Managing Music on Your Pocket PC

It's great to be able to play music on a Pocket PC using Microsoft Media Player. It's also built into the new Handheld PC 2000s and is now available as a free download for Handheld PC Pro users (www.microsoft.com/mobile/downloads). But as great as it is, it's easy to get lost in a maze of WMAs and MP3s. At best, managing music files on your desktop or Pocket PC is a challenging experience. At its worst, it's like wrestling an octopus. Here are some tips that will help you manage the music beast in your Pocket PC and get the most enjoyment out of your music collection.

Moving music to your Pocket PC

Have you ever copied a music file to your Pocket PC but then discovered that Media Player couldn't find it? Windows Media Player can only find music stored in the "My Documents" folder, or a sub-folder of My Documents. For example, Media Player will be able to find music in \My Documents\Music. However, this only works for folders one level deeper than My Documents. Media Player would not be able to find music in \My Documents\ Music\MP3. Media Player can find the My Documents folder in both internal memory and external memory (CompactFlash cards or other storage devices).

You can use the File Explorer in ActiveSync to move files to your Pocket PC by simply clicking and dragging them to the "My Documents" folder. Just open the folder containing your music and open the folder on the Pocket PC, then click and drag. A "Copy and Convert to mobile device format..." menu will appear on screen and show you a bar graph of the transfer progress.

Screen 1: Windows Media Player opening screen. The Tools and Playlist menus are at the bottom left of the screen.

Tip 1: If the ActiveSync program does not establish a connection with the Pocket PC, leave it in the sync cradle and turn it off. Then, from ActiveSync's File menu, select "Get Connected." When the "Connecting to" menu appears, press "Next" and turn the Pocket PC back on. You should now see "Connected."

Windows Media Manager is a desktop PC application that converts audio files on your desktop PC and copies them to your Pocket PC or a storage card. Use Windows Media Manager for Pocket PC to convert and copy the following types of media files: ASF, WMA, MP3, and WAV. The Windows Media Manager program is found on the ActiveSync CD that came with your Pocket PC. Look for wmmsetup.exe in the \Extras\Media\ folder.

I'd also like to mention MusicMatch Jukebox, an extremely versatile program for recording, playing, and managing music files on your desktop PC. As I write this article, they are beta testing a Pocket PC plug-in for transferring music to your Pocket PC. Hopefully, by the time you read this, it will be available at www.musicmatch.com.

Organizing Media Player music into Playlists

Being able to play music on the Pocket PC is wonderful! But without the Playlist feature, you'd have a hard time finding your favorite tune. Playlist lets you organize your music into albums, themes and moods. It's probably the single most useful feature in Media Player. Here's a "step-by-step" procedure for creating a Playlist on your Pocket PC:

1. Open Windows Media Player on your Pocket PC and tap "Playlist" on the bottom left of the screen (see Screen 1).
2. At the top of the screen, next to "Select Playlist" is a small black triangle pointing down. Tap on that and select "All Playlists..." The "All Playlist" menu allows you to create a New Playlist, Rename a Playlist, or Delete a Playlist (see Screen 2).



Screen 2: The "All Playlist" menu allows you to create a New Playlist, Rename a Playlist, or Delete a Playlist.

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