Tips and Tricks of iPod and iTunes

Tips

Here are some great tips and tricks to help you work faster and smarter in iTunes. For the very latest hot tips, visit the iTunes Hot Tips website at www.apple.com/itunes/hottips.

Importing

• To quickly enter CD information for all the songs on a CD, select the CD in the Source list and choose File > Get Info. You can enter basic CD information once for all the songs on the CD.
• To add a song from a CD to a new playlist, drag the song from the CD to the white area below the items in the Source list. The song is imported into your library and added to a new playlist.
• To quickly add a song from a CD to an existing playlist, insert the CD, then drag the song from the list of CD tracks to the playlist. The song is automatically imported into your library and added to the playlist.

Playlist

• To open a playlist in a new window, double-click the playlist icon in the Source list.
• When you change information in the library, the change affects all your playlists, too.
• To copy a song from one playlist to another playlist, drag the song to a playlist in the Source list.
• To quickly find the page in the iTunes Music Store for a song in your library or playlist, click the arrow in the song, artist, or album column.
• To quickly create a playlist containing an album in your library, click Library and choose Edit > Show Browser (if you see only Hide Browser, then the browser is already visible). Drag an album from the Album list in the top-right section of the library to the white area below the items in your Source list. A playlist named after the album is created.
• To email the URL to one of your published iMixes to a friend, click the Publish arrow to the right of the published playlist in the Source list, and then click "Tell a friend.
• To remove the Party Shuffle playlist or Radio from your Source list, deselect the Party Shuffle or Radio checkbox in the General pane of iTunes Preferences."
• If you're listening to a playlist that includes a song preview, the playlist stops after the song preview. Double-click the next song in the playlist to resume playing the remainder of the items in the list.
• If nothing happens when you click the arrow next to a song, artist, or album in your library, that item may not be available in the iTunes Music Store. Shift-click the arrow to quickly go to the item in browse view in your library.

  Playback

• To scan forward or back when a song is playing, drag the diamond in the progress bar.
• If you're listening to the songs in a shared library or playlist and your computer is not authorized to play the purchased songs in the list, iTunes skips the purchased music. To listen to purchased music in a shared library or playlist, you need to double-click the song and authorize your computer to play it.
• If you have a fast Internet connection (DSL or cable modem), you can have music that's streamed to your computer (such as iTunes Music Store previews, radio stations, shared music libraries) begin playing more quickly by choosing the Small streaming buffer size in the Advanced pane of iTunes Preferences. If you have a slower Internet connection (modem), you can make the buffer size Large for smoother streaming playback.

Music Store

• To listen to a preview of a song in the iTunes Music Store, double-click a song. If your network connection is slower than 128 kbps, the preview may stutter. Choose Edit > Preferences, and in the Store pane, select the "Load complete preview before playing" checkbox.
• To include the URL to an iTunes Music Store page in an email message or other document, drag a link, track, or graphic from a page in the Music Store to your email program or other application. You can also right-click the item and choose Copy iTunes Music Store URL.

Burning

• To make your own CD from an album in your library, click Library and choose Edit > Show Browser (if you see only Hide Browser, then the browser is already visible). Drag an album from the Album list in the top-right section of the library to the white area below the items in your Source list. Click the new album playlist icon to select it, then choose File > "Burn Playlist to Disc." (The type of disc that's created is based on the import settings in the Importing pane of iTunes preferences.)
• To avoid the message that appears when you insert a blank CD, click the Burn button before inserting the blank CD.

iTunes window

• To rename a song, album, or CD, select its name in a list, then click the name again.
• To quickly go to the song (in your library or on the Music Store) that's currently playing, click the curved arrow on the right side of the display at the top of the iTunes window.
• To zoom the main iTunes window to full screen, double-click the title bar (or click the Maximize button). Double-click the title bar again to switch back to the previous view. To zoom the window to its optimal size, press the Shift key and double-click the title bar.
• To switch between total, elapsed, and remaining time, click the time display at the top of the iTunes window. (You might need to double-click a song to see the time display.) Click the song title to switch between artist, title, and album name.
• To switch between the approximate and precise time for all the songs in the selected playlist or the library, click the time displayed at the bottom of the iTunes window.
• You can right-click songs, playlists, column headings, and many other items in iTunes to do certain tasks more easily. For example, to see all the playlists that include a particular song, right-click the song, then drag down to Playlists.
• To add or remove iTunes from the system tray, choose Edit > Preferences and click the Advanced tab. Then select or deselect the "Show iTunes icon in system tray" checkbox.
• To see all the songs on a compilation CD grouped together in your library, make sure "Group compliations when browsing" is selected in iTunes preferences. If this checkbox is deselected, artists from compilation CDs appear individually in the Artist list (in browse view).

  iPod

• If you want to use iPod shuffle primarily as a hard disk to store and transfer files between computers, you can keep iTunes from automatically opening when you connect it to your computer by deselecting the "Open iTunes when this iPod is attached" checkbox in the iPod pane of iTunes Preferences.
• To limit the songs that get transferred to your iPod shuffle, connect your iPod shuffle and choose Edit > Preferences. Click the iPod tab and select the “Only update checked songs” checkbox. Then, in the Source list, select the item that's chosen in the "Autofill from" pop-up menu (at the bottom of the iTunes window when iPod shuffle is selected) and uncheck any songs that you don’t want to be transferred to your iPod shuffle.

Go to the iTunes Hot Tips website