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52: iTunes: General overview of Preferences

If you select "Preferences" from the iTunes drop down menu.



You will see several tabs that allow you to personalize your preferences.
These are "General," "iPod," "Podcasts," "Playback," "Sharing," "Store," "Advanced," and “Parental”


If you click on “General” you have the options to change the size of the text in iTunes. As well as what icons and search preferences are visible when using the program. You can also set iTunes to check for updates automatically.



The “iPod” icon can only be used if you have an iPod hooked up to your computer.

Clicking the “Podcast” icon allows you to check for new episodes of podcasts that you may subscribe to, as well as have them copied to your iPod automatically.



In the “Playback” screen you can change the audio settings. You can also change the shuffle song settings. It gives you the ability to determine how likely you might hear the same song or artist back to back.



When you select the "Sharing" tab, you can customize your options for sharing music on a local network. See the "Sharing Music" heading for more information.



By clicking on the "Store" tab, you can change your settings for the iTunes Music Store. See the "iTunes Music Store" heading for more information.



If you click on "Advanced," you have the option of changing the settings that effect the location of the iTunes folder on your computer, shuffling, and organizing of your iTunes music folders.



Clicking the “Importing” button in the“Advanced” menu you will have the option of deciding what you would like iTunes to do when you insert a CD. iTunes can show the songs that are on the CD, play the songs on the CD, import the songs, or import the songs then automatically eject the CD after importing is complete. This is useful for importing your music library. You can also have the option of choosing one of several different encoders to import the music.
The AAC Encoder is the smallest file size.
The MP3 Encoder is the next smallest and most popular.
Apple Lossless Encoder is half the size of raw audio but with no loss of quality.
AIFF and WAV encoders are raw audio.
Note: You lose quality when you compress music; however, AAC has better quality than MP3 and you will notice this is the default setting.



Then if you click the “burning tab” still in the advanced menu you can choose how you would like your music to burn on your CD.



Finally, clicking on the “Parental” icon you can set parental controls on your iTunes.



Further information and support can be found by selecting "Help" then "iTunes and Music Store Help"



There are online movie tutorials available at http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

Apple has its own article on this which can be found at www.apple.com/itunes

This article was last edited on Jun-07-2006 9:14 pm
This article can be referenced by its article number: 52 or by any of the following keywords: preferences.