CD Shuffler Help
CD Shuffler 1.01

CD Shuffler Basics

Playing a CD

Stopping a CD

Excluding and Including Tracks

Information

Hiding CD Shuffler

How Do I Unhide CD Shuffler?

Messages

Registering CD Shuffler

Notes from the Author


CD Shuffler Basics

Using CD Shuffler, you can play music CDs using your CD-ROM drive.  Unlike other CD players, CD Shuffler shuffles the songs so you don't get bored of listening to them in order.  Also, CD Shuffler waits until it has completed playing all of the songs that are included before it begins to play any of them twice.


Include / Exclude Tracks

This dialog allows you to include the tracks on your CD you want to listen to while excluding those you don't.  Using the include / exclude button (a button which says "include" if the current track is excluded and "exclude" if the current track is included), you can change the status of your track.  If you are unhappy with the status of a track, i.e. it is included and you want it to be excluded, or vice-versa, press the include / exclude button.  If there are only a few tracks you want to listen to and you don't feel like wasting time going through a lot of tracks, press the "Exclude all but 1 track" button.  Every track on the CD will be excluded with the exception of track 1.  You cannot exclude all of the tracks on your CD.  You can then include the tracks you want to hear, and exclude track 1 if you don't want to listen to it.  If you want to include a large portion of tracks, press the "include all" button, and exclude those you don't want to listen to.

Button Overview

1.  Ok

This button closes this dialog box.  Your changes will be saved.

2.  Cancel

This button erases the changes you made, and closes this dialog box.

3.  Help

This button brings up this help screen.

4.  Include

This button includes the current track.

5.  Exclude

This button excludes the current track.

6.  <-

This button scrolls through the CD backwards (goes to the previous track).

7.  ->

This button scrolls through the CD forwards (goes to the next track).

8.  Include all

This button includes all of the tracks on your CD.

9.  Exclude all but track 1

This button excludes all of the tracks on your CD except track 1.

Dialog Parts Overview:

1.  Total tracks:

This shows you how many tracks are on your CD.

2.  Track to include / exclude:

This shows you which track you are currently on.

3.  Track status:

This shows you whether the current track is included or excluded.


Playing a CD

To play a CD, go to the CD Commands menu and choose Play.  This will start playing your CD at a track randomly chosen by CD Shuffler.

If you do not do anything to CD Shuffler, after the song finishes, a new song will be chosen from the list of songs that have not yet been played, and CD Shuffler will automatically play that song.  After CD Shuffler has played all of the songs that are included, CD Shuffler will start playing the songs a second time.  CD Shuffler will continue to play your CD indefinitely until you quit CD Shuffler.

After you quit CD Shuffler, the song that is currently being played will continue to be played, but after it finishes, the CD will stop.

If you have your CD in your drive and you choose Play, and nothing happens, make sure you have installed the CD driver in Windows (using Control Panel).  If you receive an error box that tells you to eject the CD, do so.  Then, reinsert the CD and try again.  This should correct the problem.  If the CD still does not work, contact the manufacturer.

You can only play music CDs.  Music CDs are CDs you would buy in a music store, not a computer store.  Music CDs are music albums.  You cannot play CD-ROMs using CD Shuffler.  CD-ROMs are disks, just like a hard drive or floppy drive.  A music CD is more like a record.  If you want to use a CD-ROM, you can access it like a disk, using DOS, File Manager in Windows, or a provided program.


Stopping a CD

To stop a CD, go to the CD Commands menu in CD Shuffler and choose "Stop".  This will stop a CD while it is playing.  If you want to stop the CD and play a different song, you don't need to go to Stop and then Play.  Just go to Play.  You will asked if you want to stop the CD and play another song.  Choose "Yes".  The CD will skip to a new song.


Excluding and Including Tracks

To include and exclude tracks, go to the CD Commands menu and choose Exclude.  You will see a dialog box with the total tracks on your CD, the current track (at first, the current track is 1), and the current track status.  You will also see multiple buttons at the bottom of the box.

Using this dialog box, you will be able to tell CD Shuffler which tracks you want to be played, and which tracks you don't want to be played.  If you want a track to be played, change its status to "included".  If you want a track to be skipped, change its status to "excluded".  "Included" and "excluded" are short for "included in the list of tracks to be played" and "excluded from the list of tracks to be played."

There is a button at the left side of the dialog box that does not always say the same thing.  If you are on a track that is included, the button will say "exclude", and if you're on a track that is excluded, the button will say "include".  This button changes the status of the track you are currently on.  It could just as well say "change status".  Use the include / exclude button if you want to change the status of the track.  If the track is included and you change its status, it is then excluded.  If the track is excluded and you change its status, it is then included.

You now know how to change the status of a track.  If you want to change the status of a different track, you can use the "<-" and "->" buttons.  These buttons scroll forwards (to the next track) and backwards (to the previous track) through your CD.  If you're on track 1, and you want to change track 3, you probably want to use the "->" button twice.  The first time you use it, you will be on track 2.  The second time you use it, you will be on track 3.

If you only have a few tracks you want to listen to and a large number of total tracks, you can choose the "exclude all but track 1" button.  Since you cannot exclude all the tracks (because CD Shuffler would have nothing to play), track 1 is left included.  If you only want to listen to track 5, go to track 5 using the "<-" or "->" buttons, and choose the "Include" button.  Then go back to track 1 and choose the "Exclude" button.

If you want to listen to a large amount of tracks but many of them are excluded, you can choose the "include all" button.  This will include all of the tracks on your CD.  You can then go back to the ones you want to be excluded using the "<-" or "->" buttons, and use the "Exclude" button to change their status (exclude them).

If you make a mistake and want the tracks' status to go back to the way it was before you went into the Include / Exclude dialog box, choose Cancel.

When you're done, choose OK.


Messages

1.  Play error:

This dialog box will appear if you try to play your CD and nothing happens.  This is a hardware failure.  You can fix this by doing one of three things.  The first thing you can do is to eject the CD from the drive, and reinsert it.  This will most likely fix the problem.  If this doesn't work, check to see that you've installed the CD device driver in Control Panel (in the drivers section).  If you have and the hardware error still occurs, contact the manufacturer of your product.

2.  Exit question:

This box will tell you that exiting CD Shuffler will stop random CD track playing.  If you want to exit CD Shuffler and allow the currently playing track to finish without a new one being played afterward, choose "yes".  If you want CD Shuffler to continue working and choosing new songs after old ones have finished playing, choose "no".  If you want to use another program while CD Shuffler is playing, choose "no" and click on the down arrow (minimize button) on the top right hand corner of the CD Shuffler window.  This will minimize CD Shuffler but still allow it to work.  You can now use other programs.

3.  Track interrupt:

This box will appear if you choose Play and a track is already being played.  Choose "yes" if you want to interrupt the currently playing track and play a new one.  Choose "no" if you want to let the currently playing track continue.

4.  You must have at least 1 track included:

This message will appear in the Include / Exclude dialog box.  If you try to exclude all of the tracks on your CD, this message will appear, and the last included track will remain included.


Information

Using the Information dialog, you can see which track CD Shuffler is playing, how many tracks are on your CD, the number of tracks included and excluded, the length of the current track (in minutes, seconds, and milliseconds), the current status of your CD and the current track number.

To get to the Information dialog, go to the CD Commands menu and choose Information.  The dialog will then be displayed.


Options

Using this dialog box, you can tell CD Shuffler what to do if you click the right mouse button.  You have four choices: information, play CD, stop CD, and minimize.

If you choose information, when you press the right mouse button, the information dialog will appear.  For more help on the information dialog, see Information.

If you choose play CD, when you press the right mouse button, the CD will be played.  If you choose stop CD, the CD will be stopped.  If you choose minimize, when you click the right mouse button, the CD Shuffler window will be minimized.

If you make a mistake and want your options to remain the way they were before, click the Cancel button.

When you're done, click the Ok button.


Hiding CD Shuffler

If you do not wish to see the CD Shuffler icon on the screen or the CD Shuffler window, and want CD Shuffler to run transparently without your notice, you can hide the CD Shuffler window.  Simply go to the CD Commands menu and choose "hide".  CD Shuffler will disappear.  You will not see CD Shuffler when you use Task Manager or any other switching methods in Windows, but CD Shuffler will continue to work.

After you have hidden CD Shuffler, you may want to retrieve it.  To find out how to do so, see How Do I Unhide CD Shuffler?


How Do I Unhide CD Shuffler?

To unhide CD Shuffler, simply run CD Shuffler again.  CD Shuffler will notice that a copy of itself is already being run, and will automatically switch to this copy without loading itself.  In short, your previous copy of CD Shuffler, with all of your options and included/excluded tracks will be unhidden, so that you don't have to change anything.  When you try to load two copies of CD Shuffler at once, the second copy will refuse to run, and will simply show the previous copy.  So, to unhide a hidden copy, try to run CD Shuffler a second time.  CD Shuffler will refuse to be loaded twice, and will unhide the first copy.


Registering CD Shuffler

To register CD Shuffler, send $15.00 to:

Christian Carrillo

2352 Calle del Oro

La Jolla, CA 92037

Your contributions are greatly appreciated.


Notes from the Author

If any of you end-users have any suggestions for any of my programs, you can send them to the address mentioned in the Registering CD Shuffler section.  If they're good, worthwhile, and will effect many people, you can be sure they'll be added into the next version.

CD Shuffler is finally complete.  After a few problems with the Demo mode, I took it out.  I don't care what those magazines say, shareware is not something anyone would do for the money.  With this in mind, I can say I have few regrets in letting you use CD Shuffler without registering it.  My ultimate goal is to improve the computing experience through my programs.  I could be weak and have the program delete itself after a week, or exit after 5 minutes, or something else stupid like that, but you would figure something out, like setting the date or time back, and we'd both be stuck.  So I left out all those little cute bugs, and so CD Shuffler is the final product.  Nothing left out, nothing screwed-up.

I hope you all download Flash Card Manager 3.01 from your local BBS.  The code is pretty light, its pretty fast, and allows multiple lines.  It has all of the functions from 2.01 plus more.  I'm the author, so you know its good.  It's the best flash card program out there so far, I think.  I took out all the bitmaps to make it run faster and lighter, and added a much larger file capacity.  It should satisfy all you space-hungry people.

Also on the market is Wave File Categorizer.  This program will either be really useful or really useless to you, depending on your machine.  If you have a lot of .WAV files and can't remember which ones are which, WFC will really come in handy.  It allows you to create libraries of .WAV files, adding descriptions and other neat stuff.  If you don't have a sound card or .WAV files, Wave File Categorizer will probably not come in handy.

Coming soon to a computer near you will be Mindless Violence.  Mindless Violence is my first real attempt at a Windows game.  Because most Windows games are "educational" (meaning that they were so stupid that the company that made them had to write "educational" on the package and add a couple of questions to sell it), I decided I'd break open the market.  Unfortunately, Windows is kind of a rough environment for games.  Mindless Violence turned into a 256 color shooter, where little cute animals fly across the screen and you get to blow them to bloody pulps with your rifle.  It should satisfy all of those "educational" game fans, since there is absolutely no thinking involved, hence the name.

On the far horizon is Street Games.  An storyline first-person game, you'll have to think to get through this one.  The huge amount of graphics has slowed me down a bit.  I've teamed up with a very capable artist, and should produce a nice product (if I ever finish it).  If you've seen BETA versions of Street Games, forget them.  I've started all over again.  No limits this time.  I don't care if your machine is slow and your hard-drive is small and your monitor is EGA and your ego is huge.  I'm going for the REAL gamers.  The ones who invest large sums of money to play the highest-end games.  Just you wait.  I'll give you a Windows game you can spend time on and have fun at the same time.

Please copy CD Shuffler for your friends.  You can even give it to your friends without CD-ROMS, but it probably won't do them much good.  If you find a BBS without it, upload it.  You'll be supporting shareware with no catches.  No cheap bugs.  Just a real program.  Look for future versions of CD Shuffler and send in your suggestions.