experImotion    - MP3 Help

Home | Sounds | Photos


ASSOCIATING THE MP3 FILE TYPE WITH A CLICK ON YOUR INTERNET BROWSER

First, A little background. The convenience of clicking on an audio filename and automatically playing the file is based on the assignment of a software player as the default for the specified file type (that little three character extension preceeded by a "." at the end of the filename).

In the zeleous attempt to capture attention many software player suppliers capture this "default' status when they are installed. Often, the better packages, will ask if you wish to make their player as the default and allow you to select the file types that you wish to play with the player that is being installed.

With Windows and Windows Internet Explorer you can follow the appropriate steps below to set the default MP3 player.

Fortunately the common media players have an options or preferences panel by which you can manual force your own choices.

You can go to each player and set media type selections (for MP3, WAV, etc) to automatically play or not. Do this by starting the audio player and look for an "Options", "Tools" or "Preferences" menu item. Next find a "Files Type" or "Media Type" or maybe even "Mime Types" tab or button. You will most likely find a list of file types to select or unselect to affect the actions of this player. This is best used to disable a player from playing a file type (eg Real Player - MP3)

There are many media players that are available for Microsoft Windows. The newer versions of this operating system comes with Windows Media. The latest version is 9.0 and you can down load updates (free) by simply selecting the "Windows Update" menu item when you click on the "Start" button on the lower left of your desktop screen.

Windows Media seems to play audio files of many different formats, starts up quickly, and has a nice "bars and Waves" display which provides a quick display of the graphical spectrum of the clip being played. It has a nice interface that allows you to simply save the file being played (Under the 'Files' menu).

The Apple QuickTime player is also very popular. When utilized with an Internet browser the controls appear within the browser and are minimal, but also simple and the audio will play almost immediately after clicked.

Another popular player is WinAmp. I like the jukebox capabilities of this player as it was originally designed for playing a collection of MP3 music files.

The Real Audio player was initially designed for streaming audio and then video on the Internet. The compression format tagged with a file extension of "ra" is a proprietary format of Real Audio. For streaming news clips and long audio presentations this format has gained a great deal of popularity. I don't recommend this for playing MP3 or WAV files.

Then of course there are many audio editing tools that will play audio files such as Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge and Syntrillium's Cool Edit. When you need to work with an audio clip you will most likely migrate toward these editing tools as opposed to the simple audio players listed above to be opened when you click on a file.

Now lets get down to brass tacks.
The objective to setting the default player is to get an association with the file type (filename extension) and the application to start when the filename is clicked.

Although the following steps seem terribly detailed, it is just like a recipe. Follow each item carefully to get the desired results.

You can use these same steps to associate "WAV" files to a desired player application.

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer then you can set the file type associations as follows: (The specifics in the following steps will depend upon the version of Windows that you are using. )


Windows XP or 2000 using Internet Explorer
If you are lucky you can simply do the following:

  1. Open Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). If you can't find Explorer, right-click the "Start" button then click "Explore".
  2. Click "View" on your toolbar (or "Tools" on some versions of Windows).
  3. Find "Folder Options..." at the bottom of that list.
  4. Select "File Types".
  5. Scroll down the list until you find the "MP3" file extension.
  6. Under the "Details for 'MP3' extension" press "Change"
  7. Follow the instructions to select or browse for an application or MP3 player of your choice and press "Ok"
  8. Press "Close" on the "Folder Options" tab panel.
  9. Test your configuration: Click on http://www.experimotion.com/sounds/squirrelcatbird.mp3

NOTE: when you click on an Internet audio file it is first stored in a temporary files for your browser, and may be deleted when you close your browser session. If you want to save this file use "Save As..." under the "File" menu.

If that works, then you are finished. Otherwise, a more heavy handed approach follows:

Disable the MP3 player selection
  1. Open Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). If you can't find Explorer, right-click the "Start" button then click "Explore".
  2. Click "View" on your toolbar (or "Tools" on some versions of Windows).
  3. Find "Folder Options..." at the bottom of that list.
  4. Select "File Types".
  5. Scroll down the list until you find the "MP3" file extension.
  6. Click on the "Delete" button

Create a new File Association
  1. Press "New" on the "Files Type Panel"
  2. In the popup panel enter "MP3" in the file extension entry box.
  3. Press the "Advanced" button
  4. Scroll down the "Associate File Type" combo box and select "MP3 audio file (mp3)"
  5. Press "Ok" on this small panel that you just entered the file extension.
  6. Back to the "File Types" tab panel, press the "Advanced" button within the "Details for 'MP3' extension" group.
  7. You can browse for your icon from the popup panel that appears.
  8. Next to the "Actions" box press "New"
  9. In the "New Actions" panel type "Open"
  10. Press the "Browse" button and select the exectuatable path for the application that you wish use to open the MP3 file.
  11. Insure that there is a "%1" entered after the path of the executable (also in quotes) such as:
    "C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Sound Forge 6.0\forge60.exe" "%1"
    if the "%1" is missing then the application doesn't get passed the filename of the MP3 file.
  12. Click the "Use DDE" checkbox.
  13. In the "Application entry box, type in the executable name of your application. ("forge60", in this case for Sound Forge)
  14. In the "Topic" entry box type "System".
  15. Make sure that "Confirm Open after download" is NOT checked (unless you wish to be asked every time you open an MP3 file).
  16. Press "Ok" to the "New Actions" panel.
  17. Press "Close" on the "Folder Options" tab panel.
  18. Test your configuration: Click on http://www.experimotion.com/sounds/squirrelcatbird.mp3

NOTE: when you click on an Internet audio file it is first stored in a temporary file for your browser, and may be deleted when you close your browser session. If you want to save this file use "Save As..." under the "File" menu.


Other Windows (Version 98)
If you are lucky you can simply do the following:
  1. Open Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). If you can't find Explorer, right-click the "Start" button then click "Explore".
  2. Click "Tools"
  3. Find "Folder Options..." at the bottom of that list.
  4. Select "File Types".
  5. Select something that resembles your player in the list, such as "Winamp media file" (if Winamp is your default player) or "MP3 files" (if Media Player is your default player).
  6. Press "Edit" (to the right of the list box)
  7. In the "Edit File Type" panel, Select the bolded Action, such as "Open" and press the "Edit..." button.
  8. Now browse to select the player or edit application that you wish to use.
  9. Insure that there is a "%1" entered after the path of the executable (also in quotes) such as:
    "C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry\Sound Forge 6.0\forge60.exe" "%1"
    if the "%1" is missing then the application doesn't get passed the filename of the MP3 file.
  10. Click the "Use DDE" checkbox.
  11. In the "Application entry box, type in the executable name of your application. ("forge60", in this case for Sound Forge)
  12. In the "Topic" entry box type "System".
  13. Press "Ok" to save your change in the "Editing Action" panel.
  14. Insure that the "Confirm Open after download" checkbox is unchecked.
  15. Press "Close" on the "Edit File Type" panel.
  16. Press "Close" on the "Folder Options" tab panel.
  17. Test your configuration: Click on http://www.experimotion.com/sounds/squirrelcatbird.mp3

If that works, then you are finished. Otherwise, a more heavy handed approach follows:

STEP 1

Disable your current default MP3 player:
  1. Open Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). If you can't find Explorer, right-click the "Start" button then click "Explore".
  2. Click "View" on your toolbar (or "Tools" on some versions of Windows).
  3. Find "Folder Options..." at the bottom of that list.
  4. Select "File Types".
  5. Find something that resembles your player in the list, such as "Winamp media file" (if Winamp is your default player) or "MP3 files" (if Media Player is your default player).
  6. Highlight it, and hit the "Remove" button.

STEP 2
Then you can set another MP3 player to default:

Method 1 (easy, but doesn't always work)
  1. Click on any MP3 link in Internet Explorer.
  2. When you get the "File Download" dialog box, select "Open this file from its current location".
  3. When the download has finished, you should get a "Open With" dialog box, listing many programs.
  4. See if you can find your MP3 player in this list.

Method 2 (difficult, but will almost always work)
  1. Open Windows Explorer (NOT Internet Explorer). If you can't find Explorer, right-click the "Start" button then click "Explore".
  2. Click "View" on your toolbar (or "Tools" on some versions of Windows).
  3. Find "Folder Options..." at the bottom of that list.
  4. Select "File Types".
  5. Click the "New Type..." button.
  6. In the "Add New File Type", fill in the following:
    Description of type: MP3 file
    Associated extension: .mp3
    Content Type (MIME): audio/mpeg (Note: use "audio/wav" if you are configuring for WAV files)
    Under "Actions:" click the "New..." button
  7. In the "New Action" box, fill in the following:
    Action: open
    Application to use to perform action: "C:\Program Files\Winamp\WINAMP.EXE" "%1"
    or "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\mplayer2.exe" "%1" (or wmplayer.exe)
    (These paths could vary by system)
    Uncheck the "Confirm open after download" checkbox
  8. Press "Ok"

Above we simply used Winamp and Media Player as an example. You can type in where your perfered player is (include the quotes), if different, or use the browse button. Be sure to remember the "%1" at the end.

The next time you download an MP3 file you should see "File Download" pop-up box. Select "Open this file from its current location" and uncheck the "Always as before opening this type of file".


Netscape Navigator 6.2 - 7.0 on Windows XP
  1. Click on "Edit", then "Preferences" from the top menu bar.
  2. In the "Preferences" panel, select "Navigator, then "Helper Applications" in the left hand menu tree.
  3. Click on "New Type..." or select "audio/mpeg" and press edit.
  4. If new:
    Enter "MP3" as description of type.
    Enter "MP3" as file extension
    Enter "audio/mpeg" as MIME type.
    Choose the application path and filename for your player or editor.
    Press "Ok" to save your preferences.
  5. If existing:
    Choose the application path and filename for your player or editor.
    Press "Ok" to save your preferences.
  6. Press "Ok" to save the changes on the "Preferences" Panel.

Test your configuration: Click on http://www.experimotion.com/sounds/squirrelcatbird.mp3

NOTE: The first time you may be asked if you always want to open this file type with the selected application. Select not to be asked again.


Or Perhaps you just want to download the file first before listening to it.
  1. Right-click the link. Click "Save" or "Save As" or "Save Link Target As".
  2. Choose a directory on the drive where you will be able to find it.
  3. Click "Save".


All sounds © Copyright 2003 Experimotion.com and wcm Solutions, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Contact Us
Best viewed at 800x600 or finer resolution in high color