NERO BURNING-ROM VERSIONS 4, 5 AND 5.5 FROM THE KEYBOARD (INCLUDES NERO INCE AND NERO MEDIA PLAYER) By John Wilson Copyright 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS [To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 4" to find that section. Putting a > sign (capitalised full stop) before the word section will ensure that you do not stop on an earlier cross-reference to that section. Type the string "Launching Nero" to find that subheading or just type "7.2." to find it via its paragraph number. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.] Foreword and Restrictions Available Tutorial Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction Section 2: More Common Types of CD Drives and Disks 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks 2.1.1. Write-Only Disks 2.1.2. Re-Writable CD Disks 2.2. Compact Disk and DVD Capacities 2.3. Types of CD Drives 2.3.1. CD-ROM 2.3.2. CD-R 2.3.3. CD-RW 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts 2.5. CD and DVD Cleaning Section 3: Installing an Internal CD Drive 3.1. Hardware components 3.2. CD Drive Description 3.3. Installation Procedure Section 4: Basic Compact Disk Music Playing Directly from the CD Drive 4.1. Features of the front Panel of a CD Drive 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay Feature of Windows 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 4.4. Changing CD Playback Volume and Quality Section 5: Sound Cards and Windows Volume Control 5.1. Types of Sound Cards 5.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep 5.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card 5.4. The Windows Volume Control 5.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone Settings Section 6: Nero IN-CD Compact Disk Formatter Version 3.31 6.1. What Does INCD Do? 6.2. Installing INCD 6.3. System Requirements 6.4. launching INCD 6.5. Version Information 6.6. INCD Property Sheets 6.7. CD Formatting with INCD 6.8. Uses for INCD Formatted Disks 6.9. How to copy Data to a formatted Compact Disk 6.10. How to Erase Data on a formatted CD 6.11. How to Erase Both Data and Formatting on a CD 6.12. INCD Updates and Supported CD-RW Drives Section 7: Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4, 5 and 5.5 7.1. Installing Nero and System Requirements 7.1.1. System Requirements 7.1.2. Installing Nero 7.2. Launching Nero 7.3. The Nero Browser and Compilation Window and Customisation 7.3.1. The Default Look of Nero 7.3.2. Customising Nero for Visually Impaired Users 7.4. Two Methods of Creating a Data CD or DVD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with the Nero Wizard 7.4.1. Burning Data Files via the Context Menu 7.4.2. Burning Data Files via the File Browser 7.5. Saving a Compilation 7.6. Opening a Saved Compilation Template 7.7. Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD 7.7.1. Extracting with Nero 4X and 5.0 7.7.2. Extracting with Nero 5.50 and Later Versions 7.8. Creating an Audio Music CD or DVD from Your CD-ROM Drive with the Nero Wizard 7.8.1. Selecting and Ordering Tracks Whilst in the Audio Compilation 7.8.2. Selecting Tracks Prior to Launching Nero 7.9. Viewing Tracks Information on a CD or Compilation Information on an existing Compilation Template 7.10. Creating an Audio or Data CD When You Only Have One CD Drive (Image Burning) 7.11. Cloning a Whole Audio, Video, Data or Mixed Mode CD with the Nero Wizard 7.12. Burning Data or Audio Tracks Manually 7.13. Creating a Folder on CD to Burn Files Into 7.14. Converting and Burning MP3 Files to HI-FI Audio Files 7.15. Audio Track Filtering and Property Details 7.16. How to Add More Data to a Partly Used Data CD 7.17. Cloning or Copying One CD to Another 7.18. Burning/Cloning CDs on the Fly 7.19. Burning/Cloning CDs Via the Hard Disk 7.20. Burning Video Files with Nero 7.21. Erasing the Contents of a Re-Writable CD 7.22. Making Whole Hard Disk or Partition Back-Ups with Nero 7.23. Restoring Hard Disk Back-Ups 7.24. Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB) 7.24.1. Creating Your Own CDDB Database 7.24.2. Configuring the Program Database 7.25. Manually Entering and Viewing Text of CD Tracks and Artists Details 7.26. Viewing Sessions and Files with the Nero Multimounter 7.27. What to do if Your CD-RW Drive is Not Automatically Recognised by Nero 7.28. Nero Preferences 7.29. An Alternative Method of Selecting Files or Whole Folders for Burning with Windows Explorer 7.30. Creating a CD from a .ISO File 7.31. The Nero Help System 7.32. Nero Features Not Covered in this Manual 7.33. Nero Burning-ROM Shortcut Keys Section 8: Nero Media Player Version 1.103 8.1. Introduction 8.2. System Requirements 8.3. Installation 8.4. Launching Nero Media Player 8.5. File Types Media Player Can Play 8.6. The Nero Media Player Menu System 8.7. Playing Single and Multiple Audio Files 8.8. Playing MP3 Tracks from the Internet 8.9. Playing Streaming Audio from the Internet 8.10. Making Personal Tone Changes in the Media Player Graphic Equalizer 8.11. Media Player Preferences 8.12. The Media Player Context Menu 8.13. Sending an MP3 File as an E-Mail Attachment 8.14. Media Player Shortcut Keys Appendix 1: Ahead Support for Nero Appendix 2: List of Nero Shortcut Keystrokes Appendix 3: Other tutorials by this Author ******** FOREWORD AND RESTRICTIONS I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Visually impaired computer users are the target group for this tutorial. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. The guide assumes a basic understanding of the Windows operating system and Windows concepts. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this manual, terms have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT R (for CD-Recorder), S (for Save Track) is suggested to go into the "CD-Recorder" menu and run the "Save Track" menu option, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "CD-Recorder" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Save Track" line is spoken, then press ENTER. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain an overview of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION This tutorial concentrates on the use of Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4, 5 and 5.5 to create your own data and audio CDs. It also covers facilities such as burning hard disk back-ups and converting MP3 files to WAV or CDA files with Nero. There is also coverage of Nero's IN-CD re-writable CD formatting program and the Nero Media Player. Additionally, some general sections have been provided, including a look at the Windows Volume Control and how to install an internal CD-RW disk drive. The burning of DVDs and DD CDs is mentioned and briefly covered within a couple of sections, Although DD CD and DVD burning only came into Nero from later Versions of Nero 5.5X and I do not own a DVD burning drive to test this, but I have done a little experimentation on a friend's computer with a DVD-RW and I can confirm that the steps in burning DVDs are almost identical to burning CDs. Nero is a fast-moving program and there is rarely a month which goes by without something having been added to the program or something having undergone a small change, so it is impossible to keep up with all of these changes. This tutorial, nonetheless, will provide the essentials to allow the competent use of Nero 4, 5 and 5.5X versions. Yet later versions of Nero 5.5X come with a front-end utility called Nero Express. This makes the program easier to use from a sighted point of view but presents problems for screenreader users. I recommend that you ignore Nero Express (unless the Nero makers make its interface more friendly in future versions) and simply do things via the standard Nero Burning-ROM program. This is as of June 2003. This tutorial is written from the viewpoint of a screenreader user via speech or Braille display from the keyboard. No monitor or physical mouse have been employed. You can buy Nero Burning-ROM, together with INCD and Nero Media Player plus several extra utilities which do not come with the version bundled with CD-RWs from: www.nero.com but I am not sure if you will save any money by buying a downloaded copy. Alternatively, you can purchase it from branches of PC World and Dixons for around œ45. Since I first wrote this tutorial in July 2001, Nero Version 5.5 has been released. This contains a few additional features and also changes some of the dialogue boxes which are presented when using Nero. However, the main features and procedures remain basically the same, and this tutorial should still be helpful to learners of Nero 5.5. In general, whilst a few of the features of Nero still remain unaccessible via the keyboard, such as Mixed Mode CDs and the new (in Nero 5.5) Cd Extra CDs), the main elements of Nero are still usable and several of them are easier/clearer to use. I have made some brief comments and notes at several points in the manual to give a little guidance for Nero 5.5 users, although there has been no attempt to rewrite the whole tutorial for Nero 5.5 users exclusively. If you have a copy of Nero 5.0, either purchased from a vendor directly or obtained with your CD-RW drive, you are entitled to a free download of Nero 5.5. You can download this from: www.nero.com and just install it as normal. It will recognise your current version and remove it, if desired. However, before upgrading to Nero 5.5, I would recommend that you learn the basics of how to use your old Nero 4 or 5 software, so that, when you come to use Nero 5.5, you are already accustomed to how Nero performs. The new style dialogue boxes which sometimes appear and additional options will then be somewhat self-explanatory. Lastly, for those with a curiosity to know, I believe that the name of the software, Nero Burning-ROM, is a play on words or type of parody. It hails from the famous historical emperor of Rome who was said to have played his fiddle whilst Rome burnt: hence Nero Burning-ROM. ******** >SECTION 2 MORE COMMON TYPES OF CD DRIVES AND DISKS 2.1. Types of Recordable CD Disks There are two main modern kinds of recordable blank CD disks: 2.1.1. Write-Only Disks Write-only disks, once written to and closed or finalised, cannot be used again. However, if you do not close a disk after half filling it, you can normally write more to the end of where you last copied MP3 or data files but you will not be able to play an audio disk until you close it. An Audio (HI-FI music) disk falls into the write-only category. It is a disk capable of holding digital audio tracks recorded in CDDA format (compact disk digital audio). Such audio files have a .CDA extension. These audio CDs are usually 74 or 80 minutes long and can hold up to 99 separate tracks--but the tracks would have to be very short to get this many on in the 74 or 80 minutes! 2.1.2. Re-Writable CD Disks A re-writable disk, as its name implies, can be used over and over again in the same way that a hard disk or floppy disk can be re-used. You can either write music files straight to the disk with a program such as Nero Burning-ROM or you can configure (format) the disk and use it like a hard or floppy disk by creating folders or directories and sub-folders and sub- directories, for instance, with Nero INCD or Adaptec Direct CD software. 2.2. Compact Disk and DVD Capacities Typically a write-only or re-writable CD disk will hold around 650 Mb of music or data files. From a music point of view this means that it can hold 74 minutes of regular audio, HI-FI style music tracks. Some CDs, if your copying software and/or Cd drive will support this, can hold 80 minutes of traditional music or 700 Mb of data. Very recently 90 minute CDs have come into being but, again, your software and CD-RW drive will have to support this new standard. On the other hand, if you wish to format a re-writable disk, in order to create folders and use it in the same way as you might use a floppy diskette, then the resultant disk space is reduced, because the formatting itself takes up some of the disk's capacity. After formatting a 650 Mb re-writable CD, you will be left with around 534 Mb of disk space to copy files to. Note: Since I first wrote this tutorial, DVD (digital versatile disk) has been developed and DVD burners are now available for prices which do not entale mortgaging your house. The disks for these burners typically hold 4.7 Gb of data and some disks are double sided and so can hold nearly twice this amount. 2.3. Types of CD Drives There are three main standards for modern CD drives: 2.3.1. CD-ROM A CD-ROM drive (compact disk read-only memory) is only able to play sound files and allow you to remove programs and other data from it. It cannot itself record onto blank CD disks. This is the traditional CD drive which has been supplied with most computers for a few years now. The CD-ROM is the type of drive which you would install your Windows programs and other software from. You can play traditional HI-FI music CDs from a CD-ROM, as well as speech or music compressed MP3 files. The first CD-ROM drives were very slow at reading data from a cd disk but modern ones are much faster. Modern CD-ROMs can read a CD at 40 or 50 times faster than the first drives. Today's CD-ROM drives run at typical speeds of 48 or 56 speed but it is true to say that the increase in speed is not exactly proportionate to the number a drive carries, as there are diminishing performance returns the faster a CD drive is rated. You must also be aware that, when using a CD-ROM drive to burn (copy) audio tracks from such as a music CD to a second CD drive (a CD-RW drive), the copying speed is likely to be much slower than the 40X or 50X speed which can be obtained when copying plain data files. Some CD-ROMs can only achieve a speed of 2X or 3X when copying audio tracks by this drive to drive method. 2.3.2. CD-R CD-R (compact disk recordable) drives have now mainly been replaced by CD-RW drives. A CD-R can read files as with a CD-ROM but, in addition, it can write (copy) music and other audio media and data to a blank disk, such as copying HI-FI music or MP3 files. However, it cannot re-write to a re-writable CD disk in the way that a CD-RW can. 2.3.3. CD-RW A CD-RW drive (compact disk re-writable) is a drive which can read, write and re-write to a compact disk. This means that, in addition to being able to perform what the above two drives can achieve, you can insert re-writable disks into this type of drive and use them over and over again. For example, you can format a CD disk in a similar way to formatting a floppy disk and copy files to it, make folders/directories on it, etc, and then delete these later and re-write other files or folders to the same disk to over-write the space which the first files occupied. CD-RWs typically quote specifications such as 12X8X32 speed. These figures mean that the drive is able to read the information on a disk at 32 speed, write data to a blank write-only disk at 12 speed and write data to a re-writable disk at 8 speed. 2.4. CD Labels and Duel Case Inserts A CD label is the small round sticker which you would stick to the centre of the back of a CD with the CDs title, artist's name, etc, on it. A duel case insert is the double-sided information insert which you read through the see-through plastic case, with such as CD title, artist's name, individual track titles, artist's picture, etc, on it. You can create and print out such labels and inserts on plain or coloured A4 paper and then cut them out with scissors or you can purchase specially printed and die-cut labels and inserts which do not require cutting with scissors from shops such as PC World, Staples, etc. Most CD burning programs like Nero Burning-ROM and Easy Cd Creator provide software to permit the creation of these labels and inserts but not all of them are very accessible. You can also buy all-purpose packages from PC World and no doubt other computer suppliers which contain the die-cut labels and inserts plus a round spindle or template to use to ensure that you get your label onto the back of the CD in the correct centred position. You place the label onto the spindle in its centre, adhesive side up, and then lower the CD down onto the spindle to pick up the label. There is also a Website where you can go to create or download CD labels and to produce paper inserts from A4 paper. Its URL is: www.papercdcase.com 2.5. CD and DVD Cleaning Remember, you can purchase special CD and DVD cleaning fluid from many outlets. If you cannot get hold of any of this or prefer to keep your cash in your pocket you should try the following. Always follow the specific cleaning and general maintenance instructions which come with a particular make of CD or DVD. In the absence of any instructions, the below-described means of cleaning CDs and DVDs when they are not performing correctly should work fine. 1. Take a very soft, clean cloth and wet it with warm clean water. 2. Wipe the CD or DVD from the centre outwards. Do not clean in a circular motion, as this could damage the tracks. 3. If a disk is very dirty or sticky, you might also use a little mild toilet soap on the cloth as well and then thoroughly remove this from the disk with clean water. ******** >SECTION 3 INSTALLING An Internal CD DRIVE As a visually impaired person the idea of opening up your computer and installing a Cd drive may not appeal to you. Others may have sighted friends to help them in this and may relish the challenge. This section will help you install a new CD-ROM, CD-R or CD-RW or at least give you an insight into what has to be done and the components involved. Alternatively, you may wish to take the easy way out, albeit a little more expensive, and purchase an external CD-RW instead of an internal one. External drives simply plug into a port on the back of the computer, if you have a spare one. If not, you may have to purchase a port splitter or fit another serial port to the PC. Please note, however, that opening your own PC and installing new components may invalidate your hardware warranty, if it is still running. You should therefore check the warranty clauses to ensure that you do not invalidate this, unless, of course, you are confident of what you are doing and not too concerned about the possible ramifications of doing your own upgrade work. 3.1. Hardware Components The three types of CD drives all have the same essential components. These are: * The disk drive box itself. * Four securing screws. * A thin audio cable. * A wide IDE cable about 30 or 40 cm long. 3.2. CD Drive Description For a description of the front of a CD drive, see Section 4 below. For the present, a description of the back of the CD drive box is all that is required. If you hold the CD drive in front of you, with the back facing you, the right way up, the following plugs and switches can be observed: 1. At the very left side there is usually a small square or oblong hole, which can be ignored. 2. Moving right by a centimetre or so, will bring you to the plughole for the audio cable plug. 3. Now move a further centimetre or two to the right and you will encounter a small oblong cavity which holds a "jumper". A jumper is a small squarish, thin piece of plastic which has a thin vain of metal running through it and can therefore conduct an electrical signal. It slides between two small pins in this jumper bay, which grip it fairly tightly. Normally, a jumper will be factory set to the "slave" (SL) position, which is in the middle of the jumper bay. If the jumper is pulled out with the finger nails or a pair of tweezers, it can be reinserted a millimetre or two to the left to place it in the "master" (MAR) position. There is also a third jumper pin position to the right of the middle slave position but this does not affect this type of installation. 4. Another centimetre or so to the right of the jumper cavity is the biggest socket at the back of the CD drive box, which is a 40-pin IDE plug socket. It is about 5 centimetres long and quite thin. 5. Just to the right of the IDE socket you will find the last component at the back of the drive. This is the power supply plug socket. 3.3. Installation Procedure 1. With the computer switched off, remove the PC cover, after detaching the cables at the back. 2. To remove any static from your body, earth yourself by touching the box metal of the PC frame. 3. Remove one of the plastic covers at the front of the computer to reveal a spare drive bay. There may also be a metal plate-like tag behind this to pull off as well. 4. Slide the CD drive box into the slot at the front of the PC where you just moved the plastic facing cover from and use the four securing screws to hold it in place. They insert through the metal housings provided in the interior of the Pc case. You may not wish to fully tighten them up immediately, as you may have to slide the drive backwards and forwards a time or two whilst completing some of the below steps. Afterwards make sure that the drive box is flush with the front of the PC and the screws are tightened up. 5.A. If you do not already have a CD-ROM in your PC, you can connect your new CD-RW onto the same IDE cable that your hard disk is connected to. The IDE cable will have two identical plugs near its end. This means that you do not have to use the extra supplied IDE cable which came with your drive. Genteelly insert the second IDE cable plug into the IDE Socket at the back of the CD drive. It will only normally go in one way. This means of connecting the CD drive to your motherboard is the "slave" method, which means that the jumper should be in the slave position. This is likely to be the way it is set up when you receive the drive. 5.B. Alternatively, if you already have a CD-ROM in your computer and are fitting your new CD-RW as a second CD drive, you will have to use the new cable which came with the drive. Insert one of the two plugs at the end of the IDE ribbon cable into the IDE socket at the back of the drive and plug the other end onto the IDE pins on your motherboard. Most motherboards have two IDE sockets which are normally located very close together and parallel to one another. Just follow your hard disk IDE cable to where it is plugged into the motherboard and the second IDE plug connector should be next to that one. In this configuration, you will need to move the jumper from the slave position to the left and reinsert it in the master position. Note: A PC normally only has two IDE sockets on its motherboard (a primary and secondary connector) and each can only take two drives. This means that, if all four connectors are already in use, you will have to purchase a SCSI card to connect your new CD-RW drive to. Warning: Do not place your CD-R and CD-RW drives on the same single IDE cable, as this may cause your burning software to generate error messages when you try to fast copy on the fly directly from your CD-R drive to your CD-RW drive. 6. Take the thin audio cable and plug it into the audio cable socket on the back of the CD drive box, which is almost at the very left. The other end of the audio cable should be plugged into the sound card, if your sound card is separate from the motherboard and is the PCI type, or plug it onto the pins on the motherboard if it is the sort of card which comes as an integral part of the motherboard itself. If the latter, you may need sighted assistance to find these motherboard pins amongst all of the other cables and bric-a-brac as they are only small. 7. You should now take one of the free power cables which sprout out of the side or bottom of your computer power supply at the back of the PC and plug it into the power in socket at the very right of the CD drive box. It should only go in one way round but if you find that it can be inserted both ways, then do not switch the computer on before getting sighted help to tell you which is the correct way to plug this in. Switching your computer on with this plugged in the wrong way is likely to damage the drive. 8. This is the end of the installation, so replace the computer cover, plug everything into the back, screw everything up and turn the PC on. If there is no blue flash or loud bang, chances are that you've done it correctly! 9. The plug-and-play facility of Windows 9X should find your new CD-RW and recognise the new CD drive automatically. It should be working OK at this stage. 10. If you also like your CD drives to be accessible from DOS, you should install a suitable generic or specific CD drive driver which permits access via the command line. It is likely that your new CD-RW came supplied with one of these on a standard floppy disk. Just insert the floppy and type "A:\install" and press ENTER to install it. If this does not work, consult the readme or other file which should be provided on the disk for instructions. Note: You are now ready to commence testing your internal or external CD-RW. You should have received at least two complimentary CD disks with your Cd drive purchase. Typically, one of these will be a standard disk which you can write to only once but the other should be a re-writable disk which you can use to practise on without wasting several standard disks. ******** >SECTION 4 BASIC COMPACT DISK MUSIC PLAYING DIRECTLY FROM THE CD DRIVE 4.1. Features of the Front Panel of a CD Drive Typically, your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive front panel is likely to be the same as or similar to this description. Usually the panel has one or two lights to show that it is powered up and working. Obviously, it also has a drawer which ejects to permit the insertion of a CD disk in the same way you would insert a music CD into your HI-FI CD player. On the left side of the panel you are likely to find a mini jack stereo plug socket where you can plug in headphones. Next to this will be housed a small wheel for increasing or decreasing the volume of the headphones only. On the right of the CD drive there is likely to be two press buttons, the right of which is the CD drawer close/eject button and the one just to its left is the skip/recommence play button for skipping from the current music track to the next one. Just above the close/eject button there is generally an emergency eject hole, which should only be used if the automatic eject button fails. You activate this by inserting something like the end of a straightened-out paperclip into the whole until the disk drawer pops out a little, then you genteelly pull it out the whole way by hand. 4.2. Enabling the AutoPlay feature of Windows The AutoPlay feature is what makes your audio music CDs commence playing as soon as you insert one into the CD drive and shut it. If you do not want AutoPlay to start up immediately, you should hold down the left SHIFT key and then shut the CD drive drawer and keep the SHIFT key down for several seconds before releasing it. AutoPlay for CDs should already be enabled by default but, if it is not, you can turn it on by: 1. Press Windows Logo key followed by S (for Settings), then press C (for Control Panel) and lastly press S several times until you get to System, then press ENTER. 2. You will land in the "General" property sheet, so press CONTROL TAB to get to "Device Manager" and then ARROW down or press C until you reach "CD-ROM". You then open this folder by pressing right ARROW. ARROWing down will now reveal your single or several CD drives by manufacturer names. With the focus on the one you wish to enable AutoPlay on you should TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. From Properties you should CONTROL TAB to the "Settings" property sheet and then press TAB until you reach "Auto Insert Notification" and if this is not already checked, press the SPACEBAR to check and therefore enable it. 4. After this TAB to "OK" and press ENTER and do the same on the next dialogue, followed by pressing ALT F4 to exit the Control Panel. 4.3. Windows Music CD AutoPlay 1. As stated above, when AutoPlay is enabled, all you need do to hear a standard HI-FI music CD is insert it into the CD drive drawer and press the close/eject button. It should start playing automatically within a few seconds without you doing anything else. If it does not start playing, just press the skip/recommence play button. The disk will play until the last track has been played and then stop. 2. Whilst playing, if you wish to skip to the next track, just press the skip button. Repeated presses will move you further into the CD track by track. 3. If you wish to pause the playing of a track, you can press the close/eject button once. To recommence the playing of the track, press the skip button once. 4. To eject the CD, press the close/eject button twice. 4.4. Changing C D Playback Volume and Quality 1. Whilst a CD is playing you can alter the music volume in several ways: A. If using headphones, adjust the volume wheel to the right of the headphone jack socket. B. If listening to speakers, either use the volume knob on the speakers; or C. If the speakers do not have a volume knob or the volume knob does not increase the volume sufficiently, you may be able to increase the playback volume in a more permanent way via the Windows Volume Control. You can go straight to this from within the menus of some music playing programs, or through the System Tray or by navigating to it via: C:\Program Files\Accessories\Multimedia\Volume control in Windows 95, or C:\Program Files\Accessories\Entertainment\Volume Control in Windows 98. (See Section 6 below to discover how to use the Volume Control). 2. You can also make adjustments in volume and quality of music output from the Multimedia section of the Control Panel. Do this by: A. Press Windows Logo key followed by S (for Settings) and then C (for control Panel). B. Then press M several times until Multimedia is selected, then press ENTER to open it. C. You will fall on the "Audio" property sheet. TAB down this and make your desired changes to the "playback volume" and Recording Volume" with the ARROW up and down and PAGE up and down keys. D. Then TAB to "Preferred Quality" and ARROW through the choices. You should set this to CD quality for best quality playback results. E. Press ENTER on "Apply" and then press CONTROL TAB to look at the other three property sheets in this multi-sheet dialogue box. They include "Video", "MIDI", "CD Music" and "Advanced". Make any changes you think would suit your particular needs and set-up. For instance, if you can make use of large scale pictures/print on a monitor, you might wish to ARROW to the "Double Original Size" option in the "Video" sheet and therefore select this. In the "Advanced" sheet you have a tree of multimedia audio, video, mixer devices, etc, which you can change, select, view the properties of or remove, as you like, but you are likely to have to go into navigation or mouse mode to be able to use your right mouse key to open and thus view or change any of a particular device driver's properties. F. You should ensure that, in the "CD Music" sheet, "Headphones" is set to 100 per cent by pressing PAGE down to achieve this. G. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. ******** >SECTION 5 SOUND CARDS AND WINDOWS VOLUME CONTROL 5.1. Types of Sound Cards For best results, you will need a good quality sound card. The more up-to-date Creative Labs Sound Blaster cards should meet this requirement, such as the Sound Blaster 128 or 1024 Live (preferably the latter as it is multi-channel whereas the former is not). Another range of good multi-channel sound cards is made by Roland and there is also the Turtle Beach Montigo card. You can listen to music and voice recordings with more basic 16- bit sound cards but the quality may be substandard. You can also make music and voice recordings with basic 16-bit sound cards but, again, the quality of the recording may be affected, for instance, you may get more background hiss and you may find that the volume of the recording, even with the Volume Control levels on full, is well below that obtained with a better quality card. Using the option to increase the volume of a recording after it has been made, which some recording programs provide, may succeed in bringing the volume of a recording up but you may also experience a proportionate increase in background noise, crackle and hiss. This type of substandard audio input recording result is often found with the on-the-motherboard varieties of 16-bit sound cards, so you may have to upgrade these to Sound Blaster Live or equivalent standards. Just because your software synthesiser works well and is plenty loud enough through a basic sound card does not mean that music or voice recordings will be as loud or clear. Note: Some sound cards may not allow a software synthesiser and music or speech from such as an MP3 file to work together. This may be because your sound card is single-channel, not the recommended multi-channel type. In this case, you would have to unload your screenreader before the music or other sound file can play, e.g. with HAL do this with CONTROL SPACEBAR, then ALT SPACEBAR followed by Q and then ENTER; with JAWS use INSERT F4 and then press ENTER; and with Window-Eyes use CONTROL \, then ALT F4 and ENTER; after first placing focus on the link you wish to play, then press ENTER to hear the audio content. Alternatively, if your screenreader has a "sleep" mode, you may find that using this has the desired result (see "Putting your Screenreader to Sleep" in Section 6 below). 5.2. Putting Your Screenreader to Sleep You may wish to silence your screenreader by permanently putting it to "sleep" whenever a particular program is launched rather than unloading it if it prevents you from getting the required sound card throughput or if the screenreader speech chatters at the same time as you are trying to listen to other audio output. This may especially be annoying if you are trying to record speech onto disk via your microphone in programs such as Windows Sound Recorder and Sound Forge. You should consult your screenreader manual to find out how to do this. However, I have provided below an example of how this is done with the JFW screenreader: 1. Launch your audio program, e.g. RealPlayer, and then press INSERT F2 to load the JAWS Manager. 2. From the list provided, press ENTER on "Configuration Manager", which will open the RealPlayer configuration file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options" and ARROW up to "Advanced Options" and press ENTER. 4. In the Advanced Options dialogue you will immediately be on "Sleep Mode Enable". You should press the SPACEBAR to enable this and therefore reduce the chance of JFW speaking and interrupting the flow of streaming audio. 5. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER twice, followed by CONTROL S to save the change and then ALT F4 to leave the manager. You will have to unload and then reload JFW to have the changes recognised. 6. If you wish to return to how things were before, you should, without Realplayer running, open and edit the realplay.jcf file in a plain text editor such as Notepad (not in a word-processor unless you then know how to save the result as a text file) and change the line which reads "sleepmode=1" to "sleepmode=0", save the file and then unload and reload JFW. The realplay.jcf file is found in the folder: c:\jaws37\settings\enu\realplay.jcf Note: Putting JAWS into sleep mode will, of course, drastically reduce the amount of screenreader feedback which you get whilst using such programs and you will have to be able to remember the keystrokes to make things work, so some users may not be happy with this and may rather leave their screenreader as it is and just unload it at times when it conflicts with other sound files. Warning: Do not mess with these settings if you are likely to be unable to reverse the above procedure or if you are not comfortable with reinstalling your screenreader should you get into trouble. 5.3. Enabling a Multi-Channel Sound Card Somewhat in contrast to what we have just done above, but just as essential for general PC use, a multi-channel sound card may need to be enabled before it will work properly. With JFW, to ensure that a multi-channel sound card works properly, allowing your synthesiser and other sounds to be heard simultaneously when this is desirable, rather than operating as a single-channel card: 1. With no program running, press INSERT F2 again and hit ENTER on "Configuration Manager". 2. Press CONTROL SHIFT D to open the "default.jcf" file. 3. Press ALT S (for Set Options) and then S (for Synthesiser Options). 4. TAB to "Allow Wave Files with Software Synthesisers" and if it is not already selected, press SPACEBAR to check it on. 5. Tab to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. To save this change and leave the manager, Press CONTROL s, then ENTER followed by ALT F4. Now unload and then reload JFW to have the saved changes recognised. Note: Obviously, this type of enabling will not be necessary if your sound card already works satisfactorily with both your synthesiser and other sound files. 5.4. The Windows Volume Control You can enter the Volume Control by going to the Windows System Tray (if your screenreader is able to take you there, e.g. INSERT F11 with JAWS, INSERT S with WE or SHIFT Numpad SLASH with HAL 5) or by: pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files, A (for Accessories), M (for Multimedia) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 95; or Pressing Windows Logo key, P (for Program Files), A (for Accessories), E (for Entertainment) and then V (for Volume Control) in Windows 98 and ME. When in the Volume Control you can change the various levels of volume, the balance between left and right channels and mute a particular type of sound if you do not want it coming through. You can do this for various types of input and output media, such as the volume of sound out of your speakers, the volume of ringing tone you hear when your MODEM dials, the volume of your line in and microphone sockets at the back of your computer where the sound card interfaces with the outside world, etc. When you first enter the Volume Control, you can TAB through several balance and volume adjusters. The most important for output and input of audio data are "CD Audio Volume" which, depending on the quality of your sound card, you may need on between 70 and 100 per cent. The "Volume" option may also need adjusting, depending on your sound card and how loud you want output volume as against input volume, e.g. if you are using a headset with its own microphone, you may wish to have the "Playback" setting lower for your ears and the "Microphone" setting louder for any voice recording you are doing. 5.5. Example of Changing a Sound Property--The Microphone settings To change the microphone settings you would: 1. Launch the Volume Control as above. 2. Press the ALT key to open the "Options" menu. Then ARROW down to "Properties" and press ENTER. 3. You will land on the line which tells you the type of sound card which is in your PC. 4. Press TAB once to "Adjust Volume For" and the first option will be "Playback". ARROW down once to "Recording" and then TAB once to a list of recording options. 5. ARROW down this list to "Microphone", ensure that it is checked (pressing SPACEBAR will do this if it is not already checked) and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. You will now have entered the Microphone adjustment controls where you can make alterations to the input volume for your microphone input to the jack on the sound card at the back of the computer. TAB forward to "Microphone Volume" and view its volume level, increasing or decreasing this as suits your PC set-up and sound card sensitivity. Use the PAGE up or down and ARROW up or down keys to increase or decrease this. 7. Then TAB to the "Select" button and press the SPACEBAR to turn it on if it is not already selected. 8. Sometimes you can just TAB again at this stage to the "Advanced" button and press ENTER; otherwise, see how to get into advance settings in 9 below. In here you can make a few further fine advanced adjustments, such as checking on the "Mik Boost (20 Db)" box for further volume increases if these are required. Then TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. 9. If you did not find the "Advanced" button as described above in 8, you can now press ALT O (for Options) again and press ENTER on "Advanced" to enable the advanced features, which may vary depending on the type of sound card you have. If you do not enter the advanced features box when you do this, it is because the advanced features are already enabled. 10. Lastly, press ALT O and ARROW to "Exit" and press ENTER to finish. Note 1: Some of the features in the Volume Control can vary, depending on the type of sound card your PC is fitted with, so some may have, for instance, more "Advanced" features and some may have none. The above example was done with a Sound Blaster Live 1024 card fitted. Note 2: You will normally use the microphone jack plug on your sound card and the microphone settings in the Volume Control for your mic and the line in jack plug and line in setting in the Volume Control for inputting sound data such as from a tape recorder, record deck, mini Cd player, etc, if you have a good sound card. The mic input is usually much more sensitive than the line in socket. However, if you have a poorer sound card, such as an on-the-motherboard type, you may find the line in socket not sensitive enough and so wish to use the mic jack socket for both mic and tape recorder input. You will have to experiment with sockets and various volume levels until you find out what is best for your requirements and sound card. ******** >SECTION 6 NERO INCD COMPACT DISK FORMATTER VERSION 3.31 6.1. What Does INCD Do? The Nero INCD utility is a separate program from the main Nero Burning-ROM software. Its purpose is to permit you to format a re-writable compact disk in a similar way as you would format a floppy disk, in order to be able to use it like a formatted floppy disk. Thereafter, you can then copy onto the formatted CD with any Windows program that can write to a drive letter. You can make folders/directories on the CD and you can delete files and folders from Windows or virtual DOS as you would normally do on a floppy disk or on your hard disk. The difference with a formatted CD from a floppy is that you get almost 400 times more space on a 74 minute CD than you would on a 1.44 Mb floppy disk, although you do not get the full 650 Mb of space which you would have on a 74 minute disk if you simply burnt to it with Nero Burning-ROM. This is because the formatting itself takes up some of the room on the CD. You should find that you have around 534 Mb of usable disk space. 6.2. Installing INCD INCD has to be installed separately from the main Nero Burning- ROM program. It is found on the Nero installation disk in the path: d:\incd\setup.exe so just use the Windows Run facility to install it by: 1. With the installation CD in the CD drawer, press Windows Logo key and R. 2. Type into the editfield: d:\incd\setup and press ENTER, assuming, of course, that your CD-ROM is on the D: drive. 3. The Welcome screen loads in and you are on a "Continue" button, so press ENTER. 4. TAB to "Install INCD" and press ENTER. 5. The license agreement appears and you have to check "I Accept" on with the SPACEBAR 2 then be able to TAB to "Next" and press ENTER to proceed. You are likely to have to go into mouse mode to check this "I Agree" button on and may have to do some mouse routing to achieve this. 6. Complete the personal details of name, company name (type "None" if necessary) and TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 7. After a few seconds you will be on a "Reboot" button, so press ENTER to finish. 6.3. System Requirements For INCD to work you will need: 1. A Pentium 90 or higher--probably a Pentium 120 or better if using a screenreader. 2. 32 Mb of RAM. 3. 5 Mb of spare hard disk space. 4. Windows 98 or Windows 95 OSR2 or later. Version 3.3X also works with Windows XP. 5. A supported CD-RW drive. 6.4. Launching INCD INCD resides in your System Tray and automatically launches every time you boot your PC and runs in the background. Therefore, as soon as you insert a re-writable CD into the CD-RW drive, it will detect this and bring up the INCD Wizard. This takes you through the steps to use INCD, as outlined below in sub-section 6.7. The INCD program installs itself at: c:\Program Files\Ahead\INCD\INCD.exe and it automatically launches itself and places an icon in your System Tray every time you boot your computer. Consequently, as you cannot access all of the features of INCD other than by the System Tray, your screenreader will have to be able to allow you to go to and use the System Tray, e.g. with JFW press INSERT F11 or with Window-Eyes press INSERT TAB to be taken into the System Tray. Unfortunately, with versions of HAL up to 4.5 the System Tray is not accessible but if you have Version 5 you can use SHIFT Numpad SLASH. When you have entered the System Tray and either pressed ENTER on or right clicked on "INCD", you get three or four possible options to press ENTER on to activate them. These are: 1. Version Information. 2. Properties. 3. Eject (sometimes does not appear). 4. Format. Note: In most of the below descriptions of dialogue boxes and property sheets, you can TAB through several information and selection controls but you are likely to discover more details if you go into navigation or mouse mode to have a look around-- you may also have to do some cursor routing to be able to move in mouse mode. 6.5. Version Information By pressing ENTER on this option and then again on "About", you are told the version of INCD you are running and several other details pertinent to the software. 6.6. INCD Property Sheets When you activate the "Properties" option, you open two property sheets. You will land on the "INCD Information" sheet and are told what type of CD you have inserted in your CD-RW drive. Go into mouse mode to view such other facts as type of CD in the drive, how much space used up and still free on the CD, the total capacity of the disk, etc. You can now press CONTROL TAB to move to the second property sheet, called "INCD Page Settings". TABBING through this informs you of the read and write speeds of your CD-RW drive and you can check on or off (by pressing the SPACEBAR) a couple of options, e.g. to verify or not verify the integrity of data after writing withe the "Safe Mode (Compare After Writing Onto RW Disk)" option. 6.7. CD Formatting with INCD To format a re-writable CD: 1. Place your re-writable CD in the disk bay and shut it. Then: A. INCD should automatically detect the presence of a re-writable CD and launch the INCD Wizard for you. You now press ENTER on the "Next" button. B. If the CD is not automatically detected, go to your System Tray and press ENTER on or right click on "INCD" and then on "format". Now press ENTER on "Next". 2. You now fall on the "Select Drive" listbox and your CD-RW drive will be displayed there. If you have more than one CD-RW drive, each will be displayed if you ARROW up and down here. Leave focus on the CD-RW drive you wish to use, if you have more than one. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. The next screen advises you of the type of disk you have in the drive (it should be a re-writable one) and if it is blank or not. If you TAB to "Disk Information Properties", the two above- mentioned property sheets open up for you to view more details about the inserted CD. TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. Now you enter the final stage where you have to choose the type of format: A. You land on an editfield where you can type a volume label (a name for the inserted re-writable disk), which should not exceed 11 characters. It's the same type of thing as with labelling a floppy disk. You can leave it blank if you like. B. Press TAB once to "Format Method", when you can ARROW up and down two options. The first is "Format", which is a full, in- depth format for previously unformatted CDs and may take between 10 and 30 minutes, depending on the version of INCD you are using and your CD-RW drive. With the "format" option the program will go through the formatting process twice. The second is called "Quick Format", which is normally good enough for reformatting already formatted CDs to erase all of the current data on them and should be completed more quickly. If you choose the latter of these formatting methods, you can then TAB again to another control which opens up allowing you to press the SPACEBAR to turn on sector search skipping to speed things up even more. Remember, though, the faster you format and the less checking the program does, the more likely it is that the formatting may not be 100 per cent perfect. 5. Lastly, TAB to "Finish" and press ENTER to start the formatting procedure. The bottom line of the screen keeps a clock running telling you how long the format has been under way for. 6. When the formatting has finished, you will be told that the CD has been formatted to UDF format and can now be used like a floppy disk, and you will have to press ENTER on an "OK" button to close INCD. Unlike with other types of Nero burns, the CD drawer does not automatically open after the format has finished, so check the position in mouse mode from time to time or set your screenreader to echo all text changes on the screen as they occur, e.g. INSERT S with JFW. Note: Once a CD has been formatted with INCD, if you inserted into the CD drawer, INCD will automatically detect it and bring up a screen advising you that the CD you just inserted is an INCD disk, together with some details about it. You just press ENTER on the "ok" button to close this message box. 6.8. Uses for INCD Formatted Disks Large capacity formatted CDs can be used for: * Archiving large numbers of data files in many directories/folders, thus removing the need for hundreds of floppy disks. * Acting as a place to back-up parts of your computer's hard disk. * Circulating large files around friends or work colleagues which would not fit on floppy disks. 6.9. How to Copy Data to a Formatted Compact Disk You can read and write files directly to a formatted re-writable CD with any Windows software which can read and write to a drive letter, e.g. from Word, WordPerfect, Windows Explorer, from virtual DOS via a window with the copy command, with any Windows 95/98/ME program which as a "Send To" command on its File Menu, etc. The data CD will be usable in all CD-RW drives and in any multi- read CD-ROM drive that has the Nero INCD software on that computer. However, it will not be accessible from pure DOS without Windows running, only from DOS through a Windows window. 6.10. How to Erase Data on a Formatted CD You can use the Nero "Quick Format" facility to completely delete the folders and files on a CD (see 4 B above). Alternatively, you can erase files and folders on a formatted CD in the same way as you would do this on a floppy disk or hard disk, e.g with Windows Explorer, with a delete file option on a context menu, from Windows DOS with the DEL command, etc. 6.11. How to erase both data and formatting on a CD You can delete both data and formatting from a Cd with the main Nero Burning-ROM software via the "CD-Recorder" menu: 1. Launch Nero Burning-ROM and press ESCAPE. 2. Press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then ARROW down to "Erase CD Rewritable" and press ENTER. 3. TAB forward twice to a two choice listbox. You will be on "Erase Entire CD". If you choose this you will get an in-depth erasure of the whole CD which will take quite some time. If you ARROW down to "Quickly Erase Entire CD", the job will be done much quicker, although there is not a complete deleting, rather files are renamed for over-writing. 4. TAB to "Erase" and press ENTER to commence. 5. After the erasure you will no longer be able to write to the CD as if it was a floppy disk but you can now use it in the same way as any other write-only CD again--something you would not have been able to do whilst it was formatted. 6.12. INCD Updates and Supported CD-RW Drives For information on which CD-RW drives INCD supports, go to: www.nero.com or www.ahead.de You can also download the latest version of INCD from here, which might support your CD-RW drive, if your current version does not. Note: Since I first wrote this section on INCD for Version 1.7 there has been little change in INCD between that version and this (Version 3.31) and no change in how it works. A few of the labels have changed their names only. What tends to happen with new versions is that they come with more and more support for previously unsupported CD-RW drives. ******** >SECTION 7 NERO BURNING-ROM VERSIONS 4, 5 AND 5.5 7.1. Installing Nero and System Requirements 7.1.1. System Requirements For Nero to function you will need: 1. a Pentium 100 or better--probably a Pentium 133 or better if using a screenreader. 2. 32 Mb of RAM. 3. 10 Mb of spare hard disk space. 4. Windows 98 or Windows 95 OSR2 or later. 5. A supported CD-RW drive. 7.1.2. Installing Nero Installation may vary slightly, depending on which version you have, but it should go something like this: 1. Insert the program CD disk into your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive, when it should autorun. If it does not, use Windows Explorer or the Run feature on the Start Menu to locate the setup.exe file on the CD and press ENTER on it. It is at: d:\nero\setup.exe 2. The install shield wizard will start the installation and you just press ENTER on the "Next" button. 3. Complete the name editfield if your name is not automatically placed there already and then TAB to "Company" and type this in or just enter "None". Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. You will be told that nero will install into the destination directory of c:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero and you will be on the "Typical Installation" option, so just TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. The other options here are "Compact" and Custom". 5. The next step should show your CD-ROM and CD-RW as having been detected, so TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 6. Press ENTER on "Next" again to commence the copying, which may take a minute or two. When you get the set-up is complete message, just press ENTER to activate the "Yes" button to reboot your PC and remove the installation CD. 7. When you first run Nero, you will get a dialogue box requiring you to type your Nero registration number into it. The number should be on the stickers which came with the installation disk. So TAB to the "Serial Number" editfield and type the full number in with the dashes. Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 7.2. Launching Nero To run Nero you may wish to place a shortcut on your Start Menu or Desktop. Otherwise, launch it by pressing: Windows Logo key, then P (for Program Files) and lastly N (for Nero) until you reach it and then press ENTER. 7.3. The Nero Browser and Compilation Window and Customisation 7.3.1. The Default Look of Nero The browser and compilation windows are where you make your selections for which tracks or files you wish to burn (copy) to your hard disk or directly to your CD-RW drive. The intended method of selecting files in the Browser Window and then dragging and dropping them in the Compilation Window has to be replaced, from a screenreader and keyboard point of view, by a more circuitous operation but it is still possible and has got easier with each upgrade of Nero. You can do it with the Nero Wizard or in standard or manual mode. What you do is outlined below. Essentially, the browser has a Windows Explorer-type appearance and functionality, with a left pane showing the main folder structure of your PC and the right pane displaying the corresponding sub-folders and files. 7.3.2. Customising Nero for Visually Impaired Users 1. If you wish to reduce the clutter on screen and no one uses mouse methods of achieving things, press ALT V (for View) and then press SPACEBAR on "Toolbar" to uncheck this. 2. There are now a range of things you can do to make the screen less cluttered and to make your copying steps easier or obtain clearer confirmation of success from a screenreader point of view. However, as these are not essential to burn with Nero, you can get started without changing things and then try some of the configuration suggestions later by applying some or all of the changes in "Nero Preferences" in a later section. 7.4. Two Methods of Creating a Data CD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with the Nero Wizard You can create data CDs in a variety of ways, two of which are outlined in this section and another of which is described near the end of Section 7 (the Windows Explorer method). 7.4.1. Burning Data Files via the Context Menu This Context Menu method may be preferable to some users/screenreaders but, since you cannot use this procedure to create audio CDs, you may prefer to use the second method of highlighting files and tracks outlined below in "Creating an Audio Music CD or DVD from Your CD-ROM Drive with the Nero Wizard". To use the Context Menu approach: 1. Place a blank CD into the CD-RW drawer and shut it. Now press ESCAPE to be able to access the main menu bar and then ensure that the CD Wizard is checked on in the Help Menu (ALT H and press ENTER). Note: From Nero 5.5 onwards, the "New Compilation" dialogue box holds either a "Wizard" or "Close Wizard" button to quickly move from manual to Wizard mode or vice versa. 2.A. With versions of Nero later than 5.57X, you encounter a selection step which does not exist in earlier versions, in which you have to select what type of burning drive you wish to burn to, i.e. a CD drive, a DD CD drive or a DVD drive. You can ARROW to your choice if you have all or more than one type of burner installed in your PC; otherwise, if you only have a CD-RW, this is all which will be shown and you can just press ENTER to move to the next stage, as in 2.B. below. Note that the steps for burning a DVD are the same as for burning a CD but the references to CD in the options and selections change to references to DVD or DD CD. 2.B. With versions of Nero before Version 5.57X, you will land on a two choice list where you can either opt to "Compile a New CD" or ARROW down to "Copy a CD. Leave it on the former if you wish to create your own unique new CD from scratch or ARROW to the latter if you would like to simply clone (duplicate) an existing CD in your CD-ROM drive to a blank CD in your CD-RW drive. Then TAB on to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. You now have to choose the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING up or down the three options, i.e. a "Data" CD (containing files, programs, MP3 tracks, etc, but not uncompressed music or video), but the "Audio" and "Mixed Mode" are not workable with this particular procedure. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. With a data CD, you will have to choose between "Compile a New Data CD" (for copying to a new, blank compact disk; or "Continue an Existing Data CD" (for adding more files to an already partly filled CD--known as a multi-session CD). You then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. You then press ENTER on "Finish" to complete this stage of things. 5. Now you are at the compilation stage, in a blank compilation window, and you must select tracks or files for burning directly to CD, as follows. 6. With data copying (you cannot do this with audio tracks copying), you will land on a "New" button and have to press TAB once to an unlabelled button which may not be spoken at all or may be described simply as a backslash, graphic or custom control. When on this you have to open a context menu by pressing SHIFT F10. You then ARROW up to "Add File" and press ENTER. You come into a standard Windows-type open dialogue box in which you should SHIFT TAB back twice to the place to select the drive which the files you wish to copy are on, e.g. from your C drive, from another CD in your CD-ROM D or E drive, etc, and press ENTER. You can then TAB forward once and ARROW to the folder the files are in and press ENTER. It is not always easy to highlight non-consecutive files in the usual Windows way (although CONTROL SPACEBAR does sometimes work) but you can highlight/select all of the files in a particular folder by pressing CONTROL A. If focus is left on one file only, that file will be highlighted or if you want, say, the last five files in a folder highlighting you can place focus on the first of these and press CONTROL SHIFT END to select them all. If you want several, non-consecutive files highlighting, you must TAB to the "Filename" editfield and type in the filenames enclosed in double quotes and with a space between each, e.g. "sales.doc" "winamp.exe". With all files highlighted, you press shift f10 again and you will fall on a "Select" button and you just press ENTER to have the file(s) selected and placed in your compilation list for burning to CD. You can, in navigation or mouse mode, view these files if you wish but their filenames are usually truncated and mixed with other drive and desktop information. Note: if, when you come to find your files to burn, you cannot "see" them, try TABBING on to "Files of Type" and ARROWING to "All Files (*.*)" and then go back again to find the files. 7. You now TAB on to an "Open" button and press ENTER. 8. With all files now selected and the compilation opened, you press ALT F (for File) followed by W (for Write CD) and the Nero Wizard will again load in for you to finish the process off. Note: Unfortunately, with Nero, you cannot determine the order in which data (including MP3) files will copy to CD in by use of the keyboard. This can only be done with the sighted drag-and- drop procedure. The files will copy in alphabetical or numeric order. Happily, however, you can move audio tracks around into your preferred order, which will be demonstrated later. 9. You will be on a "Test and Burn" button but you can ARROW down to "Burn" if you wish. The first option will test your CD and do a dummy run before then actually burning the files to CD to ensure that the copying will be successful and warn you if there are likely to be any problems, so that you can abort the burning if you wish; the "Burn" option will just go ahead and do the copying without testing. The latter is quicker and fine if you know that your set-up works OK and the CD disks you are using are of good enough quality for the type and speed of copying you are trying to do. 10. TAB once to "Write Speed" and ARROW up and down to the speed you would like to write at, e.g. 12X if your CD-RW can work at this speed, but remember that cheaper quality disks may require a slower writing speed to be successful, such as 1X or 2X speed. Similarly, some CD-ROMs cannot extract at more than 1X or 2X speed, particularly with audio tracks, despite what their data reading speed may be said to be. The slower the writing speed, the more likely you are to obtain an unblemished copy. you'll just have to experiment with different qualities of compact disks and different speeds to familiarise yourself with your CD-ROMs, CPUs and different blank disk capabilities. 11. Lastly, press TAB to the"Burn" button and press ENTER to start the copying process.The program may say that it is waiting for a CD but just ignore this if you have already inserted a CD into the CD-RW drive. 12. When the copying/burning to CD has finished, Nero will automatically eject the CD and tell you that the burning process was successful--hopefully! Note 1: If, in 6 above, you find it difficult to highlight non- consecutive files, you could always copy the files you want to an empty folder first and then copy them from there to a CD after pressing CONTROL A to highlight them all. note 2: The above CD Wizard method of creating data files for burning is fine for most situations but, remember, the manual way to do this (illustrated in a later section) gives many more choices for types of files to burn and parameters to select before the write process is started. Note 3: Unfortunately, you cannot burn whole directories/folders and their sub-folders and files in the above way without using drag-and-drop procedures. However, their are two alternative methods of selecting files which do permit you to burn whole folders and their contents (see the next sub-section). Additionally, you can also find yet another procedure to achieve this much later in this section under the heading "An Alternative Method of Selecting Files or Whole Folders for Burning with Windows Explorer". 7.4.2. Burning Data Files via the File Browser As an alternative to the above procedure, which again only works with data and not audio files, try the following approach: 1. Place a blank CD into the CD-RW drawer and shut it. Now press ESCAPE to be able to access the main menu bar and then ensure that the CD Wizard is checked on in the Help Menu (ALT H and press ENTER). Note: From Nero 5.5 onwards, the "New Compilation" dialogue box holds either a "Wizard" or "Close Wizard" button to quickly move from manual to Wizard mode or vice versa. 2.A. With versions of Nero later than 5.57X, you encounter a selection step which does not exist in earlier versions, in which you have to select what type of burning drive you wish to burn to, i.e. a CD drive, a DD CD drive or a DVD drive. You can ARROW to your choice if you have all or more than one type of burner installed in your PC; otherwise, if you only have a CD-RW, this is all which will be shown and you can just press ENTER to move to the next stage, as in 2.B. below. Note that the steps for burning a DVD are the same as for burning a CD but the references to CD in the options and selections change to references to DVD or DD CD. 2.B. With versions of Nero before Version 5.57X, you will land on a two choice list where you can either opt to "Compile a New CD" or ARROW down to "Copy a CD. Leave it on the former if you wish to create your own unique new CD from scratch or ARROW to the latter if you would like to simply clone (duplicate) an existing CD in your CD-ROM drive to a blank CD in your CD-RW drive. Then TAB on to "Next" and press ENTER. 3. You now have to choose the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING up or down the three options, i.e. a "Data" CD (containing files, programs, MP3 tracks, etc, but not uncompressed music or video), but the "Audio" and "Mixed Mode" are not workable with this particular procedure. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. With a data CD, you will have to choose between "Compile a New Data CD" (for copying to a new, blank compact disk; or "Continue an Existing Data CD" (for adding more files to an already partly filled CD--known as a multi-session CD). You then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. You then press ENTER on "Finish" to complete this stage of things. 5. Now you are at the compilation stage, in a blank compilation window, and you must select tracks or files for burning directly to CD, as described below. However, firstly note that you will be on the title (also known as the volume label) of your about to be created CD. the default title is "New" but you are not likely to want to call all of your CDs "New", so to change this to a label of your own preference, just press the F2 key to open up an editfield and in here type the label name you would like to give to and have burned to this CD, e.g. type in something like "Audio Sounds 2", "myfiles 3", etc, and press ENTEr. You will now observe that "New" has changed to your own label title. 6. Now, to add your complete folders of files or to select individual files for burning, press CONTROL F6 to move from the Compilation window to the File Browser window and you will now be in a standard Windows browsing tree (similar to being in Windows Explorer) to be able to ARROW down and open disk drives or folders in by pressing ENTER on them or right ARROWING on them. This is the normal tree structure with your drives and folders on the left and the individual files within each folder on the right, which you may have to press the TAB key to move to. You can now leave focus on a whole folder of data files or open that folder and individually highlight files for burning as outlined in the last sub-section. With your folder or files highlighted, just press CONTROL C to copy them to the Clipboard. 7. After selecting files and copying them to the Clipboard, you press CONTROL F6 again to return to the Compilation window. In here you now simply press CONTROL V to copy the folders or files into the compilation. The structure of the Compilation window is similar to that of the File Browser window, i.e. folders and sub- folders on the left and individual files displayed on the right. So, if you have selected a whole folder of files to burn, the name of this folder will appear just under the volume label and you can ARROW up and down to hear the label and folder spoken. On the other hand, if you have selected individual files, these files will be inserted into the compilation and therefore burned onto the root of the CD with their original filenames, i.e. without being placed within a folder on the CD. 8. The last stage is to burn your selected compiled tracks by pressing ALT F, then W and following the steps outlined from step 8 in the last sub-section. Note 1: At step 7 above, if you had of wanted to place individual tracks within a folder on the CD which you wish to create at this stage yourself, before pressing CONTROL V to paste the files into the compilation, you could have created this folder at this stage by pressing ALT E (for Edit) and then R (for Create Folder). The default folder name will be "New", so type over this with a folder name of your own liking, e.g. "workfiles", "memos", etc, and press ENTRE to create the folder on the CD. If this empty folder now has focus when you copy other sub-folders or files into the Compilation window, then the sub-folder or files will be copied inside this main folder which you have created. If you want to create a second main folder on the CD (not a sub-folder), just ARROW up to your volume label first and then create your second main level folder in the same way as you created the first main level folder with ALT E and then R. If you want to create a sub-folder running from any of your main folders, put focus on that main folder and go through the process again with ALT E and then R. Note 2: You can use this same File Browser method of selecting and adding folders and files to the Compilation window via the standard Nero interface as well, not only whilst using the Nero wizard (this will become clearer after you have read and practised a few more sections). 7.5. Saving a Compilation If you would like to save the above compilation for possible future identical CD burning, with the same tracks/files, same number of copies produced, etc, you would: 1. After finishing burning your first copy at stage 11 above, you would press CONTROL S and type a filename into the editfield which opens up (no extension). 2. TAB forward to "Save as Type" and accept the default of ".NRI" as the standard Nero file extension for data copying compilations. 3. TAB to "Save" and press ENTER. The compilation template may be saved to either the same folder that your original files were copied from or to My Documents but you can change this to a folder where only your saved .NRI files are kept if you wish. So, if you called this compilation template "tutorials", its full filename would now be "tutorials.nri". 7.6. Opening a Saved Compilation Template To open one of the above saved compilations for further CD burning: 1. Press CONTROL O and then either: A. In the filename textbox you land in, type the full path and filename to the compilation template, e.g. C:\my documents\jazz.nri, and press ENTER. Or B. TAB once to "Files of Type" and ARROW to the type of file you are looking for, e.g. CD-ROM (ISO)" (data files), "Audio CD compilation", etc. If you wish to be able to view all Nero's file extension types, ARROW right down to "All Files (*.*)" or "All Nero Compilations and Images", depending on the version of Nero you are running. C. SHIFT TAB back five times to the list of drives/folders. ARROW up or down until you reach the drive, such as C:, where your compilation templates are saved to. Then TAB to the list of folders and press ENTER to open up the compilation ".nri" or other file type files. Place focus on the one you want, TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 2. The compilation will load in and you press ENTER on an OK button if it appears. 3. If you would like to burn another CD exactly the same as the first one burnt with this compilation, you now just press ALT F (for File) and W (for Write) and the Nero Wizard will run and take you through the last two or three steps of burning (as in steps 6 to 10 above) or you make your choices manually if you are not using the Nero Wizard. Note: The word "ISO" is both an acronym for International Standards Organisation and it is the Greek word for equal to or the same as. 7.7. Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD It is important with Nero to ensure that the format of audio tracks is correct before creating an audio CD. They must be wave files in the .WAV format, in 44.1 KHz and 16-bit stereo. This is, of course, only necessary if you are burning uncompressed tracks via the hard disk, not for on the fly direct CD-ROM to CD-RW burning or for extracting and burning MP3 files. You can achieve this as follows. 7.7.1. Extracting with Nero 4X and 5.0 1. If you have either the Nero Wizard or the manual compilation dialogue open, close it by pressing ESCAPE. 2. Insert your music CD into the CDRW (not the CD-ROM) drawer and close it. 3. Press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then S (for Save Tracks). 4. Depending on your screenreader, you are likely to have to go into navigation or mouse mode and then, from the top, cursor down to the track number which you wish to have resaved for burning. The tracks are displayed underneath one another with the number in the left column being the track number, the next column showing the track starting point, the next showing the track's length and lastly the type of track is given, e.g. audio. 5. Place the cursor on the line containing the track you wish to convert to a .WAV file and press your left mouse simulation button once to select it. Do this for each track you wish to record and then return to standard reading mode. Navigation is easier with Nero 5.5 than earlier versions and there is also a "Select All" button you can press ENTER on if you want all tracks to be converted. 6. You can now either: A. Press TAB to an "Audio Controls" button and press ENTER, when the tracks will be saved to your Windows temp directory in: c:\windows\temp\ (track name) and be given the default names of "Track01.wav", "Track02.wav", etc; Note: With Nero 5.5 the saving folder is c:\Program Files\Ahead\My Music. or you can B. In mouse mode, ARROW down to the penultimate line where "Filename" appears, then move right to the default filename, e.g. "Track01.cda" and open an editfield by pressing the left mouse button once. Now type the track name you would like in here. You may, though, find that Windows curtails the filename to the DOS limitations of eight letters before the .WAV extension. You lastly TAB or move with your cursor keys to a "Save" or a "Go" button and press ENTER. 7. You will be told that the tracks are being saved and then when the process is completed. Press ENTER on the "OK" button to finish. The converting and saving to your temp or other folder should only take a few seconds. 8. When at the bottom of the "Save Tracks" window you have several buttons which you should be able to TAB through or get onto in navigation mode. In addition to "Save" the "Options" button is of interest. This lets you alter the speed that the original tracks will be read at, it lets you check on or off a "Jitter Correction" control which may help to remove clicks in an audio recording and there is a "Remove Silence at the End of the Audio Track" control for if you would like the recording to cut off as soon as the track finishes so that there are no gaps between tracks. 9. You are now ready to select these tracks and place them into a compilation as outlined above and below, obviously by navigating to the C:\Windows\temp\ folder with the browser to highlight them for placing into the compilation template. Note 1: With Nero 5.0 it would be as well if you emptied your C:\Windows\Temp folder completely before saving tracks to wave files, to avoid having to find these tracks amongst other data and so that you can use CONTROL A to select everything you want and nothing you don't want. Clearing unneeded data from the \temp directory regularly is a good thing in itself as well to free up disk space. Note 2: You can use this "Save Tracks" feature for data tracks as well as for audio conversion, e.g. for if you wish to convert different file standards to image files which could then be burnt to a CD in such as Apple Mac and HFS and other none standard formats. However, these are much less frequent formats and there are restrictions in what you can do in practice. They will not be described here as this tutorial is about data and audio burning with IBM-compatible PCs, not for non-IBM compatible computer formats. Note 3: If you elect to save the easy way by choosing 5.A. above, you can always use your Windows or DOS system to rename the "Track01.wav" files to what you like but ensure that you always keep the .WAV extension. 7.7.2. Extracting with Nero 5.50 and later versions With Nero 5.5, what happens is different from what is described in the above sub-section. Basically, the position is much clearer, as you are taken through two or three dialogue boxes so that you do not have to use navigation or mouse mode. The essential steps are: 1. If you have either the Nero Wizard or the manual compilation dialogue open, close it by pressing ESCAPE. 2. Insert your music CD into the CDRW (not the CD-ROM) drawer and close it. 3. Press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then S (for Save Tracks). 4. Depending on your version of Nero, you now come into the first of either two or three dialogue boxes, where you just ARROW up or down to choose the CD drive you wish to extract your tracks from and then press ENTER on "OK". 5. Again, depending on your version of Nero, you may or may not now come into a tracks naming dialogue. You can TAB through and name CDs, tracks, etc, in here before moving on or just TAB to "Cancel" to ignore this and move to the next stage. The tracks may already be named for you if the Nero CDDB database already knows about the disk you have decided to extract tracks from; otherwise the CD title, tracks names, etc, will be blank for you to complete if you wish, after pressing ENTER on the "Create a New CD Entry" button. Note 1: You can turn off the automatic opening of the above CD database to show or allow completion of tracks and artist's details if you wish by going to File, Preferences, CONTROL TABBING to "Database" and then pressing SPACEBAR on "Open the Database During Save Track". Below this is where to check off "Open the Database During CD Copy" if you would like to skip this step in CD copying as well. Note 2: In some more up-to-date versions of Nero 5.5X, the next step is combined with step 4 above and you will also find that you can TAB through several "Audio Player controls" options and buttons to play and listen to your selected tracks if you wish. 6. The third dialogue box which you may come into, which is the main selecting and extracting dialogue, has several settings, options, radio buttons and dialogues you can check on, arrow to or go into (e.g. the "Settings" button, to change such as bit rate, mono/stereo recording, etc, and you eventually press ENTER on a "Go" button to get selected tracks converted. Ensure that you have ARROWED to The "PCM Wav File" format for this exercise but note that there are four or five different possible formats. Additionally, in this dialogue, before going to the "Go" button, if you press SPACEBAR on the "Options" button, you will obtain several more options which you can check on or off depending on your requirements and preferences, e.g. To enable jitter correction (recommended), to remove the silent gaps between tracks, to automatically create an M3U playlist of stored audio tracks (a tracks tagging and listing ability), etc. You should also note that the "Browse" button, if pressed, will permit you to navigate to a different tracks saving folder if you wish, e.g. C:\music, provided that you have created such a folder for this first. This "Browse" dialogue should also allow you to BACKSPACE out the current track name, such as track1, and type another more appropriate track name in if you wish, before going to the "Save" button and then the "Go" button. However, I have not found this new folder and renaming dialogue to be reliable, as sometimes it does not give you the track renaming option, so you may have to use an alternative method of renaming tracks to their correct names, e.g. after you have saved the tracks to your saving folder, you may wish to use Windows Explorer to go to them and then press the F2 key on each name in turn and type in the correct track name with the .wav extension or you may wish to press ENTER on each track to get such as Windows Media Player to open up and start playing the track, after which you should be able to press CONTROL S (for save) and then resave the track to a new filename such as: C:\music\Let It Be.wav but you will then have to delete the original tracks so that you do not get duplicate tracks with different names. In fact, when creating compilation music CDs, if you are selecting such as track 1 from several CDs, you will find that Nero will try to over-write your original track 1 with the new track one unless you rename the original track one to something else. 7. In the above tracks selection step you use traditional Windows highlighting procedures in the tracks list to get the tracks you want to extract selected, e.g. the SHIFT KEY with the ARROW up and down keys to select consecutive tracks, the CONTROL key to move to non-consecutive tracks and press SPACEBAR to select tracks randomly and there is a "Select All" button if you want to highlight all of the tracks on a disk for extracting. If you named the tracks in the previous dialogue or the CDDB database did this, then the track names will appear in the tracks list; otherwise they will simply be numbered 1, 2, 3, etc, followed by some information about the track such as its size in minutes and seconds, its size in Mb, the type of file extension it has, and so on. If you want to select a few tracks from more than one CD, you can do this by inserting another CD and then TABBING to and pressing SPACEBAR on the "Drive" button, after which you can ARROW to "Refresh", press ENTER and then go through the same three dialogue box procedure again. You should note that there is also an "Output File Format" list where you can choose from four different audio formats, such as "Wave", MP3 and Apple Mac, but you leave it on wave for standard extracting. 8. When you have made all of the tracks selections and options changes you want, you press ENTER on "Go" (or use the shortcut of ALT G) and after the extraction has finished (which may take only a few seconds or a minute or two) you will return to the "Go" button and can TAB to "Close" to finish. 9. You are now ready to select these extracted wave tracks and place them into a compilation using one of the procedures outlined in both earlier and later sections, obviously by navigating to the C:\Program Files\Ahead\My Music\ folder with the browser to highlight them for placing into the compilation template. 7.8. Creating an Audio Music CD from Your CD-ROM Drive with the Nero Wizard Many of the steps for burning audio tracks are the same as in the burning of data files but you can either use the "Add File" option in the Edit Menu or you can copy the tracks you wish to burn to the Clipboard first and then paste them into the Audio 1 Compilation and then arrange them in the order you like before burning them to CD. If your original tracks are not already in a WAV format and you are not burning on the fly, convert them to WAV files as directed above in "Extracting Audio Tracks to WAV Format Before Creating an Audio CD". Then: 1. Place a blank CD into the CD-RW drawer and shut it. Now press ESCAPE to be able to access the main menu bar and then ensure that the CD Wizard is checked on in the Help Menu (ALT H and press ENTER). Note: From Nero 5.5 onwards, the New Compilation" dialogue box holds either a "Wizard" or "Close Wizard" button to quickly move from manual to Wizard mode or vice versa. 2.A. With versions of Nero before Version 5.57X, you will land on a two choice list where you can either opt to "Compile a New CD" or ARROW down to "Copy a CD". Leave it on the former for this type of burning. Then TAB on to "Next" and press ENTER. 2.B. With versions of Nero later than 5.57X, you encounter an initial selection step which does not exist in earlier versions, in which you have to select what type of burning drive you wish to burn to, i.e. a CD drive, a DD CD drive or a DVD drive. You can ARROW to your choice if you have all or more than one type of burner installed in your PC; otherwise, if you only have a CD- RW, this is all which will be shown and you can just press ENTER to move to the next stage, as in 2.A. above. Note that the steps for burning a DVD are the same as for burning a CD but the references to CD in the options and selections change to references to DVD or DD CD. 3. You now have to choose the type of CD you would like to produce by ARROWING up or down the three options. In this case, ARROW to the "Audio" option and then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. You now fall on a "Finish" button, so press ENTER, when the New Compilation (Audio 1) window will open. 5. If you can see good enough to drag and drop your audio tracks from the browser to the Audio 1 window, do so. Otherwise, use one of the two below continuation keyboard procedures. 7.8.1. Selecting and Ordering Tracks Whilst in the Audio Compilation A. Press ALT E (for Edit) and then ARROW up to "Add File" and press ENTRE. B. TAB once to "Files of Type" and ARROW to "All Files". C. SHIFT TAB back three times to "Look In" and ARROW up and down to the drive/folder on your c drive or D (CD-ROM) drive, etc and press ENTER. D. TAB once and The list of tracks will be displayed, e.g. "track01.cda", "Track02.cda", etc, if you have gone to your CD- ROM to burn tracks from. )If the tracks are in a format other than .WAV, such as .CDA, remember to convert them to .WAV files first. E. You can select all of the tracks on a music CD or in a hard disk folder with CONTROL A or you can highlight them for burning of single tracks or non-consecutive tracks. Select non- consecutive tracks in the normal Windows way, i.e. with focus on the first track you want this will already be highlighted, so now hold down the CONTROL key and press the down ARROW key, keeping CONTROL depressed all of the time, ARROW to the next track you want and press the SPACEBAR to highlight it, ARROW to the next track you want and press the SPACEBAR to highlight this one, etc (this can be somewhat hit and miss with Nero, however). You can also choose individual non-consecutive tracks by TABBING to "Filename" and typing the filenames in enclosed in double quotes, e.g. "track02.cda" "track11.cda", etc. If you want all but one of 12 tracks on a given music CD, rather than having to highlight 11 of them before burning, you can invoke the invert option in the Edit Menu. You do this by highlighting the one track which you do not want, then press ALT E (for Edit) and then I (for Invert) which will take the highlight off the one track you do not want and place a highlight on all of the other 11 tracks. Tip: If you prefer, in the above audio tracks list, you can also select tracks in the order you want them adding to your compilation by going to each track in turn and by pressing CONTROL 1 (on the main keyboard) when each track you want to add to your audio compilation has focus. F. It is at this stage that you can now re-arrange the tracks into a different order if you wish. ARROW to the track you wish to move somewhere else and then press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard. Then ARROW to the place where you want it to be inserted so that the track you have ARROWED to will then move down one place and press CONTROL V to paste it in there. Continue in this way until you have all tracks in your desired order. It is sometimes necessary to move tracks up rather than down when you are trying to move a track to the end of a list. If you should like to have one of your tracks on the same compilation CD more than once, just use CONTROL C (for copy) rather than CONTROL X (for cut). G. Now TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. Depending on the version of Nero you have, you may get one or two track and/or CD naming dialogue boxes at this stage. You can choose to name your tracks and source and target CDs or just press ENTER on "Close" or "OK" to skip this if you like. H. If you want to copy tracks from other CDs to this compilation, just insert them, in turn, into the CD draw and repeat steps A to G for each, although you may in this case wish to re-arrange the order of your tracks after first selecting all of them from several CDs. You will be prompted to insert each CD in the correct order as required as the burning takes place. Note: AT this stage you can highlight any track or all tracks and play them if you wish. You are likely to have to go into mouse mode to get focus on a track, press the left mouse click simulation key once to highlight it and then ARROW down to "Play", put focus on this and then double left mouse click to start the playing. There is also a "Stop" button next to the Play button. This will only work if you have a cable from your sound card to your CD drive. 7.8.2. Selecting Tracks Prior to Launching Nero If you prefer to select your audio tracks prior to launching Nero: A. With the tracks already having been selected and copied to the Clipboard before launching Nero, e.g. by using My computer or Windows Explorer, and having then gone through steps 1 to 4 at the beginning of this section, press CONTROL V to paste the tracks into the audio 1 compilation window. (If you are not sure of the procedure to follow when using Windows Explorer to do this initial track selecting, see Section 29 below for detailed instructions.) B. You will get an "Adding Files" message and then come into the standard two dialogues for naming tracks and naming the CD you are burning tracks from (if from a CD), so name them if you wish or just TAB to "Close" or "OK" to skip this if you do not wish to name them. C. Next you will receive an "Analysing File" message and you will have to wait a minute or two for each track to be analyzed before it can be manipulated or burnt to CD. This is equivalent to firstly getting the tracks converted to wave files (if you have not already done this) and removes the prior need to do this conversion. D. When the tracks have been analyzed/converted, you can TAB once and then ARROW up and down the available tracks, either with the filenames you gave them (or obtained from the CDDB or the track names which Nero gives to them in the absence of their correct names, e.g. "Unknown 1", "Unknown 2", etc. E. It is at this stage that you can now re-arrange the tracks into your preferred order. ARROW to the track you wish to move somewhere else and then press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard. Then ARROW to the place where you want it to be inserted so that the track you have ARROWED to will then move down one place and press CONTROL V to paste it in there. Continue in this way until you have all tracks in your desired order. It is sometimes necessary to move tracks up rather than down when you are trying to move a track to the end of a list. If you should like to have one of your tracks on the same compilation CD more than once, just use CONTROL C (for copy) rather than CONTROL X (for cut). 6. Irrespective of which of the two above selecting and track ordering procedures you elected to follow, to have the Nero Wizard load in again, complete the last few steps and commence burning, press ALT F followed by w. The rest is the same as in steps 6 to 11 above in "Creating a Data CD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with the Nero Wizard". Be aware, however, that if a music CD is to be played in a home HI-FI or car stereo system, it must be "closed" or "finalised" after burning, so you should completely fill the disk with audio tracks for maximum efficiency and then close it after it is filled. This is in contrast to data files which will still be accessible on your computer without the CD being closed. Once any type of write-only CD has been closed no more tracks or data files can be copied to it. Note 1: In the final stage of burning, i.e. when you go into the File Menu and select "Write", some (but not all--usually those which come up when not using the CD Wizard) dialogues will provide a "Determine Maximum Speed" checkbox. If you press SPACEBAR to turn this on, the program will check to find the maximum speed that your system can burn files onto a given quality of CD and run it at that speed, ignoring the copying speed selected lower down in this dialogue. In this way, you will avoid an unsuccessful burn due to trying to copy faster than your CD drives and/or the inserted compact disk can cope with. Note 2: You can also use these two methods of creating CDs for data as well as audio CDs instead of using the context menu method but you will not be able to re-arrange the order in which data files (including MP3 audio files) burn in. Warning: Do not be tempted to use your screenreader during any type of audio CD burn. If you do, you are likely to get interference on your burnt CD, such as clicking. If your screenreader is likely to start speaking a particular line on the screen or the changing contents of the Status Bar, for example, either turn such as the Status Bar of (ALT V, S) or permanently switch screenreader speech of or unload it. 7.9. Viewing Tracks Information on a CD or Compilation Information on an existing Compilation Template 1. To view the tracks and information such as track length in minutes/seconds, in megabytes, the type of track, e.g. audio, data, etc: A. With the CD in the drawer, press CONTROL I. B. Now TAB and ARROW around the information. You will not only be able to view track names, sizes, etc, but also the separate copying sessions on the CD. The amount of CD space used and the amount remaining will also be displayed. C. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER when finished. 2. To view or make changes to an already created compilation, open the compilation as outlined above in "Opening a Saved Compilation Template". Then: A. Press ALT F (for File) and then I (for Compilation Info). B. You will land on the "Info Page" and can view the compilation details in Navigation/JAWS/mouse mode. C. Using CONTROL TAB, you can move through several property sheets where you can make changes to the on-screen compilation as desired. D. When finished, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 7.10. Creating an Audio or Data CD When You Only Have One CD Drive (Image Burning) You can still make data or Audio CDs even if you only have one Cd drive--a CD-RW drive. You have first to make an image of the source CD you wish to copy on your hard disk, i.e. copy it there first, and then copy the image from the hard disk back to your CD-RW drive after replacing the source CD with a blank data or Audio music CD. You may wish to do this to speed copying up if you wish to make several CD copies of the same tracks or if your source CD-ROM drive is old and too slow to keep up with the required data flow to your CD-RW drive, e.g. you may have an old 8 speed CD-ROM and a 24X12X40 speed CD-RW drive. To burn a CD in this way: 1. Press ESCAPE after Nero launches to be able to access the menu bar. then press CONTROL R to open the CD Recorder and choose "Image Recorder - Virtual Device" from the list you are in with the ARROW keys. 2. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You have now changed from the usual record from CD-ROM to CD-RW method of burning to the image recorder whereby the burning will first be done from your CD-RW drive to your hard disk as an image and then be transferred from their back to your CD-RW drive and onto a CD with burning space on it. 3. Press CONTROL N and using either the Nero Wizard or the standard mode, create either an audio or data (ISO) CD compilation (as outlined in "Creating a Data CD from Files on Your Hard Disk Drive with the Nero Wizard" above). 4. Press ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write CD). You can leave "Test and Burn" and "Simulate" off as image burning does not use these. Now TAB to and press ENTER on "Burn" to start the copying process, but note that now, before burning, another dialogue box comes up asking you to accept the default image filename of "image.nrg" or change this to an image filename of your own choice. However, before TABBING to "Save" to save the image to hard disk, you should observe the "Save In" option as it is likely to be set to try to save into the same folder that your data or audio file or track is to be copied from. If the original folder is, for example, on a CD-ROM, then saving the image file to here will fail as there is no space to save onto on a closed CD-ROM. This means that you will have to change the saving folder to such as C:\Windows\Temp so that the image file will go there or anywhere else you like with sufficient writable space for it. Now TAB to "save" and press ENTER. Note: In image burning the individual tracks are not copied to your hard disk but rather the whole lot is copied as one large image file with one filename. 5. After saving the image to hard disk, you press ENTER on an "OK" button when told the process was successful and get the standard "log file "Save", "Print" or "Discard" choices, so make your choice. 6. Now remove the source disk from the CD-RW drive and replace it with your write-only CD. To have the image file burnt from hard disk to a write-only CD you now press ALT F (for File) and then B (for Burn Image). type the image filename into the editfield which opens up, e.g. "image.nrg" or any personal filename which you may have given it, and TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 7. The standard burn dialogue opens up and you can choose to "Test and Burn" or "Burn" and then TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER to commence the copying/burning to CD. Ensure that the "Write" option is checked on before burning. Note: Remember that to return the method of burning to its normal mode, you will have to use CONTROL R and re-select your CD-RW to burn CDs without having the copy go to the hard disk as an image. 7.11. Cloning a Whole Audio, Video, Data or Mixed Mode CD with the Nero Wizard To obtain an exact copy of a CD in your CD-ROM drive, which must be done on a blank write-only data or audio CD or re-writable CD, which will then be closed and not usable to add later copying sessions: 1. Ensure that the Nero Wizard is checked on in the Help Menu. 2. Press CONTROL N to open a new compilation and ARROW down to "copy a CD". 3. Either just press ENTER immediately or TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 4. You will be on the "Test and Burn" option and can ARROW to "Burn" if you wish. The former ensures that your copying will be successful before attempting to burn the disk, whereas the latter only takes half as long but does not test, so a copying error could occur and render your blank CD unusable. 5. TAB to the "burn" button and press ENTER to start the copying/cloning process. 6. If you are asked for a filename to save a copy of the compilation, either accept the default one it gives you or change it to whatever you want and then press ENTER. 7.12. Burning Data or Audio Tracks Manually To burn CDs manually, you will have to uncheck the CD Wizard and go through the stages one at a time. This may suite some users and/or their screenreaders. It does also give more access to the full range of options and formats available in the program. You would: 1. Launch Nero in the normal way, press ESCAPE and then Uncheck the "CD Wizard" by pressing ALT H (for Help" and then ENTER. In future, if you wish always to burn in this way, you will only have to launch Nero to come up straightaway into this manual dialogue box. Note: From Nero 5.5 onwards, the "New Compilation" dialogue box holds either a "Wizard" or "Close Wizard" button to quickly move from manual to Wizard mode or vice versa. 2. Press ALT N (for New Compilation) (not necessary if you have set things up as above to always open up in the manual burning dialogue box). 3. You will load into the "NEW Compilation" multi-property sheet. This property sheet has six or seven sheets within it which you can CONTROL TAB through. The one you are on now is the "Multisession" sheet. 4. You will be on (or may have to TAB to) the "CD-ROM (ISO)" option and can ARROW down all nine (in Nero 4), ten (in Nero 5.0) or eleven (in Nero 5.5) of the possible CD burning options. The "ISO" option is to be used if you want to copy data files to a CD. One press of ARROW down takes you to "Audio-CD" where you would place the focus if you wanted to create an audio music CD. "Mixed Mode CD" permits the making of CDs with both data and audio files on them, the latter intended for playing on a car stereo, a home stereo or on a computer and the former for playing on a PC only. "CD-Copy" permits you to clone (duplicate) any type of CD precisely as the original in the CD-ROM drawer. There are other types of CD burning selections but, for visually impaired people, these are likely to be of secondary importance, e.g. creating video CDs, Creating CDs for use on Apple Mac PCs, creating a system boot CD (you can do this with your Windows operating system on a floppy disk, etc. Note 1: If you accidentally close this Mew Compilation dialogue, you can reopen it by pressing CONTROL N. Note 2: With some versions of Nero after Version 5.5.064, at step 4 above, instead of landing in the list of types of files to burn, you land on the list to select whether to start or continue a multi-session disk, etc, so you will have to SHIFT TAB back three times to the types of file to burn list. 5. Leave focus on the "ISO" line to burn data files and ensure that you have a data, audio or unformatted re-writable blank CD inserted into the CD drive drawer. You can use data or audio disks for this type of copying but it may be cheaper to use the data type. On the other hand, you may, for learning and practise purposes only, wish to use a re-writable disk so that it can be erased and used again without wasting write-only disks. Note: There is an "Open" button just before you get to the next stage, which you can use if you do not need to create a new compilation template but already have one created earlier which you now wish to have loaded in for burning. 6. Tab to the "New" button and press ENTER. 7. You can now use one of the methods described above by TABBING once to an unmarked icon and then bringing up the Context Menu to go to "ADD File" or you can use the second method of selecting files via the Edit Menu and the "Add Files" option in there. 8. You now highlight/select files from the hard disk or CD-ROM folder(s) as shown previously and then TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 9. Now press ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write) and the "Write CD" and "Burn" property sheet will load in. You can now TAB through and choose from the following main options to modify the type of burn you will get: A. The "Write" option: This should be checked. B. The "Number of Copies" option: This is likely to be on "1" for a single copy but you can BACKSPACE this out and type in however many copies of this same disk compilation you would like to burn at this particular time. You will be prompted to insert a new disk each time the program needs one. C. The "Cache Disk and Networkfiles": This would be left checked off for standard CD to CD copying or for CD to hard disk copying. You only press SPACEBAR to turn this on if you are copying from a network system or floppy disk, both of which will provide data extraction too slowly without this turned on. D. The "Disk-at-Once": This would be left off for data burning but you may wish to check it on for audio file copying, as it permits several other music-related options, e.g. better blank spacing between music tracks so that the spaces are not too long or the ends of tracks clipped. Note, however, that in Disk-at- once mode the default copying method is to finalise or close a disk so that nothing else can be burnt to it, so uncheck "Finalise" if you are only burning a few tracks and want to put more on this CD later. If Disk-at-Once is not checked or not supported by your CD drives, then the mode you will be burning in is known as "Track-at-Once". E. There are several other standard options in here which have been discussed previously but one other of interest is the "Medium Info" button. If you are using such as a CD-RW (re- writable) disk, you may find that the write speed in this dialogue box is set to the maximum for a write-only and not a re- writable disk, so pressing ENTER on the "Medium Info" button should refresh the writing speed options for you to those appropriate to a CD-RW disk if this is what you are trying to copy to. Using the Medium Info button is not essential to burn a disk but, if you do not wish to burn at maximum speed, will allow you to make valid burning speed reductions. F. Lastly, after making whatever burning option changes you require, just TAB to "Write" and press ENTER to start the burning/copying process. 10. When the burning has finished you will be in a dialogue asking if you wish to save the compilation template, so if you do, just type a filename into the "Filename" editfield and press ENTER on "Save" or just go to "Cancel". 11. You finally reach a "Done" dialogue in which you can elect to either "Save" (a log file containing details of who created this compilation, the version of Nero used, which recorder was used, etc), "Print (log file information)or just "Discard" the compilation log file details and close the dialogue. Warning: You cannot stop a burn partway through once it has started without destroying the CD you are copying to. 7.13. Creating a Folder on CD to Burn Files Into The above examples of burning files from hard disk or another CD (not on the fly) all place individual files onto the root directory (first folder level) of a CD. However, if you would like to organise your files or tracks copying by putting them into named folders, you can do this. To create a folder on CD and then burn files into it: 1. Using the above manual method of burning (see "Burning Data or Audio Tracks Manually"), open a new compilation as normal. 2. When you get to the stage where you would normally highlight files to be burnt to CD, press ALT e (for Edit) and then ARROW up to "Create Folder" and press ENTER. 3. You will now be in an editfield with the default folder name of "New". Press BACKSPACE to erase this and then type in the folder name you would like to create, e.g. myfiles, and press ENTER. 4. ARROW down to the "myfiles" folder and leave focus on this. Then, as normal, press ALT E, followed by L, and locate the source drive, folder(s) and files/tracks you want to burn to CD in the specified new folder. Select the files and TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. 5. Now, with ALT F, W, burn the files or tracks to CD as usual. The "myfiles" folder will be created on the CD and the selected files will be burnt into it. 6. You can create numerous folders in this way and if you no longer want one of them, before you have copied files into it, you can press the DELETE key whilst it has focus to erase it. If the folders are not in the order you would like, you can put focus on one of them, press CONTROL X to cut it to the Clipboard and then move to where you want it and press CONTROL V to paste it in there. 7. You can also add multiple selected files to a folder via the Clipboard by ARROWING to one of your folders, press ALT E, then L and then select your files as normal. Next copy the files to the Clipboard with CONTROL C, press ESCAPE and lastly paste them into the folder in your compilation with CONTROL V. 8. Again, you can add files to any of your folders using the normal writing/burning methods with ALT F, W. 7.14. Converting and Burning MP3 Files to HI-FI Audio Files You can use Nero to extract (decompress) and copy compressed MP3 files in a similar way as you would burn .WAV or .CDA files, using the New Compilation window. However, they do not have to have their format changed to .wav first, as this will be done on the fly as the burning takes place. The MP3 file must not be damaged and must be the standard MPEG Layer 3 type, in stereo, 16-bit and have a sampling rate of 44.1 Khz. To burn MP3 files to .CDA files (Hi-FI files): 1. Using the Nero Wizard, follow the steps in "Creating an Audio Music CD from Your CD-ROM Drive with the Nero Wizard" above. 2. As converting MP3 files to .CDA files can take a considerable amount of time, depending on the speed of your CD-RW drive, you may not want to wait around if burning a lot of tracks at a time. 3. If you only wish to burn MP3 files to a CD and retain their MP3 format, you would simply follow the same Nero Wizard process but select "Data"instead of "Audio" when asked which kind of Cd you would like to compile at step two. 4. Alternatively, if you wish to clone a whole CD of MP3 music or other audio files from one CD to another, you can use the "Copy a New CD" option which first comes up when the Nero Wizard loads in. Note: You cannot create MP3 audio files from other audio tracks with the standard version of Nero 5X. You can only do this if you purchase a special MP3 Pro ripper from the Nero Website. Use of this MP3 converter is not covered in this tutorial. 7.15. Audio Track Filtering and Property Details If you wish to view or change some of the filters and details of a track: 1. In the compilation template containing the track, place focus on the track in question and either press the left mouse simulation button twice or press SHIFT F10 then ARROW up to "Properties" and press ENTER (you may only be able to do this in mouse or navigation mode) . You will fall in the "Track Properties" property sheet, which is the first of three property sheets. You can TAB through and view track title, Artist name, etc. You can complete these editfields if empty or alter any of them. 2. The next property sheet of interest is the "Filter" sheet, so press CONTROL TAB until you reach it. What you can do hear depends on the version of Nero you have, for example, you may only be able to widen the effect of a stereo file with the right and left ARROW keys if you just have the basic OEM version, but if you have bought the professional version of Nero, you will find other features here, such as de-hiss, de-click, etc, to improve the sound of a track with his, to remove crackle, etc, e.g. from a recording taken from a vinyl record. 3. After making any changes, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to save them and have these filters applied. 7.16. How to Add More Data to a Partly Used Data CD To add more files to a partly used CD it must not have been "Finalised" (closed) when you last copied to it. When you re-use a CD to add more data to it later, it is known as a multi-session CD. You do this with a standard right-only data CD as follows: 1. With the Nero Wizard: A. Ensure that the Nero Wizard is checked on in the Help Menu if not already on (ALT H and press ENTER). B. Press Control N to open the New Compilation window if it is not already open. C. Select "Compile a New CD" and press ENTER. D. ARROW down to "Data" and press ENTER. E. Now place focus on "continue an Existing Data CD (Multisession)" by ARROWING down once and press ENTER. F. You will be on the "Finish" button, so press ENTER to have a dialogue box open showing the sessions already on the partly filled CD. Just TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. G. Now press ALT E (for Edit) and then L (for Add Files) and you now reach the stage in the Open Dialogue where you must navigate to whatever floppy drive/CD-ROM drive/hard disk drive/folder you wish to highlight files from to have then burnt onto the already partly filled CD in the CD-RW drive. H. After selecting the files you want, TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. I. You now press ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write CD). J. The Nero Wizard loads in again for the normal final stages to be chosen. Therefore, with the ARROW keys, place focus on "Test and Burn" or "Burn" if you do not wish to test first. Choose the writing speed and then press ENTER on "Burn" to commence. K. You now press ENTER on "OK" and the usual last stage appears after the copying has finished, i.e. you can elect to "Save" or "Print" an information log file for the burn you have just done (or both) or you can just "Discard" the ISO compilation template. If you "Save", you would be advised to give the current temporary log file a name of your own choice, e.g. backup1log. The program will provide its own filename extension of .txt so that you can view this log file with any text editor or word-processor. L. To close the current ISO compilation template window you press CONTROL F4 and will again be asked if you wish to save "Yes" or "No". This "Save" is the point where you can elect to keep a copy of the compilation template for future use in identical re-runs of the copying process. You replace the ISO.NRI default filename with one of your own choice, e.g. backup1. The program will automatically allocate a .nri filename extension to these types of saved compilation files. Note: If you already have files on the current target CD which have not changed on the source CD/hard disk folder where they were originally burnt from, then they will not be copied to CD again, only previously uncopied or changed files will be burnt to the CD in the new session. This, obviously, avoids unnecessary file duplication. 2. Alternatively, if you (or your screenreader) prefer to add more data files to an already partly filled CD without using the Nero Wizard, you can achieve the above via the standard interface by: A. With the Nero Wizard unchecked, press CONTROL N to obtain a New Compilation window. B. Leave the focus on "CD-ROM (ISO) and TAB twice to a list of three options, with the ARROW keys placing the focus on "Continue Multisession Disk" if it is not already there. The other two choices are "No MultiSession" and "Start MultiSession Disk". Remember, which ever of these three options you choose, the next time you open this dialogue box that selection will have been retained, so you may need to change it for future burns, depending on what you want to do next. C. TAB through and observe the many options in this dialogue and ensure that "Add New Files to Compilation" is checked on. Then TAB to "New" and press ENTER. Note: If you leave focus on "Start MultiSession Disk" or "No MultiSession" one press of TAB will take you to the "New" button, as the long list of options which you can turn on or off is not relevant to those burning conditions. D. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. E. Now press ALT E (for Edit) and then L (for Add Files) and select the drives/folders/files you wish to be added to the current partly filled CD (as described above). F. After all files have been selected, TAB to "Open" and press ENTER. G. Press ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write CD) and then TAB through the various options, checking on or off the options you wish to apply to your burning session, e.g. check "Simulation" on by pressing the SPACEBAR on it if you would like to ensure that a burn to CD will be successful before the program attempts to do it, change the "Number of Copies" from 1 to however many you would like, ARROW up and down the "Write Speed" levels and leave focus on the one you want (as long as you know your CPU and other hardware can cope with this speed). However, most of the default selections will be OK for the majority of burning situations. Then TAB to "Write" and press ENTER to start the copying process. H. When the burning has finished, press ENTER on "OK" and the steps are then the same as in 1 K and L above. 7.17. Cloning or Copying One CD to Another Copying the whole contents of one CD to another can be done "on the fly", meaning directly from one CD drive to another, or by first copying to the hard disk and then burning this image on the hard disk to a CD in your CD-RW drive. Which way is best for you depends on the type of CD-ROM and CD-RW drives you own and on whether you are cloning audio (best via the hard disk) or data files (OK to do on the fly), although you can successfully clone any type of files/tracks by both means in many cases. 7.18. Burning/Cloning CDs on the Fly 1. You can do this either with the Nero Wizard, with the standard New Compilation window or from the File Menu. Working with the Wizard and the New Compilation methods have been covered in similar situations above, so I will use the File Menu option with the Nero Wizard checked off for this example. 2. Press ALT F (for File) and then D (for CD-Copy). 3. With earlier versions of Nero, you will be in a single sheet tab and you will be on the list of CD drives on your computer. The CD-ROM drive should have focus but if you wish to change this to another drive, just use the ARROW up or down keys. 4. TAB to "Fast Copy (On the Fly)" and press the SPACEBAR to check this on if it is not already on. 5. TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. 6. You must now select how you wish to burn the disk. So leave the focus on "Test and Burn" if you wish to have the procedure check before copying takes place or ARROW down once to"Burn" if you are confident that the process will work and wish to half the burning time. 7. TAB to "Write Speed" and ARROW up or down to the speed you wish to have the CD written at. The slower the speed you burn at, the less likely you will be to fall fowl of a writing error and therefore waste a CD. Experiment with several settings until you know how your own CD-ROM/CD-RW and CPU are able to perform together. 8. Lastly, TAB to "Burn" and press ENTER to commence the burning/copying. Note that if this is the first time you have attempted to burn a CD at a particular speed using this method, the software will realise this and automatically switch to "Simulate" or "Test and Burn" mode to check that it is possible to copy at the selected speed without spoiling a CD. Note 1: With Nero 5.5X onwards, when you enter the burn dialogue at step 3 above, you will instead be in a four sheet control tab. You will be in the "Burn" sheet and can make several of the above selections but you will have to CONTROL TAB to the other sheets to make some of the other option selections, in particular the "Copy Options" sheet before TABBING to the burn or copy button to commence burning. Ensure that the "On the Fly", "Determine Maximum Speed" and "Simulation" boxes are checked on for best protection against failed copying. Note 2: Many older CD-ROMs are not of sufficient quality to permit reliable audio (not data) burning. Nero possesses a CD-ROM diagnosis feature but this is a purely visual test, so of little or no use to blind users. 7.19. Burning/Cloning CDs Via the Hard Disk In most cases, you may prefer to clone one CD to another using the to hard disk first method. There are many reasons for not using the "on the fly" method, e.g. many older CD-ROMs cannot extract audio (music) tracks fast enough to use the "on the fly" option, some cannot recognise different sessions on a CD, some will produce audio "jitter" which is a scratching or clicking effect, etc. Audio jitter can be corrected using the hard disk cloning procedure but not with the on the fly method. 1. The steps are identical as in "Burning/Cloning CDs on the Fly" in the last section, except that you would ensure that "Fast Copy (On the Fly)" in step 4 was turned off. 2. If the dialogue which requests that you either "Save", "Print" or "Discard" the log information appears, make your desired choices. 3. Note that in later versions of Nero, the above dialogue also contains a "Automatically Shut Down the PC When Done" option. If you check this on, after the CD is burnt but before using the "Discard" button, the computer will shut of after 30 seconds. 7.20. Burning Video Files with Nero This tutorial, being for visually impaired people, does not go into video burning in any great detail. The vast majority of VI people (including myself) are able to benefit little from video media. However, the process for burning video files is more or less the same as for audio files. You just manually open a New Compilation window (CONTROL N with the Nero Wizard off), ARROW down to "Video-CD" (or "Super Video-CD" if you have Nero 5) and then browse to the files on a CD in your CD-ROM or on your hard disk as normal. You select them and then burn them as usual. 7.21. Erasing the Contents of a Re-Writable CD You can delete the contents of a re-writable CD by: 1. With the CD in your CD-RW drive, press ALT R (for Cd-Recorder) and then W (For Erase CD Rewritable). 2. TAB forward twice to a two choice listbox. You will be on "Erase Entire CD". If you choose this you will get a complete physical erasure of the whole CD which will take quite some time. If you ARROW down to "Quickly Erase Entire CD", the job will be done much quicker, although there is not a complete deleting, rather files are renamed for over-writing--it would be possible for someone to recover these files. 3. TAB to "Erase" and press ENTER to commence. 7.22. Making Whole Hard Disk or Partition Back-Ups with Nero You can back-up your whole hard disk (onto one or more write-only CDs), and then restore it on masse if you have a system crash, some forme of corruption, etc. However, you will not be able to restore individual files in this way. When you restore your system, Nero will over-write everything on your hard disk. The back-up is a cloning of your hard disk without any compression taking place. You must be aware that it is the whole hard disk or one of the whole partitions on it, i.e. all of the sectors on that hard disk or individual partition, which have to be backed up in their entirety, not just the operating system and data on the hard disk. So, if your hard disk is 10 Gb in size and has only one partition on it, the whole 10 Gb will have to be backed up, perhaps taking around 15 CDs. This, of course, means that the bigger hard disks get, the more impracticable this form of back up becomes, unless Ahead soon come up with a back up and compress ability. To Create a back-up disk or disks: 1. With a Blank CD in the CD-RW drawer, Press ALT F (for File) and then ARROW down to "Burn HD Backup" and press ENTER. 2. You will receive a warning that you must have at least 10 per cent empty space on your hard disk to be able to proceed. If yours has not, close down this procedure and delete some files or an unimportant program until you reach this requirement. Then return to this stage and press ENTER on the "Proceed" button. 3. Press TAB once to a listbox with two options: burn your hard disk in a format other than FAT 32 or you can ARROW down to "FAT 32". Most modern hard disks will have been formatted in FAT 32 and almost all disks over 2.1 Mb will be formatted in FAT 32. 4. TAB on to "OK" and press ENTER to finish this stage. 5. You now receive the standard burn dialogue box and will be on the "HD Backup" option. You can press ENTER to start the burn/backup or TAB through the various burning parameters to change any of them if you wish, e.g. the speed of Burning, whether to simulate a burn before doing it to check if it will work, etc. 6. Lastly, TAB to the "Write" button and press ENTER to commence the burning and copying of your hard disk onto CDs. 7. If the back-up will go onto more than one CD, you will be prompted by Nero to insert the next CD when required. 8. After the back-up has finished (which could take several hours, depending on the size of your hard disk), you then receive the normal dialogue asking you if you want to "Save", "Print", "Discard", etc, the compilation details and parameters. Make your choice and press ENTER. Note 1: It is only advisable to back-up with Nero if you intend to restore to the same PC/hard disk. Restoring to a different hard disk, of a different size, with different partitions, sector starting points, different file systems (FAT 16, FAT 32, etc), is likely to result in problems. Note 2: Be aware, The amount of CD space taken up after a back-up is likely to be greater than the amount shown on your hard disk, e.g. 620 Mb of OS/data on a hard disk would take up around 690 Mb of CD space. 7.23. Restoring Hard Disk Back-Ups You can only restore a Nero hard disk back-up from pure DOS mode, not from Windows or the MS DOS prompt in Windows. This means that you may have to have a bootable CD-ROM or floppy disk containing the standard bootable system files plus your CD-ROM or CD-RW drive drivers, including your autoexec.bat, config.sys and mscdex.exe files. For example, you can use your Windows 98 boot disk as it should contain all of the essential files and drivers (see the "Readme.TXT" file on the Win98 boot disk for more information). Obviously, unless you can see enough to use a monitor, you will either require sighted help or a DOS screenreader to be able to follow the procedure for a DOS restoration. Do this by: Note: If your computer has not crashed and you simply want to over-write your hard disk with a fresh copy of what was originally on it, you can skip steps 1 and 2 and go straight to step 3. 1. With Windows 98, place your system boot disk in the A: drive, then switch your computer on and allow the system files to copy over (which they will do automatically), then keep pressing ENTER until all of the Cd drivers and the ramdrive have been set up. Floppy disk activity will fail to take place when you press ENTER as soon as all of the necessary files have been copied over, so listen so that you can tell when this has been achieved. If the generic CD-ROm drivers do not work, you will have to use the DOS driver disk which came with your CD drive. 2. If you are using Windows 95, you will have to install some form of generic CD driver or, again, use the driver which came with your CD drive, as a Windows 95 system boot disk does not carry CD drivers. 3. Next insert your back-up CD into the CD-ROM or CD-RW drive and change to that drive, e.g. by typing "d:", and then type: nrestore.exe and press ENTER to start the process. 4. You now type the initial letter of the language you wish to continue in, e.g. "e" for English. 5. With the ARROW keys or by pressing the drive letter of the drive your back-up CD is in, e.g. D or E, (or whatever method your DOS screenreader permits), select the source drive for your back-up, i.e. the drive your back-up CD is in. 6. You are now asked to select the drive letter where your hard disk is for over-writing, e.g. typically your C: drive, so either ARROW to this and press ENTER or press the letter C to achieve this. If this does not work, try pressing the number of the main partition to back up to, e.g. "1", then press enter, if you only have one hard disk partition on your PC, i.e. the C: drive. 7. The restoring may take several minutes, depending on the amount to be restored and you will be asked for any second or third CDback-up disks if there are more than one in the back-up series. There is a countdown of the percentage of the restore that has been completed at any time at the bottom of the screen. 8. After the restoration, you must reboot your PC. Note: I have tried this Nero back-up and restore feature and it worked OK on my computer. However, the first time I restored with it (directly over the old data on the hard disk without formatting it) the system was not entirely running correctly afterwards, so I formatted my hard disk (format c:/s) and then used the Nero restore again. This time it functioned fine afterwards. It is best to ensure that no programs are running during the back-up, as these might not be backed-up properly if running or they may be restored at a slightly different address on your hard disk than the one they originated at. For example, as you will have no choice but to have your screenreader running whilst backing-up, it is possible that any Start Menu or Desktop shortcut you had to it will not work. Your screenreader may now be at a different address but all you have to do is delete the old shortcut to it and then make a new shortcut in the normal way. 7.24. Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB) A compact disk database (CDDB) is a library of CD titles and track titles for those CDs, plus several other optional CD facts. In order for the Nero databases to be automatically accessed when you burn, save, etc, you must set several preferences. However, this is not essential, as you can always place entries into the user or program databases manually later if you prefer (see below). The CDDB database is only available in Nero Version 5X, not Version 4. The preferences to set for automatic prompting for CD title, artist, year of CD release, etc, are: 1. Press ALT F (for File), F (for Preferences) and then press CONTROL TAB until you reach the "Database" property sheet. 2. There are two main database options you can TAB through in here and have checked on or off, i.e. "Program Database Path" and "User Database Path". If they are on, you will be asked for details to update your databases each time you insert an unregistered CD into your CD drive. If left unchecked, this will not happen, but you can still enter CD details manually if you like (see the two headings immediately below). 3. The most likely of these two databases you might like to check on is the "User Database Path". If you do this, you will be given, on the next line, the path to the "Userdb" file, which is the name Nero gives to the user database. If this path is not correct, just backspace it out and type the correct path in. 4. TAB through the rest of the options and note that you can change when the user database is automatically loaded in by checking or unchecking the appropriate boxes. 5. When finished, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 6. Now, at the stage in creating a new compilation where you normally press ALT E and then L (just before you give the "Burn" instruction, the database(s) will load and ask for CD title, artist name, etc. If these editfields are completed, these facts will be saved to your user database. 7.24.1. Creating Your Own CDDB Database The program database supplied on the installation disk can be updated whenever you like from the internet. You would therefore not want to place your own album details in this, as, if updated again from the Internet, they would be over-written and lost. You can therefore create your own separate CDDB for your personal use by: 1. Press ALT X (for Extras) and then C (for Create a New User Database). 2. You then have to navigate to where you would like the database creating, e.g.: C:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\ or wherever you prefer. 3. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. You will be told that Nero is creating a new database and after a short while that it has succeeded. 4. TAB to "No" to finish without opening the new database. 5. If you now go into the Extras menu (ALT X), you will now find that "Open User CD Database" and "Open User Title Database" are enabled, whereas before they were disabled. Pressing ENTER on either of these enables you to search for album or title details in the "Search For" editfield you land in. Of course, the database will be empty at this stage. You have to complete the details of each CD you burn or simply want to label into the database as you create it, either at this stage, manually, or have the database completed automatically after you type details in at the burn or save stage (see above). 6. The user database holds CD details arranged by "Artist" or "Title" and you can choose which to view CD album and tracks in. there is and "Add CD" button which, if you press ENTER on it, will go to the CD inserted in your CD drive and automatically take any information from that CD or let you register the CD on the database and complete the details. You can also use the "edit" option to change any information. There are two lists you can TAB to, the first being a list of CD titles and the second a list of the individual tracks on that CD. There are control tabs for each letter of the alphabet which, when you have TABBED to one of them, you can ARROW right and left through to seek CD information with that initial letter. The 27th tab will hold information for CD titles or tracks which begin with a figure rather than a letter. Your version of Nero may also contain a "Sort By" control which you can ARROW up or down in to get a given alphabetical list of tracks or artists. 7.24.2. Configuring the Program Database Your Nero 5X (not Version 4) installation CD should contain a zipped file called "CDDB.ZIP" which contains a downloaded version of the FREECDDB Internet database, which you can use and also update from the Internet from time to time. Keep this separate from your own personal user database (see above). If you want access to this vast library of CD details, you will have to unzip this CDDB.ZIP file (which is at d:\freecddb\cddb.zip) and place it in a folder on your hard disk, e.g.: c:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero\CDDB after first creating the "CDDB" sub-folder in Windows, as normal. You then have to: 1. Press ALT X (for Extras) and then I (for Import CDDB Database). 2. Navigate/browse to where the unzipped CDDB database was copied and open the file. 3. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. 4. Nero will tell you that it is creating and configuring the database and this may take quite some time. 5. As with the user database described in the previous sub- section, you will now find that the second and third options in the Extras menu are now available to you. 6. At any time you can download an updated CDDB album database from the Internet to over-write your old one from: http://freecddbfreecddb.org But be warned that this may take up to a day to download if you do not have a broad band Internet connection. 7. As with a user database, you can add to, edit, search through, etc, CD and track details in the program database (see 7 above). Note: The program CDDB database will require over 300 Mb of hard disk space. If you have to download it because it is not on your installation CD or want to download an update, the download and new configuration will take several hours, if not a whole day. It contains over 100,000 cd albums and is a download of over 30 Mb. 7.25. Manually Entering and Viewing Text of CD Tracks and Artists Details If your CD-RW supports this, you can manually type CD tracks and artists details onto a CD you are about to burn so that they can then be read and displayed by CD-ROM drives and audio players directly from the inserted CD. This is a different thing to what you are doing in the above database sections. Your CDCD-RW must also support and be using the "Disk-at-Once" writing method (press ALT R, R and view the CD-RW information contained here, which will tell you if Disk-at-Once is supported or not). You can enter text to an audio CD to be contained on the disk itself by: 1. If the New Compilation window is not on screen, press ALT N (for New Compilation) to bring it up. You will have to close the Nero Wizard to do this by checking it off in the Help Menu or just pressing ESCAPE when it loads in. 2. You will be on the data copying (ISO) option, so ARROW down to "Audio-CD. 3. Now press TAB until "Title" is spoken and then type the title you want for the CD in here. 4. Press TAB once to "Artist" and enter the name of the group or individual musician. 5. TAB again to "Copyright" and, if you created the music to be placed on the CD you are burning, put your copyright details in here; otherwise, leave it blank. 6. Continue to TAB through the editfields, completing any appropriate boxes. If you are unsure of what is required in a field, just leave it blank or press F1 to hear what it is for, followed by ESCAPE to return to where you were. 7. Eventually, TAB to "Write CD Text on CD" and press SPACEBAR to check this on. 8. Lastly, TAB to the "New" button and press ENTER to open the Audio 1 compilation window to select and burn tracks as normal but this time with the text being burnt to the beginning of the CD as well. 9. If your CD-rw does not support the burning of CD text, you will be informed of this and given the opportunity of continuing the CD copying without the text. Obviously, there is no point in you using the CD text facility again if this happens. 10. You can also enter CD text information about individual tracks and there artists names, etc, after you have created an audio CD compilation. Do this, with the audio compilation on screen, by pressing ALT F (for File) and then I (for CD Information) and then TAB through and complete the editfields. You may have to open each editfield by left clicking on it. Again, remember, that Disk-at-Once mode must be checked on. If no editfields are available for completion, then your CD-RW does not support Text information. 11. To view CD text details, press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then press S (for Save Track" but such information will only be available if your CD-RW supports Text entry. 7.26. Viewing Sessions and Files with the Nero Multimounter You can use the Nero multimounter, which is installed when the program is installed, to view and access all sessions and files recorded on a multi-session CD. 1. Launch Nero and press the ESCAPE key a few times to get rid of the Wizard or ISO window. 2. Press ALT V (For View) and then F (for New File Browser). 3. You can now ARROW up and down your full range of drives and leave focus on the CD drive which your multi-session CD is inserted into. 4. Now you press TAB to reveal what is on the CD and can ARROW to a session you wish to view and either press ENTER on it to open it up or press TAB to achieve this. 5. Whilst in here, you can not only view sessions and their contents but also select files or tracks to perform an action on. 7.27. What to do if Your CD-RW Drive is Not Automatically Recognised by Nero It is unlikely that Nero will fail to recognise your CD-RW drive but if it does you can try to remedy this via the "AutoDetect CD- ROM" feature, as follows: 1. With Nero running, press ALT R (for CD-Recorder) and then A (for AutoDetect CD-ROM). 2. TAB through the options and Arrow to the type of CD-RW you have, e.g. SCSI or IDE. 3. TAB to "Identify" and press ENTER. If this doesn't work, you will have to contact the supplier or Ahead support for assistance. You can also go to the Ahead Website and download the most up-to-date "CD-ROM.CFG" file, which contains the CD-RWs which Nero can recognise, to copy over your current one. There site is at: www.ahead.de Please note that from Nero 6.0 the Nero makers have been claiming that their latest auto-detect technology incorporated in the Nero program should automatically detect and be able to use any CD- RW/DVD-RW drive made since 1997 by any manufacturer. 7.28. Nero Preferences To view or make changes to customise some of Nero's main functions and preferences you can: 1. Press ESCAPE to get out of the Nero wizard or ISO compilation window and then press ALT F (for File), followed by F (for Preferences). 2. You will come into anything from a five to a nine property sheet multi-dialogue box, depending on your version of Nero. Some of the main features in here are: A. The "General" sheet: The first few controls are to do with Nero's various coloured level indicator markers. These are visual markers and you will probably not be able to see them, so, as they are not essential, you will more than likely want to leave these alone--particularly as it is possible that, if you make your screenreader read the markers line or Status Bar during a burn, you may cause the copying to be corrupted. The "Start with File Browser" is checked on by default and you may wish to leave this as it is or check it off, depending on your likes and your screenreader's ability to tell you what is happening with the browser on--experiment with off and on for yourself (in later versions of Nero the Browser option has its own property sheet, see H below). If your copy of Nero has a "Start With New Compilation" option, you may wish to press SPACEBAR on this to turn it off for less screen congestion. B. The "Cache" sheet: Note that the default caching location is c:\windows\temp. This can be changed by BACKSPACING and typing another path in but is probably best left where it is. The "Minimum Disk Space Reserved" option allows you to type in a smaller or larger hard disk cache in megabytes. Increasing this may speed up your burning and should make a problem-free burn more likely but takes up more space on your hard disk. If you press ENTER on the "Test All Drives" button you will discover the copying speeds of all of your drives and be able to place your cache on the hard disk which is the fastest, if you have more than one. The size of the cache only affects data burning. C. The "Language" sheet: This permits you to change the language which Nero is displayed in and also the "Choose Font" option permits you to change the type, colour and size of the font it uses on screen. D. The "Sounds" sheet: This is where, if your screenreader does not automatically read out some of the messages you get on screen, you can have it give you specific musical sounds to indicate what has happened, e.g. Checking all three of the controls in here will provide a trumpet sound to let you know that your burn was successful, a boo sound to let you know if it was unsuccessful and a dingdong sound to tell you to place a CD in the CD drawer. E. The "Expert Features" sheet: Here is where you can enable "over-burning" of CD disks but this is not recommended--see the warnings and conditions which Nero provides in this property sheet. The concept of over-burning does not mean that this has to be enabled for Nero to be able to copy to larger than 74 minute/650 Mb disks--it can do this anyway. It means that you are trying to get Nero to squeeze more burning space out of any size disk you are using, e.g. trying to get two or three more minutes space out of a standard 74 minute disk. F. The "Database" sheet (only available in Nero 5X): This lets you activate automatic loading of one or both of two CD details databases (see "Viewing and Entering Album and Tracks Details from Your Local Hard Disk Database (CDDB)" Above). G. The "Buffer" or "Ultra Buffer" sheet (only available in Nero 5X): The size of the buffer you have in RAM memory can determine the reliability of your burns. Mine was set at 20 Mb but if you have plenty of RAM, you could set it to, say, 80 Nb as I have now don on my computer but you should not exceed 40 per cent of your total memory or 80 Mb. My RAM is 256 MB. Otherwise, if you are unsure, leave it on its current setting or on "Auto". If you find that you are getting buffer underruns at higher copying speeds, increasing the buffer level may overcome this problem. Having said this, in the last couple of years, with modern Cd drives and burning software, buffer underruns are increasingly unlikely, because the technology now incorporates "burn proofing". H. The "File Browser" sheet (only set up in this way in Nero 5.5X or later): In here you might like to uncheck the "Start with File Browser" option to avoid screen clutter if you do not use this browser for selecting folders and files for pasting into the Compilation window. I. The "Dialogues" sheet (only available in Nero 5.5X or later): You are not likely to want to change anything in here. Note: To be able to view all of the details and changes in the above property sheets you may have to go into navigation or mouse mode. 7.29. An Alternative Method of Selecting Files or Whole Folders for Burning with Windows Explorer Another interesting way you can burn files to a Cd, DD CD or DVD with Nero is by first selecting individual files or whole directories/folders of files with Windows Explorer or My Computer using normal Windows highlighting/selecting methods and then copying these to the Clipboard. After this you launch Nero and then burn them using the standard Nero Wizard. You would do this by: 1. Launch Windows Explorer as usual by pressing WINDOWS LOGO KEY AND E. 2. Highlight the individual files or the whole folder of such files you wish to burn on your hard disk or on a CD using standard selecting methods, e.g. by holding the SHIFT key down as you ARROW past the consecutive files or folders you want to burn or hold down the CONTROL key and press SPACEBAR on the non- consecutive files or folders you would like to burn. If you want to use this method to burn the whole of the contents of a disk in your D: drive to a blank disk in your E: drive, in a similar way to cloning/copying a whole disk, just press CONTROL A at this stage to select everything on the disk. 3. Next copy your selections to the Clipboard by pressing CONTROL C. 4. Now launch Nero as normal and, using the Nero Wizard, go through the usual steps up to the "Finish" button. 5. After pressing ENTER on the "Finish" button in the Wizard do not do anything more, i.e. do not press any ARROW or any other keys, otherwise things will not work properly. 6. What you must do immediately now is press CONTROL V to paste the files or folders with their contents into the compilation window. Your screenreader may echo that this is taking place. 7. If you are burning audio tracks, you will now be able to ARROW up and down the list of tracks and can use standard cut, copy and paste shortcuts to move tracks to different positions in your audio compilation or get some of them duplicated if you like. However, this re-arranging of files is not possible if you are burning data files or MP3 files. 8. If you ARROW to the very top of your folders or files list, you will come onto the "New" editfield. This is, in fact, the CD title or what is known as the volume label. If you want to change this to something more meaningful, when it has focus, just press the F2 key to open up the editfield and then type your new CD title in, e.g. Music Disk 1, and press ENTER. 9. You now burn the files or folders as usual by pressing ALT F (for File) and then W (for Write CD) and wait for the process to complete. Note: This method of burning files (with the exception of that outlined above in "Burning Data Files via the File Browser", which works for data files only,not for audio files) is the only procedure I have found which will permit you to burn whole directories/folders of files or tracks and any sub-folders and files within them, in a non-drag-and-drop fashion. 7.30. Creating a CD from a .ISO File If you receive a file with a .ISO extension, you can copy it to CD by: 1. Launch Nero with the Nero Wizard running, ensure that "CD" is selected and press ENTER. 2. ARROW to "Compile a New CD" and press ENTER. 3. ARROW to "Other CD Formats" and press ENTER. 4. ARROW to "Create a CD from an Image file" and press ENTER. 5. Press ENTER on "Finish". 6. In the Open dialogue which appears, either type into the editfield you are in the precise path and filename of your .ISO file or SHIFT TAB back to "Look In" and navigate to the .ISO file in question and press ENTER. 7. Press ENTER on "Burn" to commence the burning to CD. 7.31. The Nero Help System 1. Context Sensitive Help: When you are on a menu option or in a dialogue box, pressing F1 will often provide context sensitive help but not always. Similarly, pressing F1 in a given window will advise you of what that window or browser does. 2. Help topics: You can open the full on-disk Nero manual by pressing ALT H (for Help( and then H again (for Help Topics). The "books" you can ARROW down mostly have sub-books or topics in them, so pressing right ARROW will open this tree structure up. Pressing ENTER on one of these topics will then open the text and it should be read to you. If it is not, pressing F6 may help or you may have to go into mouse mode to read it. To hear the next screen of text press the PAGE DOWN key and use PAGE UP to move back a screen. You press ESCAPE to leave the help text and re- enter it if you wish to hear more help topics. 3. Index Help: Nero also has the typical Windows-type of index searchable help. Again you press ALT H and then H again but then you press CONTROL TAB to move to the index editfield, where you type the word or words you wish to find. Then TAB once to the list of possible topics found, ARROW up and down them and press ENTER on any one to have it opened and displayed. You also press ESCAPE to leave this type of help. Note: The Index feature did not seem to work properly on my copy of Nero, so, unless I have a faulty CD, I think the reason may be that this feature actually uses PDF files, which are not very accessible to many screenreaders. 4. Readable files on the Nero installation CD: There are several .txt (Notepad) and .doc (Ms Word) files on the Nero CD plus an Acrobat reader and several .pdf files. These can particularly be found in: D:\nero\manuals\eng\ but there are several others elsewhere. Use Windows Find to discover more. 7.32. Nero Features Not Covered in this Manual Some capabilities which Nero has but which have not been demonstrated in this tutorial, either because they are less likely to be usable by visually impaired people or because they are minority features or cannot be accessed via the keyboard and screenreaders are: 1. HFS CDs (Apple Mac formatting. 2. Hybrid CDs (Apple Mac and IBM clone formats mixed). 3. UDF CDs (for very large file sizes to go onto more than one Cd or DVD). Nero can burn UDF formats but does not have full support for them. 4. CD-ROM boot disks. You can make one of these on a floppy disk from within Windows. 5. Mixed mode disks. There appears to be no way of creating a mixed mode CD by use of the keyboard. You can only do this if you are able to see sufficiently to use drag and drop. In this case, the hard copy and online manuals instruct you on how to do this. 6. A number of more exotic and less frequently used hybrid CDs with mixed file systems. 7.33. Nero Burning-ROM Shortcut Keys Press ALT AND ENTER: To obtain a readout of the properties of any particular file, program, drive letter, etc, which currently has focus. Press ALT F4: To shut Nero down. Press ESCAPE: To leave the compilation window, e.g. the ISO or Nero Wizard window, and obtain access to the menu bar. ESCAPE also closes Nero online Help Topics. Press F1: To obtain context-sensitive help in many situations. Press F5: To refresh the screen if the view seems to be irregular. Press CONTROL A: To select all of the files or tracks in a particular folder. Press CONTROL E: To eject a CD from the drawer. Press CONTROL F: To search files in the current active compilation by such as title, artist, etc. Press CONTROL F4: To close one of the open compilation windows if you have more than one open and do not need it. Press CONTROL I: To reveal information about the CD currently inserted in the CD drive. Press CONTROL N: To open a new ISO or Nero Wizard compilation window. Press CONTROL O: To open an already created and saved compilation template file. Press CONTROL P: To send what is on the screen to your printer. Press CONTROL R: To open the CD Recorder dialogue box to choose between burning from CD-ROM to CD-RW and burning from CD-RW to an image and then back to the CD-RW drive. Press CONTROL S: To save a new compilation template or resave an amended template over the old one. The standard Windows editing commands of cut, copy, paste and undo are also available. ******** >SECTION 8 NERO MEDIA PLAYER VERSION 1.103 8.1. Introduction Well, having burnt some CDs, you are likely to want to play them. You can, of course, use any of dozens of players, such as your car or stereo HI-FI system, Windows Media Player, Winamp, RealPlayer, etc, but newer versions of Nero come with their own basic audio player called Nero Media Player. It can play .WAV, MP3 and several other file types from compact disks, from your hard disk and from the Internet. 8.2. System Requirements To run Nero Media Player you will need: 1. A Pentium 90 or better--presumably a Pentium 120 if you are running a screenreader. 2. 16 Mb of RAM. 3. 8 Mb of spare hard disk space. 4. Windows 95, 98 or NT4. 5. A sound card. 6. A supported CD-RW drive. 8.3. Installation The media player installation is straightforward, as follows: 1. With the Windows Run option or Windows Explorer, run the setup.exe file, which is on the installation disk at: d:\Player\setup.exe 2. The install shield wizard loads in and you come onto a welcome screen. Press ENTER as you are on the "Next" button. 3. Now you get the licence agreement, so press TAB to "Yes" and press ENTER. 4. The program will install into the folder: c:\Program Files\Ahead\Nero Media Player\Nero Media Player.exe 5. TAB to "Next" and press ENTER to commence the installation, which will only take a minute or two. 6. You will be asked if you want to reboot your Pc and be on the "Yes" button, so press ENTER to do this. 8.4. Launching Nero Media Player To start the Media Player running you would press Windows Logo key, then P (for Programs), then N a few times (for Nero Media Player) and, lastly, press the ENTER key. The window view which loads in is not very screenreader-friendly. It uses a typical (but simplified) default Winamp screen and file menu system. Therefore, if you know how to use Winamp, you know how to use most of Nero's Media Player. 8.5. File Types Media Player can play Version 1.103 of the Media Player can play WAV, audio CD, CDA, M3U, MP3, PLS and VQF files. If you wish, you can make Media Player the default player for any or all of these audio file formats. 8.6. The Nero Media Player Menu System Nero Media Player has a simple initial one menu menu bar. Just press the ALT key to enter this. 2. Up and down ARROW through the menu list and note that, other than the "Nero Media Player!" option, it is very similar to a typical Windows Control Menu. It has the screen maximised as its default. 3. Press ENTER on the "Nero Media Player!" option to open another single menu list. 4. ARROW through all of the features in this second menu list. Some of them have sub-menus and dialogue boxes of there own. This should give you some idea of Media Player's features and shortcuts. Note: If you wish to go directly to this second menu, you can do so via the Context Menu by pressing SHIFT F10 and then ARROWING up and down the options and pressing ENTER on any one of them. 8.7. Playing Single or Multiple Audio Files To Play a HI-FI or MP3 music or speech file: 1. Launch Media Player as above or from your Desktop if you have placed a shortcut there. 2. Press ALT, ARROW down once and press ENTER followed by ARROWing down once more and again Pressing ENTER to bring up the "PlayList" dialogue box. Now you have to tell Media Player where to find an audio file to play. This could be on a CD disk in your CD-ROM drive or in a folder on your hard disk, for example. 3. You will fall in the "Filename" text box. Just TAB forward to "Files of Type" and ARROW up and down these to see the types of audio files Media Player can play. Choose the type of file extension appropriate to the type of file you want to play, otherwise leave it on "All Supported Files". 4. Next SHIFT TAB back three times to a list of your drives and main folders. ARROW to your C drive if you know where there is an audio file on there to play and navigate to it in the normal way; otherwise, with a CD of HI-FI music tracks or MP3 files, ARROW to your D or E drive, wherever the disk is inserted. 5. TAB forward once to the list of files in the hard disk folder or on the Cd and place focus on the track you would like to hear, then highlight it with CONTROL SPACEBAR. 6. You are now set to hear the file, so TAB to "Open" and press ENTER to activate it. The file will commence playing. 7. If you go back into the PlayList, you will find that the path to the file you have just played is remembered and retained by Media Player, so you could easily hear more audio files from here, if any more exist. 8. In 5 above, if you had of wanted to hear all of the tracks on a CD or in a folder, you could have pressed CONTROL A to highlight them all for playing rather than just putting focus on one track. You could have also highlighted specific non- contiguous tracks for playing by holding the CONTROL key down whilst ARROWING through the tracks and pressing the SPACEBAR on those tracks you wish to hear. 9. The keys on the left side of the bottom row on the keyboard allow you to manoeuvre whilst a track is playing as follows: Press z: To jump to the Previous track. Press X: To play/restart/unpause a track. Press C: To pause and unpause a track. Press V: to stop playing a track. Press B: To jump to the next track. 9. When you have finished with Media Player, press ALT F4 to exit the program. 8.8. Playing MP3 Tracks from the Internet If you know of any specific MP3 files, either songs, news files, spoken tutorials, etc, you can be taken online and have them played to you. Do this by: 1. Press CONTROL L to enter the "locations" dialogue. 2. Type in the URL (Website address and filename) of the MP3 file you wish to hear, e.g.: http://www.mp3.com/albatross.mp3. 3. TAB to the "Open" button and press ENTER. 4. You will be taken onto the Net via your default Internet browser, e.g. Internet Explorer, and the file will be played. 8.9. Playing Streaming Audio Radio from the Internet If you want to hear a continuous radio station on the Internet: 1. Launch Media Player. 2. Press CONTROL L and type in the editfield the radio station's location address, e.g.: http://166.90.143.149:10998 and press ENTER. 3. You will hear the Radio Caroline radio station from this location, after a short delay whilst the audio fills Media Player's buffer. 8.10. Making Personal Tone Changes in The Media Player Graphic Equalizer To make personal adjustments in bass and treble of a sound file: 1. You should be able to press CONTROL G but this did not work when I tried it. Therefore, if it doesn't work for you, press ALT, ARROW down once and press ENTER. 2. Then ARROW down again to "Equalizer" and press ENTER. 3. The graphics equalizer is pretty rudimentary and you may not get any accurate speech feedback whilst making changes. To reduce the effect of the equalizer, press the up ARROW key several times; down ARROW increases it. 4. Now press ESCAPE to leave the equalizer. You may only be able to check what change you have made by going back into the equalizer dialogue box to hear the setting which is now displayed. At the time you are making the change, the new value may not get echoed in speech. 5. Now press C to recommence playing of your sound file if you paused it. 6. Whether or not these equaliser adjustments make much difference to the tone of the sound you are playing will very much depend on the quality of your sound card and speakers. 8.11. Media Player Preferences You can observe and make changes to Media Player's default preferences but, from a screenreader point of view, many of these changes make no difference, as the screen remains largely inaccessible. To see what is in here: 1. Press CONTROL P or SHIFT F10 and ARROW to "Options" to enter the preferences sheet. 2. You can TAB through and have the Media Player minimised to the System Tray if you like, have tool tips on or off, have tracks fade in or out over a given number of seconds (just press SPACEBAR to check fading on and type the number of seconds fade you would like up to a maximum of 9 in the editfield on the next line), etc. 3. When finished, TAB to "Close" and press ENTER. 8.12. The Media Player Context Menu You can bring up a Context Menu of most of the more common commands to perform on a track/file by: 1. Go into the PlayList by pressing ALT, ARROW down once, press ENTER and then ARROW down again and press ENTER on "Play List". 2. SHIFT TAB to the files/tracks list and lace the focus on one of the sound or speech files and highlight it by pressing CONTROL SPACEBAR. 3. Press SHIFT F10 to open the Context Menu for that file. 4. Now ARROW up and down the various options. Many of the commands are obvious but some of the less obvious things you can do on the selected file are in the following options: A. "Open With": This command allows you to choose from many programs to open your file with. If the file is an MP3 file, you will, of course, have to select an MP3 playing program. If you check the "Always Use This Program . . ." box, only the program you chose above will be able to open such a file in future. It is probably not a good idea to do this therefore, as you may disable other MP3 players from playing files with an .MP3 extension. B. "Add to ZIP": This launches Winzip (if you have it) and permits you to convert the file to a .zip file, possibly for later uploading to the Internet. C. "Send To": This has a sub-menu which permits you do perform operations such as sending the file to a floppy disk, to the clipboard, to your Desktop as a shortcut, to someone as an attachment by e-mail, etc. 8.13. Sending an MP3 File as an E-Mail Attachment As mentioned above (in option C), you can send a music or speech file as an e-mail attachment. After performing the above steps your e-mail client, e.g. Outlook Express, Netscape, Eudora, etc, will automatically load and you will be at the "To:" field. Just complete the e-mail headers as normal. The "Subject:" line will already be completed for you. The MP3 file will be automatically attached as usual. You need only TAB to the message body field and type in your accompanying message before sending it to the recipients in the normal way. Warning: Sound files can be very large and may therefore take a long time to up load and download. If the recipient does not want the file you send, he/she may not be very happy that you made them run up their phone bill downloading it. 8.14. Nero Media Player Shortcut keys Press F1: To get context sensitive help but you have to have the "Nero Media Player.hlp" file installed. Press F4: To exit the Media Player. Press z: To jump to the Previous track. Press X: To play/restart/unpause a track. Press C: To pause and unpause a track. Press V: to stop playing a track. Press B: To jump to the next track. Press ALT G: To toggle the Graphic Equalizer window on and off. Press CONTROL L: to open the "Play Location" dialogue box to play a sound file or radio station from the Internet. Press CONTROL P: To enter the preferences property sheet. Press CONTROL T: to toggle on and off time elapsed and remaining for the current track. ******** >APPENDIX 1 AHEAD SUPPORT FOR NERO For support, enquiries or technical problems you can contact the makers of Nero, who are called Ahead. They are at: E-mail: support@ahead.de Fax: ++49 724 8911888 Website: www.ahead.de Note: The Ahead support e-mail facility only elicits an automatic response from a computer, not from a person. It tells you to go to their Website and look up answers to your problem/question there. If you cannot find what you want, there is said to be an e-mail link on the Website which you can use to send an e-mail which will reach a member of staff. Other e-mail contact points are: sales@nero.com suggestions@nero.com ******** >APPENDIX 2 LIST OF NERO SHORTCUT KEYSTROKES 1. Nero Burning-ROM Press ALT AND ENTER: To obtain a readout of the properties of any particular file, program, drive letter, etc, which currently has focus. Press ALT F4: To shut Nero down. Press ESCAPE: To leave the compilation window, e.g. the ISO or Nero Wizard window, and obtain access to the menu bar. ESCAPE also closes Nero online Help Topics. Press F1: To obtain context-sensitive help in many situations. Press F5: To refresh the screen if the view seems to be irregular. Press CONTROL A: To select all of the files or tracks in a particular folder. Press CONTROL E: To eject a CD from the drawer. Press CONTROL F: To search files in the current active compilation by such as title, artist, etc. Press CONTROL F4: To close one of the open compilation windows if you have more than one open and do not need it. Press CONTROL I: To reveal information about the CD currently inserted in the CD drive. Press CONTROL N: To open a new ISO or Nero Wizard compilation window. Press CONTROL O: To open an already created and saved compilation template file. Press CONTROL P: To send what is on the screen to your printer. Press CONTROL R: To open the CD Recorder dialogue box to choose between burning from CD-ROM to CD-RW and burning from CD-RW to an image on your hard disk and then back to the CD-RW drive. Press CONTROL S: To save a compilation template or resave an amended template. The standard Windows editing commands of cut, copy, paste and undo are also available. 2. Nero Media Player Press F1: To get context sensitive help but you have to have the "Nero Media Player.hlp" file installed. Press F4: To exit the Media Player. Press z: To jump to the Previous track. Press X: To play/restart/unpause a track. Press C: To pause and unpause a track. Press V: to stop playing a track. Press B: To jump to the next track. Press ALT G: To toggle the Graphic Equalizer window on and off. Press CONTROL L: to open the "Play Location" dialogue box to play a sound file or radio station from the Internet. Press CONTROL P: To enter the preferences property sheet. Press CONTROL T: to toggle on and off time elapsed and remaining for the current track. ******** >APPENDIX 3 OTHER TUTORIALS BY THIS AUTHOR All of the below titles are available as plain text files as downloads from my Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard Tutorial titles and brief descriptions 1. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 1, covering Web and e-mail protocols, Web Search engines, navigating the Internet with Internet Explorer 5.0/5.5/6.0, e-mailing with Outlook Express 5.0/5.5/6.0, Downloading files and programs from the Net, using a range of Internet search engines, Joining Internet newsgroups with Free Agent 1.92, configuration and hints and tips for screenreader users, and much more. 2. "Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard", Volume 2, covering hints and customisation, Download Managers, Online Auctions, Internet Chat Rooms, RealAudio, Internet Shopping and Internet Banking. 3. A selection of separate and individual manuals instructing visually impaired people how to use off-the-shelf print scanning/reading programs via screenreaders and the keyboard, including TextBridge Pro 98, TextBridge Pro 9 and Millennium, Omnipage Pro 10, 11 and 12, ReadIRIS Pro 6, TypeReader Pro 6 and Abby FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7. Each scanner tutorial is an independent manual in its own right. For example, the titles of the principal two of these scanner tutorials are entitled: "Using OmniPage Pro 10, 11 and 12 from the Keyboard to Scan Print" and "Using FineReader Pro 5, 6 and 7 from the Keyboard to Scan Print". 4. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 1. This covers Easy CD Creator 4, Sound forge 4.5, Windows Media Player 6, Windows Recorder, Winamp 2.72, Freerip.mp3, RealPlayer 8 Basic, and much more. 5. "Audio Playing, Copying and Sound Editing From the Keyboard", Edition 2. This covers Winamp 5.0X, GoldWave audio editor 5.06, CDEX ripper 1.51, Basics of burning with Nero 5.5 and much more introductory and general sound-related information. 6. "Nero Burning-ROM Versions 4,5 and 5.5 from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 3.3 and Nero Media Player). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero Wizard, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 7. "Nero Burning-ROM 6 Ultra and Enterprise Editions from the Keyboard" (includes Nero INCD 4). This covers burning of data and audio CDs and DVDs withe Nero Burning-ROM and the Nero StartSmart interfaces, Saving and reopening compilation templates, Using Nero online help, burning/cloning whole hard disks and partitions or folders to CD or DVD, converting MP3 files to other formats, ripping sound files to MP3 or MP3 Pro files, a good deal of specific configuration and general information on CD and DVD burning drives and CD and DVD disks, using Windows Volume Control, and much more. 8. "Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". This takes spreadsheet users from the beginner stages of Excel through much intermediate material and also covers a few more advanced features. It will give you the skills to use Excel for home accounting purposes, for keeping self-employed small business records and for use in the employment workplace. 9. "Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002/XP from the Keyboard". This is a tutorial instructing on how to use the richly-featured suite of programs which is a must for anyone seeking employment or wanting to do advanced e-mailing or calendar and other related tasks at home or at work. It covers all of the main features of MS Outlook and many other more technical topics. Covered is: E-mailing, Calendar, Journal, Tasks, Notes, Contacts, arranging appointments and meetings, searching, plus customising Outlook for visually impaired and blind users and appendices of Outlook general shortcuts and HAL, JAWS AND Window-Eyes hot keys and much more. 10. "Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002 and 2003 from the Keyboard". Available as a plain text file and instructs on how to use over 45 separate skills in these powerful leading word-processors for use at home or in the workplace to make you highly productive and efficient. ******** The End.