Apple's iTunes application provides several functions on the Mac.

• Storing, converting, and playing music. Also videos, podcasts, ringtones, streamed media.
• Moving information to and from iPods connected to the computer. Also iPhones and iPads.
• Providing access to the online iTunes Store.

Here is a brief introduction to some common iTunes tasks. Apple has a  Knowledge Base article that will be helpful too. You can buy whole books on the subject, or Google for days.

Import a Music CD to iTunes

1. Insert a music CD (or MP3 CD) into the drive. If a dialog box pops up, choose open iTunes
2. iTunes will open, identify the CD, and look up the track names.
3. Click import in the bottom right. All tracks will be loaded onto the hard disk in the Music library.
4. Click on the eject button (little house icon) next to the music CD's name or hit eject on the keyboard.

Play Tracks at Random

1. Select iTunes DJ in the left sidebar. In the bottom bar, set Source to a playlist. Then click the Play button.
2. This is how we play music on the living room hi-fi.
3. You can define a playlist for the DJ to shuffle through: for example, a smart playlist that selects tracks with 4 or 5 stars. By chaining definitions you can specify complex logic.

Burn a Music CD

1. Click on the plus in the bottom of the left sidebar to create a new playlist, and name it something.
2. Find the tracks you want and drag them to the new playlist.
3. Right click (control-click) on the playlist and select Burn Playlist To Disc.
4. Select Audio CD (or MP3 CD if making a disc for the car). Click Burn. If the list won't fit on the disc, it will display an error.
5. Insert a blank CD-R.
6. It should start burning afer a minute or so. Wait till it finishes.
7. Eject the disc and write the title on it.
8. You can print a listing of the playlist, or even a CD insert.

Back up iTUnes

To back up your entire library, see "Back up iTunes" in the Backup article.

Deleting Some Tunes

What if you have too much music, and your hard disk is filling up with it? Here is how to mark the stuff you don't want to keep on your machine, back it up to disc, and delete it.

1. If the "rating" column is not showing, make it visible.
2. Sort by rating.
3. Pick, say, "one star" to mean that you want to delete the track.
4. Make sure that any track you want to keep has a rating other than one star.
5. Mark all the tracks you want to delete with one star. You can use File ► Get Info to set the attributes of many tracks in one operation.
6. Make a Smart Playlist with only the songs that have one star, and burn it to a backup disc.
7. Switch to the Music view, sort by rating, and delete all the one-star music.

Use iPod

1. Plug iPod into USB cable on the iMac. iTunes will open and show the iPod. This also charges the iPod battery.
2. The iPod will appear in the left sidebar under DEVICES.
3. Drag tracks to the iPod, make playlists, etc.
4. To finish up, click the eject icon next to the iPod name before unplugging.

Use iPhone

1. Plug iPhone into USB cable on the iMac. iTunes will open and show the iPhone. This also charges the iPhone battery.
2. The iPhone will appear in the left sidebar under DEVICES. Click on it.
3. A window with 11 tabs will appear.
4. Buy apps by choosing iTunes Store in hte left sidebar.
5. Apps and Ringtones you have bought are listed under the LIBRARY heading.
6. Use the Sync button in the lower right of the Summary tab of the iPhone window.
7. To finish up, click the eject icon next to the iPhone name before unplugging.

Make Custom Ringtone for iPhone

1. In iTunes Preferences ► General, set your Import Settings to use the AAC Importer.
2. Pick a song.
3. Right click and Get Info on the song.
4. Set the start and end times. Ring tones should be 20-30 seconds.
5. Select Advanced ► Make AAC Version.
6. Right click on the new version and delete it, put it in trash.
7. Find the file in the trash, move it somewhere else, and change its suffix from .m4a to .m4r.
8. Double click the .m4r file. It will be added to the Ringtones list in the iTunes sidebar.
9. Sync your phone to get the ringtone added to it. Then use Settings ► Sounds to assign it.
10. In iTunes, Get Info on the original song and reset the start and stop time by unchecking the boxes.
11. In iTunes, reset your Import Settings to MP3 Importer.

By the Way

There have been rare reports on  MacInTouch.com about people having their iTunes accounts hijacked. Some of these folks were using an online poker game. (Might have been some kind of malware inserted into an advertisement.) Others had used the same password on multiple sites, or used weak passwords that were guessed. Use a strong, unique password for iTunes.

Ping

This is Apple's "social network" for iTunes. I haven't tried it.