Hi All, If you have one of the newer Mac keyboards without the numlock F6 key function, you can play and navigate through your movies and music using the F7, F8, and F9 keys.
I thought I would add another response to Simon's question about how to rewind audiobooks in iTunes with a tip for people who have the new Apple keyboards. These are the separate slim Aluminum keyboards without the Numlock key that were released late last summer (2007), and which are on the recent MacBooks and MacBook Pros (manufactured after November 2007) and iMacs. The volume up and down controls on these keyboards are on the F11 and F12 keys, instead of on the F4 and F5 keys of older keyboards. An additional feature of these keyboards, previously discussed on this list, is the ability to rewind, play/pause, and fast forward with the F7, F8, and F9 keys. These keys work with general audio and video media, including movies that you play as well as iTunes. The neat feature about these keys is that you don't have to have iTunes in your focus to turn on or off the music. If you are working in your Mail program or browsing with Safari, you can still play or pause the currently selected song in iTunes using Fn+F8. If you want to rewind to the beginning (Simon's question), hold down the F7 key while pressing the Fn key. Your music will rewind to the beginning, and once it reaches the start of the track it will start to play normally. You can fast forward by pressing the Fn key and holding down the F9 key. Holding down the Fn key and tapping the F9 key will advance to the next track in the Songs list, while holding down Fn and tapping the F7 key will play the previous track. These keys work with other multimedia, such as DVDs, as well. They're meant to work with "Front Row", Apple's application to switch between multimedia players. Earlier MacBooks and other Intel Macs came with a small Apple Remote control, that would control your selection for photos, movies, music, etc. They stopped including these remotes with new MacBooks and MacBook Pro computers around February 2008, but I recall stumbling across the keyboard shortcuts to activate Front Row when I was setting up a MacBook for someone last summer. The shortcut key to start Front Row on an Intel Mac is Command-Escape. VO-down the menus to select Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts,Photos, etc. and use VO-space to select. Move up (and eventually out of Front Row by pressing the Escape key). Even when you leave Front Row you can resume playing your last selection with Fn+F8, and you can control the volume with Fn+F10 (mute), Fn+F11 (softer), and Fn+F12 (louder). I remember that all of the remote functions had keyboard shortcut equivalents and, of course, if you have one of these infrared remotes you can control your Mac's playing at a distance. Again, from much older discussions on this list, the Apple remote has been programmed with third party software to control third party software players, even including some on the Windows side of Intel Macs. I haven't tried any of this, myself. Hope this is of interest. Cheers, Esther On August 27, 2008, at 01:41PM, I replied: >Dear Simon, > >Audible audiobooks (and books purchased from the iTunes Store) have >chapter markers that allow you to position your playback at any >marker, so if you have started playing the audiobook and want to move >to the previous chapter marker (here, the start of the book), simply >use Command-Shift-Left Arrow. Similarly, to move to the next Chapter >marker from your present position, use Command-Shift-Right Arrow. >These commands work whether your track is playing or paused, and are >in addition to the normal forward and rewind commands you can access >by holding down Option-Command with the Left and Right Arrow keys . >You can also use the Chapters menu on the iTunes menu bar to select >the chapter you wish to move to. Simply go to the iTunes menu bar >(Command-Option-M), type "C" to go to the Chapters menu, arrow down >and select the desired Chapter (by pressing either VO-space or >return). The Chapters are listed with both number and time. Note >that "Chapters" do not necessarily correspond to actual chapters in a >book. For example, a long audiobook that has two parts will always >have Chapters numbered starting with "1" even if you are listening to >the second part. Also, there may be more than one Chapter per marker >-- these are simply a convenient way to navigate. > >For audiobooks and podcasts that do not have chapter markers, the >easiest way to rewind your position, or change the playback position >to any specified time in your audiobook, is to use an AppleScript >named "RestartAt" that you can download from Tim Kilburn's web page: > >http://homepage.mac.com/kilburns/voiceover/downloads.html > >Copy or move this to the /Library/iTunes/Scripts folder. You will >need to create the Scripts folder if this is the first time you are >using AppleScripts with iTunes. AppleScripts placed in the Scripts >folder show up as a separate menu on the menu bar for the application >(in this case, iTunes), after the existing menus and just to the left >of the Help menu. > >I find it easiest to use by assigning "RestartAt" to a keyboard >shortcut (Command-Option-R). You will need to quit iTunes before you >assign the shortcut. > >The latest full description of how to use the "RestartAt" AppleScript >and assign it a shortcut key may be found in the archives: > >http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg33347.html > >Note that when you assign the shortcut, you may need to type the name >of the AppleScript exactly (with capital letter "R" and capital >letter "A", but no space between the two words). I'm not sure about >this, but I usually maintain case just to be safe. Also, in the >archive description, I mention copying the AppleScript to the Library/ >iTunes/Scripts folder under your user account. If you copy an >AppleScript to the system level /Library/iTunes/Scripts folder it >will work for all iTunes accounts on your computer. If you copy it >to the Library /iTunes/Scripts folder for your user account, it will >only show up for iTunes under your account. > >To navigate to the system /Library/iTunes folder in Finder use the >Command-Shift-G (Go to Folder) shortcut, and type in the folder you >want (e.g. "/Library/iTunes", without the quotation marks and >beginning with the "slash" key in front of "Library"). > >Hope this helps. > >Cheers, > >Esther > >On Aug 27, 2008, at 10:24 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote: > >> Dear Listers, >> >> Is there a way of rewinding to the beginning a song or audiobook >> you listen in Itunes? I have purchased some books from Audible.com >> and as soon as they download they start to play. I couldn't pause >> it in time and now it starts playing from where I stopped it. I >> can't work out whether there's a way of rewinding it to the >> beginning or better still stopping a book playing as soon as it >> downloads. I >> >> Thanks in advance, Simon >> > > > >
