Control the iPod Classic or Nanowith the Click Wheel

Smack in the iPod's belly is the click wheel, your way around the iPod's contents. It's called a click wheel because you can actually click down on the four buttons evenly arranged around the ring. The menus on screen spin by as your thumb moves around the circle. There's also a big button in the wheel's center, which you'll be pushing a lot as you use your iPod. Here's what each button does, going clockwise from the top.

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Menu. Tap this button to return to any screen you've just viewed. For example, if you've visited Music→Playlists→My Top Rated, then press Menu twice to return to the Music menu. If you keep tapping Menu, you eventually wind up on the main iPod menu.

Fast-forward/Next. Press this button to jump to the next song in a play-list (Chapter 6), or hold it down to advance quickly within a song.

Play/Pause. Just like on a CD player, this button starts a song; push it again to pause the music.

Rewind/Previous. Press this button to play the song directly before the current track (or hold it down to "rewind" within a song).

Select. Like clicking a mouse button, press Select to choose a highlighted menu item. When a song title is highlighted, the Select button also begins playback.

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