iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Advanced

The Advanced menu deals with several tasks that might appeal to power users, including adjusting ID3 tag formats (Section A.6.8) and downloading track information from the Internet.

Switch to Mini Player (Windows Only)

Instead of minimizing the iTunes program window completely into the taskbar, you may sometimes prefer to shrink its window down to convenient minibar size. That way, the essential controls are still visible. This command does that trick. Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+M.

Open Stream

The Open Stream command opens a dialog box where you can type or paste in a URL to go directly to a streaming audio site. If you’ve never listened to radio streams over the Internet, iTunes has plenty of preprogrammed links for you to check out (Section 5.9). Just click Radio in the Source list, and then click the kind of music or radio programming you wish to listen to. Keyboard shortcut: ⌘-U (Mac); Ctrl+U (Windows).

Subscribe to Podcast

If you’ve found yourself a podcast out in the wilds of the Internet (and not conveniently clickable in the iTunes Music Store), you can paste the subscription URL from its Web page into this box to add it and download all its future episodes right into iTunes.

Convert Selection to AAC (or MP3 or AIFF or WAV)

Depending on the file type (AAC, MP3, AIFF, Apple Lossless, WAV) you’ve designated in Preferences for importing songs into iTunes (Section A.1.4.8), you can use the Convert Selection command to convert a selected item into your preferred format. For ...