Upon initial glance, you
may notice that ShufflePlay resembles
Windows Explorer. This is no accident; with a
familiar interface, it is easy to get started
using the program. And like any good Windows
interface, you are in control of many aspects of
the display including pane widths and gridlines.
The default
toolbar contains many of the most-used functions
of the program including file access, playlist
manipulation, and playback functions. You can
customize the toolbar by double clicking it and
using the editor to add, remove, and rearrange
the buttons.
The menu system was designed with speed and ease
of use in mind. Find the various tools under Tools.
Locate playlist functions under Playlist.
You get the idea.
Many of the often-used
functions have keyboard shortcuts. For example F2
snaps open the Search window. F3 will bring up
the Properties for the file(s) you have selected. Control-Z
through Control-B map to MP3 playback remote. Once you have
these shortcuts committed to memory, you could be whipping
through your MP3 management sessions faster than you can spell
"Fraunhoffer."
ShufflePlay's main
window has three main panes: Folders view, Files
view, and Playlist view. They are totally
adjustable. If you are doing a lot of work with
files but need to keep your playlist handy, then
you can resize your panes accordingly. If you don't
need your playlist at all, then you can hide it
by unchecking it's option in the View menu.
Just like the
Windows Explorer, the columns of the Files and
Playlist views can be easily rearranged. Place
the frequently needed information to the left and
the least-needed information (e.g. Comments) to
the right. You can also sort the columns by
clicking the appropriate column header. To sort
in reverse order, just click the column header
twice.
You will find nearly all the
program environment settings in this, the centralized Setup
browser. The best general settings are set automatically, but
you will probably want to experiment with these options further
to better fit your tastes. For example, you can toggle on Grid
Lines for better visibility from the System/View section.
