Tips on hearing mp3 music files

A web-browser deals with music files according to the choices made in the preferences:

• Netscape Navigator: Edit menu > Preferences > Applications
• Internet Explorer: Edit menu > Preferences > File Helpers

You or another user might have specified these choices (and the many others there are), or they may have been untouched since the program was first installed ("as it left the factory"). However they are to begin with, the user normally has the possiblitiy of changing them to suit their own way of working.

One choice concerns when:

• whether to display the file (= play the sound) straight away
• or to download it to your hard disc for you to use and re-use later; even if it plays straight away, you can save it to your hard disc to listen agin later.

Another choice is how:

• whether to view/hear it within the browser's own window, via a plug-in like QuickTime 4 (may be more convenient)
• or to launch the file in a separate application like a dedicated MP3 player or the QuickTime Player (may be more powerful, more functions)

Actually, although these files are always called 'mp3' files, that's the suffix or extension, the three letters which are added at the end of the file name; the type is really called "MPEG-1 Layer 3", and that's how it's listed in the preferences.

In Internet Explorer (Mac v.4.5 anyway) the types are at least listed in alphabetical order, and if you click in the list and then start typing the name, it'll show you: in Netscape Navigator (Mac v.4.6 anyway), the items seem to be listed in the order in which they were first put in there, and you have to scroll down till you find the one you want.

You can read the official story in your browser's help file, of course.