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In the Media Library, you can add a track to any playlist, at any time:

1. Select any folder or folder item that contains that track, so that the track appears in the right pane of the window. 2. Click the track to select it.

3. Click the Add to Playlist button (which is next to the New Playlist button, in the upper left). WMP displays a drop-down list of playlists.

4. Click the playlist that you want. If you have a lot of playlists, WMP displays only the first few of them in the drop-down list. If the one you want isn’t there, click the last list item, Additional Playlists. This opens a scrolling list of all playlists. Click the one you want, and then click OK.

5. WMP adds the track to the playlist and closes the scrolling list. You can add the same track to any number of playlists. Just go through the preceding steps again, this time specifying a different playlist. You can even add a track to a playlist from a different playlist, using the same procedure. Pick the playlist with the desired track on the left. Click the track on the right, and click Add to Playlist. Voilà. Renaming and deleting playlists To delete a playlist, right-click the playlist and click the Delete command from the resulting menu. Or you can just select the playlist and press the Delete key. A deleted playlist goes into the big digital bit bucket in the sky. Actually, it goes into the Media Library’s Deleted Items folder. To get it back, display the contents of that folder; then right-click the playlist and click the Restore command. To change a playlist’s name, right-click the playlist and click the Rename command from the resulting menu.

Deleting tracks from the Media Library

If you’ve been reading about the Media Library, you know that no matter how many playlists a track is added to, the Media Library still contains just one copy of the track. The reverse is just as true: even if you delete a track from every playlist that contains it, the Media Library still contains one copy of the track. It’s possible to delete a track from the Media Library, though. You can do this in a couple of ways:  

-  Select the All Audio folder, or an appropriate item under the Album, Artist, or Genre folder, so that the track appears in the right pane of the window. Then right-click the track and click the Delete From Library command. Or, select the track and press the Delete key.  

-  Select a playlist that contains the track. Then right-click the track and click the Delete From Library command. (In this case, pressing the Delete key does not work; it simply deletes the track from the playlist.) Take care not to delete a track from the Media Library when you intend to delete it only from a playlist. When you right-click a track in a playlist, the Delete From Library command and the Delete From Playlist command are right next to each other! It’s easy to choose the wrong one. Radio Tuner Microsoft controls the appearance of the WMP Radio Tuner from its bunkers located thirteen stories below ground level at a secret location underneath a heavily fortified parking lot on 156th Street in Redmond, Washington. Okay, okay. That’s not quite accurate. Still, Microsoft can change the appearance and the function of the Radio Tuner at any moment, simply by changing a Web site. That means the detailed instructions and screen shots that you see here may or may not reflect what you actually get when you crank up the Radio Tuner. If you’re having a hard time getting the radio to work, follow along here because the functions that you need to perform setting preset lists, picking channels, and so on will be the same, no matter what whim strikes the fancy of the Windows Media Web designers this week. Many Web sites offer streaming audio, which is essentially broadcast sound (radio) over the Internet. Many AM and FM radio stations offer their own programming through their own Web sites.

Other organizations provide streaming audio that isn’t available over the air waves at all. WMP lets you listen to all of these. If you click the Radio Tuner button on the left side of the screen, and you’re connected to the Web, WMP presents the displa. The Radio Tuner doesn’t look much like a conventional radio, but you control it in a very similar way. The right half of the window does the job of a radio’s tuning dial. It lets you find stations (streaming audio sources) through a search service provided by Microsoft’s Windows Media Web site, www. WindowsMedia.com. The left half of the window lets you set up and select your favorite stations more easily, like a radio’s preset buttons.

Listening to a station

The simplest way to tune in to a station is to select it from one of the lists of presets in the left half of the window. There are three lists there, titled Featured Stations, My Stations, and Recently Played Stations. Initially, only the Featured Stations list is displayed. You can see more information about a station by clicking either its name or the double arrowhead to the right of the name. The Radio Tuner expands that station’s listing. To tune in to this station, click the Play or the green arrowhead next to it. (You can also click the green arrowhead next to the station’s name, whether you display the station information first or not.) Wait a few seconds (well, actually, quite a few seconds, particularly if you have a slow Internet connection), and WMP starts playing the station. At least, WMP starts playing the station if everything goes right. Streaming audio is still an immature medium, though, and many things may go wrong. For example, the Web site that provides the station that you chose may be out of order or may have gone “off the air.” The first few times you try to tune in a new station you’re liable to get a message box that asks whether you want to install a “codec,” a “Java Virtual Machine,” or some other arcane nonsense. Don’t be scared by “Security Warning.” This type of message is normal, and is not as dangerous as it appears. Saving a station in the Media Library You can save a station setting in the Media Library along with your sound recordings, as well as in a preset list. When a station setting is in the Media Library, you can include it in playlists. To store a station in the Media Library, make sure that WMP’s menu bar is visible. (Remember: If it is not visible, click the round button in the upper edge of the frame, near the upper-left corner.) Tune in the station by whichever means you prefer. Then choose File -> Add to Media Library. This command opens a submenu; select Add Currently Playing Track.

After you add a station to the Media Library, you can select the Media Library tab and see the station in the All Audio folder. Copy to CD or Device If your computer has a CD writer, you can copy sound recordings from the Media Library directly to CDs. If you own a digital audio player that is compatible with Windows XP, you can copy sound recordings from the Media Library to your player. In either case, you can’t copy live feeds such as programs from radio stations. Such programs are broadcast for listening only, so recording them would often violate the intellectual property rights of the radio station or of others. You also can’t copy files that use certain recording techniques, indicated by a file’s extension. As of this writing, the only types of files that you can copy to a CD are Windows Media files (.wma extension), MP3 files (.mp3), and Wave sound files (.wav).