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Music Lover Should Make MP3 Collection

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By ROB PEGORARO, The Washington Post

Published: September 24, 2007

Can I use both Windows Media Player and iTunes with the same music collection? I have an iPod, but I can't use iTunes in my PC's Media Center interface.

The easiest way to do this is to keep an MP3-only music collection. Both iTunes and Windows Media Player can read that file format, and both programs store songs in the same standard music folders.

But you'll have to change the defaults in Windows Media Player and iTunes to have them rip audio CDs in MP3 format.

In Windows Media Player, click on the 'Rip' heading and select the 'Format' submenu. In iTunes, go to the Edit menu, select Preferences, click on the Advanced tab and then click on the 'Importing' tab. (In each program, picking a higher bit rate than the usual 128 kbps can yield better sound quality.)

If you have some Windows Media Audio files in your collection, iTunes can convert them to MP3 files automatically when you first run it.

If, however, your iTunes library includes songs in AAC format - bought at Apple's iTunes Store or copied from your own CDs - you'll need extra help.

Try MCE Tunes (mcetunes.com); its $15 version can merge regular AAC files into Windows Media Player's library. Its $30 Pro version can also bring over iTunes Store downloads.

Regular Mac and PC keyboards have a 'forward delete' key, but my new MacBook doesn't. Is that command not possible on Apple laptops?

Hit the Fn and Delete keys together to erase text to the right of the cursor. This is a bit of a secret, as the labels on these keys don't mention this, nor does the MacBook manual. Even a rep on Apple's help line didn't know of this shortcut when I called recently. Apple's technical-support site lists this and other keyboard shortcuts at docs.info.apple

.com/article.html?artnum75459.

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