This file contains a list of all of the new features included in
each version. This file will be added to
every time a new release becomes available.
1. Video and .wma support
The PC Jukebox now supports multiple audio
and video media file formats including .wma, .wav, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, .avi, and
of course MP3s! The newly included formats will require separate tag
files that can be created with a small utility that comes with The PC Jukebox
setup.
2. Animation
There
is much more animation in version 8.0. The top logo can be animated, the
CD covers will move around the screen and even the screens themselves can slide
over each other.
3, New Graphics
Many of the screens have been reworked to
be much more touchscreen friendly. No more little tiny scrollbars and
checkboxes. Everything can now be controlled with the touch of a finger!
4. Screensaver
An integrated screensaver has been
added to the program. No need to use the default Windows one any more
(although you still can if you'd like!)
5. Items In Queue Display
A new feature is available to tell you
how many songs are left in the queue no matter which screen you are looking
at. This indicator appears on the left hand side of each screen, if you
decide to turn it on. Also, on the queue screen itself, you can now see
exactly how much time all of the songs in the queue will take to finish
playing.
6. Genres and Decade
The Genre feature has been
reworked. No longer will it filter all of the songs...instead, when you
select a genre, you will presented with a list of all of the matching
songs. You can scroll through and select from this list as you would any
other.
1.
Slightly Redesigned User Interface
Version 7.5 of The PC Jukebox includes a new section at the bottom
of every screen dedicated to the currently playing song. The Next Song, Restart Song, and Play/Pause
buttons have all been moved down here as well the Volume and Mute
controls. The Song Progress bar and the
Elapsed Time/Remaining Time indicator are also located here now.
2.
4 Cover CD View With Song Titles
A new view is included in this release...it shows 4 CD covers at a
time with all of the track titles listed with them. If there are more
than 8 songs on the CD, small scroll buttons will allow you to access the
rest. Touching or clicking any song will
automatically select it by default from the Song Selection screen. You can choose to display this view from the
Options screen.
3.
Password Protection
Version 7.5 of The PC Jukebox allows you to Password Protect
certain areas of the program. These
items include the Options screen, the Queue Screen, the History screen, the
Equalizer, the Restart Song button, the Next Song Button, the Play/Pause
button, the Mute button, the Minimize button and the Power Off button. The Password can be set from either the
Configurator or from within The PC Jukebox itself.
4.
Watch Folders
You can now instruct The PC Jukebox to monitor your Music Library
folder (and it’s subfolders) for any changes.
If the program detects that any songs have been added, deleted, moved or
updated inside of that folder, it will ask you if you’d like to update your
Music Library accordingly. Of course,
you can still do a manual update to your Music Library at any time. And, as always, you can turn this feature on
and off at will.
5.
Automatic Notification Of New Releases
If you are running The PC Jukebox on a PC with an active internet
connection, you can tell the program to automatically check for new releases
each time it starts up. If a new release
is available, you will have the choice to download it immediately or wait until
a more convenient time. This feature
will ensure that you always have the most up to date version.
6.
Tivo Styled Ratings
You now have the ability to rate each individual song in your
Music Library. The ratings range from 3
Thumbs Up to 3 Thumbs Down, just like Tivo.
These ratings can then be used in the Search screen (i.e. search for all
songs with a 2 Thumbs Up rating) as well as in Random mode (i.e. only play
songs that are rated 1 Thumb Up or higher).
The ratings can either be displayed or hidden on the Now Playing screen.
7.
Track Newly Added Files
The PC Jukebox now tracks exactly when each song was added to the
Music Library. You can use this
information in your searches (i.e. search for all songs that were added to the
Music Library less than 14 days ago) as well as displaying a small notification
on the CD Cover screens.
8.
Auto Shuffle
Another new feature is Auto Shuffle. When this feature is turned on, the Queue
will get shuffled each time a new song is added to it. This will prevent one or two users from monopolizing
the playlist during a party since the Queue will become mixed as soon as
someone else adds a new song.
9.
Other Small Enhancements
Several other small enhancements have been added including:
·
The lefthand navigation buttons will move toward the top when one
or more of them is hidden.
·
The graphics on the Equalizer screen have been enhanced
·
The Lyric Synchronizer can be accessed directly from within the
program
·
The algorithm for display compilation albums has been modified
·
The tag editing feature has been optimized so save time is drastically
decreased
·
The Music Library build/update process has been optimized to
reduce time
·
When a CD cover is automatically downloaded, a copy of the image
is now saved in the folder with the song file
·
A 3 second indicator is given at the bottom of the screen each
time a song is successfully added to the Queue
·
When a song is selected randomly, it is not credited toward the
Top 20 list. However, the song will
still appear in the History list.
·
The History list can now be sorted by any column ascending or
descending
Aug
20, 2004 - Version 7.0.0
(return to top)
1.
Redesigned User Interface
Version 7.0 of The PC Jukebox includes new navigation buttons that
make it possible to get to any screen from any screen. There are also new buttons to allow users to
play/pause, skip to the next song, restart the current song, turn the volume up
or down or mute no matter what screen they are on. Furthermore, there are no more pop up windows
for things like Options, Equalizer, and Top 20 (which replaces the old Top
10). All of the screens are integrated
into the main form for a more consistent appearance.
2.
Karaoke Synchronized Lyrics
Version 7.0 comes bundled with a utility
to synchronize the lyrics of any song and turn it into a true karaoke file. Users simply have to go through the song one
time and mark when each lyric line is reached.
Once saved, The PC Jukebox will be able to read the newly created file
and display the individual lyric lines as they are sung. The Search screen has
also been updated to filter only for songs that have lyrics, synchronized or
not. For further details, please refer
the Lyric Synchonizer Help.html file.
3.
Genre, Year, and Comments
The PC Jukebox now supports the
additional ID3 tags of Genre, Year, and Comment. All of the Artist and Album selection screens
can be filtered by a specific Genre, making it easier to find the kind of music
you are looking for. All of the Albums
for a particular Artist can be sorted either alphabetically or by Year. And if a song has a comment present, it will
be displayed at the bottom of the screen when that song is selected.
4.
Cross Fading
Song
cross fading is now supported. The user
can select the number of seconds for the fade to begin at. For example, if 10 seconds was selected, the
currently playing song will begin to fade out when it has 10 seconds remaining.
At the same time, the next song in the queue will fade in for 10 seconds until
it is playing at the currently set volume. This feature works while
selecting individual songs into the queue or while in random mode.
5.
Album Cover
Frames No Longer Delayed
In previous versions of The PC Jukebox, the frames that surround
the individual album covers would take a few seconds to display when each screen
was visited for the first time. This
delay has been eliminated. Furthermore,
the frames have been stretched in some places so the Artist name and Album name
can be displayed at the same time.
6.
AutoDJ
This feature will instruct The PC Jukebox to play a
randomly selected song after a specified period of user inactivity. The user can also specify a subset of songs
that these random selections can be made from (a genre, an artist, a playlist,
a decade, …) or indicate that the entire Music Library be used instead. This setting can be applied to the standard
Random Mode as well.
7.
Auto Launch and
Auto Random
Using the Configurator, you can instruct The PC Jukebox to
automatically start each time you finish building or updating your Music
Library. Furthermore, you can tell the
program to start up in Random Mode, asking it to pick and song at random and
start playing it as soon as it has finished loading.
8.
Save Queue On
Shutdown And Reload On Startup
The PC Jukebox can save the
list of un-played songs that are remaining in the queue when the program closes
(either intentionally or unintentionally), reload them and start playing
immediately when the program is powered back on. This is helpful when there is a loss of electricity
or the program is shut down accidentally and you don’t want to lose the list of
songs already selected.
9.
Customize Any
Button
You can now customize the look of every individual button in The
PC Jukebox simply by right clicking on it.
You can change the wording or the font or the color…whatever. This holds true for nearly every item you see
in the program…buttons, text, boxes, lines, …you name it!
10.
Minimize Button
A minimize button has been added to the lower left of the screen
to make it possible to shrink the application when it is in Full Screen
mode. Of course, this button can be
hidden at any time so your guests can’t browse around your PC!
May
1, 2004 - Version 6.0.0
(return to top)
11.
Automatic Downloading Of Cover Art From
The Internet
Version 6.0 will enable you to automatically download the
appropriate cover art for each of your MP3 files during the Music Library
Build/Update process. As anyone who has
tried to get these images files manually knows, this can be a very time
consuming effort. By simply selecting a
checkbox on The PC Jukebox Configurator you can instruct the program to perform
this time intensive task for you. Be
very sure to have your ID3 tags as complete and accurate as possible, since this
information is used as the basis of the internet search. And, of course, you will need to have an
active internet connection available when building your Music Library for this
option to be functional. But don’t worry
if you don’t have an internet connection; you can still choose to add your
album covers manually, if you choose.
12. Fill In
Incomplete ID3 Tags From Filename and/or Folder
If your ID3 tags are not completely
filled out, but your files reside in a well formed directory structure and are named
consistently, you can tell The PC Jukebox to fill in the tags for you. You will need to specify to the program how
to parse the information from the filenames (i.e. Artist\Album\Track –
Title.mp3) and it will extract the information and automatically update the
tags for you. Then it will have the
proper data to go get your cover art for you! (See above)
Furthermore, in the previous versions,
The PC Jukebox would skip over files that did not have Artist AND Title AND Album
tags filled out, at a minimum. This is
no longer the case. Any tag that is
blank and cannot be filled in from the filename simply gets added to the Music
Library with a tag of ‘Unknown Artist’ and/or ‘Unknown Title’ and/or ‘Unknown
Album’, depending on the situation.
13. Real Time Editing
Of Music Library
When The PC Jukebox is up and running,
you can now update any of the Music Library information in real time. You can even change album covers on the fly,
by either looking for alternatives online (must have an active internet
connection) or specifying a new image locally.
Simply right click on any song title or album cover, and you will have
the option to change any of the song’s ID3 tags, or right click on any album
cover to choose a new one. This is much
more convenient than having to leave the program, change your tag, update the
Music Library, and restart the program.
14. Lyrics Display
The PC Jukebox can now be used as a
karaoke player too! The program now has
the ability to display the lyrics of any song that has them embedded as part of
the ID3 V2 tag. An icon will appear on
the Song Title button for any song that has lyrics present. Don’t have the lyrics yet? You can add them right inside the
program. Lyrics for nearly any song can
be found somewhere on the internet.
Simply copy the lyrics to Windows clipboard, right click on the Song
Title button, and click the ‘Add Lyrics Button’. Then you can paste the lyrics right there and
save them. But sorry, the lyrics will
not appear in a synchronized fashion as some traditional karaoke players, but
it’s a start!
15.
Additional
Keyboard Controls
A new option to map keyboard keys has been added. You can now control the Play/Pause, Next
Song, Restart Song, Volume Up/Down and Mute functions directly from your
keyboard. This option is also functional
for select wireless remote controls. You
may want to visit www.keyspan.com
for more information on these remotes.
16.
Default To Album
Cover View On Startup
If you don’t like the fact that The PC Jukebox starts up to the
Artist List screen, you can change that now.
A simple checkbox will instruct the program to show the Album Cover view
on startup instead.
17.
Save EQ And
Volume Settings On Exit
Previous versions of The PC Jukebox would forget and ignore any
changes made to the volume and equalizer controls once the program was
closed. Version 6.0 will remember these
settings on shut down and automatically load them back up when the program is
started again.
Mar
9, 2004 - Version 5.1.0
(return to top)
1. Search For Song Titles
Modified, Improved
Version 5.1 has updated the Search For Song Title screen. The search results can now be sorted
alphabetically either by Artist Name or Song Title. Also, you can search
for an individual word now. Previously, if you had entered a search
criteria of 'yes', your results would contain titles that included words such
as 'Yesterday' and 'Eyes'. You can now filter your results to contain
only song titles that include the full word 'Yes'
--------------------------------
Feb
18, 2004 - Version 5.0.0
(return to top)
1. Credit Mode
Version 5.0 now includes an optional Credit Mode. When credit mode is active, users will have
to ‘purchase’ credits by pressing user-defined keys on the keyboard. When no more credits remain, no more songs
can be selected. These user defined keys
can be mapped to dollar bill and coin acceptors, turning The PC Jukebox into a
fully functional commercial style jukebox.
2. 2. Search For Song Titles
A new virtual keyboard has been integrated into The PC Jukebox
allowing users to search their entire music library for individual songs. Simply type all or part of the song title you
are looking for and a list of matching entries will be returned. You can then select any item from the list
and add it to the queue with a single button.
If you don’t have a touchscreen, you can still use your standard
keyboard to enter your search criteria.
You’ll find this Search button located with the Playback controls.
3. Album Cover View Sorted
By Album Name
This new feature will allow users to decide the
order of the Album Covers in the Album Cover View; either by Artist or by Album
Name. Furthermore, by adding the ‘Band’
tag to the ID3 v2 tag, you can now display all of the songs on a compilation
album together. For instance, in
previous versions of The PC Jukebox, all of the songs found on a soundtrack
album would appear under their respective Artists, not all together on a single
album. This new feature will allow users
to view these songs both ways; listed under their individual Artists as well as
altogether on a single album (provided the tags are set up properly).
4. Equalizer Presets
You can now
save and load as many different Equalizer Presets as you’d like. You no longer have to reset the sliders
individually each time you restart the program.
Simply set the EQ the way you’d like, click ‘Save’ and give the configuration
a name. To load it up the next time,
simply press ‘Load’ and select your settings from the list.
5. Song Progress/Seek Bar
A new control has been added
to track/set the progress of the currently playing song. You can move the slider to any point in the
song for easy rewind and fast forward capabilities. Very similar to WinAmp.
6. Do Not Allow Same Song In Queue Multiple
Times
Some users
have reported an annoyance of allowing an individual song to be loaded into the
queue multiple times, either intentionally or by mistake. This new option, when enabled, will not allow
any song to be added to the queue if it already is listed there, in any
position.
7. Improved Error Handling
When unexpected errors occur
(hopefully not too often!!), the redesigned error message box will conveniently
gather some necessary data about your system.
All you need to do to report an error now is to click the ‘Copy Error
Text’ button, paste into a new email and send it to support@thepcjukebox.com.
8. Various Bug Fixes
As usual, several minor bug fixes were addressed. One particular worth mentioning was the
handling of album covers that reside within the individual albums’ folders.
This function was not working properly if your songs were tagged with ID3 v2
tags. This has been corrected.
--------------------------------
Dec
23, 2003 - Version 4.0.0 (return to top)
1. Direct Launching Of The
Program
Starting with Version 4.0, The PC Jukebox no longer starts up with
the Options screen that required users to click OK to continue. Instead, once the splash screen has been
displayed, The PC Jukebox automatically initializes and starts. All settings are now performed in a
completely separate application known as The PC Jukebox Configurator. You can use the Configurator to Build or
Update your Music Library, choose or edit a skin, select which screen elements
will be visible, and much more. And you
can even launch the main PC Jukebox program straight from the Configurator.
3. 2. Enhanced Graphics
All of the buttons in The PC Jukebox have been upgraded to be much
more visually appealing. They all have
new reflective characteristics that can be altered by the user. You can now change the font, style, shadow
depth, border width and more on just about any button you see. Some of the buttons can even be animated. The user interface has been cleaned up to
group controls more appropriately. It is
much easier to hide and display groups of buttons now. The album frames draw much more quickly and
even become highlighted as your mouse moves over them. There are new skins that can be downloaded
and many more enhancements too numerous to mention!
3. Full Screen Mode
The PC Jukebox can now be put into Full Screen
mode, which removes Windows title bar or borders.
This makes The PC Jukebox appear more like a dedicated kiosk application
rather than a standard Windows program.
Full Screen mode can be set in The PC Jukebox Configurator, the Options
dialog, or can also be toggled on and off using the F2 key.
4. New 640x480 Mode
A new mode
has been added to allow The PC Jukebox to be displayed at a resolution of
640x480. This mode is ideal for those
who wish to use The PC Jukebox on their televisions. Some of the controls had to be moved around
due to the sheer limitation of pixels, but the application is fully functional
in this mode. The program will
automatically detect your resolution and start in the mode that best fits.
5. 800x600 Mode Enhanced
The 800x600 mode has been
updated to look much more like the 1024x768 mode, including more albums on the
Album View screen and more song titles on the Selected Album Screen. 1024x768 mode is still recommended if possible,
but the program looks much better at 800x600 than it did!
6. Album Cover Location
The PC
Jukebox no longer requires users to keep all of their album cover art in a
single folder. The covers can now reside
with the individual albums. Also, the
cover art files can be named after the album or with a common generic name,
such as Cover.jpg.
7. Prefetch Album Covers
In an effort to increase
performance once The PC Jukebox has been loaded, a new option has been added in
Version 4.0 to allow you to prefetch all of your Album Cover art. This should decrease the time it takes for
each of the Album Covers to display on any of the screens by preloading and
caching them during the initialization routine.
8. Mouse Cursor Hidden In
Touchscreen Mode
When The PC Jukebox is put into Touchscreen Mode, the mouse cursor
will now disappear making the application look even more like a commercial
touchscreen music jukebox. The cursor
will reappear when the application is closed.
And, furthermore, if you switch over to another running application
using keyboard, the mouse cursor will be visible and available there.
9.
Keep
History From Session To Session
The PC Jukebox keeps a
history of all songs that are played.
The previous version of The PC Jukebox would erase this history each
time the application started. You now
have the option to keep all previous history and NOT start new each time the
program is launched. And the History now
includes 2 new fields; # of Times Played and Last Played Date/Time.
10. Song Tool Tips
You have the option to
display balloon type tool tips when your mouse hovers over a song title
button. The tool tip will include the
following information: Song Title, Artist, Album, Track Number, Duration,
Number Of Times Played, and Last Date and Time Played.
11. ALL CAPS Display
The PC Jukebox can now
display all dynamic text (mostly artist names and song titles) in all capital
letters (i.e Beach Boys would be displayed BEACH BOYS) regardless of how that
text actually appears in the ID3 tag.
This can give a slightly more professional look to the program.
12. Single Click Play
You now have the option of
enabling users to play a song immediately without having to highlight it first
and then clicking the ‘Add Song To Queue’ button. Each song will get added to the queue as soon
as it is clicked on.
13. Mouse Click And Mouse Over Sounds
You can tell The PC Jukebox
to play a ‘clicking’ sound each time any button or album cover is clicked (or touched)
or each time the mouse pointer hovers over a button.
14. No More Hidden Options Button
The hidden button in the upper right hand corner to display the
Options dialog box has been removed.
Instead, an Options button has been added to the Artist List
screen. Of course, this button can be
hidden at any time to prevent other users from altering the program once it is
playing.
15. New Power Off Button
To make sure the program can still be exited when it’s in Full
Screen mode, a new Power Off button has been added. It can be found with the group of controls
named Playback Controls. And of course,
just like everything else, it can be hidden and shown at will.
16. Various Bug Fixes
As usual, several minor bug fixes were addressed. One in particular that is worth mentioning is
the handling of long file names. In
previous versions, if the path and the file name of a song file combined
was greater than 150 characters, The PC Jukebox would appear to add the song to
the Music Library, but in actuality it would be skipped. This would explain, for example, why The PC
Jukebox would say that 2000 songs were just added but then report that there
were only 1800 songs in the library.
This 150 character limit has been increased to 255 to accommodate files with
longer names and folder paths.
--------------------------------
Oct
15, 2003 - Version 3.5.0 (return to top)
1. Playlists!!
The PC Jukebox now supports playlists. Version 3.5 will allow you to play and/or create
Winamp style playlists in both the older standard .m3u format as well as the
newer .b4s format. That means any
existing playlists you have in either format can immediately be loaded and
played back through The PC Jukebox.
Please refer to the file named The PC Jukebox Advanced
Features for further details on creating and playing back playlists.
2. Automatically Create A
Playlist For Each Artist
With the click of a single button, The PC Jukebox will search your
Music Library and create a playlist for each and every artist found. Each playlist will contain all of the artists’ songs. Once the playlists are created, you can load
them into The PC Jukebox, move the songs around, delete songs you don't want,
add songs from other artists, and save the playlist back again. Again, both m3u and b4s formats are
supported. Please refer to the file
named The PC Jukebox
Advanced Features for further details.
3. Initialization Improved
The initialization routine has been greatly optimized. Now, when you click on the Start button, the
application will load MUCH more quickly, up to 20 times faster!
4. Music Library Log
Each time you create or update your Music Library, you will now
have the option to create a log file of the process. The log will contain information about each
song that was added, updated or skipped.
The log file can be created in XML or straight text format. Please refer to the file named The PC Jukebox Advanced
Features for further details on creating the log file.
5. Greater Queue Control
New controls have been added to allow you to select a song from
the queue and move it up or down to a new position. You can now also clear the entire queue with
the click of a single button (not including the song that is currently
playing). And furthermore, you now have
the ability to shuffle the positions of the queued up songs with a single click
(again, not including the song that is currently playing). This feature is helpful when you have
selected a playlist and want to hear the songs in a different order from which
they were loaded. Also, you can hide and
show the queue simply by right clicking on it now (no need to go the Options
screen any more).
6. Top Ten List
The PC Jukebox now maintains playback counts for each song in your
Music Library. Using this information, a
new Top Ten feature has been added. By
clicking the new Top Ten button, you can see a list of your most popular
selections. You can select any one of
these songs and add it to the queue, or you can add all of the Top Ten with the
click of a single button. And, of
course, at any time you can reset these statistics and clear your Top Ten list.
7. Playback History
Every time you start The PC Jukebox, it will now create a history
of each song that gets selected in the order it is played. You can view this history at any time, select
any song out of your history to play again, and even create a playlist based on
it. You can edit your history by
removing individual songs and then create a playlist from there as well. And, again, you can reset your history at any
time. Keep in mind that history gets
erased and re-initialized each time you start the program.
8. Keyboard Scroll To Song
Just like you can scroll to a particular artist simply be pressing
the first letter on your keyboard (you did know you could do that, didn't you?)
you can now scroll to a song title the same way. So, if you've got 150 songs by U2 and you
want to play 'Where The Streets Have No
Names', you no longer have to click the down arrow 140 times to get
there. Simply press 'W' on your keyboard
and The PC Jukebox will scroll to the first song whose title starts with 'W'.
9. Hiding The Frames
On several machines, the frames that outline the album covers are
somewhat slow to load. Although this is
only the case when each of the screens first load, it can be somewhat
frustrating. A new option has been added
to suppress the display of these frames, greatly reducing initial load time of
the screens.
10. The Startup And Options
Screens
The Startup and Options screens have been redesigned for easier
navigation and understanding. While the
basic functionality remains unchanged (there are a few new bells and whistles),
the interface is a little cleaner and easier to get around in.
11. Splash Screen
Yeah, no big deal, but it was needed!
12. Various Bug Fixes
Several minor bug fixes were addressed, too numerous to mention
here.
--------------------------------
May
20, 2003 - Version 3.2.1 (return to top)
1. Minor Bug Fixes
A bug was detected in Version 3.2 that prevented The PC Jukebox
from shutting down properly when the Close button was clicked. This has been corrected in Version 3.2.1.
--------------------------------
May
13, 2003 - Version 3.2.0 (return to top)
1. 800x600 Support
The PC Jukebox now supports monitors at a resolution of
800x600. If The PC Jukebox detects the
resolution at 800x600, it will automatically default to the new mode. To verify the detection properly occurred,
simply click the ‘Options' item from the left-hand list on the initial setup
screen (which has been redesigned to fit at 800x600). The entry in the 'Screen Size' dropdown
should read 800x600 and it should not be able to be changed. If you are running at 1024x768 or higher, you
can choose which Screen Size mode to run by selecting either item from the
Screen Size dropdown.
The differences in the 2 screen size modes are these: On the Artist List page, the 1024x768 mode
lists 14 artists at a time while the 800x600 mode lists only 10 at time. The Album Cover View screen shows 15 albums
at a time in 1024x768 mode and only 8 albums at time in 800x600 mode. Finally, on the Album Selected screen, the
1024x768 mode displays 12 song titles, 3 additional albums and 9 total albums
while the 800x600 mode displays 9, 2, and 4 respectively.
One final note -- when editing a skin or creating a new one for
800x600 mode, be sure to choose a background image whose measurements are
800x600 if you'd like the image to appear in it's entirety. Choosing an image of a different size will
not cause an error, but it will not display fully and/or cover the entire
screen.
2. Minor Bug Fixes
Some minor bugs were detected in the scrolling operations and have
been corrected.
--------------------------------
May
6, 2003 - Version 3.0.1 (return to top)
1. Minor Bug Fix
A fix was implemented to allow songs whose Artist tag started with
a character other than A-Z or 0-9.
--------------------------------
May
5, 2003 - Version 3.0.0 (return to top)
1. Skins!!
The PC Jukebox now supports skins!
To select a skin, click on the ‘Skins’ item from the left-hand list on
the initial setup screen. Make sure that
the 'Use Skins?' checkbox is selected.
Then select a skin from the dropdown list. When you click on the 'Start' button, all of
the screen elements will be adorned with the graphics that make up the selected
skin. To change a skin while the program
is active, click in the upper right hand corner of any screen. This will display the 'Options' dialog
box. (For further details on the
'Options' dialog and how to display it, please refer to The PC Jukebox Advanced
Features file located in the same folder as this file)
Select a new skin from the dropdown list and click 'OK'. The PC Jukebox will update to the newly
selected skin. Be advised that when you
change a skin, many of the screen elements will have to redraw each time a
screen is viewed for the first time.
Once the elements are drawn once, they will not need to redraw again,
unless the selected skin is edited or changed.
As you play with the program you will get more familiar with how the skins
interact.
For a detailed explanation of how to create and/or edit skins,
please refer to the file How To
Create A Skin located in the folder as this file.
2. Album Cover View
You may now browse through your music collection by viewing all of
your album covers rather than just viewing by a single artist. Simply click on the 'Album Cover View' button
in the upper left hand corner of the main screen, and the new view will be
shown. The albums are sorted in order by
artist name, not album name. You can
scroll through the album covers by using the lettered scrollbar on the right
hand side. Clicking on any album cover
will allow you to view and select any of the songs on that album.
3. Enhanced Scrolling
The scrollbars on the Artists List screen and the Album Covers
Screen have been enhanced. They will now
show the current letter/number of the visible artists/albums. The letters will change on the fly as the
scrollbar is moved, making it very easy to see where you are in the list. They are also much wider to accommodate
touchscreen users. For this reason, the
previous Touchscreen Mode, described below, is no longer necessary and has been
removed.
4. Currently Playing Album
Cover
While on the Artist List screen, if you click on the album cover
of the currently playing song, you will be brought to the Album View screen
that lists all of the songs on that album.
This is the same screen you would see if you clicked on the album cover
from the Album Cover View screen. This
is just a quick way to see what else is on the album of the song that is
currently playing.
5. Deleting Of Orphaned
Records
Previous versions of The PC Jukebox would leave records in your
Music Library if you moved or deleted any files that were previously
added. Version 3.0 will clean up your
library each time you click the Build Music Library or Update Music Library
button. After the program searches for
new or updated files, it then goes through each record in the library and makes
sure the file still exists. If not, the
record is removed from the Music Library.
6. New Evaluation Version
Behavior
Previous versions of The PC Jukebox would limit new users to 100
songs while running the evaluation version.
The good news is that this limitation has been removed. All of your music will be loaded, even in the
evaluation version. The bad news is
that, now, evaluation users will be limited to running the program 10
times. Once the 'Start' button has been
clicked 10 times, it will be necessary to purchase a registration code to use
the program again. A further limitation
of the evaluation version is that during the 10 evaluation times, a maximum of
10 songs can be played. Once the tenth
song has finished, a message box will appear informing you that the maximum
number of songs has been reached.
To avoid either of these limitations, a registration code will be
necessary. To purchase the full version
of the program and unlock it for unlimited use, please visit www.thepcjukebox.com
and click on the Purchase button. After
payment is received, you will receive a registration code that, once entered,
will unlock the program. If you have
purchased a registration code for a previous version it will still be valid for
this version and you will not need to obtain a new code.
7. Removed/Changed Features
Unfortunately, animated logos are not supported in this
version. These graphics were chewing up
system resources badly, to the point where song playback was being
interrupted. Animated logos will be
explored for the next version. Also, be
aware that while you can change the color and font for any of the screen
elements, you CANNOT change the SIZE or BOLDNESS of the font on the rectangular
buttons. All other aspects can be modified.
--------------------------------
Apr
1, 2003 - Version 2.0.0 (return to top)
1. Customizing The PC
Jukebox's Appearance
The biggest single change in Version 2.0 is the ability of the
user to change the appearance of every screen element. Simply by right clicking on any part of any
screen, the user will be presented with a menu of choices to change the look of
that element. For example, clicking on
any open area of the background will give the user the opportunity to change
the background color for that screen.
The fonts and colors of all of the text items can be changed. Feel free to experiment changing any and all
of the items. You may even find some
hidden ones!!
At any time you can restore all of the default color, font, and
logo settings back to their original values.
Simply click in the upper right hand corner of the main screen to
display the Options dialog, then select ‘Skins’ from the left-hand list. Make sure the ‘Use Skins?’ checkbox is clear
and click on the large red button labeled 'Restore All Default
Colors/Fonts/Logos/Party Mode Settings'.
A confirmation dialog will display asking if you are sure you want to do
this. Clicking 'Yes' will erase all of
your custom settings and immediately set all choices back to their default
settings.
2. Rebuilding The Music
Library
New in Version 2.0 is an improved way to rebuild and update your
Music Library. In Version 1.0, each time
you wanted to add even a single song, your Music Library would be deleted and
recreated from scratch. This could be
very time consuming and annoying. In
Version 2.0, any song that was previously added to the Music Library and is
unchanged will simply be skipped over, thus significantly reducing the time of
the rebuild procedure. If there are new
songs that have not previously been added to the Music Library, these will be
found and added. Also, if the tag
information for any previously added song has been updated or changed, The PC
Jukebox will now extract this new information and update the Music Library
accordingly. This new approach can
reduce the Music Library rebuild time from 30 minutes or more to just 3 or 4.
3. Play An Entire Album
If your songs' ID3 tags contain Track Number information, The PC
Jukebox will now allow you to play an entire album, in track number order, by
clicking a single button. After
selecting an artist, simply click one of the album covers on the next
screen. All of the songs on that album
will be displayed on the right hand side, sorted by track number. If a song does not have the track number as
part of it's ID3 tag, a '0' will be displayed by default. To play all of the songs in order, simply
click the button at the top of the songs list labeled 'Play Entire Album'. The entire album will then be added to the
playlist queue. You can also sort all of
the songs alphabetically and play them in that order as well.
4. Customize Party Mode
(renamed ‘Screen Elements’ in version 3.5.0)
Another popular suggestion was for the user to be able to hide or
display any items of their choosing while in Party Mode. On the initial setup
screen, click the 'Screen Elements' list item in the left-hand list. This allows you to further customize your
experience. Once the program has
started, if you decide to change your mind and want to change the view, simply
click in the upper right hand corner of the main screen to display the Options
dialog and again click the 'Screen Elements' list item in the left-hand
list. All of the choices you had
originally made are shown here. You can
make any changes you want and The PC Jukebox will immediately reflect these
changes once the Options dialog has been closed.
5. Now Playing Screen
Default Time
In Version 1.0, the Now Playing Screen would appear after 30 seconds
or so, if that option had been turned on.
In Version 2.0, you can decide exactly how long to wait before
displaying this screen. In the initial
setup screen, click the ‘Options’ list item in the left-hand list. Clicking on the 'Now Playing Screen' checkbox
will enable this feature. Here you can
also input the number of seconds to wait before the Now Playing screen
appears. After the program starts, you
can alter this number by opening the Options dialog, typing in a new number,
and closing the dialog.
6. Single Key Scrolling To
Buttons
If you have a large list of artists and quickly want to get to one
that is scrolled off of the list, simply press the first letter of the artist's
name on your keyboard and the list will automatically scroll to the first
artist whose name begins with that letter.
While this may not bring you exactly to the button for the artist you
were looking for, it will quickly bring you closer to it. This feature will also work for long lists of
songs for a particular artist.
7. Touchscreen Mode
(obsolete in version 3.5.0)
While The PC Jukebox was designed with a touchscreen monitor in
mind, one shortcoming in Version 1.0 was the inability of users to easily click
and drag any of the scrollbars with their fingers. This was not really a problem for users using
a mouse. A temporary solution for this
has been employed in Version 2.0. After
expanding the initial setup screen by clicking the 'Advanced' button, clicking
the 'Touchscreen Mode' checkbox will widen the scrollbars within The PC Jukebox
to making it easier for users to use their fingers. A very important side effect to this feature
is that ALL open Windows applications will have their scrollbars widened as
well. Once The PC Jukebox is closed, all
scrollbars will return to their normal sizes.
This feature CANNOT be changed once the program has been started. The program must be closed to change the
setting back.
8. Version Number Added
At any time you can see exactly what version of The PC Jukebox you
are running now by clicking in the upper right-hand corner of the main screen
and displaying the Options dialog. The
version number will be displayed in the lower left-hand corner. Should it become necessary to release
maintenance updates, this version number will be increased accordingly. You can always check the website,
www.thepcjukebox.com, to see what the latest and current version is.
Keep your suggestions coming and we'll try to get as many of them
as possible included in the next version!!