Using the Mini Player Interface

In this lesson for iTunes on the Mac, we look at the iTunes MiniPlayer interface. With the MiniPlayer interface, we have a minimized interface to iTunes while retaining a lot of iTunes features.

Switching to the MiniPlayer
There are a couple ways to switch to iTunes MiniPlayer interface. You can go to the menu bar and under Window elect ‘Switch to MiniPlayer.’ You can also click on the cover art icon to the left of the display information in the iTunes interface. When you use either one of these options to switch to the MiniPlayer, the iTunes standard interface will disappear, and you’ll see a much smaller interface to control iTunes.

To switch back to the standard iTunes interface, just click on the X in the upper left corner of the MiniPlayer.

If you want to view the MiniPlayer and the standard iTunes interface, select MiniPlayer under Window in the Menu Bar. Make sure you select MiniPlayer and not to Switch to MiniPlayer. When you do this, you’ll have both interfaces open on your computer.

MiniPlayer Controls
When looking at the MiniPlayer, you’ll find that you have a lot of the same controls as the standard interface. To access these controls, you just need to move your cursor over the MiniPlayer. When you do this, various controls will show including volume, previous, play, and next. You’ll also see the three dots or ellipsis when you click on this, more controls will show including adding your current selected media to a playlist. If you want to show what is up next, view your history, or the lyrics to the music you are listening to, click on the three horizontal lines.

If the cover art is showing, you can make the MiniPlayer smaller by clicking on the three dots and selecting Hide Cover Art.

Floating the MiniPlayer Window
To float the MiniPlayer window over top of all your other windows, you need to go to the iTunes Preferences. You will find this under iTunes in the menu bar. When you select Preferences, a new window will open. In this window select Advanced. One of the options under advanced is Keep MiniPlayer on top of all other windows. When this is selected, the MiniPlayer will float above all your other windows.

See this Lesson in Action
If you want to see this lesson in action, take a look at the video above.

Lesson tags: Mac Tutorials
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