Hi Jesse, To play specific podcast episodes and select between different podcast subscriptions, after choosing "Podcasts" in the sources table in iTunes, go to the songs table. Your podcast subscriptions are organized by folders. I usually set my songs table to be viewed as a list (Command-Option 3). Interact and move to the podcast you want using your arrow keys (e.g., VO-Down Arrow) or by typing the first few letters of the name of the podcast (e.g., "S" or "S c" for "Screenless Switchers"). If you've just subscribed to a podcast you'll need to open the folder to view individual episodes in that subscription. Interact and use VO-backslash to open or close the folder, then VO-Down Arrow to examine the individual episodes and press return to start playing your selected episode. The backslash key is at the far right on a U.S. keyboard, just below the delete key and above the return key. Use space bar as the play/pause key.
The different columns in the songs table give you information on the status, name, time, release date, and description of the episode, when this is provided. (Most podcasts that you subscribe to through the iTunes Store will have descriptions). If you VO-Down Arrow through your songs table you'll hear whether you have any unplayed episodes (status), the name of the podcast, its length, etc. If the folders are closed, this information will be given for the last downloaded episode, and you'll hear "collapsed level 0" following the name. Using VO-backslash will open or close a folder, just as in Finder. There are also Mac shortcut sequences to open or close all folders in your songs table at once: Command-Right bracket opens all podcast folders and Command-Left bracket closes all folders if executed from the folder line. Right bracket is the key to the left of the backslash key and left bracket is the key to the left of the right bracket key on a U.S. keyboard. I usually prefer to toggle individual folders open or close with VO-backslash, because once you subscribe to a number of podcasts, each with several episodes, the list of all entries in the songs table can get rather long when all folders are open. There are also contextual menus that provide more information and options. For example, once you've opened a folder and are browsing the individual episodes -- possibly by using VO-Right Arrow to move to the Name Column and then by arrowing down through the entries -- you might want to read the detailed episode description because you are searching for a specific program. For some podcasts this can be longer than what gets announced in the description column. You can use VO-Shift-M and choose "Show Description", then interact (VO-Shift- Down Arrow) with the podcast information window that appears, VO-Right Arrow to listen to the detailed description, and close the window (Command-W) when done. Or, you might want to make up a playlist of specific podcast episodes, and add one of your selections to an existing playlist. I find the easiest way to create a playlist is to select songs (or podcasts) in the songs table and using "New Playlist from Selection" (keyboard shortcut: Command-Shift-N, or find this option under the "File" menu on your menu bar with VO-M, press "F" for file and arrow down to see menu options). But to add entries to an existing playlist you can use the "Add to Playlist" option on the contextual menu of selected song table items and select your playlist from the options that appear when you right arrow in the submenu. Hope this is enough to get you started. The basic structure of iTunes is that you select the Library in the sources table and then find the individual entries in the songs table. Since these terms originated from the time when iTunes was primarily a music library, the entries in the "songs" table can be radio streams, audio books, movies, podcasts, etc. In the case of podcasts and radio streams, items in the songs table are further organized by folders that you need to open with VO-backslash (or Command-Right bracket -- but it can take a little while to open ALL radio streams with this command). The songs table (in list view) works very much like Finder: use VO-backslash command to open or close folders, you can sort by column headings with VO-Shift-Backslash (on a U.S. or other English language keyboard; this is actually VO-vertical line, which may be elsewhere on a different language keyboard), and navigate as in Finder. You can also view additional columns of information by checking items in your View Options window (shortcut key: VO-J, or find this option under the "View" menu on your menu bar). Modify what is displayed in your songs table by typing search terms in your search text field (normally use tab to cycle between sources table, songs table, and search text field, but VO-Right Arrow and VO-Left Arrow also works; shortcut Command-Option-F will take you directly there). The songs table list will then only include matches to what is typed in that field (including parts of words). For a basic overview of the layout of iTunes, you might want to read Tim Kilburn's web pages: http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover/itunes7.html although this is for iTunes 7, and the organization has changed. (Tim's pages are a good general source of VoiceOver information laid out in a comprehensive manner.) Also, for some more information on how to manage podcast subscriptions in iTunes, check part of an old post this list on the Mail Archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/disc...@macvisionaries.com/msg45414.html Cheers, Esther On Mar 17, 2009, at 2:03 AM, Jesse Bollinger wrote: > > Forgive me if this has been covered before but I can't find an > answer to > it. I've subscribe to podcasts but can't figure out how to cycle > through > them after I have done so. I go to the sources table and choose > podcasts > but can't seem to find out how to switch between specific podcasts. > All > I can do is play the first eppisode of the first cast in my list by > hitting play. Any help would be appreciated. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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