Changing the Volume

"Short Stuff" presentation by Orest Minishka
on April 25, 2006

How can you control the sound on your computer? There are several ways to do it:

  1. Look for the speaker icons on your keyboard; the icon with one "sound wave" turns the volume down; the icon with three "sound waves" turns the volume up, and the icon with no "sound waves" mutes the volume:

    Note: if you have a laptop, you may need to press the Function On ("fn") key with one hand, while you press the appropriate function key (F3, F4, or F5) with the other hand.

  2. Look for the speaker icon on the menu bar (top right-hand corner, just to the left of the time) and adjust the slider accordingly: up is high, down is low:

  3. If no speaker icon is visible: go to System Preferences - then Sound. Look at bottom of dialog window; click in box next to "show volume in menu bar"; then turn up output volume. These are the Master Controls.
  4. iTunes and other audio players (like Windows Media Player, RealPlayer) have their own volume controls, but the sound will not be louder than the master volume you have selected (in System Preferences, or by using volume keys, or speaker icon in menu bar).