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May 12, 2008

tips

Save converted audio files wherever you like

Posted May. 12, ’08, 9:22 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Tips

Convert to MP3Here’s a nice little—but no less useful—tip from our friends over at Mac OS X Hints. Everybody knows you can rip music from a CD in iTunes, but that’s not the only trick that the app has up its sleeve. If you hold down the option key, you’ll see the Advanced -> “Convert Selection to [MP3, AAC, whatever]” changes to just “Convert to [MP3, AAC, whatever]…” Instead of just converting files in your library, you can select any arbitrary file on your computer and have it converted.

But here’s the real trick. Normally, if you do that, it’ll add the resulting file to your iTunes Library, filed away deep within its existing folder structure. Meaning that if you were converting it for some other purpose, you now have to dig it out of your Library folder and remove it—blah, right? However if, when you hit “Open” to convert the file, you also hold down the option key, it will immediately prompt you for a save location for the converted file.

Pretty handy, although there is still one annoyance: the converted file still appears in your iTunes Library. So if you don’t want a duplicate of the existing file, you’ll have to remove it manually. Ah well—irritating, but not the end of the world.


2 Comments

Jeff Garbers Author Profile Page said:

The "whatever" is the tricky part - anybody know if there's a way to convert to a particular format without having to change the importing preferences? I usually want to convert the track to something OTHER than my default import format (that's why I'm doing the conversion). Every time I want to convert something to MP3, it's a three step process - change the import pref, do the convert, and change the pref back... if I remember to do that. Suggestions?

May 12, 2008 9:54 AM
Miche Doherty said:

Doug Adams provides a neat Applescript droplet called Drop a Few My Way, which uses iTunes to convert files without keeping them in the library, and without the need to go into iTunes preferences every time:

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=dropafewmyway

Here's the description from his site:

Drag and drop audio files to this droplet to have iTunes convert them with an encoder selected on the fly (AAC, MP3, AIFF, or WAV), restoring iTunes' Preferences-set encoder afterwards. Converted files are saved to your Desktop (by default) or other user-selected location. The original dropped files/tracks and converted files/tracks are removed from iTunes; it is as though iTunes "never saw them".
May 12, 2008 11:10 AM

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