The Amarok window

The Amarok window is the default user interface designed to let you rediscover your music. In addition, it is also designed to give you as much visual information about your music as possible. While many users will find the default layout suitable for their needs, the layout is fully customizable if you prefer another layout.

Default layout of the Amarok window

Upon installation, Amarok will look like this

The Amarok window has four main components:

right under the top-level menus is the Toolbar that lies above three panes:
your Media Sources (music collection and other media) in the left pane,
the Context pane in the center, and
the Playlist in the right-hand pane

Using the Amarok window to manage and play your music

Playing music using Amarok usually takes two steps:

Create a playlist by selecting some of the music in your collection you want to listen to in the Playlist pane.
Play the music in your playlist, using the Playlist pane and/or the Toolbar.

Additionally, you may wish to transfer some of your music to a mobile music player, such as an iPod. The following sections will help you with these tasks.

Changing the Amarok Layout

The visibility of each of the three Amarok panes is indicated in the View menu bar (part of the top-level menu, shown below). At the top right-hand of each pane are two clickable boxes, indicated with blue arrows in the image below. These two boxes allow you to rearrange or customize the layout of your Amarok window. Clicking the X closes that particular pane. Having been closed, a pane can be activated again by clicking the appropriate radio button in the View top-level menu bar. Clicking the hollow symbol on the left of the cross causes that panel to be undocked, so it will appear as a separate window on your desktop. Repeating this action on the undocked pane will dock it again inside your Amarok window. You can drag the panes inside your Amarok window, thus reordering them. You can also choose between two layouts of the Toolbar by clicking the appropriate item in the View menu bar. If you are satisfied with the layout inside your Amarok window, you can lock this layout by clicking the appropriate item in the View menu bar. You may stack the panes, or even put one or two of them covering the others, selectable by tabs. Be aware that if you want to be sure your layout is preserved when you shut down your session, quit Amarok first by either choosing Quit from the main Amarok menu, or Cntl+Q.