flipTech ShufflePlay 2.21
users guide

written by Gary Calpo (flipino@visi.net)

Last updated 2/15/98
Find the latest version of this help file at http://members.visi.net/~flipino/sp2help.html.

Table of Contents

1 - General: Introduction / Features

2 - Program info: Distribution contents / Program requirements

3 - Usage: General program usage / Advanced techniques

4 - Problems: Frequently asked questions / Bugs

5 - Misc.: Registration / Credits / Links

1.1 - Introduction

Fall 1996. WinPlay3 was the best (and only) Windows Mpeg1-Layer3 player in existence. I decided to fill in a little hole in the program which the programmers intentionally left out: Shuffled play. I still don't know why they didn't put that code in (even in the most recent version), but that's all in the past now. Eventually, my program, as it was originally designed, reached its fullest potential and a rewrite was called for...

December 1996. I went to Visual Basic 4 and started out with a clean slate and a head and eMail inbox full of ideas to implement in the next great incarnation of the program. Through a well thought out process and over a week's worth of work, ShufflePlay 2 was born and went through several Betas and PreReleases over the course of the following six months.

July 1997. With version 2.00 Final ready to go and a whole lot more in the program than was originally offered in 2.00 Beta 1, the official 2nd generation of ShufflePlay was announced and continued through the present day, adding more useful features including various Wizards and of course, support for the best and most widely-used MP3 player, WinAMP.

Febuary 1998. Now, I present the latest version of ShufflePlay2.

1.2 - Features

Visit http://members.visi.net/~flipino/shuffle.html#features for a complete, updated listing of the major features. For a listing of the most recent features, take a look at the program history at http://members.visi.net/~flipino/sphist.html.

2.1 - Distribution contents

2.2 - Program requirements

3.1 - General program usage

• File

  • New - clears the playlist

  • Open - clears list and lets you import an already existing playlist

  • Append - adds an existing playlist to the current one

  • Save - writes playlist to the location of open playlist

  • Save as - writes a new playlist to a user-defined location

  • Copy to - copy selected files in either playlist or files list to a different folder

  • Move to - move selected files in either playlist or files list to a different folder

  • 1-4 - fast access to the four most recently accessed playlists

  • Exit - initiates shutdown sequence

• Edit

  • Cut - copies selected songs into local clipboard

  • Copy - copies selected songs into local clipboard

  • Paste - depending on previous commands (Cut vs. Copy) copies or moves clipboard contents to playlist or folder

  • Paste To - depending on previous commands (Cut vs. Copy) copies or moves clipboard contents to a different folder

  • Add - adds selected songs in the files panel to the playlist

  • Remove - removes selected songs from the playlist window

  • Delete - erases or recycles selected songs from files list or playlist

  • Select all - activates selections status of entire playlist or files list

  • Invert selection - reverses selections status of entire playlist or files list

  • Properties - access and edit id3 tag info of selected song/songs

• View

  • Show folders/files/playlist - toggles view of one of three major viewable components of the interface

  • Reverse view - reverses status of three togglable components

  • Optimize - adjusts your view for maximum viewing capability

  • Clipboard - brings up Clipboard viewer

  • Refresh - reloads current folder adjusting for changes to contents

  • Always on top - keeps ShufflePlay on top of all "regular" windows

• Go

  • 1 thru E - fast access to the 15 most recently accessed folders

• Options

  • Setup

    • Filename - the exact location of the mp3 player (winamp.exe, winplay3.exe) must be given here

    • Quick shuffle - when enabled, does one shuffling pass instead of the regular two

    • Remember last playlist - stores the last playlist you were working for instant loading the next time you open up the program.

    • Auto-minimize on Play/ShufflePlay - when Play/ShufflePlay is invoked, the program will automatically minimize itself out of the way

    • MP3 Player preference - if this is enabled, the program cannot determine the player you are using, and you get to choose

    • Cache size - from none to infinity, set the appropriate size of your cache. As a rule of thumb, this should be close to the total amount of MP3 files on your system (including network drives, CD-ROM's, zip-drives, etc.).

    • Cached tags expire - from 3 days to never, decide when an entry is "old" and thus expelled from the cache. this seemingly minor feature improves the efficiency of your cache system.

  • Interface

    • File filter - can be used if you want to try tagging MP2, MPG, or other non MP3 formats

    • Delete - control the warning level of the delete system - no warning, warning, or not-permitted.

    • Double-click - decide what a double-click does in the main interface

    • Delete key - decide what a press on the delete key does in the interface

    • Show ShufflePlay - control the taskbar/tray status of the program when minimized

    • Properties window filename - if you have very long filenames and path structures, you should limit the filename display to exclude the path

  • Cache

    • Flush - empties the cache entirely

    • Optimize - immediately increases efficiency of cache system by purging older/expired entries

    • Statistics - view the efficiency of the cache system. if this drops too low, you can try flushing or adjusting the cache settings

• Tools

  • HTML Wizard - creates a relatively simple HTML file based on playlist contents

    • Filename - destination filename of .HTM/.HTML

    • Field selection - decide what fields are shown in the table

  • Inventory Wizard - creates .TXT table based on playlist contents

    • Filename - destination of inventory

    • Header - location of optional header file

    • Footer - location of optional footer file

    • Field selection - decide what fields are shown in the table

  • Rename Wizard - renames all files of playlist based on template and ID3 tag contents of the individual files

    • Template input - user definable field. see in-program help or built-in templates for assistance.

    • Preview area - used to see resultant filename based on current user template, updated every second

    • Extraneous filename auto-correction - changes slashes and other extraneous characters to spaces

    • Do not show error messages - to speed up a rename session. Rename attempts which didn't work will probably become apparent, anyway.

    • Turn all spaces to... - used largely for making FTP sites easier to use

  • Duplicate Wizard - attempts to find duplicates as it sweeps playlist and retains files within a certain amount of second of each other

    • Time allowance - user-defined "margin of error" to be used when sweeping for duplicates

    • Find duplicates and... - single out the duplicates by highlighting them or cropping the list

  • Search Wizard - sweeps path (optionally recursively) and adds songs to playlist which match user-defined parameters

    • Search input - text to match

    • Search in... - select fields to compare search input against

    • Look in... - select path to begin searching from

    • Wipe current list - erases list before adding new entries

    • Case-sensitive matching - if enabled, only matching cases are permitted to be added to playlist

    • Include subfolders - if enabled, recursively searches beginning from folder defined in "Look in"

    • "Look in" field defaults to current path - if enabled, the "Look in" path defaults to the working path when wizard is next opened.

  • Selection Wizard - automatically sets selection status of items in interface based on user-defined parameters

    • Search text - text to match

    • Search in... - select fields to compare search input against

    • Retain current selections - clears all selections before setting new selection status

    • Case-sensitive matching - if enabled, only matching cases are permitted to be selected

• Selection

  • Get this directory - adds all files in current directory to playlist

  • Recurse directory - adds all files in current directory and all subdirectories to playlist

  • Recurse My Computer - adds all files on all known drives to playlist

• Play

  • Play selected - play only selected files in playlist

  • Play playlist - play entire playlist

  • ShufflePlay playlist - shuffle, then play entire playlist

• Remote

  • Basic functions

    • Play, stop, pause, skip -- if you don't know what these do...

  • WinAMP-exclusive functions

    • Volume control, fade out, graphic equalizer popup, and plugin controls -- not available in Winplay mode

  • Window functions

    • Minimize, restore, close -- if you don't know what these do, I don't know what to tell you.

• Help

  • Tip of the day

    • brings up one of several tips to increase usability of ShufflePlay

  • On the web

    • loads up default web browser and opens up the ShufflePlay 2 Support Page

  • eMail the author

    • fires up default email client to send me an eMail

  • Registration

    • details on registering this software

  • About ShufflePlay

    • version, compile, and user information

3.2 - Advanced techniques

• Span tagging - the fast simultaneous tagging of multiple MP3 files

  • Highlight multiple files in either the playlist or files window

  • Right-click selection and choose Properties

  • Adjust fields which require to be span-tagged

  • Review changes and confirm your action

• Cut & Paste - Help text under construction

4.1 - Frequently asked questions

1. Q: I upgraded from an older version of ShufflePlay by copying the update EXE over the older one. When the program runs, it says I have a bad INI file. How do I fix this?
   A: ShufflePlay is looking for info in the INI which isn't there because you had an older version. When you exit from the new version, a new INI will be written, and you shouldn't see the "bad INI" message any longer.
2. Q: Sometimes when I recurse a series of folders I get a "Type mismatch" error and the program shuts down.
   A: I'm not sure what causes this because it has only happened once to me in the past several months. It is nearly impossible to fix a bug that happens this infrequently.
3. Q: I used the WinAMP Remote buttons, but nothing happened? Why?
   A: Good question. The latest version (2.10) has code which should return a success rate of around 99%.
4. Q: I use Winplay3 for my MP3's, and whenever I load a large list into Winplay, it gives me a strange error message.
   A: Since I don't write Winplay3, I can't say why this happens. My only suggestion is to use WinAMP as your player, instead.

4.2 - Known bugs

5.1 - Registration

5.2 - Credits

5.3 - Links

• flipTech International Official Homepage - where it all begins

• flipTech WebBoard - place to post and discuss ideas about this and my other software

• ShufflePlay Official Homepage - the starting point of the ShufflePlay website

• ShufflePlay Download Page - always find the latest release of ShufflePlay on this page

• ShufflePlay History Page - find an updated listing of recent changes and improvements

• ShufflePlay Support Page - the first place to try for further help with this program

• ShufflePlay Registration Page - support this and my other titles by registering!

• Gary Calpo's Homepage - explore my pocket of cyberspace