MenuBar
In SonicMood, almost every menu
item has a shortcut key. For example: Press spacebar to
Pause/Un-Pause SonicMood,
⌘C/⌘V
to copy and paste a Mood or Moods from one Theme to
another, and
⌘? to display this Help window. Some menu items can
be toggled on or off. When in their on or active state a
check mark will be shown next to them.
The following discusses each menu, starting with the
leftmost.
SonicMood Menu
To display some useful
information, including your registration acknowledgment,
code, and license type, which version you registered with
and which version (if any) will require an upgrade fee, or
the number of days left on your free trial, select "About
SonicMood" from the SonicMood menu.
Select “Check for Updates” to see if a newer version of
SonicMood is available. You can have SonicMood
automatically check each time it’s started by selecting
that option from the Preferences window, General page.
Select "Register SonicMood" at any time to Register and
remove the "nag" screen at startup. Once you've registered,
this item becomes “Change Registration...” in case you
change your registration name, need to register for a newer
version, etc.
Select "Preferences" (⌘,)
to change some of the basic ways SonicMood looks and works.
See Preferences for more info.
You can "Hide SonicMood" (⌘H)
and continue to listen to it. Click its icon in the dock to
bring the window back.
Quit SonicMood by selecting "Quit" (⌘Q).
File Menu
You can create a new Mood file
from scratch by selecting "New Mood File... (⌘N)".
Name this file anything you'd like ("My Mood File" or
whatever). The current file is saved and a new file created
with the original default Moods. You can delete or modify
those Moods and add others to your liking. This way you're
free to experiment with Mood settings without worrying that
you're really messing something up.
"New Theme" (⇧⌘N)
creates a new Theme titled (oddly enough) "New Theme", if
the Moods/Themes lists are in view. Pressing the "+" button
at the bottom of the Themes list does the same thing.
"Open Mood File..." (⌘O)
opens (loads) a Mood file previously Saved. Mood files are
saved with all the Mood-related control settings and the
currently selected Mood. Opening a Mood file automatically
saves the current Mood file first. The SonicMood title bar
shows the current Mood file name.
If you load a Mood file then want to go back to the default
Mood file, just select "Open Default Mood File"
(⌥⌘O)
from the File Menu.
If you have a Mood file or files whose Moods you'd like to
add to another Mood file, select "Add Mood Files"
(⇧⌘O).
The Moods in the file(s) you specify will be added to the
Moods in the current file. The source file(s) (you're
adding from) will not be changed by this.
You can close any open (non-floating) window by selecting
"Close Window" (⌘W)
when that window has the focus. Note that the Chimes and
Colors windows are floating.
Use "Save Mood & Prefs Files" (⌘S)
to quickly save the Mood and Prefs file settings. Changes
are always saved when quitting and can be saved
automatically after a short delay any time they’re made.
Automatic saving of changes and the length of the delay are
user settable on the "General" page of the Preferences
window.
"Save Mood File As" (⇧⌘S)
allows you to save the current set of Moods to a file whose
name you specify.
If you want to save a selection of Moods and not all of
them, use "Save Selected Moods" (⌃⌘S)
instead. Select the Moods in the Moods list using the
normal selection tools.
Clicking "Show Current Mood" (⌘L) will cause the Mood's list row highlight to jump to the row of the currently playing Mood.
Edit Menu
"Undo" (⌘Z)
and "Redo" (⇧⌘Z)
allow you to reverse changes in control settings and text
editing. Note that most deletions are not undoable.
"Cut" (⌘X)
removes the highlighted Moods from a Theme (except the "All
Moods" Theme) but keeps a copy which you can then paste
into another Theme. The Mood itself is not deleted using
"Cut" but only the link to it in the Theme.
"Copy" (⌘C)
lets you copy Moods from one Theme and "Paste" them into
another Theme.
"Paste" (⌘V)
puts the last Moods copied into the currently selected
Theme.
You can edit a highlighted Mood's settings by selecting
"Edit Mood" (⌘I)
or by clicking the "Edit" button on the toolbar (if
present). You'll find more information in the Mood Editing Help topic.
To edit text in a highlighted cell in a list, select "Edit
Highlighted Text" (⌘E).
"Delete" (⌦)
or "Backspace" (⌫)
deletes the objects that are highlighted. It can be a Mood
or Moods, a Theme (you can't delete the "All Moods" Theme),
or Pictures. An "Are you sure?" prompt will be displayed,
unless "Ask..." is unchecked on the "General" page of the
Preferences window.
"Select All" (⌘A)
selects all the Moods if the Moods list has the focus or
all the Pictures if the Pictures list (window accessed from
the Picture window) has the focus.
Controls Menu
"Pause" pauses SonicMood,
"Play" (shown if SonicMood is paused) restarts it. Pressing
the spacebar does the same thing. If SonicMood is paused on
shutdown, it will stay paused when it's restarted.
"Overall Volume Up" (⌘↑) and "Overall Volume Down" (⌘↓) raise or lower the main volume by 10% for each keypress. The "Instruments ..." and "Soundfiles ..." work the same way on the instrumental or soundfiles volumes respectively. To mute the volume completely you can select "Mute" (⌥⌘↓). Bring up the "Mixer Window" using the ⌥⌘↑ keyboard shortcut.
To turn Instruments and Soundfiles on or off for the Mood that's playing, select "Instruments Enabled" (⌥⌘Y) or "Soundfiles Enabled" (^⌘Y). They're enabled if the menu item is checked and disabled otherwise.
"Next Mood" (⌘→) and "Previous Mood" (⌘←) go forward or back one Mood in the current list (which depends on the Theme), while "Shuffle" selects a Mood at random from the current list and plays it for 4 minutes before selecting another.
Timers Menu
Selecting "Sleep Timer" (⌘T)
or "Wake Timer" (⌥T)
(or clicking the corresponding button in the SonicMood
window) will open a sheet window where you can set a time
of day for SonicMood to pause (sleep) or resume (wake)
playing. When that time is reached, the volume will change
slowly up or down and after approximately one minute
SonicMood will pause or start playing, as appropriate.
To set up a schedule of Mood play times, select "Mood Play
Schedule..." (⌘U).
A sheet window will descend and you'll be able to select a
Mood and play start time for as many Moods as you'd like.
See the Timers Help topic for more
information.
If you select "Mood Timer"
(⌘J)
or click the button in the lower right of the SonicMood
marquee, a sheet window will descend over the SonicMood
window. You can set the time and the Mood Play Order
("Shuffled", "In Order", "✓Marked")
from this window. See the Help topic Timers for more information.
Start the timer by selecting "Mood Timer On" (⌥⌘J)
or clicking the button in the lower left of the SonicMood
marquee. Turn the timer off by selecting "Mood Timer On"
again.
"Next Timer Mood" (⇧⌘→)
changes the Mood to the next one in the timer sequence. It
accomplishes the same thing the timer would do after the
time interval was over.
"Previous Timer Mood" (⇧⌘←)
changes the Mood to the previous one in the timer sequence.
Assuming the "Picture" window is open, select "Picture
Timer" (⌘K)
and a sheet window will descend over the Picture window.
You can set the time and the Picture View Order
("Shuffled", "In Order", "✓Marked")
from this window. See the Help topic Pictures for more information.
Start the timer by selecting "Picture Timer On"
(⌥⌘K).
Turn the timer off by selecting "Picture Timer On" again.
Move forward through the same Pictures the "Picture Timer"
would by selecting "Next Timer Picture" (⌥⇧→).
Move backward in the same way using "Previous Timer
Picture" (⌥⇧←).
See the Help topic Timers for more information.
Mood Menu
Note that if the SonicMood
window is in its small ("zoomed") state, the Moods and
Themes lists will not be visible and some of the menu items
will be “grayed out.” In order to see the lists, click the
green "+" 
in the title bar first.
"Clone a Mood" (⌘+)
can be used to create a new Mood that’s identical to the
highlighted Mood. The Mood, whose name is initially "New
Mood", will be inserted before the highlighted Mood. You
can make changes using the "Edit" window; see the topic
Mood Editing for more details.
There is no limit to the number of Moods you can add.
"Create Custom Mood..." (⌥⌘+)
is a quick and easy way to make a unique new Mood. Select
this and a sheet window will descend where you can name the
Mood and set it's properties in 3 steps. See Create a Mood under "Loading,
Saving, Adding, and Creating Mood Files" in the "Moods
& Themes" Help topic for more information.
Select "Add a Theme" (⌥+)
to add a new Theme to the "Themes List". Pressing the "Plus
Sign" button below the "Themes List" does the same thing. A
new Theme will be added to the list with the name "New
Theme x" where x is the Theme number. You can change the
name using the Edit menu’s "Edit Highlighted Text"
(⌘E)
menu item or just double-clicking it, and drag & drop
Moods onto it from the "All Moods" Theme. Get details in
the "Moods and Themes" topic under Working with Themes.
You can use "Copy Moods to Theme..." (⌃+)
as an alternative to "drag & drop" or "copy &
paste" to copy a Mood or Moods from one Theme to another.
If you want to make a MIDI or “Digital Audio” recording of
SonicMood while it’s playing, select "Record Audio..."
(⌘R)
or press the "Record" button on the SonicMood window's
toolbar (if added). The "Audio Record" window will open so
you can set up and start the recording. More information is
in the Audio Recording Help topic.
Selecting "Restore Selected Moods to Session Start Values"
(⌥Z)
returns the highlighted Moods to the way they were when the
current Mood file was loaded. This action cannot be
reversed.
If you've changed one or more of the Moods supplied with
SonicMood and you want to restore them back to those
original settings, you can highlight those Moods in the
"Moods List" and then select "Restore Selected Moods to
Original Values" (^Z). This action cannot be reversed.
If you want to reset SonicMood to its original Moods
(removing any you've added) and set them to their original
settings, select "Reset to Original Moods Only"
(^⌥Z).
This action cannot be reversed.
Occasionally new Moods may be added to the set of "original
Moods" that are contained within SonicMood. If you are
upgrading from an earlier version you might want to select
"Check for New Moods" and see if any are added to your
Moods list. There is no harm in checking.
Turn off automatic sorting of the Mood names in the Moods
list by selecting "Don’t Sort Columns".
Use "Reset Column Widths" to restore the Moods list columns
to their original (default) widths.
Pictures Menu
Open the Picture window by selecting "Picture
Window" (⌘B).
You can also open it by selecting "Picture" (⌘3)
from the "Window" menu or clicking on the "Picture"
button on the SonicMood window's toolbar. The other menu
items in the Picture Menu will be "grayed out" if the
Picture window is not opened.
You can add more Pictures to the "Picture Window" by
dragging and dropping them (or a folder containing them) on
the window. You can also select "Add Picture File(s)..."
(^⌘O)
and a file selection window will open so you can choose
image files to add.
Selecting "Picture List" (⌥B)
will cause the Picture List window to open over
the Picture window. This window contains the list of
Pictures and the picture selection checkboxes for the
"✓Marked"
timer selection method. To the right of each checkbox is
the timer interval (in mm:ss format) for each Picture
(see the Timers topic for more information).
You can use the "+/-" buttons to add or delete pictures.
The list window is resizeable, and you can close it by
clicking the “Close" button.
"Next Picture" (⌥→)
and "Previous Picture" (⌥←)
go forward or back one Picture in the Picture window.
Window Menu
Select "Minimize" (⌘M)
to move the SonicMood window onto the Dock. It will
continue playing.
To make the SonicMood window very small, select the "Zoom"
(^⌘Z)
item. Select again to restore SonicMood to its previous
size. Note that the window can be moved to a different
position in the zoomed state and that position will be
remembered independent of its un-zoomed position.
Select "Resize Showing Contents" to toggle the "Live
Resize" setting. When checked (on), a window's contents
will be updated as you drag its resize tab.
"Bring All to Front" causes all SonicMood's windows to
appear if they were behind the windows of other
applications.
You can hide/unhide the SonicMood window’s toolbar by
selecting "Hide Toolbar" (⌥⌘T)
or clicking the oblong button at the right side of the
titlebar. This menu item is only enabled when the SonicMood
window has the focus.
Customize the SonicMood toolbar (add/remove buttons) by
selecting "Customize Toolbar" or right/control-clicking
the toolbar and selecting "Customize Toolbar".
Cycle through all open "document" windows (e.g. SonicMood,
Picture, Audio Record, Edit, Piano Keyboard, Preferences)
by selecting "Cycle Forward" (⌘`
[grave accent]) or "Cycle Backward" (⇧⌘`
[grave accent]). Note that the Chimes, Colors, and Pause
Button windows are floating and are therefore technically
always in the foreground.
The SonicMood window can be closed or opened using the
"SonicMood" (⌘1)
item. Mood sounds will continue whether the window is open
or not.
Open or close the Edit window by selecting "Edit"
(⌘2).
To open the Picture window, select the "Picture Window"
(⌘3)
item. Select again to close the Picture window.
You can display a "Chimes" window by selecting the "Chimes"
(⌘4)
option. Select it again to close the window.
The "Colors" window displays a pattern of horizontal
colored bars synched with the instruments. Select "Colors"
(⌘5)
to open/close this window.
To open or close the Audio Record window, select "Audio
Record" (⌘6).
The simulated piano keyboard can be shown or closed by
selecting "Piano Keyboard" (⌘7).
Open or close the "Mixer" window using the
⌘8 shortcut key.
"Reset All Size & Position" resets the size and
position of all SonicMood's open windows. This is for
emergencies only, in case something happens that causes a
window's size/position to be set in error.
Help Menu
If you are running OS X 10.5 or
later, pressing (⌘?)
will open the Help Menu and allow you to type into the
"Search" field directly. On 10.4.x, the same key
combination will open Apple's Help Viewer window. Built-in
Help does not work on 10.3.9, use the "On-Line Help"
instead.
Click "Table of Contents" to open Apple's Help Viewer
window and display the Table of Contents.
Select "Show Help Tags" to toggle the display of the little
yellow tags that appear while you're hovering over a window
control.
Go to the "Bit of Paradise Products" website, SonicMood
page, by selecting "Visit the SonicMood Website".