MidWavi Help

Help is available on the following:

•	What is MidWavi

•	The Audio CD Player

•	The Sound and Video Player (MID - WAV - AVI)

•	The Graphics Viewer (BMP - ICO - JPG - WMF)

•	The Tools Menu including Default all settings

•	Status Checking (background polling)

•	Registration details


What is MidWavi

MidWavi (so called because it can play Mid, Wav and Avi files) is a full 32 bit multimedia program capable of playing audio CD’s and sound files as well as displaying video and various graphic files.

It is a standalone program requiring no external libraries or runtime components whatsoever and is thus very easy to install/remove (MidWavi comprises MidWavi.Exe and MidWavi.Hlp these being the program itself and the help file).

An extremely powerful search option is available to you for finding sound, video and graphic files (including searching CD drives and mapped network drives). See Search Drive.

The audio CD player can be programmed to play up to thirty tracks in a variety of ways, and up to 99 tracks can be played in all.

MidWavi assumes you have a working sound card and CD drive (MidWavi will not run at all if no CD drive is detected) and is suitable only for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.

In addition, MidWavi will not run if it detects that Windows 95 or NT 4 has been set-up to use 'Large Fonts'. If this is the case, and you wish to run MidWavi, you must go to 'Display Properties' then the 'Settings' tab and change the 'Font Size' setting from 'Large Fonts' to 'Small Fonts'.

 (Hint: the quickest way to get to the 'Display Properties' window is to single right mouse click ON THE DESKTOP and take the 'Properties' option).

Not all sound and video files are created equal (particularly AVI files) so if any problems are experienced, try running the same file with the Media Player provided with Windows 95/NT 4 – if the problem persists, you may have found a rouge file!

It is strongly recommended that you turn “Auto insert notification”/"Auto Play" OFF. This will prevent the CD player supplied with Windows 95/NT 4 from starting up every time you insert an audio CD (for details on how to achieve this, click this… Turning auto play off)

Only one instance of MidWavi can be run (indeed, if MidWavi detects itself, or another program is already using the CD drive when MidWavi is launched, the most recently launched copy of MidWavi will offer a message, then close down).

Currently, supported video format is AVI, sound files MID and WAV and graphic files of type BMP, ICO, JPG and WMF.

For queries concerning MidWavi contact:

Terry Simpson

TSoft Ltd

33 Church Lane

Wymington

Rushden

N’Hants

NN10 9LW

Tel. 01933-355629

Email: terry@tsimpson.demon.co.uk


Audio CD Player

Audio CD

It is strongly recommended that you turn “Auto insert notification” OFF. This will prevent the CD player supplied with Windows 95 from starting up every time you insert an audio CD (for details on how to achieve this, click this… Turning auto play off)

If you must retain ‘Auto insert notification’, be aware that to use MidWavi after inserting an audio CD, you will first have to Stop and Exit the Windows CD Player (which of course will have automatically kicked-in when you inserted the audio CD).

Audio CD Features

•	You can program up to thirty tracks as follows:

•	Play In the order in which tracks are selected – ‘Select’

•	Play randomly – ‘Random’

•	Play Sequentially (one after the other) – ‘Play’

•	You can play up to 99 tracks (one at a time in ‘Single Play’ mode, or randomly)

•	Track time details (whilst playing) can be displayed in incrementing (‘Elapsed time’) or decrementing (‘Remaining time’) mode (i.e. you can see how much time of a track has already been played or is left remaining)

•	Total selected track times (‘Tracks Selected Time’) can be displayed (useful for dubbing a CD to a cassette tape)

•	You can opt for a standard CD player (‘Normal CD Player’) to minimize use of system resources

•	Control of a CD including: Play, Stop, Pause, Next, Previous and Eject (Next and Previous also work in ‘Random’ and ‘Select’ modes)

•	CD details of total playing time and total number of tracks are displayed

•	Updated track details can be displayed (or not) in the MidWavi icon on the Task Bar – ‘Update Icon whilst maximised’

•	A Tools Menu (including control over Status Checking) giving further options and controls

Playing an Audio CD

Loading an audio CD ready for playing:

You will be prompted to place an audio CD in your CD drive, then click the ‘Load’ button.

The CD control buttons ‘Play’, ‘Stop’ etc. etc.  work exactly as you would expect them to work, so I’ll not insult your intelligence by providing help on these!

However, please be aware that certain actions will, of necessity, ‘turn off’ other actions… e.g. if you ‘Stop’ a CD whilst in ‘Random’ play mode, random play is turned off.

Playing all tracks sequentially:

If you simply wish to play all tracks sequentially (one after the other) click the ‘All’ button then the ‘Play’ button (MidWavi will have selected all tracks by default when it first reads the CD disk so in this case you merely click ‘Play’).

Playing selected tracks sequentially:

To select a custom choice of tracks to play sequentially, click the ‘None’ button and then click the checkboxes corresponding to the tracks you wish to play (e.g. to hear tracks 3,5 and 10 only, click the checkboxes adjacent to tracks 3,5 and 10 then click the ‘Play’ button).

Tip: if you wish to hear all tracks except (say) 9, click the ‘All’ button then un-check the checkbox next to track 9 (i.e. click in the checkbox so that it is no longer ticked).

Playing tracks randomly:

To play the CD tracks randomly (and forever, well until you stop the program), click the ‘Random’ checkbox – play will commence automatically (each time you click this checkbox off/on a new random selection is made).

If you align the mouse cursor over the ‘Random’ checkbox, you may click the right mouse button for a display of the currently selected random tracks (see also ‘Tools Menu’).

Playing tracks in the order selected:

If you wish to play tracks in a particlar order (say track 7 first followed by track 3 etc.), click the ‘Select’ checkbox and click the track checkboxes in the order that you wish to hear them then click the ‘Play’ button.

If you align the mouse cursor over the ‘Select’ checkbox, you may click the right mouse button for a display of the current order of track selection (see also ‘Tools Menu’).

Playing a single track:

If you wish to play a single track (up to track 99) click the button next to the button marked ‘None’.

This button starts out as being called ‘Single’ but once a CD has been loaded (using the ‘Load’ button), the title of this button will change to reflect the number of tracks on the CD e.g. if there are 12 tracks on the CD, this button will become ‘1 to 12’ etc.

Note that the 1 in ‘1 to 12’ will be underlined meaning that you can access this option with the keyboard as per normal Windows conventions (Alt 1).

Single track playing is really only intended for playing tracks above track 30 thus giving you a mechanism for going beyond the programmable limit (i.e. you have a total of 30 checkboxes – tracks - to program).

Once you have made your track selection (using either keyboard entry or the spin buttons – see more below), you may hit the ‘Enter’ key or click ‘Play Track’ to continue (‘Cancel’ to abort).

Spin buttons are the lazy way of entering detail (in this case a track number).

The spin buttons are next to the box containing the track number – each click of the upper spin button will add one to the current number displayed or each click of the lower spin button will subtract one from the current number displayed.

Tip: keep the left mouse button held down for a rapid ‘spin’ (up or down).

As with keyboard entry, the spin buttons are programmed not to go beyond the track limits of the current CD (i.e. if the CD has 12 tracks, you cannot ‘spin’ beyond 12). Obviously, you can never go below 1.

Tracks Selected Time:

If you wish to determine the total playing time of all the tracks you have selected click the ‘Tracks Selected Time’ button.

This will give you an hours/minutes display that can be useful for such things as dubbing a CD to cassette tape etc. (copyright laws permitting or course!).

Elapsed time:

Click on this radio button for an updating display of the amount of time the track has been playing.

Remaining time:

Click on this radio button for an updating display of the amount of track time remaining.

You may toggle between ‘Elapsed time’ and ‘Remaining time’ whilst a track is playing and the display will adjust to reflect the current setting.

Normal CD Player

If you wish to have almost no Status Checking whilst playing an audio CD (and therefore no feedback information from the CD), you have an option called ‘Normal CD Player’.

The purpose of ‘Normal CD Player’ is to enable you to play a CD with minimal capabilities (but also minimal use of your system resources).

You might use this (for example) to play an audio CD whilst being on-line to the Internet etc. etc.

Update Icon whilst maximised

When you minimise MidWavi say, to make room on your display for other items, the CD track details will always be updated on the resulting icon in the Windows task bar.

This option, when turned on (ticked), also allows you to see track details (updating) on the icon in the Windows task bar but when MidWavi is maximised.

If this option is turn off (not ticked) then the Windows task bar icon will display various status messages relating to the state of the CD (e.g. ‘CD playing’ etc.) when MidWavi is maximised.

Graphics:

This button will take you to the MidWavi Graphics Viewer.

Providing you are playing your selections when you hit this button, you will be offered the chance to leave your audio CD selections playing (i.e. you can listen to your selected CD Tracks whilst viewing graphics).

NB…you must be already playing your audio CD selection(s) in order for this option to be offered.

Please bear in mind that some systems may not take too kindly to playing audio CD Tracks whilst trying to display graphics or search drives etc. (you will just have to try it on your system and see how it goes).

Also note that MidWavi will prevent you from attempting to play audio CD simultaneously with MID and/or WAV sound files.


Tools Menu

Tools Menu Options

System Status:

Clicking ‘System Status’ will display details of your computers RAM and hard drive (i.e. swap file) space as well as CPU type. Click the ‘Refresh’ button to update the display (the details of which can be constantly changing).

Tool Tips:

Clicking ‘Turn Tool Tips On’ – ‘Turn Tool Tips Off’ will enable/disable the displaying of Tool Tips (miniature Help boxes that pop-up when you move the cursor over a control e.g. when the cursor is over (say) the ‘Random’ checkbox control, help will pop-up for this control).

Default all settings:

All settings are returned to their original ‘Default all settings’.

Set Status Checking

See separate help for Status Checking

Turn reminder OFF/ON:

When MidWavi starts up, you can opt for a message box that details current settings for Status Checking and random play (e.g. if MidWavi is about to start in random play mode, this reminder box will inform you that this is so).

The default is ON but you can turn this feature OFF (and then back ON if you wish) with this option.

You can also toggle this option OFF in the message box itself by ensuring that the checkbox ‘Display this every time MidWavi is run’ is NOT ticked.

Display Random Tracks:

Use this option to display the list of tracks randomly selected by the computer when you have taken the ‘Random’ option (see Audio CD Player). Remember that every time you take the ‘Random’ option, a new list is generated.

Also, if you align the mouse cursor over the ‘Random’ checkbox, you may click the right mouse button for a display of the currently selected random tracks. This will yield the same result as the above.

Display “As Selected” Tracks:

Use this option to display the list of tracks as selected by you having taken the ‘Select’ option (see Audio CD Player).

Also, if you align the mouse cursor over the ‘Select’ checkbox, you may click the right mouse button for a display of the current order of track selection. This will yield the same result as the above.


Default Settings

Default all settings:

When you make changes to any of the settings listed below, these changes are preserved by MidWavi for use next time (e.g. if you change the slide show delay to 2 seconds, this will be the setting the next time you run MidWavi).

The purpose of this option is to return MidWavi to its original ‘factory’ settings.

The following settings will take immediate effect when the ‘Default all settings’ option is taken from the ‘Tools Menu’. These settings are also preserved for use the next time MidWavi is run.

Tool Tips	(default OFF, but ON the very first time MidWavi is run)

Font colour	(default Blue – if you have created a custom colour, it will be lost)

Font Bold:	(default ON)

Font minimum size	(default OFF)

Font size:	(default 10)

Track time display	(default Decrementing)

AVI display	(default “Resize AVI to fit”)

Update Taskbar icon	(default, display track times on Taskbar Icon when running maximised)

Random:Play mode	(default OFF)

Polling	(default Normal)

Display Reminder	(default OFF, but ON the very first time MidWavi is run)

Slide Show delay	(default 4 seconds)

Obviously, the above will over-ride any settings that you may have made so be aware that you will forfeit any such custom settings if the ‘Default all settings’ option is taken.

‘Enable checking whilst playing’ defaults to ON when MidWavi is first run, but you can turn this OFF and the setting will be preserved (see Status Checking - Enable checking whilst playing). In other words, ‘Enable checking whilst playing’ is unaffected by ‘Default all settings’.

Other settings are, under suitable prompting, on a “per session” basis.


Turning Auto Play Off

To stop Windows 95 from automatically playing an audio CD when placed in the CD drive, do the following…

•	Double click on the desktop icon called ‘My Computer’ (or find the group containing the icon ‘Control Panel’).

•	Double click on the icon called ‘Control Panel’.

•	Double click on the icon called ‘System’.

•	Click the tab called ‘Device Manager’

•	Click the plus sign (‘+’) next to the entry ‘CD ROM’ to open up a list of your CD drives (normally, just one drive will be shown here).

•	Double click on the drive description (if more than one drive is installed, double click on the one that you wish to change).

•	Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

•	Find the setting called ‘Auto insert notification’ and make sure that it is NOT ticked (checked).

•	Repeat the last three steps for any other CD drives you have installed.

Windows NT 4 users need to go to the "View" option in Control Panel and take the "File Types" tab. In here, you will see a setting "Audio CD" which when you double click will have the word "Play" in bold type. Click on "Set as default" to toggle this OFF/ON (i.e. when OFF, the word "Play" is not in bold type). This only affects audio CD's on an NT 4 machine.

A side benefit from doing this is that your system will no longer be continually ‘polling’ your CD drive(s) and you might find the whole system a bit more responsive.

The down side is that if you are used to Windows 95 automatically starting up CD menus etc. (e.g. magazine cover disks), you will no longer have this functionality (NT 4 will still have this functionality).

If you must retain ‘Auto insert notification’/'Auto Play', be aware that to use MidWavi after inserting an audio CD, you will first have to Stop and Exit the Windows CD Player (which of course will have automatically kicked-in when you inserted the audio CD).


Status Checking

Status Checking only applies to the MidWavi Audio CD Player.

If your system works smoothly (as should be the case) when running MidWavi, the only things you need to read below are Enable checking whilst playing and Normal CD Player

Background Polling

MidWavi functionality such as displaying track times, knowing if you have removed a CD disk etc. relies on the system continually "polling" (interrogating) the CD drive.

Although normally not the case, on some systems this can cause your machine to become sluggish.

If this is the case, go to the ‘Tools’ menu option and select ‘Set status checking’.

The numeric options presented are delays per second in between polling, and so the higher the number you set, the more responsive your system will be (but at the expense of MidWavi performance)

As an example of how the settings can degrade MidWavi, consider the following…

•	At its default setting (‘Normal’), MidWavi will update track details every second.

•	At a setting of (say) 10, track details will only be updated every 10 seconds.

Clearly, for MidWavi, the best setting is ‘Normal’.

You will be offered the chance to either change a setting temporarily or preserve the change for use as the default every time MidWavi is run.

If you wish to check the current status setting you may either visit this option and view the screen or single right mouse click anywhere on the MidWavi Audio CD Player window (suggest bottom right hand corner).

Enable checking whilst playing

Obviously, it is good practice to stop a CD before you eject it, but the setting 'Enable checking whilst playing' will, if turned ON (checkbox is ticked), inform you if you remove (eject) a CD whilst it is still playing.

This option defaults to ON when MidWavi is first run, but the preferred choice is to keep this turned OFF, i.e. do not have the checkbox ticked – you are not in the habit of removing CD’s whilst they are playing are you?

If you do opt for 'Enable checking whilst playing' OFF as suggested but you do remove a CD whilst it is still playing, hit the ‘Stop’ button and MidWavi will automatically adjust itself to the situation.

Normal CD Player

This option is a checkbox on the main audio CD player screen (see Audio CD Player), but also impacts on system resources.

If you wish to have almost no status checking whilst playing an audio CD (and therefore no feedback information from the CD), you have an option called ‘Normal CD Player’.

The purpose of ‘Normal CD Player’ is to enable you to play a CD with minimal capabilities (but also minimal use of your system resources).

You might use this (for example) to play an audio CD whilst being on-line to the Internet etc. etc.


Sound and Video Player

Select AVI-MID-WAV:

Before you can play sounds or videos (see Playing Selected Sound & Video Files) you must first select the files you wish to play.

This option allows you to pilot around your drive(s) using a normal Windows drive/directory box.

Once you have found the required drive/directory destination containing your sound and/or video files, you may then select them as follows:

MidWavi supports so called ‘extended selection’ (a standard Windows protocol) and this means that you can either select

•	a single file by single left clicking on it

•	a group of sequential files by single left clicking the first required then going to the last required and, whilst holding down the ‘Shift’ key, single left clicking on it thus selecting all the files in between clicks

•	a list of selected files by holding down the ‘Control’ key whilst single left clicking on the required file and then moving on to the next required file and doing the same until all required files have been selected

You can select approximately 600 files in this manner, but they all have to reside in the same directory (for a powerful alternative to this, be sure to read Search Drive).

.

It is perfectly acceptable (indeed, it is a feature of MidWavi) to mix file types so that for instance your selection may contain a mixture of AVI, MID and WAV files.

It should be noted that the default search pattern is for all AVI, MID and WAV files but you can change this.

If you click the down arrow in the box called ‘Files of type’ in the drive/directory box, you will be offered the choice of finding AVI only, MID only or WAV only files.

Please note that whilst you are also free to enter a file search pattern in the box called ‘File name’, there is no point in so doing because the only playable file types are already covered (AVI, MID and WAV).

If you do enter an illegal search pattern (for example, *.EXE) and then go on to select and try to ‘play’ any found, MidWavi will advise that it cannot ‘play’ such a file.

Once you have completed your selection, click ‘Open’ to continue (or ‘Cancel’ to abort).

If you select too many (or indeed no) files, a suitable error message is provided.

Assuming no errors are reported you will now have a file list box containing your selection ready to be played.

Now see Playing Selected Sound & Video Files.

See also Search Drive.

Normal ~ Bold ~ Default ~ Min ~ Max ~ - ~ + ~ Colour control:

See Controlling Fonts & Colours.


Graphics Viewer

Select Files For Display:

Before you can display graphics (see Displaying Selected Graphic Files) you must first select the files you wish to display.

This option allows you to pilot around your drive(s) using a normal Windows drive/directory box.

Once you have found the required drive/directory destination containing your graphic files, you may then select them as follows:

MidWavi supports so called ‘extended selection’ (a standard Windows protocol) and this means that you can either select

•	a single file by single left clicking on it

•	a group of sequential files by single left clicking the first required then going to the last required and, whilst holding down the ‘Shift’ key, single left clicking on it thus selecting all the files in between clicks

•	a list of selected files by holding down the ‘Control’ key whilst single left clicking on the required file and then moving on to the next required file and doing the same until all required files have been selected

You can select approximately 600 files in this manner, but they all have to reside in the same directory (for a powerful alternative to this, be sure to read Search Drive).

.

It is perfectly acceptable (indeed, it is a feature of MidWavi) to mix file types so that for instance your selection may contain a mixture of BMP, ICO, JPG and WMF files.

It should be noted that the default search pattern is for all BMP, ICO, JPG and WMF files but you can change this.

If you click the down arrow in the box called ‘Files of type’ in the drive/directory box, you will be offered the choice of finding BMP only, ICO only, JPG only or WMF only files.

Please note that whilst you are also free to enter a file search pattern in the box called ‘File name’, there is no point in so doing because the only playable file types are already covered (BMP, ICO, JPG and WMF).

If you do enter an illegal search pattern (for example, *.EXE) and then go on to select and try to ‘display’ any found, MidWavi will advise that it cannot ‘display’ such a file.

Once you have completed your selection, click ‘Open’ to continue (or ‘Cancel’ to abort).

If you select too many (or indeed no) files, a suitable error message is provided.

Assuming no errors are reported you will now have a file list box containing your selection ready to be displayed.

Please note that the first time you enter ‘Graphics Viewer’ mode, only the control buttons are visible (i.e. there is no file list box, no slide show delay control and no font size/colour control).

All possible/relevant controls are made visible/usable once your first file selection has been made.

Now see Displaying Selected Graphic Files.

See also Search Drive.

Normal ~ Bold ~ Default ~ Min ~ Max ~ - ~ + ~ Colour control:

See Controlling Fonts & Colours.


Playing Selected Sound & Video Files

Playing Selected Sound And Video Files

Once you have selected your files (see Sound and Video Player - Select AVI-MID-WAV), you will have a list of them in the MidWavi file list box.

A feature called sub selection (a kind of secondary file selection option) is now available to you..

Once you have made your initial selection (i.e. the file list box has been populated), you will notice that every single file name now has its own checkbox beside it (they will all be ticked when first selected). See also 'Sub Select'.

This means that by clicking in the checkbox area of the file name, you can toggle that individual selection ON/OFF (i.e. ticked/checked - not ticked/unchecked).

Let us say that your initial selection produced ten file names. If you were to then uncheck file names that appeared in the order 2, 4, 8 and 10 and then opted for 'Auto Play', file names 1,3,5,6,7 and 9 only will be displayed/played.

You may now either:

•	Highlight a file name (single left click), then double left click it to play that file

•	Click the ‘Play’ button to play the currently highlighted file

•	Click the checkbox ‘Auto Play’ so that it is ticked (checked) and all the selected files will be automatically played in sequence from the highlighted file on

At any time (in any of the above modes) you may click the ‘Next’ or ‘Previous’ buttons to move forwards or backwards through the file list.

You may also take any of the above actions whilst a file is playing (e.g. if you are playing the first file in a list, you may highlight (say) the sixth file and double click that. The effect will be to stop playing the current file and start playing the sixth etc.).

Sub Select

This button will yield a small box offering the chance to filter your original selections even further.

Let us say that you have taken the 'Search Drive' option (which will automatically select all files for playing) but you only wish to play AVI and MID files. If you click the checkboxes marked AVI and MID, your selections will automatically be made for you from the original list meaning that only these file types will be selected for playing from the list.

Also, you will notice a number beside each checkbox that signifies how many of that type were found (i.e. if there were 30 *.AVI files found then the number 30 will be next to the AVI checkbox etc. etc.).

Keyboard selection:

Ensure that the file list box has the focus (i.e. that this is the area of your screen where input is accepted). You do this by either left clicking anywhere in the file list box or hitting the ‘Tab’ key until a dotted line appears around the currently highlighted file name.

Use of the ‘Home’ and ‘End’ keys is supported to pilot yourself to the top of a file list (‘Home’) or bottom of a file list (‘End’). You may also use the up/down cursor keys to pilot around the file list.

Once the desired file name is highlighted, you can hit the ‘Enter’ key to commence playing.

File size, date and time details:

To obtain byte size and date details of the currently highlighted or playing file, you may single right click either anywhere in the file list box area or anywhere on the MidWavi window (suggest bottom right corner).

This includes video (AVI) clips but bear in mind that, depending on the AVI display mode, the file list box my be obscured by the playing video clip so in effect you will be right clicking on the video.

If no file time is shown, this means the file was created at midnight (00:00:00).

Allow original AVI size:

If this radio button is set (clicked), the AVI video will play in its own window at its original size.

In this mode, you may ‘grab’ the edges of the window and re-size it (using the usual Windows method with left mouse button held down etc.). This is quite a severe test of your video system, so results will vary. Also, you can expect an enlarged video to go ‘blocky’.

In some situations, this will mean that you can no longer see the MidWavi controls.

To control such a video, click on the MidWavi window (or, if the MidWavi window is completely obscured, bring it up from the task bar) and then click the relevant button (‘Stop’, ’Next’ etc.).

Resize AVI to fit:

If this radio button is set (the default), the AVI video will play contained within what was the file list box area of the MidWavi window.

The video will be stretched (or reduced) to fit and all controls are available.

Elapsed time:

Click on this radio button for an updating display of the amount of time the file has been playing.

Remaining time:

Click on this radio button for an updating display of the amount of file time remaining.

You may toggle between ‘Elapsed time’ and ‘Remaining time’ whilst a file is playing and the display will adjust to reflect the current setting.

Graphics:

This button will take you to the MidWavi Graphics Viewer.

Providing you are playing your selections when you hit this button, you will be offered the chance to leave your selections playing (i.e. you can listen to your sound files whilst viewing graphics).

NB…you must be already playing your sound files in order for this option to be offered.

Please note that all (any) AVI selection(s) will be automatically de-selected (there would be no point in displaying them as you would not be able to see them on the Graphics Viewer screen!).

If an AVI is currently on display when you take this option, it will immediately be stopped.

Also, "Auto Play" mode will be forced to ON if you choose to leave sound playing (this is to allow a sort of "Slide Show" of sound whilst you are viewing graphics).

Please bear in mind that some systems may not take too kindly to playing WAV and MID files whilst trying to display graphics or search drives etc. (you will just have to try it on your system and see how it goes).

Also note that MidWavi will prevent you from attempting to play audio CD simultaneously with MID and/or WAV sound files.

Normal ~ Bold ~ Default ~ Min ~ Max ~ - ~ + ~ Colour control:

See Controlling Fonts & Colours.


Search Drive

Search Drive

This is an extremely powerful option that is available to you in both sound/video and graphic modes.

It allows you to search any drive in your system (including CD and mapped network drives) and will automatically build a list of any target file(s) found.

Target file(s) means:

In graphic display mode…

Find all *.BMP files on the disk

Find all *.ICO files on the disk

Find all *.WMF files on the disk

Find all *.JPG files on the disk

Find all of the above types on the disk

In sound/video play mode…

Find all *.AVI files on the disk

Find all *.MID files on the disk

Find all *.WAV files on the disk

Find all of the above types on the disk

In sound/video play mode, the search button is called (its caption is) ‘Search Drive’.

In graphic display mode, the buttons caption changes to reflect the type of search you are about to undertake.

For example, if you were searching all of drive C: for (say) BMP files, the buttons caption  becomes ‘Find all BMP’s on drive C:’

Up to 32,700 file names are supported with this option!

What this means is that you have the opportunity to setup a totally automatic search which manually could take a very long time indeed (during a test, 32,700 *.WMF were located on a CD disk in 31 seconds! This figure will of course vary depending on your system components).

It should also be noted that at the extremes of file name support, your system is almost bound to slow down (particularly in the ‘Re-size to fill screen’ option) during the display process. This is normal.

To set your required search pattern, first choose the target drive from the drop down drive list box (this list will include all legitimate drives on your system including any mapped network drives).

Then, set the file type from the drop down list box of supported file types:

For sound/video	AVI, MID, WAV or ALL of these

For graphics	BMP,  ICO, WMF, JPG or ALL of these

Finally, for sound/video file searching, click ‘Search Drive’ or for graphic file searching (and let us say that you wish to find all supported graphic file types on D: drive) click ‘Find ALL on drive D:’

At any time during the search, you may hit the escape (Esc) key to abort the search but be aware that Esc may not appear to take immediate effect (just wait a while, it will eventually kick in).

When the search is completed, MidWavi’s file list box will contain all files found matching the search criteria (complete with file path details).

Now see:

For sound/video files:	Playing Selected Sound & Video Files.

For graphic files:	Displaying Selected Graphic Files


Controlling Fonts & Colours

Normal   Bold   Default   Min   Max   -   +   Colour control:

You may control the look and colour of the font used to display file names in the MidWavi file list box (in both Sound/Video and Graphic windows) by use of the row of buttons and colour box positioned immediately below the file list box.

Button	Action

Normal	Make font non bold

Bold	Make font bold

Default	Reset to point size 10 bold (Blue)

Min	Reset to point size 8 not bold

Max	Reset to point size 24 bold

- (minus)	Reduce point size of font by a factor of one step (e.g. 24, 18 etc.)

+ (plus)	Increase point size of font by a factor of one step (e.g. 10, 12 etc.)

The Colour Control:

This is a drop down list box which will display sixteen possible choices of font colour (Blue is the default for MidWavi).

(Please note that in MidWavi Graphics Viewer, this option is only available in TV Mode).

The current font colour will displayed on a white background to the left of the down arrow box that you need to click in order to access the colour selections.

If you wish to change the colour of the font, click the down arrow then click on your desired colour (be careful, one of the standard colours is the same as the list box background so obviously, if you choose this, you will no longer be able to see the file names!!).

You may also provide a custom font colour and to do this you need to right click over the Colour Control box. This will yield a palette of colours for you to select from (or you can drag the cursor around in the multi colour box until you achieve the desired effect). Click ‘OK’ when done (or ‘Cancel’ to abort).

You may create just one preserveable custom font colour.

Any current custom font colour is automatically preserved by MidWavi on exit but you need to be aware that should you ever return to the ‘Default’ option or choose one of the sixteen standard colours, your custom font colour will be lost the next time you run MidWavi.


Displaying Selected Graphic Files

Displaying Selected Graphic Files

Once you have selected your files (see Graphics Viewer), you will have a list of them in the MidWavi file list box.

A feature called sub selection (a kind of secondary file selection option) is now available to you..

Once you have made your initial selection (i.e. the file list box has been populated), you will notice that every single file name now has its own checkbox beside it (they will all be ticked when first selected). See also 'Sub Select'.

This means that by clicking in the checkbox area of the file name, you can toggle that individual selection ON/OFF (i.e. ticked/checked - not ticked/unchecked).

Let us say that your initial selection produced ten file names. If you were to then uncheck file names that appeared in the order 2, 4, 8 and 10 and then opted for 'Slide Show', file names 1,3,5,6,7 and 9 only will be displayed.

It should be remembered that whilst WMF (vector) type graphics take well to being shrunk or expanded, BMP (bitmap) and JPG graphics generally do not.

There are several modes for displaying graphics and these are as follows:

TV Mode

With the ‘TV Mode’ checkbox ticked (checked), the graphics will be contained (**shrunk or expanded) within the area that was occupied by the file list box.

(**Note: Icon files .ICO are displayed at their original size only).

In this mode, the radio button ‘Allow original size’ is automatically set whilst ‘Compact’ mode (see more below) is not allowed.

All controls (Display, Next, Previous etc.) are visible/usable in this mode.

With the ‘TV Mode’ checkbox not ticked (un-checked), the following applies:

Allow original size:

If this radio button is clicked, the graphic will be displayed at its original size (centered on-screen). The mouse cursor will also be centered within the graphic (allowing easy use of left (previous) or right (next) mouse clicks – see more below). This is often the best mode for BMP and JPG files.

Obviously, in this mode, no controls are available so use:

Esc (the escape key) to abort a display (same as pressing ‘Stop’)

Single LEFT mouse click to move back one (same as pressing ‘Previous’

Single RIGHT mouse click to move forward one (same as pressing ‘Next’)

Ensure that the mouse cursor is positioned within the graphic itself whilst you are clicking.

Re-size to fit window:

If this radio button is clicked, the graphic will be stretched to fill the entire area occupied by MidWavi’s window (.ICO files will remain at original size, but the background will fill the entire MidWavi window and thus all controls will be obscured).

The mouse cursor will be centered within the graphic

Again, in this mode, no controls are available so use:

Esc (the escape key) to abort a display (same as pressing ‘Stop’)

Single LEFT mouse click to move back one (same as pressing ‘Previous’

Single RIGHT mouse click to move forward one (same as pressing ‘Next’)

Ensure that the mouse cursor is positioned within the graphic itself whilst you are clicking.

Re-size to fill screen:

If this radio button is clicked, the graphic will be stretched to fill the entire screen and automatically adjusted for your screens resolution e.g. 640 x 480, 800 x 600 etc.  (.ICO files will remain at original size, but the background will fill the entire screen and thus all controls will be obscured).

The mouse cursor will be centered within the graphic

Once again, in this mode, no controls are available so use:

Esc (the escape key) to abort a display (same as pressing ‘Stop’)

Single LEFT mouse click to move back one (same as pressing ‘Previous’

Single RIGHT mouse click to move forward one (same as pressing ‘Next’)

Ensure that the mouse cursor is positioned within the graphic itself whilst you are clicking.

Compact:

If this checkbox is ticked (only available when ‘TV Mode’ is not ticked), the whole MidWavi window reduces to the size of the button control panel (i.e. the file list box etc. is no longer visible).

This mode is useful if you wish to have more of your desktop visible whilst running MidWavi in graphic display mode.

All comments above regarding re-sizing apply to this mode except that of course in the ‘Re-size to fit window’ option, the area used will be much reduced (i.e. graphic will only occupy the area containing the control buttons).

If this checkbox is un-checked (no longer ticked), the whole window will be automatically re-sized to normal and ‘TV mode’ set as the default.

Once you have selected a display mode, you may now either:

•	Highlight a file name (single left click), then double left click it to display that file

•	Highlight a file name (single left click), then click the ‘Display’ button to display that file

•	Click the checkbox ‘Slide Show’ so that it is ticked (checked) and all the selected files will be automatically displayed in sequence from the highlighted file onwards (see more below for setting Slide Show delay)

At any time in ‘TV Mode’ you may click the ‘Next’ or ‘Previous’ buttons to move forwards or backwards through the file list.

If the display mode precludes the use of ‘Next’ or ‘Previous’ buttons, single clicking the left mouse button will move to the previous selected graphic or single clicking the right mouse button will move to the next selected graphic and Esc (escape key) will abort.

Ensure that the mouse cursor is positioned within the graphic itself whilst you are clicking.

Sub Select

This button will yield a small box offering the chance to filter your original selections even further.

Let us say that you have taken the 'Search Drive' option (which will automatically select all files for displaying) but you only wish to display BMP and WMF files. If you click the checkboxes marked BMP and WMF, your selections will automatically be made for you from the original list meaning that only these file types will be selected for playing from the list.

Also, you will notice a number beside each checkbox that signifies how many of that type were found (i.e. if there were 30 *.JPG files found then the number 30 will be next to the JPG checkbox etc. etc.).

Keyboard selection:

Ensure that the file list box has the focus (i.e. that this is the area of your screen where input is accepted). You do this by either left clicking anywhere in the file list box or hitting the ‘Tab’ key until a dotted line appears around the currently highlighted file name.

Use of the ‘Home’ and ‘End’ keys is supported to pilot yourself to the top of a file list (‘Home’) or bottom of a file list (‘End’). You may also use the up/down cursor keys to pilot around the file list.

Once the desired file name is highlighted, you can hit the ‘Enter’ key to commence display.

Slide Show:

In this mode (i.e. if this checkbox is ticked), you can produce an automatic delayed sequential display of all your selected graphic files.

The delay per second between displays of the graphic files defaults to 4 seconds but you can change this with the control at the bottom of the screen (‘Delay per second for Slide Show (1-20)’).

You can choose anywhere between 1 and 20 seconds delay by either:

•	Dragging the bar adjacent to the box containing the current number of seconds

•	Typing in a value between 1 and 20 in the box

In ‘TV Mode’, because this control is visible/usable, you can change the delay ‘on the fly’ (i.e. whilst a slide show is in progress).

Note: because this control is not visible/usable in ‘Compact’ mode, you will need to set it to your requirements before entering ‘Compact’ mode, however, please also note that the first time you enter ‘Graphics Viewer’ mode, only the control buttons are visible (i.e. there is no slide show delay control visible).

All possible/relevant controls (including ‘Delay per second for Slide Show (1-20)’) are made visible/usable once your first file selection has been made.

To stop a slide show, in ‘TV Mode’, hit the ‘Stop’ button and in all other modes hit the escape key (‘Esc’).

File size, date and time details:

In ‘TV Mode’, to obtain byte size and date details of the currently highlighted file or file being displayed, you may single right click either anywhere in the file list box area, anywhere in the graphic itself or anywhere on the MidWavi window (suggest bottom right corner).

In any other mode, you will have to abort (Esc key) in order to gain access to the file list box or window before obtaining the file details as above.

If no file time is shown, this means the file was created at midnight (00:00:00).

Print:

MidWavi allows you to send BMP, JPG and WMF graphic files to the Printer.

A button called "Print" has been provided for this purpose (and you can also double left click within a displayed graphic to summon the print).

Please note the following:

•	You can only print graphics when in "TV Mode".

•	The file must be currently on display.

•	Printing of Icons is not supported.

•	You cannot print whilst MidWavi is playing CD tracks or sound.

•	You cannot print if a "Slide Show" is running.

MidWavi will either prohibit use or issue suitable warnings if any of the above criteria are not met.

In view of the fact that printing is (in the main) handled by your printer driver, it is urged that you ensure you have the latest version of the driver (same goes for the video driver!).

MidWavi will offer you options re the size of the printout and whether or not you want filename details printing.

I leave you to experiment with these settings, but as rule of thumb, it is probably well advised not to go more than one up on MidWavi's suggested default.

 An example:

When you have selected your file for printing, there are five possible output sizes:

•	zoom x2

•	zoom x4

•	zoom x8

•	zoom x10

•	"Original"

and MidWavi will "select" what is considered to be the most suitable. If (say) zoom x4 was the default, then zoom x8 is probably as high as you should go.

A sign that the "zoom" factor is too high will be that the printer merely form feeds the paper with no output on it!

If your printer driver supports it, you can opt for Landscape or Portrait output, Best Mode, Normal Mode, EconoMode, type of paper, number of copies and so on.

Once again, it is stressed that much will depend on the quality (or not) of your printer driver and in this respect all bets are off regarding the output you will obtain.

Normal ~ Bold ~ Default ~ Min ~ Max ~ - ~ + ~ Colour control:

See Controlling Fonts & Colours.

Refresh:

During tests in ‘TV Mode’, it was found that under certain rare conditions, ‘stray’ graphics can stay on screen after the display has moved on to another graphic (i.e. parts of a previous graphic are still visible on a new graphic).

You should (may) never see this as its almost certainly a peculiarity of the video driver (in one case, the problem could always be reproduced at 800 x 600 but went away in 640 x 480).

However, if you do ever get this problem, clicking the ‘Refresh’ button will cure it.


Registration details

To pay by cash or cheque (see below for credit card orders etc.) and register your own personalised copy of MidWavi directly with TSoft Ltd:

Send a cheque made payable to ‘TSoft Ltd’ for £20.00 – twenty pounds - (includes P&P and VAT) or $35.00 – thirty five dollars - addressed to:

Terry Simpson

TSoft Ltd

33 Church Lane

Wymington

Rushden

N’hants

NN10 9LW

England UK

Tel. +44 (0)1933-355629

email: terry@tsimpson.demon.co.uk

BE SURE TO INCLUDE:

1.	Your email address (if possible) and full postal address

2.	Your first and last names (so that your copy can be personalised)

3.	A password of your choosing (can be anything - note no password will be required to actually run MidWavi, this is merely part of the registration process)

4.	The version of MidWavi that you are currently using (see Help/About)

You will then receive mail (or an email) containing details on how to personalise your own copy of MidWavi (and if applicable, the very latest version).

For credit card orders, contact setSystems as follows:

(Please note that it is hoped this service will be in operation by mid February 1998)

setSystems accepts several different payment methods. All payments
made to setSystems must be made in U.S. Dollars drawn from U.S. banks.
Payments made to setSystems with a credit card will appear on your
statement based on your bank's payment cycle and will appear on your
statement as originating from setSystems.

You may order by credit card in any of the following ways.

1. On the Internet: https://www.setsystems.com/cgi-bin/buy-midwavi

You can order with a Visa, MasterCard, American Express,
or Discover card over the World Wide Web using a secured
form. All information sent this way is encrypted using
SSL technology for your protection. This is the fastest
way to order. You will know within two minutes whether
the order was approved.

2. Telephone:	U.S. (toll-free): 1-888-201-7131
International:    1-801-943-7848

The toll-free phone line is open from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
(Eastern time), Monday through Saturday. Outside of those
hours, you may leave a message and an customer service
representative will contact you the next business day. If you
are calling from North America, leave your name and a phone
number, and your call will be returned. If you are calling
from outside of North America, leave your name and E-Mail
address, and someone will respond by e-mail to your message.

Please have all information requested by the registration form
available so that we may expedite your order. See the
registration form below. Orders placed by phone may take up
to one business day to be processed.

3  FAX:	1-801-942-3396

When ordering by FAX, please provide the information
requested below. Orders placed by FAX may take up to one
business day to be processed.

4. E-mail:	sales@setsystems.com

When ordering by e-mail, please provide the information
requested on the form below. Orders placed by e-mail may
take up to one business day to be processed.

If you are familiar with PGP, you may encrypt and send
your credit card order to us using our PGP Public Key.
We will then decrypt the order and process it manually.
If you prefer to order via e-mail, this is the method
that we recommend. Our PGP Public Key is shown below.

mQCNAzP7oK0AAAEEAMptpLWI7AhaZXI80SihnLkSnboaFlB/a2gyfAgIrCI6w5qr
AftV4Om5/2TJYGKUXEiYzjyhSf6VcPbrqc+F+FWQpyqBxpZXdETIUmxM3HBGpD3W
YnJwjE6Z5jQAKWZp3DKLglPM/fhPGGPVZZerRL28pTeiHKw396Mzx62ZjzR5AAUR
tCVzZXRTeXN0ZW1zIDxrZXltYXN0ZXJAc2V0c3lzdGVtcy5jb20+
=aG44

(For ease of use, why not copy then paste the order form below into your word processor)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ORDER FORM -- for phone, fax, and e-mail orders
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Your First & Last Name:
Billing Address (the address your credit card bill is sent to)
Street:
City:
State:
Zipcode:
Country:
Mailing Address (if different than billing address)
Street:
City:
State:
Zipcode:
Country:
Home Phone Number:
Work Phone Number:
E-mail Address:

A password of your choosing (can be anything - note

no password will be required to actually run MidWavi,

this is merely part of the registration process)

Password:

Credit Card Information
Type (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover)
Account Number:
Expiration Date:
Software to Order
Title: MidWavi
The version of MidWavi that you are currently using (see Help/About):

Quantity:
Total Dollar Amount:

If FAXed or e-mailed, please include the following language (and sign
if FAXed):

I authorize setSystems(TM) to bill my credit card and agree to pay the
total amount according to card issuer agreement.

_________________________ _____________
Signature Date

---------------------------------------------------------------------

You will then receive mail (or an email) containing details on how to personalise your own copy of MidWavi (and if applicable, the very latest version).

Version 3 is lurking…

Upgrades are planned for MidWavi, and as a registered user, you will be untitled to preferential prices on any future version(s).