Some clients have mentioned that they are having difficulty downloading and/or playing the Bagpipe Music Writer files that are available on this site.  Here are some notes for Windows' users that might help you resolve your situation (sorry, we are unable to provide Mac support at this time).

.zip files

As you may know, Bagpipe Music Writer music files all have a .bww extension (for example, wings.bww).  But you've probably noticed that the music files available on this site are .zip files.  Why was this done?

Most browsers (like Internet Explorer) will not recognize a link to a .bww file and will not know what to do with it.  If we were to offer links to .bww files you would most often see an error message from your browser.  A common way for website designers to get around this problem is to place the original file, in this case a .bww file, inside a ".zip" file.  What's a .zip file?

A .zip file is simply a container, like a jar, inside which one or more files are placed.  The .zip program makes the original files smaller too (it compresses them) to make them faster to download from the internet.  The .zip file is then posted on the website for clients to download.  When you click on a link with a .zip file behind it, your browser instantly recognizes it and knows what to do - you are usually presented with the option to Open or Save the file.

Let us use an example.  Click on this link for the audio file wings.zip ... Audio File.  You will probably be presented with the option to Open or Save the file.  Choose to Save the file to your computer, and perhaps choose to save it to an easy-to-find location like your Desktop.

Now, minimize your browser and all other programs so that you are looking at your desktop.  Find the new icon for the wings.zip file and double-click on it.  This should hopefully cause a program to open which will show you the contents of the .zip file .... in this case you'll see only one file inside, called wings.bww.  From the program menu, choose to extract the file (meaning to remove it from the container) and choose to save the file to your Desktop.

Close the zip program, and again minimize all windows until you can see your desktop again.  You should see another new icon, this time for wings.bww.  Double-click on it and Bagpipe Music Writer should open it.

Bagpipe Music Writer

Still not working?  Perhaps when you clicked on the .bww file the Bagpipe Music Writer program didn't open it?  Perhaps another program opened it or you received an error message of some kind? 

First, make sure that you do actually have Bagpipe Music Writer installed on your computer.  If not, click here to download and install it.

Next, you may have to take a few one-time steps to ensure that Windows knows that .bww files belong to Bagpipe Music Writer.  Presuming that you've already completed the steps outlined above, right-click on the wings.bww file and select Open With ... Choose Default Program.  Choose Bagpipe Music Writer and be sure to check the box "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file", and click OK.  This will ensure that in the future, each time you click on a .bww file, Windows will know that you want to open Bagpipe Music Writer.

If you're still experiencing problems beyond this, please contact the webmaster and we'll try to provide additional assistance.