PodSilo by MollieSoft - Frequently Asked Questions
	- Updated April 18, 2023 for Version 1.4.7.0.

What is PodSilo?
	- Most podcast providers offer an RSS ("Really Simple Syndication") feed URL that lists the audio files currently available on their website, generally in mp3 format.  
	- PodSilo uses RSS feeds to automatically download podcast episodes for you!  
	- Collect and save ALL episodes ever offered by a feed, even though only a few episodes are offered at a time.  Replay any episode at any time.
	- PodSilo maintains a list of your podcast RSS feeds.  You can poll each feed, then download the new episodes listed in the poll result, either manually or automatically according to a schedule ("catch-up").
	- PodSilo creates readable file names for episodes based on the episode title.
	- PodSilo lets you search for episodes by episode title, file name, download status, and many other episode properties.  You can use logical expressions to combine search conditions.
	- PodSilo manages disk space used by the downloaded episodes.  Episode cleanup rules determine which episodes are kept during catch-up, and how much disk space is available for each feed (or for all feeds).
	- The download folder can be located on a removable USB drive or a writable network share, and PodSilo will prompt you to mount the drive when needed.
	- The Feed Journal shows a detailed list of all feeds polled and episodes downloaded, and the progress of each poll and download.
	- PodSilo is efficient and performs well even with thousands of feeds!

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

What operating systems will run PodSilo?
	- PodSilo runs on Windows 8.1 or Windows 10.
	- PodSilo requires the Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.6.1 to run.  This should normally already be present; if the PodSilo installation process detects it is not installed, go to
	https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49981
and install it.

How do I run PodSilo?
	- The install process will place a shortcut to PodSilo in your Startup folder, so it will start when you log on to your computer.
	- PodSilo should always be running so that it can automatically poll feeds and download episodes for you; just minimize it to the system tray instead of closing PodSilo.
	- The install process also places a separate shortcut to PodSilo on your desktop, so that you can start PodSilo manually.

I clicked the "Minimize" button (on the upper right of PodSilo); where did it go?  
	- When minimized, the PodSilo icon will appear in the System Tray (at the bottom right of the desktop).  If you do not see it there, click the small up-arrow in the tray marked "Show hidden icons".  Note that Windows lets you customize the System Tray to make the PodSilo icon stay in the visible portion of the tray if desired.  You can also use the PodSilo desktop shortcut to make PodSilo appear on the screen again.

What will happen to PodSilo when the trial period expires?
	- After the 60-day trial period, PodSilo will start but only allow you to purchase a license if desired.  Without a license, PodSilo will no longer run as before.  A license entitles you to run PodSilo permanently on a single computer.

If I upgrade to the next version of PodSilo, will my permanent license still be valid?
	- Yes.  A permanent license for PodSilo is a license forever; you can safely upgrade to any new version and your license will still be valid.
	- Even if you only have a trial license, you can upgrade PodSilo without affecting the expiration date of your license.

How can I learn more about how PodSilo works?
	- This FAQ is the main source of information about PodSilo.
	- While running PodSilo, tooltips are available on most controls, including the column headings of the feed list and episode list in the main window.  Hover the mouse on these areas to see the tooltips.
	- Click the Help button in the Search for Episodes window to show a separate search help window.
	- Some windows, such as Manage Episodes and Import Feeds, have a separate help area which can be made visible by checking the "Show help" box on that window.
	- Please email support@molliesoft.com with any questions or comments that the documentation does not address.

Feeds and Episodes

How do I find feeds for PodSilo?
	- To add a feed to PodSilo, you need the RSS URL for the feed.  This is a link for the feed that returns an xml file representing all episodes currently present in the feed.  The web site offering the feed will generally contain this RSS link somewhere on its page.
	- Click on the "Import Feeds" button in PodSilo, then press the "Load Feeds" button in the resulting dialog.  Select one of the predefined feeds list, e.g. BBC feeds; you can then easily import some or all of the feeds.  There are predefined lists for the BBC, NPR, MollieSoft favorites, and the most popular feeds.  You can also import any text list of rss feeds, or any opml file contains rss feeds.
	- Podcast directory sites like podbay.fm offer many ways to browse and search for podcast feeds.  A web search for "podcast feed list" will produce many such directories.  Podbay.fm makes it particularly easy to find RSS feed links:  just search for a podcast by title or author, click on the podcast, find the "RSS" link at the left of the page, right-click and select "Copy Link".  This is the rss feed for the podcast.
	- If you use a different podcast application, it generally will allow you to copy the RSS URL of a feed, or export your list of feeds to an OPML file.  Then you can paste the RSS URL into the Add Feeds dialog in PodSilo, or import the entire feed list using the PodSilo Import Feeds dialog, or simply paste the url into PodSilo using the Control-V key combination.
	- If you have an iTunes link for a podcast, sites such as http://picklemonkey.net/feedflipper-home/ let you paste in the iTunes URL and extract the contained RSS URL.
	- Just to get you started, here are some rss feeds you can try:
		This American Life - http://feed.thisamericanlife.org/talpodcast
		Planet Money - http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510289
		Radio Diaries - http://feed.radiodiaries.org/radio-diaries
		The Moth - http://feeds.themoth.org/themothpodcast

How do I add a feed to PodSilo?
	- To add a single feed, use the Add button above the feed list to open the "Add Feed" dialog.  Paste the RSS feed URL into the "Feed URL" box.  Press "Test Feed" to see if it is a valid feed, and then press OK.  You can also change the folder name at this time if you do not like the provided feed title.
	- A fast way to add a feed (without testing it first) is to copy the feed from e.g. a web site, then click inside the PodSilo feed list and press control-V to paste the feed.  You can then poll the new feed in the normal manner, or press control-P to poll it.  If you have a list of feeds URLs with each feed on a separate line, just select all the lines and use control-V as before to paste all the feeds at once.
	- Each RSS feed URL you enter into PodSilo must be unique, so if you try to add an URL that you already have, PodSilo will object.  See the history log for details.
	- After you add a feed, you can use the Edit Feed button above the feed list to change the folder name of the feed, or provide a special cleanup rule.

Why should I use PodSilo instead of just listening via the feed web page?
	- Many feeds only offer the last few episodes via their RSS link, or via their web page.  PodSilo allows you to accumulate all episodes of the feed over time, and listen to them at your leisure, even if they are no longer offered by the feed.

I have feeds set up in some other podcatcher; how can I get these feeds into PodSilo?
	- Use the Import Feeds button above the feed list to show the Import Feeds dialog.  Most podcatcher applications allow you to export an OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) file containing your feeds; use the "Load Feeds" button in the Import Feeds dialog to select this file.  This will populate the Import Feeds list in the dialog.
	- You can also import a simple text file containing one feed URL per line, instead of using an OPML file.
	- Once you have populated the Import Feeds list, you can test (poll) one or all of these feeds, then choose which ones you want to import into PodSilo using the green "Import" button.
	- Each RSS feed URL you enter into PodSilo must be unique, so duplicate URLS in your OPML or text import file will be ignored.
	- You can use the Export Feeds button above the feed list to save your list of PodSilo feeds to either an OPML or text file.  This is useful for backup purposes, or to import your feeds into some other podcatcher.
	- See the entry "Can I import episodes from a different podcast downloader into PodSilo?"  below for a procedure to import these episodes into the corresponding feed in PodSilo.

What is the fastest way to add a feed URL into PodSilo?
	- Copy one or several feed URL lines into the Windows clipboard, e.g. by selecting any number of feed URL lines in a text editor, then using Control-C to copy these lines into the clipboard.
	- You can use the PodSilo keyboard shortcut Control-V (hold down the Control key and press the letter V at the same time) to paste the copied lines into the feed list.  Each of the URLs you selected will be added into the feed list at the end, and you can then use the keyboard shortcut Control-P to poll each of these feeds (Control-P polls the current feed in the feed list).  Any erroneous URL lines you attempt to paste will be reported in the History Log.

How do I poll a feed?
	- Polling a feed will refresh its list of episodes, but does not download any episode.
	- You can poll a feed manually using the Poll button above the feed list.  This will poll the current feed (the feed with the highlighted current cell).
	- You can poll all the enabled feeds manually using the Poll All button above the feed list.
	- Your download folder is not involved when you poll a feed, so you can poll even if the download drive is not mounted.  Of course, you cannot download episodes until the drive is mounted.

What does Catch-Up mean?
	- Another way to poll a feed is to run Catch-Up.  This is a composite command that first polls the feed, then downloads new episodes and runs cleanup on the feed (in accordance with the episode cleanup rule for that feed).
	- You can catch-up the current feed using the Catch-up button above the feed list.
	- You can catch-up all the enabled feeds manually using the big green Catch-Up button at the top of the main window.
	- Use the PodSilo Settings dialog to create scheduled times at which Catch-up will run automatically (for all enabled feeds).
	- Once an episode has been marked as "downloaded", it will no longer be eligible for download in catch-up.  So if an episode has been downloaded, then deleted via cleanup or manually by the user, running catch-up will never download this episode again since it is no longer considered "new".  Of course, you can still download such an episode manually.  You can also use the Manage dialog to mark any downloaded episodes as no longer downloaded, i.e. new.  Then catch-up will download them again as long as they satisfy the episode cleanup rule in effect for that feed.

How can I download only the episodes I want?
	- Use the command buttons above the Episode list:
•	Download - downloads the current episode (the one with the highlighted cell).
•	Download New - download all new episodes for the current feed.
•	Download All - download all episodes for the current feed.
	- The download command buttons ignore the episode cleanup rules; so pressing "Download All" will really download all the episodes of the feed, even if your rule says only download (for example) the 2 latest episodes.
	- Running Catch-up for a feed will download episodes in accordance with the episode cleanup rule.
	- If you want to download several specific episodes in a feed, check the "Selection Mode" checkbox above the Episode List; this adds a "Select" checkbox column at the left of the episode list.  Check off the episodes you want to download, then press the green Download button.  To hide the Select checkboxes again, just uncheck "Selection mode".
	- When the episode list has keyboard focus (some cell has the purple highlight) you can use Control-D to download the current episode.

I don't have enough space for episodes on drive C.  Can I download episodes to a removable USB drive?  How about to a shared folder on another computer?
	- Yes!  Starting with PodSilo version 1.4.1.0, the download folder that you specify in the Settings dialog can reside on a removable USB drive or on a writable network share (from another computer on your local network).
	- If the download folder resides on a drive that is not currently available (e.g. the USB drive is unplugged or the remote network share is on a sleeping computer), you can run PodSilo but obviously will not be able to do anything that requires the download folder to be physically available, such as downloading episodes, running Catch-up, or running Cleanup.  If you attempt an operation that requires the drive to be available, you will see a message box allowing you to retry the operation; make the drive available, then retry.
	- You cannot Download, Play or Explore an episode unless the download folder is available.
	- The network share must be writable, or you will just get an error when you attempt to download an episode (see the history log for details).
	- If Windows does not remember the account credentials for a network share, you can provide them in the Network Credentials dialog.  Open the Settings dialog and click the "Network Credentials" button next to the download folder.  This lets you add, remove, edit or test credentials for a network path.  The credentials are remembered by PodSilo but are encrypted on disk.  See the Network Credentials section below for more details.

OK, but what happens if a scheduled catch-up starts and the download folder is not available at the time?
	- PodSilo will display a message box prompting you to mount the drive (e.g. plug in the USB drive, or wake up the remote computer on which the download folder resides).  Make the drive available, then just press the "Retry" button in the message box.  The scheduled catch-up will then run as intended.
	- Note that when you wake up a remote computer, it may take a while (e.g. one minute) for Windows to determine that the remote computer is actually available.  You can usually force Windows to recognize the remote computer by starting a Windows Explorer and using it to navigate to the appropriate network share.
	- Similarly, if you click any Download, Catch-up or Cleanup button, and the drive is not mounted, you will be prompted to mount it before the operation can run.

How do I tell quickly if the download folder is available or not?
	- The "Disk Space" area at the bottom-right of the main PodSilo window will turn red if the drive containing the download folder is not available.
	- If the drive really is mounted, but PodSilo still shows it as unavailable, you can use the Refresh button at the top of the main window to correct the display.

How long does PodSilo keep episodes?  How many episodes will it keep?
	- You can limit the total space allowed for the entire download folder (including all feeds) in the Settings dialog.  Once the total space used exceeds this limit, PodSilo will not download any more episodes until some episodes are deleted or the total space limit is raised.
	- You can specify an Episode Cleanup Rule in the Settings dialog.  This rule will determine which new episodes are downloaded during catch-up, and which old episodes are deleted during cleanup.
	- Episode cleanup rules can be specified for all feeds using the Settings dialog, or for each individual feed using the Edit Feed dialog.  You can quickly remove all individual episode cleanup rules (for individual feeds) using the checkbox "Remove all individual feed cleanup rules" in the Settings dialog.
	- The episode cleanup rule can be:
•	Keep all episodes - cleanup will not delete any episodes.
•	Keep N episodes in the feed with the latest published dates - cleanup will delete any earlier episodes.  Note: when some of the latest episodes have identical published dates, this may keep more than N episodes.
•	Keep episodes downloaded less than N days ago - cleanup will delete any episodes downloaded earlier than N days ago.
•	Keep episodes published less than N days ago - cleanup will delete any episodes published earlier than N days ago.
•	Limit total space for the feed to N MB/GB.  Once this limit is reached for episodes of the feed, new episodes will still be downloaded but cleanup will delete episodes with the earliest published dates in order to make room.
	- The episode cleanup rules do not apply when you request downloads via the various Download buttons.  Only the total space limit for all feeds (from the Settings dialog) will prevent use of these buttons, once the limit is exceeded.
	- Remember that cleanup for a feed occurs every time catch-up is run for that feed, either automatically or using the Catch-Up buttons.
	- Even if you have an episode cleanup rule, you can prevent certain episodes from being deleted during cleanup or catch-up by setting the episode to "Locked" using the Manage Episodes dialog.  You can unlock them later in the same way, and they will again be eligible for deletion during cleanup.

How does PodSilo name episodes and feeds?
	- PodSilo removes characters not valid in Windows folder names or file names.
	- Feed folder names are derived from the feed title obtained by polling the feed.  You can change the folder name of a feed when you add the feed, or later using the Edit Feed dialog.
	- Episode names are derived from the episode title provided in the feed poll.  Any spaces or Invalid characters are removed.  Normally, the episode publish date is prepended to the episode title, in the form YYYYMMDD.  For example, an episode entitled:
		 "What did you do (last summer)?" published on July 2, 2017
	would be named on disk:
		 "20170702_WhatDidYouDoLastSummer.mp3".
The feed name is truncated to 80 characters (before prepending the date).
	- For a few feeds, the publish date of the episodes may not reflect the real episode date; instead the episode title has the true publish date.  In any case, you may simply prefer not to have the publish date prepended to the episode file name.  Using the Manage Episodes dialog, you can uncheck the feed setting "File name starts with publish date".  (This is always checked by default when you add a feed.)  This will remove the prepended publish date from the episode file names for all existing episodes as well as for all future downloaded episodes.  You can freely reverse this setting at any time using the Manage Episodes dialog.

How does PodSilo organize feeds on disk?
	- Each feed is assigned a subfolder of the top-level download folder.  Episodes for the feed are downloaded into this subfolder.
	- You can change the top-level download folder (which contains all the feed folders) in the Settings dialog.  If this folder is not available (mounted), the Settings dialog will not transfer episode files, and you will not be able to download episodes until the folder is available.
	- You can change the folder name for an individual feed using the Edit Feed dialog.

What information does PodSilo display for each feed?
	- The feed list shows:
•	Enabled: does this feed participate in the Catch-up All, Poll All, and Cleanup All commands?
•	Title: available once a feed has been polled.  The folder name on disk is derived from the title.
•	Category: available once a feed has been polled, if it has a category.  You can also assign your own category by double-clicking this entry.
•	Last Updated: the date the feed was last modified on the feed server.
•	Total number of episodes in the last poll.
•	Number of "new" episodes in the last poll: "new" means episodes that have never been downloaded.  If downloaded and subsequently deleted, the episode is still "downloaded".
•	Number of downloaded episodes in the last poll:  episodes that have been downloaded at some time, even though they may no longer be on disk.
•	Number of episodes on disk:  the number of episodes physically present on disk for the feed.
•	Disk MB: total megabytes currently occupied on disk by downloaded episodes of this feed.
•	Cleanup Rule: does this feed have its own cleanup rule, which overrides the general feed cleanup rule specified in the Settings dialog?  You can set this rule in the Edit Feed dialog; you can quickly see this rule by hovering the mouse over the Cleanup Rule checkbox for the feed.
•	URL: the RSS link used to poll the feed.
	- If you double-click a cell in the feed list, it will launch a web browser and show the web page containing the feed description.  However, if you double-click the category cell, this will instead display the Edit Feed Category dialog, allowing you to change the category of the feed.
	- In addition, the text field below the feed list shows the summary description for the current feed; the image at the bottom left of the main window shows the image for the current feed.  Click the feed image to scroll the feed list to the current feed.  If you would like more room in the main window to display feeds and episodes, you can hide the feed description and episodes description areas using the "Descriptions" checkbox at the top of the main window.
	- You can sort the feed list by any column.  Click the column heading to sort it ascending or descending. For example, sort by Disk MB to see which feeds occupy the most space on your disk; sort by Cleanup Rule to see which feeds have a special cleanup rule; sort by Last Updated to see which feeds have the most recent content.
	- When the feed list has keyboard focus (some cell has the purple highlight), you can easily find a title by typing anything that is part of the title; the feed list will select the first title with that typed string in it and scroll to the title.  While typing, you will see the current search string on the bottom (status) line of the main window.

What information does PodSilo display for each episode?
	- The episode list shows: 
•	Status:
New (never downloaded), 
Downloaded (at some time),
Locked (cannot be deleted during cleanup - set using the Manage Episodes dialog),
Failed (the current download for this episode was unsuccessful), or
Blank (the episode was not present in the last poll of this feed, but was present in some previous poll of this feed).
•	On disk: read-only indicator, checked if present on disk.  If you have downloaded an episode, then deleted it from disk, PodSilo will continue to show it as "Downloaded", but not "on disk".
•	Title: the episode title as obtained from the feed.  Double-click the title entry to play the episode.
•	User notes (if you have checked the box "User notes" above the episode list): these are arbitrary notes you can enter about any episode.  You can search for specific user notes using the Search window.
•	Progress: when downloading an episode, shows a progress bar indicating % complete.
•	Elapsed time: when downloading an episode, shows elapsed time for the download in minutes:seconds.
•	Duration: the duration of the episode in hours:minutes:seconds.
•	Publish Date: in the format YYYY/MM/DD.
•	Length: Size of the downloaded episode file.  Before downloading, this is the predicted size of the episode from the feed information; after downloading, this is the actual size on disk.
•	Bitrate: in kilobits per second.  The bitrate is only known once the episode has been downloaded.
•	File Name: the assigned file name of the episode.  This has the form YYYYMMDD_<title>.mp3, where YYYYMMDD is the publish date, and <title> is derived from the title of the episode (removing all non-alphanumeric characters and spaces).  Double click the file name entry to play the episode.
•	Download URL: the URL used by PodSilo to download this audio file.
	- In addition, the text field below the episode list shows the description for the current episode.
	- You can sort the episode list by any column.  Click the column heading to sort it ascending or descending. For example, sort by Status to see which feeds are New or Downloaded; Sort by Publish Date to see which episodes are most recent; sort by length to see which episodes occupy the most disk space.
	- When the episode list has keyboard focus (some cell has the purple highlight), you can easily find a title by typing anything that is part of the title; the episode list will select the first title with that typed string in it and scroll to the title.  While typing, you will see the current search string on the bottom (status) line of the main window.
	- Other things to do with episodes: You can find the current episode on disk using the "Explore" button.  You can play the current episode using the "Play" button.  If the episode has a description URL, you can view this in a browser using the "Description" button.
	- If you would like the feed list and episode list to occupy more of the window, uncheck the "Show descriptions" checkbox at the top of the window.  This will hide the feed and episode description, so that there is more room available for the feed/episode lists.

Does PodSilo handle feeds with video episodes?
	- Yes. If video episodes exist in a feed, they will be downloaded in the same manner as audio episodes.  Video episodes typically have a file extension of ".mp4" instead of ".mp3" (but other file extensions are possible).  If a feed has videos, the episode list will contain a column for "Media" (immediately to the left of the "File Name" column) with values "Audio" or "Video".  You can then sort this column by clicking on the column header to see how many videos the feed contains.

How do I remove a feed?
	- Use the "Remove Feed" button above the feeds list to remove the current feed.
	- Or, just press the delete key after selecting a feed in the feeds list to remove it.
	- Here's a fast way to remove a lot of feeds:  go to the Settings dialog, and uncheck "Ask to remove".  Now you will not be prompted for confirmation when you try to remove a feed.  Simply select a feed in the list and press the delete key, for any feed you want to remove.  Reset "Ask to remove" back to checked when you are done, or you may remove feeds accidentally without meaning to do so.
	- Removing a feed does not remove its episodes.  Use "Remove folders of any deleted feeds" in the Settings dialog (as explained below) to remove its episodes, or just go to Windows Explorer and delete any unused feed folders.

What happens if I remove a feed?
	- PodSilo will no longer show the feed in the feed list, but the download folder for the feed will remain on disk; you can delete this folder manually if desired.
	- PodSilo will show any unused feed folders in the history log at startup.
	- You can remove any or all of these unused folders using the checkbox "Remove folders of any deleted feeds" in the Settings dialog.  When you click the OK button, you will see a dialog allowing you to select which unused folders should be removed.

Can I change the file name (on disk) of an episode?
	- Yes.  Open the "Manage Episodes" dialog using the "Manage" button on the main window of PodSilo, above the episode list. This displays a list of episodes for the current feed.  Click inside an entry in the "File Name" column; you will be able to type a new name for the episode if desired.  The file for this episode will be renamed once you press OK.
	- Here's an easier way to change the file names of episodes:  use the Explore button to open a Windows Explorer in the feed directory.  Now, just rename one or more episodes using Windows Explorer.  When done, click the "Refresh" button at the top of the PodSilo main window, and the new file names will appear in the episode list.  (This only works if you have "Use NTFS Alternate Data Streams to track episodes" checked in the Settings Dialog.)
	- Some rules for changing file names:
•	A file name can only contain letters, digits, underscore, dash or period.
•	You cannot change the file extension (e.g. ".mp3") of an episode file.
•	A new file name cannot be identical to the file name of an existing episode.
	- You can change the file name of an episode not present on your local disk; if you then download this episode, it will be assigned the new file name.
	- The History Log will report any problems encountered when attempting to rename an episode.

If I change the names of some episodes using Windows Explorer, will PodSilo still recognize these episodes?
	- Yes.  You can rename episodes using Windows Explorer, if the PodSilo setting "Use NTFS Alternate Data Streams to track episodes" is enabled (it is on by default); see the Settings dialog for the current value of this setting.
	- To use this setting, the audio download folder must reside on a drive with an NTFS file system (not e.g. FAT32 or ExFAT).  In Windows Explorer, right-click on the drive and show "Properties" to see the file system type.
	- If using NTFS Alternate Data Streams, PodSilo will write a separate small data stream named "PodSiloEID" into each downloaded file, containing a unique identifier allowing PodSilo to associate episodes on disk with the episodes in a feed.
	- Just go to Windows Explorer and change the episode file names as desired (keeping the file extension, e.g. ".mp3" of course).  Now go back to PodSilo and click the Refresh button on the main window.  PodSilo will scan the episode files in each feed folder and reassociate them with the proper feed episodes.  If you fail to click the Refresh button, the episodes will be reassociated the next time PodSilo is started.
	- This additional Alternate Data Stream does not affect the file in any way; it can still be played normally in any media player, or copied to some other location.
	- If you turn this setting off, all such Alternate Data Streams will be removed from your media files. and future downloaded episodes will not contain this alternate data stream.
	- Even if PodSilo is not using Alternate Data Streams to track episodes, you can still use "Manage Episodes" to tell PodSilo the new name of the episode (once you have renamed it in Windows Explorer) by just changing its File Name entry in the list; however, turning Alternate Data Streams on allows you to skip this step.

I just want to download some of the most recent episodes of a feed, not all of them.  How can I prevent catch-up from downloading too many episodes of a feed?
	- Open the "Manage Episodes" dialog, and check the "Downloaded" box for episodes that you want catch-up to skip.  Once you have marked an episode as "Downloaded", catch-up will no longer download this episode; of course you can still download this episode manually, using the Download buttons above the episode list in the main window.
	- If an episode was not present in the last poll of the feed, or if the episode is present on disk, you cannot change the "Downloaded" checkbox.  This is because if an episode is present on disk, it is automatically considered as "Downloaded"; if an episode was not present in the last poll, changing "Downloaded" is pointless since catch-up will never consider this episode.
	- You can easily set all episodes in a feed as "Downloaded" using the "Downloaded" checkbox above the list in the Manage Episodes dialog.  Then, you can just uncheck the "Downloaded" boxes for the episodes you wish to download during catch-up.  However, remember that the episode cleanup rule in force for the feed will also govern which episodes will be downloaded during catch-up.

Can I hide an episode that I am not interested in?
	- Yes. Open the "Manage Episodes" dialog.  Check the "Hidden" box for the episode you wish to hide.  Once you press OK, the episode will no longer appear in the episode list of the main window, and will no longer be eligible for download.  You can reshow hidden episodes by reopening the Manage Episodes dialog and unchecking "Hidden" for the episode.
	- You can hide all episodes of the current feed by checking the "Hide all" box above the list.

Can I prevent cleanup from removing certain episodes?
	- Once you have downloaded the episode to disk, open the "Manage Episodes" dialog and set the episode to "locked".  Cleanup or catch-up will never delete a locked episode.

Can I manually delete (remove) an episode that I am not interested in?
	- Yes.  Open the "Manage Episodes" dialog. Check the "Remove" box for the episode you wish to remove from disk.  Once you press OK, the episode will be removed from your local disk.
	- You can remove all episodes on disk for the current feed by checking the "Remove all" box above the list.  This marks the episode to be removed when you press "OK".
	- Use the "Remove all not in poll" checkbox to remove all episodes that are not in the current poll.  Be careful, since some polls only offer a few of the most recent episodes of a feed, and this will delete all other episodes you have previously downloaded for the feed.
	- Use the "Remove duplicate files" checkbox to detect and remove from disk any episodes on disk but not in the current poll, whose file name is a duplicate of the file name of another episode.  (Duplicate file names end with _1, _2, etc.)  PodSilo assigns duplicate file names when the title of a new episode in a poll matches that of an episode you have already downloaded.
	- Of course, you can also just delete the episode file from the feed folder using Windows Explorer.  Then, press the Refresh button at the top of the main window so PodSilo will realize these episodes are no longer on disk.
	- You can recover the episode by manually downloading it again (using the "Download" button on the main window).
	- The History Log will report any problems encountered when attempting to remove an episode.

How do I know what I have changed when in the "Manage Episodes" dialog?
	- Any field you have modified since opening the dialog will be shown with a green background.  These are the pending changes to be applied once you press the OK button.

Can I import episodes from a different podcast downloader into PodSilo?
	- If you have used a podcast downloader other than PodSilo, and it contains episodes for a feed that you now monitor using PodSilo, you can add these episodes into PodSilo.  Using Windows Explorer, copy the additional episodes for the feed into the corresponding feed folder within the PodSilo downloads folder (you can locate the feed folder using the Explore button above the episode list in the PodSilo main window), then just poll this feed.  Episodes in the feed folder that are not part of the feed will automatically be added to the feed.
	- There is no need to add episodes in this way that are in the poll response; the simplest way to get these episodes into PodSilo is to just download them using PodSilo.
	- Later, you can rename episode titles or files later if desired, using the "Manage Episodes" dialog for the corresponding feed.  Note you can only rename titles of episodes that are not in the poll.  You can also remove episodes you have added in error using this dialog.

Running PodSilo Commands

What are commands?
	- Commands in PodSilo are tasks that involve feeds or episodes.
	- Some terminology:
•	Poll a feed: sends a web request to the feed RSS url and returns a list of available episodes.
•	Download an episode: sends a web request to the download url for the episode and saves the file to your local disk in the appropriate feed folder.
•	Catch-up a feed: polls the feed and downloads new (never downloaded) episodes and runs cleanup for the feed.  Only episodes allowed by the cleanup rule for the feed are downloaded; at the end of catch-up, episodes no longer allowed by the cleanup rule are removed.
•	Cleanup a feed: removes any episodes no longer allowed by the cleanup rule.
	- The possible command types are:
•	Poll feeds: current feed or all enabled feeds.
•	Download episodes: current episode, all new episodes, all episodes, or selected episodes.  Use the "Selection mode" checkbox above the episode list to select and download multiple episodes at once.
•	Catch-Up feeds: current feed or all enabled feeds; can be scheduled for all enabled feeds.
•	Cleanup feeds: current feed or all enabled feeds; runs as part of catch-up.

How do I run a command?
	- You can run commands manually by using the corresponding buttons on the main window.
	- Only one command can be run at a time.  While a command is running, the buttons used to run commands manually are disabled, and scheduled Catch-up will not run.
	- The command "Catch-Up all feeds" can be scheduled to run automatically, using the Settings dialog.  There is also an option in Settings to enable running cleanup after each catch-up.

How do I schedule Catch-Up to run automatically?
	- The Settings dialog lets you add or remove Catch-up schedules.
	- You can add as many catch-up schedules as you wish.
	- Each schedule has a single time of day when it will run, and a frequency that can be Daily, Weekly, Monthly or One-Time.  Daily runs at the specified time every day; Weekly runs at the specified time for the selected days of the week; Monthly runs at the specified time for the selected days of the month; One-Time runs at the specified time and date, then the one-time schedule is just removed since it will never run again. Note that a monthly schedule with day 31 selected will just be skipped for a month with less than 31 days.
	- For example, to run catch-up at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. every day, add 3 daily schedules with respective "Start At" times of 08:00, 14:00, and 18:00  (PodSilo uses a 24-hour clock).
	- A schedule will not run unless it is enabled.
	- No schedule will run while a dialog or message box is displayed.
	- If your computer happens to be asleep when the schedule should be run, you can make it wake up to run the schedule by checking "Wake computer at start time" for that schedule. Note: the ability to wake up Windows on a timer is usually dependent on a BIOS setting, which is typically enabled for desktops and disabled for laptops.  In the BIOS, look for Power Management. In here, ensure S3 is enabled. There should be an option called “Resume by alarm”, or “Wake-up on RTC”.
	- If there is at least one enabled schedule, the next scheduled catch-up time will be displayed at the top left of the main window.
	- A scheduled catch-up will not run automatically if you have a dialog window open, including: Add Feed, Edit Feed, Remove Feed, Settings, Import Feeds, Show License, etc.  These must be closed to allow automatic catch-up to run.  When one of these dialogs is open, you will see "---- SUSPENDED ----" in the "Next Catch-Up" box at the top left of the main window, indicating scheduled catch-ups will not be run until the dialog is closed.
	- A scheduled catch-up will run automatically (if scheduled) even if PodSilo has been minimized and is only visible in the System Tray.
	- For any schedule, you can check "Ask to run at start time" if you want to be prompted when it is time for the schedule to run catch-up.  When it is time for the schedule to run you will see the "Run Scheduled Catch-Up" dialog:

As you can see, you can just run the scheduled catch-up immediately, skip it entirely, or reschedule it with a delay.  If you reschedule using "Ask me again" or "Just run it", a new One-Time schedule for the specified future time is created and will be visible when you open the Settings dialog.  This schedule can be freely edited or removed, just as for any other schedule.  If you selected "Ask me again", the new One-Time schedule will have "Ask to run at start time" checked and you will see the dialog again when the schedule expires; if you selected "Just run it", the new schedule will not have this checked, and catch-up will run with no intervening dialog at the expiration time.

What does enabling or disabling a feed do?
	- If you disable a feed by unchecking the "Enabled" box in the feed list for that feed, the feed will no longer be included in any of the "All" commands: Catch-up All, Poll All, or Cleanup All.
	- Only enabled feeds participate in scheduled catch-up commands.
	- You can still poll or cleanup a disabled feed using the manual Poll and Cleanup buttons.
	- You can still download episodes for a disabled feed using any of the manual download buttons.

Feed Journal

What does Feed Journal show when I run a command?
	- Feed Journal shows the state of past or current feed polls and episode downloads (since PodSilo was started).
	- Feed Journal does not show which episodes were removed by cleanup; see the History Log for a record of removed episodes.
	- The progress bars above the feed and episode lists summarize the status of the last or current command.  Successful polls or downloads are represented by the green portion of the progress bar, and failed polls or downloads are represented by the red portion of the progress bar (if any have failed).

What does Feed Journal show during polls?
	- The feed list in Feeds Journal shows:
•	Started At: time the poll was started.
•	Feed: the title of the feed.
•	Status: Started, Completed or Failed.
•	New Episodes: Number of new episodes in the poll, not yet downloaded.
•	Total Episodes: Total number of episodes in the poll.
	- Once a feed has been polled:
•	Use the Locate button above the feed list to locate the feed in the main window.
•	Use the Explore button above the feed list to open a Windows Explorer and navigate to the feed folder on your local disk.
	
What does Feed Journal show during downloads?
	- The episode list in Feed Journal shows:
•	Started At: time the download was started.
•	Feed: the title of the feed.
•	Episode: the title of the episode being downloaded.
•	Status: Started, Completed or Failed.
•	Progress: when downloading an episode, shows a progress bar indicating % complete.
•	Elapsed time: when downloading an episode, shows elapsed time for the download in minutes:seconds.
•	Speed: the download speed in Kbps or Mbps.
•	File Name: name of the downloaded file on the local disk.
	- Once an episode has been downloaded:
•	Use the Play button above the episode list to play it.
•	Use the Web Page to show the episode details in a browser.
•	Use the Explore button to open a Windows Explorer, and show the episode on your local disk.
•	Use the Locate button to locate the episode in the main window.

Search View

I have added many feeds and each has hundreds of episodes; how can I search for episodes having a certain title, publish date, or other property?
	- Open Search View using the Search button at the top of the main window, which allows you to search for episodes in several different ways.
	- The simplest method is to type some search terms (separated by spaces), in the "Episode title" text field, then press the Enter key or the green Search button at the top of Search View.  This will find all episodes (in any feed) whose episode title contains all of the search terms, and display matches in the episode list at the bottom of Search View.  If you wish to search for a term that contains spaces, just surround the search term by double-quotation marks.
	- For example, type "american history" in the Episode title text field (without the quotation marks) to search for episodes that contain both "american" and "history".  Press Enter or the green Search button to display all such episodes in the list below.
	- To search for episodes that contain the terms "american" OR "history", click the Match Any checkbox, then press Search.  All episodes that contain EITHER "american" or "history" will be displayed; of course this will be many more than before, when you were searching for "american" AND "history".
	- Normally, case (capitalization) is not considered when determining if a term occurs in the episode title.  To search in a case-sensitive manner instead, you can check the "Match case" checkbox.  Now episodes containing "History" will not match the term "history".
	- The status area at the bottom of Search View tells you how many episodes were found in the last search, or if an error was encountered.

What episode properties can I search for in addition to the episode title?
	- You can search for episodes with a specific range of publish dates using the "Publish date" controls; click the checkbox in either date box to enable it, then select a date from the drop-down calendar.  If you select only a "from" date, you are searching for episodes with subsequent publish dates; if you select only a "to" date, you are searching for episodes with previous publish dates.  If you select both "to" and "from" dates, you are searching for publish dates between the "to" and "from" dates.
	- Similarly, you can search for episodes with a specific range of download dates (the date you downloaded the episode onto your computer) using the "Download date" controls.
	- You can search for episodes of a certain size using the "Length" controls.  Pick a unit to use for the length (B = bytes, KB = kilobytes, MB = megabytes), then type a "from" length, a "to" length, or both from the number boxes.
	- You can search for episodes with a status of New, Downloaded or Locked using the "Status" controls.  If you pick a status of "(None)", you are searching for episodes that were not in the last poll, and therefore have a blank status.
	- You can search for episodes that you actually have on disk in your PodSilo downloads folder using the "On disk" combo box.  Click the check box in front of the "On disk" combo box to enable the combo box, then select "On disk" or "Not on disk".
	- You can limit the search to episodes in only certain feeds by typing terms in the "Feed title" text field. Fields separated by spaces are combined with AND or OR depending on whether the "Match any" checkbox is checked (OR if it is checked), just as for the "Episode title" text field.

What can I do with the list of episode search results in Search View?
	- Once you have completed a search and found some episodes, the episode list in Search View has most of the same fields and capabilities as does the episode list in the main window.
	- Double-click an episode to locate it in the main window.  Double-clicking the Feed Title or Episode Title columns will play the episode.
	- The controls above the episode list act the same as the controls above the episode list in the main window. 
•	The Download button downloads the current episode (highlighted in the list).
•	The Download New button will download those episodes in the list that have "New" status.
•	The Download All button will download every episode in the list.
•	The Selection Mode check box shows a Select column at the left of the episode list, allowing you to multi-select episodes and download them all at once.
•	The Locate button will find the current episode in the main window.
•	The Explore button will open a Windows explorer window and select the current episode within its feed folder.
•	The Play button will play the current episode in the default audio/video player.
•	The Web Page button will show the description page of the current episode in the default web browser.
	- You can sort any column in the episode list by clicking the column header.  Click again to sort the column in the opposite direction.

What does the "Simple search" checkbox mean?
	- It means you are building a search query using the field controls instead of building a query by typing directly in the "Search query" text box.
	- When you use the controls at the top of Search View to search for episodes, you are actually building a "Search query" expression, which is shown in the text area above the episodes list in Search View.  If you change the controls above the Search query text area, then press the green Search button, you will see the resulting search query expression in this text area.  Every episode in every feed is then evaluated against this search query, and episodes that satisfy the query are listed in the episodes list.
	- Building a query in this way (using the controls) is a "Simple search".  However, you can enter any legal search query in the "Search query" text area, then press the green Search button (or use the shortcut Control-Enter) to get the corresponding episode results.  When you search in this more complex way, the check mark is removed from the "Simple search" checkbox to indicate you are using a "raw" search expression instead of building it from the controls.  If you manually click the "Simple search" checkbox, the green Search button will again use the controls to build a query.

What is the language used by search queries?
	- Search queries are written in MEQL (MollieSoft Episode Query Language).

	- A basic query (called a statement) compares an episode variable with a constant.  (The value of a constant is independent of the episode being considered.)
 Here are some examples:
•	[$EpisodeTitle has "American"] looks for episodes whose title field has the text "American" in it.
•	[$PublishDate < $Today - $Days.2] looks for episodes published more than 2 days ago.
•	[$FileName has ".mp4"] looks for episodes whose file type is .mp4 (video).
•	[$Bitrate > 128] looks for episodes whose bitrate on disk is greater than 128 Kbps.

	- Basic queries are always surrounded by square brackets.
	- Basic queries can be combined using any combination of the logical operators 			AND, OR, NOT, and parentheses ( )
to form a complex query.  For example, the complex query
		[$PublishDate < $Today - $Days.2]
			and not [$EpisodeTitle has "American"]
looks for episodes whose publish date is more than 2 days ago but whose title does not contain the text "American".

	- Note that when you use "Simple search", i.e. build a query using the field controls, the basic queries are always combined using the AND operator.  However, if "Match Any" is checked, multiple text fields within the episode title or feed title will be combined using the OR operator.

	- Episode variables are of two types: text variables and arithmetic variables.  Text variables can only be compared with text values (contained in double-quotation marks), and arithmetic variables can only be compared with arithmetic values.

	- Text variables can be compared with text constants using the operators:
		= ,  != ,   "has", "startsWith", "endsWith", regexMatch.
•	The equal and not-equal operators test for equality and inequality.
•	The "has" operator tests whether the second operand is present in the text value of the first operand.
•	 "startsWith" tests whether the first operand begins with the second operand.
•	"endsWith" tests whether the first operand ends with the second operand.
•	"regexMatch" matches the text variable with a regular expression.

For example, say an episode has the title "Something happened".  Then all these statements are true:
		[$EpisodeTitle = "Something happened"]
		[$EpisodeTitle != "Something"]
		[$EpisodeTitle has "hap"]
		[$EpisodeTitle has " hap"]
		[$EpisodeTitle startsWith "Some"]
		[$EpisodeTitle endsWith "ned"]
But these are false (note spaces within text constants are important):
		[$EpisodeTitle has "hap "]
		[$EpisodeTitle startsWith "Some "]
		[$EpisodeTitle endsWith "pen"]
Operator names are case-insensitive: "has" is the same as "Has", "startsWith" is the same as "startswith", etc.

	- Arithmetic variables can be compared with arithmetic expressions using the operators:	=,  !=,  <,   >.

	- Variable names are case-insensitive.  Thus, the forms $episodeTitle and $episodetitle are both valid.

	- The text variable names (text property of episodes) used in MEQL are:
•	$EpisodeTitle - the title of the episode.
•	$FileName - the file name of the episode (not including the directory).
•	$FeedTitle - the title of the feed containing the episode.
•	$FeedCategory - the category of the feed containing the episode.
•	$OnDisk - "true" if the episode is on disk, else "false".
•	$InPoll - "true" if the episode was in the last poll of its feed, else "false".
•	$Hidden - "true" if the episode is hidden (you can hide episodes using the Manage Episodes dialog), else "false".
•	$Locked - "true" if the episode is locked (you can lock episodes using the Manage Episodes dialog), else "false".
•	$Downloaded - "true" if the episode has been downloaded (even if it has been subsequently removed from disk), else "false".
•	$DownloadUrl - The URL used to download the file.
•	$Status - "New", "Downloaded", or "" (blank status).
•	$Media - "Audio" or "Video".
•	$UserNotes - the user notes entered for the episode.
•	$EpisodeSummary - the summary text of the episode, shown below the search results list if Show descriptions is checked.

	- The arithmetic variable names (arithmetic property of episodes) used in MEQL are:
•	$PublishDate - the date the episode was published.
•	$DownloadDate - the date the episode was downloaded to the local disk.
•	$Duration - the duration of the episode; can be compared with a $timespan value.
•	$Length - the length in bytes, kilobytes or megabytes of an episode; can be compared with a $KB or $MB value.
•	$Bitrate - the bitrate of the episode, in Kbps;  e.g. a bitrate of 128 means 128 Kbps.  Note the bitrate of an episode is only known after you have downloaded the episode to disk, since feed polls do not contain the episode bitrates.
•	$EpisodeTitle#Length - the number of characters in the title of the episode.  In general, if $<textVar> is some text variable, then $<textVar>#Length is an arithmetic variable whose value is the number of characters in $<textVar>.  Thus $FileName#Length is the number of characters in the episode file name, $FeedTitle#Length is the number of characters in the feed title of the episode, etc.

	- Some arithmetic variables are used as convenient expressions for arithmetic constants.  These have the form:
•	$Today - today's date
•	$Date.YYYYMMDD - where YYYY is the year, MM the month, DD the day.
•	$Days.N - where N is the number of days.
•	$Timespan.mmss - where mm is the number of minutes, and ss the number of seconds.  Other possible forms for $timespan are: $timespan.hhmmss (where hh is the number of hours), and $timespan.d.hhmmss (where d is the number of days).
•	$KB.N - where N is the number of kilobytes.
•	$MB.N - where N is the number of megabytes.
•	$GB.N - where N is the number of gigabytes.

For example:
•	$Date.20170823 - represents the date August 23, 2017.
•	$Days.23 - represents a time span of 23 days.  This can be added to or subtracted from a $Date value.
•	$KB.40000 - represents 40000 kilobytes.
•	$MB.50 - represents 50 megabytes.

	- Here are some examples of complex expressions:
•	Find new episodes published less than a week ago, not yet downloaded:
		[$Status = "New"] and [$PublishDate < $Today + $Days.1]
			 and [$PublishDate > $Today - $Days.7]
•	Find episodes downloaded less than a week ago:
		[$DownloadDate < $Today + $days.1]
			 and [$DownloadDate > $Today - $Days.7]
•	Find episodes present on the local disk whose size exceeds 100MB:
		[$OnDisk = "true"] and [$Length > $MB.100]
•	Find episodes with the term "science" or "physics", with duration less than one hour, in a feed that does not contain "BBC":
		(not [$FeedTitle has "BBC"])
		     and ([$EpisodeTitle has "science"] or [$EpisodeTitle has "physics"])
		     and [$Duration < $Timespan.010000]
•	Find video episodes present on the local disk:
		[$OnDisk = "true"] and [$Media = "Video"]
	
It's hard to remember these variable and constant names!  Isn't there an easy way to add the correct form of a file variable or constant into the search query text area?
	- Yes.  Use the "Insert Search Term" button above the search query text area to show the query helper menu.  Select a variable, operator, or constant from the menu, and it will be added into the text box at the current position to form a statement, then connect your statements with the logical operators and/or/not to make complex queries.
	- You can also show the query helper menu by right-clicking in the search query text area.
	- You can also press the Help button at the top to show the Search Help window.  This provides a convenient summary of search query syntax that you can use while composing queries.  Note: press Ctrl-F in the Search Help window to show the Find Bar and find text within the document.

How can I use regular expressions in the search?
	- Warning!  Regular expressions are rather complicated and are intended for the "power user".  If you don't feel comfortable with them, just ignore this capability and use the plain text search operators "=", "!=", "has", "startsWith", "endsWith".
	- Example: to search for files whose name starts with 2 numeric digits, use the query [$FileName regexMatch "^\d\d"].
	- When building a search query, you can use the "regexMatch" operator with any text variable, such as $EpisodeTitle or $FeedTitle.  This will perform the match using the Microsoft version of regular expressions, explained at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/base-types/regular-expression-language-quick-reference.  You may also like the "cheat sheet" available at https://download.microsoft.com/download/D/2/4/D240EBF6-A9BA-4E4F-A63F-AEB6DA0B921C/Regular%20expressions%20quick%20reference.docx 
for quick reference.
	- Here are some examples of regular expression syntax.  These snippets are also available using the "regex builder" button  above the Search query text box.
. 			- Match any single character
.* 			- Match any character zero or more times
.+ 			- Match any character one or more times
[abc]			- Match any character in the set 'abc'
[^abc] 		- Match any character NOT in the set 'abc'
[a-f] 			- Match any character in the range a to f
\d 			- Match any numeric character
? 			- Match preceding character zero or one times
* 			- Match preceding character zero or more times
+ 			- Match preceding character one or more times
\d{3} 			- Match three consecutive decimal digits
0[xX][0-9a-fA-F]+	- Match a hexadecimal number
[0-9]*\.*[0-9]+ 	- Match integers and decimals
^ 			- Match beginning of text
$ 			- Match end of text
You can select any of these entries from the regex builder dropdown menu, which will insert the selected expression into the search query text box at the cursor.  You can then modify the inserted expression as desired.

How can I save a query once I have built one I want to keep?  How do I reload it?
	- The "File Menu" button above the "Search query" text box shows a drop-down menu with a "Save as..." menu item, which brings up a "Save Search Query File" dialog.  This lets you save queries to disk as small text files in the queries directory
%localappdata%\PodSilo\Queries, with the extension ".qry".  Enter a valid file name for the query, then press OK.  (Note: "%localappdata%" is a Windows shortcut that resolves to the local application data directory for the current logged-on user.)
	- To reload a saved query, use the "File Menu" button again, and select the menu item "Load...".  This shows a "Load Search Query File" dialog allowing you to select any previously created .qry file from the queries directory.  Select a query from this dialog to show it in the "Search query" text box, then press the green Search button to actually run the query.
	- If you have saved a query to a file as above, you can rename it using the "File Menu - Rename" menu item.  Enter a new name for the query in the "Rename Search Query" dialog that appears, then press OK.
	- When the cursor is in the "Search query" text area, you can use the keyboard shortcut Control-S to save a modified query.  This will either just save the query, or bring up the "Save as..." dialog as appropriate.
	- You can remove a query file using the "File Menu - Remove" menu item.  Predefined queries (see below) cannot be removed.

Why are some query names surrounded by angle brackets, e.g. <New episodes today> in the "Query name" combo box?
	- There are several useful predefined queries provided in the "Query name" combo box that also serve to demonstrate query syntax. Angle brackets around the query name are used to distinguish predefined search queries from queries that you write.  These include (among others):
•	<New episodes today> - search for episodes published today, not yet downloaded to disk.
•	<Episodes downloaded this week> - search for episodes you have downloaded sometime in the last 7 days (even if subsequently removed).
•	<New episodes this week> - search for episodes you have never downloaded, published sometime in the last 7 days.
•	<Episodes published this week> - search for episodes published sometime in the last 7 days.
	- You can use these as written, or modify them to make your own queries.
	- Modified predefined queries cannot be saved as such; if you change a predefined query, select "Save As..." in the File Menu to save it to disk with a new name.
	- You can hide the sample queries by unchecking "Show sample queries" in the Settings dialog.

Network Credentials

What are network credentials?
	- PodSilo is able to access the download folder on a (writable) network share if the share is available.  Normally, Windows manages the credentials (user name and password) required to access a network share, and you will not need to enter these into PodSilo.
	- However, for some network shares, Windows will not permanently retain the required credentials.  In this case, you can save the credentials for the share in PodSilo (encrypted of course), and these will be used as required to gain access to the download folder on that share.

What happens if a network share is not available, or my credentials are just incorrect?
	- Windows may take a while to figure this out.  For each credential you enter in the "Network Credentials" dialog, you can specify a timeout between 1 and 60 seconds, controlling when PodSilo will give up on this network share and report an error.

How do I enter credentials?  How are they used?
	- Use the "Network Credentials" dialog (launched from Settings) to enter and test credentials for any network share.  You can add, remove, edit, or test any credentials you enter.
	- Enter a network path using leading "\\" just as in Windows.  Examples:
		\\192.168.1.10
		\\111.22.333.44\shared
		\\BobsComputer\Fileshare1
	- Enter the user name in the form <Domain/Machine>\<user>.  Examples:
		BobsComputer\RobertUser
		Desktop1\JohnDoe
		MarysComputer\Mary
	- Enter the password using the "Edit" dialog available from the Network Credentials dialog in PodSilo (launched from the Settings dialog).  When you enter the password, the characters are replaced by masking characters for security.  The password is never visible in plain text on any screen of PodSilo.
	- User passwords are stored using strong encryption in the PodSilo config file, for security.
	- You can enter credentials for "overlapping" network paths.  For example, say you enter credentials for the network path "\\192.168.1.17" on your local network.  Say you also enter credentials for the network path "\\192.168.1.17\shared".  Then when credentials are required, the credentials with the longest match will always be used in preference to any with a shorter match.  That is, if the download folder is  "\\192.168.1.17\shared\PodSilo_Downloads", the saved credentials for "\\192.168.1.17\shared" will be used instead of those for "\\192.168.1.17".
	- Credentials are only used when required (after program start).  That is, if the download folder is already available, no credentials will be used.  If not available, matching credentials will be used to try to make it available.

Miscellaneous

How much space is used by all my feeds?
	- You can set a limit on the total space used by all feeds (entire download folder) in the Settings dialog.
	- The Disk Space bar at the bottom of the main window shows the total space used by all feeds, and the limit (if set).  The bar color gradually transitions from green to red as the space limit is approached.  If the download folder is not available (e.g. on an unmounted USB drive or an unavailable network share), this area will have a red background.  Hover the mouse over the "Disk Space:" label to see the location of the download folder.
	- Once the total space limit for all feeds has been exceeded, no more downloads will run until the limit has been raised or episodes have been removed by cleanup.

How much space is used by a single feed?
	- The Disk MB column in the feed list shows the space used by each feed.
	- You can set a limit on the total space used by any feed using the episode cleanup rule for all feeds (in the Settings dialog).
	- You can set a limit on the total space used by a single feed using the episode cleanup rule for that individual feed (in the Edit Feed dialog).

What happens if the total space limit (used by all feeds) in Settings is exceeded?
	- Manual commands will fail, and a message box will tell you space has been exceeded.
	- Automatic scheduled catch-up will fail.  The History Log will contain an entry indicating total space was exceeded.

What happens if the space limit for an individual feed is exceeded?
	- New episodes are downloaded, but episodes with the oldest published dates are removed in order to make room.

After running PodSilo on an old computer and accumulating lots of feeds and episodes, I have installed PodSilo on a new computer.  How can I move all my feeds and episodes to my new computer so the new PodSilo will recognize them?
	- In the old PodSilo, click the "Export Feeds" button and export all feeds to a file such as PodSilo_ExportFeeds.opml, in a location accessible from the new computer.
	- Move or copy the entire Download folder from the old PodSilo to a location that will be accessible from the new computer.
	- Using PodSilo on the new computer, click the "Import Feeds" button to show the Import Feeds dialog.  Click the "Load Feeds" button and select "From a Feed File".  Browse to the file you exported above and open it.  Click the "import all" checkbox, then the green Import button. Close the Import Feeds dialog.  Now all your old feeds appear in the new PodSilo.
	- In the new PodSilo, open the Settings dialog and select the Download folder containing all your old feeds and episodes.  Click OK in the Settings dialog.  If prompted, do not bother to move any episodes at this point.
	- Now in the new PodSilo main window, click the "Poll All" button.
	- All your original feeds and episodes are now available in the new PodSilo!
	- You will have to tweak various settings in the new PodSilo to match settings in the old PodSilo.  For example, change any custom feed folder names in the new PodSilo to match those in the old PodSilo; disable any feeds that were disabled; edit the Episode cleanup rules to match the old PodSilo; set up the desired catch-up schedule, etc.
	
How many polls or downloads will PodSilo run simultaneously?
	- The default is 5 simultaneous polls, and 5 simultaneous downloads.  You can change these limits in the Settings dialog.  Generally, the more simultaneous operations you specify, the busier your CPU and disk will be when you attempt to poll multiple feeds or download multiple episodes at once.

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

Can I disable the sounds played when a command starts and stops?
	- Yes; just uncheck "Enable Sounds" in the Settings dialog.

The text in PodSilo is too small for me to read comfortably; is there a way to make it bigger?
	- Yes; press the key combination Control+Numpad-PLUS to step the font size up, and Control+Numpad-MINUS to step it back down.  That is, hold down the Control key while pressing "+" or "-" on the numeric keypad.
	- There are four step sizes: small, medium, large, and extra large.  (These correspond to the Windows font point sizes 8.25, 9, 9.75, and 10.25 respectively.)
	- Of course, increasing the font size will make all the views and dialogs correspondingly larger, and decreasing it will make them smaller.
	- The new font size will be remembered whenever you re-open a view or dialog, or restart PodSilo.
	- You can also set the font size using the Settings dialog.  Select the appropriate font-size radio button (small, medium, large, extra large); the new font size will be applied once you press OK.
	- The episode descriptions pose a small problem: they do not render well using anything other than the "small" font size.  However, if you wish these to scale as well, you can uncheck the "Use small episode descriptions" checkbox in the Settings dialog.  When this is checked, font size changes are ignored when rendering the episode descriptions.

How can I show the feed titles in alphabetical order?  Also, can I show enabled feeds at the top of the feed list?
	- By default, feeds always show in the order in which you added them.
	- You can reorder the feed titles by clicking on the Title column header in the feed list.  Click once to order them in ascending order (= alphabetical order), then click again to reorder them in descending order.
	- You can view the enabled feeds at the top by clicking on the Enabled column header.  Click again to view the disabled feeds at the top instead.  In general, the same sorting mechanism works for any of the columns (in either the feed list or episode list).
	- You can sort the feeds into Categories by clicking on the Category column header.
	- Once you have sorted feeds by Title, by Enabled or by Category, they will always be sorted in this way; that is, the sort order for these columns persists when you restart PodSilo.  You can remove all custom sorting by clicking on the Default Order button above the feed list.
	- Note: when you click on the Title column, the feeds are sorted by title regardless of their Enabled state.  However, when if you sort by Title, then sort by Enabled, the enabled feeds appear together but are still sorted by Title; the disabled feeds appear together and are also still sorted by Title.  If you have sorted by the Category column, this will be preserved when you sort by the Enabled column.
	- To return to the default order of the feeds, just click the "Default Order" button above the feed list.  This will resort the feeds into the order in which they were added.
	- When you add feeds using either the "Add Feed" dialog or the "Import Feeds" dialog, the new feeds are added at the bottom of the feed list for better visibility.   After you add feeds, you can reorder the feeds if desired by clicking on the column headers, or by opening the Settings dialog and pressing OK (which always reapplies the current "Sort feeds by" settings).
	- You can view and change the sort order of the Title, Category and Enabled columns using the Settings dialog.  See the "Sort feeds by" area at the bottom right of this dialog.  If you choose to sort by "Title" or "Category", you can choose Ascending/Descending for alphabetical order (or reverse alphabetical order) for this field; similarly you can check "Enabled" to see the enabled feeds grouped at the top or the list, or grouped at the bottom of the list.  If none of these are checked, the feeds will appear in the default order (the order in which you added the feeds).  Once you press OK, the new sort order will be applied to the feed list.
	- The order of feeds in the main window feed list determines the feed order of those operations affecting all feeds:
•	The Catch-Up All button polls and downloads feed episodes in the order the feeds occur in the feed list.
•	Automatically scheduled catch-ups are run for each feed in the same order as the feed list.
•	The Cleanup All button runs clean-up on feeds in the order they occur in the feed list.
•	The Poll All button polls feeds in the feed list order.
•	Search Episodes searches for episodes by examining the feeds in the feed list order, then within each feed, it examines each episode in descending order by Publish Date.

What is the "Category" of a feed? How is it determined? Can I change it?
	- Every feed can be assigned a Category (a short description) to help you organize feeds into manageable groupings.
	- When a new feed is polled, the poll response usually contains a category assigned by the feed author.  Thus, categories are assigned automatically for you.  Some examples of categories you may see for feeds are: "History", "Comedy", "Society & Culture", "Tech News", etc.
	- If you want to change the category a feed is assigned to, or if you want to specify your own categories, you can double-click the "Category" column for any feed, in the Main feed list.  This will display the Edit Feed Category dialog, directly below the category entry for the feed.  Using this dialog, you can:
•	Select a different existing category for the feed.
•	Define your own category and select it for the feed.  (Use the Add button.)
•	Select a blank category for the feed.  To do this, select the "<None>" entry in the list of categories.
•	Remove an existing category from all feeds.  Any feed that had this category will be assigned a blank category instead.  (Use the Remove button.)
•	Rename an existing category to some other category name.  (Use the Rename button.)  Any feed in the original category will now be assigned to the new category.  If you rename a category to the name of an existing category, this will effectively combine the two categories.
•	Reset the feed category to the default category obtained when the feed was polled.  (Use the Default button.)
•	See all the existing categories and how many feeds are assigned to each one.
None of the changes you make in the Edit Feed Category dialog will actually be applied until you press "OK".
	- Once you have changed the category of a feed manually, re-polling the feed will not reset the category to the category specified by the poll response.  To reset the category to the default, use the "Default" button in the Edit Feed Category dialog.
	- If you wish to discard all changes you have made to categories, and reset every feed to the original (default) category contained in the feed poll, open the Settings dialog in the main window; you will see a checkbox at the bottom right of this dialog entitled "Reset all feed categories to default category from poll".  If you check this box, then press OK in the Settings dialog, every feed category will be reassigned to the category obtained from the feed poll.
	- You can search for episodes in feeds of a particular category using the search variable "$feedCategory".  For example, the following search query will find all episodes with title containing "number" in all feeds with category "Society & Culture":
	[$feedCategory has "Society & Culture"] and [$episodeTitle has "number"]

Can I add my own notes about an episode?
	- Yes.  In the main window, click the "User notes" checkbox above the episode list.  This will show or hide a column entitled "User Notes", at the right of the "Title" column.  Click once in this field to select it, then click it again to enter edit mode for the field.  You can type into the "User Notes" area for any episode, and your entry will be retained for that episode.
	- The setting for the main window "User notes" checkbox is persistent; that is, if you exit PodSilo while showing user notes, then reopen PodSilo, user notes will still be shown in the episodes list.
	- You can enter more extensive, multi-line user notes. Double-click the left mouse button while the mouse is positioned on this field.  This will open a small dialog box showing the user notes for that episode in a multi-line edit box, allowing you to add several comment lines.
	- After you add user notes for an episode, you can use Search View to find episodes whose user notes contain specific text.  For example, if you add user notes with the text "5 star rating", the query
		 [$userNotes has "5 star rating"]
 will find all episodes containing this text.  This provides a way to tag interesting episodes you may want to listen to later.
	- Search View can also display the user notes for episodes.  When you search for episodes in Search View, the "User Notes" column is normally not visible; however if the query involves the episode variable "$userNotes", then this column will be visible.  You can also use the checkbox above the search results list to make this column appear or disappear.

What is the History Log?
	- Every time PodSilo is started, a new History Log file is created in the directory 
		%localappdata%\PodSilo\Logs.
(Just type the preceding 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 log files are named PodSiloLog.yyyymmdd_HHMMSS.log, e.g. PodSiloLog.20170701_143932.log is the file created 2017/07/01 at 14:39.  These files contain diagnostic information relevant to the operation of PodSilo, and can be viewed with Notepad or any text editor.
	- To see what is being written to the History Log in real time, click the History Log button at the top of the main PodSilo window to open the History Log window.
	- At startup, the History Log will display the current PodSilo version and license information.
	- The History Log shows a record of each command executed.
	- The "Explore Logs" button at the top right of History Log will open a Windows Explorer, and navigate to the logs directory.

What else is in %localappdata%\PodSilo?
	- This directory contains your license file, a "downloads" subdirectory containing the actual episodes for each feed (unless you have changed the download folder in Settings), a "Logs" subdirectory containing PodSilo log files (log files are basically just the contents of the history view for a given PodSilo run), and a Config subdirectory containing the file PodSilo.cfg, which has various information about PodSilo program settings, and information about feeds you have created.
	- The Feeds directory contains information about feeds and episodes needed by PodSilo.
	- The Queries directory contains any user-specific search queries you have saved.
	- The Temp directory is used for certain temporary files that are created during episode downloads.
	- Never modify any file in these directories directly, or the results will be "unpredictable".

What is in each feed folder (located inside the main download folder)?
	- Each feed folder contains the downloaded episodes for that feed.  You can delete any episodes you are no longer interested in (you can download them again by using the Download button in PodSilo).  You can rename any episode, then press "Refresh" in the PodSilo main window to force PodSilo to reassociate these episode files with episodes in the feed.
	
How do I navigate between the different views available in PodSilo?
	- The views available are the main window, Search View, Feed Journal, and History Log.
	- Each view has buttons at the top right used to show the other views.  For example, Main has buttons for Feed Journal, Search View, and History Log; Feed Journal has buttons for Main, Search and History Log, etc.
	- The view configuration is persistent.  For example, if you show the Feed Journal, Search View, or History Log, and change its size and location, it will reappear at the same location with the same size when you restart PodSilo.

What happens if I minimize PodSilo?
	- When minimized, PodSilo is only visible as an icon in the System Tray area.  All existing views will also be minimized, and will be restored if you double-click the tray icon.  When minimized, any automatic catch-up schedules will of course run at the time specified; you will see a pop-up notification in the system tray when catch-up starts and ends (unless you have unchecked "Show tray notifications" in the Settings dialog).
	- If restarted, PodSilo will remember that you prefer to start it minimized.

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