AudioWalk by MollieSoft - Frequently Asked Questions
	- Updated November 27, 2024 for Version 1.1.3.0.

What is AudioWalk?
	- Do you listen to audiobooks while on your daily walk or run?  Then you need AudioWalk!
	- AudioWalk provides a convenient way to time your daily walk (or run) by listening to audiobooks.  No more fiddling with a separate timer on your walk!
	- Keeps a record of all your walks, including start time, distance, speed and notes about your walk.
	- Handles either audiobooks you own consisting of many audio files, or books without files streamed from a service such as Libby (OverDrive), Audible.com, Kindle (Amazon).
	- Automatically calculates duration for audio files of most popular types, including aac, ac3, flac, m4a, mp2, mp3, oga, ogg, opus, wav and wma.
	- Your next walk automatically starts at the same point in your audiobook as the end time of your previous walk.  Just record the ending file/position and distance after your walk.
	- Keeps separate records for multiple users.
	- Show speed and distance in English or metric units as desired.
	- AudioWalk also works great when listening to podcasts!  The files in a podcast folder are just treated as a single "audiobook".

How do I install AudioWalk?
	- Go to www.molliesoft.com/AudioWalk to download the install package.  You will need administrator privileges on your machine to perform the install.

What operating systems will run AudioWalk?
	- AudioWalk runs on Windows 8.1, Windows 10 or Windows 11.
	- AudioWalk requires the .NET 8 Desktop Runtime x64 to run.  You can install it from the direct link https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/thank-you/runtime-desktop-8.0.11-windows-x64-installer, or get the most recent version of the .NET Desktop Runtime 8 installer from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/8.0.  If this is not installed on your computer, you may see the following message when you start AudioWalk:

Click the "Download it now" link, then install it and restart AudioWalk.

How do I run AudioWalk?
	- The install process places a shortcut to AudioWalk on your desktop.
	- Only one instance of AudioWalk can be running at any given time.  If it is already running, invoking the AudioWalk desktop shortcut will simply activate the running instance.

How can I learn more about how AudioWalk works?
	- This FAQ is the main source of information about AudioWalk.
	- Please email support@molliesoft.com with any questions that the documentation does not address.

Sessions and Segments

What are audio Walk Sessions and segments?
	- A walk session consists of one or more walk segments (usually exactly one).  Every session implicitly contains at least one segment.
	- A single walk segment records a start and end time within a single audiobook.
	- Only a walk session has a duration (elapsed time for the walk), a distance, and a calculated speed.  Segments do not have these properties.
	- Segments come in two variants: simple and normal.
	- A simple segment is one that refers to an audiobook without actual audio files, e.g. a book streamed from a service such as Audible or Libby.  A simple segment just contains a book name you specify, and the start/end time for the walk segment within this book.
	- A normal segment is one that refers to an audiobook consisting of mp3 files (or audio files of a type you specify)  on disk.  A normal segment points to the actual start file and start position (within the file) for the segment, and the actual end file and end position.  Here "position" means the time offset from the beginning of the file.

What if I finish a book and start a new one during my walk?
	- If you start a new book during your walk, your walk should contain 2 different segments: the first session terminates at the end of the old book, and the second starts at the beginning of the new book and ends at the position in the new book where your walk stopped.
	- To create a walk with multiple segments, first create a new session (containing the first segment) and save it.  Now, use the "Add Segment" button   at the top right of the main window to create a second segment in your session.  Fill in the start/end information for this segment, then press the Save button.  Your walk session now contains 2 segments.
	- The duration for the session is calculated as the sum of the durations for all segments of the walk.

What does the checkbox "Use simple segments" mean?
	- If "Use simple segments" is not checked, then any new session (or segment) you create will assume you are using normal segments, and you will see data fields for the new session corresponding to the book folder, start/end files and start/end positions within these files.
	- If "Use simple segments" is checked, then any new session (or segment) you create will use simple segments, and you will see data fields for the new session/segment corresponding to the book name and the start/end positions within the book.  No actual audio files are involved.

How do I correct an error in a session I have already saved?
	- Select the session in the session list, or if the session has multiple segments, select the segment to be corrected.  Press the Edit button to correct the book name/folder or start/end information of the session/segment.  Press Save when done to save the changes.
	- Note: By design, you cannot access the session list while editing.  You must save (green button) or cancel (red button) the current edit operation first.
	- You can add or remove segments from an existing session; however, you cannot remove the last segment of a session.
	- You can remove an entire session by pressing the "X" button at the top of the window on the "Audio session" line.
	- You can remove a single segment of a session by pressing the "X" button on the "Segment" line.  Note: the segment controls are only visible when a session has more than one segment.

How does AudioWalk calculate the duration of an audio file?
	- AudioWalk uses the Windows properties system to determine the duration of an audio file.  If you right-click on an audio file in Windows Explorer to view its properties, then navigate to the Details tab of Properties, the Property "Length" will be the same as the duration of the file as displayed in AudioWalk.

How does AudioWalk calculate the elapsed time for my walk session?
	- For a simple segment, the elapsed time (duration) is simply calculated by subtracting the start position from the end position.
	- For a normal segment, the elapsed time is calculated by adding up the durations of all the audio files between the start and end file, even if these reside in separate folders within the audiobook.
	- The duration of the entire session is calculated as the sum of the duration of all segments within the session.

What types of audio files does AudioWalk handle?
	- AudioWalk calculates the time duration of each audio file contained in a walk segment by using the Windows Property System, specifically the "Length" property for audio files.
	- By default, Windows will automatically calculate the Length property only for files of the following types (based on the default installed "codecs" in Windows):
•	.aac - Advanced Audio Coding, used in many streaming services.
•	.ac3 - Audio Codec 3 File, similar to MP3, developed by Dolby Laboratories.
•	.flac - Free Lossless Audio Codec format for high-quality sound.
•	.m4a - MPEG-4 Audio, used by Apple devices for audio files.
•	.mp2 - MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 2 format.
•	.mp3 - MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer 3, the most common audio format for music.
•	.oga - Audio container part of an OGG file developed by xiph.org for streaming on various platforms.
•	.ogg - Ogg Vorbis open-source audio format used by some streaming services.
•	.opus - Xiph.Org lossy compression format designed for audio streaming, offers variable bitrates.
•	.wav - Waveform Audio File, uncompressed audio files often used in professional settings.
•	.wma - Windows Media Audio files, Microsoft's proprietary format.
	- When you create a new walk session or segment, you must select the audio file type for your audiobook from the drop-down list at the top right.  This restricts your choice of audio files to those of the selected type, and the walk duration is calculated using all intervening files of this type between the start and end files.
	- An audiobook must consist entirely of audio files of a single type so that duration can be calculated correctly.

I use kilometers for distance, not miles!  How can I switch the display to kilometers?
	- Press the Settings button at the top left to show the Settings dialog.  Check the box "Use metric distance" then press OK.  All the measurements shown in AudioWalk (distance and speed) will now be displayed using metric units.

Can I just show miles/hour instead of minutes/mile?
	- Yes. The Settings dialog contains a checkbox labelled "Invert speed" (normally checked to show speed as minutes/mile, or minutes/km for metric).  Uncheck it and press OK.  All speed measurements in AudioWalk will now be shown as miles/hour (or km/hour for metric).

How do I add some notes about my walk?
	- Click on the "Notes" checkbox at the top-right of the main window to make the notes area appear.  Now, when you add or edit an audio session (or segment) you can type some notes in this area that will be saved with the other information about the walk session/segment.  When not adding or editing, the notes area cannot be modified.
	- To make notes visible in the main list of audio sessions, click on the "Columns" button to make the column checkboxes appear, then check "Notes".  This will make the Notes column appear in the main list at the far right.  You can hide the Notes column in the same way.
	- You can search within the Notes column by simply typing (if the highlighted entry in the list is within the Notes column).

I like the little colored "bubbles" showing the day of week for the date, but what does the color of the bubble mean?
	- The day bubble color indicates the season of the year:  orange for fall, yellow for summer, green for spring and blue for winter.

Cripey mate, I'm an Aussie!  August is winter down here - yellow just ain't right!
	- Open the Settings dialog and check the box for "Southern hemisphere".  Your day bubble colors will now be more appropriate for southern hemisphere seasons.

There are several people in my family who take daily walks.  Can we all use the same AudioWalk program to records our walks?
	- Yes.  Press the "Users" button at the top of AudioWalk to add another user.  Once you exit this dialog, the highlighted user becomes the current user of AudioWalk, and his/her walk session data is displayed.  You can easily switch between users at any time (except while editing a session).
	- The current user is shown in the title bar of the AudioWalk window.
	- You can also remove or rename a user using the Users dialog.

That sessions list is too busy!  It's making my eyes itch!  Can I make it simpler?
	- Yes. Use the "Columns" button at the top of the main window to select which columns you would like to show/hide.
	- The start time column will always be visible since it is the "identity" of the audio session.

How can I find my fastest walk?  my slowest walk?
	- Click on the "Speed" column header of the sessions list to sort the list by speed.  Click again to sort it in the reverse order.
	- Click on the "Start time" column header to revert to the normal sort order.
	- You can also sort by distance or duration by clicking on the corresponding column.

What keyboard shortcuts can I use to add or edit audio sessions?
	- Control+S: Saves a session while editing/adding.
	- Escape: Cancel editing/adding a session.
	- Control+N: Add a session.
	- Control+Delete: Remove a session.
	- Control+E: Edit a session.
	- Control+A: Add an additional segment to a session.
	- Control+Shift+Delete: Remove a segment from a session (only available if the session has multiple segments).

Splash Screen

What does the splash screen show?
	- The current AudioWalk version number.
	- Validity check for the AudioWalk (free) license.
	- The total elapsed time for initialization of the program.

The splash screen is annoying!  Can I turn it off?
	- MollieSoft is deeply sorry that you do not appreciate our beautiful splash screen!  However, to mollify the occasional customer with a distaste for splash screens, we have provided a check box in the "Settings" dialog that you can use to turn off the splash screen.

Miscellaneous

Can I disable the little yellow tooltip pop-up windows that appear over controls?
	- Yes; just uncheck "Enable Tooltips" in the Settings dialog and press OK.

What is the History Log?
	- Every time AudioWalk is started, a new History Log file is created in the directory 
		%localappdata%\AudioWalk\Logs.
(Just paste this into a Windows Explorer navigation bar to display the contents of this directory, or press the button "Explore Logs" on the History Log window.)  The files are named using the format
		 AudioWalk.YYYYMMDD_hhmmss.log,
e.g. AudioWalkLog.20241002_143932.log is the file created when AudioWalk was started on 2024/10/02 at 14:39:32.  These files contain diagnostic information relevant to the operation of AudioWalk, and can be opened using Notepad.
	- To see what is being written to the History Log in real time, click the History Log button at the top of the AudioWalk main window to open the History Log window.
	- At startup, the History Log will display the current AudioWalk version and (free) license information.
	- The History Log contains a record of any errors encountered.
	- The "Explore Logs" button at the top right of History Log will open a Windows Explorer, and show you the logs directory containing the history log files for all past executions of AudioWalk.

What else is in %localappdata%\AudioWalk?
	- Warning!  Never modify any file in this directory or any subdirectory, or the results will be "unpredictable".
	- This directory has the file AudioWalk_License.dat which contains your (free) license information.
	- The "Config" subdirectory contains several timestamped AudioWalk.cfg files, which hold various AudioWalk program settings.
	- The "Logs" subdirectory contains AudioWalk log files (the current log file is shown in the History Log window).

Where do I send comments or suggestions about AudioWalk?
	- Email comments or suggestions to:
		support@molliesoft.com
	 or to
		molliesoft@comcast.net