The first requisite for creating ASF files is that you need to create an MPEG file in MP3 format from a soundtrack you like and want to share. They can be downloaded from various sites on the Web or (in my opinion) better still by recording them from the CD-ROM player that comes with your computer and making use of recording software such as Audiograbber (see below for a link to get hold of Audiograbber).

Basically, MP3 files are near-CD quality sound files but are in a compressed format making them viable for downloading. Unfortunately they are still too large for use in Stationery or for background sound with Web pages . . . . . . . . this is where ASF files come into viable and satisfactory use - not as good in sound quality but compressed enough to give usefulness

Get hold of Audiograbber from http://www.audiograbber.com-us.net/.

Click here to link there and get it

Having made the MP3 format file we want to create from it an ASF format file. This Tutorial uses Microsoft's Windows Media Encoder which Microsoft provides free. Link to it here and get it and install it.

Now we are all set to go. Open the Encoder and you will see this page/window open

Select "Broadcast, capture, or convert a file using the New Session Wizard" because that is what we want to do . . . . . The default "Show this dialogue box at startup" gives you the opportunity to choose differently if you move onto customizing or creating differences at a later stage of experience.

Click on "OK" and a new window opens . . . . .

We want to "Convert an audio or video file into a Windows Media file" so click on this radio button - if required. Again the default "Begin converting when this wizard finishes" is worth keeping.

Click "Next" and the next window opens . . . . .

Use the "Browse . . ." buttons to select your MP3 file and you can create the ASF file in the same folder or (like me) in a separate folder. The tip at the bottom speaks for itself but the larger the source MP3 file the larger the resulting ASF file so we have to sometimes cut our cloth to suit our objective of a viable downloadable file for use in Stationery or web pages . . . . . . too big and it will take too long to download and defeat the objective!

When your source and destination files are set click on "Next" . . . . .

In the new window we want to choose the best file quality we can for size and quality. Click on the little black arrow beside the Profile . . . . .

Choose "Audio for FM Radio quality for dial-up modems (28.8Kbps stereo)" as we have to consider the speed of the recipient's modem and best quality we can supply. We can follow the Tip button to create/delete profiles but this is not necessary. Click on "Next" to move on . . . .

In the new window we can add in Display Information for Artist Name, Copyright etceteras. I never bother but it's something you may or may not want to do!

Click on "Next" and we're nearly there . . . . .

This page reminds you what you've set for details and source/destination file names. A quick check and we move on. Anything wrong with the information and we can go back to correct it. We move on again by clicking "Next" . . . . .

We're at the stage where we get an advice panel telling us what is going to happen . . . . read it once and then click on "OK".

We click on "OK" and the screen image above shows the conversion process progress. If we chose not to go for automatic start we could select the "Start" button instead.

When done the next window opens . . . . .

We can see how and what has been created . . . . . . tells us loads but don't dwell on it if it's boring just "Close" the session.

We get asked if we want to save the current session . . . . . . we do if this is our first session as the folder locations will become default. After saving we can skip this next time.

Media Encoder automatically closes but we haven't finished yet . . . . . Now we open Windows Explorer and browse to the folder we saved our ASF file to . . . . . . we will see that it is named as we wanted but it is a WMA file.

This is fine for Web Pages but we want to create an ASF file.

We select the file (in this case I used "No Doubt's" "Just a Girl" song)

Right click on the file we want to convert and an options window drops down . . . . .

Choose "Rename" and left click on it as the option to choose . . . . .

The filename stays highlighted but a box appears around the name. Just select the WMA part and replace it with ASF.

Left click anywhere outside the box and we get a warning message . . . . .

Select "Yes" and the change is made. The warning is to let us know that changing file formats can render the file inoperative but, take it from me, in this case it doesn't.

That's it - we have created the ASF file and we just need to upload it to our Web Site from where we can use it for source as a background sound or link to it or, indeed, use it for embedding as a sound in Stationery.

I'll write the tutorial for embedding sounds next week so do check back but in the meantime please enjoy the sounds on my Website and do please visit the Bearz Jukebox

The Bearz Jukebox