The General page appears in the Workspace Options property window.

In addition to the controls shown below, there are extra buttons which are common to all property windows.

This page allows you to select several sound, presentation and behavior options for the ChordWizard Music Theory workspace.

Controls

Midi Output

ChordWizard Music Theory uses MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to play the sounds in the How Music Works tutorials, so the actual sound you hear is generated by a Midi Output device installed on your computer.

You may have one or more Midi devices available, and each one might sound slightly different.

Device

This dropdown list contains all of the Midi Output devices currently available on your computer, and allows you to select which one you want to use.  If you select (none) all sound in ChordWizard Music Theory will be turned off.

If you are not sure which one to use, the Microsoft MIDI Mapper is often a good choice.  This is a virtual device which passes the sound commands on to whichever device Windows has selected as the default.

A change to the Midi Device needs to be applied with the Apply button before the test sound is available.

Volume

The Volume slider specifies the volume of the sounds in the How Music Works tutorials.  The volume is expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible volume.

Windows also maintains volume settings for Midi and overall sound levels, which affect all software running on your system.  You can access these controls from the Check Sound window.

Test Sound

This plays a sample sound to demonstrate the effect of your Midi Device, Volume and Add Reverb settings.  If you don't hear a test sound, use Help-Check Sound to diagnose the problem.

Check Sound at Startup

When ticked, this causes ChordWizard Music Theory to automatically check each time it starts, and warn you of any sound problems it finds.  Several system settings, which can be disturbed by other software, affect the volume of the sounds in the How Music Works tutorials.

If the startup check finds a possible sound problem, it opens the Check Sound window, which diagnoses the system sound settings, and offers the appropriate corrective actions to fix the problem.

Add Reverb

When ticked, this causes a reverberation effect to be added to the tutorial sounds, which many people find makes the sound more pleasing.

Depending on the Device you have selected, the reverberation effect may not be available, even when this setting is ticked.

Numbering

Numbering of the How Music Works tutorials is optional.  Tutorial and topic numbers makes it easier to refer to particular topics, but adds a little complexity to the display which may be unwanted.

You can choose whether to have numbers for Tutorials and Topics, for Tutorials only, or not at all.  The numbers appear as a prefix to the topic title, for example:

(2) The Major Scale

(2.1) Scales and Music Structure

The numbering selected in the workspace will also apply to tutorials and topics when printed.  If you have selected not to number tutorials, then topics will not be numbered either.

Presentation

Several options are available to adjust the graphical presentation of the workspace.  They do not affect the operation of  ChordWizard Music Theory at all, but let you create a workspace which feels most comfortable to you.

Office Colors

This setting affects the coloring of workspace frames and toolbars.  The Standard option whatever color scheme is active with Windows at the time.

Alternatively, you can override this with one of the three color schemes:

Office Blue - tinted light blue in the style of Office 2003/2007 products

Cool Black - tinted light black in the style of many Vista products

XP Beige - tinted beige in the style of the default XP colors

Flat Borders

This option affects the borders of the Topic List and Topic Page regions of Tutorials View and the buttons in the Tutorials Bar.  When ticked, they appear rendered in flat styling typical of Windows XP or Vista.  When unticked they appear in raised 3D styling, more typical of Windows 95/98/2000.

Gradient Shading

When ticked, this option enables vertical gradient shading of the Tutorials Bar, making it appear slightly raised along the center line.  When unticked, the bar appears with a flat background.

High Color Icons

The icons used in ChordWizard Music Theory for buttons and menus are designed with shades of color to provide a rich and fresh appearance to the workspace. 

However there is an alternative set of icons available based on the limited traditional colors found in older software.  If you prefer the familiarity of the low color icons, you use them instead by removing the tick from this option.

Help Window

ChordWizard Music Theory is designed with many features to make it easy for you to use help.  One of the most significant is the way that the Help window can be tiled to the right of the workspace window so that both can be seen at the same time.

Tiling

This dropdown list offers three options for the tiling of the Help window.

(none) - Tiling is not active and the Help window will overlap the workspace when it appears.

First Request - Tiling occurs the first time the Help window appears, but if you move it to a different location, it will stay there.

Each Request - Tiling occurs when the Help window appears and again whenever a help topic is requested from the workspace, overriding any repositioning you have done.

Open at Startup

When ticked, this option causes the Help window to appear at the Contents topic each time that ChordWizard Music Theory is started.  You may find it convenient to have Help always available, particularly when you are still becoming oriented with the workspace.

Reset

This button resets all options on the page (except the Midi Output Device) to their default settings.