A.1 Application Menu (Mac)

A.1 Application Menu (Mac); Help Menu ( Windows )

In Mac OS X, commands that pertain to an overall programlike Hide and Quitappear in the Application menu, the one bearing the program's name , just to the right of the menu.

In Windows, most of the equivalent commands appear in the Help menu (or at least they do in iTunes).

A.1.1 About iTunes

The information in this menu tells you what version of the program you're using, along with the software's creator and copyright information. (In Mac OS 9, About iTunes appears in the menu only when iTunes is in front.)

A.1.2 iTunes Hot Tips

This little nudge from Apple takes you to a Web page where you can read up on tips and tricks that make using iTunes a little more fun and a lot more efficient.

A.1.3 Preferences

The iTunes Preferences dialog box has seven panels, accessible by icons along the top of the window, which you can use to get the program looking and sounding just the way you like it. Keyboard shortcut: -comma (Mac), Ctrl+comma (Windows).

NOTE

In iTunes for Windows, the Preferences box is the last command in the Edit menu.

Here are the names of the specific preference panels, and what they do for iTunes:

A.1.3.1 General

Click the General icon to change the size of your Source and Song list text and make other adjustments to iTunes' overall appearance and behavior. You can turn on the "Show genre when browsing" checkbox to add the third Genre column alongside Artist and Albums in your iTunes Browser window (Section 4.7.3). You can also tell iTunes what to do when you insert a CD, and give the program permission to go on the Internet by itself to get track information by turning on the "Connect to Internet when needed" box. Turning on the "Use iTunes for Internet Music Playback" box makes iTunes launch automatically when you open an Internet radio station or other streaming audio.

A.1.3.2 Effects

The Effects panel is where you customize the sound of your music. The Crossfade Playback control lets you blend one song into the next and set the amount of time it takes to blend. The Sound Enhancer slider improves the depth of the audio and lets you adjust it to your personal taste for sonic highs and lows. Turning on the Sound Check feature more or less levels out the different volumes of your songs so you're not straining to hear one soft track only to be deafened by the really loud one right after it.

A.1.3.3 Importing

The Importing panel lets you pick the file format (AAC, MP3, AIFF, or WAV) to use for encoding the songs copied from CDs, as well as the bit rate (Section 3.3). You can also choose to have the songs play while you're ripping them. Turn on the "Create file names with track number" checkbox if you want your songs to fall in the same order as on the original album, even if you don't rip them all at the same time. (iTunes adds the track numbers to the names of the song files in the iTunes Music folder.)

A.1.3.4 Burning

The Burning preferences let you pick the model of CD recorder you use with iTunes, as well as the type of CD you want to createeither a standard audio disc or an MP3 CD (Section 4.10). (Remember, even though computer drives can handle them, not all CD players and car stereos can play back MP3 CDs.) With iTunes 4 or later, Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later, and an Apple SuperDrive, you can opt to burn copies of your songs to a blank DVD and archive 4.7 gigabytes of music at a time.

A.1.3.5 Sharing

Here you can set up iTunes to allow other people to sample your songs over the network, or have your computer seek out music collections on other connected computers (Section 4.11). You can choose how much of your music library you wish to share, whether that's everything or just a few specific playlists. If you want to put a password on your playlists, you can set that up here, too.

A.1.3.6 Store

In the Store preferences, you can decide whether you want to invite temptation and display the Music Store icon in your Source list or not. With the Music Store displayed, you have two options for buying music: download each song as you buy, or download in one batch (Section 6.2.2). You can also instruct iTunes to play the songs as soon as it downloads them or load a complete preview before playing.

A.1.3.7 Advanced

The Advanced preferences panel (not to be confused with the Advanced menu; see Section A.5) helps you redirect iTunes to its iTunes Music folder in case you move it onto another drive or partition. If you find your Internet radio stations plagued by gaps and rebuffering messages, you can choose to increase the size of the buffer here, too. You can also name your preference for shuffling (by the album or by the song list).

The last two options deal with the iTunes Music folder. Turn on the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" checkbox to have each artist and album neatly tucked away in a properly labeled subfolder when you add songs to the library. Turning on this box also lets iTunes automatically refile a song in the correct folder if you edit the text in the Song Information box (Section 4.7.4). If you want to make sure that the iTunes Music folder always has a copy of each song you drag or import into the program, turn on the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" box.

A.1.4 Shop for iTunes Products

If you're hankering to accessorize your iTunes setup with items like speakers and headphones, let this menu command (and a live Internet connection) whisk you away to Apple's site of iPod-friendly audio products. (In Mac OS 9, this command is in the File menu.)

A.1.5 Provide iTunes Feedback

If you have something to say about iTunes, why not say it directly to the company that makes the program? Selecting this command opens your Web browser and transports you to the iTunes Feedback page on Apple's Web site.

(Don't expect Steve Jobs to read your note and call you right back. Someone at Apple does, however, read and collate these requests and the biggest choruses of complaint get attention.)

A.1.6 Register iTunes

This menu item, which plops you onto Apple's site to fill out a software registration form, may not make much sense if you downloaded the program for free from Apple.com. If you acquired iTunes for $50 as part if the iLife software suite, though, you can get that feeling of completeness by filling out the online version of a registration card. Telling Apple that you've purchased its wares usually ensures that you get new product announcements and special offers from them, along with an occasional free subscription to Macworld magazine.

A.1.7 Services (Mac OS X Only)

These commands are the standard Mac OS X services (see Mac OS X: The Missing Manual ), like Make New Sticky Note and Reveal Finder. Very few of them work in iTunes, but there are a few surprising exceptions:

• Mail opens up a new, outgoing piece of email and attaches the selected MP3 file, ready to address and send to someone.

• Make New Sticky Note opens the Stickies program, creates a new empty note, and pastes into it a little chart of the selected songs: Title, artist, album, time, and genre. Kind of a cool way to make a label or a list of your collection.

• Speech Start Speaking Text command makes iTunes read out loud the artists , album names, timings, and genres of the selected songs. How weird can you get?

• TextEdit Open Selection works just like Make New Sticky Note, except that it creates the table of song information in TextEdit.

A.1.8 Hide iTunes (Macintosh Only)

This command makes the iTunes window disappear. Click the iTunes icon in the Dock (or choose Show All) to bring it back. Keyboard shortcut: -H.

A.1.9 Hide Others (Macintosh Only)

All open program windows onscreen except iTunes disappear when you choose this command. Keyboard shortcut: Option- -H.

A.1.10 Show All (Macintosh Only)

Selecting the Show All option brings any program windows hidden by the last two commands into view again.

A.1.11 Quit iTunes (Macintosh Only)

This is the polite way to close down the iTunes program. Keyboard shortcut: -Q.