C. Loading Songs Onto Your Handheld

Once you have started Song Loader, along the left side of the screen the All Folders window will display all of the folders in your computer. In the middle of the screen, the Available MIDI Files window will display any MIDI files in these folders. Double-click on a folder and all MIDI files contained in that folder will be displayed in the Available MIDI Files window. If the folder you selected contains subfolders, you must open each individual subfolder to view its MIDI files. Once you have opened a folder containing MIDI files you can begin creating Books of songs!




The Books contain all of the songs that will be available to the ittyMIDI Player once you install them onto the hand-held device. To add songs to the currently selected Book in Song Loader, choose the folder you would like to select MIDI files from, as described above. All MIDI files in this directory will then be displayed in the Available MIDI Files window. Select the song, or songs, you want to add to the Book and click Add.


Once you have compiled a Book, you can install that Book to a particular user's Palm data base on your PC by clicking on the Install Button. Most people only have one Palm user per PC but humor us by selecting your name when asked. The next time you HotSync, this Book will be added to your handheld. If you have added or deleted files from the Book, the Song Loader will warn you before exiting if you do not Install them to the data base on the PC.

For those handhelds with an expansion card slot (such as Sony Clies and higher-end Palms) ittyMIDI Player now allows books to be located in extended memory. If you have Palm OS® 4.0, you can install databases directly into extended memory. First, create and install a Book as you normally would. Before you HotSync, use the install tool that comes with Palm Desktop to select the desired location of installation.

At the bottom right of the screen is the memory display, which tells you how big the Book is in kilobytes. You can measure this against how much available space you have on your handheld to determine whether or not the Book is too big.

Like most Windows programs, SongLoader does not like having data change underneath it. If you insert a new floppy disk in your floppy disk drive, press the <F5> to refresh the screen.

Most people like this program so much that they leave it open all the time. However, an Exit button is provided in case of emergency.