iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Getting Other Files into iTunes

Not all sound files come directly from the compact discs in your personal collection. As long as a file is in a format that iTunes can comprehend (MP3, AAC, AIFF, WAV, WMA, Apple Lossless, or Audible on the music side; and MP4, MOV, or M4V for iPod-friendly video), you can add it to the iTunes music library by any of several methods.

POWER USERS’ CLINICWidget’s Way with Words

Widgets are colorful mini-applications that work in the Dashboard area of Mac OS X and can round up all kinds of information for you—from weather reports to streaming video of the pandas at the San Diego Zoo. For those not using Mac OS X 10.4, there’s Yahoo Widget Engine (formerly known as Konfabulator), a program for Windows and older Mac systems that has its own collection of Widgety wonders that can be downloaded for free at widgets.yahoo.com.

There are a few Widgets that can automatically copy the words to a song right into its iTunes file, including pearLyrics, which ran into some legal trouble but can still be found at http://www.macupdate.com. Another option is Toru Yano’s Sing That iTune! Widget. Mac OS X 10.4 users can find it at http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/music/singthatitune.html, while Windows and older Mac folks can find the Yahoo Widgets version at widgets.yahoo.com/gallery.

Once you install Sing That iTunes!, the little Widget peeps out on the Web and brings back any lyrics it can find for the track you’re currently playing in iTunes. The Widget displays ...