StationPlaylist Scripts User Guide

JAWS Scripts for StationPlaylist Studio and Associated Products V6.1

Copyright 2024, Hartgen Consultancy

Introduction

Thank you for using the JAWS scripts for StationPlaylist Studio and associated products.

StationPlaylist Studio is a simple to use on-air broadcast automation playout software package for the studio and/or DJ. It plays all your media files with manual or intelligent automatic crossfading. It can play jingles, commercials, news and songs. Live streams, live inputs from your soundcard, satellite feeds and so on. It includes an Internet stream encoder, voice track/song ramp overlapping, microphone button with music fade, many automation and Live Assist features such as cart slots for instant jingles, and much more.

Sttation Playlist Studio is an extremely accessible application. Almost all of the functions can be activated using the keyboard. However, as with many applications, it is useful to have keystrokes to read important parts of the screen succinctly or to hear pertinent information automatically. Particularly in a broadcasting situation where gaining an awareness of what is happening quickly is imperative, these powerful scripts provide productivity enhancements so you can concentrate more on what is happening in your programme rather than using the JAWS screen review mode to locate the information you need.

This document is designed to run in your web browser of choice which is useful so you can refer to it while keeping StationPlaylist Studio open at the same time.

Using the JAWS scripts, we believe that we have by far the most accessible and usable environment for broadcasting. Many of the features described in this document have been suggested by users of the product.

When Studio is configured appropriately as described below, you do not have to assign any keystrokes. They are all described here precisely.

The StationPlaylist Studio scripts contain:

Every effort has been made to ensure that the configuration of all options is kept simple.

Please note that where we refer to “The JAWS Key”, typically using the Desktop layout this is the Insert key and with the laptop layout it is the Caps Lock key.

This documentation does not teach you how to use StationPlaylist. The documentation accompanying StationPlaylist Studio is excellent and a mailing list is available, (details of which are given at the end of this User Guide), through which people are willing to answer questions. This User Guide only describes the special JAWS functions which have been created as part of the scripts.

If you wish to learn how to use the StationPlaylist products in combination with JAWS, please Purchase our comprehensive audio tutorial!
An updated series of Audio Tutorials is also available.

Technical Support

Should you require Technical Support or guidance in the use of these scripts, this can be obtained by sending an e-mail message to jaws@hartgen.org.

Additional support can be provided to licence holders through a discussion Email list. If you would like to be added to the list, (for the purposes of receiving support or suggesting features for future upgrades), please send a message to jaws@hartgen.org.

Installation

The JAWS scripts for the application have been tested with StationPlaylist Studio and Creator version 5.0 and 6.0 series in conjunction with JAWS version 20 through to 2024. Later versions of JAWS are likely to function more optimally.

You can download the installation program for the StationPlaylist Studio scripts (and obtain the latest information development of them) from this website

Quick Install

For a quick and easy installation, please follow the steps below, whether you are upgrading your existing scripts or installing them for the first time. Prior to proceeding with the installation of a new build, you can make a backup of your JAWS settings in the event you wish to restore them at a later date. With StationPlaylist Studio in focus, press the Grave Accent key, followed by Control+Shift+B. Into the Edit Field now in focus, type the drive letter for the backup, such as “C”, then press Enter. Do not add a colon to the drive letter.

When the backup is complete, on the specified drive you will find a folder entitled “JAWSScripts”, inside which will be a sub-folder with the settings files pertaining to the JAWS version which was being used at the time of the backup.

To say again, this backup procedure is an optional step you may wish to take and is by no means essential. Please proceed now with the installation of the scripts.

  1. Launch the executable file you have downloaded from the Internet.
  2. The next screen is the “Licence Agreement”. Be sure to read this agreement as proceeding with the installation assumes you agree with its terms and conditions. You can read the agreement in the focused Edit Box with the Up and Down Arrow keys. Assuming you accept the terms of the agreement, press Tab to reach the two Radio Buttons, and press Down Arrow until the “Accept” Radio Button is selected. Press Enter to proceed.
  3. Press Enter repeatedly to move through the screens. You will be requested to select the version of JAWS into which the scripts should be installed. Arrow down to select the required JAWS version and press Enter to accept.
  4. The next screen requires that you select a language folder into which the scripts should be installed. Press the Down Arrow key until “US English” is selected, although this should be the default option. Press Enter to proceed.
  5. The next screen confirms the location where the scripts will be installed on the computer. This is important for those people using JAWS in “Roaming Mode”.
  6. After a pause of a few seconds, the “Finish” screen will be brought into view. Press Enter to activate the “Finish” Button.
  7. When prompted, please restart the computer. If you do not wish to restart the computer, simply select the Radio button to confirm this is not what you wish to do. Restarting JAWS, however, will then be necessary.

Please note that, unlike older versions of the scripts, it is no longer necessary for the installer to make modifications to the JAWS default files, nor is this required to be done manually. However, the final stage in the process is to launch StationPlaylist Studio for the necessary keystrokes to be written to the default files. Please go ahead and do this now. The keystrokes will quickly be written in the background and will take less than a second to achieve.

Activating the Scripts

Please start the StationPlaylist Studio program, usually by activating a shortcut on the Windows desktop.
After a short pause, the scripts will check the Hartgen Consultancy server to determine whether or not an activation file for the product is available for you. This is based on your JAWS for Windows serial number.

If an activation file is not found, a Dialog Box will appear with an “OK” Button in focus, stating that an activation file could not be found.
you will then hear messages periodically given, stating that the scripts are running in “Demonstration Mode”.

“Demonstration Mode” is designed as a temporary measure to allow you to use JAWS so as to contact us to alert us to the fact that there is a problem.

If an activation file is found, it will automatically be downloaded to your computer and placed in the correct location on the machine. You will be advised of this with the words “Product Activated.

If you have purchased an activation file, and you find that the scripts are operating in “Demonstration Mode”, please contact Hartgen Consultancy immediately, whereupon a manual activation file can be sent to you with instructions relating to where the file should be placed.

Please note: You can install the scripts onto multiple machines provided the same JAWS serial number is being used. In other words, JAWS must be activated with the same serial number on each of the computers to host the scripts .

Checking for Product Updates

You can check for updates to the scripts at any time by pressing the StationPlaylist Key then Control+Shift+U when focused within the StationPlaylist Studio program.

If no updates are available you will be advised of this.

If an update is available, it will be downloaded and applied to your JAWS settings. This should take less than 30 seconds.

When the update is complete, JAWS will be restarted. Should the JAWS restart fail for any reason, it is quite safe to do it manually or restart the computer instead.

Updating the scripts in this way will mean that any settings you have previously configured within the scripts are not affected.

Critical Changes to StationPlaylist Studio

In order for some functions of the scripts to work correctly, it is necessary to make some changes within StationPlaylist Studio itself.

  1. Launch StationPlaylist Studio, usually from the Shortcut on the Windows Desktop.
  2. Press Control+O for “Options”.
  3. You should now be focused on the “User” Tabbed Page.
  4. Press the Tab key repeatedly until you reach a Check box for “Accessibility Mode”.
  5. Press the Space Bar to check the box.
  6. Press the Tab key to reach the “Background Colour” Button and press the Space Bar to activate it.
  7. This is an inaccessible Dialog Box so please be careful. Press the Right Arrow key at least eight times. The rows in this table do not wrap, so you can press the key more times if you need to.
  8. Press the Space Bar.
  9. Press the Enter key which will set the background colour to White instead of Black.
  10. Press Escape to close the “Options” Dialog Box.
  11. Press ALT+Control+X to close down StationPlaylist Studio.
  12. Start the StationPlaylist Studio program again in the usual way.

If you wish to reset all script settings to their defaults, with StationPlaylist Studio in focus press Insert+V to access the Verbosity options, and press the Space Bar on the item which invites you to reset all settings.

Getting Help

This User Guide can be found by pressing JAWS Key+F1 from within StationPlaylist Studio. A list of keystrokes is available by pressing Insert+H or (if using the JAWS laptop layout) Control+Shift+Caps Lock+H.

There are a number of additional ways to obtain immediate help.

A Note About Braille

All messages which are spoken by JAWS and which are described below are automatically output to a Braille display if you have one. Where “Flash Messages” have been used, the prefix denoting the type of message has been disabled so as to conserve space on the display.

Additional Braille-related special functions are described later in this document.

The Role of the StationPlaylist Key

In order to avoid keyboard conflicts with other applications, we have adopted a layered key approach with the StationPlaylist scripts to support many of the functions. The concept is that you press a key on the keyboard, release it, then press another key to execute the function.

The key we have chosen for this purpose is the Grave Accent key. On a standard desktop computer keyboard, this is situated to the immediate left of figure 1 on the numbers row.

For example, to hear the number of listeners who are hearing your internet stream, press the StationPlaylist (Grave Accent) key, release it, then press the letter L. Following the pressing of the StationPlaylist key, if sounds are enabled you will hear a “beep” sound to indicate the key has been pressed. If sounds are disabled, the word “Studio” is spoken instead.

Please note that occasionally, it may be necessary to press the Insert key in combination with the StationPlaylist key. We will fully describe when this is required.

Sounds to Indicate Events

Many people prefer sounds to be played as a substitute for hearing speech prompts. There are a number of key areas within the scripts for StationPlaylist Studio where sounds can be set to convey important information.

To enable the playing of sounds:

  1. Press JAWS Key+V to bring into view the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box.
  2. Press Down Arrow until you reach the option entitled “Sounds”.
  3. If JAWS says sounds are disabled, press the Space Bar to enable this option.
  4. Press Enter to save the settings.

To learn what the different sounds mean, try our “Sounds Tutorial”. Press the StationPlaylist Key, then Control+Shift+T. This brings into view a list of Links. The text on each Link is a description of what happens when a particular sound plays. Press Enter on the Link to hear the sound. Press Escape to return to StationPlaylist Studio.

Please note some of the sounds contained within the scripts are under copyright and should not be distributed and used in other projects.

Muting Speech.

Should you wish to use StationPlaylist Studio (and all of your applications without speech but with Braille support), press Insert+Space followed by ALT+S. This is a toggle action. Pressing it again will unmute the audio.

When speech is muted, you will hear a click sound to denote this fact. Note that if JAWS or the computer are restarted, speech will return which is a safety mechanism.

Playlist Viewer

The Playlist Viewer is the hub of the StationPlaylist Studio application into which you insert your music tracks, Spot Groups, Voice Tracks and more. This is typically achieved using the “Insert” Dialog (Control+I), or by pasting from File Explorer. When the item is copied with Control+C from File Explorer, focus upon StationPlaylist Studio’s Playlist Viewer and press ALT+P.

The best way to learn how to work with the Playlist Viewer is by working through the exercises in our audio tutorial. However, in brief, use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move through the items you have placed there. First letter navigation is not possible.
If you wish to move tracks or items within a Playlist, you can use standard cut, copy and paste commands. Alternatively, use ALT+Control+Up Arrow to move a track up in the Playlist and ALT+Control+Down Arrow to move it down.

The following is a brief description of all the options available in the Playlist Viewer window supporting tracks and Playlists.

Extended Screen-Reading Mode

Ordinarily, when tracks are displayed, pressing Up and Down Arrow keys will cause JAWS to read the text on screen, usually the artist name (if it exists) and song title. JAWS will in addition announce if the item is Checked or Unchecked. Press the Space Bar to change the status. If you have a Braille display, when a Check box is checked you will see an appropriate sign on the display which is very helpful when broadcasting.

However, it is often important to hear additional information relating to the track, and so a function has been provided entitled Extended Screen-Reading mode. This mode can be activated by:

Changing the status of the mode is permanent and will remain in place even if the computer is re-started until it is changed again.

When Extended Scrreen-reading Mode is enabled, pressing Up and Down Arrow keys will cause the following information to be announced including column headers:

The same information is output if the Say Line command is used, (JAWS Key+Up Arrow).

It is suggested that you use this mode only if you really need to as it is quite verbose. It is used primarily for confirmation purposes.

Hearing Column Titles

Ordinarily, as you move through the items in the Playlist Viewer, JAWS will speak details of the focused item automatically. JAWS will speak the artist name (if it exists) , the song title and whether the item is checked or unchecked.

If you wish to hear the details of just one column, press Control+Insert+1 through to Control+Insert+6. JAWS will report the column header and then the details, such as “Artist, The Beatles”. Press any one of the six keys twice quickly to send the information about the column to the Virtual Viewer for closer inspection, such as to check the spelling of an artist name or song title.

Please note as reported previously, StationPlaylist Studio provides 18 columns for the focused item and keystrokes are not available to read all of these. Users of StationPlaylist Studio prior to 5.1 are used to the most important elements of a track being displayed, and so the keystrokes of Control+Insert+1 through to Control+Insert+6 do not necessarily represent the physical location of the columns on screen. Instead, they output data which could be important for quick review when broadcasting. These are:

  1. The artist or group name;
  2. The track title;
  3. The track duration
  4. The intro time if it exists;
  5. The category type, such as Spot or Manual Track;
  6. The full path to the file containing the track.

If you wish to view the items in the remaining columns, you should use “Enhanced Arrow Key” mode on a temporary basis. Please refer to the section of this User Guide relating to “Enhanced Arrow Key Mode”. Alternatively, press ALT+Control+Right Arrow repeatedly until the appropriate column is reached.

Hearing the Status of Check Boxes First

When JAWS recites information relating to each item in a Playlist, the status of the Check Box pertaining to it is announced last. If you are in a hurry and wish to find something quickly, this can slow you down. An option is available to announce the status of the Check Box first before any other information. This function operates whether Extended Screen-Reading mode is enabled or disabled.

This mode can be activated by:

Changing the status of the mode is permanent and will remain in place even if the computer is re-started until it is changed again.

Hearing the Status of Categories

As you move through a Playlist, it could be important to hear whether an item is a Track, Spot or whether it belongs to a specified Category, such as those generated through StationPlaylist Creator. JAWS can be set to advise you of this.

This mode can be activated by:

Changing the status of the mode is permanent and will remain in place even if the computer is re-started until it is changed again.

Hearing Top and Bottom of List Notifications

As you move through a Playlist, it could be helpful to hear when you have reached the top or the bottom of the list. By default, JAWS is set to play a sound (if sounds are enabled), or speak a message, when you have reached the top or the bottom of the list.

This mode can be activated or deactivated from the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box, activated with the JAWS Key+V.

Changing the status of the mode is permanent and will remain in place even if the computer is re-started until it is changed again.

Enhanced Arrow Keys

As you look at a Playlist displayed in StationPlaylist Studio, as described previously visually it is divided into 18 columns:

If you have a lengthy Playlist, it may be helpful just to hear the information contained within one column, such as track titles only. To accomplish this, you should enable Enhanced Arrow Keys.

Enhanced Arrow Keys can be activated by:

Changing the status of the mode is permanent and will remain in place even if the computer is re-started until it is changed again.

Note that enabling and disabling the Enhanced Arrow Keys has been placed on a keystroke which can easily be pressed with the left hand as it is possible you will want to change the status of this function quickly.

When Enhanced Arrow Keys are enabled, the four Arrow Keys, together with the Home, End, Control+Home and Control+End keys have the following effect:

To hear all the titles in a Playlist only as you press Up or Down Arrow keys:

  1. Press Control together with the stationPlaylist Key and JAWS will announce that the Enhanced Arrow Keys are enabled.
  2. When focused within a Playlist, press Right Arrow until JAWS announces that the title field is active.
  3. Press Down Arrow repeatedly to hear all the titles in the Playlist.

If there is no data in a column, such as “Intro”, JAWS will say “blank”.

Column Browsing in the Playlist Viewer

This feature is similar to Enhanced Arrow Key Mode except that you do not need to enable and disable the feature while viewing items in a playlist. The standard JAWS Table Navigation keys are used instead.

To hear all the titles in a Playlist only as you press Up or Down Arrow keys:

  1. When focused within a Playlist, press ALT+Control+Right Arrow until JAWS announces that the title field is active.
  2. Press ALT+Control+Down Arrow repeatedly to hear all the titles in the Playlist.

If there is no data in a column, such as “Intro”, JAWS will say “blank”.

Quick Navigation Mode.

You may have noticed when browsing the playlist that the response time is reasonably slow, from the time you strike the Up or Down Arrow key to the response given by JAWS. This applies to whichever screen-reader is being used. This is because the track or item needs to be highlighted prior to JAWS announcing the information.

However, this is not ideal for screen-reader users and is not the way in which blind people want to work. A preferable method of working would be to “skim” down the items in a playlist so as to review what is present, especially in a busy radio show where you may wish to move items around quickly. Meet Quick Navigation mode.

To enable Quick Navigation mode, press Insert+Z. This has five states:

  1. Speak Title, Artist and Length. With this mode enabled, moving through the playlist will cause JAWS to speak the item artist, title and duration.
  2. Artist and Title Only. Activating this mode causes only the item artist and title to be spoken.
  3. Speak Title, Artist, Length and Intro. With this mode enabled, moving through the playlist will cause JAWS to speak the item artist, title, duration and introduction value if it exists.
  4. Speak Title, Artist and Intro. With this mode enabled, moving through the playlist will cause JAWS to speak the item artist, title and introduction value if it exists.
  5. Default behaviour previously described.

The concept is that you press Insert+Z to bring into view a List Box of all the items discussed above. Each one has a number associated with it, so you can now either press the number associated with the item you prefer, or press Down Arrow to reach the one required. Press Enter to select an item. The mode will stay in place even if you restart JAWS.

Now, quickly press the Up or Down Arrow keys to move through the playlist. You will notice that the response time is much faster. In most cases, once you have set the relevant mode with Insert+Z, you will forget it.

We need to do a little explaining as to what happens when one of the Quick Navigation modes are enabled.

The moment a playlist is loaded, or it regains focus, JAWS takes a snapshot of the playlist contents. When you move through the playlist with the Up and Down Arrow keys, the screen-reader will announce the previous or next item. The focus at that point has not moved to the item itself. You are only hearing about it, (or reading it in Braille), which enables you to move up or down quickly. If you stop moving for a short period of time, (the default value is three seconds), the item in the playlist which has been spoken is focused within Studio, which means you can perform any action on it, such as playing it by pressing Enter, copying it to the clipboard with Control+C, etc.

We have tried to anticipate anyone who is slightly impatient and wishes to perform an action on an item without waiting for a short time for it to gain focus. If for example you hear an item’s title and do not wait, but you press Control+C instead, we will automatically force the focus to that item and carry out the copy action. Playing an item has special significance. If you arrow to an item and press Enter without waiting the required three seconds, Studio will play out the item almost instantaneously.

So what happens if you would prefer that Studio focuses to the spoken item a little more quickly? You change the keyboard timer.

The keyboard timer should only need changing in exceptional circumstances or if you are unable to use certain keyboard actions quickly. To change the timer, press Insert+Z, and select the sixth item in the list which is to adjust the Keyboard Timer. Press Enter on this item, and change the value as directed on screen. The minimum value is 0.5 representing half a second. Type in a new value and press Enter to save. You may like to discuss it with us first prior to trying this.

There is special Braille support which has been added for Quick Navigation mode. As you skim down the playlist, you will find that the display changes so as to reflect the newly spoken item. If it is not the one you want, you can skim to the next one.

If you have attached a Sticky Note (or request notification) to the item, you will see that in Braille as you always have.

There is one other aspect of this you will notice. As you move through the playlist, by default some items will be announced in a lower pitched tone, using the special Checked Items Voice. When you hear an item announced in this way, it means that it is checked. JAWS is not going to say the words “Checked” or “Unchecked” for purposes of speed. Checked items will be announced in a different tone to the regular PC Cursor voice and will have the usual sign displayed in Braille to denote the checked status.

It is more than possible that you will wish to change the pitch of the Checked Items voice.

  1. Press the StationPlaylist Key followed by either Up Arrow or Down Arrow.
  2. Release the Arrow key you have pressed.
  3. Now, use the Up or Down Arrow keys by themselves. JAWS will announce a message using the newly selected pitch.
  4. Note that a pitch of zero has special significance. This is the pitch of the PC cursor voice. There will be little point in announcing the checked item status using this pitch since you would be unable to differentiate between an item which was checked and one which is not. To that end, if the value is zero, you will hear a sound instead. The design of this sound is such that it will not intrude upon the first word of the newly selected artist.
  5. When you have arrived at the pitch or sound value required, press Escape to save the setting.

In addition to our Find facility discussed below, we are trying to build tools which greatly assist a screen-reader user to quickly navigate playlists and Quick Navigation mode is one such tool.

There are times when you may wish to disable Quick Navigation mode. These are few and far between but it may be necessary. A good example would be if you wish to select from the current item to the end of the playlist, perhaps for bringing all selected items into the Track Tool.

If this is the case, you can temporarily disable Quick Navigation mode by pressing JAWSKey+X. You can now go ahead and carry out any actions you would like. When you wish to return to Quick Navigation mode, press JAWSKey+X a second time. JAWS reverts back to the Quick Navigation mode you were previously using.

Adjusting Output of Columns When the Up and Down Arrow Keys Are Used.

If you are not using Quick Navigation mode described above, you can adjust the output for both speech and Braille when the Up and Down Arrow keys are used.

  1. From within the Playlist Viewer, press the StationPlaylist key then Control+C.
  2. Repeatedly press the Down Arrow key so as to focus upon each column you would like spoken. Each time you do this, you will either hear the terms “Speak Column” or “Do Not Speak”. An example would be “Artist Speak Column”.
  3. As appropriate, press the Space Bar on each item to enable or disable the output for each column.
  4. When all the options are adjusted to your liking, assuming you do not wish to adjust the Braille output press Enter to save.
  5. If you do wish to adjust the Braille output, press Control+Tab to switch to the Braille page.
  6. Repeatedly press the Down Arrow key so as to focus upon each column you would like sent to Braille. Each time you do this, you will either hear the terms “Braille Column” or “Do Not Braille”. An example would be “Artist Braille Column”.
  7. When all the options are adjusted to your liking, press Enter to save.

Note that as you are working with this dialog box, a button is available to reset all settings back to their defaults. This is entitled “Delete Customisation”.

Viewing the Content of a Playlist.

You may wish to examine the content of a playlist within a conventional List Box. This could be for two reasons:

To bring the content of the currently loaded playlist into a List Box, press the StationPlaylist Key followed by Control+B, for Build List.

Selecting and Deleting Items.

StationPlaylist provides standard Windows tools to select, copy, cut and paste items. When you arrow to an item, it is automatically selected, which means you can perform any of the above actions on it. You can also press Shift+Down Arrow so as to highlight items in a continuous range. Shift+Down Arrow is not available using Quick Navigation mode. If you are using Quick Navigation mode, it is automatically disabled when you use a selection keystroke. You can toggle it back on again with JAWSKey+X, whereupon it will revert back to the Quick Navigation mode you were previously working with.

The JAWS scripts however provide an alternative method for selecting items:

  1. Find an item you wish to select, such as item 1 in the playlist.
  2. Press the comma key. JAWS announces: “Added to List”.
  3. Repeat as necessary until all the items required for manipulation are selected.
  4. Should you wish to hear the items which have been selected, press the forward slash key, located to the right of full-stop or period.
  5. When you have marked all the items for selection, press the full-stop or period key. All the items in your marked list are then selected, whereupon you can delete, cut or copy them.

Note that the keys comma, full-stop or period, and the forward slash are in a convenient line on the bottom row of the keyboard.

StationPlaylist Studio contains a keystroke, Shift+Delete, so as to delete the selected item (or any one of a number of items which have been selected). Within the JAWS scripts, pressing the Delete key by itself will now also deleted an individual item or selected items. You will also find, whichever keystroke you press, the response time between you pressing the key to delete an item and the newly focused one being spoken is far quicker.

Reading Keys

The following keys can be used to obtain information quickly. Please note that, when JAWS is speaking information relating to timed events, (such as the elapsed time of the playing track), JAWS converts the information to a format which is easier to understand rather than relying upon a literal interpretation of the screen data. For example, if 3 seconds have elapsed, JAWS will say “3 seconds”, and if 1 minute and 34 seconds had elapsed, JAWS will say “1 minute 34 seconds”.

Information Keys

Keystrokes now exist to report the total time which would elapse if specific music tracks were played without interruption. Note that these functions will only operate if you have manually inserted tracks into a playlist using the above described method. If StationPlaylist Creator has created a playlist for you using categories, there is no value in trying the below procedure.

  1. From within the Playlist Viewer, select the track to be used as the starting point.
  2. Press ALT+Control+Windows+1. JAWS will say, “Starting point is”, followed by the item which has the focus.
  3. Move to the item in the playlist to be used as the ending point.
  4. Press ALT+Control+Windows+2. JAWS will announce the time it will take for all the items to be played from the starting point to the focused track.

Moving on from this, if you wish to establish the total running time for music in the playlist (excluding Spot Groups, commercials, voice intros etc), press ALT+Control+Windows+3.

Finally, to hear the running time for all music in the playlist up to the focused music track, press ALT+Control+Windows+4.

Searching for Tracks

The StationPlaylist scripts provide some useful assistance when using the “Insert Tracks” dialog Box, activated by pressing Control+I.

This dialog Box contains fields for locating songs within your music library. As you press Tab repeatedly, JAWS announces each item in turn, which are the fields through which searches can be carried out. Examples would be “Artist” and “Title”.

Type text into any one of the fields. For example, type “Abba” into the “Artist” field. You can press ALT+C to move to the first Edit Field in the Dialog Box, ALT+A for the “Artist” Edit Field and ALT+T for the “Title” box.

Pressing Enter will, after a very short pause, cause JAWS to output the number of results found, (if any), and will automatically set focus to the list of tracks which have been located.

Pressing Tab past the “Title” and “Album” Edit Fields will focus upon the “Time Duration” fields, of which there are two. The first field of note is entitled “Duration From” and the second is “Duration To”. Each of these fields contains three columns – “Hours”, “Minutes” and “Seconds”. You can press the Left or Right Arrow keys to move through each of the columns in turn. As you move to each column, JAWS will speak its name. Pressing the Right Arrow key past the “Seconds” column will move back to the “Hours” field. You can type values into these Edit Fields or use the Up and Down Arrow keys to increment or decrement the values within them.

Imagine you are broadcasting on air and you need a song which runs for 4 minutes 15 seconds. You can use these fields to easily find a song within the time frame. Our objective is to locate a song with a minimum duration of 4 minutes and a maximum time of 4 minutes 15 seconds.

  1. Press the Tab key within the “Insert Tracks” Dialog Box until you reach the field “Duration From”.
  2. Press the Right Arrow key repeatedly until JAWS says a value followed by the word “Minutes”. Usually you will only need to press this key once.
  3. Type the figures “04” into this Edit Field, representing 4 minutes of time.
  4. Press the Right Arrow key once to reach the “Seconds” column which JAWS will confirm once it has spoken the current value contained there. Note that the figures “00” are probably already displayed which in our example is correct, since we are wanting to find a song which runs between 4 minutes and 4 minutes 15 seconds. If you require an alternative value to that shown here, please type it into this field. Similarly, to work through our example, if the figures “00” are not spoken, please type them now.
  5. Press the Tab key once to reach the “Duration To” Edit Field.
  6. Press the Right Arrow key repeatedly until a value is spoken followed by the word “Minutes”. If the figures “04” are not already spoken, type “04”.
  7. Press the Right Arrow key once more and JAWS will announce a value followed by the word “Seconds”. Type the value “15” into this field to represent 15 seconds.
  8. Press Enter. After a short pause, results will be revealed in a List View containing all songs between 4 minutes and 4 minutes 15 seconds.

Try to be as specific as possible when entering the time values. If you have a large music library, you are probably going to retrieve many results within the time frame you have specified. So, if possible, use a number of fields within the “Insert Tracks” Dialog Box in combination with each other. For example, enter an artist such as “Abba” into the “Artist” Edit Field and then specify your time values in the “Duration From” and “Duration To” boxes. This will narrow the search results considerably, since you will then only see a list showing all songs by Abba within the time frame.

Similarly, you can use further fields in this Dialog Box to refine the results, such as “Title”, “Year”, “Genre” and so on. Note that the audio files must have been tagged with this information prior to you carrying out such a search, otherwise StationPlaylist Studio will not have this information available.

It is worth noting that if you wish to insert an item other than a track, you can use the Radio Buttons to select it or press:

ALT+1 Commercial.

ALT+2 Voice Outro.

ALT+3 Voice Intro.

ALT+4 Timed Break Note.

ALT+5 Break Note.

ALT+6 Timed Spot.

ALT+7 General Spot.

ALT+8 General Track.

Notes On Selection.

Under normal circumstances, there are two important points to note about the Insert Dialog Box.

In order to assist with the above factors, a special option exists under the “Adjust JAWS Options” Dialog Box, activated with JAWS Key+V. This is entitled “Insert Dialog Box Restrictions”. You can enable or disable this option by pressing the Space Bar. When enabled, it has the following effects:

These two functions together should ensure that items are correctly inserted and will play out correctly.

Adjusting Output of Columns When the Up and Down Arrow Keys Are Used.

You can adjust the output for both speech and Braille when the Up and Down Arrow keys are used to move through the results list in this dialog box.

  1. Focus upon the results list in the “Insert Tracks” dialog box.
  2. Press the StationPlaylist key then Control+C.
  3. Repeatedly press the Down Arrow key so as to focus upon each column you would like spoken. Each time you do this, you will either hear the terms “Speak Column” or “Do Not Speak”. An example would be “Artist Speak Column”.
  4. As appropriate, press the Space Bar on each item to enable or disable the output for each column.
  5. When all the options are adjusted to your liking, assuming you do not wish to adjust the Braille output press Enter to save.
  6. If you do wish to adjust the Braille output, press Control+Tab to switch to the Braille page.
  7. Repeatedly press the Down Arrow key so as to focus upon each column you would like sent to Braille. Each time you do this, you will either hear the terms “Braille Column” or “Do Not Braille”. An example would be “Artist Braille Column”.
  8. When all the options are adjusted to your liking, press Enter to save.

Note that as you are working with this dialog box, a button is available to reset all settings back to their defaults. This is entitled “Delete Customisation”.

Reading the Time

When pressing the JAWS Key+F12, (the command within JAWS associated with speaking the time), JAWS will announce the time including the number of seconds, such as “4:53:28”. Pressing the keystroke twice quickly, if you have a Braille display, will cause the display to refresh each second to show the new time including the updated second count.

If you press the Windows Key+F12, this will cause the time to be spoken by JAWS as each second passes. Press any key within StationPlaylist Studio to stop it.

If you focus upon an item in the playlist, and press ALT+Windows+F12, you will hear the time at which the track should be started to ensure the end of it precisely coincides with the top of an hour. This assumes that the song to be played has been scanned or played out in StationPlaylist Studio first because the time value is likely to change if this is not so.

Jingle Cart Machines

StationPlaylist Studio provides you with 48 (96 in Studio Pro) jingle cart machines with shortcut keys. These are:

You can hear the remaining time of the cart at any time by pressing Control+Windows+1.

Ordinarily, pressing any one of these keys will cause the appropriate cart to play the item associated with it.

As you can imagine, it could sometimes be difficult to remember which cart contains which jingle, music bed or insert. The scripts therefore provide you with Cart Learn mode.

Cart Learn Mode is activated or deactivated by:

When Cart Learn Mode is enabled, pressing any one of the cart activation keys once will instantly cause JAWS to announce the name of the file associated with it and the jingle will not be played. Pressing the key twice quickly will cause the item to be played. This is ideal for ensuring that you are about to broadcast the correct jingle or insert!

Before Cart Learn mode can be used however, you need to “teach” JAWS which file is associated with each keystroke. For new carts you assign, this is not a problem since JAWS will automatically detect this as and when you create it. However, for carts which already exist, there is a little work to do which can be achieved in any of the following two ways.

You can either:

  1. Press Control+T to ensure that Cart Edit mode is enabled. JAWS will confirm this.
  2. Press a keystroke associated with one of the carts. You will enter its properties.
  3. Tab repeatedly until you reach the Edit Field containing the name of the cart.
  4. Press Tab to move away from this field, preferably until you reach the “OK” or “OK and Finish” Buttons and press the Space Bar. The training process for this cart is complete.

Alternatively, you can use “Cart Train Mode”. This mode will work through all of your carts in turn and will teach JAWS the titles and the corresponding keystrokes. This can be a useful mode if someone else has set up carts for you and they have not been appropriately named according to the above procedure. You should first focus upon the Playlist Viewer of StationPlaylist Studio, then, press ALT+Windows+T. A Dialog Box will be in view, asking if you would like to start cart training. Press the Space Bar on the “Yes” Button. As the training progresses, which should only take a few seconds, JAWS will give you a progress report as to the carts which have been trained. You will be advised when the process is complete together with the total number of carts trained.

If you would like to play a cart, and you are not focused within StationPlaylist Studio, press the Insert Key along with the StationPlaylist Key, followed by the keystroke pertaining to the cart you would like to play. For example, if your jingle to indicate a song request was assigned to function key f4, you would press the Insert Key together with the StationPlaylist Key, release the two keys, then press F4. This is an extremely powerful feature because it allows you to play jingles and other items while perhaps reading a message from Twitter or an Email on your Braille display.

Jump to Cart

When JAWS has been trained as to the location of each cart, you can bring all the carts into a vertical list. This is very useful so that you do not have to remember the keystroke associated with each cart!

Press the StationPlaylist Key then J. A Dialog Box will appear containing a list of assigned carts. Press Down Arrow (or more probably use first letter navigation) in order to set focus to the name of the cart you wish to play. Next, press Enter to play the cart.
If you would like to use this function from an application other than StationPlaylist Studio, press the Insert Key and the StationPlaylist Key, then J.

Announcement of When a Cart Has Completed Playback

JAWS can be set to advise you when a jingle cart has completed playing.

The Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box contains an item entitled “JAWS will announce when a cart stops playing”. If enabled by pressing the Space Bar, when a cart has ceased to play JAWS will announce the words “cart stopped”. If sounds are enabled, a “chime” sound will be heard.

Finding a Track in a Playlist

You are likely to come across situations where you want to find if you have a music track, spot group or other item included within a Playlist. For example, you may have a music track further down the Playlist from the item you are currently playing and wish to move it up the list.

You can use the Find facility in order to do this. Press the StationPlaylist key then F to search from the top of the playlist or the StationPlaylist Key then Control+F to search backward from the end of the playlist. A Dialog Box will appear asking you for the text you wish to search for. It is suggested that a track title or artist name should be typed and then the Enter key should be pressed to carry out the search. Capitalisation is not important here. The first item matching the search criteria will be located within a second or two.

If the item is found, focus will be set to it. If it is not located, JAWS will advise you of this.

An example of how you may use this feature would be as follows:

  1. Press the StationPlaylist key then F.
  2. Type the title of a song you know to be in the Playlist into the Edit Field.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. The track is located. Press Control+X to cut it to the Windows clipboard.
  5. Press the Home key to move focus to the track which is currently playing.
  6. Press Down Arrow to highlight the next track in the Playlist.
  7. Press Control+V to paste the track into the Playlist. This will ensure that the item is next to be played.

In addition, pressing the StationPlaylist Key then F3 will find the next occurrence of the item previously searched for. So if you searched for the Beatles, and the first item located was not correct, press the StationPlaylist Key then F3 to find the next occurrence. Press the StationPlaylist Key then Shift+F3 to “find again” in the reverse direction.

Note that the Find facility is very flexible and can even include time values. If you know that you have a song in the playlist which is 3 minutes and 40 seconds, type “03:40” into the Edit Field and press Enter.

There are other keystrokes you can use so as to move to important components of your playlist. Press the StationPlaylist Key then:

Setting Focus to StationPlaylist Studio

It is possible to set focus to StationPlaylist Studio from within any other application. This is very useful if you wish to read Email or interact with a program other than StationPlaylist and then quickly return to it.

In order to set focus to StationPlaylist Studio, press the StationPlaylist Key then S. Be sure that you are not focused on the Windows Desktop when this key is pressed.

Introduction Monitoring

Using the StationPlaylist Track Tool, it is possible to insert a mark in the properties of each of your music tracks in order that you are aware when the introduction is complete and when vocals are to begin. The StationPlaylist studio scripts take full advantage of this feature, and allow you to monitor for introductions and give you advanced warning of when the vocals are about to commence. As a user of the scripts, you can configure how much of a warning you will receive by specifying a value of between 1 and 9 seconds prior to the vocals commencing. For anyone who has a Braille display, the scripts include a separate and independent mechanism for providing tactile feedback of the progress of the introduction.

Marking the Introduction Ending Point

It is necessary to use the StationPlaylist Track Tool to mark the end of the introduction as follows:

  1. Ensure that a music track within the Playlist Viewer is selected.
  2. Press Control+K to activate the Track Tool.
  3. When the Track Tool is loaded, press Insert+H to remind yourself of the keystrokes you can use within it. Press Escape to exit the Virtual Viewer and return to the Track Tool.
  4. Press the letter P to begin playing the file.
  5. At the same time as the vocals begin, press the letter I. The audio will fade out.
  6. Press Control+I to test the introduction. If marked successfully, the vocals should commence at exactly the same time as you press this keystroke.
  7. Press ALT+F4 to close the window and return to the StationPlaylist Studio primary window.
  8. You can always determine if a song has an introduction value specified by locating it in the Playlist Viewer and then pressing Control+JAWS Key+4. This will announce the number of seconds for the introduction, such as 4.8.

Please note that scripts are included for the Track Tool. These provide useful keyboard shortcuts for notifying you if a track introduction has already been stored, together with the ability to sort tracks in various ways. Press Insert+H to obtain a list of the keyboard shortcuts.

Monitoring for Introductions

Before you monitor for the end of an introduction to a song, you need to instruct JAWS how many seconds between 1 and 9 you would like to hear the warning.

Press StationPlaylist Key then O and, when prompted, into the resulting Edit Field type a value between 1 and 9 to represent the number of seconds for the warning. Press Enter and a confirmation message willl be spoken to confirm the number of seconds. You can activate the monitoring of introductions through the JAWS scripts, by:

When enabled, and when the warning level is reached which you have set, JAWS will advise you of this by saying the word “complete”. If sounds are enabled, a “beep” sound will be heard.

Viewing Introductions with Braille

Another mode exists for your Braille display to monitor when introductions are being played.

You can enable or disable this mode by:

When this mode is enabled, JAWS constantly is monitoring for introductions. When an introduction is being played, its countdown time is being shown on the display. This gives you an excellent way of knowing for how much longer you need to speak.
There are two modes for sending messages to the Braille display. If you find that there are problems with the default mode, for example if the number of seconds are not being displayed correctly, from within Studio press Insert+V, and press Space Bar on the option “Change Braille Output” so that it says it is enabled.

Monitoring for Track Endings

Just imagine a situation where you have started the playing of a track, and then you need to examine your Email, Twitter or other applications so as to interact with your listeners. You need to be aware of when the track is about to end! This is the purpose of monitoring for track endings and is, we would suggest, the most important feature of the scripts as a whole.

Before you monitor for the end of a track, you need to instruct JAWS how many seconds before the end of the song is reached you would like to hear the warning.

Press StationPlaylist Key then U and, when prompted, into the resulting Edit Field type a value to represent the number of seconds for the warning. Press Enter and a confirmation message willl be spoken to confirm the number of seconds. Values can be entered between 1 and 59.

You can activate the monitoring of track endings through the JAWS scripts, by:

When enabled, and when the warning level is reached which you have set, JAWS will advise you of this by saying the words “Approaching end of song”, even if you are not focused within the StationPlaylist Studio application. If sounds are enabled, a “beep” sound will be heard. If through the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box you have enabled the option for a countdown timer to be shown on the Braille display when the track is about to end, this will be shown. This can also be enabled or disabled by pressing the StationPlaylist Key then A.
There are two modes for sending messages to the Braille display. If you find that there are problems with the default mode, for example if the number of seconds are not being displayed correctly, from within Studio press Insert+V, and press Space Bar on the option “Change Braille Output” so that it says it is enabled.

If you are focused within an application other than StationPlaylist Studio, and you wish to be reminded of how much time the track has to play, press Control+Windows+Dash.

Playlist Bookmarks

You can set a bookmark to mark a position within a Playlist and return to it later. This is very helpful if you are moving tracks around within a Playlist, or alternatively if you are listening to (or working on) a Playlist and you wish to return to a position within it the following day, since your bookmark is retained across computing sessions. So if you restart your computer, you can still locate your bookmark.

To mark a position within a Playlist, use the Arrow keys to move to the point in the Playlist you wish to mark and press the StationPlaylist Key then Control+K. To relocate the position press the StationPlaylist key then Control+Shift+K.

Microphone Status

Using the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box, you can enable the playing of sounds (or speaking of messages) when the microphone is enabled or disabled. In addition, a “microphone alarm sound” (or spoken message) can be set to warn you if the microphone has been left active following a number of seconds you specify.

The option is entitled “JAWS will announce when the microphone status changes”. If enabled, and the letter M key is pressed to toggle the condition of the microphone, when active an ascending series of tones is played and when off a descending series of tones can be heard. Messages are spoken if sounds are disabled.

By default, a “microphone warning” will not be given if the microphone is continuously left active. However, if you wish to set a value, press the StationPlaylist Key then the letter K. You will be asked to enter the number of seconds warning you would like before the alarm sounds. For example, a 3 minute period would be 180 seconds. Type in 180 and press Enter. This value is permanently set until you change it.

Request Notifications

If you are working on producing a busy show and getting a large number of requests for songs, unless you write them down you may forget which person has requested a particular track.

Request notifications is a feature which will assist. You could also use it to attach notes to a piece of music which you could in turn convey to your listeners. If you move tracks around in a Playlist, the request notifications will go with the songs.

Request Notifications can be activated or deactivated by:

There are three settings for this feature:

To use this feature:

  1. Focus upon an item (such as a music track) you would like to attach a request to.
  2. Press the StationPlaylist key then Control+R.
  3. A Dialog Box appears asking for the details of the request. Type the details and press Enter.
  4. JAWS will confirm the details have been saved.

When focused upon an item which has a request note attached to it, assuming you have been advised of this, either:

To delete all requests press the StationPlaylist key then Control+A. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the requests. Select “Yes” to do so.

Streaming Metadata

Up to 4 stream servers may be updated with the track title information (metadata) so internet radio listeners can see what is playing on their media player. In addition, when using a stream encoder DSP attached to Studio, this is the most simple way to send metadata.  The metadata is included within the stream itself and sent along with the audio. If you have our audio tutorial, you will know that configuring any of these options is not absolutely essential. Even using StationPlaylist Streamer, you can send metadata information to the internet without needing to use any of the options described in this section. This has the advantage that metadata is only going to be streamed to your chosen provider when you connect to it. For further advice, please consult the audio tutorial or the station staff with whom you are working.

The JAWS scripts provide a number of convenient features to manage the four stream servers and the output to DSP encoder.

Automatic Announcement if Metadata Streaming is Enabled

The Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box contains a function entitled “Provide Warning of Metadata Streaming when Studio is Launched”. If enabled, and when StationPlaylist Studio is launched, a message will be spoken to warn you that metadata streaming is enabled. It can (if necessary) be disabled from the “Options” Dialog Box of StationPlaylist Studio, or conveniently by using one of the keystrokes described below.

Disabling Stream Metadata Automatically

Within the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box, you will find an option entitled “Turn Off Metadata Streaming Upon Exit”. When enabled, and when you exit StationPlaylist Studio by pressing the keystroke ALT+Control+X, metadata streaming will automatically be disabled.

Enabling and Disabling Metadata Streaming Manually

Keystrokes have been provided to activate, deactivate and to verify the status of metadata streaming for each of the four stream servers and the output to DSP encoder.

Pressing ALT+Windows Key+1 through to 4 will cause a Dialog Box to appear, asking if you would like to enable metadata streaming for server 1 through to 4. Pressing ALT+Windows Key+0 will cause a similar Dialog Box to appear relating to the DSP Encoder output. The Dialog Box contains Buttons labelled “Yes” and “No”. Activating the “Yes” Button will enable metadata streaming and selecting “No” will disable it. Press shortcut keys “Y” or “N”. Alternatively, press Tab to reach the appropriate Button and press the Space Bar to activate it.

To verify the status of metadata streaming for each of the four servers press Windows Key+1 through to 4. To verify the status of output to DSP Encoder press Windows Key+0. A confirmation message will be spoken as to whether the streaming is enabled or disabled.

Scanning Your Music Library

JAWS can be set to give you notification regarding the progress of scanning your music library within StationPlaylist Studio. This can be very helpful if you have a large library which could take some time to scan.

There are three options regarding scanning which are controlled through the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog Box, activated with JAWS Key+V.

  1. Report progress of library scan, disabled. This is self-explanatory.
  2. Report progress of library scan, ending notification. JAWS will only announce when the scanning has concluded.
  3. Report progress of library scan, periodic notification. Throughout the scanning process, every ten seconds a message will be spoken or a sound is played.

To begin a scan of your library:

Adding Track Details to a Text File

You may wish to create a text file containing the song artists and titles of tracks in a playlist. The method used to create text gives flexibility, since you can determine which items get added to the file.

In future releases of the scripts, this feature will be expanded so as to optionally include album or disc name together with additional information.

To use this feature:

  1. Press Control+Shift+Grave Accent twice quickly to clear the text file of any unwanted items. JAWS will confirm that the text file has been cleared.
  2. Focus upon a song in the playlist you wish to add to the text file.
  3. Press Control+Shift+Grave Accent once. The item will be added and focus will move to the next item in the Playlist Viewer.
  4. Repeat the process until all songs have been added to the text file.
  5. To view the contents of the text file, press ALT+Control+Grave Accent. The file will open and you can read the text, copy it to the clipboard, and so on.

Note that the text file contents will be presented in the following format:
Artist. Artist name.
Title. Song title.

Copying the Entire Playlist to a Text File or the Clipboard

If you wish to copy the entire Playlist to the Windows clipboard, or a text file, please follow these steps:

  1. With your playlist in focus, press ALT+Control+Windows+C. A List Box will appear, offering you various ways in which the playlist information should be copied, for example artist and title only.
  2. Select the option you would like with the Up and Down Arrow keys and then press Enter to activate.

You should now find that your chosen playlist format is now on the Clipboard.

There is a further option you may like to consider using, which writes the entire Playlist to a text file in a location of your choosing. This may be of benefit if you wish to keep a permanent copy of it, or alternatively, you can have it placed in a Dropbox or similar cloud storage location, for someone else to see.

To tell JAWS where to place the file, navigate to the folder in Windows Explorer and then press Enter to open it. When it is opened, press ALT+Windows+F and the folder name will be captured.

To create the file, with your Playlist in focus go back into the text file creation dialog by pressing ALT+Control+Windows+C and choose the final option. The file will be written to your chosen location.

Setting a Temporary Cue

If you have a song which you do not wish to commence playing from the start, you may wish to set a Temporary Cue point. For example, if you wanted the track to begin playing at 15 seconds from the beginning, this is the facility you would use. Note the term “Temporary Cue”. When you restart StationPlaylist Studio, or re-load the track into the Playlist Viewer, the Cue is lost and the song will begin playing from the start once more.

To set a Temporary cue:

  1. Ensure that a music track within the Playlist Viewer is selected.
  2. Press Control+Shift+C to enter the “Set Temporary cue” Dialog Box.
  3. The Edit Field in focus contains three columns – “Hours”, “Minutes” and “Seconds”. You can press the Left or Right Arrow keys to move through each of the columns in turn. As you move to each column, JAWS will speak its name. Pressing the Right Arrow key past the “Seconds” column will move back to the “Hours” field. You can type values into these Edit Fields or use the Up and Down Arrow keys to increment or decrement the values within them. This “Time” Edit Field is used for setting the “Temporary Cue” point.
  4. Assuming we want to begin playing at 15 seconds from the start of the track, press Right Arrow, (probably twice), until JAWS announces a value followed by the word “Seconds”.
  5. Type the figures “15” or a value of your choosing.
  6. Press the letter “C” to set the “Temporary Cue” point.
  7. Press the letter “T” to test the “Temporary Cue” point. Audio playback will begin from the new position.
  8. Press the letter “S” to stop playback.
  9. You can press the letters “T” for “Test” and “S” for “Stop” as many times as necessary to repeat the start of the playback position.
  10. If the starting point is not satisfactory, when playback is stopped press Tab once until focus is set to the “Set Temporary Cue” Edit Field. The focus will be in the column in which you were previously located, which in our example is “Seconds”.
  11. Enter a new value and repeat as necessary.
  12. When the desired starting point is correctly located, and tested using the letter “T”, press ALT+O to activate the “OK” Button or press Tab repeatedly to reach it and press the Space Bar. The cue point is now set.

The difficulty with the above approach is that setting a temporary cue point by entering a value is difficult. You may like to use the below method instead.

  1. Press Control+Shift+C so as to move into the screen for setting a temporary cue.
  2. Begin playing the file by pressing the letter P.
  3. When you reach the approximate point in the file where you wish to set the temporary cue, press letter C. Audio playback stops and the temporary cue point is set. This can be tested by pressing letter T. Having pressed letter T to test the audio, you can always stop it by pressing letter S.
  4. If the temporary cue point is not to your liking, press ALT+Left Arrow or ALT+Right Arrow. Each time you do this, the cue point will be adjusted and a small segment of the audio will be played back. This is a special function of the JAWS scripts to allow you to make fine adjustments to the temporary cue point. Please do not press these keys rapidly. Let the audio segment play out and then make the adjustment again if required.
  5. When the temporary cue point is set using this method, Tab to the “OK” button and press the Space Bar.

Timer Functions

A comprehensive set of timer functions have been included. The purpose of the timer functions is to remind you of specific events, such as when you should be getting ready to stop broadcasting, or maybe you need to make an announcement at a specific time of day.

All the timer functions described below can be operated globally, that is to say you do not need to be focused within StationPlaylist Studio in order to use them.

To set a reminder for a specific time of day, press ALT+Control+Windows+5. A Dialog Box will appear inviting you to enter the time in the 24 hour clock format, in the form of Hours colon Minutes colon Seconds, with each parameter comprising two digits. So if you wanted a reminder at 4.59 PM and 56 seconds, you would type 16:59:56. Press Enter when the time value has been typed into the Edit Field.

The timer will now be running. The amount of time remaining can be checked by pressing ALT+Control+Windows+7. It can be stopped by pressing ALT+Control+Windows+6.

As the target time draws closer, periodic announcements will be given by JAWS. For example, when the final minute approaches, the time will be spoken every 10 seconds. When the final 10 seconds are reached, an announcement will be given every second until the target time.

Ifv you prefer, you can set a timer for a number of minutes in advance, rather than entering a physical clock time. Press ALT+Control+Windows+6 when a timer is not running. You will be prompted to enter the number of minutes for which the timer should be set. Type it in and press Enter. JAWS will announce the new clock time for which the timer is now set.

Global Keystrokes

You can now operate specific functions of StationPlaylist Studio no matter the application you are in. This is helpful if you are reading e-mail for example, and you need to quickly interact with Studio. Alternatively, you can complete a Skype call and instantly start the playback of the next track without having to focus upon Studio first.

Press the StationPlaylist Key then:

You can also press Insert together with the StationPlaylist Key, release the keys, then press:

  1. Any one of the 96 cart operation keys, such as F4 or ALT+2.
  2. T to hear the currently playing track.
  3. N to hear the track to play next.

Reproducing Hash Tags

Some broadcasters use a “Hash Tag” on social media sites as a means of people being able to follow it and thus take part in the conversation which is ongoing relating to the programme. In order to save time, a script has been provided to type the Tag for you when you are composing a tweet. Please note that the function will work in any Edit Field, so the social media client you use is not relevant.

Before reproducing the Tag, you need to tell JAWS what it is. This is remembered even if the computer is restarted and is a global keystroke, meaning it can be used anywhere.

Press the StationPlaylist Key then ALT+Control+Windows+Enter. When prompted, type the Tag (without the “Hash” sign) and press Enter. An example of such a Tag might be “YNMC” without the quotation marks.

To reproduce the Tag at any time, set focus to an area where it should be typed, such as the Edit Field of your Twitter client. Type your tweet, and immediately prior to sending it, press ALT+Control+Windows+Enter. The Tag is reproduced and JAWS will speak it back. This time, in addition to typing the text, the “Hash” sign (#) is also entered. Now go ahead and send the Tweet in the usual way, perhaps by pressing Enter.

Using the EveryHit Website

EveryHit.Com is an excellent website for retrieving single or album information and chart positioning. While the site is no longer updated, it does provide a very useful resource for obtaining such information from the start of the UK singles chart in 1952 until 2011.

The two features described here can be used from within any application, (so they are global functions), although if StationPlaylist Studio is focused there is an additional advantage. The first allows you to retrieve the release year and highest position scored on the UK chart for a specific song or album, while the second will bring back an approximate top 40 chart for a date you specify.

Searching for a Single or Album

To search for a specific artist, group, song title or album name, please follow these steps.

  1. Press ALT+Control+Windows+9. A form will appear through which you can move by pressing the Enter key. You are prompted to enter the artist name, press Enter, type the song title name and press Enter again.
  2. Alternative searches can be made. For example, you could place the word “Love” in the “Title” Edit Field only and have all songs retrieved with this word in the title, or find out details of all songs recorded by Abba by typing just the group name into the “Artist” Edit Field.

Viewing a Top 40 Chart

This script retrieves an approximation of the top 40 singles chart. By entering a date for the chart you wish to retrieve, the closest week matching your entry can be viewed. It should be borne in mind that holding precise charts on a website is illegal and so what you will see is an approximation of a chart listing for a particular week.

Press ALT+Control+Windows8. When prompted, type a date for the chart to be retrieved, such as 29/04/1953. JAWS will advise you whether you need to enter the date in the American or UK format depending upon your Windows regional settings.

When the date has been typed, press Enter and after a short pause, JAWS will announce the word “Ready” and the chart will be displayed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer screen. Within the text, the term “Rise” means that the song scored a higher position on the chart for the selected week as opposed to the previous one, while “Fall” represents the fact that the song scored a lower place.

It may be helpful to select the text in the Virtual Viewer and copy it out to a text file so you can refer to it while broadcasting.

Dropbox Notifications

From within any application, press ALT+Control+Windows+D to hear whether the Dropbox (file syncing) application is up-to-date or whether files are being uploaded or downloaded.

Miscellaneous Items

The StationPlaylist Studio “Options” Dialog box

Press the Control+O keystroke to move into the StationPlaylist Studio “Options” Dialog box. This Dialog Box contains a number of Propety Sheets, (which JAWS identifies as Buttons), including “General”, “Folder Locations”, “Input”, “Output” and so on. When you reach one of the Propety Sheets, press the Left and Right Arrow keys to move through them. Please note that the “Output” Propety Sheet has several inner Property Sheets for controlling various aspects of the audio output, including “Microphone”, “Mixer”, “Main Player” and “Cart Player”.

As you press Tab to move through the fields in a Propety Sheet, JAWS will give you specific information relative to many of the fields. For example, you will be advised whether to enter a value in minutes, seconds or pixels if necessary.

Please pay careful attention to the inner Propety Sheets within “Options, Output”, referred to above. Press the Tab key to move through the fields within the inner Property Sheets and listen to the information spoken in order that you are aware of the purpose of the fields. In particular, when you reach the “MP Reduction” slider, (used for the purpose of instructing the software of the volume level music should be reduced to when the microphone is active), percentages are spoken together with minus decibal values. Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to change the values accordingly. As you do so, JAWS will announce the newly selected value.

Additional Items

When audio playback keys are pressed, such as Enter to play a track, U to pause it, S to stop and fade, T for instant stop and E to stop a cart playing, if typing echo is enabled the key labels are not spoken as this can be distracting.

Pressing the JAWS Key+Q will output the scripts version and build number.

A number of people use StationPlaylist Studio in combination with the SPL or Sam Encoders from Spacial Audio. Script files are included which provide useful facilities for use with these encoders. When the encoders are focused pressing Insert+H will provide a list of keyboard shortcuts. We highly recommend the use of the SPL Encoder.

If you wish to reset all script settings to their defaults, press Insert+V to access the Verbosity options, and press the Space Bar on the item which invites you to reset all settings.

StationPlaylist Creator

StationPlaylist Creator is music and spot scheduling software.  It is used to design your station format using rotations of music categories and spot groups (jingles, ads, etc).

Rotations may be scheduled for specific hours of the day giving you full control over what types of music or programs are scheduled for different
times of the day or days of the week.

Creator is capable of producing much more controlled and sophisticated scheduling than a basic random shuffle of your music.  Your listening audience
will appreciate the difference. Indeed, it is possible to run an entire radio station with superb audio quality hosted using StationPlaylist Creator and Studio. Many people do this.

For a description of many of the features of StationPlaylist Creator, you may like to consider purchasing the audio tutorial referred to at the start of this document. To listen to a radio station entirely hosted using the StationPlaylist products Please activate this link.

The scripts for StationPlaylist Creator, which you have access to as part of this software package, provide an enhanced experience when using JAWS. As you work through many of the controls within the Tabbed Pages, you will find that useful information is spoken along with the control name itself. A good example would be in the “General” options, where JAWS announces the purpose of Edit Fields such as the number of hours and days required for playlists to be created. The “Move Up” and “Move Down” Buttons within screens, such as for managing a rotation, are also labelled, together with many other items.

Pressing ALT+O within any screen will activate the “OK” button if it exists, as is the case with StationPlaylist Studio and the Track Tool.

When in a Creator Rotation, press the StationPlaylist Key then T to hear the total time for which it is scheduled to run.

Similarly, the Playlist Editor makes it possible to view upcoming playlists for a day or longer. Within the Playlist Editor, you can press the StationPlaylist Key then:

You may find that, as you move through the list in the Playlist Editor, the response time can be a little slow. If this is the case, press JAWS Key+Z. This enables and disables a special mode to use an alternative method for accessing this list.

Creating Windows Shortcuts.

StationPlaylist Studio is capable of utilising the functionality of Windows Shortcuts so as to play files. This makes it possible for you to create a folder, or several folders, containing such Shortcuts, thus avoiding you duplicating entire files containing songs, significantly reducing hard disk space. Many Creator users work with this method when defining song categories and create, for example, a folder of Shortcuts to represent each category. You may even like to create a folder containing Shortcuts pointing to songs you plan to play for an upcoming show, or even to segregate the items year by year.

The JAWS scripts make it possible for you to easily create such Shortcuts in a folder of your choosing:

  1. Ensure that your Windows (or File) Explorer settings are configured so as to display the full path in the window title. This is located in the Options dialog under the “View” Tabbed Page. This is a one time process
  2. Find the folder into which you wish to place the Shortcuts. Do not press Enter to open the folder, just focus upon it with the Arrow keys or similar.
  3. Press Insert+Grave then L for Location. The folder location is stored. Note that this is temporary, as there is a strong likelihood you will be changing this location very frequently. When you restart JAWS, the location is lost.
  4. Find the file you wish to create a Shortcut for by browsing your music library.
  5. Having focused upon it, press Insert+Grave then S. The Shortcut is created in the chosen folder.

A Note on Item Properties.

As mentioned elsewhere in this document, you can press ALT+Enter on any item, to examine the properties of it. This consists of several tabbed pages.

If you change values in any of the fields, you can press ALT+O to activate the “OK” Button so as to close the Dialog Box.
Pressing ALT+Enter on a subsequent item will automatically set focus to the field in which you were previously located.

If for example you had set an outro time on an item, then pressed ALT+O, focusing upon a subsequent item and pressing ALT+Enter will set focus to the Outro field for it.

Remote Voice Tracking

Remote Voice Tracker enables you or your DJ’s to record voice tracks and edit playlists from home, or while away from the studio. It will upload the voice tracks and modify the playlist logs back at the station.

If configured optimally, voice track recording enables an automated show to sound 100% live when using Studio Pro automation software, with just a small percentage of time required, by recording voice tracks between the songs that have been selected by Creator, the scheduler.

The JAWS scripts provide functions for making the most of the Voice Track client.

This document does not contain details of working with the client or server. The paragraphs below only provide usage details within the context of how the JAWS scripts enhance the experience.

The primary working area consists of three controls. There are two Combo Boxes to select the day and hour to be voice tracked, each of which is now announced by JAWS. The third control is a List View which is automatically refreshed so as to display the content for the selected hour.

When within a list of songs and station idents, the following keystrokes will undoubtedly assist you:

If you are working on producing a busy show and getting a large number of requests for songs, unless you write them down you may forget which person has requested a particular track.

Request notifications is a feature which will assist. You could also use it to attach notes to a piece of music which you could in turn convey to your listeners. If you move tracks around in the VT Editor, the request notifications will go with the songs.

To use this feature:

  1. Focus upon an item (such as a music track) you would like to attach a request to. This can include Spots or even Break Notes.
  2. Press the StationPlaylist key then Control+R.
  3. A Dialog Box appears asking for the details of the request. Type the details and press Enter.
  4. JAWS will confirm the details have been saved.

As you navigate the VT Editor, when you reach an item for which a request or note has been attached, it will be spoken and displayed in Braille. When focused upon an item which has a request note attached to it, assuming you have been advised of this, either:

To delete all requests press the StationPlaylist key then Control+A. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm that you wish to delete the requests. Select “Yes” to do so.

Coolest of all, the notes attached to songs can also be accessed while in the VT Recorder. So, while focused on an item, you can activate the recorder with Control+R. When the recorder has loaded, you can press the SPL Key then ALT+R to hear it or the SPL Key then Control+V to place it in the Virtual Viewer. This means you can read it while recording your voice-break. The Enter key can also be pressed while in the Virtual Viewer so as to step through the recording process. This means you can create the voice-track while reading notes on your Braille display at the same time.

Using the VT Recorder.

As mentioned in the above section, when you press Control+R, you will be located in the VT Recorder. The following paragraphs describe the special JAWS functionality for use in this recorder.

Pressing Control+R, or activating “Record Voice Track” from the Context Menu, launches the VT Recorder. This is a relatively new recorder offering a variety of functionality for recording voice breaks. Please refer to our training course for StationPlaylist Studio 5.20 for details or our training course on the use of voice-tracking. However in summary, press Enter to start or stop a recording, or to be guided through the creation of a voice-track.

To set focus to the recorder from within any other application, press the Insert Key with the StationPlaylist Key, followed by R.

While inside the recorder, the following additional keystrokes can be used:

Pressing letter C, while in the recorder, will allow you to configure its settings. Of particular importance is the volume slider for the audio output of the voice tracks. It is also possible to apply audio compression to the recordings.

It is also recommended that you review the section preceeding this one relating to attaching request notifications (or sticky notes) to items for which voice-tracks will be created. Of particular importance is the fact that while the note is displayed in the JAWS Virtual Viewer, you can press the Enter key so as to step through the various processes of creating a voice-track. This means that you can refer to your notes on the Braille display if necessary together with starting the incoming item and/or the recorder.

If StationPlaylist Studio is running, and the audio from it is sent to a sound source captured by the VT Recorder, you are able to take advantage of the ability to play carts instantly and/or items within a playlist. This can be very helpful for playing carts or other items into your VT’s, thus making the overall audio sound extremely professional. If you are using an audio mixer, it means you can vary the levels of these items as well which is extremely impressive!

While inside the recorder, you can use:

Note also that these keystrokes for interacting with StationPlaylist Studio can be used within the VT Editor. This gives you a chance to rehearse (or check) the keystrokes assigned to ensure that when you are in the recorder the correct item plays out.

Working With Break Notes.

Introduction.

A Break Note is a set of instructions sent to StationPlaylist Studio so as to cause it to perform a specific action, usually at a designated time within the hour. An example might be to play all items in a specified folder, to insert a song request if one exists, to play a time or temperature announcement, to enable or disable one of the DSP processes, to enable or disable crossfading, and so on.

Under most circumstances, as you build a rotation within StationPlaylist Creator, through Creator’s Break Note dialog box you insert such instructions at designated points within it. However, it is possible to insert Break Notes manually into a playlist. This can be helpful for at least three reasons: either you do not have StationPlaylist Creator, maybe you have inadvertently forgotten to add a Break Note after the playlist was created, or perhaps you just need to add additional Break Notes.

It is possible to add Break Note codes manually. Each Break Note has a specific code associated with it which you can enter manually together with its duration if appropriate. However, it is not always easy to remember the syntax to be used or to learn the purpose of each one.

Break Notes may also be a timed event to execute at a specific time. These are known as Timed Break Notes.

A Break Note may require that you enter a duration. An example of doing so would be if you wanted to pause the playlist for a specific time or switch to a live event via the soundcard line input port for a given period.
You would not enter a duration in the following circumstances: to display a simple reminder or advertisement for the DJ to read or to control some of Studio’s options.

The StationPlaylist documentation provides the definitive word on the subject of Break Notes. This is not a tutorial on the use of Break Notes although, as will be seen below, we do provide you with a great deal of assistance.

The JAWS scripts for StationPlaylist offer a completely accessible and easy way for you to enter Break Notes without the need to remember the codes involved. In summary, you will select the Break Note required by moving to it in a list and pressing Enter. A context sensitive wizard will then guide you through the process of creating the Break Note relative to the task you are performing. For example, if you selected to use a cart automatically, we first ask you which type of cart you have in mind: ALT, Shift, Main or Control carts. Having selected that, we then allow you to select from a numbered cart.

Best of all, prior to inserting the Break Note, you can obtain short or comprehensive help information as to the purpose of the Break Note if you are unsure as to what it does.

This Chapter of the documentation describes how the Accessible Break Note Creation dialog box works. Break Notes are not for everyone and this chapter will require considerable study. As with a number of the features in these scripts, you will not find this tool available as part of StationPlaylist Studio itself. It can be used in StationPlaylist Studio, the Playlist Editor or the Remote VT client. We will give a few examples of typical circumstances where you may wish to use it.
Note that the examples are deliberately convoluted. You do not have to include all the steps given but they are documented to show what is possible.
As will be seen, while the process for creating your Break Notes (or Break Note sequence) can take time to set up, we have given you the opportunity to save it as a favourite so you can easily return to it later. This will mean that you should not have to recreate those Break Notes you use most often.

Setting It Up.

Invoke the “Adjust JAWS Options” Dialog Box with Insert+V, then type the letter D for Display. There are two options which can be moved through by pressing the Space Bar: Display Break Notes All and Display Break Notes Customisable.

If the option is set to Customisable, this means that when you enter the Break Note list described below, you will only see those Break Notes in which you are interested.

How to Use the Break Note Creation Dialog box.

In order to insert a Break Note, you will first focus in the part of the playlist where you wish the Break Note to be placed. This could be at the top of an hour or at any point within it.

Once this is done:

  1. Press Control+I so as to enter the Insert dialog box.
  2. Press the Down Arrow key to select either the Break Note or Timed Break Note Radio Button. Alternatively, press ALT+4 or ALT+5.
  3. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note Code”. This is the edit field into which the Break Note is ordinarily typed.
  4. Press ALT+Windows+I. This is the keystroke for bringing into view the Break Note Creation dialog.
  5. You are now in a list of Break Notes supported, referred to in this documentation as the primary list. Use the Up and Down Arrow keys to move through the available choices. You will either see the full list of Break Notes here or only those which you wish to be displayed. Later in this section, we will describe how to remove those items you do not require.
  6. If you are unsure as to the purpose of a Break Note, you can press JAWS Key+Up Arrow. This will cause brief help information to be spoken together with repeating the focused Break Note. Pressing this key twice quickly will bring into the JAWS Virtual Viewer a more lengthy explanation as to the Break Note’s purpose. Press Escape to exit the Virtual Viewer and return to the Break Note list.

When you press Enter on one of the items, you will be guided through the details required for setting up the Break Note. Most items are self-explanatory. However:
In some instances you will be requested to browse to a path accessible to your computer. A good example would be if you are selecting a Break Note to play a specific file in a folder. In such a situation, using the “Open” file dialog box which is brought into view, browse to the appropriate location and press Enter. Note that a list of the most recent paths are displayed; again, saving you time.

When the process for entering a Break Note is complete, you will be presented with a list containing a number of choices. This is referred to here as the secondary list and contains:

  1. Finish. The Break Note syntax will be entered into the edit field which had focus prior to invoking the Break Note creation dialog box and you will be able to read it. The final part of the process is to insert the Break Note into the playlist. To do this, press ALT+I.
  2. Enter Another Break Note. Allows you to enter a further Break Note. Focus is returned to the list of available Break Notes. In other words, you can string together Break Notes in one sequence.
  3. Save Break Note, described below.
  4. Duration of Break Note. The reason for this was described above and is demonstrated in an example below.
  5. Text To be Displayed in the Title Column. This is an optional step but a very useful one. If you did not complete this step, the Break Note will still function as intended. However, this option makes it possible to specify the purpose of the Break Note. As and when you browse through the playlist, the Playlist Viewer will show the purpose of the Break Note rather than the code itself.
  6. Concurrent Break Note. This adds a flag to the break note code which tells Studio to execute the code at a specific time without truncating the current track playing. A good example would be if you wanted a cart without interrupting the track currently playing.

Saving and Loading Break Notes.

We now return to one of the options in the secondary list; to save a Break Note. If you regularly insert a Break Note (or a series of Break Notes) at a specific point in a playlist, you can save this under a user friendly name. In the future, you can select this from a list so as to save you reconstructing it in the future. This is especially helpful if you wish to insert a Break Note pointing to playing a file or something similar or complex to construct.

You will find at the top of the primary list an item to load a Break Note. Pressing Enter on this item displays a list of your previously saved Break Notes. Simply press Enter on one of these to insert it into the Break Note edit field. It saves time. Note that in your list of prepared Break Notes, a “Delete” button is alongside each one which you can reach by pressing the Tab key. Press Enter or Space Bar on this item so as to remove it from the list. This button can also be pressed by using the Delete key when focused on a break note, or by pressing ALT+D. A list of your saved break notes can also be brought into view by pressing the StationPlaylist Key then ALT+Windows+I.

Using the Customised List.

There may well come a point where you do not wish to see all the break notes which are available. For example, if you are not interested in relating weather temperature information to your station audience, there is no sense in having all break notes displayed concerning that.

If you enabled the displaying of the customised list in the Adjust JAWS Options Dialog box, initially you will see all of the possible break notes available. Indeed, if you press the Tab key repeatedly, you will see a button “Reset to Defaults” which will bring all the possible break notes into view.

In order to create your customised list, focus upon one of the break notes and either press the Delete key, ALT+D, or press Tab to move to the “Delete” button and press the Space Bar. The list refreshes so as to display the newly customised list.

From this point forward, whenever you enter the Break Note Creation dialog box, your customised list is displayed. In the event you wish to change your mind and add back one of the items previously removed, press the Tab key to reach the “Add” button or press ALT+A. A list of all the break notes previously removed will be displayed. Press Down Arrow until you reach the item you wish to reinstate, then press Enter.

To repeat, while in the customised list, you can always press the Tab key to reach the “Reset to Defaults” Button and press the Space Bar, whereupon the customised list will be erased and the full list of break notes will be available to you.

Additional Points to Note.

When you return to the Break Note creation dialog box so as to enter further Break Notes, you are located at the point in the list you previously accessed. This is useful so that if you regularly use just one specific Break Note, you can just go ahead and press Enter on that item.

The Break Note Creation Dialog box in the Real World.

Example 1: Setting Studio to Ignore Hour Markers for a Two Hour Pre-Recorded Show.

  1. Move to the top of the playlist.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button. You can press ALT+5.
  3. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  4. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  5. Select Hour Marker and press Enter.
  6. Select one of the Ignore options; “Ignore permanent” or “Ignore temporary”. A Temporary change will revert the option back to it’s original setting when play is stopped. A Permanent change will stay set permanently, even when Studio is closed down.
  7. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  8. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.
  9. Move to the bottom of the playlist.
  10. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  11. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  12. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  13. Select Hour Marker and press Enter.
  14. Select one of the Instant or Play Next options; permanent or temporary. A Temporary change will revert the option back to it’s original setting when play is stopped. A Permanent change will stay set permanently, even when Studio is closed down.
  15. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  16. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Example 2: Play a File Called Weather.mp3 located in C:\Weather at Precisely 11.15 AM.

  1. If possible, move to the approximate point in the playlist where the file will be played.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Timed Break Note radio button. You can press ALT+4.
  3. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the minutes. Type 15. This should already be in place if you moved to the approximate position in the playlist.
  4. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the seconds. This should be 00 unless it is an exceptional circumstance.
  5. Press the Tab key and, from the “Hour Marker” combo box, with the Down Arrow key select the type of timed event. We will use “Instant” as we want to interrupt what is happening on air and play out the weather. If this was not required, “Play Next” may be more suitable.
  6. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  7. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  8. Select the option to play a file and press Enter.
  9. From the list which appears, select “Spot” and press Enter.
  10. When prompted, select the “New Path” option and press Enter. If you have entered a path previously, you should see this in the list as it displays the most recent entries. Press Down Arrow to select the item you want and press Enter.
  11. If you have selected to enter a new path, browse to the file location: c:\weather\weather.mp3. Then press Enter.
  12. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  13. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Example 3: A Typical Setup for Creating a Two Hour Show Which Starts Instantly When the Hour Changes.

This would be helpful if you wish your show to begin playback at 1 PM. However, you want to ensure all content is played out in that hour, even if it intrudes slightly into the next one. If you do not do this, there is a likelihood that part of your show may be missed, particularly if you have a sequence of short items to play out close to the end of the hour or which slightly intrude into the next one.

  1. Move to the top of the playlist, just below the hour marker.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Timed Break Note radio button.
  3. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the minutes. Type 00. This should already be in place if you moved to the approximate position in the playlist.
  4. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the seconds. This should be 00 unless it is an exceptional circumstance.
  5. Press the Tab key and, from the “Hour Marker” combo box, with the Down Arrow key select the type of timed event. We will use “Instant” as we want to interrupt what is happening on air and play out the news.
  6. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  7. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  8. Select the option to play a file and press Enter.
  9. From the list which appears, select “Spot” and press Enter.
  10. When prompted, select the “New Path” option and press Enter. If you have entered a path previously, you should see this in the list as it displays the most recent entries. Press Down Arrow to select the item you want and press Enter. If you have selected to enter a new path, browse to the file location: c:\news\news.mp3. Then press Enter.
  11. Select the option “Text To be Displayed in the Title Column” from the secondary list and press Enter. Type the word “News” and press Enter. When the playlist is viewed, rather than seeing the Break Note code we will see the word “News” instead.
  12. Select “Save Break Note” and into the edit field type “Start News at Top of Hour”. In the future, we can load this from the list of saved Break Notes so as not to browse to the file again.
  13. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  14. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.
  15. Browse your playlist contents, and you should see the word “News” at the designated point in the playlist; at the top.
  16. Insert a spot or a song in the playlist. We now have our news item and the spot or song.
  17. Use the Up or Down arrow keys to ensure that the spot or song is highlighted. We are now going to set hour markers to “Ignore” for the moment, which means that when the hour changes, we will not move to the 2 PM hour until all the content is played out.
  18. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  19. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  20. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  21. From the primary list, select “Hour Marker” and press Enter.
  22. Select “Ignore Temporary” and press Enter. A Temporary change will revert the option back to it’s original setting when play is stopped. A Permanent change will stay set permanently, even when Studio is closed down.
  23. Select “Finish” from the secondary list.
  24. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist. The final step in the process is to re-establish switching to the next hour at the end of the hourly playlist.
  25. Move to the bottom of the playlist, just above the second hour marker.
  26. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  27. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  28. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  29. From the primary list, select “Hour Marker” and press Enter.
  30. Select “Play Next Temporary” and press Enter.
  31. Select “Finish” from the secondary list.
  32. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Example 4: Play the News Bed At the End of the Hour.

  1. Move to the end of the playlist, just above the second hour marker.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Timed Break Note radio button.
  3. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the minutes. Type 60. This has special significance. This kind of timed event will always be played out as the last item in the hour.
  4. Press the Tab key and you will be invited to enter the seconds. This should be left as it is.
  5. Press the Tab key and, from the “Hour Marker” combo box, with the Down Arrow key select the type of timed event. We will use “Instant”.
  6. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  7. Select the option to play a file and press Enter.
  8. From the list which appears, select “Spot” and press Enter.
  9. When prompted, select the “New Path” option and press Enter. If you have entered a path previously, you should see this in the list as it displays the most recent entries. Press Down Arrow to select the item you want and press Enter. If you have selected to enter a new path, browse to the path for the file location: c:\beds\News Intro.mp3. Then press Enter.
  10. Select the option “Text To be Displayed in the Title Column” from the secondary list and press Enter. Type the word “News Intro” and press Enter. When the playlist is viewed, rather than seeing the Break Note code we will see the words “News Intro” instead.
  11. From the secondary list which appears, select “Save Break Note” and press Enter.
  12. Give the Break Note a name so you can access it more quickly in the future, such as, “News Intro”. Press Enter.
  13. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  14. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Example 5: Ask the DJ to Read A Commercial Which Should Take Two Minutes.

  1. Create the commercial in a text file, such as in c:\Commercial\Commercial.txt.
  2. Move to the point in the playlist where you wish the commercial to be announced by the presenter.
  3. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  4. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  5. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  6. Select the option to execute a file and press Enter.
  7. When prompted, select the “New Path” option and press Enter. If you have entered a path previously, you should see this in the list as it displays the most recent entries. Press Down Arrow to select the item you want and press Enter. If you have selected to enter a new path, browse to the file location: c:\Commercial\Commercial.txt. Then press Enter.
  8. From the secondary list which appears, select “Duration” and press Enter.
  9. When prompted, enter the duration in seconds; in our case, that is 120 to represent two minutes. Then press Enter.
  10. Select the option “Text To be Displayed in the Title Column” from the secondary list and press Enter. Type the words “Commercial” and press Enter. When the playlist is viewed, rather than seeing the Break Note code we will see the word “Commercial” instead.
  11. From the secondary list which appears, select “Save Break Note” and press Enter.
  12. Give the Break Note a name so you can access it more quickly in the future, such as, “Advert to read”. Press Enter.
  13. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  14. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Notes:

If you examine the playlist, you will see that accommodation has been made there for the commercial to be read for two minutes. This is important so you can plan the rest of the content around the commercials which must be read out.
To read the content of the commercial, you can focus upon it and press Enter to load the file.

Example 6: Disable Crossfading For a Jazz or Classical Show.

  1. Move to the point in the playlist after any items where the output is fluid and where crossfading is necessary, such as past the news and any opening items.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  3. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  4. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  5. Select the option “Crossfade Songs” and press Enter.
  6. From the list which appears, select “Off” and press Enter.
  7. Select the option “Text To be Displayed in the Title Column” from the secondary list and press Enter. Type the words “Crossfade Off” and press Enter. When the playlist is viewed, rather than seeing the Break Note code we will see the words “Crossfade Off” instead.
  8. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  9. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

We have achieved our objective, but we must remember to enable crossfading again when the hour is over.

  1. Move to the end of the playlist, just above the second hour marker.
  2. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Timed Break Note radio button.
  3. Press the Tab key to move to the first field and type 60.
  4. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  5. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  6. Select the option “Crossfade Songs” and press Enter.
  7. From the list which appears, select “On” and press Enter.
  8. Select the option “Text To be Displayed in the Title Column” from the secondary list and press Enter. Type the words “Crossfade On” and press Enter. When the playlist is viewed, rather than seeing the Break Note code we will see the words “Crossfade On” instead.
  9. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  10. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Example 7: Insert a Jingle Cart to Play.

Move to the point in the playlist where you would like a specific cart to be played out.

  1. Press Control+I for the Insert dialog box and select the Break Note radio button.
  2. Press the Tab key repeatedly until JAWS says “Enter Break Note code”.
  3. Press ALT+Windows+I to move into the Break Note creation dialog box.
  4. Select the item “insert a cart overlapping” and press Enter.
  5. From the List Box which appears, select Shift Carts or any which are appropriate.
  6. You should now see a list of the corresponding keystrokes together with the cart names. Please refer to the chapter of this documentation concerning the naming of carts manually and via the “Cart Training” method. Press Enter on the item you wish to use.
  7. From the secondary list which appears, select “Finish”.
  8. Press ALT+I to insert the Break Note into the required position of the playlist.

Closing Comments

We hope you enjoy using the StationPlaylist Studio scripts. If you have any questions or comments, please Email them to: jaws@hartgen.org

The official website for StationPlaylist can be found here

The support Email list for StationPlaylist can be
subscribed to by sending a message to: stationPlaylist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Acknowledgements

Initial script concepts devised by Brian Hartgen and Jonathan Mosen.

Sincere thanks go to everyone who has made suggestions for ongoing script improvements and features. They are very much appreciated.

Thanks go to Gordon Luke, Marco Steinebach and Jim Snowbarger for additional essential code.

A final credit must go to the StationPlaylist company who implemented functions at our suggestion to assist screen-reader users. Without their help and support, the scripts would not be as feature-rich as they are.