The Media Sources Pane

Overview

The Media Sources pane on the left is the place where you access your local collection as well as other services: Local Music on top, which is the primary interface to your local collection and connected media such as mp3 players and CDs. There is a section for all Internet Services that you have enabled. Here, you can browse listings of radio stations and podcasts; listen/subscribe to them, interact with your last.fm account, purchase music from online stores such as Magnatune and download independent artists' music from Jamendo and more. The Playlists section allows you to create and manage Dynamic Playlists, access your Saved Playlists as well as the Automatic Playlist Generator. The Files section displays an integrated file browser and the Podcasts section offers you access to your podcast subscriptions.

Menu Interface

The navigation menu is composed of several folders: a filter bar, a bookmark button and a navigation bar.

The Filter Bar

Just a basic filter tool , filters the content according to the text you input in the box.

Bookmarks

To access this feature , click on the star-shaped button above the filter bar.

Menu Item	Description
Bookmark Media Sources View	Adds the current media sources view configuration to the bookmark list.
Copy Current View Bookmark to Clipboard	Self explanatory.
Bookmark Manager	When clicked , shows a list with all available bookmarks in a new windows , with options to edit them.
Bookmark List	Lists all your bookmarks to choose from.

Local Music

Displays the music from your default collection folder, sorted as specified.

Change the sorting criteria using the following menu:

Menu Item	Description
Artist/Album	Shows the collection sorted artists and album names. If two entries have the same artist they will be sorted by album.
Genre/Artist	Shows the collection sorted by genre and artist. If two entries have the same artist they will be sorted by album.
Genre/Artist/Album	Shows the collection sorted by genre, artist and album. If two entries have the same artist they will be sorted by album.
Levels	Designate the window cascade order of your elements.
Show Years	Check if you want years to be displayed.
Show Track Numbers	Check if you want track numbers to be displayed.
Show Cover Art	Check if you want cover art to be displayed.

Internet

Shows your internet collection, added and configured in Settings -> Configure Amarok... -> Internet Services. More here about configuring Internet Services. There are a few scripts which add Internet Services; see the Script Manager section for more information.

Menu Item	Description
Cool Streams	Lists quality radio streams.
Jamendo	Connects with Jamendo, a growing free music database.
Last.fm	Connects with Last.fm; embedding the site experience in Amarok.
Librivox.org	Connects with Librivox an extensive collection of free audio books.
Magnatude.com	Connects with Magnatune a great online music store.
Podcast Directory	Shows a large list of podcasts. If you choose to subscribe, the podcast menu will be automatically updated.

Playlist

Media Sources Playlists menu:

Menu Item	Description
Dynamic Playlists	Dynamically updating parameter-based playlist; more on this here.
Saved Playlists	Saved and imported playlists; more on this here.
Automated PLaylist Generator	Creates playlists by specific criteria; more on this here.

Files

A typical file browser that helps you add music to your collection or simply play it from your hard drive.

TODO: Please write about search/filtering, and how to navigate in the browser.

Podcasts

Lists your subscribed podcasts; from here you can listen, organize, add, import or unsubscribe podcasts.

Menu Item	Description
Add Podcast	Add a podcast URL: RSS 1.0/2.0 or Atom feed.
Add Folder	Add a folder to the podcast navigation menu.
Visible Sources	Selects what category of podcasts you can view.
Merged View	Displays the podcasts in a merged or unmerged view.
Update All	Checks all podcasts for updates and downloads any available.
Import OPML	Imports an OPML file from your hard drive.