files from the Library:
list of 2 items nesting level 1
1. Select one or more files, and press DELETE.
2. A Windows Media Player dialog opens, asking whether you really want to
delete the file(s). The first control is a pair of radio buttons which give you
the option of deleting the file only in the Library, or also on disk. (The
default setting for these buttons can be set on the Library page of the Options
dialog). If you want to delete the files, TAB to the OK button and press it.
list end nesting level 1
list end
Editing media information
Occasionally you may want to manually edit a track's media information. For
example, if the media information for a ripped CD is not available in
Microsoft's
online database, or it's an audio file which you've created yourself. Two
methods of editing the the media information are described in the next two
sections.
Editing media information using the Edit command
To change one of the media attributes of a track:
list of 3 items
1. In the Primary list view, select a track, and either choose Edit from its
shortcut menu, or press F2.
2. The text in the first column is selected. If necessary, TAB to the column
which you want to change - unfortunately Jaws does not tell you which column
you're in.
3. Type in the new information, and press ENTER. Note that on the basis of this
new information, the position of the track in the list of tracks may change.
list end
You can also use the Edit command on items other than tracks, and so change a
media attribute of a number of tracks at the same time. For example, suppose
that you've got a number of tracks in the library by the artist Susan
Flowerpot. To change all those tracks so that they have the artist attribute Sue
Flowers:
list of 3 items
1. Select the Artist view of the Library in the Library tree.
2. Select the artist Susan Flowerpot in the Primary list view.
3. Follow the instructions above to change the first column from Susan
Flowerpot to Sue Flowers.
list end
Using the different views of the Library, you can also change the names of
albums, genre's, and years.
Editing media information using the Advanced Tag Editor
To change one or more attributes of a track, you can use the Advanced Tag
Editor (note the bug warning below):
list of 2 items
1. In the Primary list view, select a track, and choose Advanced Tag Editor
from its shortcut menu.
2. The Advanced Tag Editor dialog box opens. This is a multi-page dialog, and
most of the information which you'll want to change will probably be on the
first two pages: Track Info and Artist Info.
list end
BUG WARNINGS: The keystrokes for changing the page of this dialog are a badly
broken. CTRL + TAB does not change the page of this dialog. To change the
page:
list of 2 items
1. TAB to the page tab, and press LEFT ARROW or RIGHT ARROW
2. Note that on the new page the focus should be on the page tab, but in fact
it's on the OK button. This means that you can't press one of the arrow keys
repeatedly and cycle round the page tabs.
list end
Playlists
A playlist is a list of tracks, and each playlist has its own name. You can use
a playlist to create a group of tracks which aren't necessarily by the same
artist or on the same album, etc. For example, you could create a playlist
called sixties which contains your favourite tracks from the sixties.
You can create both regular and auto playlists. For a regular playlist, the
editing of which tracks are in the playlist is completely manual. In contrast,
an auto playlist contains a set of criteria for the tracks to be included, and
the tracks in the playlist are automatically updated if necessary when the
tracks in the Library change. For example you could create an auto playlist
which contains all the tracks in the library by a particular artist which were
released before a particular year. If you then added more tracks to the Library
which satisfied those criteria, then they would automatically be added
to the playlist. Only the creation and editing of regular playlists will be
described in this guide.
Before describing how to create and edit regular playlists, there's a
description of the controls in the List pane which can be used for both
creating and
editing these playlists.
List pane
The controls in the list pane are:
list of 4 items
. Hide List pane button, which Jaws reads as the Hide basket btn button.
. Playlist button which has the name of the playlist being edited. If no
playlist is being edited, then its name is untitled playlist. It's used for
selecting
options for editing the playlist.
. List of tracks in the playlist, which Jaws reads as the Basket list view.
. Save Playlist button (ALT + S), which only appears when you have made changes
to the playlist.
list end
Creating a regular playlist
To create a playlist:
list of 4 items
. Either press CTRL + N, which takes you to the Playlist button in the List
pane, or in the Library tree select Create Playlist, which is the first child
of Playlists.
. Type in a name for the playlist, and press ENTER. This creates the playlist,
and opens the playlist for editing in the List pane.
. If you just want to create an empty playlist which you're going to add tracks
to in the future, then it's normally best to press the Clear list button
in the List pane to indicate that you've finished editing the playlist (if
you've used CTRL + N to create the playlist, then this button is the next
control).
. If you want to add some tracks immediately, follow the instructions in the
next section on editing a playlist using the List pane. Note that the playlist
has already been opened for editing in the List pane, so you should omit the
first step.
list end
Editing a regular playlist using the List pane
To edit a playlist using the List pane:
list of 4 items
1. To start editing, select a playlist and choose Edit in List pane from its
shortcut menu. (For details of accessing playlists, see the
Library tree section
above.) The playlist is displayed in the List pane.
2. Edit the list, as described below.
3. When you want to save your edits, press the Save Playlist button at the end
of the List pane (ALT + S). If you forget to save your edits, then at some
stage you'll get a dialog box warning you that your changes haven't been saved,
and asking you whether you want to save the changes. The default button
is Yes. BUG WARNING:If you press the No button to indicate that you don't want
to save your changes, then unless you close and reopen the program, it appears
as if your changes were in fact saved. A little confusing.
4. Finally, it's normally best to press the Clear list button in the List pane
to indicate that you've finished editing the playlist.
list end
The possible edits include:
list of 4 items
. To add one or more items in the Primary list view to the Playlist, select the
items, and then choose Add to "name" from the shortcut menu, where name
is the name of the playlist. Note that you can add any type of item in the
Primary list view: for example if you add an album, then all the tracks in the
album are added to the playlist.
. To remove one or more tracks from the playlist, select the track(s) in the
List pane, and either press DELETE or choose Remove from List from the shortcut
menu. Note that removing a track from a playlist does not remove it either from
the Library or the computer.
. To move one or more tracks up or down the playlist, select the track(s) in
the List pane, and choose Move Up or Move Down from the shortcut menu.
. If you press Playlist button in the List pane (which has the name of the
playlist being edited), then a menu opens which contains options including
sorting
the playlist by title, or artist etc.
list end
Rip page
This page is for ripping (copying) the tracks from an audio CD to your computer.
The first time that you rip a CD, a Rip Options dialog opens. The first control
is a pair of radio buttons which give you the option as to whether you want
to add copy protection to your music files or not. The second control is a
checkbox which you have to check to indicate that you understand that music
from CDs is protected by copyright.
When you rip a CD, if you're connected to the internet Windows Media Player
tries to get the media information for the tracks on the CD from Microsoft's
online database. If you're not connected to the internet when you rip a CD,
you'll get a dialog box warning you that it couldn't get the media information.
When you next connect to the internet, Windows Media Player will try to obtain
the missing media information. Occasionally, the required media information
is not contained in the online database, and you have to edit the media
information manually, as described in the
Editing media information section
which is in the Library page section.
Components of the Rip page
list of 4 items
. Layout Options button. Associated with this button, there's a View Options
split button which you can reach by pressing RIGHT ARROW if you focused on
the Layout Options button.
. Library tree, which contains a list of the CD/DVD drives on the computer.
Each drive is listed either as No Disc, or the name of the album in the drive,
and the drive letter is given in parenthesis.
. Primary List view, which lists the tracks of the album selected in the
Library tree.
. A Start/Stop Rip button (ALT + S).
list end
The Layout Options button is at the top of the page, and below this the Library
tree and the Primary list view form two columns. The Start/Stop Rip button
is at the bottom of the page.
Rip options
These are some of the options you may want to set. The following description
uses the items on the Rip menu in the Player taskbar, but the options are also
available on the Rip page of the Options Dialog.
list of 4 items
. Eject CD After Ripping. Jaws doesn't say anything when the rip is complete,
so set this to checked.
. Rip CD Automatically When Inserted sub menu. This controls what happens when
you insert an audio CD when Window Media Player is running. The options are:
Only when in the Rip Tab, Always, and Never. If you use one of the automatic
options, then all you have to do is insert the CD, and then wait for the CD
to eject. Note that when Windows Media Player is not running, then any
automatic action, like ripping the CD, is controlled by the properties of the CD
drive, as described in the
CD drive autoplay section
below.
. Format sub menu. By default the ripped tracks are in the Windows Media Audio
format (WMA), but you can also use MP3, WAV, or a number of formats in the
wma family.
. Bit Rate. The higher the bit rate, the larger the file, and generally the
better the audio quality.
list end
Ripping a CD
This describes how to rip a CD, assuming that you've set the Rip CD
Automatically option to never, as described above.
list of 5 items
1. If there isn't already an audio CD in one of the computer's CD drives,
insert one.
2. If you've got more than one CD drive, make sure that that the drive
containing the audio CD is selected in the Library tree.
3. The Primary List view should list the tracks on the CD. Each item in the
list has an associated check box which is checked by default. If there are
tracks
which you don't want to rip, you can go through and uncheck those tracks.
4. Press the Start Rip button (ALT + S).
5. There is some text in the Playback Controls area which gives the progress of
the ripping, but this is not accessible to Jaws. If you do want to find
out the progress, then if you move to a track in the Primary List view, the rip
status is normally one of the columns which Jaws reads out. This status
can be either pending, ripping, or ripped to library. When the rip is complete,
the CD is ejected, as long as you're set that option. Whilst a CD is being
ripped its quite alright to use the computer for other tasks.
list end
Burn page
On the Burn page, you can burn either audio or data CDs.
Components of the Burn page
list of 4 items
. Address toolbar, which is the same as in the Library page.
. Library tree. This is the same as the Library tree in the Library page,
except that at the bottom of the tree, rather than listing any CDs in any of the
drives, it lists the CD burners on the computer. The name of each CD burner
indicates the contents of the drive: No Disc, Blank Disc, or the name of an
audio or data CD.
. Primary list view, which is the same as in the library page.
. List pane, which contains the burn list, and is described in the next
section.
list end
The address toolbar runs across the top of the page, and below this the the
Library tree, Primary list view and List pane form three columns.
List pane
The list pane contains the following controls:
list of 4 items
. Burn List button.
. Clear List pane button, which is only present when there are items in the
Burn list.
. Burn list, which Jaws reads as the basket list view.
. Start/Stop button (ALT + S), which is only present when there are items in
the Burn list.
list end
Burn options
These are some of the options you may want to set, using the Burn menu on the
Player taskbar. There are also other options on the Burn page of the Options
dialog.
list of 3 items
. Audio CD and Data CD. Set as you want. Note that this option is not available
on the Burn page of the Options dialog.
. Eject disc after burning. This should be set to checked, as it's the only way
you'll know that the burn has finished.
. Apply volume leveling across tracks on audio CDs.
list end
Burning a CD
Assuming that you've only got one drive that can burn CDs and that you're going
to burn a CD-R, then to burn a CD:
list of 7 items
1. Set any options, as described in the previous section.
2. Insert a blank CD. If you want to check that you've inserted a blank CD,
move to the CD burner at the bottom of the Library tree, and it should read
Blank Disc.
3. To add one or more items in the Primary list view to the Burn list, select
the items, and then choose Add to Burn list from the shortcut menu. Note that
you can add any type of item in the Primary list view: for example if you add
an playlist, then all the tracks in the playlist are added to the Burn list.
4. The time/space remaining on the disc is displayed at the top of the List
pane, but this is inaccessible to Jaws users. Also, if the list takes up more
than one CD, then the list is automatically split into a number of CDs.
However, this splitting is again not accessible to Jaws users. Which only leaves
mental arithmetic.
5. If necessary you can edit the Burn list in the List pane. If you select one
or more tracks in this list, from the shortcut menu you can either remove
the track(s) from the list, or move the track(s) up or down the list. To sort
the list, press the Burn list button, and choose an option from the sort
sub-menu.
6. To burn the CD, press the Start Burn button (ALT + S) at the bottom of the
List pane.
7. Microsoft recommend that you don't use the computer for any other task
during burning a CD. Some of the information indicating the progress of burning
the CD is accessible to Jaws, but as that involves the computer in another
task, it's probably best just to wait till the CD is ejected.
list end
Options dialog
The Options dialog is a multi-page dialog box, which you can open by choosing
Options from the Tools menu (ALT + T, O).
Library, Rip, and Burn
The Library, Rip and Burn pages of the Options dialog contain options relevant
to the corresponding pages in the main window of Windows Media Player. The
menus in the Player taskbar also contain options for the pages in the main
window, as described in the
Player taskbar section
above. Many options are available only on the pages of the Options dialog, and
a small number of options are only available on the menus in the Player
Taskbar.
File types
The File Types page of the Options dialog allows you to set whether or not you
want Windows Media Player to be the default program for each of the media
file types (file formats). The first control is a list of check boxes for all
the media file types. If a check box is checked, then Windows Media Player
is the default program for that file type.
Audio file formats
The standard installation of Windows Media Player can only play audio files in
certain formats, for example WAV, WMA and MP3. However it's possible to play
other audio formats by installing additional software.
The audio in nearly all audio formats has been compressed to reduce the storage
requirements. To play the audio in such a file it first has to be decompressed
using a decoder. There are several schemes for compression and decompression,
and hence the need for several decoders. So play to files in a format which
are not supported as standard, you have to install any decoders which may be
needed to play the file.
In addition, if you want to include these files in other formats in your
library, you need to install another piece of software to do this. Two examples
of decoders you might need, and the software to include the files in your
library are described in the following sections.
Additional decoders
Ogg Vorbis is an open source file format which is free of patents (probably),
and audio files in this format normally have the extension .ogg. You can
download
a decoder for Ogg files from the web page at:
www.illiminable.com/ogg/
. In fact the decoder is included in a codec which contains various encoders
and decoders. On the above page, the link to the codec is "Download Now".
An Advanced Audio Coding (aac) decoder is needed to play files in the m4a and
aac formats. By default, iTunes uses the m4a format when it rips audio CDs.
Note that files bought from iTunes which are copy protected have the m4p
format, and these can only be played by iTunes. A free aac decoder to play m4a
and aac files is available from the company Orban, and it can be downloaded
from the web page at:
www.orban.com/plugin/
. On this page, the link to the plug-in which contains the decoder is "get it
here". Note that this plug-in has the unwanted behaviour that when you play
a track in the aac or m4a format it changes the page of Windows Media Player to
the Now Playing page. If you move away from this page, it stops playing
the track.
Including files in additional formats in the Library
Even after you have installed these decoders, Ogg files appear in the Other
media category of the Library, and aac and m4a files don't appear in the Library
at all.
However, you can include these files (and some others) if you install the WMP
Tag Support Extender plug-in. This software is open source, and therefore
free. You can download it from the web page at:
wmptagext.sourceforge.net
. On this page, the link to the plug-in is "Download It!".
There are a number of issues with the WMP Tag Support Extender:
list of 3 items
. BUG WARNING: With this software installed you cannot use the seek slider for
tracks in the additional file formats.
. Only the Ogg files which you add to the Library after you've install the
software are categorised as Music; those added before remain categorised as
Other
Media.
. You can't use the Advanced Tag Editor to edit the media information of the
additional file formats.
list end
CD drive autoplay
When a CD is inserted into a drive, then you can set an action to be performed
which depends of the content type of the CD. These actions are known as autoplay
actions, and they're set on the autoplay page of the drive's properties dialog,
as described later in this section.
For each content type, you can set the action to be:
list of 2 items
. an action which takes places automatically, without consulting the user.
. opening a dialog box which allows you to choose an action each time a CD is
inserted.
list end
The actions available depend on the content type of the CD. For the Music CD
content type (audio CDs), the actions include:
list of 3 items
. Rip music from CD using Windows Media Player.
. Play audio CD using Windows Media Player.
. Take no action.
list end
For Music files (data CDs containing audio files), the actions include:
list of 2 items
. Play using Windows Media Player.
. Take no action.
list end
To change a drive's autoplay setting for a particular content type:
list of 6 items
1. To open the properties dialog of the CD drive, select the drive in Windows
Explorer, and either choose Properties from its shortcut menu or press ALT
+ ENTER.
2. Using CTRL + TAB move to the Autoplay page of the dialog.
3. The first control on this page is a combo box for the content type of the CD
for which you want to set an automatic action. Set this to the content type
you're interested in, and then TAB to the next control.
4. The next control is a pair a radio boxes. However the standard keyboard
navigation of these has been broken by placing a list box between them. The
focus
will either be on the "Select an action to perform" radio button, or the
"Prompt me each time to select an action" radio button. If the focus is on the
second of these radio button, then you can change the selection by pressing UP
ARROW or DOWN ARROW as usual. However if the focus is on the first radio
box (Select an action to perform) to select the other radio button you can
either press UP ARROW twice or TAB to the Restore Defaults button and press
it, since the default action is to prompt each time.
5. If you have chosen the "Select an action to perform" radio box, press TAB to
move to a list box of possible actions and select the one you want.
6. Press ENTER to press the default OK button.
list end
Keystrokes
General
Summary: general keystrokes
table with 2 columns and 8 rows
Command
Keystrokes
Open dialog
CTRL + O
Options dialog
ALT + T, O
Move forward to either first control in page, or the seek slider
CTRL + TAB
Move backward to either first control in page, or the seek slider
CTRL + SHIFT + TAB
Back
ALT + LEFT ARROW
Forward
ALT + RIGHT ARROW
To eject a CD (if there is only one CD/DVD drive)
CTRL + J
table end
Playback controls
Summary: keystrokes for playback controls
table with 2 columns and 11 rows
Command
Keystrokes
Play/Pause
CTRL + P
Stop
CTRL + S
Fast forward
CTRL + SHIFT + F
Mute
F7
Decrease volume
F8
Increase volume
F9
Previous item
CTRL + B
Next item
CTRL + F
Toggle shuffle
CTRL + H
Toggle repeat
CTRL + T
table end
Library page
Summary: keystrokes for library page
table with 2 columns and 7 rows
Command
Keystrokes
Artist view of library
CTRL + 7
Album view of library
CTRL + 8
Songs view of library
CTRL + 9
Search edit box
CTRL + E
Create new playlist
CTRL + N
Save edited playlist
ALT + S
table end
Rip page
Summary: keystrokes for rip page
table with 2 columns and 2 rows
Command
Keystrokes
Start/Stop rip
ALT + S
table end
Burn page
Summary: keystrokes for burn page
table with 2 columns and 6 rows
Command
Keystrokes
Artist view of library
CTRL + 7
Album view of library
CTRL + 8
Songs view of library
CTRL + 9
Search edit box
CTRL + E
Start/Stop burn
ALT + S
table end
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