Tutorial 10: Podcasts with QUILL Cast

In this tutorial you will follow a podcast, play an episode, pause and skip around in it, and line up something to hear next. It takes about ten minutes. Every step tells you what to press.

Podcasts have their own app in the QUILL family, called QUILL Cast. It is free. If you have QUILL, you can find Cast on QUILL's QuillVille menu, which offers to download it if you don't have it yet.

A few words first

A podcast is a show that puts out episodes, a bit like a radio programme you can hear whenever you like. When you follow a podcast, Cast collects each new episode for you as it comes out. Following is free, and you can stop any time. An episode you have not heard yet is called unheard.

1. Open Cast

  1. Open QUILL Cast from the Start menu.
  2. The first time, a short welcome window opens. Read it with the arrow keys if you like.
  3. Press Add Your First Podcast (Alt+A) to go straight to the next step. Or press Escape to skip the welcome. It will not come back.

2. Follow your first podcast

  1. Press Ctrl+N to open Add Podcast. Your cursor is in the Podcast name box.
  2. Type a few words of a podcast's name and press Enter. Cast tells you how many it found.
  3. Press Alt+R to move to the results, and arrow through them.
  4. When you hear the one you want, press Alt+O to follow it. Cast says "Now following", the podcast's name and how many episodes it has.
  5. Press Escape to close the Add Podcast window.

Not sure you picked the right one? Press Enter on a result instead. Cast shows you the podcast and its recent episodes before you decide.

Want more to start with? Podcasts > Follow ACB Media Podcasts (Ctrl+Alt+B) follows all of ACB Media's podcasts in one step. If you are moving from another podcast app, save your list there as an OPML file, then choose Import OPML (Alt+I) in the Add Podcast window.

3. Hear an episode

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+S to go to Podcasts. This is your library, with one row for each podcast you follow.
  2. Arrow to the podcast you just followed and press Enter. Cast plays its next unheard episode and tells you what it is.

Want a particular episode? Press Right Arrow on the podcast to open it. Arrow down through the episodes, newest first, and press Enter on the one you want. Left Arrow takes you back up. Press Ctrl+T any time to hear what is playing.

4. Pause, skip and change the volume

These keys work from anywhere in Cast. Try each one.

  1. Press Ctrl+P to pause. Press it again to carry on.
  2. Press Ctrl+Right to skip forward, and Ctrl+Left to skip back.
  3. Press Ctrl+Up to make it louder, and Ctrl+Down to make it quieter.
  4. Press Ctrl+. (Ctrl+Period) to stop.

Cast remembers where you stopped. Play that episode again, today or next month, and it picks up where you left off.

5. Line up what comes next

The Play Queue is your list for later. When one episode ends, the next one in the queue plays.

  1. In Podcasts, press Right Arrow on a podcast to open its episodes.
  2. Arrow to an episode you want to hear later and press Space. Cast tells you it was added to the Play Queue.
  3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Q to go to the Play Queue and hear what is lined up.

6. Find your way around

Press Alt+L to go to the Places list. Think of it as a map of Cast. It has your Inbox, where new episodes wait for you, Continue Listening, for anything you started and didn't finish, and more. Arrow down the list, press Enter to go into a place, and Backspace to come back out.

7. Listen with the window out of the way

Press Ctrl+W to send Cast to the system tray. The episode keeps playing while you do other things, and your keyboard's media keys still work. To bring Cast back, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12 from any program, or double-click the Cast icon in the notification area.

If you press the wrong thing

Any question that would delete something starts on No, so pressing Enter too soon loses nothing. If something goes anyway, press Ctrl+Z. It brings back the last podcast you unfollowed or the last episode you removed, and tells you what came back. Missed what Cast just said? Press F9 to hear it again.

Keys for your first day

Where to go next

The QUILL Cast user guide starts with "Your first ten minutes" and then walks you through everything else, one chapter at a time. Cast, QUILL and Quill Radio share your podcasts, so a podcast you follow in one is there in the others too. For radio stations, see Tutorial 9.