Getting started
What Anansi Studio does
- Plays audiobooks you already have (M4B, MP3 and other audio files), remembering where you stopped in each one. See The player.
- Keeps them in one library, shown as covers, as spines on shelves or as a list. See The library.
- Shows what is inside them: chapters and subchapters, cover art and lyrics, which can be timed to the audio. See Lyrics and reading along.
- Edits them: fix a title, mark chapters while you listen, change the cover, add lyrics, then write it all into the file. See Editing a book.
- Makes new audiobooks from documents: a PDF, EPUB, Word, Markdown or text file, read by a voice on your device. See Making audiobooks from documents.
- Shares, backs up and syncs: send a book as one file, keep snapshots of your library, and keep your devices in step over Wi-Fi. See Sharing audiobooks, Backup and restore and Syncing your devices.
Anansi Studio runs on Android, iPhone and iPad, macOS, Windows and Linux. A few features depend on the device; see Platform differences.
Your first launch
The first time you open Anansi Studio, the library is empty and a short welcome tour starts.
The welcome tour
The tour dims the screen and points out the main controls one at a time:
- A welcome card.
- Add audiobooks: where to add audio files and folders.
- Make one from a document: where to start an audiobook from a document (only where the device can make audiobooks).
- Search (on a wide window, where the search field is in the sidebar).
- Your shelves, your way: how to change the view, the grouping and the order.
- Your books: what tapping, long-pressing and a book's menu do.
- Settings: where everything else lives, Help & feedback included.
Each card points at the control it describes, wherever the current layout puts it. On a phone it might be the + button; on a wide window, the sidebar. A card whose control isn't on screen at all is left out, and one with nothing to point at sits in the middle of the screen.
To move through the tour:
| To | Tap or click | Or press |
|---|---|---|
| Go to the next card | Next | Enter or → |
| Go back a card | Back | ← |
| End the tour now | Skip | Esc |
| Finish | Done on the last card | Enter |
Back (the system back gesture or button) also ends the tour.
Once you finish or skip the tour, it doesn't come back on its own. To see it again, open Settings → Help & feedback and choose Replay: Welcome tour. Settings closes (and so does the player, if you opened Settings from there) and the tour runs over the library.
If something else is on screen when the app starts, such as a book you opened with the app, the tour waits until you are back in the library.
After the first launch
On later launches the library may open with one of these:
- What's new: after an update, the highlights of what changed since the version you used before. See all changes opens the full list.
- Tip of the day: once a day, a short tip about something worth knowing. Next tip shows another; Turn off tips stops them (turn them back on in Settings → Help & feedback).
The library also shows a few short hints above your books, such as how to select several at once. Each one goes for good when you choose Got it or do what it describes.
Adding your first books
From the empty library, choose Add audiobooks, then one of:
- Add files…: pick one or more audiobook files.
- Add folder…: every audio file in the folder becomes its own book.
- Import folder as one audiobook…: the whole folder becomes one book, its files the chapters.
- Create audiobook from document…: make a new audiobook from a document.
The full details are in Adding audiobooks.
Finding your way around
The library
The library is the home screen: your books, the Continue listening band for the book you played last, and the mini player along the bottom while a book is loaded.
- Wide window: a sidebar on the left holds search, the add actions, the view, grouping, sort order, tile size and Settings. The handle beside it tucks it away.
- Narrow window: the bar at the top has the View and Sort menus and a More menu (⋯) with the add actions and Settings. The + button in the corner adds books.
See The library.
The player
Tap a book to open it in the player.
- Wide window: three panes. Your library is on the left, the book's chapters are in the middle and details about the book are on the right. The playback controls run along the bottom.
- Narrow window: three tabs, Now playing, Chapters and Lyrics (or Read along). The speed menu and a More menu are at the top.
See The player.
Settings
Settings opens from the library (the sidebar, or the More menu) and from the player. On a wide window it has a list of sections on the left; on a narrow one the sections are stacked in one scrolling column. See Settings.