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Even though you can choose from a wide range of functionality for controlling the media content, playlists, and volume, it is up to you to provide the user of your skin with a way to interact with that functionality. What your user sees and taps on is called a user interface. For example, if you want the user to start the media content playing, you must provide a user-interface button element that will cause the content to play when the user taps the image of your button.
No elements are required, but if you do not have a few buttons to play and stop the content, not much will happen. And it is always nice to provide a volume control (unless you like your music loud all the time).
User interface elements correspond to types of functionality used to control the media content.
The following elements are provided:
Buttons
Many button types are provided. Buttons can be used to turn functions on or off, switch between two functions, or toggle a function between on and off.
Trackbars
You can provide linear control through trackbars. You will want to use trackbars to change the volume or the position in the media content.
Text
Text boxes can be used to display text to the user. A good use of a text box is to display the name of the song currently playing.
Marquis
A marquis is a scrolling text box that you can use to display text from more than one text category. For example, you can display the playlist, number of tracks, and track number playing. Use a marquis when you don't have much space and you have a lot to display.
Status
You can provide a status display that you can use to automatically display text messages that inform the user about the current state of Windows Media Player. For example, the status display will inform the user when a media file is buffering. No status display is available in skins for Windows Media Player prior to version 7.1. For compatibility details, please see the Compatibility section.
Video
You can provide a rectangular video display area in your skin if you want to show digital video files (.wmv). No video display is available in skins for Windows Media Player prior to version 7. For compatibility details, please see the Compatibility section.
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