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
