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. 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 "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,
Colors, and Pause Button windows are floating windows.
Use "Save Mood File" (⌘S)
to quickly save the current Mood settings to the current
Mood file. Changes are normally saved automatically after a
short delay and when SonicMood is Quit so using "Save Mood
File" isn't necessary. The length of the delay is user
changeable 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
"Cut" (⌘X)
deletes the highlighted Moods in a Theme (except the "All
Moods" Theme) but keeps a copy which you can then paste
into another 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 (Info)" (⌘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 a highlighted cell in a list, select "Edit List
Item" (⌘E).
"Delete" (⌦)
and "Backspace" (⌫)
deletes the objects that are highlighted. It can be a Mood
or Moods (only the reference, not the actual Mood, is
deleted if a Theme other than "All Moods" has the focus), a
Theme (you can't delete the "All Moods" Theme), or Scenes.
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 Scenes if the Scenes list (window accessed from the
Scene window) has the focus.
Controls Menu
"Pause" pauses note playing,
"Play" restarts it. Pressing the spacebar does the same
thing. If SonicMood is paused on shutdown, it will be
paused when it's restarted.
"Next Mood" (⌘→) and "Previous Mood" (⌘←) go forward or back one Mood in the current list (which depends on the Theme).
"Next Scene" (⌥→) and "Previous Scene" (⌥←) go forward or back one Scene in the Scene window.
"Shuffle" selects a Mood at random from the current list and plays it for 4 minutes before selecting another.
"Master Volume Up" (⌘↑) and "Master Volume Down" (⌘↓) raise or lower the main volume by the "Volume increment". The "Volume increment" can be set on the "General" page of the Preferences window. The volume runs from 0 to 10 and the default increment is 0.5. The "Instruments ..." and "Soundfiles ..." work the same way on the instrumental or soundfiles volumes respectively.
"Play Soundfiles" (⌘Y) is checked when the soundfiles are playing. Use it to toggle off/on the soundfile play for the current Mood.
In similar fashion "Play Instruments" (⌥Y) is checked when the instruments are playing. Use it to toggle off/on the instruments for the current Mood.
Timers Menu
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 interval 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" (⇧⌘J)
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.
To set up a schedule of Mood play times, select "Mood Play
Time..." (⌘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.
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.
Assuming the "Scene" window is open, select "Scene Timer"
(⌘K)
and a sheet window will descend over the Scene window. You
can set the interval and the Scene View Order ("Shuffled",
"In Order", "✓Marked")
from this window. See the Help topic Scenes for more information.
Start the timer by selecting "Scene Timer On" (⌥⌘K).
Turn the timer off by selecting "Scene Timer On" again.
Cycle through the same Scenes the "Scene Timer" would by
selecting "Next Timer Scene" (⇧⌘K).
If the current View Order is "✓Marked"
and no scenes are checked then the next Scene in the Scene
list is displayed. See the 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.
"Add 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 "Saving,
Adding, and Creating Mood Files" in the "Moods &
Themes" Help topic for more information.
You can “Delete a Mood” whether it’s in the “All Moods”
Theme or another Theme and it will be permanently deleted.
Note that this is different from “removing” a Mood from a
Theme using the “Edit” menu’s “Delete” and “Backspace”
items, or the “Remove Mood from Theme” item below this one.
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 Theme Name" menu item, and drag &
drop Moods onto it from the "All Moods" Theme.
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.
Use “Delete a Theme” to permanently delete a Theme, except
for the “All Moods” Theme which can’t be deleted.
To remove a Mood from a Theme without eliminating it from
the “All Moods” Theme, use “Remove Mood from Theme.” It
does the same thing the “Delete” and “Backspace” items
under the “Edit” menu do when a Mood is highlighted in any
Theme but the “All Moods” one.
If you want to make a recording of the MIDI instruments
while they're playing, select "MIDI Record..."
(⌘R)
or press the "MIDI" button on the SonicMood window's
toolbar (if added). The "MIDI Recording" window will open
and you can set up the recording there. More information is
in the MIDI Recording Help topic.
Selecting "Reset Mood" (⌘Z)
returns the current Mood to the way it was when the current
Mood file was loaded.
If you want to restore the 28 original Moods (removing any
you've added) and set them to their original settings,
select "Reset All". This action cannot be reversed.
Restore the original order of the Moods list by selecting
"Unsort Columns".
Use "Reset Column Widths" to restore the Moods list columns
to their original (default) widths.
Scene Menu
Open the Scene window by selecting "Scene
Window" (⌘B).
You can also open it by selecting "Scene" (⌘2)
from the "Window" menu or clicking on the "scene" button
on the SonicMood window's toolbar. The other menu items
in the Scene Menu will be "grayed out" if the Scene
window is not opened.
Selecting "Scene List" (⌥B)
will cause the Scene List window to open over
the Scene window. This window contains the list of
scenes and the "Scene Display Order" checkboxes. To the
right of each checkbox is the timer interval (in mm:ss
format) for each Scene (see the "Timers" topic for more
information). You can close the window by clicking its
“close" button.
You can add more Scenes to the "Scene Window" by dragging
and dropping them on the window. You can also select "Add
Scene File(s)..." (^⌘O)
and a file selection window will open so you can choose
image files to add.
Window Menu
Select "Minimize" (⌘M)
to move the 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 toolbar of the SonicMood and MIDI
windows by selecting "Hide Toolbar" (⌥⌘T)
or clicking the oblong button at the right side of the
titlebar on those windows.
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,
Scene, MIDI Recording, 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.
To open the Scene window, select the "Scene" (⌘2)
item. Select again to close the Scene window.
You can display a "Chimes" window by selecting the "Chimes"
(⌘3)
option. Select it again to close the window.
The "Colors" window displays a pattern of horizontal
colored bars synched with the instruments. Select "Colors"
(⌘4)
to open/close this window.
To open the MIDI recording window, select "MIDI"
(⌘5).
The simulated piano keyboard can be shown by selecting
"piano keyboard" (⌘6).
"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.x
(Leopard), pressing (⌘?)
will open the Help Menu and allow you to type into the
"Search" field directly. On 10.4.x (Tiger), the same key
combination will open Apple's Help Viewer window. Built-in
Help does not work on 10.3.9 (Panther); use the "On-Line
Help" instead.
Click "Table of Contents" to open Apple's Help Viewer
window and display the Table of Contents.
To view the Help on the web site, select "On-Line Help". If
you are running OS X 10.4 or later, use the built-in help -
it's the same as the on-line help.
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".
Select "Register SonicMood" at any time to Register and
remove the "nag" screen at startup. Once you've registered,
this item changes to “Register Again?” in case you change
your registration name, need to register for a newer
version, etc.