This message should answer many of your Winamp questions.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly Pierce" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 9:59 PM
Subject: making th most from winamp


> As many items on the ACB Radio site are still not available, I thought I
> would share this tutorial on Winamp that I found on the Winamp for the
> Blind mailing list.
>
> Kelly
>
>
>
>
>
> Making The Most of Winamp by Jonathan Mosen
>
> On the face of it, Winamp from Nullsoft may not seem like a terribly
> accessible programme. Although the interface from the keyboard is
> somewhat unorthodox, you'll find that Winamp is in fact one of the
> most accessible of the fully featured MP3 players. This section
> seeks to help you understand what Winamp can do, how to configure
> it, and all the keyboard secrets will be revealed.
>
> You can get a brief keyboard summary of all of the keyboard commands
> mentioned in this document, and a few I won't be covering, by
> pressing F1 from the Winamp main window. From there, you can press
> control+tab through the multipage dialogue box until you get to the
> tips and tricks section. If you left click your mouse on any of the
> text of the edit box, this will give that read-only edit box focus,
> which means that you can then read the summary with your screen
> reader's continuous reading feature. You can also go to the top of
> this edit box with the control+home combination, press
> control+shift+end to select the entire edit box (control+A doesn't
> seem to work) and then press control+C to copy it to the clipboard.
> You may then want to paste this into a word processor or text editor
> and save it for future reference.
>
> Full help, much of it describing visual techniques but some of it
> helpful, is now available on the Winamp site. Winamp is a fully
> featured audio player, supporting most common file formats. If a
> file format isn't supported out of the box, chances are you can get
> a plug-in that will do the job.
>
> It has a playlist editor allowing you to import individual files,
> entire directories and locations from the Internet. Files can then
> be randomised, or sorted by a number of criteria including song name
> and file name.
>
> A graphical equaliser allows you to make major adjustments to the
> sound of the player. You can choose from presets, save your own
> settings, and even specify your own settings on a song by song
> basis. The ID3 editor allows you to edit MP3 tag information, which
> is a handy way of recording information such as the album, the
> artist, the year the song was released and more.
>
> The plug-in architecture of Winamp means that fantastic add-ins are
> being released regularly, ranging from the support of many file
> formats through to pitch changers and audio compressors.
>
> Basic Winamp Operation
>
> When you install Winamp, you are asked if you want it to be your
> default audio player. If you answer yes to this question, Winamp
> will be launched from Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer when a
> file that Winamp supports is encountered. The file will start
> playing automatically.
>
> You can also launch Winamp by going to the Start menu, choosing
> programmes, then Winamp.
>
> When in Winamp, the following commands can be used for playback.
> Note that some of the keypad commands listed here may conflict with
> your screen reader. You will need to change your screen reader's key
> settings or use its bypass key if you wish to use the keypad in
> Winamp.
>
> X or Keypad 5 will play the current file. If Winamp is paused, this
> command will resume playing from where you paused. If no file is
> loaded into Winamp, you'll be prompted for a file name.
>
> The V key stops playing. If you hold down the shift key, Winamp
> fades out the currently playing song and then stops. If you hold
> down the control key while pressing the stop key, Winamp will stop
> at the end of the currently playing song.
>
> B or keypad 6 skips to the next track. You can do this either when
> Winamp is playing or when it is stopped. If you are playing a file
> when you press this key, the next song in the queue will start
> playing immediately. If you press the key when Winamp is stopped,
> the song you have now selected will show in the window title with
> the word "stopped" beside it.
>
> Z or Keypad 4 skips back to the previous track. The same rules apply
> as for next track discussed above.
>
> Keypad 1 will jump ten songs back in the playlist.
>
> Keypad 3 jumps ten songs forward.
>
> Left-arrow or keypad 7 rewinds by 5 seconds.
>
> Right-arrow or keypad 9 fastforwards by 5 seconds.
>
> L or keypad 0 brings up the open file dialogue. Here, you can
> specify the name of a file provided Winamp supports the file format.
> You can also specify a playlist with a .m3u or .pls extension.
>
> Control+L or control+keypad 0 lets you specify a file on the
> Internet. You will need the full URL of the file or playlist.
>
> Shift+L or the insert key lets you specify a directory to play. All
> files in that directory with file formats that Winamp supports will
> be played.
>
> Keypad 8 or up-arrow increases the volume.
>
> Keypad 2 or down-arrow turns the volume down. \
>
> Configuring Winamp
>
> Winamp is highly configurable. This section seeks to help you
> understand how to navigate Winamp's Preferences.
>
> To enter the preferences, press control+P. Winamp will present you
> with a treeview. As in any treeview, you use the right-arrow key to
> expand a branch of the tree, the left-arrow to close a branch, and
> the down-arrow to navigate through items in the tree. Once you've
> selected a section, you can use the tab and shift+tab keys to
> navigate through the various elements.
>
> When you get to the section for selecting and configuring plug-ins,
> it is important to understand that after you have selected the
> plug-in with the arrow keys, there is often a configure button which
> allows you to fine-tune the settings for that particular plug-in.
> Normally, you need to press the tab key to find the configure
> button. Pressing the space bar will bring up the configuration
> dialogue box for that plug-in.
>
> The Playlist Editor
>
> The Playlist Editor is one of Winamp's less accessible features, but
> there is more that you can do with the keyboard than many people
> think. The major difficulty is that with most screen readers, using
> the arrow keys in Winamp 2.x will not give you reliable information
> about the song that you've selected. This problem has been overcome
> for users of Windoweyes and JFW, thanks to some clever set and
> script file writing. These sets and scripts are available in ACB
> Radio's download section. If you're going to work with the Playlist
> Editor, these sets and scripts are a must! Anyway, let's take a look
> at what you can do with the keyboard. Firstly, you will want to get
> into the Playlist Editor. If the Playlist Editor window isn't open
> yet, you will need to open it by pressing alt+E. Incidentally, once
> windows such as the Playlist Editor are open, you can cycle through
> all open windows with the control+tab combination. The Winamp menu,
> which you can access with the alt key and choosing Winamp, will also
> show a checkmark beside those windows that are open.
>
> The R key toggles the repeat function. I have always had difficulty
> determining the status of the repeat function from the Playlist
> Editor window itself, but you can also toggle the repeat function
> from the main Winamp Menu, which can be accessed from the main
> Winamp window with the ALT key, and then choosing playback options.
> Here, your screen reader should have no trouble telling you whether
> repeat is checked or not.
>
> The S key toggles whether shuffle is on or off. The same applies
> here as for the repeat function.
>
> L or keypad 0 adds a file to the playlist.
>
> Control+L or control+keypad 0 adds an Internet location to the
> playlist.
>
> Shift+L or the insert key adds a directory to the playlist.
>
> Control+N clears the playlist and lets you start from scratch.
>
> Control+O lets you open a playlist you might previously have saved
> to disk.
>
> Control+S saves the playlist you've been working on. You have a
> number of formats from which you can choose once you open the save
> dialogue. Alt+3 views the track information for the selected track
> or tracks.
>
> Control+E lets you edit the names of the selected track or tracks.
> Control+A selects the entire playlist.
>
> Control+I inverts the selection, in other words what was selected
> becomes unselected and vice versa.
>
> The delete key removes selected files from the playlist.
>
> Control+delete crops the playlist.
>
> Control+shift+delete clears the playlist.
>
> Alt+down-arrow moves selected files down.
>
> Alt+up-arrow moves selected files up.
>
> The down and up-arrow keys move the cursor down and up respectively.
>
> The ENTER key plays the selected file.
>
> The home and end keys jump to the start and end of the playlist
> respectively.
>
> Page up and page down move up and down by a fifth of a page.
>
> Alt+delete removes all non-existent files from a playlist.
>
> Control+shift+1 sorts the playlist by title.
>
> Control+shift+2 sorts the playlist by file name.
>
> Control+shift+3 sorts the playlist by file path and name.
>
> Control+R reverses the order of the playlist.
>
> Control+shift+R randomises the playlist.
>
> Also, all playback controls are available as they are in the main
> window.
>
> Graphical Equaliser
>
> Although I have not heard of anyone being able to set up their
> screen reader to tell them the percentage of each band of the
> equaliser in Winamp 2.x, you can make changes via the keyboard and
> listen to the results to see how you like it. Also, control+s brings
> up a list of over 20 presets that you can choose from.
>
> First though, you'll need to open the graphical equaliser if it
> isn't open already. You can do this with the alt+G combination.
>
> The 1 and 0 keys increase their respective band of the ten band
> equaliser. 1 is the lowest band IE base, 0 is the highest band, IE
> treble. The row underneath decreases each band, from the q to the P
> keys. So 1 and Q turns the lowest band up and down respectively, 0
> and P turns the highest band up and down respectively.
>
> Similarly, the tilde and tab keys turn the pre-amp up and down
> respectively.
>
> The N key toggles the equaliser on and off, so if it doesn't sound
> like what you are doing with the number and qwerty rows is having
> any effect, try pressing the N key to turn the equaliser on.
>
> S opens the presets menu.
>
> The A key toggles auto-loading of the equaliser.
>
>
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>


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
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