Reached from: Main Menu -> Select Dances -> Play Screen
You can mark up to eight spots in each dance to be used as bookmarks. Each bookmark can be named (i.e. “Part B” or “Triple Chas”) and used as a start or stop point. Bookmarks are saved with the dance.
The bookmark control is reached using the "Bookmarks" button in the left center of the Play screen.
There are two ways to set bookmarks. In the Advanced Edition, using Karaoke Cue Cards, you can select a figure by left-clicking then right-clicking on it. Then just press one of the function keys (F1-F8) to set the corresponding bookmark. The Bookmark Form will appear, with the name of the figure pre-set as the bookmark name. You can replace it with a different name if you choose.
In either edition you can press one of the function keys (F1 – F8) as the dance is playing. The dance will pause, the Bookmarks Form will appear, and the corresponding bookmark label will turn orange. You can type a name for the bookmark and then press “Close” to get rid of the bookmark form, then press "Resume" to continue playing the dance.
If you would rather the dance didn’t pause and wait for you to enter a name, go to the Bookmarks Form and un-check the “Pause music when setting bookmarks” option.
When you set a mark, the location of that mark is saved in the database with this dance. There is no provision for removing a bookmark - there is no need to. If you don't need a particular mark any more, just ignore it, or overwrite it with one you do want. Unused bookmarks do no harm, and you can re-use the bookmark locations as often as you wish.
To use bookmarks:
The bookmark control panel has two columns of buttons: one with a green background and one with red. You tell the player to start at a particular mark by clicking the green (for “Go”) button in front of that mark. The "bookmark" labeled “Beginning” is chosen by default. Likewise, you tell it where to stop playing by clicking in the red (for “Stop") column. DanceMaster will insist that the "Start" point come before the "Stop" point. That doesn't seem unreasonable.
The column of numbers to the right of the bookmark names indicate how many seconds into the dance each bookmark is, and the one after “End” shows the total length of the song.
When you set start and stop positions in the bookmark control, the position slider (at the bottom of the Play screen) will indicate the portion of the song that is selected to play in dark blue, and the bookmark names will be shown in the windows to the left of that.
When you start a dance at a bookmark, you usually want the music to start a little ahead of the bookmarked figure, to give the dancers time to "synch up" with the music before their feet have to move. The default time that DanceMaster uses is 2 seconds. You can use the Set Bookmark Lead Time button to change that if you wish. (This change will apply to all bookmarks in all dances.) Details here.