3. Basic Controls
Table of contents
Playing music
Now that youʼve got some music in your media library, you can start playing songs.
Down at the bottom of the player window, you'll see a few buttons, and the display window. Each part is explained below.
Playing a song
Double-click a song in the Library view.
Playback Controls
Unlike most media players, Songbird only has three buttons for controlling playback. Super simple, right?
The Previous Button
The button on the left is the Previous button. A short click will send you to the previously played track, while a longer press will allow you to seek back through the song currently playing.
The Next button
The button to the right is the Next button. A short click will send you to the next track in the queue, while a longer press will allow you to seek forward in the song currently playing.
The Play/Pause/Stop button
The middle button actually serves three functions. Most of the time, it functions as a toggle between play and pause; however, if you hold your click over the button for a half second, or right click, a small menu will pop up, giving you the option to Play, Pause, or Stop.
Alternately you can press the space bar to stop and start playback.
The Display Window
The big box in the middle is the Display Window. This window gives you information about what's currently playing, such as length, current position in the song, song title, artist, album, and the rating you have given the song.
The Volume Control
The volume controls are pretty straight-forward. To increase volume, drag the volume slider indicator to the right. To decrease volume, drag it to the left.
You can also use the speaker icon on the left side of the volume slider to mute Songbird, or the icon on the right side of the slider to maximize the volume. Clicking the icon again restores the volume to the previous level.
The Shuffle/Repeat Buttons
The Shuffle button allows you to play a playlist in random order, rather than going through the playlist as it is written. The Repeat button, on the other hand, allows you to play an entire playlist, or even just a single song, in a loop.
Rating a song
You can rate a song by giving it one to five stars. Use ratings to create smart playlists with only the songs you really like (see Smart Playlists).
To rate a song, move your mouse cursor over the Song Rating dialog box. Once it shows the number of stars you want, click once.
Moving the Player Controls
Prefer top to bottom? You can move your controls to the top of Songbird by right-clicking anywhere on the pane, then switch it up.
Hotkeys & Keyboard Shortcuts
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| File | Size | Date | Attached by | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 67_shuffle.png No description | 13.59 kB | 18:50, 7 Apr 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| displaywindow.png No description | 11.44 kB | 06:38, 10 Apr 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| hotkeys.png No description | 23.06 kB | 22:43, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| playbar.png No description | 26.17 kB | 06:38, 10 Apr 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
 | player_controls.png No description | 27.2 kB | 10:51, 8 Apr 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| stop-hover.png No description | 11.63 kB | 22:43, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
| switchtopbottom.png No description | 8.48 kB | 22:43, 19 Dec 2009 | mpurses | Actions | |
