iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Second Edition

Playing Music

To turn your computer into a jukebox, click the triangular Play button in the upper-left corner of the iTunes window, or press the Space bar. The computer immediately begins to play the songs whose names have checkmarks in the main list.

The central display at the top of the window shows not only the name of the song and album, but also where you are in the song, as represented by the diamond in the horizontal strip. Drag this diamond, or click elsewhere in the strip, to jump around in the song.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION Auto-Playing Music CDs

In Mac OS 9, you could set the QuickTime Settings control panel to play music CDs automatically when they’re inserted into the Mac. Can Mac OS X do that?

Sure!

Hey, what about Windows?

Of course! Keep reading.

Mac OS X. First, make sure that iTunes is slated to open automatically when you insert a music CD. You do that on the CDs & DVDs panel of System Preferences (use the “When you insert a music CD” pop-up menu).

Then all you have to do is make sure iTunes knows to begin playing automatically once it launches. Choose iTunes→Preferences, click the General icon, and from the On CD Insert pop-up menu, choose Begin Playing, and click OK.

Windows. Choose Edit→Preferences, click the General tab, and from the On CD Insert pop-up menu, choose Begin Playing and then click OK.

Before you even get this far, however, Windows XP may fling up the same alert box that it displays whenever it senses a floppy, CD, or removable drive that might ...