Chapter 4 - MP3rat User Guide

Getting Started
Chapter 4

4.1 Starting MP3rat

MP3rat can be started by either:

Double-clicking on the desktop MP3rat icon.
Clicking on the Windows Start button. Select Programs, select the MP3rat folder and then click on MP3rat.

4.2 Registration

The Internet version of MP3rat defaults to a 30 day unlimited demo that requires a license ID for further use. This ID is provided at the time of purchase to the customer and needs to be entered into MP3rat manually. Customers who have purchased the retail version of MP3rat do not have to enter a license. See Section 2.2 Entering License Information for a detailed instructions about how to register MP3rat.

It is generally a good idea to save the e-mail or HTML document that contains your license ID. If you lose your license ID, please contact us for a replacement.

4.3 Playing Songs

MP3rat defaults to the internal MP3 player located at the bottom of MP3rat window. Double-clicking or selecting a group of songs and pressing "Enter" in the main window will add the song(s) to the playlist and automatically start playing. See Section 9.4 Player Details, for instructions on player controls or Section 8.1.10 MP3rat Player for player preferences and configuration.

MP3rat does support external players, see Section 7.1 External MP3 Players, for detailed instructions regarding external player configuration.

4.4 Import Wizard

The Import Wizard will automatically be started the first time MP3rat is run.

Specify the base path where your MP3 songs are located and press the Import button. MP3rat will search for all .mp3 files and add them to MP3rat. Once an Import has been completed, you will be prompted to perform import songs from another location. If you have imported all your songs, you can exit by pressing Finished, or import more songs by repeating the process.

You can override the disk label on an import by typing a new label in the field provided. This is beneficial if you store your songs on external media, such as a CD that often has a meaningless numeric label. You can specify a different disk label that will help you reference the imported songs at a later point in time.

4.5 Searching for Songs

MP3rat has two types of searches, Keyword and Exact String. The search type is specified by pressing one of the following toolbar buttons:

Press for powerful and fast keyword searching. You may type in multiple words such as "cool songs."

Press to search for an exact string. This search has no concept of words, it just searches for exactly what is typed, character by character. Press the toolbar button to specify which song fields should be searched.

More information regarding searching can be found in Section 5.2, Searching, and Section 7.6, Advanced Searching.

4.6 Deleting Songs

Highlight the song(s) you wish to delete from the main window and press the delete key, select Delete from the Edit menu, or press the trash can icon on the toolbar. You will be presented with a dialog that confirms your intent to remove the song from MP3rat. The dialog will also give you an option to Delete from Disk that when selected will also send the MP3 file to the recycle bin. Section 7.10 Deleting Songs describes the delete process in detail along with the necessary steps to restore deleted files.

A shortcut to delete the selected song is pressing the trash can icon in the toolbar. This will invoke the Delete Dialog where you will have the option to remove the song completely from your system.

	Press for powerful and fast keyword searching. You may type in multiple words such as "cool songs."
	Press to search for an exact string. This search has no concept of words, it just searches for exactly what is typed, character by character. Press the toolbar button to specify which song fields should be searched.