iPod: The Missing Manual (Missing Manuals)

The MusicMatch Jukebox File menu offers commands for moving your files around the computer, onto a CD, or to the iPod. It also contains tools for working with your music library.

B.1.1 Open

When you choose Open, a dialog box lets you open audio files (in recognized formats), playlists (with an .m3u file extension), tracks from the CD player, or the My Computer window. You can also get to this box by clicking the round Open button below the Playlist window.

B.1.2 Open Music Library

Whether you have one or several music libraries, this command lets you choose a music collection and load it into MusicMatch. Music Library files have a .ddf file extension, and you can also open files with the 3.x Database file extension of .mmd.

B.1.3 Add New Track(s) to Music Library

Lets you scan your drives and directories to gather up any music files hanging around your computer and add them to your Jukebox library. Turn on the "Ignore system folders" and "Skip tracks smaller than [100] KB" boxes to keep the program from displaying things like system alert sound files and other sonic crumbs.

B.1.4 WatchFolders

Wouldn't it be great if every song you downloaded from the Web would just show up in MusicMatch Jukebox Plus without you having to do any work? That's exactly what the WatchFolders feature does, as described on page 124. Since MusicMatch Jukebox Plus can check for new music only when it's running, choose this command and click the Check WatchFolders Now button so the program can look around for any music that you've acquired since you used the program last.

B.1.5 Convert Files

If you have music tracks that you want to convert from one digital audio format to another, use File Convert Files to transform your WAVs into MP3s (Section 3.1.1). You select the files to convert from the Source directory and send them on to the Destination directory. Theres also a slider to adjust the bit rate of the converted MP3 files.

B.1.6 Export Playlist Tracks

Once you've created that perfect playlist, you can use this command to export the tracks to a portable music player. Or, if it's a really good playlist, you can convert the exported tracks to higher quality WAV files in preparation for burning them to CD.

B.1.7 Send to Portable Device

When it's time to load up the iPod, you need to summon up the Portables Plus window (which MusicMatch sometimes calls its Portable Device Manager). First, connect your iPod to the computer with the FireWire or USB 2.0 cable (Section 2.1). Choose File Send to Portable Device to open the Portables Plus window and select the iPod in the list. You can drag and drop music files from your computer onto the Portables Plus window to add songs to the iPod. Other ways to add music include clicking Add in the Portables Plus window (and browsing to the tracks you wish to add), and clicking the Sync button to update the iPod with everything thats in your MusicMatch library.

B.1.8 Create CD

Launches the Burner Plus program that comes with MusicMatch Jukebox Plus and then automatically adds all the songs on your current playlist to the CD recorder's window. Just pop in a blank disc and click the Burn button to start making the CD.

B.1.9 Print

Brings up a dialog box that lets you lay out and print a list of the songs and track information for a playlist ”or your entire music library ”if you want a hard copy of the music you have on your PC. Click Print Preview for a sneak peek at what will come out of your printer.

B.1.10 Exit

When it's time to close up the program for the night or move on to other things, choose Exit to close the program.