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[JimH]

This thread is aimed at people who haven't used media players much.  If you've used other media players, I'm sorry, but you may not find much that's useful here.

In general, the fastest way to learn is to try things.

The Action Window is a useful tool for common tasks.  Try each option to see where they lead.  You may need to select a file first.

Select is an important concept to master.  Try using SHIFT and mouse click to highlight a series of files.  Click at the beginning and the end of the series.  CTRL and mouse click selects individual files so you can do the first, third, and fourth, for example.  CTRL-A selects all files.

To play, first you might want to select something.  Then press the play button.  If playback doesn't do exactly what you expect, explore Tools/Options/General Behavior.  You can probably set it to do what you want.

When in doubt, try a right click.  Lots of options should appear.  Some are nested, so they will show you more options when the mouse is over them.

There are many different views.  Try the menu options for View.  Try them all so you know what's there.

Can't find what you want?  Try the Search window in the upper right corner.  Select Audio, Images, or Video first.

MC has a help section in the program.  It's always a little behind the program.  Newer features are usually documented here so please try a search.

There is a FAQ here that points in a lot of directions.

If you'd like to know more about how to use the forum, here's a good place to start.

We have online documentation in our Wiki.

License information and information about purchasing can be found in the FAQ.  The purchase page has several active links you can try.

[lee269]

You have probably selected these situations based on FAQs - I however am just making it up as I go along.

Jim, the other support post was targetted, but this could become the worlds longest thread. How to distinguish between the forum, the wiki and other resources? So this is the first 10 mins or so post-installl:

I want to know

 - how to create/import my library (maybe done within install)

 - play some tunes (choose Audio and create a playing now list)

 - maybe find a song I want, using search.

 - how to get some music onto my player (iPod etc)

Even with this there are many variables, but lets focus on one way to do stuff to start with. As others have said before, I think a tutorial video could be good. Encouraging people to experiment is also good. And most of your post is relevant to that.

When I watch my beloved wife using MC, the thing that surprises me most is trying to explain the playback 'workflow'. The number of times I build up a great playing now list and she wipes it by double clicking on a song to replace it in the PN list, or have to explain how to get songs played is amazing. There are so many variables and options to how you simply play music, which is great so you can set it up the way that works best. I think tell people a way to do it even if its not optimal to get them started.

[Magic_Randy]

Just an idea - There is a start page in MC. It would be nice if this was the single point of entry for all of the simple, basic, let's get started kind of questions.  As an example (stolen from lee269's post):

-  how to create/import my library (maybe done within install)

 - play some tunes (choose Audio and create a playing now list)

 - maybe find a song I want, using search.

 - how to get some music onto my player (iPod etc)

These could be listed on the start page and linked via the web to the wiki for the details of that topic.  That way this can be updated in real time and the user does not even need to know there is a forum available.  On the start page, it could also have an advanced link to the forum and the wiki.

EDIT: This suggestion is similar to what the start page already does, but it currently links to the help system.  It's difficult for a new user to know where to go when there are so many ways to get info (e.g. wiki, help, forum, ...).