Book Commercials & Misanthropic Observations

Getting sermon or audio book CD MP3s to bookmark your place like audible books in your iPod

I love audible audio books for their ability to save your place when you leave them and start right up where you left off when you come back to them on an iPod. A regular MP3 or AAC won’t do this, it always starts at the beginning again – very annoying when I was halfway through a 40 minute sermon and have to try to scroll to where where I left off.

So here is a fairly simple way using iTunes to get that feature out of the MP3s you rip from an audio book CD or the sermons you download from Faith Community’s website.

1.       Change your import settings to “convert to AAC” I know- you prefer MP3- good choice. We will change the setting back once our project is finished. If you have never selected your import settings in the first place, you are already ready for step 3, because iTunes default is “convert to AAC”. May I suggest, however, that you switch to MP3 importing when this little process is done? It’s a better quality file and can be played in any player. AAC is proprietary to iTunes.

2.       This step assumes you already have the file you want to work with loaded into iTunes. Right click on the file in your library select “create AAC version”

3.       Right click on your new AAC version and select “show in windows explorer”

4.       Do you see the file type at the end of the file name? it should say .m4a

a.       If you don’t see the file extension: uncheck the box that says “Hide extensions for known file types” in the view tab of your folder options.

b.      Now, do you see the .m4a? change it to .m4b (you can change a file name by selecting the file and pressing F2)

c.       You will get an error that says “If you change a file name extension the file may become unusable. Are you sure you want to change it?” select yes.

5.       Double click on the file you are working with in iTunes. You will get an error that says “The song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?” click yes and select your new .m4b file.

6.       Don’t forget to delete your Mp3 versions of the new m4b files or you will be confused on your iPod about which is which.

7.       Sync your iPod

8.       Don’t forget to switch back to Mp3 importing when you are done!

This method suggests a future work-around: use AAc importing for audio book CDs and you only need to change the imported files to .m4b. EASY!!!