Controlling Your Music

Surrounding those panes are the controls you use to work with and get information about your music. At the top of the window, from left to right, you will see the following areas:

• Playback controls—Here, you can see the familiar Play/Stop, Fast Forward, and Rewind buttons along with the Volume Control slider. These work as you probably expect them to.
• Information window—In the center of the iTunes window is the Information window. In this area, you will see a variety of information about what you are doing at any point in time. For example, when you are playing music, you will see information about the music currently being played. When you import music, you will see information about the import process.
• Search tool—You use the Search tool to search for songs.
• Action button—The Action button changes depending on the context you are in. For example, if you have selected the Library, it becomes the Browse button, which you use to open or close the Browser. If you select a playlist, it becomes the Burn button, which enables you to burn a CD. When you move to the bottom of the iTunes window, you will see the following:
• Add Playlist button—You can use this button to create your own playlists.
• Shuffle and Repeat buttons—You use the Shuffle button to shuffle the music in the selected source so that it doesn’t play in the listed order. You can use the Repeat button to cause songs to repeat within a selected source.
• Show/Hide Album Art button—Songs can have album art associated with them. When you click this button, you will see the Art Album box at the bottom of the Source pane. In it will appear any art associated with the song that is currently selected.
• Source information—This information shows you the number of songs, total playing\ time, and disk space of the selected source. This becomes very useful at certain times, such as when you are burning a CD or building a playlist.
• Equalizer button—This button opens the Equalizer window, which provides you with a graphic equalizer.
• Visualizer button—Okay, this was one of the most promoted features of iTunes when it was initially released, but I didn’t get it then, and I still don’t today. When you click this, the iTunes window fills with a graphic display reminiscent of the 1960s.
• Eject button—When you have selected an ejectable source, such as an audio CD, you can click this button to eject it.