A.8 Help Menu

You can find answers to basic questions about the program's features or functions in the iTunes built-in help files. This menu also gives you access and assistance for the iTunes Music Store (iTunes 4 and later).

NOTE

If you're running iTunes 2.0.4 on Mac OS 9, your Help menu also offers Balloon Help. As the About Balloon Help command makes clear, you can make little comic-book style dialog balloons magically appear onscreen when you pass the mouse over a menu or window. The Show/Hide Balloons item switches this feature on and off.

Balloon Help is at its most helpful when you're just learning the Macintosh operating system, but after a few hours, the constant text-filled balloons popping up may have you reaching for sharp objects.

A.8.1 iTunes & Music Store Help

Selecting this item launches Apple's iTunes Help program. Several topics are readily available, and you can search the program for specific words or phrases for technical support articles about how the program works. Keyboard shortcut: -? (Mac), F1 (Windows).

A.8.2 Music Store Customer Service

This command takes you to the iTunes Music Store's online Customer Service department. The team can answer questions about your account, passwords, and so on.

A.8.3 iPod Help

The iPod Help program works just like iTunes Help, except that you can search for iPod-specific words and phrases like "scroll wheel."

A.8.4 Keyboard Shortcuts

One item in the Help menu is the list of iTunes keyboard shortcuts, which also appear below in a handy list. Memorizing the shortcuts for the commands you use most often can give you a faster, smoother iTunes experience.

A.8.5 Check for iTunes Updates (Windows)

Although iTunes can be set to automatically check for its own updates, Windows users can also take a manual approach to seeking out the latest versions of the program with this handy menu item (and an Internet connection).