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Downloadable Audio Help

Setup Now = 5 Guided Steps

How does it work?
How to Save an mp3 File to Your Computer
Important Points
Get the Software
Tips and Things to Watch For
RSS Capable Browsers
More Help
Useful Podcast Links

How does it work?

Audio downloading (also known as mp3 downloading or subscribing to a podcast) enables you to download the latest version of a selected audio program or segment to your own computer. This high quality audio can then be played directly from that computer at your leisure, or further downloaded to a portable player such as (but not only) an iPod or MP3 Player.

Audio downloading is different from streaming audio services such as Real Media and Windows Media formats. When you listen to streaming audio, the complete audio file never actually downloads to your computer's hard drive.

If you choose to subscribe to the JournalJunkie podcast service, you can also automatically receive your audio via special free software. That way, you no longer have to seek out the most recent audio from your favourite journals on the JournalJunkie website - it comes to you!

How to Save an mp3 File to Your Computer

To download on a PC: Right click the 'Download mp3' link, and 'Save Target As'
To download on a Mac: Hold down the Control button and click.

If you are using another browser that has different methods, the key point is to save the mp3 files in the same way that you save other files, such as PDFs and images, via your browser.

Important Points

From time to time, certain material in the original journal abstract will not be present in the podcast version.
The copyright conditions affecting downloadable mp3 audio files are different from those affecting journals themselves. The kinds of material most likely to be removed are extracts from published books.

File size
mp3 files are large. Many internet service providers (ISPs) set download limits in their customer agreements. If you're not sure if you have a download limit, you may like to contact your ISP.

Download Time
For listeners accessing the the web via a modem, the download time is significant. A 10MB file downloading through a 56 Kb modem in average conditions, will take about 33 minutes.

Disk Space
Because mp3s download to your hard drive, they can quickly take up a large amount of space. Make sure you have enough space, or move the files regularly to another drive or device.

Get the Software

Juice Receiver (an Open Source cross platform podcast receiver), Apple's iTunes for Mac and Windows and similar podcasting software allow you to schedule regular updates to your selected downloads with an iPod or other mp3 player. The range includes programs which allow you to listen to podcasts on mobile phones and Pocket PCs, as well as computers running Mac or Linux OS.

iTunes Note: iTunes software is marketed by Apple as the preferred music player for users using the iPod music player. It enables people to play and organize downloaded mp3 files and has gained a reputation of ease of use and good organization. Apple recently added support for listening to podcasts in iTunes. You can use iTunes to subscribe directly to podcasts or find selected podcasts by browsing the Apple Music Store for free podcast listings.

Setting Up

1. Download podcasting software such as Juice Receiver, iTunes or follow this link for a useful list of similar applications. Most of the software operates on Mac, PC or Linux. All of it is free.


2. Once you've downloaded the software, you need to install it. Some browsers will straight away automatically run and install the downloaded software. If your browser doesn't do that, look for the icon belonging to the downloaded podcast software, and double click on it to install.


3. Once you've installed the podcasting software, check the Preferences. The main things to check are that you've nominated a folder on your computer where the podcast software will store the mp3 files. The address should (for Windows users) look something like C:\My Documents\podcasts. It's also important to check whether you've told the podcast software what mp3 player you want to use when playing the podcast. Nominating a player is often done in Preferences, often under a heading called Player.


4. Once you have set up and acquainted yourself with the podcasting software, you should subscribe to journaljunkie.com, then copy and paste your subscription's url into your podcasting software. This will add the selected programs to your podcasting subscriptions.

   If you're using Juice Receiver, launch Juice Receiver, click the Subscriptions menu, then click the green and white plus icon ('Add a new feed') and paste in the feed url.

   If you're using iTunes, launch iTunes, click on the "Advanced" menu and select "Subscribe to Podcast". Paste the feed in the blank window (right click in the blank window and select paste). iTunes will automatically download the latest feed. To access an existing podcast in iTunes click on "Podcasts" in the Store navigation panel. By default it should download the latest podcast, unless specified differently in preferences.



5. If you want to receive these programs regularly, make sure the scheduling function on your podcasting software is set to search for new podcasts automatically. Please note, scheduling is a wonderfully convenient way to timeshift your listening. However, if you're new to podcasting, there can be pitfalls. Read the tips below.

Tips and Things to Watch For

• If you are using Juice Receiver make sure you have a an mp3 player installed, that it works, and that it is set as your default mp3 player. If you don't have an mp3 player, you'll need to install one before you can play the files you've downloaded through Ipodder.
• Juice Receiver under Windows offers a choice of three player preferences: ITunes, Windows Media and No Player. If you don't want to use iTunes or Windows Media to play the mp3 files, leave the Player option set to 'No Player' and Ipodder will use whatever you've set as your default player. You might, for example, be using other audio players such as Real Media or WinAmp.
• Minimise your downloads: If you subscribe to a lot of podcasts, it's often safer to be selective and decide, feed by feed, whether you want to download new content. If you click an icon in your podcast software that says 'check for new podcasts', it may well download all new content. This could be many megabytes. It's possible that for certain feeds you might not want every program. If so, just don't download that item.
• If you're using Juice Receiver click Check Selected feed, or right-click the particular feed and select Check now, rather than Check for new podcasts. The latter downloads all new material for all your podcast subscriptions.
• Scheduling: If you're new to podcasting, it can be a good idea to check the podcast feeds manually until you're acquainted with the software.
• If you use scheduling, think carefully about setting it to look for new downloads on start-up. In certain circumstances, this can really slow your computer down or even crash it.
• In some podcast software (for example Juice Receiver prior to Version 2), the default setting is to have scheduling turned on. Check if this is the case for whatever software you choose. If so, you might want to turn off the scheduling function or set it to check for podcast updates at different times of day rather than at start-up.
• Check the size of a file before you download it. Most podcast software displays the size of each file in megabytes prior to download.
• Read the Manual. It's good to browse through the Help or Read Me pages that come with the software. It can save you time.

RSS Capable Browsers

If you don’t want podcasts automatically updating onto your computer, but would like to to download audio without the bother of visiting the originating website, you can use an internet browser such as Firefox, Opera or Safari which all support RSS feeds. The Live Bookmarks function allows you to view RSS text or audio updates in your browser's bookmarks toolbar or bookmarks menu. You can quickly see details about the latest audio programs (or news headlines), and if they are of interest, then download the audio (or read the text).

Adding a Live Book Mark in an RSS supporting browser

The procedure below shows how to bookmark a JournalJunkie podcast feed in a Firefox browser. The procedure is similar in other RSS supporting browsers.

• Create a free login (will open in a new window) for yourself on JournalJunkie.com
• Copy the link to your personal JournalJunkie podcast
• Open your browser and click 'Manage Bookmarks'
• Create a new Folder called 'Podcasts' or something similar, in which to keep the live bookmarks
• Whenever you select the bookmark, you'll see a list of that program's most recent mp3s. The feed automatically updates whenever you click the bookmark.
• To play the audio just click a particular item listed in the feed and save it to your computer.

There is an extension in Firefox, called Sage: ‘a lightweight RSS feeds and ATOM aggregator’ which displays the text information that accompanies your downloaded podcasts. Note: the coding in Radio National podcast feeds is not presently compatible with the Sage extension. We are working to resolve this.

More Help

Useful Podcast Links