2.2. Starting the program for the first time

Aqualung has a large number of configuration settings, which are adjustable through the user interface at run-time (no need to edit config files by hand), and are remembered across multiple invocations of the program. When Aqualung starts for the first time, it creates a configuration based on some wired-in defaults. A good way of exploring the program's capabilities is poking through the configuration area. You can access this by clicking in the main window with the right mouse button, which will pop up the program's main menu. Choosing Settings from the menu will open the configuration dialog.

In fact, clicking with the right mouse button almost anywhere is a generally smart idea. Aqualung has lots of context-sensitive popup menus in the Music Store, the Playlist (often embedded in the main window) and elsewhere. It's good to keep this in mind when taking the explorative approach instead of reading the whole manual right away.

Let's add some music to the Playlist and start playback right away. Right-click the Add files button, and choose Add directory from the menu. (The right-clicking trick works for the other two buttons as well. Left-clicking is a shortcut to immediately execute the action denoted by the button's caption.) Choose a directory with some music under it. It's OK to have subdirectories under this directory, the program will search for playable files recursively. After the Playlist starts to get populated with tracks, press play, or double-click on one of the tracks to play. Press `i' to see metadata information about the selected track.