Here's a quick step-by-step guide to using Napster. This doesn't explain everything, but it's enough to get you started! I also made a few screenshots to help you understand what the heck I'm talking about! Anyway, here it is...
Step 1: Getting Started
Okay, first you have to find where the Napster icon is on your computer, and double click on it to get Napster started. I have no idea of knowing where the icon is on your computer, but there's probably a section in the Start Menu : Programs titled "Napster", and that's the one you should use.
Once you've found Napster and started it up (make sure your computer is connected to the internet first!) you'll be at a chat menu, like the one shown below.
Noticet the big black window. Once Napster has connected to the Napster network (the thing that lets you get music), you'll see a bunch of red text fly upward and then stop, so it looks like the picture above. Also, you'll see that the status bar (in the lower left corner of Napster) will have your user name followed by "online". If you wait and wait but the red text doesn't show up or you get a message that says you can't connect, you should go to the File menu, click on Disconnect, then go back into the File menu and click on Connect.
Napster should usually have no problems connecting, but sometimes, it just won't do it the first time. Also, remember that other online programs may slow or stop Napster (such as ICQ, if you know what that is), so it's usually a good idea to close these programs before opening Napster.
Step 2: Napster Explained
Before you start doing anything in Napster, you should get to know what all these things that I'm going to be talking about are. Here's a little informative graphic that I made to show you the basics.
Step 3: Searching Napster
Now that you've got Napster up and running, it's time to put it to use. First, click on the Search button, located at the top of Napster. The main screen should change to a different one, filled with all kinds of buttons and stuff. This is the Search screen. It should look like the picture below, and if you're new to all this, it should also look kind of confusing!
Alright, now you've got to ignore everything except the little window that is titled Search Fields. Click once in the blank area with "Song Title:" next to it, and type in whatever you're looking for. Even though it says "Song Title:", you should type in either the artist name OR the song title that you are looking for. Don't pay any attention to the window called "Artist:", because it usually doesn't work!
Once you've got the name of the song or the artist typed in, press enter (or click the "Find It!" button) and Napster will tell you that it's searching for what you typed in. Kick back and relax right now, because you really can't do much until it's finished. If it displays a message that says "No matching songs!" or something like that, just type in something new and try again. Usually, the fewer words you type in, the more results you'll get. Unfortunately, they won't allways be exactly what you're looking for, but the one you want will usually be in there somewhere.
Below is a picture of a search that I did just for the sake of this tutorial. I searched for the word "theme" and these are the results I got. Once you've gotten a good look at the screenshot, and gotten some of your own results to look through, move on the next step.
Step 4: Choosing the Right One
Now that you've got a list in front of you of potential songs you might want, it's time to choose the right one to download. On the bar above your results, there should be a button with "Line Speed" written on it. Click on it once, and the results will be reordered, then click on it again, to reorder the files one last time. Clicking on this button twice will reorder the results from with fastest on the top and slowest on the bottom.
Now look at the list of songs Napster found. To the left of each song is a dot. This dot can be colored either green, yellow, or red, and it represents how fast you should be able to download the song, with green being the fastest, yellow in the middle, and red being the slowest. Scan your results and see if the song you want has a green dot next to it. If it does, next look at the bar above your results again and find the column titled "Bitrate." Make sure that the bitrate of the song you are going to download is 128 or higher. Let me take a moment to explain this whole bitrate thing.
The bitrate number represents how good a song will sound. 128 is as good as you'll need, but if the song you want has anything over this number, it won't matter, except that it will take slightly longer to download, as this makes it bigger. If you want a song, but the bitrate is lower than 128, you can download it and try it, but the sound quality will usually be below par. Also, keep in mind that you can download songs faster from a T3 or T1 (listed under the "Line Speed" column.
Here's a picture of what the screen should look like after you've reordered the files.
Step 5: Downloading Songs
Once you've got the song that you want all picked out, double click on it (or highlight it with one click and then press the button at the bottom left that says "Get Selected Song(s)"). This will bring you to the Transfer screen, and the name of the song you've just selected will appear in the main part of this window. Following your song's name will probably be the words "Getting Info...". This means that your computer is waiting for the other one to respond to your request.
Wait a little while, and, if all is going according to plan, the words will change to "Downloading...". There will also be a little status bar that appears to the right of this, which will let you know how much of the song that you've gotten so far.
Once it gets to this stage, you can kick back and relax again. You're well on your way to getting some new music! Just make sure to check on Napster every once in a while, just make sure that your song is still being downloaded. And it might also be a good idea to figure out where Napster is putting all your new music, so you can delete any fragments of songs that you may have left behind from previous downloads.
Step 6: In Case There's A Problem
Just in case you have a problem and Napster stops downloading the song you wanted, there's a backup plan! All you have to do is locate the "Resume" button at the bottom of the transfer screen, and then click on it.
A window should open, with a list of all the files that you MAY be able to resume downloading.
Just click on the one you want to resume (providing it's there!) and click on the button on the bottom of the Resume window with "Resume" on it. Napster will then go back to the Transfer screen and let you know whether it's possible to resume or not. If not, just look the song up again and re-download. This is loads of fun, huh?
