Saving ASFs & Sounds in Posts/Web PagesDid you like the ASF playing in that last post in the newsgroup? Perhaps you also liked the background sound (MIDI or WAV) being played by a particular web page. It is possible to "creatively acquire" these music and sound files. The problem is finding them.
In the case of the ASF post, we know it has to come from somewhere on a web site, because it is too large to include in the actual post itself. Let's go get it; I'll show you how.
Saving ASF Files from Posts
As stated, newsgroup posts that stream ASF music must keep the actual song on a web site. The free web-hosting services Xoom and Fortune City are favorite places where people store these files. The ASF's URL address can be found right in the post's script. Now, you could find that link, paste it into the Internet Explorer address bar and surf to it and it will play, but with the new Windows Media Player 7 there is no way to save it. Follow along.
Start Outlook Express and go to the newsgroup and click on the ASF post. Now press CTRL-F2 to put the script into Notepad.
There are a few different ways that ASF's are streamed, usually involving use of the <OBJECT> element. Our ASF URL will be found within the <OBJECT>....</OBJECT> tags in the script.
On the Notepad toolbar, click on SEARCH|FIND. In the resulting find window, type the text ".asf" (don't type the double-quotes). Click FIND|NEXT. On your screen now will be the URL of the ASF file. In amongst all the gibberish, it may look something like this:
Take your cursor and highlight the http:// link to the ASF and copy it to the Windows clipboard.
Now, go to the Outlook Express Inbox and click on the NEW MAIL button to start a compose window. Be sure you are in Rich Text HTML mode. If you're not, click on FORMAT|RICH TEXT (HTML) on the compose window's toolbar.
Set your cursor into the main part of the compose window by clicking there and paste the ASF http:// link there. It should look similar to this:
Click the PREVIEW tab at the bottom of the compose window (You have made your OE settings, haven't you?).
Now to download the song. Right-click on the link in the compose window and choose the option SAVE TARGET AS. When the download window launches, choose a place on your hard drive for the ASF. The ASF will now download just like a regular file would, and you'll have it forever.
Saving MIDI and WAV Files from Web Sites
What I'm talking about here are MIDI or WAV files that are embedded into web sites and play automatically. The sound or music playing doesn't have a clickable link, so we must find the hidden link in the page HTML source. It may take some extra searching, as often the source may have other MIDI or WAV links which are clickable. We don't want them. The clickable ones are easily saved by right-clicking and choosing SAVE TARGET AS.
With the web page on your screen, and the music or sound playing, click on VIEW|SOURCE to display the HTML source code. Again, Notepad will contain the code.
On the Notepad toolbar, click on SEARCH|FIND. In the resulting find window, type the text ".wav" or ".mid" (don't type the double-quotes) depending on whether you are hearing a WAV or MIDI file. Click FIND|NEXT. On your screen now will be the file name or URL of a file. If it is within a pair of HTML <EMBED>....</EMBED> or <BGSOUND>....</BGSOUND> or <OBJECT>....</OBJECT>tags, it is usually the correct one. In the first two cases, the file name will follow the SRC= keyword, as in SRC="musicFile.wav" or SRC="http://members.xoom.com/hectorz/musicFile.wav". If within <OBJECT> tags, it will appear generally as shown in the ASF example. In any case, it may or may not have an http:// URL prefix. Take your cursor and highlight the entire file name or URL and copy it to the Windows clipboard. If it has the http:// prefix, you are all set - follow the http:// procedure below. If not, follow the no-http:// procedure instead.
no-http:// procedure:
Without the http:// prefix, we must build the full URL from the web page's address currently in the Internet Explorer address bar. Without going into every individual possible variation here, I'll give you the usual case.
Look at the URL in the IE address bar. The last part of it will be the file name of the currently displayed web page (the one with the music or sound playing). It could look similar to this one:
http://members.xoom.com/hectorz/index.html
The page file name here is "index.html". We will replace the index.html file name with the music or sound file name. Highlight "index.html" and paste the clipboard contents over it. You will wind up with something like this: http://members.xoom.com/hectorz/musicFile.wav
http:// procedure:
You're all set. Paste the clipboard contents in the Internet Explorer address bar. It might look something like this:
http://members.xoom.com/hectorz/musicFile.wav
Continue on to the next step; we're almost done.
continuing:
First we'll test it out to insure we have the right file. Press ENTER on Internet Explorer. If we have the right music or sound file, it will play in Windows Media Player. If not, continue searching the source of the web page until you find the right file.
Assuming this is the right file, go to the Outlook Express Inbox and click on the NEW MAIL button to start a compose window. Be sure you are in Rich Text HTML mode. If not, click on FORMAT|RICH TEXT (HTML) on the compose window's toolbar.
As with the ASF example, set your cursor into the main part of the compose window by clicking there and paste the sound or music link there. Again, it'll look something like this:
http://members.xoom.com/hectorz/musicFile.wav
Click the PREVIEW tab at the bottom of the compose window.
Download the music or sound by right-clicking on the link in the compose window and choosing the option SAVE TARGET AS. When the download window launches, choose a place on your hard drive for the WAV or MIDI. It will now download just like a regular file would.
Note: If the web page playing the music or sound is a top-frame of a frame set, you will have to locate the actual page HTML from within the <FRAME> tags and display it first in Internet Explorer before you view the HTML source.
There are ways to do almost anything.