Media Player program window

Like most programs, Windows Media Player opens in its own program window and has a taskbar button. The player can have many different appearances. Exactly how it looks at any time is up to you. You'll see different ways to display things in a moment. For now, we need to cover the names of things so you know what we're talking about in the sections that follow.

Figure 18.2 points out the major components of Media Player's Player Library program window.

The Features taskbar across the top of the program window represents different areas of Media Player, each of which helps you perform a specific task. In Figure 18.2, the Play tab is selected. Here's a quick summary of the program components and what each tab offers:

• Navigation pane: Takes you to your collection of songs and other media files.
• Details pane: Shows details for the currently selected library, album, genre, video, and so on.
• List pane: Shows information about the current playlist and item.
• Playback controls: Provides controls for playing the currently selected media, and for switching to Now Playing mode.
• Play: Shows the movie or video you're currently watching or song that is currently playing (if any). You can also rip (copy) CDs to your computer.
• Burn: Lets you create custom CDs from songs in your media library.
• Sync: Allows you to copy songs and other media files to a portable media player.

The toolbar

The Media Player toolbar gives you quick access to frequently used commands and options. The buttons in the toolbar change depending on what you have selected at the moment. The following list summarizes the available buttons:

• Organize: Manage your media libraries, sort media, customize the Navigation pane, change the Player Library layout, and access Media Player options.
• Stream: Enable Internet access to your home media and turn on media streaming, which allows you to send your media to other computers on the local network or the Internet.
• Create Playlist: Create a playback list (playlist) of media so you can play the selected items as a group. For example, you might create a playlist called My Top 100 that contains 100 of your favorite songs.
• Rip CD: Copy music from a CD to your media library on your computer so you can play it from your computer and optionally share it.
• Rip Settings: Specify settings to control the way Media Player rips music from CDs to your computer.
• View Options: Choose between Icon, Expanded, and Details views for the List pane.
• Search: Search for media in your library.
• Help: Open Media Player's Help content.

Media Player menus

Media Player has lots of menus. They're hidden from view most of the time, but getting to them is easy. Many of the toolbar buttons have their own menus. You'll see a little down-pointing triangle at the right of the button if it offers commands. Position the tip of the mouse pointer on that little triangle and click the left mouse button to see the menu for that taskbar button. In Figure 18.3, for example, you can see the menu for the Organize button.

To see the main menu, right-click an empty area near the play controls, as at the bottom of Figure 18.4. Optionally, you can right-click an empty spot on the left or right side of the features taskbar to get to the same menu. To make those same options visible in a menu bar, choose Show Menu Bar from the bottom of that main menu.

Play controls

The play controls (also called the playback controls) are at the bottom of Media Player's program window (refer to Figure 18.4). They work only when you're playing a song or video or you've selected something to play. They work much like the controls on a stereo or DVD player. The exact role of each button varies slightly with the type of content you've loaded. Here's what each of the play controls offers:

• Seek bar: When content is playing, a green indicator moves along the seek bar. You can click anywhere along the seek bar to jump forward or backward in the playing item. When you point to the end of the green indicator, a button appears. You can drag that button left or right to move back or forward within the item that's playing.
• Shuffle: When selected, multiple songs from the current playlist are played in random order. When turned off, songs from the playlist are played in the same order as in the playlist.
• Repeat: When turned on, the same song or playlist plays repeatedly. When turned off, the song or playlist plays only once.
• Stop: Stops whatever is playing and rewinds to the beginning.
• Previous: Skips back to the previous song in the playlist or DVD chapter. Or if you point to the button and hold down the left mouse button, plays the current item backward in fast motion.
• Play/Pause: When content is playing, you can click this button to pause playback. Click again to resume playback.
• Next: Skips to the next song in the playlist or next chapter on a DVD. Point to this button and hold down the left mouse button to fast-forward through the content that's playing.
• Mute: Click to mute the playback sound. Click a second time to hear the sound again.
• Volume: Drag the handle left or right to increase or decrease the volume.
• Now Playing: Switches to Now Playing mode, a simplified version of the Media Player window. Also useful when you want to see a video or DVD played at full-screen size. When you're in full-screen mode, right-click anywhere on the screen and choose Exit Full Screen to return to the Player Library window. Or click Switch To Library to return to the Player Library window.

Other items in the Features taskbar are discussed later in this chapter. For now, let's stick with some of the basics of using Media Player's program window.

Closing/minimizing Windows Media Player

You can close Windows Media Player as you would any other program:

• Click the Close (X) button in the upper-right corner of Media Player's program window.
• Right-click the toolbar at the top of the window, choose File Exit from Media Player's menu.
• Right-click Media Player's taskbar button and choose Close.
• If Media Player is in the active window, press Alt+F4.

When you close Media Player, it stops playing.

If you want to continue to listen to music, but you want Media Player off the screen, minimize Media Player's program window. Use any of the following techniques to minimize Media Player's program window:

• Click the Minimize button in Media Player's title bar.
• Right-click Media Player's title bar and choose Minimize.
• In Windows versions prior to Windows 8, the Media Player icon appeared on the Windows taskbar by default, even if the program was not running. For Windows 10, however, you have to launch the program from Cortana or by looking for it on the Start menu under Windows Media Player.

If Media Player is running, pointing to it on the taskbar displays a preview window as shown in Figure 18.5. You can click the controls at the bottom of the preview to play, stop, or skip forward or back in the playlist. Click the small preview window or the taskbar icon to open Media Player.

That should be enough to get you started using Media Player. Next, we look at various ways in which you can use Media Player to listen to music or watch videos.

Using the playlist in Now Playing view

When you're playing a music CD in Now Playing view, the Playlist pane to the right of the visualization (see Figure 18.8) shows songs from the CD. That pane is optional. To show or hide that pane, right-click in the Now Playing window and choose Show List.

In the Playlist pane, you may see the song titles, as in Figure 18.8. Or you may see generic names such as Track1, Track2, and so on. Many CDs don't have song titles stored on CD, so the song titles have to be downloaded from the Internet. You see song titles only if they're available on the CD or they've been downloaded from the Internet.

If you want to listen to a specific song on the CD, double-click its title in the Playlist pane, or use the Previous and Next buttons in the play controls to highlight the song you want to listen to.

To change the width of the Playlist pane, position the tip of the mouse pointer on the left border of the pane, so the mouse pointer turns to a two-headed arrow. Then drag left or right.

Using Enhancements

While you're listening to music and you're in the Now Playing area, you can use Enhancements to adjust the sound and perform other tasks. The many Enhancements windows are invisible until you open them.

To show or hide Enhancements, right-click in the Now Playing window and choose Enhancements. Or press Alt to open the menu bar, and then choose View Enhancements from Media Player's menu. When the Enhancements menu is open, you can choose which type of enhancement you want to see. Your options are summarized here:

• Crossfading and Auto Volume Leveling: When Crossfading is turned on, one song gradually fades out while the next song fades in. Auto Volume Leveling keeps songs at roughly equal volumes.
• Graphic Equalizer: Adjust the relative strengths of low, middle, and high tones. Optionally, click Default and choose a music type such as Rock or Classical. Click Reset to return to the default settings.
• Play Speed Settings: Use this to adjust the play speed of content. Be careful with this one. You don't want all your albums sounding like The Chipmunks!
• Quiet Mode: Adjusts the audio dynamic range of music (the difference between the loudest and softest sounds). You'd most likely use this option when listening to headphones or watching a movie in Media Player.
• SRS WOW Effects: When activated, SRS WOW effects add depth to your music. This one is worth trying if you have good speakers.
• Video Settings: Adjust the brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and size of video when viewing a movie or video in Media Player.

The selected Enhancements appear in a separate window. You can cycle through the various Enhancements options by clicking the Next or Previous buttons in the upper-left corner of the Enhancements window.

Stopping a CD

When you've finished listening to a CD, click the Stop button in the play controls. To eject the CD, choose Play Eject from Media Player's menu, press Ctrl+J, or push the Eject button on your CD drive.

Play CDs automatically with Media Player

If you want to ensure that Media Player opens and plays music CDs automatically, you need to make Media Player the default player for CDs. Here's how:

1. Press Windows+X and choose the Control Panel.
2. Click Hardware and Sound (if you are viewing Control Panel in Categories view; otherwise skip to 3).
3. Click AutoPlay.
4. Next to Audio CD, choose Play Audio CD (Windows Media Player).
5. Click the Save button.
6. Close the Control Panel.

From that point on, whenever you put a music CD in your CD drive, Windows Media Player should open and play the CD automatically.

Options for ripping CDs

To choose options for how you want to copy CDs to your hard disk, use the Rip Music tab in Media Player's Options dialog box. To get to those options:

1. Open Windows Media Player (if it isn't already open).
2. Insert an audio CD in the drive and click the drive in the Library pane so that the Rip and Rip Settings buttons are available in the toolbar. Then choose More Options to open the Rip Music tab of Media Player's Options dialog box.

You're taken to the Rip Music tab in Media Player's Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 18.9.

The following sections describe what each option offers. Note that you don't need to make selections from the dialog box for every CD you copy. Instead, you choose your options once. All CDs that you copy from that point forward will use whatever settings you chose.

Choosing how to name files

Each song you copy from a CD is stored as a file. Like all files, each song will have a filename. Windows Media Player names the files automatically, based on the track number, song title, and other media information.

How you name the songs is up to you and doesn't affect how they play. The default filename is the CD track number followed by the song name. You may prefer to have the song name first. To make your selections, click the File Name button on the Rip Music tab of the dialog box. The File Name Options dialog box, shown in Figure 18.10, opens.

Choose the elements you want to use in each song's filename. At the very least, you should choose Song Title, because that's a key piece of information. Use the Separator drop-down list to choose which character will separate each portion of the name.

To change the order of items in the filename, click any selected item and use the Move Up or Move Down button to change its position in the filename. As you choose components and change their order, the generic filename under Preview shows you how each song title will look with your current settings.

Click OK after you decide how you want your filenames to look.

Copying songs

With all the details of choosing how you want to copy CDs out of the way, you're ready to begin copying. Follow these steps:

1. Insert the music CD you want to rip (copy) into your CD drive and close the drive door.
2. If Windows Media Player doesn't open automatically, open it yourself. (If some other program opened when you inserted the CD, close that program, and then open Media Player.)
3. If you chose the Rip CD Automatically option described earlier in this chapter, skip to Step 9.
4. If the CD starts playing, click the Stop button down in the play controls.
5. Wait for song titles to appear. If song titles don't appear within 30 seconds or so, the CD may not be in the Compact Disk Database (CDDB), an online database that contains song titles for most commercially sold CDs. In that case, you can rip the CD and then fill in the details later in your media library.
6. Optionally, clear the check box to the left of any songs that you don't want to copy. Media Player copies the songs that have a check mark.
7. Click the Rip CD button in the toolbar. Figure 18.11 shows Media Player ripping a Robert Plant CD to disk.
8. Wait until the Rip Status column shows Ripped To Library for all songs you've opted to copy. If the CD doesn't eject automatically, eject it.
9. Put the CD back to wherever you normally keep your CDs. You don't need it to play songs from your computer or to copy files to custom audio CDs or an MP3 player.

That's the way to rip one CD. To rip more CDs, repeat Steps 4 through 9 for each CD. If, at any time, you want to check your available hard disk space, open your This PC folder. If you don't see an indication of available disk space for your hard disk (typically Local Disk C:), choose Tiles from the Views menu in that folder.

Copying songs from CDs you already own is one way to build up your Media Player music library. If you find a song that you'd like to own, you can purchase it online and download it to your Media Player library. We discuss how that works in the next section.

Navigating the library

You can view, organize, and change items in the library in almost unlimited ways. You can view media by artist, album, genre, playlist, and other criteria. If you want to add other properties to your Navigation pane, choose Organize Customize Navigation Pane to show the Customize Navigation Pane dialog box shown in Figure 18.12.

If your Media Player library doesn't show songs, but instead shows pictures or other kinds of media, click an option under Music in the Navigation pane.

In the Navigation pane, you can click the triangle button (if one appears) next to an item to view different categories such as Artist, Album, Genre, and so on. The following list covers the views you can add to the Navigation pane for music:

• Artist: Shows artist names in alphabetical order.
• Album: Shows album titles in alphabetical order.
• Genre: Shows names of music genres (such as Classical, Rock, Jazz).
• Year: Shows albums organized by publication year.
• Rating: Shows songs organized by rating (one to five stars). The songs are separated into those you've rated and those that are rated automatically based on your listening habits. Songs that are unrated appear under the Unrated category.
• Contributing Artist: Shows songs organized by contributing artists, if any.
• Composer: Shows songs organized by composer.
• Parental Rating: Shows songs organized by parental rating.
• Online Stores: Shows songs based on the store from which it was obtained.
• Folder: Shows songs organized by the folder in which they're stored.

You'll better appreciate the library when you have at least 30 or 40 songs — or better yet, several hundred songs — there. As you explore your library, keep in mind that you can right-click any icon, stack, category name, or other criterion to view, edit, or play items.

Use the View Options button to choose how you want to view things. Depending on where you are at the moment, some view options may be disabled (dimmed) because they aren't applicable to the current view settings.

Of course, there's no right way or wrong way to view icons. Choose the view that works best for you. Feel free to try several settings. You can't do any harm by experimenting with the options. And nothing you choose is set in stone. You can change your view at any time.

How you use a view depends on what you're viewing. For example, if you're viewing genres, you see an icon or stack for each genre in your library. Double-clicking an icon or stack shows you all the songs in that genre. Double-clicking an icon that represents a single album displays songs on that album. To play all the items that an icon represents, right-click the icon and choose Play. Again, exploring on your own is your best bet. You aren't permanently changing anything as you explore, so don't worry.

Choosing columns for Media Library

In addition to choosing how you want media information to look, you can choose exactly which information you see. The options available to you depend on what you're viewing and how you're viewing it at the moment. To see the full set of options, click Music in the Navigation pane, and then choose Details from the View Options menu. You'll see detailed information about each song organized into rows and columns.

To choose which columns you want to view, right-click a column heading, such as Title or Length, and click Choose Columns on the menu. The Choose Columns dialog box shown in Figure 18.13 opens. The number of columns depends on what you have open in the navigation tree.

In the Choose Columns dialog box, select (check) the columns you want to see. Clear (uncheck) columns you don't want to see. You can also control the order of columns, either in the dialog box, or after you exit the dialog box. To control the order of columns while you're in the dialog box, click any selected column name, and then click the Move Up or Move Down button to move it up or down. The higher a column name is in the dialog box, the farther to the left it is in the Details view.

To set the width of the columns in pixels, input a value in the Width of Selected Column (in Pixels) box. You can select the Hide Columns automatically option to hide columns from view. Select Include Release Date in Default Sort Order to see music sorted by release date of the album. Finally, to sort albums by file extension, select the Include File Extension in Default Sort Order option.

After you've chosen the columns you want to view, click OK. Most likely you can't see all the columns at the same time. But you can use the horizontal scroll bar under the columns to scroll left and right through columns.

Getting missing media information automatically

Recall that media information refers to things such as song titles, artist name, and so on. That information may be missing from some of your songs for a couple of reasons. One reason may be that the information isn't available from the Internet. In that case, you may have to fill in the missing information manually using techniques described later in this chapter.

A second reason why you may be missing media information is that you weren't online when you copied some CDs. If that's the case, it isn't too late to retrieve that information. It's quicker and easier to retrieve the information automatically. So, before you begin manually changing media information, use the technique described in this section to see how much of that information you can get automatically.

First, check your options for updating media information automatically. Click the Organize button and choose Options. The Library tab in Media Player's Options dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 18.14.

Under the Automatic Media Information Updates for Files heading, choose (check) Retrieve Additional Information from the Internet.

• If you've already added some media information manually and you don't want the new information to replace that, choose Only Add Missing Information.
• Otherwise, choose Overwrite All Media Information if you want information you've added yourself to be replaced with information from the Internet.

When you've finished making your selection, click OK in the dialog box. Then click the Organize button and choose Apply Media Information Changes. After the changes are applied, click the Close button to exit the Apply Changes dialog box.

You have no guarantee that all missing information will be filled in. You may have songs for which no online media information is available. You'll have to edit those manually. To change the title of a single song, right-click the current title (Track1, Track2, or whatever), choose Edit, and type the correct song title.

Information other than the title is likely to be the same for all the songs on an album. You don't need to change that information one song at a time. You can select multiple songs to which you want to make a change. The change you make is then applied to all the selected songs. We get to that in a moment. First, let's look at how you can add songs that you have elsewhere on your computer to your Media Player library.

Choosing what files to include in your library

If you set up multiple user accounts on your computer, each user has his or her own media library. Parents don't have to dig through the kids' songs, and vice versa. But you aren't stuck with only those songs. Each user has the option to share songs, and each user has the option to choose or reject songs shared by others. To choose which songs display in your own media library, follow these steps:

1. Click Organize in the taskbar and choose Manage Libraries Music to open the Music Library Locations dialog box (see Figure 18.15).
2. Click the Add button. The Include Folder in Music dialog box opens.
3. Browse to the drive and folder that you want to include and click Include Folder. You can repeat this step to monitor as many folders as you wish.
4. To prevent songs from a folder from being added to your library, click the folder (while in the Music Library Locations dialog box) you want to exclude and click the Remove button.
5. Click OK after making your selections to have Media Player search any newly added folders.

Media Player updates your library according to the selections you made.

Sharing (streaming) your media library

Each user can opt to share all songs or some songs with other user accounts on the same computer. Likewise, if your computer is part of a private network, each user can choose to share songs with other Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10 computers. In addition, you can share with Windows 10–compatible devices, such as the Microsoft Xbox gaming device. A great feature in Windows Media Player 12 is the capability to share and stream music to the Internet. So, you can enjoy the music library stored on your home computer when you're at work.

The first step in sharing your music is to enable streaming. To do so, click the Stream button in the toolbar and choose the Turn On Media Streaming option. The Choose Media Streaming Options For Computers and Devices control panel app appears (see Figure 18.16). Click the Turn On Media Streaming button. Choose the media streaming options (see Figure 18.17) you want for this device and click OK.

Allowing Internet streaming

As mentioned previously in this chapter, you can use Media Player to stream media to other devices on the Internet. For example, you can listen to your home music library while you're at work. But you must first set up that capability because it is not enabled by default.

Open Media Player and click Stream Allow Internet Access to Home Media. In the resulting Internet Home Media Access dialog box, click Allow Internet Access to Home Media. If prompted for an administrative password, enter it, or if prompted with a User Account Control dialog box, click Yes. Click OK when Windows 10 indicates it has successfully enabled sharing (see Figure 18.18).

Automatically renaming songs

Earlier in this chapter, you learned how you could control filenames of songs you rip (copy) from CDs. Those filenames don't have a big impact on how information shows up in your library. The media information from each song comes from properties in the file rather than the filename. Nonetheless, consistency in your filenames is a good idea.

For example, suppose you ripped a bunch of CDs before you realized you could control how the filenames of those songs are formatted. You change the rip settings to something you like better. That change doesn't affect songs you've already ripped; it affects only the songs that you rip after changing the setting. You can, however, get Media Player to rename previously named songs according to your new settings. Here's how:

1. Click Organize and choose Options.
2. On the Library tab, choose Rename Music Files Using Rip Music Settings.
3. Optionally, if you also want to have the songs rearranged in your rip music folder (typically the Music folder in your user account), choose Rearrange Music in Rip Music Folder Using Rip Music Settings.
4. Click OK after making your selections.
5. To apply changes, click Organize and choose Apply Media Information Changes.

Media Player may take a while to update and rearrange all the songs in your rip music folder. When the change is complete, click the Close button that appears in the progress indicator. You may not notice any changes in Media Player's library, but you likely will notice changes when you open your rip music folder outside of Media Player.

Most of the options and settings discussed so far have to do with groups of songs and functions the Media Player performs on its own. No matter what settings you choose, sometimes you need to manually edit (or remove) items in your library.

In some cases, you need to change a single song title. For example, suppose you have songs named Track1, Track2, Track3, and so on. You've already tried updating that information through techniques described earlier in this chapter, but the song titles still don't appear because the song titles aren't available online. When that happens, you need to manually change the media information.

When changing a song title, work with one song at a time. In other cases, such as when changing a genre or artist name, you can make the same change to several songs at once. To make a change to multiple songs in your library, you first have to select the songs you want to change. So, before talking about manually editing songs, we look at techniques for selecting the songs you want to change.

Selecting in Media Library

Your media library isn't set in stone. You can change the information you see at any time. Typically, you right-click the song you want to change and choose Edit to change it or Delete to remove it. We get to the specifics in a moment, but first, let's talk about selecting items in the library. Selecting two or more items allows you to make the same change to all those selected items in one fell swoop.

Selecting items in the media library is much like selecting icons in folders, so if you already know how to do that, you're ahead of the game. You can select items in any view, but you may find working in the Details view easiest. For example, click Music in the Navigation pane at the left side of the window. Then choose Details from the View Options drop-down list. Finally, click whatever column heading arranges the songs in a way that's easiest for you to work with.

One way to select all the items in a group is to click the heading that precedes the group. For example, in Figure 18.19, we clicked the artist name Robert Plant to select all the songs under that category. The selected songs are highlighted. Any change you make to one of the selected songs is applied to all the selected songs.

Another way to select multiple adjacent songs is to click the first one you want to select. Then hold down the Shift key and click the last one you want to select. The two songs you clicked and all the songs in between are selected.

To select multiple songs that aren't adjacent to one another, click the first one that you want to select. Then hold down the Ctrl key while clicking other songs you want to select. The same technique lets you deselect one selected song without deselecting any other songs.

You can also use the keyboard to select songs, as follows:

• To select every song in the library, click Music in the Navigation pane, click a song title, and press Ctrl+A.
• To select all the songs from the current song to the bottom of the list, click the first song you want to select and press Shift+End.
• To select all the songs to the top of the list, click the first song and press Shift+Home.

To deselect songs, click a neutral area in the program window, such as the empty space to the left of the play controls.

Selecting songs doesn't have any effect on them, other than to highlight them. However, any action you take while the songs are selected is applied to all the selected songs. The following sections look at things you can do with any one song or any number of selected songs.

Changing a song title

Every song on a CD is likely to have its own unique title, so you generally have to change titles one at a time. To change just one song title, first make sure you don't have multiple songs selected. (Click the song you want to change so that only that song is selected.) Then right-click the title you want to change and choose Edit. Type the new title and press Enter.

Changing genre, artist, and so on

You can change the genre, artist, album title, or any other media information for a song by right-clicking in a specific column and choosing Edit. But because all the songs on a CD may have that same artist, or belong to the same genre, you might want to make the change to several songs. First, select all the songs to which you want to apply the change. Then click the word or name you want to change in any one of the selected songs and choose Edit. Type in the new name or word and press Enter. The change occurs in all the selected songs.

Changing incorrect media information

Sometimes Media Player gets incorrect media information from the Internet. This is especially true when working with multiple CD sets. Instead of manually typing all the information for the CD, you can try to find the correct information online. To do so, click Album in the Navigation pane. Then scroll to the album that has the incorrect icon, right-click its icon, and choose Update Album Info. Then double-click the album's icon to see whether the situation has improved.

If updating the album info doesn't help, you can try right-clicking the album title just above its song titles and choosing Find Album Info. Most likely, you'll get the same faulty information you got the first time. But you can click the Search field in the top-right corner of the Album Info window that opens and try searching by the artist's name or album title. You may get lucky and find the exact album you're looking for. The Album Info window acts like a wizard, so you can just follow the instructions on the screen and use the buttons along the bottom of the window to aid in your search.

If you find the album, click the Finish button in the Album Info window and Media Player copies the media information to the album in your media library. If you don't have any such luck, you can manually enter the correct information for each song on the album using the techniques described in the previous sections.

Rating songs

You've probably noticed the star ratings that Media Player adds to each song. By default, the ratings are all the same (three stars) because you can rate each song according to your own likes and dislikes. Give five stars to your favorite songs, one star to songs you don't like, and something in between for all the rest.

To change the rating of a single song, right-click the title of the song you want to rate, choose Rate, and select the number of stars you want to give it. To rate multiple songs, first decide what rating you want to apply (such as five stars). Then select all the songs to which you want to apply that rating. (You can use the Ctrl+click method to select multiple nonadjacent songs.) After you've selected all the songs to which you want to apply a rating, right-click any selected song, choose Rate, and choose the desired rating.

Any time you want to view all the songs to which you've applied a rating, choose Organize Sort By Rating. The Contents pane in the center of the program window show rating categories: one category for ratings you've applied and another for songs you haven't rated yet but which have received ratings automatically, like the example in Figure 18.20.

To play all the songs to which you've given a certain rating, right-click the rating icon and choose Play. To see all the songs to which you've applied a given rating, double-click the rating icon.

Managing songs in a playlist

After you've placed some songs in a playlist, you can arrange them as you see fit. Use any of the following techniques to do so:

• Drag any song title up or down to change its position in the list.
• Right-click any song title and choose Move Up or Move Down.
• Click the List Options button above the list, and choose the option that best describes how you want them sorted (see Figure 18.22).
• To put the songs in random order, choose Shuffle List from the List Options menu.

Figure 18.23 shows a completed playlist.

To remove a song from the playlist, right-click the song title and choose Remove from List. Optionally, you can select multiple songs using the Ctrl+click or Shift+click method. Then press Delete (Del) or right-click any selected item and choose Remove from List.

Saving a playlist

To save a playlist, name the list by clicking Unsaved List and entering a name. To rename a list, simply click the name and type a new one; then press Enter.

Viewing, playing, and changing playlists

To play all the songs in a playlist, or change a playlist, first select the Play tab. If the Navigation pane isn't open, use the Layout Options button to open it. The playlists appear under the Playlists branch in the Navigation pane. If you click Playlists in the Navigation pane, you see all your saved playlists in the Contents pane as icons. Recent playlists are listed first, followed by all playlists, as in Figure 18.23. In the example, we chose Tile from the View Options to show the playlists.

To use a playlist, right-click its icon or name and choose an option, depending on what you want to do:

• Open: Shows the contents of the playlist in the Contents pane.
• Play: Plays all the songs in the playlist.
• Add To: Adds the songs from the playlist to whatever playlist is currently in the List pane.
• Rename: Enables you to change the name of the playlist.
• Delete: Deletes the playlist.
• Open File Location: Opens the folder in which the playlist is stored.
• Cast To Device: Enables you to send files to a connected device for streaming.

Using and creating Auto Playlists

An Auto Playlist is one that gets its content automatically. You can also create your own Auto Playlists based on any criteria you like. To create an Auto Playlist, click the arrow beside the Create Playlist button in the toolbar and choose Create Auto Playlist. The New Auto Playlist dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 18.24.

To specify a criterion for the Auto Playlist, click the plus sign under Music in My Library and choose an option from the resulting drop-down list. Then specify criteria by clicking options that appear next to the funnel icon. For example, if you want to create an Auto Playlist for songs in which Carlos Santana is a contributing artist, choose Contributing Artist from the list, and then click the Click to Set link and either choose or type the artist's name.

You can create an Auto Playlist, perhaps named “Today's Tunes,” by choosing Date Added from the drop-down list and then choosing a date specification (such as Last 7 Days) from the links that appear beside the new criteria item.

Suppose you have many different types of files in your library and you want to be able to quickly view the MP3 files. You can create an Auto Playlist named “MP3s” and use the criteria File Type and MP3.

You can specify multiple criteria if you like. Multiple criteria are always treated as “and” logic, which means each new criterion narrows, rather than expands, the Auto Playlist's contents. For example, if you specify the criteria Contributing Artist Contains Santana and Date Added to Library Is After Last 30 Days, you see all songs added to the library in the last 30 days where a contributing artist is Santana.

To include pictures, video, or TV shows in the Auto Playlist, choose an option under the And Also Include heading. Or to place additional restrictions on the content, choose options under And Apply the Following Restrictions to the Auto Playlist.

When you've finished specifying criteria for your Auto Playlist, click OK. The Auto Playlist is listed in the Navigation pane along with all others. To play the Auto Playlist and see its current contents, double-click its name or icon. To change the criteria that define the Auto Playlist's contents, right-click its icon, and choose Edit.

Types of music CDs

Before we get into the specifics of burning CDs, be sure you understand that you can create two different types of music CDs:

• Audio CD: This type of CD plays in any home stereo, car stereo, portable CD player, or computer. You must burn songs to a CD-R disk (preferably an Audio CD-R) to create this type of CD because most non-computer players can't play CD-RW disks or DVD disks.
• Data CD: This type of music CD plays in computers, or in any stereo that's capable of playing this type of CD. You can use CD-R or CD-RW disks. However, you must choose a disk type that is compatible with both your computer's CD/DVD burner and the device on which you want to play the disk.

If you don't know what type of disks your stereo can play, refer to the instructions that came with that device. Optionally, create an RW (Read/Write) disk and try it. You don't lose anything if the disk doesn't play because you can erase the disk and use it for something else. Once burned, R (Recordable) disks cannot be erased or changed.

Choosing music disk options

The first step in creating a music CD is to specify which type of disk you want to create, and perhaps some other options. In Media Player, select the Burn tab, and then click Burn Options to see the menu shown in Figure 18.25. Choose options as summarized in the following list:

• Hide List: Hide the burn list.
• Eject Disc after Burning: Have the CD ejected automatically when it's ready for use. This is especially useful when burning multiple CDs from a single Burn list.
• Data CD or DVD: Choose this option if you want to create a data CD or DVD.
• Audio CD: Create the type of CD that all stereos and players can play. For best results, use an 80-minute Audio CD-R disk.
• Name Disc: Specify a name for the disk.
• More Burn Options: Choosing More Burn Options takes you to the Burn tab of Media Player's Options dialog box, shown in Figure 18.26. Most of the options duplicate options on the menu. Here are the ones that are unique:
  • Burn Speed: The default setting is Fastest. But if you have problems burning disks, or the sound quality isn't up to par on the disks you burn, consider reducing this to a slower speed.
  • Automatically Eject the Disc after Burning: Instruct Windows to open the disk tray after the CD burning completes.
  • Apply Volume Leveling across Tracks: Ensure that the volume of each song is the same when listening to the finished CD.
  • Burn CD without Gaps: Omit the two-second gap normally inserted between audio tracks.
  • Add a List of All Burned Files to the Disc in This Format: Choose WPL if your player can read Windows playlists. Choose M3U if your player can only read MP3-style playlists.

  • Use Media Information to Arrange Files in Folders on the Disc: If this option is selected, items on the CD will be organized into folders. If you're unsure about whether your player can handle folders, clear the check box for this option.

    Click OK in the Options dialog box to save the settings you changed. With your options selected, you're ready to choose songs to copy to your custom CD.

  • Help with Burning: Choose this option for help with burning music CDs.

Choosing songs to put on the CD

The skills needed to choose songs to put on a CD are the same as those for creating a custom playlist. You can drag songs individually, or you can drag an entire album or other category. But make sure you're dragging to the Burn list, not just any playlist. Here's the basic process:

1. Select the Burn tab to make sure you're viewing the Burn list.
2. If your Burn list contains songs from a previously burned CD and you want to create a new one, click Clear List at the top of the Burn list. Click the Burn Options button and choose Audio CD if you're burning a music CD. Otherwise, you can choose Data CD or DVD if you're creating a music disk for computers and appropriate players.
3. Use a felt-tip pen or disk labeler to write the name of your custom CD on a blank CD. Then put that CD in your CD drive.

Your Media Player window should look something like Figure 18.27. The songs that appear in the center Contents pane are, of course, songs you have in your own library. How your icons look depends on what category you're viewing and what option you've selected from the View Options drop-down list.

Next, drag the songs you want to burn to your custom CD to the Burn list, or right-click any song title and choose Add to Burn List. As you add songs, the indicator at the top of the Burn list keeps you informed as to how much space will be used on the CD. You can keep adding songs until the disk capacity is exhausted. Any songs you add after that point are placed on a new disk. Media Player numbers the disk sequentially in the list.

Options that apply to custom playlists also apply to the Burn list. For example, to remove a song from the Burn list, right-click its title and choose Remove from List. To change the order of songs, click Burn Options, choose Sort List By, and choose a sort option. Or drag any song title up or down within the list.

When you're happy with the songs you've selected and their order, you're ready to burn the CD.

Creating the disk

When the Burn list contains all the songs you want to copy to the CD, click the Start Burn button at the top of the Burn list. Then wait. How long the burn takes depends on the type of CD you're creating, the speed of your drive, and other factors. The status column in the Contents pane and an indicator below the Burn list keep you apprised of the progress.

When the CD is finished, remove it from the CD drive. If you created a standard audio disk, you can insert and play it in a stereo as you would any other disk. If you created a data disk, you can play it in any device that supports the type of disk you created.

Saving a Burn list

Saving each Burn list you create is a good idea. That way, if you ever want to create another copy of the same CD, you can open the saved Burn list. To save a Burn list, click the Burn Options button and choose Save List As. Change the name to something that describes the Burn list and click Save. Then, to create a new Burn list, click the Clear List Pane button.

Manual syncing

When your device is connected to your computer and you want to choose songs to copy to the device, select the Sync tab. The List pane at the right side of the program window shows the storage capacity of the device, and the amount of space that's currently on the device. Beneath that is an empty playlist, called the Sync list.

To add songs to the device, you need to drag them from the contents pane to the Sync list, just as you would when burning a CD or creating a custom playlist. As always, you can select multiple songs and drag them all at once. You can also right-click any song, album, icon, or category name and choose Add to Sync List.

As you add songs, an indicator near the top of the Sync list shows you how much space you have remaining. If the indicator turns red and shows “Filled,” you've gone over the limit. To remove a song from the Sync list, right-click its title and choose Remove from List. Do so until the indicator turns green again.

As always, you can arrange songs in the Sync list by dragging them up or down. Optionally, click Sync List, choose Sort, and choose a sort order. When you're happy with the songs you've selected and their order, click the Start Sync button at the bottom of the Sync list.

The Contents pane of Media Player shows the synchronization progress as songs are copied to the device. When the Status column shows “Synchronized to Device” for every song, you're finished. You can disconnect the device from the computer, plug in your headphones, and take your music with you.

Managing songs on a device

Portable media players are much more flexible than CDs. For example, you can delete individual songs from a portable device and replace them with other songs. When your device is connected, it shows up as its own set of categories in the Navigation pane. When you click a category name under the device name, the Contents pane to the right shows the contents of the device only, not the contents of your entire library.

Manual syncing is easy (once you've experimented with it a bit). Most people like to choose exactly what's on their portable player so manual syncing is also the most commonly used method. To use auto syncing, you need to enable automatic syncing and specify what syncs automatically. Let's look at that next.

Auto syncing devices

Auto sync is a method of keeping a portable player up to date with whatever content is currently available in your Media Player library. If your device doesn't have enough capacity to store your entire library, what you end up with can be somewhat arbitrary. The first step is to connect the device to the computer and make sure the device is turned on.

Next, select the Sync tab and then click Sync Options, point to your device name, and choose Set Up Sync. If you have not set up the device previously, you see the Windows Media Player – Device Setup dialog box, which asks if you want to sync temporarily (this session only) or permanently. If you choose the latter, you have additional options available for syncing, including the capability to specify which playlists are synced.

The Device Setup dialog box opens. The left column shows available playlists. The right column shows playlists that are currently used to sync songs to the device. To remove a playlist from the right column, click its name and choose Remove.

To add a playlist to the right column, click its name in the left column and click Add. To see Auto Playlists specifically designed for syncing, click the My Playlists button under Available Playlists and choose Sync Playlists.

If no playlist defines the kinds of songs you want to sync automatically, you can create your own. Click New Auto Playlist and give your playlist a name. For example, to make an Auto Playlist that copies new songs added to your library in the last week, create a criterion that specifies Date Added to Library Is after Last 7 Days.

Give the new playlist a name, perhaps New This Week, and save it. Then click the Add button to copy it from Available Playlists to Playlists To Sync. If that's the only playlist you put in the right column, then each time you connect your device, Media Player copies only songs that you've added to your library within the last week.

Optionally, choose Shuffle What Syncs. If you do, each time you connect the device, files that are currently on the device are removed automatically and replaced with songs that match the criteria of your selected Auto Playlists. So, each time you connect the device, the songs your playlist provides are added to the device automatically.

Click Finish, and Media Player syncs based on your selections. Remove the device when the syncing is complete. Any time you want to change the contents of your player, connect it to the PC and click the Finish button.

Choosing between manual and auto sync

You can choose whether you want to use manual sync or auto sync at any time. Connect your device, click the arrow under Sync, click the device name, and choose Set Up Sync. To use manual syncing, clear the check mark next to Sync This Device Automatically. To enable auto syncing, select (check) that same check box. Then click Finish.

Setting player options

To see other options that your player supports, connect the player, right-click its name in the Navigation pane, and choose Properties. A Properties dialog box for the device opens. The options available to you depend on the capabilities of your player. If you're unsure what an option in the dialog box means, check the manual that came with your device or click the Help button in the dialog box for more information.