FREE CD PLAYER FOR WORD 97!

FREE! The innovative Office Toys CD Player for Word 97

The CD Player for Word 97 is offered to you by the makers of Office Toys, the world’s first add-in for Microsoft Word 97. It’s fully functional free software, and you’ll never see any nag screens or commercial broadcasts. We just hope to make you curious about all our other software add-ons for Microsoft Word. So why not connect straight away to http://www.officetoys.com and discover why thousands of registered users have made our add-ons the world’s most popular enhancements for Microsoft Word!

Legalities

The Office Toys CD Player is freeware, but not public domain software. The CD Player, its interface and any part of the source code is copyrighted by Merlot International / Romke Soldaat.

You have the royalty-free right to use this package, and give it to your friends and colleagues, but any other form of distribution, or inclusion of this package in another package without prior permission is strictly forbidden.

Publishers of CD-ROMS who want to include this software on electronic media, must contact the author by electronic mail via romke@msn.com.

You have the right to add this software on your Web site, but only in the form of a link to the physical location of the software: http://www.officetoys.com/cdword97.zip.

Users of the Office Toys CD Player must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "This software is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of this software."

The Office Toys CD Player is unsupported software. Although we welcome any bug reports or suggestions for improvement, we do not guarantee that we instantly implement fixes and improvements. On the other hand, don't hesitate to connect to http://www.officetoys.com to see if there's a new version!

Installing the CD Player

To install the Office Toys CD Player, copy the CDWORD97.DOT file to your Startup folder (typically C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Startup\. The CD Player does not create additional files, nor does it add anything to the Windows Registry. Any modifications made by the CD Player in the CDPLAYER.INI file in your Windows folder can also be used by other Windows-compatible CD Players.

To uninstall the CD Player, simply remove the template from your Startup folder, and delete this CDWORD97.HTM file from your computer.

Compatibility

The Office Toys CD Player is fully compatible with the Windows 95/NT CD Player and the FlexiCD application (part of the Microsoft PowerToys). All three applications share the same CD catalog (stored in the CDPLAYER.INI file in your main Windows folder). Once you have started playing a music CD from one application, you can to some extent control the player with another application.

CD started from	Playback can be controlled by
Windows CD Player	FlexiCD
FlexiCD	Office Toys and Windows CD Player
Office Toys CD Player	FlexiCD

The CD Menu

All CD Player controls are available on the CD menu, at the left of your Help menu. The features are described below.

Menu Item	Function
Tracks. If the CD has been added to the catalog, the menu item displays the name of the Artist.	Displays a list of available tracks and the length of each track. If the CD has been added to the catalog, the menu displays the track titles.
Favorites. This menu item is unavailable if the CD has not been added to the catalog.	Display a list of tracks that you have given the "Favorite" status in the CD Manager dialog box. Note: if you select "Play All Favorites", you cannot continue to use Word. To interrupt playing back all Favorite tracks, press CTRL+BREAK once or more times.
CD Info	Displays information about the current CD and the current track.
CD Manager	Displays the CD Manager dialog box in which you can type the artist name, album title, and track titles. Select the CD Catalog tab to edit or delete albums that are already in the catalog.
Pause	Halts playback of the CD. Click the same button again to resume playback.
Play from Start	Starts playing back the CD from the first track.
Replay Current track	Starts replaying the current track from the start.
Previous track. This option is not available if the current track is the first track.	Plays the track before the current track.
Next track. This option is not available if the current track is the last track.	Plays the track after the current track.
Scan back	Plays the CD from the position 15 seconds before the current position
Scan forward	Plays the CD from the position 15 seconds after the current position
Mute	Turns the sound off without stopping the CD Player. Click the same button again to enable the sound.
Volume Control	Starts the Windows Volume Control application, allowing you to set the volume and sound balance.
Stop	Halts playback of the CD, and resets the playing position at the start of the CD.
Eject CD	Opens the CD door

Managing the CD Catalog

The Office Toys CD Player fully integrates with the catalog used by the Windows 95 and NT CD Player (stored in the CDPLAYER.INI file in your main windows folder). Choose CD Manager to open the Office Toys CD Manager dialog box. Select the CD Info tab to type in the name of the artist and the title of the album, plus the titles of every track on the CD. Select the CD Catalog tab to delete albums from the catalog, or edit the CD Information of an album other than the one that's currently playing.

Providing CD Information

Activate the CD Info tab of the CD Manager dialog box. Type the name of the Artist and the title of the Album in the first two textboxes. The Tracks list holds the titles of all tracks. To edit a title, select it in the list, and edit it in the textbox at the bottom of the screen. Click Set Title or press ENTER to confirm the track title. Click the Synchronize button to synchronize the Title inputbox with the track that’s currently playing. To save the play list after you’ve supplied all titles, click OK.

Once you’ve created a catalog for a CD, each time you play the album, the CD menu will automatically display the name and track titles, and you can play any track by selecting it.

You can edit the CD Information for any CD that's in the catalog, even without loading and playing the CD. Activate the CD Catalog tab of the CD Manager dialog box. Select the album you want to edit, and click the Edit button. This loads the CD information and activates the CD Info tab. Make the appropriate changes and click OK to save the updated CD information.

Creating and playing Favorite Tracks

The Office Toys CD Player offers the unique option to give any CD track a "Favorite" status, allowing you to play a shortlist of the tracks you like most. To create your list of Favorite Tracks, activate the CD Info tab of the CD Manager dialog box. In the list of track titles, select the track you want to add to your shortlist, and click the Toggle Favorite button. An asterisk appears after the track number of each favorite track. Use the same button to remove the "Favorite" status of a selected track. Click OK to save the updated CD Information.

Once you’ve created the shortlist of Favorite tracks, the Favorites item on the CD menu lists the titles, so you can easily select the track you want to hear.

Deleting albums from the CD Catalog

Windows initialization files (such as CDPLAYER.INI) have a maximum capacity of 64KB (65536 characters). This limits the amount of CDs you can add to approx. 140-150. Activate the CD Catalog tab of the CD Manager dialog box to see a complete list of albums in your catalog, plus an indication of the number of albums you can add before the catalog is full. To create room for new albums, or remove CDs that you don't want to keep in the catalog, select the CD in the list and click the Delete button. You are prompted to confirm the deletion.