Quill Radio Tutorials

Welcome. There are 42 short lessons here, about 252 minutes in all, and you can take them in any order. Each one is a few small steps, and each step tells you what to press and what you should hear.

This page is the lessons written out, so you can read them anywhere. If you would rather be walked through, open Help > Tutorials… in Quill Radio. It does a step for you when you ask, and moves on by itself once it hears you have done one.

The keys here are the ones Quill Radio comes with. If you have changed a key, the lessons inside the app use your key; this page cannot know about the change.

Contents

Your first hour

Start here. By the end of this track you will have found a station and kept it, you will know the player keys that work in every window, and you will know how to get yourself unstuck.

Play your first station

In five minutes you will have a station playing that you picked yourself. You will open the list of stations, find one that is on the air, and hear it. Along the way you will learn the one move you use everywhere in Quill Radio: arrow to something, press Enter.

8 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Start where the app puts you. Open Quill Radio. The very first time, you get three short welcome screens. Read them with the arrow keys, or press Alt+K to skip them. After that you land in the Favorite stations list. On a new install it is empty, and that is fine. Nothing is wrong. You are about to fill it.

    • Keys: Alt+K
    • You should hear: Welcome to Quill Radio, screen 1 of 3 the first time. Then Favorite stations, tree, or whatever your screen reader says for an empty tree.

  2. Open Browse Stations. Browse Stations is one window with one big list in it, laid out like a tree. The first row is Search All Sources. Below it are the places stations come from: your favorites, popular stations, directories from all over the world, weather radio, podcasts and audiobooks. Nothing is loaded yet, so take your time.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Browse Stations, then the first row: Search All Sources.

  3. Walk the branches before opening one. Press Down Arrow six or seven times and just listen. Each press reads the name of one source. Nothing opens until you ask it to, so this is a safe and quick way to get a feel for everything Quill Radio can reach.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: One source name per press: Favorites, Popular Stations, Trending Now, Recently Added or Changed, By Country, and so on.
    • Worth knowing: There are more than thirty sources, which is a lot to arrow past. Once you know the ones you like, you can hide the rest with Hide This Source on a branch’s own menu. The lesson called Wander the browse tree shows you how.

  4. Open Popular Stations. Stop on Popular Stations and press Right Arrow. This is a great place to start when you have no idea what you want. Listeners have voted for these stations over many years, so they are ones people keep coming back to.

    • Keys: Right arrow
    • You should hear: Loading Popular Stations, then how many arrived: 100 items.

  5. Play one. Press Down Arrow onto a station and press Enter. That is all there is to it. The same move works on every row in this list: a station, a podcast episode, a chapter of a book or a television channel. Arrow to it, press Enter.

    • Keys: Down arrow, Enter
    • You should hear: Playing, and the station’s name, over a short connecting sound. Then the station itself.

  6. Set the volume without leaving the tree. Press Volume Down twice. The volume moves ten steps at a time and says the new number each time. This works in every window, so you never have to go looking for a volume control or wonder whether the key worked.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Down
    • You should hear: Volume and a number, then a number ten lower. Volume 70 percent, say.
    • Worth knowing: Once a station is a favorite, it remembers the volume you set while it played and uses it again next time. Some stations are much louder than others, and this way you only fix that once.

  7. Stop it, and start it again. Press Enter on the same row again. Enter on the station that is playing stops it, and Enter once more starts it again. Quill Radio tells you which one happened each time, so you always know where you are.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Radio stopped. Then Playing, and the station’s name.
    • Worth knowing: Ctrl+Period is Stop in every window except the main one. In the main window, Ctrl+P is Play and Stop on the Playback menu.

  8. Close the tree, keep the music. Press Escape. Browse Stations closes and you are back in the favorites list in the main window, with the station still playing. Closing a window in Quill Radio never stops the sound. Only Stop does that.

    • Keys: Escape
    • You should hear: Quill Radio, the favorites list, and the station still playing.

Well done. You found a station and played it, and you know the move that works everywhere. Leave it playing for the next lesson, which shows you how to keep it so you never have to search for it again.

Next: Keep a station, and find it tomorrow.

Keep a station, and find it tomorrow

Save the station you are listening to as a favorite. After this, getting back to it tomorrow takes two keys: open Quill Radio, press Enter.

6 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Save what is playing. With a station playing, add it to your favorites from the main window. You do not need to find the row it came from or go back to the window where you found it. This command always saves whatever is playing right now. It is on the Station menu as Add Playing Station to Favorites.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+F
    • You should hear: Added, the station’s name, to favorites.
    • Worth knowing: The same command takes it out again, and the menu item changes its name to say so. That way you can never end up with two copies of the same station.

  2. Find it in the tree. Move to the favorites list in the main window and arrow down. There is your station. This list is what the main window is for: the stations you love, ready to play.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: The station’s name, in the favorites list.

  3. Play it from the list. Press Enter on it. From now on, this is how you get to that station: open Quill Radio, arrow to it, press Enter. No searching, no menus.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Playing, and the station’s name.

  4. Give it a name you would actually say. Press F2 on the row and type the name you use for the station. Names in the directories are often full of numbers, call letters and capitals. Your name is the one Quill Radio uses from now on. If you clear the box, the original name comes back.

    • Keys: F2
    • You should hear: Rename Station, an edit box with the current name. Then Station renamed, and your new name.

  5. Make the radio switch itself on. Open the Station menu and check Resume Last Station on Launch. Now when you open Quill Radio, your station is already playing, just like turning on a radio in the kitchen.

    • Keys: Alt+S, Ctrl+Alt+L
    • You should hear: Quill Radio will pick up where you left off at launch.
    • Worth knowing: Turn on Start Quill Radio with Windows too, on the same menu (Ctrl+Alt+W), and the radio is simply on when you sit down. It only affects your own Windows account, and you do not need to be an administrator.

  6. Learn the one-key way back. Play Last Station starts whatever you had on last, with no searching at all. Reach for it when you stopped something by mistake, or when you come back to the computer after lunch.

    • Keys: Ctrl+L
    • You should hear: Playing, and the station’s name.

Now you have a favorite, with a name you chose, and it can even start on its own. From here on, everything is about finding more of what you like with less effort.

Next: The player follows you; Do anything by name.

The player follows you

Learn the handful of keys that work in every window, and meet the Player window, which has every control in one place. This is worth ten minutes of your time, because it is what makes Quill Radio feel easy.

8 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Start something and go somewhere else. Play one of your favorites, then open Browse Stations. Now you are in a different window from the one where you started the music. Watch what happens: all the player keys still work right here.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Browse Stations, with your station still playing.

  2. Change the volume from the wrong window. Press Volume Up. It works, right here in the browse window, and it tells you the new level. The player keys do the same thing in every window, so you only have to learn them once.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Up
    • You should hear: Volume, and a number ten higher than before.

  3. Mute, and hear that you muted. Press Mute, then press it again. Quill Radio says Muted, and then says the volume when you come back. That way you can always tell a mute apart from a station that has dropped out.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+O
    • You should hear: Muted, then the volume you came back to. Volume 70 percent, say.
    • Worth knowing: Ctrl+Shift+O is Mute in every window except the main one. In the main window, Mute/Unmute on the Audio menu is Ctrl+M.

  4. Summon the player. Go to Player opens the Player window. If it is already open behind something else, the same key brings it to the front instead of opening a second one. One key, one player, every time.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+G
    • You should hear: Player, then the Now playing box.

  5. Tab through what the player holds. Press Tab from the top. First you reach the Now playing box, which tells you what is on, where you are in it, how fast it is playing and how loud. Then come the buttons: Play or Stop, Pause, Skip Back, Skip Forward, Where Am I, the three chapter buttons, Slower, Faster, Normal Speed, Skip Silence, Volume Down, Volume Up, Mute, and last of all Add to Favorites.

    • Keys: Tab
    • You should hear: Each control’s name and state, one per press.

  6. Ask where you are. Press Where Am I. On a recording or a podcast episode, you hear how far in you are, how long it is and which chapter you are in. On live radio, Quill Radio tells you it is live, so there is no position to move through. Either way, you always get an answer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+W
    • You should hear: Either your position, or a sentence saying a live stream has none.

  7. Leave the player where it is. Press Escape to close it, or leave it open and press Ctrl+Tab to move to the next window. The Player is a real window. You will find it on the Window menu, on the taskbar and in the Ctrl+Tab order, so you can keep it handy beside whatever else you are doing.

    • Keys: Escape, Ctrl+Tab
    • You should hear: The name of the window you are back in, or the one you moved to.

  8. Find the status bar, which Tab never reaches. Go back to the main window and press F6. You land in the status bar along the bottom: Play, Mute, Volume, Record, the sleep timer and the time. Move across them with Left and Right Arrow. Tab never goes there, so F6 is the way in, and F6 again or Escape is the way back.

    • Keys: F6, Left arrow, Right arrow
    • You should hear: The item you land on, then each item as you arrow across.
    • Worth knowing: Each item has its own menu on the Applications key, and there is a lot in there. The Play item offers your favorites and recent stations. Record offers scheduling and the Recordings window. Volume offers boost, the output device and Sound Enhancements.

Nicely done. The player keys work the same in Browse Stations, Find Stations, Manage Favorites, the Recordings list, Song History, the chapter list, Now Playing and the download queue. Learn them once and they are yours everywhere.

Next: Do anything by name.

Do anything by name

Forgot a key? No problem. You will learn three ways to reach anything without remembering a key: the command palette, the numbered list of places, and a sheet that lists every key you have.

6 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Open the command palette. The command palette opens from any window and lists every command in Quill Radio, including all the player controls. So you can pause what is playing from here, as well as change a setting.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+P
    • You should hear: A search box, and how many commands are available.

  2. Type what you want, not what it is called. Type a few letters, such as vol, or record, or chapter. The list gets shorter as you type. Arrow to the one you want and press Enter. It does exactly what its key or menu item would do.

    • Keys: Down arrow, Enter
    • You should hear: The matching commands, each read with its own key.
    • Worth knowing: Each command in the list says its key, so you pick up the shortcuts just by using the palette. Before long you may find you hardly need it.

  3. Open the list of places. Go To is a short numbered list of the ten main places in Quill Radio. Press a number and you are there. Press Escape and you are back exactly where you were.

    • Keys: Ctrl+G
    • You should hear: A numbered list, starting with Favorites.

  4. Understand why the numbers are worth learning. Each place keeps its number. Recordings is 4 today and it will still be 4 next year, whether or not it is open. That is different from Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9, which go to the windows you have open in the order you opened them, so those numbers change as you work.

    • Keys: Escape
    • You should hear: Nothing new. This step is just good to know.

  5. Open the sheet of every key. The Keyboard Shortcuts Sheet lists every key Quill Radio answers to. Type what you want to do, such as record, or a key you found and cannot place, such as Ctrl+B, and the list shrinks to just that.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K
    • You should hear: A filter box, then how many shortcuts are listed.
    • Worth knowing: The sheet always shows the keys you really have. If you change a key, the sheet shows your key, not the original one.

  6. Ask what the thing under your fingers is. Press F1 anywhere. A window opens that tells you what the window you are in is for, and then what the control you are on does and how to use it. You can arrow through the text and copy it. Press Escape and you are right back where you were.

    • Keys: F1
    • You should hear: What the window is for, then help for the control you are on.

With the palette, Go To, the sheet and F1, you always have a way to find what you need, wherever you are in Quill Radio. You never have to feel stuck.

Next: Getting unstuck.

Getting unstuck

What to do when something is not where you expected, you missed what was said, or a menu item will not work. Read it once now, so it feels familiar on the day you need it.

7 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Escape steps back to where you were. Escape closes the window you are in, such as Browse Stations, the Player or any list, and your screen reader tells you where you landed. Ctrl+W and Ctrl+F4 close those windows too. Closing a window never stops the sound, and you never lose anything you did not choose to delete.

    • Keys: Escape
    • You should hear: The name of the window you are back in, and where you are in it.
    • Worth knowing: The main window works a little differently. There, Ctrl+W tucks Quill Radio away in the system tray, and Alt+F4 closes it. If you like, you can turn on a setting in Preferences so Quill Radio says Entered and Exited as windows open and close.

  2. Hear the last announcement again. Missed what Quill Radio just said? It happens to everyone. Repeat Last Announcement says it again. It has no key to start with. Find it in the command palette by typing repeat, or give it a key of your own in the Keyboard Manager.

    • You should hear: Whatever Quill Radio last told you, in full. Or No announcement to repeat yet.

  3. Ask what is playing. What’s Playing opens a small Now Playing window. It tells you the station, and the song when the station sends one, in a box you can arrow through and copy. Press Escape to close it. It is the quickest way to find out what is on when you come back to the computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+T
    • You should hear: Now Playing, the station’s name, then the song if there is one.
    • Worth knowing: If you would rather just hear one sentence with no window, type what’s playing in the command palette.

  4. Read the list of what has failed. Recent Problems lists what has gone wrong lately: podcasts that could not be checked, downloads that stopped, stations that dropped out. Each one says why and when. So if you missed a message while it was being spoken, you can still find it here.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P
    • You should hear: Recent Problems, and a count of each kind. Or No recent problems.
    • Worth knowing: Copy All copies the whole list as text, ready to paste into a message to support. It includes web addresses and error messages, but never passwords, and nothing in it leaves your computer unless you send it.

  5. Find out why a menu item is dimmed. A dimmed item on a row’s menu is not a dead end. Each one comes with a reason, such as Remove All Downloads: nothing is downloaded for this show. You see it in the status bar, and screen readers that read menu help will say it. Player keys explain themselves too. Where Am I on live radio tells you a live stream has no position.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The item, the word dimmed, and a sentence saying what would make it work.

  6. Take back the last destructive thing. Undo Last Action brings back what you just removed: an unsubscribe, a deleted recording, a Mark All as Played. It tells you what came back. Press it again to go back one more step, newest first, up to ten steps.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Z
    • You should hear: Undid, the action, Brought back, and what came back. Or Nothing to undo.
    • Worth knowing: Anything you can undo ends its message with Ctrl+Z undoes this, so you never have to wonder. To pick one particular step from the last ten, use Undo History on the Edit menu.

  7. Report it rather than working around it. If something does not work the way a lesson says it should, please tell us. Get Help from Support writes to a real person from inside Quill Radio, and includes which version you have. Your own email program opens with the message ready. Nothing is sent until you send it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+F2
    • You should hear: A form with most of it already filled in.

That is your first hour, and you did it. From here you can take the tracks in any order. Try Finding something to listen to if you want more stations, or Recording if there is a show you want to catch.

Finding something to listen to

Lots of ways to find something you will love: browsing, searching every directory at once, adding stations of your own, and the station list on your computer that works even without the internet.

Wander the browse tree

Get comfortable exploring Browse Stations. You will open folders, learn what a row tells you before you play it, search inside one folder, and tidy away the sources you do not want.

8 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Open the tree and notice where it put you. Open Browse Stations. It remembers where you were last time. If you have played something from here before, you land right back on that branch instead of at the top, so you do not have to arrow all the way there again.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Browse Stations, and the row you were last on.

  2. Open a folder and let it tell you its size. Open By Country and arrow through it. Each country says how many stations it has before you open it: France, then a number in brackets. The numbers come straight from your own computer, so they appear instantly.

    • Keys: Right arrow, Down arrow
    • You should hear: How many items By Country holds, then each country with its station count.

  3. Read a row before you play it. Arrow onto a station and listen to the whole row. If a station probably will not play, the row says may not be playable. Some stations, such as ones from TuneIn or YouTube, need looking up first, and their rows say resolves when you play it. Then you know why there is a short pause before the sound starts.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: The station name, then any note the row carries.
    • Worth knowing: Only stations from Radio Browser come with a may not be playable warning. Rows from other sources have no warning either way, which does not mean anything is wrong.

  4. Ask the row for its details. When the Station Details pane is on, each row you arrow to fills a box with its source, stream, format and country. Press Tab from the list to read it, arrow through it, and copy from it. If you would rather not Tab past it, turn it off with Show Station Details on the main window’s View menu. Every station list follows your choice.

    • Keys: Tab
    • You should hear: The details box, read as ordinary text.
    • Worth knowing: Show Station Details is Ctrl+D in the main window.

  5. Search inside the folder you are standing in. Find in this folder searches only the rows inside the folder you are on. It looks at each row’s description as well as its name. On a podcast, that means it searches the episodes and their show notes. Clear the box to see the whole folder again.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F
    • You should hear: Find in this folder. Then, when you press Enter, how many rows matched.

  6. Open a row’s own menu. Press Shift+F10, or the Applications key, on any row. You get everything else you can do with it: Play/Stop, add or remove the favorite, copy the stream link, open the website, Report Bad Station, Refresh, and Set a Reminder. Whenever you wonder what else you can do, try this menu.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: A context menu, read from the top.
    • Worth knowing: Quick Actions, on the Station menu, lets you choose the order of this menu. The lesson called Decide what a row says, and what its menu offers first shows you how.

  7. Set a source’s own options. A few sources have a question of their own. Press Shift+F10 on the source and choose Source Options if you see it. Radio Paradise asks which sound quality you want. SHOUTcast asks whether to show every station or only ones people are listening to right now. Quill Radio reads your answer back and reloads the branch straight away.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The option you chose, read back, then the branch reloading.

  8. Hide a source you will never use. Press Shift+F10 on a top-level branch and choose Hide This Source. Reset Sources to Default is right beside it if you change your mind. A hidden source leaves the list completely and is never contacted, so the list is shorter and quicker to get around.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The source’s name, hidden, and how to bring it back.
    • Worth knowing: Choose Browse Sources, on the main window’s Station menu, does the same thing as one checklist of every source (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O).

Browse Stations is a lovely place to wander, and you never need an account or a sign-up to use any of it. When you know what you are after, the next lesson gets you there faster.

Next: Search every directory at once; Find stations by name, tag and country.

Search every directory at once

Run one search across every source you have turned on. You will learn how to read the answer, and what it means when a source does not reply in time.

5 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Start from the top of the tree. Search All Sources is the very first row in Browse Stations. It asks every source you have turned on, all at once. The answer appears as a Search Results branch at the top of the same list, right where you are.

    • Keys: Home, Enter
    • You should hear: Search All Sources: What are you looking for? Every source is searched at once.

  2. Type something specific enough to be interesting. Try a style of music plus a place, such as jazz new orleans, rather than a single word. The whole search takes no more than eight seconds, and a more specific search gives you a list that is easier to use.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Searching every source, and your words. After about four seconds, Still searching. Then the results.

  3. Read what did not answer. If a source did not reply in time, the results tell you, for example: Internet Archive did not answer within 8 seconds. That way you know a short list might not be the whole story. Searching again usually brings it in.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: The results, and the name of any source that did not answer.

  4. Search again from the Find box. When you are on Search All Sources or anywhere in its results, press Ctrl+F, type, and press Enter. That searches every source again for what you typed, with no extra questions. Anywhere else in the list, the same box searches just the branch you are in. The one exception is a web address, which is looked up wherever you are.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F, Enter
    • You should hear: The new results replacing the old ones.
    • Worth knowing: Quill Radio remembers your search answers for ten minutes. If you search for the same thing again, you get the full answer at once while a fresh search runs in the background.

  5. Keep one, then close the results. Add anything you like to your favorites from the row’s own menu. Then press Delete on the Search Results branch to close it. It does not ask you to confirm, because nothing is lost. Run the same search again and the answer comes straight back.

    • Keys: Delete
    • You should hear: Search results closed, and you are back on Search All Sources.

One search, every directory, one tidy list of results. If you would rather search by name, country and tag together, the next lesson covers that window. And if a station you know exists never turns up, the lesson after that is the one for you.

Next: Find stations by name, tag and country; Find a station by its web address.

Find a station by its web address

Some stations are not in any directory. Here you will type the station’s own web address into a search box and let Quill Radio find the stream on its page. It is the answer to: I know this station exists, so why can I not find it?

4 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Know when to reach for this. No directory has every station. If a station is not in any of them, searching for its name will not find it, however you spell it. So if you know a station is real and the search keeps coming up empty, look for its website instead.

    • You should hear: Nothing yet. This step just saves you trying a name twenty ways.

  2. Type the address instead of the name. In any search box, type the station’s home page the way you would in a web browser, such as oj991.com, and press Enter. Quill Radio sees that it is a web address, opens that one page, finds the stream the station’s own player uses, and gives it to you as a row. You do not need to type https://.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: One stream found on the website, and a row with the station’s name rather than a web address.
    • Worth knowing: This works in all three places you can search: the Find box in Browse Stations, Search All Sources, and the Search Stations window. It does not matter where you are when you type it.

  3. Play it, and keep it. What you get is an ordinary station row. Press Enter to play it, and add it to your favorites from the row’s own menu. Same keys, same menu, just like a station you found by browsing.

    • Keys: Enter, Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Playing, and the station’s name. Then Added, the name, to Favorites.

  4. Know what it is not. This reads one web page. It is not a web search, and typing a name still searches the directories as usual. If the page has no stream, you hear that nothing was found rather than a guess. It cannot run the page’s scripts, but it does recognise the common station players by name, such as Triton, StreamTheWorld, SecureNet, iHeart and TuneIn.

    • You should hear: Nothing found on that website, when the page really has no stream.
    • Worth knowing: If the home page finds nothing, try the page behind the station’s Listen Live link. That is usually where the player is.

One address, one row, and a station you could not reach five minutes ago. If a station has no player page either, the next lesson shows you four more ways in: a stream address, a whole server, or a playlist file someone sent you.

Next: Add a station nobody lists.

Find stations by name, tag and country

Use the search window with separate boxes for name, tag and country. You will also bring back an earlier search in one key, and choose which directories get asked.

6 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Open the search window. Search Stations, on the Station menu, opens a window with a few boxes instead of one: station name, tag and country. They work together, so you can search for jazz in France or jazz in Brazil and get different answers.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F
    • You should hear: Internet Radio, then the Station name box.

  2. Search the catalog first, and the internet second. Type a name and press Enter. Stations already saved on your computer show up straight away, and results from the internet join them a moment later. So you get answers quickly, even on a slow connection.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: How many results there are, then the list.

  3. Bring back a search you already ran. In the station name box, press Down Arrow to hear your earlier searches, newest first. Pick one and all three boxes are filled in again just as you had them.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: Your earlier searches, newest first.
    • Worth knowing: The list keeps your last fifteen searches. Running one again moves it to the top instead of adding a copy, and an empty search is never kept.

  4. Choose which directories are asked. You decide which directories are searched, with Search Sources on the main window’s Station menu. A directory you turn off is never contacted at all. Turning off the ones you do not care about makes every search quicker and the results less cluttered.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+U
    • You should hear: A checklist of directories, each read as checked or not checked.

  5. Decide what a result row says. Each result row is read out column by column, so the columns decide what you hear. Choose Columns, on the main window’s View menu, lets you change their order, hide the ones you do not want read, and turn on extras such as language, genres, popularity and bitrate. The next search window you open uses your new layout.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C
    • You should hear: Two lists, shown and hidden, and a line that tells you how a row will sound.
    • Worth knowing: The station’s name always stays, so every row can be told apart. If you try to hide it, Quill Radio tells you why it has to stay.

  6. Keep the good ones. Press Enter on a row to have a listen, and add the ones you like to your favorites from the row’s own menu. Try before you keep: that is what this window is for.

    • Keys: Enter, Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Playing, and the station’s name. Then Added, the name, to Favorites.

Now you have both ways to find stations: wandering when you are not sure, and searching when you are. Next, find out how to add the stations no directory lists.

Next: Find a station by its web address; Add a station nobody lists.

Add a station nobody lists

Four ways to add a station that is not in any directory: paste its stream address, scan its website, add the whole server it lives on, or open a playlist file someone sent you. Before you start, try typing its web address into a search box. That is quicker, and it has its own lesson.

6 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Paste a stream address. Add Custom Station asks for a name you choose and a stream address. There is a Test button so you can hear it before you save. Use this when someone has given you the actual audio address rather than a web page.

    • Keys: Ctrl+N
    • You should hear: Add Custom Station, then the Station name box. Stream URL is next.
    • Worth knowing: If you paste a Live365 station page or player link, Quill Radio swaps in the real stream for you and tells you so. A YouTube link is kept as the page address, so a recording you schedule today still works next week.

  2. Understand why the website is not the station. A station’s home page is not the same as its audio, so saving the home page as a stream will not play. The good news is that you do not have to hunt for the audio yourself. Type the web address into any search box and Quill Radio reads the page and finds it for you. Now and then a page hides its stream too well, and the next step is for those.

    • You should hear: Nothing yet. This step just saves you a lot of hunting.
    • Worth knowing: Typing an address into a search box has a lesson of its own, Find a station by its web address. The rest of this lesson is for when that does not find it.

  3. Scan a station’s page for its stream. Find Streams from a Website reads the page you give it and lists the streams it found. Press Test on one to hear it, so you can tell which is right. It follows a Listen Live link one step, and it recognises Triton, StreamTheWorld, SecureNet, iHeart and TuneIn players by name.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+S
    • You should hear: Find Streams from a Website, and the Website address box. After Scan, the streams it found, or a plain sentence saying the page had none.
    • Worth knowing: It cannot run a web page’s scripts. If a page finds nothing, look for a Listen Live link, or search the directories. They often have the stream already.

  4. Add the whole server instead of one stream. My Servers, in Browse Stations, is for whole stream servers. Choose Add a Server and paste the address of an Icecast or SHOUTcast server, such as one run by a community station, a school or a reading service. Every stream on that server appears, each one saying what it is playing right now.

    • You should hear: Checking, the address. Then Added, the address, and how many stations it has.
    • Worth knowing: If the server sends back nothing, it is not saved. That nearly always means the address is a little wrong, often a missing port number, so check it and try again.

  5. Import a playlist file. Import Stations from Playlist, on the Station menu, opens a playlist file of the kind stations and friends share: M3U, M3U8, PLS, XSPF or ASX. Choose the file, then choose where the stations go. That can be a folder you already have, or a new one such as News/Local, which Quill Radio makes for you. If you already have some of them, it asks whether to skip those.

    • Keys: Ctrl+I
    • You should hear: Imported, how many stations, and the folder they went into.

  6. Export the other way. Export Favorites to Playlist saves every favorite that has a stream address into one M3U file, which almost any other player can open. Importing that file again brings the stations back, so it is also a simple way to take your list to another computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+X
    • You should hear: Exported, how many stations, and the file’s name.
    • Worth knowing: An M3U file has no folders, so your folders do not come along. To keep everything, folders included, use Back Up Stations and Settings instead.

With these four, you can bring almost any station into Quill Radio, even one that only exists as a link in an email. Nicely done.

Next: The catalog on your own disk; When a station will not play.

The catalog on your own disk

Find out why browsing is instant and even works with no internet. You will check how up to date your station list is, see what is not stored and why, and update it whenever you like.

6 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Notice what is answering. Open By Country, By Language, By Genre or By Quality. Notice how they open instantly. That is because Quill Radio comes with a big list of working stations, more than 62,000 from 240 countries, and keeps it on your computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: The branch opening with no pause at all.

  2. Ask what is stored and what is not. Station Catalog Status tells you everything in one list. You hear each stored source with how many stations it has and how fresh it is. Sources that cannot be stored say why, for example: iHeart: live only; its terms do not allow storing its listings.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S
    • You should hear: Each source with its station count and when it was last updated.

  3. Update it on demand. Update Station Catalog freshens the list right now and tells you what changed, for example: Station catalog updated: 174 new stations, 431 updated. It also updates itself quietly soon after you open Quill Radio, and then on a schedule you choose, every 24 hours unless you change it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+G
    • You should hear: Station catalog updated, and how many changed.

  4. Know what an outage costs you. If a directory goes down for a while, you lose nothing. Your list just stays a little less fresh until it is back. A station that disappears from a directory is hidden straight away, but only forgotten after two weeks, in case it comes back.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This is something that just works in the background.

  5. Try it with the internet off. Disconnect from the internet and open Browse Stations. Quill Radio tells you once that you are offline and browsing from your catalog, and then carries on as normal. Even on a computer that has never been online, you can still browse every station.

    • You should hear: You are offline. Browsing from your catalog, updated, and how long ago. Then the list working as normal.

  6. Know that none of it touches your stations. The catalog is a copy of public station directories. Your favorites, your own stations, your servers and your YouTube channels are kept separately, and nothing you do to the catalog touches them. Even Rebuild From Shipped Snapshot, a button in Station Catalog Status, leaves your stations exactly as they were.

    • You should hear: Catalog rebuilt from the shipped snapshot, and nothing about your favorites.
    • Worth knowing: If you would rather not keep a catalog at all, turn off Keep a local station catalog on this computer in Preferences. Then nothing is stored, and Quill Radio makes no background requests for it.

Your catalog is why Quill Radio still works on a train, and why every folder can tell you its size before you open it.

When a station will not play

Stations sometimes stop working. You will learn what the status line is telling you, let Quill Radio try to fix a broken address, check that your computer can play sound, and report a station that is really gone.

6 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Tell buffering and reconnecting apart. The Now playing line at the top of the main window tells you what is happening. Buffering means the station is still there and the sound paused for a moment. It usually comes back by itself within a few seconds. Reconnecting means the connection dropped and Quill Radio is trying again, three times, after two, five and fifteen seconds. You hear each try. If it still fails, you hear why.

    • You should hear: On the Now playing line: Radio: buffering, or connecting, or playing. Spoken: Reconnecting to the station, Attempt 2 of 3. Or Could not play, and why.

  2. Let it repair the address. Sometimes a station’s address in a directory has stopped working. Quill Radio does not just give up. It tries a few things in turn: it looks the player up again, gets a fresh address from the directory, and, if the setting is on, looks on the station’s own website for its Listen Live player. If it finds one clear stream, it plays it and remembers it for that favorite.

    • You should hear: Either the station starting after a pause, or how many streams were found for you to choose from.
    • Worth knowing: The website step is the setting Recover failed streams from the station’s website, in Preferences. It is on unless you turn it off, and off in Safe Mode. It only tries once per station each time you run Quill Radio.

  3. Check whether the problem is this installation. Audio Health answers one question: is this going to work? It lists which sound player is in use, whether mpv and FFmpeg are there and what you miss without them, where the sound is going, and whether a recording could be saved right now. It does not play anything or open any device, so it is safe to open even while you are recording.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M
    • You should hear: Each check with its own plain answer.

  4. Rule out the boring causes. If Quill Radio says playing but you hear nothing, it is nearly always one of three things: mute, the volume saved for this station, or the Windows volume mixer setting for Quill Radio. Check them in that order. It takes ten seconds and usually solves it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+M, Ctrl+Up
    • You should hear: Muted, or the volume level. Then the new volume as you change it.
    • Worth knowing: Ctrl+M and Ctrl+Up are the main window’s keys. Ctrl+Shift+O also mutes, there and in every other window.

  5. Report a station that is genuinely dead. Report Bad Station, on the station’s own menu in Browse or Search, opens Get Help from Support with the station’s name, stream, source and country already filled in. Only the station’s details are included, never your name, your email or anything about your files.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: A report form with the station’s details already in it.
    • Worth knowing: Directories hide stations they think are broken. So if a station works for the directory but not for you, only you can let us know.

  6. Look up what you missed. If a problem was spoken while you were in another window, Recent Problems still has it, with the reason and the time. Retry tries the selected one again, and Copy All copies the list as text for a message to support.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P
    • You should hear: The problems, newest first, each with its reason.

Most of the time, a station that will not play has simply moved, and nothing is wrong with Quill Radio. The repair steps catch most of these before you even notice, and a report catches the rest.

Making it yours

Folders, your own order, what each row says, your own keys, and the handful of settings that make Quill Radio feel like yours.

Folders, and an order of your own

Make folders for your stations, put stations in the order you like, and play a whole folder as a set. It is much easier to do this now, while you have twenty favorites, than later when you have two hundred.

7 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Open the manager. Manage Favorites is where you organize: search, folders, order, and every action, all on one screen. The favorites list in the main window can do the same things one station at a time, so you only need the manager for bigger tidy-ups.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+M
    • You should hear: Manage Favorite Stations, then the Search favorites box, where you start.

  2. Make a folder before you need it. Tab to the list and press the New Folder key, or use the New Folder button. It asks where the folder should go, at the top or inside another folder, and then asks for a name. The folder is ready straight away. You can also just file a station under News/Morning, and those folders are made for you.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+E
    • You should hear: New Folder, Location. Then Folder name. Then Created folder and its name.

  3. File a station into it. Move to Folder, on a station’s own menu or as a button, puts the station in a folder. If you rename a folder later, the folders inside it come along. If you delete a folder, its stations move up to the top level. Deleting a folder never deletes your stations.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Filed, the station, under the folder it went into.

  4. Move one station a long way. Move Up and Move Down are for small moves. In the main window’s favorites list, the same moves are Alt+Shift+Up and Alt+Shift+Down. For a big move, choose Mark for Move on the station, arrow to where you want it, and choose Move Above or Move Below from that row’s menu. The station joins that row’s folder.

    • Keys: Alt+U, Alt+D, Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Moved up, now below the station it passed. Or, after Mark for Move, Marked, then Moved above and the other station’s name.
    • Worth knowing: If the list is sorted A to Z, your first move switches it to your own order and says Switched to manual order. Your own order is always kept safe, even while you look at the list alphabetically.

  5. Choose how folders are ordered. Sort Favorites, on the View menu, sets the order for every folder: Ascending, Descending, or Unsorted, which shows the order you arranged yourself. The same choice is Favorites sort order in Preferences. Any one folder can have its own order too, with Sort This Folder on that folder’s menu in the main window’s list.

    • Keys: Alt+V
    • You should hear: The View menu. On its Sort Favorites submenu, the three choices with the current one checked.

  6. Play a folder as a set. A folder’s own menu has Play All in Folder and Shuffle Folder. Live radio never ends, so playing a folder means you can hop to the next station in that folder with one key whenever you like. Next Station in Folder and Previous Station in Folder are in the command palette.

    • You should hear: The next station’s name, and where it is in the folder. 2 of 6, say.
    • Worth knowing: Shuffle picks one order and sticks to it, so Previous takes you back the same way. When you reach the first or last station, Quill Radio tells you, instead of starting again from the other end.

  7. Search your own stations. The Search favorites box at the top of the manager filters as you type. It looks at station names, including names you gave them, and countries, languages, tags and folder names. The matches appear as one simple list, and each one says which folder it is in.

    • Keys: Alt+K
    • You should hear: How many matched, on the status line below the list. Then each match with its folder as you arrow.

You have folders, your own order, and a way to play a set. Your favorites now feel like your own collection, not just a pile of things you added.

Next: Ten stations, no list at all.

Ten stations, no list at all

Put your ten favorite stations on ten keys, find your way back to what you played recently, and choose what the main window shows.

6 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Play favorite number one. Play Favorite 1 to Play Favorite 10, on Alt+1 to Alt+0, play the first ten stations in your favorites, in the order the list shows them. No menu and no arrowing. This is why it is worth putting your favorites in order.

    • Keys: Alt+1
    • You should hear: Playing favorite 1, and the station’s name. Or, with no favorites yet, No favorite in slot 1.

  2. Move a station into a slot. Each key simply plays whatever is at that spot in the list. So to put a station on Play Favorite 3, move it to third place, with Move Up in the manager or Alt+Shift+Up in the main window’s list. If the list is sorted A to Z, your first move switches you to your own order.

    • Keys: Alt+Shift+Up
    • You should hear: Moved up, now below the station it passed.

  3. Rebind the slots if Alt and a digit do not suit you. These keys start on Alt+1 to Alt+0. Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 are different: they switch between open windows. If your screen reader or another program already uses Alt with a number, open Keyboard Shortcuts on the Help menu and move any of the ten to a key you prefer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+K
    • You should hear: The keyboard shortcuts editor, with a warning if a key is already in use.

  4. Go back to something you played once. Recently Played, on the Station menu, lists your last fifteen stations, newest first. Choose one to play it straight from the menu. It always includes what you played five minutes ago.

    • Keys: Alt+S
    • You should hear: The submenu, newest station first.

  5. Decide what the main window shows. The main window can show your favorites, Browse Stations, Search, your recordings or the Player. Whichever you pick, the menus, the now playing line, Mute, Volume and the status bar stay the same. So you can live in the view you use most and still have everything to hand. Choose it with Main Window Shows on the View menu. Each view has its own key.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+1, Ctrl+Shift+2
    • You should hear: Main window now shows, the view’s name, and one sentence about what it is for.
    • Worth knowing: The change happens straight away, with no restart. Each view remembers where you were, so if you leave Browse and come back, your folders are still open.

  6. Make the choice in Preferences instead. Preferences has the same setting, called Main window shows: Favorite stations, Browse Stations, Search Stations, Radio Recordings or Player. That is the view you open into every time. Every other window is still just one key away.

    • Keys: Ctrl+,, Alt+M
    • You should hear: Main window shows, combo box, and its current setting.

With ten keys, Recently Played and Play Last Station, most days you will not need to open a list at all. Enjoy that.

Next: Decide what a row says, and what its menu offers first.

Decide what a row says, and what its menu offers first

Two windows that change how Quill Radio sounds to you: which details a list reads out, and which actions come first on a row’s menu.

7 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Open Choose Columns on a list you use. Choose Columns is on the View menu. The first control, Columns for, picks the list you want to change: Find Stations results or Recordings. Each row is read out column by column, so this is where you decide what you hear on every row.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C
    • You should hear: Choose Columns, then Columns for. Tab reaches the Shown list, in the order the columns are read, and then the Hidden list.

  2. Hear the change before you accept it. Under the lists, A row will read tells you exactly what one row will sound like with your choices. In the Shown list, Alt+Up and Alt+Down move a column. Listen to that line again before you press OK.

    • Keys: Alt+Up, Alt+Down, Alt+A
    • You should hear: The column’s name and where it is read now. Second, say.

  3. Take a column out rather than moving it down. The Hide button takes a column out of the row completely, so it is not read at all. Show puts it back in its usual place, so if you hide something for a week and then show it again, it goes back where it was.

    • You should hear: The column moving between the two lists, and the sample row without it.
    • Worth knowing: One column in each list always stays: the station’s name, or the recording’s name. That way every row can be told apart.

  4. Turn on a column that starts switched off. Find Stations can also read language, genres, popularity and bitrate, and Recordings can read length. They start off to keep rows short. But if bitrate is how you choose stations, go ahead and turn it on.

    • You should hear: The sample row, now with the column you added.

  5. Open Quick Actions. Quick Actions, on the Station menu, sets the order of the menu you get on each kind of row. There are two lists, station actions and browse folder actions, and you choose between them with Actions for. Enter on a row still plays or opens it, whatever order you choose.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Q
    • You should hear: Quick Actions, then Actions for, combo box, naming the list.

  6. Put your verb first. Move Up, Move Down and Move to Top change the order. The list you see is the order of the menu Shift+F10 opens on a row. Reset This List puts it back the way it was when you installed Quill Radio.

    • Keys: Alt+U, Alt+D, Alt+T
    • You should hear: The action, is now number 2. Or, from Move to Top, is now first in the menu.
    • Worth knowing: This only changes the order of what a row already offers. Putting Download first does not let you download a live station. It just means Download comes first on rows that have it.

  7. Arrange your places while you are at it. Go To Settings, the Settings button in the Go To window, lets you choose which ten places are in the numbered list and in what order. Put the one you use most at 1. Updates never renumber your list. If a new version adds a place, it waits in the Not in the menu list until you add it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+G, Alt+S
    • You should hear: Two lists, In the menu and Not in the menu, each place read with its number.

Both windows are worth ten minutes, just once. A list that reads only the four things you care about feels very different from one that reads nine.

Next: Make the keys yours.

Make the keys yours

Change any key to one you prefer, give the player keys that work even while you are in another program, and find out which keys already work everywhere.

6 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Find the key you want to change. Keyboard Shortcuts, on the Help menu, opens the Keymap Editor. It lists every command and its key, and you can search it. Type part of a command’s name, or type or press a key to find out what it does.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+K
    • You should hear: Keymap Editor, then the Search box.

  2. Assign a key and hear the objection. Select a command and choose Edit Keybinding. If the key you press is already used, the editor tells you which command has it and asks before taking it. Keys your screen reader needs are not allowed, and you get a warning for keys another program already uses everywhere. That way you never end up with a key that does nothing.

    • Keys: Alt+E
    • You should hear: Either your new key confirmed, or the name of the command that already has it.
    • Worth knowing: Your keys are shared with QUILL and QUILL Cast, so a key you change here changes there too.

  3. Check what you actually have. The Keyboard Shortcuts Sheet always shows the keys you really have, so after a change it shows your new key. It also lists keys that are not on any menu, such as F6 for the status bar, the Winamp letters in the Recordings list, and Shift+F10 for a row’s actions, each with the window it works in.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+K
    • You should hear: A filter box, then how many shortcuts are listed.

  4. Give the player a system-wide key. Global Hotkeys, on the Help menu, lets you set keys that work even while you are in another program. They are only for safe playback commands: play/pause, stop, mute, volume up and down, and show or hide to the tray. Choose Assign, press the key you want, then Save.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+G
    • You should hear: Global Hotkeys, then a list of commands, each with its global key or none.
    • Worth knowing: None are set to start with. If another program already uses a key, Quill Radio leaves it alone and tells you which ones were taken.

  5. Use the two you already have. Two keys work everywhere without any setup. The media keys on your keyboard play, pause and stop while Quill Radio is running, even from the tray. And Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R shows or hides the Quill Radio window from any program. Each Quill app has its own key for this, so they never get mixed up.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R
    • You should hear: Quill Radio hidden to the tray, then Quill Radio shown.

  6. Know the block that is not yours to take. Quill Radio never uses Ctrl+Alt with an arrow key. JAWS and NVDA use those keys to move around tables, so a key there would stop working whenever you read a table. When you choose your own keys, it is best to leave them alone too.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This step is just good to know.

The lessons always name commands rather than keys, so once you change a key, the lessons show your new key too. Make it yours.

Next: The settings actually worth changing.

The settings actually worth changing

A friendly walk through Preferences, stopping only at the settings you will really notice. Everything else is fine just as it is.

7 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Open Preferences. Preferences is one window with a lot in it. Instead of reading it from top to bottom, this lesson stops at six settings. The rest are set sensibly already, and you can leave them until you find a reason to change them.

    • Keys: Ctrl+,
    • You should hear: Quill Radio Preferences, and its first checkbox.

  2. Decide what closing the window means. When closing the window offers Ask every time, Exit, or Minimize to Tray. It decides what happens when you close the main window. Station > Exit always really closes Quill Radio. Further down, the checkbox Alt+F4 minimizes to the system tray is a separate choice. Turn it on, and Alt+F4 tucks the radio away while it keeps playing.

    • You should hear: When closing the window, combo box, and its current choice.
    • Worth knowing: If you are recording, Quill Radio always asks before it closes, because closing stops the recording.

  3. Leave the playback engine alone unless something is wrong. Playback engine: Automatic uses the mpv engine when it is there. That is what lets you pause and rewind live radio, choose an output device, use Volume Boost, and play stations in more formats. Windows Media (classic) is there if you ever want the old way back.

    • You should hear: Playback engine, combo box, Automatic (recommended).
    • Worth knowing: If Rewind, Volume Boost or the output device say they need the mpv engine, check this setting. If it is already on Automatic, Audio Health will tell you if the engine is missing.

  4. Send the radio to a different speaker. Radio output device, in Preferences, and Output Device on the Audio menu, send just the radio to a second sound card or a USB headset. Your screen reader and Quill Radio’s own sounds stay where they are. So you can have the radio in the speakers and your screen reader in your headphones.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+D
    • You should hear: Output Device, the device list, then Output device and the name you chose.
    • Worth knowing: If you unplug the device, Quill Radio remembers it for next time. Meanwhile it plays through your usual device and tells you so.

  5. Make the text bigger. Text Size, on the View menu, offers Normal, Large or Larger. It makes the favorites list, the buttons, the now playing line and the status bar bigger, and it is remembered next time.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+1, Ctrl+Alt+2, Ctrl+Alt+3
    • You should hear: Text size, and the size you chose.

  6. Turn off whole areas you never use. Customize Features, on the View menu, hides a whole menu and everything on it. Right now that is Recording, for anyone who just wants a plain radio with less to arrow past. Nothing is deleted. Check it again and it comes back. The menu changes the next time you open Quill Radio.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+C
    • You should hear: Recording, with a short description of what it covers. After OK, Feature settings saved.

  7. Put your setup where a sync service can see it. The Data Folder button in Preferences shows where all your Quill apps keep your settings, favorites, subscriptions and listening places. Move it into a folder that Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud already syncs, and your whole setup follows you between computers. No account and no sign-in needed.

    • You should hear: Data Folder, the current folder, and an offer to restart after a change.
    • Worth knowing: One thing to remember: do not run Quill apps on two computers using the same folder at the same time. If you do, Quill Radio tells you next time it opens.

That is six settings, and you are done. If you only change one, make it what closing the window does. It decides whether the radio keeps playing when your hand slips.

Quillins: extensions in a radio

Find out what a Quillin is, where Quillins show up in Quill Radio, and what one can add to Browse Stations.

5 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Know that there is no menu to find. Quillins are small, safe add-ons for Quill apps. Quill Radio uses them, but in this version it has no Quillins menu. The Quillins that come with Quill Radio still work, so what they add shows up where you already look: in Browse Stations and in search.

    • You should hear: Nothing. The menu bar goes from QuillVille straight to Help, and that is how it should be.
    • Worth knowing: Each Quillin says which apps it is for, so only ones made for Quill Radio show up here.

  2. See what one can contribute. A Quillin can add a whole source of stations, not just search results. When one is installed and turned on, a Quillin Sources branch appears in Browse Stations, with a folder for each source and its categories and stations. You can play them and keep them as favorites like any others.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Quillin Sources, and the added source beneath it.

  3. Notice when there is nothing to notice. If no Quillin is adding a source, the branch is simply not there, rather than there and empty. So you never have to wonder why a folder has nothing in it.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This is the branch you will not find.

  4. Search finds them too. Search All Sources searches Quillin sources along with everything else. The Radio Community Directory sample that comes with Quill Radio shows everything a Quillin can do, including a station whose address is only looked up when you play it.

    • You should hear: Results from the added source, mixed in with the rest.

  5. Know when they are off. Quillins are off in Safe Mode. Quillins from other people are also turned off in this version, so only the ones that come with Quill Radio run. If the Quillin Sources branch is missing, that is why.

    • You should hear: A missing branch, rather than an error.

Quillins in Quill Radio are kept small on purpose: a source, a search, a list of stations. None of them can touch your files.

Recording

From one key that records what is on, to a show that records itself every Tuesday while you are out, and what happens if the connection drops.

Record what is on now

Record the station you are listening to, stop it, find the file and play it back. You will also learn what the Record item in the status bar is telling you.

8 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Put something on first. Record Now records whatever you are listening to, so you need something playing first. Play any station you like and leave it on.

    • Keys: Ctrl+L
    • You should hear: The station’s name as it starts playing.

  2. Start the recording. Record Now starts recording the station that is on, and says so with the station’s name. You will also find the Record item in the status bar now says Stop Recording with a time, and the now playing line mentions it too.

    • Keys: Ctrl+R
    • You should hear: Recording started, and the station’s name, over the start-recording sound.

  3. Read what the Record cell is counting. Press F6 in the main window and arrow to the Record item. When you start with Record Now, it counts up, such as 18 min so far, because you did not set a length. If you had asked for an hour, it would count down instead.

    • Keys: F6, Right arrow
    • You should hear: Stop Recording, and the time so far in brackets: 18 min so far.

  4. Stop it, and hear where it went. Use the same command to stop recording the station you are listening to. Once the file is saved, Quill Radio tells you its name. If you are also recording a different station in the background, this does not stop that one. You stop those from the Recordings window.

    • Keys: Ctrl+R
    • You should hear: Stopping recording, then Recording saved and the file’s name.

  5. Open the recordings list. Radio Recordings lists everything you have recorded, newest first, so yours is near the top. The summary line tells you what is happening first: whether anything is recording, what is scheduled next, how many recordings you have, and which folder they are in.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+R
    • You should hear: Radio Recordings, then the list and the row you land on.

  6. Play it back. Press Enter on the row. It plays in Quill Radio’s own player, so all the player keys you already know work on it, volume included.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Playing recording, the recording’s name, then the recording itself.

  7. Throw it away. Press Delete and confirm. You land on the next recording in the list, so deleting several in a row is quick and easy.

    • Keys: Delete
    • You should hear: A question naming the recording, then Removed recording and its name, and the row that took its place.
    • Worth knowing: Changed your mind? Undo Last Action brings a deleted recording back, the file itself and not just its name in the list.

  8. Decide where recordings live. Recording Settings, on the Record menu, is where you choose the format (MP3, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, WAV or the raw stream), the quality, how files are named, and which folder they go in. Unless you change it, recordings go in Music\Quill Radio Recordings in your user folder.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I
    • You should hear: Recording Settings, then Format and the format chosen now.
    • Worth knowing: You can also set a temporary folder. Recordings are made there and moved when they finish, so you never find a half finished file among your recordings.

One key starts it, the same key stops it, and the file is easy to find. Next, learn how to record a show while you are out.

Next: Book a show that has not started yet.

Book a show that has not started yet

Set up a recording for later and get it right the first time, time zones included. Then change, copy, pause and remove your bookings without starting over.

10 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Learn the one rule before you open the window. Fill in the details first, and choose Add Schedule last. Add Schedule saves the booking you have just described. It does not start a new blank form. Keep that in mind and this window is easy.

    • You should hear: Nothing yet. Just keep this one in mind.

  2. Open the schedule. Schedule Recording has a list above a form. The list, Scheduled recordings, shows what you have booked, with the soonest first. The form underneath, Add a new schedule, is where you describe the next one.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+S
    • You should hear: Schedule Recording, then the Scheduled recordings list.

  3. Pick the station from your favorites. Tab to Favorite station and arrow to one. Choosing a favorite fills in both Station name and Stream URL for you. If the station you want is not there, add it to your favorites first. Or, for a one-off, type the name and paste the address yourself. You can still edit both boxes either way.

    • Keys: Tab, Down arrow
    • You should hear: The station name and stream filled in for you.

  4. Enter the time the way you think of it. In the Time box, 7:30 PM and 19:30 both work, so type it whichever way feels natural. Then check Time zone. Leave it on (local time) for a show at a time on your own clock. If the show’s time is given in another time zone, choose that zone instead.

    • You should hear: Time (7:30 PM or 19:30), edit. Then Time zone, reading (local time).
    • Worth knowing: The list shows each booking’s time with its time zone, so you can tell two similar bookings apart easily.

  5. Choose how often, and how long. Repeats offers Once (with a date), Daily, or Weekly (with a day). Then set the length in Duration hours and minutes. A three-hour show is just 3 and 0. No sums needed.

    • You should hear: Repeats, combo box, then each duration box with its number.

  6. Commit it. Choose Add Schedule. Your booking appears in the list, you land on it, and the form clears ready for the next one. So you always know it worked.

    • You should hear: Scheduled recording added for, and the station. Then the booking itself as you land on it.

  7. Change one without deleting it. Select a booking and choose Edit. The form fills in, the Add button changes to Save Changes, and the status line names the booking you are changing. So you always know you are editing, not adding. New cancels the edit.

    • Keys: Alt+E
    • You should hear: Station name, holding the booking’s name, ready for you to edit.

  8. Make a similar one. Duplicate, next to Edit, starts a new booking filled in from the selected one, with (copy) after its name. It is a handy start for another day or a second time. It keeps the same stream until you change it, so pick a different favorite if you want a different station.

    • Keys: Alt+P
    • You should hear: Station name, holding the original name with (copy) after it.

  9. Turn one off without losing it. The Disable button turns a booking off without deleting it. It then reads (disabled) in the list and will not record, and the button changes to Enable. Remove deletes a booking and names it first. The Delete key in the list does the same.

    • Keys: Alt+L
    • You should hear: The station’s name, and disabled. Or enabled.

  10. Know what a schedule needs from you. Quill Radio needs to be running for a booked recording to happen. Running in the tray is fine. If Quill Radio starts late, it still records the rest of the show, and when you open it, it catches up on anything still on the air. If a whole show passed while Quill Radio was closed, it is missed, and Quill Radio tells you next time you open it.

Your show will now record itself while you are out. Well done. The next lesson shows you how to record several at once, and what happens if the connection drops.

Next: Record several stations at once; When a recording breaks.

Record several stations at once

Record a station you are not listening to, record several at the same time, stop them one by one or all together, and keep an exact copy when quality matters to you.

7 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Record a station you are not listening to. Record Station records a different station for as many minutes as you choose, while you listen to something else, or to nothing at all. Recording and listening are separate, so one never gets in the way of the other.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+R
    • You should hear: Record Station, asking for the Station and the Duration in minutes. After Start Recording, Recording started, the station, and for how many minutes.

  2. Start another one. Do it again with a second station. Each recording looks after itself. If one drops out, finishes or is stopped, the others carry on as if nothing happened.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+R
    • You should hear: Recording started, the second station, and its minutes.

  3. Watch them both in the list. Open the Recordings window. Each recording in progress has its own Recording row, with its size growing and its own running time. You can see a recording here while it is still being made, not just once it is finished.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+R
    • You should hear: One Recording row for each recording, each with its own time.

  4. Stop one, or stop the lot. The Stop Recording button stops the one you have selected. Stop All Recordings, on the Record menu, stops them all at once, and it also shows up as a button in this window whenever two or more are running. Record Now only ever stops the recording of the station you are listening to.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+X
    • You should hear: Stopping all, and how many. Then Recording saved for each file.

  5. Cap it if the machine cannot take it. Maximum simultaneous recordings, in Recording Settings, starts at 0, which means no limit. On a slower computer or a limited internet plan, set a number. If a booked recording would go over your limit, it waits and tries again while the show is still on, rather than being lost.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I
    • You should hear: Recording Settings. Tab to Maximum simultaneous recordings, reading 0.

  6. Keep exactly what was broadcast. In Recording Settings, the Format called Raw stream saves the station’s sound exactly as it arrives, with nothing changed. Choose it when you want the cleanest possible copy to edit or convert yourself later.

    • You should hear: Format, and Raw stream, exactly as sent, no re-encoding.
    • Worth knowing: The file type matches the station: .mp3, .aac, .ogg, .opus or .flac, and .mka for anything unusual. The Quality and Apply Sound Enhancements settings do not apply to raw recordings.

  7. Decide whether recordings are filtered. Apply Sound Enhancements to recordings, a checkbox in Recording Settings, starts off. So your recordings stay just as the station sent them, even if you listen with EQ or compression on. Turn it on if you would like recordings to sound the way you hear them.

    • You should hear: Apply Sound Enhancements to recordings, checkbox, not checked.

Bookings that overlap all record too. If two shows are booked for the same hour, you get both. Enjoy your recordings.

Next: Live in the Recordings list.

Live in the Recordings list

The Recordings window works like a music player, and it uses the classic Winamp letter keys. Here you will learn the dozen keys that matter most.

8 steps, about 7 minutes.

  1. Open it and read the summary line. The summary line under the list starts with what is happening right now, for example: Recording, 42 min left. Next: KFI at 11:00 tomorrow. 14 recorded. In, and the folder. A recording coming up within the hour is given in minutes, one later in the week by weekday, and one further off by date.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+R
    • You should hear: Radio Recordings, then the row you land on. The summary is below the list.

  2. Play, pause and stop with one finger. X plays the selected recording or carries on from a pause. C pauses and unpauses. V stops. No Ctrl, no Alt, no menu. If you used Winamp, your fingers already know these, and every one of them tells you what it did.

    • Keys: X, C, V
    • You should hear: Playing recording and its name, then Paused, then Stopped.

  3. Move through the list. B moves to the next recording and plays it. Z goes back to the one before. Up and Down Arrow move through the list without playing anything. Volume stays on Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down, just like everywhere else.

    • Keys: B, Z
    • You should hear: The name of the recording that started.

  4. Seek without leaving the row. Left and Right Arrow skip five seconds back or forward. Add Shift to skip thirty. Skipping needs the mpv engine. If you cannot skip, for example on a live stream, the key tells you why.

    • Keys: Left, Right, Shift+Left, Shift+Right
    • You should hear: The new position, or the reason it cannot move.

  5. Ask the time, and jump to one. T tells you how far in you are. Press it again and it tells you how much is left. Ctrl+J jumps to a time you type, and 90, 1:30 or 1:02:03 all work. J jumps to a recording by any part of its name.

    • Keys: T, J, Ctrl+J
    • You should hear: The time, or the recording you jumped to.
    • Worth knowing: Ctrl+T is still What’s Playing here, as it is everywhere in Quill Radio. That is why Winamp’s time key is plain T instead.

  6. Shuffle, repeat, and stop after this one. R turns shuffle on and off. S steps through repeat: off, all recordings, this recording. Ctrl+V stops after the current recording. Shuffle picks one order and keeps it, so everything plays once before anything repeats, and Z always takes you back the way you came.

    • Keys: R, S, Ctrl+V
    • You should hear: The new setting, spoken.
    • Worth knowing: Stop after this one only happens once. It switches itself off as soon as it stops the player, it wins over repeat, and it is not remembered next time you open Quill Radio.

  7. Find the file on disk. The buttons below the list look after the files. Open in Folder takes you to the file in File Explorer. Remove deletes it after asking you first. Refresh reads the folder again, which is handy if you put a file there yourself.

    • Keys: Alt+O, Alt+F
    • You should hear: File Explorer, with the file selected. Or the list read again, where you left it.

  8. Turn the letters off if you would rather type. Winamp-style playback keys in the Recordings player is on to start with, in Preferences. If you turn it off, typing a letter jumps to a recording starting with that letter instead, which is handy in a long list. Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down change the volume either way.

    • Keys: Ctrl+,
    • You should hear: Quill Radio Preferences. Tab to the Winamp-style checkbox and hear its state.

Twelve keys, no Ctrl or Alt needed, and every one tells you what it did. If you record a lot, this window will soon feel like home.

Next: When a recording breaks.

When a recording breaks

What Quill Radio does when the connection drops, a station goes quiet, or the computer crashes in the middle of a recording, and the few settings that decide how hard it tries.

7 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Set how hard it should try. Recording Settings has a group called If the connection drops, with Reconnect and keep recording automatically, Reconnect attempts, and Seconds between attempts. Each recording reconnects on its own, so if you are recording several at once, each one rides out its own hiccups.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I
    • You should hear: Recording Settings, then each reconnect control as you Tab to it.

  2. Know what a drop actually costs. If the connection really drops, Quill Radio reconnects and carries on in a numbered part file, telling you about each try. When the recording ends, the parts are joined back into one file with the name you expect. So a show that dropped twice still gives you just one file.

    • You should hear: Joined 3 parts into one recording. Or Kept 3 separate parts, and why.
    • Worth knowing: Joining is quick, even for a three-hour show, and the sound is not changed. The parts are only removed after the joined file is saved and checked, so you never lose the recording.

  3. Understand a stall, which is not a drop. Sometimes a connection goes quiet without actually dropping, for example when a cable is pulled out. Quill Radio keeps an eye on whether the recording is still growing. If it stops growing for a while, Quill Radio treats it just like a dropped connection.

    • You should hear: A reconnection, or a stop that saves what was recorded.

  4. Read a continuation correctly. After a drop, Quill Radio only records the time left until the show was due to end. So if a 60-minute show drops at minute 50, you get a ten-minute continuation, not another hour. Each part keeps the original start time in its name, so the parts sit together in the list.

    • You should hear: The length of the continuation, spoken when it starts.

  5. Pick a recording back up after a crash. If Quill Radio closes or crashes in the middle of a recording, it offers to carry on next time you open it, for the minutes that are left. You get one question for one recording, or a single Resume all? question if there were several. Resume starts it again, and Skip leaves it as it is.

    • You should hear: A window naming the station, when it was due to record until, and the minutes left.
    • Worth knowing: There is a Don’t ask me again box that remembers your answer: always resume, or never ask. Leave it unchecked if you would rather decide each time.

  6. Tell an empty recording apart from a failed one. If a recording saved nothing, Quill Radio tells you, names the station and says why: the connection failed, the station refused the connection, that stream address is no longer there, or the disk is full. No empty file is kept to puzzle you later.

    • You should hear: What went wrong, with the error sound instead of the saved sound.

  7. Know which failures are worth retrying. Quill Radio only gives up when there is no point trying again: a full disk, or a station that has really gone away. Brief hiccups, such as a short network drop or a server that is busy for a moment, are retried.

    • You should hear: Either another try at connecting, or a plain sentence that the stream has gone.

Most of this happens without you lifting a finger. Read it once so that a part file, a short recording or a question about resuming feels familiar rather than worrying.

More than radio

Podcasts, audiobooks, YouTube, television and the ACB Media schedule. They all live in Browse Stations and play with the keys you already know.

Follow a podcast

Find a podcast, subscribe to it, see what you have not heard yet, and read a transcript without playing anything. You will also find out what Quill Radio does with podcasts and what QUILL Cast does.

9 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Open a podcast directory. Two branches in Browse Stations list podcasts. Podcasts (Apple) has each country’s top shows and all of Apple’s categories. Podcast Index is the open podcast directory. Neither one needs an account or a sign-in.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: The branch, then its countries or categories.

  2. Look at a show without committing to it. Open a show and its episodes are right there. You can play one, add it to favorites, download it or read its transcript. You do not have to subscribe to listen, so try an episode and see if you like it.

    • Keys: Right arrow, Enter
    • You should hear: The episodes, newest first.

  3. Subscribe. Subscribe to This Podcast, on the show’s own menu, adds it to your podcasts. QUILL Cast shares the same list, so the show will be there next time you open Cast too. On a show you already follow, the same item says Unsubscribe.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Subscribing, then Subscribed to, and the show’s name.

  4. Find what you follow. The Podcasts branch starts with a Subscriptions folder. Inside, each show has its own folder of its newest episodes. The Subscriptions folder says how many shows you follow, and each show says how many episodes you have not heard yet, just as Cast does.

    • Keys: Home, Right arrow
    • You should hear: Subscriptions, with a number, then each show with its unheard count.
    • Worth knowing: You can choose in Preferences how many episodes each show lists. It starts at the newest 25. Automatic downloads, keeping or clearing old episodes, and the full archive are in QUILL Cast.

  5. Ask every show at once. Check All Feeds Now, on the Subscriptions branch, checks every show you follow for new episodes in one go. That includes shows you have paused, so they are never out of reach.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Checking subscribed feeds, then what it found, counted and named. Or No new episodes.
    • Worth knowing: In Preferences, you can have Quill Radio check by itself, anywhere from every 15 minutes to once a day, and when it opens. Both start off, so Quill Radio never uses your internet on a schedule you did not choose.

  6. Read an episode instead of playing it. If an episode comes with a transcript, its row says transcript available. View Transcript opens it to read, without playing anything. It is a quick way to find out whether an hour-long episode is about what you hoped.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The transcript window, with the episode’s title at the top.

  7. Do the housekeeping. A show’s menu has Move to Folder, Mark All as Played, Download All Episodes and Remove All Downloads. If there is nothing to do, the item is dimmed and says why, for example: nothing to mark, all 63 episodes are already played.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The action confirmed, and the counts updating.

  8. Hand an episode to QUILL Cast. Play Next in QUILL Cast, Add to QUILL Cast Queue and Send to the QUILL Cast Inbox pass an episode over to Cast. Quill Radio makes a note of it, and Cast does it the next time you open Cast. The message you hear says so.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: It will be next in the QUILL Cast queue.

  9. Know where the line is. Playing, downloading and the actions on each episode work here just like everywhere else in Browse Stations. The rest, such as automatic downloads, tidying old episodes, the play queue and the full archive, is what QUILL Cast is for. If podcasts become a big part of your day, Cast is worth a try.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This step just saves you looking for a setting that is in Cast instead.

Your place in an episode follows you between Quill Radio and QUILL Cast, and so do your bookmarks. No account or sync service needed.

Next: Audiobooks, archives and free music.

Audiobooks, archives and free music

Find an audiobook, keep your place in it, and download a whole book while you keep listening. You will also learn which sources let you save things, and why some do not.

8 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Find a book three ways. LibriVox offers Recently Added, By Genre and By Author, read by about seven thousand volunteers. Project Gutenberg Audiobooks has 1,124 books read by people. The Internet Archive has Old Time Radio, the Live Music Archive, radio programmes and more.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: The branch’s own shelves.
    • Worth knowing: LibriVox has no By Title, because LibriVox itself does not offer a way to search by title. Try By Author or By Genre instead.

  2. Open a book and play a chapter. A book with chapters opens as a folder of chapters. A book that is one long reading just plays. Press Enter to play, and every player key works, including speed, chapters and Where Am I.

    • Keys: Right arrow, Enter
    • You should hear: The chapter playing, and its position when you ask.

  3. Stop, and come back tomorrow. Quill Radio remembers your place in a book chapter, an Old Time Radio episode or a podcast episode, and carries on from there next time you play it. If you only listened for a few seconds, it starts from the beginning. When you finish something, the next play starts from the beginning too.

    • You should hear: Resuming at, and the time. 12 minutes 8 seconds, say.

  4. Save a whole book at once. Download All Files on a book’s folder says how many files there are, for example Download All 40 Files. It saves every chapter into one folder, in order, while you carry on listening. If a download is interrupted, it carries on where it left off. One bad chapter only costs that chapter, and if you stop, everything already saved is kept.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The download added, and how many files it has.

  5. Watch the queue. Everything you save waits in one queue and downloads one at a time, in the order you asked. The Downloads window shows what is waiting, downloading, saved and failed. It has Open Containing Folder, cancel and remove for each row, and Clear Finished.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+J
    • You should hear: Downloads, then each row with how it is doing.
    • Worth knowing: If you close the window while downloads are still going, Quill Radio either finishes them in the background or stops them, whichever you chose in Download Preferences, and tells you which.

  6. Play a downloaded book as a book. The chapters are in the right order, so chapter 2 comes before chapter 10. When one ends, the next starts by itself and tells you where you are, such as 4 of 40. When the last chapter ends, Quill Radio tells you, so you are not left wondering why it went quiet.

    • You should hear: The next chapter starting, with its number and the total.

  7. Learn what cannot be saved, and why. Download only appears where the source clearly allows it. If you try anyway, Quill Radio tells you why not. A live station has no file to save, so record it instead. Spotify is copy-protected. YouTube downloads are left out on purpose. And on Audius, it is up to each artist, and the listing does not say.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The reason, in plain words.

  8. Find music that is genuinely free. Audius has what is popular now, overall and in 27 genres, and leaves out tracks you would have to pay for. ccMixter has Creative Commons music by tag, with each track’s licence on its row. When you save a Creative Commons track, its licence is saved next to it in a text file.

    • You should hear: The track, with its licence read as part of the row.
    • Worth knowing: Mixcloud shows are listed but not played inside Quill Radio. Pressing Enter opens the show in your web browser, and the row tells you so before you press it.

Books, archives and free music work just like every other row. The only difference from one source to the next is what you can keep, and Quill Radio always tells you.

Next: YouTube, with no account anywhere.

YouTube, with no account anywhere

Turn a YouTube link, playlist or channel into rows you can play, keep as favorites and record. You will also hear plainly what this cannot do.

8 steps, about 7 minutes.

  1. Paste any YouTube link. Add YouTube Link takes whatever link you paste and works out what it is. A video becomes a row you can play. A playlist becomes a folder of its videos. A channel page becomes a channel you follow. @name follows the channel, and @name/live saves its live broadcast.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+N
    • You should hear: Added the video. Find it under Browse Stations, YouTube. A moment later, That video is, and its own name.
    • Worth knowing: If the link is already on your clipboard, the box is filled in for you. The row is saved straight away, so even if the video’s details cannot be read, it is still saved and still plays.

  2. Answer the one-time question. The first time you add or play anything from YouTube, Quill Radio asks you once whether it may contact YouTube, and remembers your answer. Asking now means a booked recording will never reach YouTube without you having said yes.

    • You should hear: A one-time question, explaining what YouTube allows.

  3. Add a playlist as a list. Add from YouTube Playlist lists the videos in the order the playlist’s owner chose, so a series stays in order. Each row reads like a sentence: position, title, length, and who published it. Choose Add Selected or Add All.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Y
    • You should hear: How many were added, and how many you already had.

  4. Follow a channel. Add a Channel takes a channel address and checks it works before saving it. Each channel opens into Uploads, plus any playlists it has. A channel with thousands of videos shows them a page at a time, with More to load the next page.

    • You should hear: Checking that channel, then Added, and the channel’s name.

  5. Bring across the channels you already follow. Import YouTube Subscriptions reads the subscriptions file you download from Google Takeout and adds every channel in it. You do not sign in, and Quill Radio does not contact Google at all. It simply reads the file you give it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y
    • You should hear: Imported 24 channels; 3 you already followed.
    • Worth knowing: This brings in your list as it is today. Channels you subscribe to later only appear if you export and import again. Channels you already follow are skipped, so you never get two copies.

  6. Read a video instead of watching it. View Transcript, on any YouTube row, gets the video’s captions and opens them to read, without playing anything. If the captions were made automatically, the heading says so, so you know the spelling may be a bit off. For the video that is playing, Transcript on the Playback menu does the same.

    • Keys: Shift+F10, Ctrl+Shift+T
    • You should hear: The transcript, with its heading saying which kind it is.

  7. Keep it playing when YouTube changes. Everything YouTube needs comes built in, so your first link just plays. But YouTube changes things often. If videos stop playing, use Repair YouTube Support on the Station menu. It gets the newest version of the YouTube helper, tells you the version, and uses it from then on.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Y
    • You should hear: Updating YouTube support, then YouTube support is now version, and the number.

  8. Hear the honest limits. YouTube Premium benefits do not carry over into Quill Radio. Your YouTube watch history cannot be updated by any app other than YouTube’s own. And YouTube rows cannot be downloaded, on purpose. You can record one, though, just like recording a station.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This step is here so the limits never surprise you.

A YouTube row plays, records and can be a favorite or a booked recording, just like a station. Quill Radio saves the page address, so a recording you book today still works next week.

Watch television

Find a TV channel by country, category or ZIP code, play it with the same keys you already know, and add a programme guide if you would like one.

8 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Find the branch. Television is in Browse Stations, just above YouTube. It comes from the iptv.org community list, with about 9,300 channels you can play. Quill Radio leaves out adult channels, closed ones, and ones that would not play when you pressed Enter.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Television, then By Country and By Category.

  2. Open your own country. Where a country has local channels, it opens into Nationwide plus its states. Each state lists its own channels and its cities’ channels, with the city named on the row. A country without local channels is just one list, so you never open empty folders.

    • Keys: Right arrow
    • You should hear: The country, then Nationwide and the states.

  3. Search by place, not only by name. Anywhere you can search, such as Find Stations, Search All Sources or the Find box, you can find TV by channel name, network, country, city, state, or a five-digit ZIP code. Type 66044 and you get Kansas television.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F
    • You should hear: The matching channels.
    • Worth knowing: A ZIP code gets you close, which is handy for narrowing a list. It cannot tell you what your antenna picks up. For that, use the antennaweb link.

  4. Play a channel. Press Enter to play it. The video opens with captions, a choice of audio tracks and all the usual player keys. Show or hide the picture with Ctrl+Shift+V. The sound keeps playing either way.

    • Keys: Enter, Ctrl+Shift+V
    • You should hear: The channel playing, and the video window when it opens.

  5. Turn on captions and read them. Ctrl+Shift+K turns captions on. They open in their own window as text you can arrow through. Each new line is added to the ones before, and the line being spoken now is marked. The window stays quiet, so read it whenever you like.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+K
    • You should hear: The captions window, then quiet until you go and read it.
    • Worth knowing: Turn off Follow Playback if you want the text to hold still while you read back. Escape closes the window and turns captions off.

  6. Choose the audio track. Ctrl+Shift+A lists the audio and described audio tracks. Your own language comes first, then the original language, then the rest in alphabetical order. So even a channel with two dozen languages is easy to find your way around.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+A
    • You should hear: The track list, your language first.

  7. Give yourself a programme guide. If you have an XMLTV guide file, name it tv_guide.xml and put it in your Quill Radio data folder. Every channel it covers then gets a Now and Next line in its details. It works offline, updates when you replace the file, and is never downloaded from anywhere. Delete the file and the lines go away.

    • You should hear: Now, and Next, in the details of a channel the guide covers.
    • Worth knowing: There is no single TV guide for the whole world. Guides are made by each country and provider, so you choose the one that suits you.

  8. Keep the channel list current. The channel list updates itself once a week. It is the biggest list in Quill Radio, about 28 MB. To get today’s list right now, use Update the channel list now, at the top of the branch. It tells you what it is doing as it works.

    • You should hear: Progress while it downloads, then how many channels it has.

Television in Quill Radio works just like radio. You can make a channel a favorite, record it, book it, and use all the keys you already know. Enjoy the show.

The ACB Media schedule

Browse the ACB Media schedule across ten channels, find a programme, record it or get a reminder, and understand why there is sometimes nothing listed for today.

9 steps, about 7 minutes.

  1. Open the schedule. The schedule is one list, earliest first. Each row gives the date, the start and end times, the programme and the channel. It opens on the next programme still to come, so you do not have to arrow past ones that are over.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+N
    • You should hear: ACB Media Schedule, then the next programme still to come.

  2. Read the line above the list. This line always tells you how far ahead the schedule goes, for example: 49 programmes published; the published schedule runs 1 August to 15 August. It tells you plainly when those dates have passed. ACB posts two weeks at a time, so there are often days with nothing posted yet. Nothing is wrong when that happens.

    • Keys: Shift+Tab
    • You should hear: The sentence, in a box you can arrow through word by word.

  3. Check whose clock the times are on. ACB lists its times in US Central time, and Quill Radio changes every one to your own time. When the two are different, the line says so, so you know the times are already right for you.

    • You should hear: Times are shown in your time zone, and the time zone ACB uses.

  4. Find one programme. There are three filters. They change what is listed, never what is playing. Search finds rows that have all your words, so blues tuesday finds the Tuesday blues show. Date jumps to a day that has programmes. Channel shows just one of the ten channels.

    • Keys: Alt+S
    • You should hear: How many programmes are left after the filter.

  5. Do something with a programme. There are six things you can do, on the context menu and as buttons in the same order: Play, Record, Remind Me, Add to Queue, Copy Details and Show Notes. Enter also plays. If one cannot be used right now, it is dimmed and says why.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: The action confirmed, naming the programme.
    • Worth knowing: Play tunes in to the programme’s channel, or stops it if you are already listening to that channel. Live radio plays one thing at a time, so Quill Radio tells you whether the programme is on now or when it starts.

  6. Book it, without doing the arithmetic. Record opens Schedule Recording with the channel, date, time and length already filled in. All you do is check them and press OK. It then shows up in Recordings and in Upcoming like any other booked recording.

    • You should hear: Schedule Recording, already filled in with this programme’s details.

  7. Ask what is on without opening anything. What Is On Now tells you, in one sentence, what is on across all ten channels. It answers straight away, from the schedule already saved on your computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+H
    • You should hear: What is on, across the channels, in one sentence.

  8. Re-read the schedule. There are three ways to fetch the latest schedule. Use the Refresh button, or Refresh the Schedule on the list’s context menu, which is there even when nothing is selected. Or use Refresh the Schedule from anywhere in Quill Radio, whether the schedule window is open or not.

    • Keys: F5
    • You should hear: Reading the ACB Media schedule again, then how far the schedule runs and Pulled from ACB just now, with the time.

  9. See everything you have planned. Upcoming shows your reminders and your booked recordings together, soonest first, and each row says which kind it is. Snooze and Dismiss work on reminders only. To cancel a booked recording, go to Schedule Recording, where you made it.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F
    • You should hear: Upcoming, then each item with its kind and time.

The schedule is saved on your computer and freshened each time you open the window. Without an internet connection, it still opens and tells you how old it is. Happy listening.

NOAA Weather Radio

Find your local NOAA weather radio transmitter by state, call sign or county. The whole list works even without an internet connection.

5 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Open the branch. Weather / NOAA, in Browse Stations, is the real NOAA Weather Radio list, state by state, and each state says how many transmitters it has. All 1,035 transmitters come built into Quill Radio, so this branch works offline.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: The states, each with its count.

  2. Find your transmitter. Open a state to hear its transmitters, each with its call sign, frequency and place, such as KHB36 162.550 MHz Manassas. Press Enter to play the best internet stream of it that is available.

    • Keys: Right arrow, Enter
    • You should hear: The transmitter’s call sign, frequency and place, then the sound.

  3. Search for it instead. You can search weather radio by call sign, by SAME code, or by County, ST, such as Fairfax, VA. That is often quicker than arrowing through a state with forty transmitters, and it finds the one that covers where you live.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F
    • You should hear: The matching transmitters.

  4. Keep it where you can reach it. Add your transmitter to your favorites, and maybe put it in a folder with your local news station. When the weather turns bad, you want it one key away, not buried in a list.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+F
    • You should hear: Added, and the transmitter’s name.

  5. Know where the rest of weather went. Forecasts, alerts and watching for alerts in the background now live in Quill Weather, a separate app in the same family. Open it from the QuillVille menu. Quill Radio keeps the radio part of weather, which is this branch.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This answers the question: where did the Weather menu go?

One favorite, working offline, that you can find by the things people actually know: the call sign, the SAME code, or the county. Stay safe out there.

Play your own files in playlists

Make a playlist from music, audiobooks or video on your computer, play it, shuffle it, put it in your own order, and move through it from any window.

7 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Open Local Media. Local Media is its own window, like Radio Recordings. The first time, it is empty, and your cursor is already on Add Media Files.

    • Keys: Ctrl+O
    • You should hear: Local Media, then Add Media Files button.

  2. Bring in a folder. Add a Folder takes every file in a folder and the folders inside it, in the order you would read the names, so track 2 comes before track 10. The playlist is named after the folder, and it picks up new files you copy there later.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+O
    • You should hear: Made a playlist called, then the folder’s name.
    • Worth knowing: Add Media Files (Ctrl+O) is the same, for files you pick one by one.

  3. Play from anywhere in the list. Arrow through the items and press Enter. Quill Radio plays that one and then carries on down the playlist by itself. The row that is playing says playing after its title.

    • Keys: Enter, Space
    • You should hear: Playing, the title, and where it is, such as 3 of 12.
    • Worth knowing: Space pauses and resumes the item that is playing.

  4. Put things in your own order. Alt+Shift+Up and Alt+Shift+Down move the selected items one place, and Quill Radio says where they landed. For a longer move, press Ctrl+X, go to where they belong, and press Ctrl+V.

    • Keys: Alt+Shift+Up, Ctrl+X, Ctrl+V
    • You should hear: Moved to 2 of 12.
    • Worth knowing: Ctrl+Z takes back the last change. Delete removes an item from the playlist, never from your computer.

  5. Shuffle and repeat. Ctrl+H shuffles. The shuffled order stays put until you ask for a new one with Ctrl+Shift+H, so Previous always goes back to what you just heard. Ctrl+R goes from repeat off, to the whole playlist, to this item.

    • Keys: Ctrl+H, Ctrl+R
    • You should hear: Shuffle on.

  6. Move through it from any window. The next and previous chapter keys move to the next and previous item when a playlist is playing, in every Quill Radio window. Where Am I adds where you are in the playlist.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+., Ctrl+Shift+,
    • You should hear: The next item’s title, and its place in the playlist.

  7. Find it in Browse Stations too. Local Media is also the second branch of Browse Stations. Open a playlist there and press Enter on an item to play it; the Applications key offers Play Next, Remove from Playlist and the rest.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Browse Stations.

Save a copy, and find it on disk

Download a podcast episode or a book chapter, watch it arrive in the Downloads window, open the folder it went to, and choose where your downloads are kept.

7 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Find something that has an end. Open Browse Stations and arrow to a podcast episode, a book chapter or an archive recording. You can only download something with a beginning and an end. A live station offers Record instead, because there is no file to save.

    • Keys: Ctrl+B
    • You should hear: Browse Stations, then the row you arrow to.

  2. Download it from the row’s menu. Press Shift+F10 on the row and choose Download. It joins the download queue, and you can carry on listening to something else while it downloads. A podcast episode goes into a folder named after its show.

    • Keys: Shift+F10, D
    • You should hear: Queued, the name, how many are left to go, and You can carry on listening.
    • Worth knowing: If a row cannot be saved, it has no Download item at all. If it is already saved, it offers Remove Download instead.

  3. Hear it land. When a single download finishes, Quill Radio tells you the file’s name and the folder it went into. For a whole book, you hear how far along it is instead, rather than forty separate messages.

    • You should hear: Saved, the file’s name, and the folder it went to.

  4. Open the Downloads window. The Downloads window lists everything in the queue. Each row ends with how it is doing: waiting, downloading now, saved or failed. So arrowing down the list tells you where each one is up to. Finished rows stay until you clear them.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+J
    • You should hear: Downloads, then the first row and how it is doing.

  5. Go to the file. On a saved row, Open Containing Folder shows the file in File Explorer. Cancel This One stops a download and keeps what has arrived so far. Remove From List takes a row off the list but leaves the file alone. Clear Finished tidies up the list.

    • Keys: Tab
    • You should hear: Showing, the file’s name, in, and its folder. Or Cleared, and a count.

  6. Decide once where downloads go. Download Preferences sets your downloads folder. It also lets you choose whether each podcast and each book gets its own folder, whether downloads carry on when the window goes to the tray, and whether to be asked where to save each time.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D
    • You should hear: Download Preferences, then Downloads folder, blank uses the default.
    • Worth knowing: The Downloads window also has a Preferences button that opens the same settings, right where you are likely to want them.

  7. Play it without the internet. Go back to the same row in Browse Stations and press Enter. A saved row plays from your computer, so you do not need an internet connection. Its menu now also has Stop and Remove Download.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Playing, and the name, from the copy on your computer.

Everything you save goes through one queue and lands where you chose. If a download ever fails, Recent Problems keeps the reason for you.

Next: Pick up where you left off.

The picture, captions and described audio

Find out what a YouTube video or TV channel offers, switch to described audio when there is some, and show or hide the picture for someone sitting next to you.

6 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Know that the picture never starts on its own. Play a YouTube video or a TV channel from Browse Stations. You hear the sound only. The picture only appears when you ask for it, so nothing pops up unexpectedly on your screen.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Playing, and the name, and no window opening.

  2. Ask what the video carries. Video Information, on the Video menu, tells you the picture’s size, frame rate and format. Last of all, so you remember them, it tells you whether the video has captions and whether it has described audio.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+I
    • You should hear: Picture, its size, then Captions are available or No captions were published, then the same for described audio.

  3. Switch to described audio in one key. Play Described Audio, on the Audio menu, switches straight to the track that describes what is on screen. If the video does not have one, Quill Radio tells you which tracks it does have, so you know it is the video and not you.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+D
    • You should hear: Playing the described audio track. Or This video has one audio track, and No described audio was published.

  4. Choose a track from the list. Audio and Described Audio, on the same menu, lists every sound track the video has, such as other languages, commentary and description. A described track comes first, and the one playing is marked. Arrow to one and press Enter to switch.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+A
    • You should hear: Audio and Described Audio, then the first track, and playing now on the current one.
    • Worth knowing: A live station has no tracks to choose from, and Quill Radio tells you so instead of opening an empty list.

  5. Show the picture, and take it away. Show Video opens a window called Quill Radio Video with the picture in it. Press the same key, Ctrl+W or Escape to close it again. The sound carries on smoothly. Hiding the picture never pauses anything.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+V
    • You should hear: Video shown, and its size. Then Video hidden. Audio is still playing.
    • Worth knowing: The picture needs the mpv playback engine, which is the usual setting. If you changed the engine in Preferences, Show Video tells you.

  6. Keep a frame, or fill the screen. While the picture is showing, Take a Snapshot saves what is on screen as a picture file in your recordings folder. You could read a slide with OCR, or send it to someone who can describe it. F11 fills the screen, and F11 or Escape goes back.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+H, F11
    • You should hear: Snapshot saved as, and the file name. Full screen. Press F11 or Escape to leave.

Captions and transcripts have their own steps in Watch television and in the YouTube lesson. Everything here works the same for both.

Next: Watch television; YouTube, with no account anywhere.

Community Picks, and suggesting one

Add stations and podcasts from a hand-picked list that is kept up to date for you, and suggest something for the list yourself by email. No account and no website needed.

5 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Open the picks. Community Picks is a hand-picked list of stations, podcasts and places. Arrow through the Available list, and press Tab to Description to hear what one is. Press Add for the one you are on, or Add All for the whole list. Anything you already have is marked, so nothing is added twice.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+0
    • You should hear: Reading the Community Picks list, then Community Picks and its Available list.

  2. Know why it works offline. A copy of the list comes with Quill Radio, so it works the very first time, with no internet, and even if the website is down. When Quill Radio can fetch a newer list, it uses that. If it cannot, it uses the copy it has, so the window is never empty.

    • You should hear: The heading, adding Showing the list that came with the app when it is using its own copy.
    • Worth knowing: The list is signed, and Quill Radio checks the signature before using it. That way only Community Access can change what it offers you.

  3. Understand what retiring a pick does. When a pick is retired, it disappears from this window, and nothing you already added is touched. Your favorite stays and your subscription stays. This list can only ever offer, never take away.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This is just a promise worth knowing.

  4. Add ACB’s whole podcast lineup the same way. ACB Media Podcasts works the same way. It shows everything ACB publishes, with the ones you already have marked, so you can add the rest without any doubles.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+I
    • You should hear: Reading ACB’s podcast directory, then ACB Media Podcasts and its Available list.

  5. Suggest something for the list. Suggest a Station or Podcast takes your suggestion and opens your own email program with a message to support@community-access.org, ready to go. Press Send there, and a real person at Community Access reads it. No login, no account and no website. If it is already on the list, you are told before anything is written.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+9
    • You should hear: Your mail program has opened with your suggestion written. Press Send there.

The list is updated whenever a suggestion is approved, so a station added on a Tuesday reaches everyone that same Tuesday. Thank you for helping it grow.

Spotify, honestly

Set up Spotify search and browsing with your own Client ID. Before you spend ten minutes on it, find out exactly what a free account can and cannot do here.

8 steps, about 9 minutes.

  1. Read what a free account gets first. With a free account, you can search Spotify from inside Quill Radio and browse your saved shows, episodes, songs and playlists. What you cannot do is play the sound inside Quill Radio. Spotify does not allow other apps to play free account audio, and says so itself.

    • You should hear: Nothing yet. This step helps you decide whether the rest is worth it.
    • Worth knowing: This is only about where the sound plays, not whether you can listen. On a free account, a good plan is to let Quill Radio do the searching, which is the fiddly part with a screen reader, and play what you find in Spotify’s own app.

  2. Create your own app identity. Quill Radio does not come with a Spotify sign-in of its own, so you make your own, and your details never pass through anyone else. Go to Spotify’s developer dashboard, sign in with your normal Spotify account, and choose Create app. It is free, and a free account is fine.

    • You should hear: Nothing from Quill Radio. This step happens in your web browser.

  3. Fill in the app’s details exactly. The name and description are just for you. The Redirect URI must be exactly http://127.0.0.1:43217/callback, letter for letter, including the number after the colon. That is how Spotify sends the finished sign-in back to your computer. Check Web API and Web Playback SDK.

    • You should hear: Nothing. You are still in your web browser.

  4. Copy the Client ID, and leave the secret alone. Open your new app’s settings and copy the Client ID. You will also see a Client secret. You do not need it, so do not paste it anywhere. Quill Radio only needs the Client ID to sign you in.

    • You should hear: Nothing yet.

  5. Connect. Connect to Spotify asks for your Client ID and starts the sign-in. Your web browser opens Spotify’s own page, you approve, and Spotify sends you back to Quill Radio on your own computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+P
    • You should hear: Which kind of account you signed in with, straight away.
    • Worth knowing: Your sign-in is kept safely in Windows’ own password store, never in an ordinary file, together with your Client ID. Disconnecting clears them all together.

  6. Search and play. Browse Spotify is a search box with a list of results. Type, arrow, press Enter. With Premium, a Spotify item plays right in Quill Radio, and all the keys you know still work: play and stop, volume, the status bar, the tray, and any global hotkeys you set up.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+O
    • You should hear: The results, then playback if your account is Premium.

  7. Know the two hard limits. Spotify music can never be recorded or downloaded, on any account, because it is copy-protected. And like everything that uses the internet, Spotify is off in Safe Mode.

    • You should hear: If you try, Quill Radio tells you no, and why.

  8. Know where it lives if you do not use it. Connect to Spotify and Browse Spotify sit together near the end of the Station menu, and are left out in Safe Mode. There is no switch to hide them. If you never set Spotify up, they are just two items to arrow past.

    • Keys: Alt+S
    • You should hear: Connect to Spotify, then Browse Spotify, on the Station menu.

Ten minutes of setup, just once, gets you search and browsing on any account, and playback with Premium. Quill Radio tells you which kind of account you have, so you never have to guess.

Living with it

The things you will want after your first week: what was that song, keeping a moment, sleep timers, your listening statistics, and where to look when something goes wrong.

What was that song?

Heard a song you loved? Here are four ways to find out what it was: ask out loud, open the details as text you can copy, look back through what has played, and find out more about the song.

6 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Ask, and hear the answer. What’s Playing tells you the station and the song in one sentence, without opening anything. It gets the details from the station you are listening to, or if needed from the station’s own now playing web page. It has no key of its own in Quill Radio, so type what’s playing in the command palette.

    • You should hear: The station, and the song if the station sends one.

  2. Open it as text you can review. Speech is gone as soon as it is spoken, and a song title is just the kind of thing you might want to spell out. The Now Playing window shows it in a box you can arrow through letter by letter, with a Copy button. What’s Playing on the Playback menu opens this window.

    • Keys: Ctrl+T
    • You should hear: The now playing text, ready to read at your own pace.

  3. Copy it straight to the clipboard. Copy What’s Playing skips the window when all you want is the text, for a search, a note, or a message to whoever told you about the station. It is in the command palette, and the Copy button in the Now Playing window does the same.

    • You should hear: Copied, and the text that went to the clipboard.

  4. Look back at what has played. Song History lists every song the stations you listened to said they were playing, with the station and the time. It is perfect for when you think of the question ten minutes too late.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+H
    • You should hear: Song History, then the songs, newest first.

  5. Ask about the track itself. In Song History, arrow to a song and press the Song Details button. Quill Radio looks the song up on MusicBrainz and tells you the album, the year and how long it is. It only looks it up when you ask, and it always tells you the details came from MusicBrainz, not the station.

    • Keys: Alt+D
    • You should hear: Looking up, and the song, then its album, year and length. Or that nothing more is known.

  6. Keep the station instead of the song. If what you really like is the station, add it to your favorites from wherever you are. This command always saves whatever is playing, so you do not need to find its row.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+F
    • You should hear: Added, and the station’s name.

Ask, read, copy, look back. Asking is one key, and the rest are there for when hearing it once is not enough. You will never lose a song again.

Next: Keep a moment, and move around inside one.

Keep a moment, and move around inside one

Mark your place with one key, come back to it later, and move through a recording chapter by chapter without losing your place.

7 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Mark where you are. Bookmark This Moment marks your place in whatever is playing: a station, a recording, a saved YouTube video or a podcast episode. You do not need to type a note. Most of the time, I was here is all a bookmark needs to say.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+A
    • You should hear: Bookmarked, the position in words, and what it was in.

  2. Add the note later, if there was one. Open the Bookmarks list and press the Edit Note button on the row if you want to add a note. Share copies the place, the note and what it was in, all together, so whoever gets it can find the moment too.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+J
    • You should hear: Bookmarks, then the list.

  3. Go back to one. Press Enter on a bookmark to go to it. A recording, a video or a podcast episode jumps straight to that moment. A live station’s bookmark tunes in to the station now, because live radio cannot go back to yesterday.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Either your place, back again, or the station tuning in now.

  4. Open the chapter list. Chapters lists the chapters in what is playing. That might be chapters the video came with, chapters stored in a recording or downloaded episode, or chapters QUILL Cast has already worked out for an episode. The first line of the list tells you where the chapters came from.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+C
    • You should hear: The chapter list, and the line saying where the chapters came from.

  5. Check a mark without losing your place. For a file on your computer, the list offers Preview This Mark. It plays ten seconds before and ten seconds after the chapter mark, in a separate player, so you can hear whether the programme really changes there. Your own place does not move, so try as many as you like.

    • Keys: Alt+P
    • You should hear: Previewing, and the mark, then twenty seconds of sound. Your own place stays where it was.

  6. Move by chapter while it plays. Next Chapter and Previous Chapter move through the chapters without opening the list, and tell you where you landed. On live radio, they tell you there are no chapters, so you are never left wondering.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+., Ctrl+Shift+,
    • You should hear: The chapter you moved to. Or why a live stream has none.

  7. Know that the list travels. Your bookmarks are shared with QUILL Cast. One you make here shows up in Cast, and one you make in Cast shows up here, with no account or sync service. If Quill Radio cannot open one, it still shows it, with Go There dimmed and a reason, so you never wonder where it went.

    • You should hear: Nothing here. You will notice it next time you open Cast.

One key to keep a moment, one list to find it again, and a way to check a chapter without losing your place. Lovely.

Next: Sleeping, waking, and being left alone.

Sleeping, waking, and being left alone

Set the radio to switch off by itself, to switch on by itself, and to stop talking to you at night. You will also learn exactly what each one leaves alone.

7 steps, about 6 minutes.

  1. Set a sleep timer. Sleep Timer, on the Playback menu, asks how long. You can also press F6, arrow to the Sleep timer item in the status bar and press Enter. The radio switches itself off after the time you choose, perfect for drifting off to sleep.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Z, F6, Enter
    • You should hear: Sleep timer set for, and the number of minutes.

  2. Set a wake-up timer. The Wake-Up Timer starts a station at a time you choose. Quill Radio, or QUILL, needs to be running for it to work. Running in the tray is fine, but if the app is closed, it cannot wake you.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Z
    • You should hear: Wake-Up Timer, and its first control.
    • Worth knowing: It never goes off late. If you open Quill Radio hours after the time you set, it waits until next time, rather than starting your morning station at lunchtime.

  3. Stop the app talking overnight. Quiet Hours, on the Help menu, sets a stretch of time when Quill Radio stops speaking on its own. It starts as 22:00 to 07:00, and it can run past midnight. Podcasts are still checked, downloads still run, and recordings still record. Only the messages about them wait until morning.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Z
    • You should hear: Quiet Hours, with its on switch, its From and To times, and the times read back.

  4. Know what quiet hours never silence. Anything you press a key for still answers you. Press Play at three in the morning and you hear what is playing. Quiet hours only hold back messages you did not ask for. Problems are always spoken too, because if a recording stops at 3 a.m., you want to know.

    • You should hear: A normal spoken answer, at any hour.

  5. Set a reminder for something you must not miss. Set a Reminder is on the context menu of any programme in the schedule, and of any station, recording or saved row in Browse Stations. It asks when, an optional note, and a priority. Only a high priority reminder comes through quiet hours by itself.

    • Keys: Shift+F10
    • You should hear: Reminder set for, the name, and when it will come.
    • Worth knowing: Once a row has a reminder, the same menu item says Remove Reminder instead. So the menu always tells you what you have already set.

  6. Recognise a reminder when it arrives. First you hear the reminder sound, three rising bell tones that sound like nothing else in Quill Radio. Then you hear the message. Once you know the sound, you are already listening by the time the words begin.

    • You should hear: Three rising tones, then what it is and when it starts.

  7. Keep the machine awake for it. Keep the computer awake while playing or recording is on to start with, so Windows does not go to sleep while you listen. Your screen can still turn off. As soon as nothing is playing or recording, your computer can sleep as usual.

    • Keys: Ctrl+,
    • You should hear: The setting read back.

Sleep, wake, quiet and remind. Four handy helpers, each one clear about what it does and what it leaves alone. Sleep well.

Shape the sound

Make every station sound its best: a volume for each station, a boost for quiet ones, tone and loudness controls, pausing and rewinding live radio, and a playback speed that stays put.

7 steps, about 7 minutes.

  1. Fix one station’s volume once. Set the volume while a favorite is playing, and Quill Radio remembers it for that station. Next time it starts, the volume comes back just as you left it. Some stations are much louder than others, and this way you only fix each one once.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Up, Ctrl+Down
    • You should hear: The new level, and the same level again next time that station starts.
    • Worth knowing: A favorite’s own volume always wins over the general volume. Forget Every Station’s Own Volume, on the Audio menu, clears them all if you want a fresh start. Use One Volume for All Stations, right beside it, turns the whole idea off.

  2. Boost a stream that is simply too quiet. Volume Boost makes a station louder than full volume, for those stations that are still too quiet. It needs the mpv engine. If you are using the classic engine, it tells you so.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+B
    • You should hear: Volume Boost on: up to 50 percent louder. Or the reason it cannot.

  3. Open Sound Enhancements. Sound Enhancements has an equaliser, Even Out Volume, a channel mode and Night mode. They help a thin talk station or a harsh music station sound much better. You hear each change straight away, and Cancel puts everything back the way it was.

    • Keys: Ctrl+E
    • You should hear: Sound Enhancements, then its Quick preset list.
    • Worth knowing: These are not applied to recordings unless you ask, so your recordings stay exactly as the station sent them. To record what you hear, turn on Apply Sound Enhancements to recordings in Recording Settings.

  4. Rewind live radio into what you missed. With the mpv engine, Quill Radio keeps about the last three-quarters of an hour of a live station. Rewind 30 Seconds, on the Playback menu, takes you back into what you missed. Forward 30 Seconds comes forward again, and Back to Live takes you right back to the live broadcast.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Left, Ctrl+Shift+Right, Ctrl+Shift+L
    • You should hear: 30 seconds behind live, then how far behind you are, then Back to live.
    • Worth knowing: Pause on the Playback menu is dimmed on a live station and tells you why. It is for recordings, episodes and files. On the classic engine, the rewind keys tell you they need mpv.

  5. Choose a speed that stays chosen. Change the speed while a recording is playing, and every recording plays at that speed. Change it on a YouTube video, and every YouTube video does. So you set it once for each kind of thing, not over and over.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Up, Ctrl+Shift+Down, Ctrl+Shift+0
    • You should hear: The new speed, spoken as a number.

  6. Shorten the long pauses. Skip Silence shortens the gaps in a recording, a YouTube video or an episode while it plays, with no interruption. It does not work on live radio, and if you turn it on while a station is playing, Quill Radio tells you why.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+9
    • You should hear: Skip Silence on. Or a sentence explaining why a live broadcast has no pauses to skip.

  7. Send the radio somewhere else. Output Device sends the radio to a second sound card or a USB headset, while your screen reader stays where it is. If you switch in the middle of a song, the station carries on through the new device.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+D
    • You should hear: The device you chose, read back.

A volume for each station is the one worth setting up today. Keep the rest in mind for the day a station gets on your nerves.

Next: How much did I actually listen?.

How much did I actually listen?

Find out how much you have listened, by station and by network, save it as a spreadsheet, and learn exactly what counts as listening.

6 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Open the statistics. Choose a time period, such as this week, this month, this year or all time. The window tells you how long you listened in total and how many times, then breaks it down by station and by network.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Q
    • You should hear: Listening Statistics, then the totals.

  2. Notice how the durations are read. Times are written in words, such as three hours, 47 minutes. They are never written like a clock, because a screen reader would read 3:47:00 as a time of day.

    • You should hear: Times spoken as hours and minutes.

  3. Know what counts. Only time when you can actually hear something counts. Connecting does not count. Waiting for a stream to come back does not count. Paused does not count. And Quill Radio sitting stopped all night certainly does not count.

    • You should hear: Nothing. This is why the number may be lower than you expected.

  4. Know what is deliberately not there. Anything under ten seconds is not counted, because flicking past a station is not really listening. There is also no time saved by faster playback or by trimming silence, because those do not apply to live radio.

    • You should hear: Nothing. If a number is missing here, it is missing on purpose.

  5. Take it with you. Copy copies the whole report as text. Save as CSV saves every listening session for a spreadsheet, which is the one to use if you want to do your own sums.

    • You should hear: Copied. Or Saved, the number of sessions, and the file’s name.

  6. Delete it if you would rather not keep it. Delete My History removes all of it. It asks first, with No as the default, because there is no other copy anywhere. Your history stays on your computer and is never sent anywhere.

    • You should hear: A question, with No chosen to start with.

Now you know not just what you listened to, but how much. It is always fun to find out.

Next: Back it up, move it, and keep it working.

Back it up, move it, and keep it working

Keep a copy of everything you have set up, move it to another computer, stay up to date, and know what to do if something ever goes wrong.

8 steps, about 8 minutes.

  1. Back up the stations and the settings. Back Up Stations and Settings saves your favorites, settings, wake-up timer and recording schedule into one file. It asks whether to include your recordings too, which can be large. Both commands are on the Station menu. Restore from Backup shows you what is in the file and asks before replacing anything.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+U, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+W
    • You should hear: Backing up Quill Radio, then Backup saved to, and the file’s name.

  2. Move the whole setup to another machine. Export My Setup saves even more than a backup, in one file: your podcasts, folders and playlists, favorites and saved places, settings, your Go To order, your Quick Actions order, booked recordings, bookmarks and any keys you changed. Import My Setup, next to it on the Help menu, puts it all on the other computer.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+X, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N
    • You should hear: What the file holds, named, before anything is saved.
    • Worth knowing: Passwords are not included. Sign-ins for private podcasts, server passwords and unlock codes stay on the computer they are on. Importing replaces what is on the new computer rather than mixing the two together.

  3. Or let a sync service do it. The Data Folder button in Preferences, on the Station menu, lets you choose where every Quill app keeps your things. Choose a folder that Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud already syncs, and your setup travels with you by itself. No extra account and no sign-in.

    • Keys: Ctrl+,
    • You should hear: The Data Folder window, and afterwards an offer to Restart Now or Later.

  4. Stay up to date without being nagged. Check for Updates, on the Help menu, checks whether there is a newer version and tells you what changed. It downloads it, telling you how far along it is, then offers Install now or Open folder. Quill Radio also checks quietly when it opens, no more than once a day, and only speaks up if it finds something.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+U
    • You should hear: Either the new version and what changed, or You are up to date, and your version.
    • Worth knowing: Quill Radio comes in two downloads: the installer, Quill-Radio-Setup-Shared, and the portable zip, Quill-Radio-Portable. Check for Updates knows which one you have and offers you the same kind again.

  5. Keep it playing while you work. Send to Tray, on the Station menu, hides the window and keeps everything running. Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R shows or hides it from anywhere in Windows. The tray icon’s menu has what is playing now, play and stop, mute, your favorites and recently played stations in their folders, recording, scheduling and Browse Stations.

    • Keys: Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R
    • You should hear: Quill Radio hidden to the tray. Then Quill Radio shown when you bring it back.

  6. Check the installation itself. If playing or recording is not working properly, Audio Health tells you whether Quill Radio can do it at all. It shows which sound player is in use, whether mpv and FFmpeg are there, where the sound is going, and whether a recording could be saved right now.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M
    • You should hear: Audio Health, then each check with its own answer.
    • Worth knowing: mpv and FFmpeg come with every installer, so if one is missing, something has removed it. Antivirus programs and unfinished updates are the usual reasons. Repair FFmpeg and Repair mpv Playback Engine, on the Help menu, bring them back.

  7. Report it properly. Get Help from Support writes to a real person from inside Quill Radio, and includes which version you have. Paste in the list from Copy All in Recent Problems. It has web addresses and error messages in it, but never passwords.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+F2, Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P
    • You should hear: A form with most of it already filled in.

  8. Know the one setting that turns everything off. Safe Mode starts Quill Radio with everything that uses the internet turned off: no directories, no catalog updates, no YouTube, no Spotify and no Quillins. To use it, add –safe-mode after the program’s name when you start it. Try it when something is badly wrong and you want to know whether the internet is part of the problem.

    • You should hear: Internet commands saying they are off in Safe Mode, rather than failing.

One backup file, one setup file, one health check and one way to ask for help. With those, everything you have set up is safe.

Pick up where you left off

Find everything you started and did not finish in one list, carry on from exactly where you stopped, and jump to a time you choose.

7 steps, about 5 minutes.

  1. Open Continue Listening. Continue Listening, on the Playback menu, is one list of everything you started and did not finish: podcast episodes, recordings and files on your computer, most recent first. A line above the list tells you how many there are, and what kinds.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L
    • You should hear: Continue Listening, then how many things you did not finish. Or Nothing unfinished. Everything you started, you finished.

  2. Read a row before you choose it. Arrow down the list. Each row is one sentence: the title, where it came from, what kind of thing it is, how far in you got, in words, and how much of the whole that is.

    • Keys: Down arrow
    • You should hear: A title, then recording or podcast, then 12 minutes in, 40% through.

  3. Resume it. Press Enter, or the Resume button. It carries on from where you stopped, in the same player as everything else, so the speed and volume you chose come back with it.

    • Keys: Enter
    • You should hear: Resuming at, and the place. 12 minutes 8 seconds, say.

  4. Forget one you will never finish. Forget This One forgets your place and takes the row off the list. It does not delete anything. The episode or recording is still where it was. It just stops being offered here.

    • Keys: Alt+F
    • You should hear: Forgot where you were in, and the title.

  5. Ask where you are now. Where Am I tells you how far in you are, how long the whole thing is, and which chapter you are in, from any window. It always uses words, so you never have to work out what a string of numbers means.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+W
    • You should hear: 3 minutes 10 seconds of 18 minutes 40 seconds, and the chapter if there is one.

  6. Go to a time you name. Go to Position, on the Playback menu, asks for Hours, Minutes and Seconds, already filled in with where you are now. Change the one you want and press Enter. Or type a time such as 1:23:45 in the box below, and that is used instead.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+J
    • You should hear: Go to Position, then Hours, and the current hour.

  7. Skip when you only need to get near. Skip Back and Skip Forward move thirty seconds back or forward through a recording, an episode or a file, from any window, and tell you where you landed. On live radio, the same keys in the main window rewind into what was just on air.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Shift+Left, Ctrl+Shift+Right
    • You should hear: The new position, in words: 3 minutes 40 seconds of 18 minutes 40 seconds.
    • Worth knowing: Rewinding live radio, and getting back to live, has its own step in the lesson called Shape the sound.

Anything you can move around in remembers your place by itself. This list gets you back to all of them, without having to remember where each one is.

Next: Keep a moment, and move around inside one.

The help that comes with it

Make the most of this tutorials window, and learn which part of the Help menu to use for which question: the control you are on, the user guide, what changed, and what is new.

6 steps, about 4 minutes.

  1. Open the tutorials from anywhere. Tutorials, on the Help menu, opens this window, or brings it to the front if it is already open. It can stay open beside the window you are practising in, and Ctrl+Tab moves you between them.

    • Keys: Ctrl+Alt+F1
    • You should hear: Quill Radio Tutorials, then the list of tutorials. If some lessons are about the window you came from, a sentence saying so.

  2. Find a lesson by what you want to do. Press Alt+F for the Find a tutorial box and type. A lesson shows up if it has all your words, so record tuesday finds the lesson on booking recordings. Type here to see only the lessons about the window you came from. Enter takes you to the list.

    • Keys: Alt+F, Enter
    • You should hear: How many tutorials are showing, then the first one in the list.

  3. Let a lesson do a step, or watch you do it. Inside a lesson, Try it does the step for you, exactly as its key would. With Follow me checked, the lesson notices when you have done a step yourself, such as a station playing or a favorite added, and moves you on.

    • Keys: Alt+T, Alt+N
    • You should hear: Done, and what it noticed, then the next step read out.
    • Worth knowing: There is no test and no score. If a lesson cannot tell whether you did a step, just press Next. Your place in every lesson is kept until you ask it to forget.

  4. Ask about the control you are on. Press F1 in any window to hear what that window is for, and then what the control you are on does. It is the quickest answer to what is this, and it never takes you away from where you were.

    • Keys: F1
    • You should hear: What the window is for, then help for the control you are on.

  5. Open the guide and the release notes. The User Guide covers all of Quill Radio. The Release Notes tell you what changed in this version. Each opens in your web browser, where your screen reader’s heading keys take you from section to section.

    • Keys: Ctrl+F1, Shift+F1
    • You should hear: Your browser, with the document’s title.

  6. Keep the whole book of lessons. In the tutorials list, The whole book as a document opens every lesson as one page in your browser. You can read it straight through, print it, or keep it on another device. It is made from these same lessons, so the two always match.

    • Keys: Alt+D
    • You should hear: Your browser, with Quill Radio Tutorials as the page title.

With F1, the tutorials and the user guide, the answer to how do I is always right inside Quill Radio. And if something seems wrong, the lesson Getting unstuck, in the first track, is there for you.

Next: Getting unstuck.