Stupid iTunes 7.0

The burn button went away. So I downloaded an album tonight for my husband, and I want to burn it to cd. 

I click on music to access my library, search for the album I want, highlight it. Now what? There is no burn button. Right clicking does not bring me to a burn prompt. There is no burn prompt anywhere in any single file menu list. Frustrated, I go to help. I type in “burn.” I get:

• Making playlists
• Burning CDs or DVDs
• Sharing your playlists

I click on the “burning cds or DVDs” link. The first prompt is “about burning CDs and DVDs.” It explains to me that I need a cd-rom burner and a blank disc to accomplish this task. Thanks.

I then select the next option, “creating your own audio CDs.” Note: nowhere is the word “burn” apparent.  Hello, keywords? A billion kids worldwide know the terms “rip” and “burn,” but does Apple use them? God forbid. They use “creating,” a word that just leaps off the tongue. Do I want to create a disc? No, I want to burn it into my disc, my memory, my car stereo, the forehead of the oaf who wrote these instructions. Burn, baby burn.

After selecting the “creating” option, I find out once again I need a cd-rom burner and a blank disc, but now it also says I need a playlist. It doesn’t tell me how to CREATE a playlist, just that I need one. I guess if I haven’t figured that one out, I need to go back to the help index, which has just been so darned helpful so far.

Then the first thing it does is tell me to edit my preferences. What the heck? I read through, go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced – yes, I certainly would have figured this out on my own if I had only the time to know that burning instructions would be under “advanced.” As if this is such an advanced piece of work I am trying to do here. 

So I set my preferences, go back to the interface, create a new playlist, and drag and drop the songs I want (hint: songs from the album!) into the new playlist. When I open the playlist, voila, suddenly I have a “burn disc” button.

This is why Jesus wept, and the world needs technical communicators.  Okay, you may say, minor annoyance, Michelle, get off your bloody high horse. But before I switched to help, I almost opened my Sonic RecordNow! Software and burned it that way, because I figured out that GUI in about two seconds.  Why do I have to go around the temple to get to the front door?

On the iTunes overview page, there is a hyperlink to "burning." The burning page lists the keyword "burn" seven times in the main content area of the page. It also has better instructions for burning a cd than the bloody help file. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. 

tags: apple computer, iTunes