[P1] Dumb Question...chapter 2

[George Slusher]

>I just read in Mac OSX KillerTips that I can set the CD player in 
>iTunes to not download songs, but just play the CD, but it tells me hit 
>Command->Y and when I do, a thumping sound is heard, but the 
>preferences don't come up...the Command key IS the one with the Apple 
>symbol minus a bite, isn't it?  It doesn't work that way on my machine 
>(white 700 iBook).  When I go to them under the System Preferences, I 
>don't get the choices he says I will...what's the catch here?  It is 
>the Mac OSX Jaguar version book too...10.2.  Any thoughts about why 
>this is?  If I could just tell iTunes not to download, it would work 
>nicely for me as a Audio CD player without adding another program

iTunes can do just that. Go to the preferences in iTunes, not the Finder. 
In the Finder, Command-Y means to put away (trash) some thing. In iTunes 
preferences, click on the "General" tab. Mid-way down you'll see an 
option, "On CD insert:" There are four options:

Show songs
Begin Playing
Import Songs
Import Songs and Eject

If you choose either of the first two options, iTunes will show the list 
of tracks on the CD and, if you choose the second option, will begin 
playing the CD, but it will NOT download/convert them to MP3s unless you 
explicity tell it to do that. Just because you see a list of tracks does 
not mean that it has "downloaded" anything other than the list. If you 
eject the CD, the list goes away. If you are connected to the Internet, 
iTunes will go to a database to find the names of the tracks and the CD, 
based upon the CD's id number. It will store that list--not the 
tracks/songs themselves--in its library.

George Slusher/Eugene, OR
gslusher at rio.com